Computer Hardware Documentation Bidders Mailing List?

From: Corda Albert J DLVA <CordaAJ_at_nswc.navy.mil>
Date: Tue Aug 15 18:01:32 2000

Over the past couple of months, I've been trying to accumulate
some basic DEC documentation. There is quite a bit available
on the web, but I've needed a number of manuals/schematics/etc.
that I haven't been able to find, and as a result I've been forced
to use E-pay more than I would have liked. I don't know how many
of you out there have checked the DEC/PDP offerings on ebay,
but there has been quite a lot offered recently in the way of
documentation. Unfortunately, I find myself bidding against people
who share my same interest, and it saddens me since I've always
felt that documentation should be available for everyone who wants
it (please, no flames! This is just a personal opinion) Documentation
is unique in that, in many cases, a photocopy (or scanned image)
in place of the actual document would be just as useful to me as the
original since my interests lean towards restoring the hardware,
rather than collecting the "original" documentation. I also see small
manuals/schematic sets/etc. being broken up into indivudual items
and going for what I believe is much more than they are worth (again,
no flames!, this is just my opinion). It has occured to me that if a
mailing list were set up where a person could post their intention of
bidding on a specific piece of duplicatable documentation, then other
potential bidders could contact the initial poster and work out a deal
where they could "share" the cost of the initial poster's bid (plus
copying charges), in return for not competing with the initial poster's
bid.You may have noticed that I have avoided the problem of copyright
infringement. I believe that with documentation of the vintage that I am
refering to, such issues are probably moot, especially since In many
cases the companies no longer exist. As far as the sellers on E-bay
go, they have a significant advantage since their individual items remain
on the block for days, rather than minutes as in a "real" auction.
(but let's not turn this into yet another "is E-bay fair?" thread :-)
 
Also, I wonder of some of the on-line "Computer Museums" might
consider hosting an on-line documentation repository, where people
could submit scanned schematics/manuals/etc. for (free) web-based
access and archival purposes. It would be a tremendous service
to our on-line community. Currently, this is being done by a number
of very helpful individuals, but I would think that some of the "real"
museum sites might be more capable of organizing such info and
supporting the amount of storage needed.

Again, I'm just throing these ideas out to see if anyone thinks
they have any merit...



-al-
-acorda_at_geocities.com
Received on Tue Aug 15 2000 - 18:01:32 BST