Demography?

From: Marvin <marvin_at_rain.org>
Date: Mon Mar 2 01:47:41 1998

Seth J. Morabito wrote:

> I'm kind of curious as to the demography of the Classic Computer
> Mailing List. What are people's backgrounds, what are they doing now,
> and so forth.

Great idea, and thanks for starting the ball rolling!

I started working with computers in college on the IBM 360 back in 1967 and
found it to be a lot of fun. When I worked for Nabisco, I was sent up to
DEC for classes on the PDP 16 (love to find one for nostalgia purposes), the
PDP 11-05, the PDP 11-45, and some peripherals. After that, I did field
engineering for Gyrex Corporation (a manufacture of equipment used in the
Printed Circuit industry,) started my own printed circuit shop, and did/do
computer consulting. Currently, I work for a friend of mine doing a variety
of things involving mostly troubleshooting of electronic equipment. My
hobbies include Amateur Radio, computers, and playing the piano (classical.)

I started collecting computers more by not getting rid of them than by
design. The collection currently runs about 300 computers (I lost count at
200+ a couple of years ago) mostly between the dates of 1975 and 1984. In
addition, there are several dozen printers, a bunch of terminals, several
thousand pounds of documentation, and a variety of parts, software, and
other associated "stuff". The computer portion includes (in no particular
order) Altairs, Northstar Horizons, Northstar Advantages, Radio Shack Models
I, II, III, 4, 4P, 1000, 3000, 6000, Coco 1, Coco 2, Model 100s, Model 600,
Commodore Pets, CBMs, Vic 20's, Plus/4, 64s, 128B, 128Cs, IMSAI, Vector
Graphic I, 3, MX, IV, Sun 120(?), Dec PDP 8m, PDP 11-05, PDP 11-23,
Rainbows, NEC 8201A, Intel MDS System, Intel ICIS System, unbuilt National
SC/MP demo boards, Cromemco, Processor Technology SOL-20, Heathkit H8, H89,
Zeniths, MOS Kim1, Corona PC400, Corona Desktops, Lobo Drives MAX-80s,
Polymorphics, Atari 400s, 800s, 600XLs, Sinclair/Timex 1000s, IBM PCs, XTs,
AT, PC Jrs, 5100, HP 75D, HP 150s, HP 86, HP 87, CompuPros, Apple II Plus,
IIe, IIc, III, various MACs, Xerox 820-II, Altos, Osbournes, Kaypros,
Compaqs, Epsons, Laser 50, 1000, Toshibas, Televideo's, AT&T 3B1, PC7300,
NCRs, Wangs, NCCs, Morrows, Eagles, Sharps, Leading Edges, and a variety of
others that don't come to mind off hand. A friend of mine has a Culler
Scientific PC that he has said I can have that sounds like a neat machine
(Culler Scientific was here in Santa Barbara, and I believe they
manufactured some type of super computer.) Most of the computers were
working when they were acquired but most are untested (by me!)

My interest in collecting computers is for the historical value. I saw a
lot of computers, and more importantly, the documentation heading to the
dumpsters. I chose to see how much I could save from that fate :). My
actual use of them is very minimal and pretty much limited to turning them
on out of curiosity. One of the projects on the back burner but still
simmering is to start a computer museum here in Santa Barbara. Of the 50 -
100 people I have talked to about it, most support the idea and are even
willing to help!

The most recent addition (yesterday) was a Coco computer that included the
service manual. At $1 each, I will generally pick up any S-100 cards I find
and I picked up two. I saw a friend of mine down in the Los Angeles area
who wants me to clean out his garage of the S-100 stuff (he was a
software/hardware developer) and his wife want to get rid of the DEC Rainbow
with software and docs. Storage is a *real* problem though so I sometimes
picking stuff up unless I really have to.
Received on Mon Mar 02 1998 - 01:47:41 GMT

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