Question for you 'big iron' collectors

From: Hans Franke <Hans.Franke_at_mch20.sbs.de>
Date: Thu Dec 30 14:47:07 1999

> >> I'm still wondering that myself ;-) "Have the room . . ."? What's
> >> that?! :-)
> >:)) Chritian, you have a wonderfull house ... and still room in
> >the basement ...

> Oh ho ho! Not now fella!!! :-) Thanks for the compliment about the house,
> but _a lot_ has been moved into it and the attic from the old house since
> you and Christine visited last year. The second garage at the back of the
> backyard (garden) is full too (or I should say "too full") and the main
> garage at the house still has much of the big DEC gear in it (soon to go to
> a new home :-) Nice lab area in the basement now though <g>. Next time you
> visit you'll be pleasantly surprised. It's in that dark, dirty open area
> you may recall seeing.

Well, yes, I remember - great you had time to finish that.
But ther's for shure some room in the garden ... as I remember
one could build there a nice add on, cover the top with grass,
and nobody will ever notice :)

> >And Paul, to get this straight, a PDP isn't realy Big Iron - unless
> >you name your Palm Pilot a full size server system.

> Wel-llll, my 11/34A is in a tall rack and with two RL02's, cables and
> accessories it probably weighs in at around 400 lbs (180+ kg). An 11/44 I
> understand can be big. Certain PDP-8's too. So it's argueable that some are
> 'big iron' machines. My 34A is in the basement in the lab area next to its
> LA120. OTOH, my MicroPDP setting next to me is only around 75 lbs or so
> (~34 kg).

As long as on person can lift the CPU it's not Big Iron. At least
when we go for pre 1990 Machines. Real Big Iron needs a forklift ...
Shure, a simple definition, just I like it.


> >> There are folks who ask me the same thing regarding my large collection of
> >> early radios and early televisions, some large and heavy. Same answers.
> >In fact, the situation is very similar - if you ignore this digital
> >radio and TV chanals you still can use your 30 year old TV set to
> >see Letterman, with no relevant difference (And when they air
> >I love Lucy or Flipper, not difference at all:).

> Yes. We know someday in the next century (beginning a _year_ from now ;-)
> all TV will be digital and we'll have to use the planned digital to analog
> conversion devices to use them. There was absolutely no concept of digital
> TV back in the late 40's when a bunch of my sets were made.

Starting with wide screen transmission some years ago it already got
hard to have a 60's TV give you the whole movie. And the digital era
is already present - at least some FM stations are up, and digital
satelite and cable chanels are no longer future or testinstallations ...

I feel that we may soon have a situation where the old stuff is just
no longer usable on its own.

Gruss
H.

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HRK
Received on Thu Dec 30 1999 - 14:47:07 GMT

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