At 09:27 11/15/97 -0500, you wrote:
>> Your problerm is that your starting with a passion for collecting
>> rather than a passion for a particular machine, platform, or
>> architechture .
>
>Unlike those of us who never _planned_ to accumulate a bunch of
>"obsolete" hardware (Hell, some of it _wasn't_ when we got it), but
>just have a serious problem throwing anything away. And then after
>a few years decided to start filling gaps in the product line.
Disclaimer -- I do have a serious problem throwing anything away.
Nonetheless, with computers and me, it's not that. In June 1986 I bought
two 10MHz 286 clones (1MB RAM, 20MB disk, green mono) from a nice guy in
Scotts Valley for $2500 each. One of those belonged to an intensely
practical person, i. e., my wife, and is now gone. The other one, however,
was mine, and every time I went to chuck it, I said "Hey, I paid real money
for this thing." So, in eleven-plus years, it's been a 286/10, a 386/40, a
486DX/33, a 486DX4/100....and is now, saddled with the cynical nickname of
Millennium Falcon, my kid's second-string machine. Since it had a new PS
sometime in the early nineties, the only original part left is the case,
but bygawd I haven't wasted that $2500 yet.... It's like farmers who park
their old cars in a row in a field. I mean, we have a house rule of "No
computers in the living room or dining room, unless they're laptops or
they're leaving," and even so, we have enough computers here that they take
some time to count.
__________________________________________
Kip Crosby engine_at_chac.org
http://www.chac.org/index.html
Computer History Association of California
Received on Sat Nov 15 1997 - 12:29:34 GMT