On Thu, 25 May 2000, Joe wrote:
> Thanks Mark. Isn't it amazing how many people that never contribute a
> single thing feel that they have the right to criticize others?
Hmmm... ok, so you say I've never contributed anything. Hmmmm, let's
see, I guess that means that my writing the PERQ general FAQ, starting
the alt.sys.perq newsgroups about 8 years or so ago and archiving it
until my uucp news-feed went away about 2 years ago, writing the
CT-Miniframe FAQ, the "DEC PDP and Music/Sound Synthesis Summary,"
maintaing an archive of PERQ files (which I should hopefully soon make
available again), offering the list some free CDC removeable-pack disk
drives a while back, preserving various systems over the past 13 years
or so (I'm not new to computer preservation), etc. doesn't amount to
contributing anything. :-)
Granted, the above are no huge contributions, just my attempts at
helping other hackers and preservationists in return for all the help
that I've received from others over the years.
Note: since no one claimed the aforementioned CDC drives, I removed
the boards from them in case anyone needs them. My former employer
sold the drives for scrap metal; however, I still have the boards if
anyone needs them.
Joe, perhaps I went a bit overboard with my flames - I apologize.
Let's settle this dispute like gentlemen, and, no, I'm not challenging
you to a duel! ;-)
I don't take back my opinion that things such as swapping without
appropriate testing are good, however. It's no big deal to me whether
or not you ruin your Apple Lisa, as that machine doesn't particularly
interest me - although it would be, I think, most unfortunate that it
isn't preserved so that it can be compared to superior machines of
it's era. :-) :-) :-) All kidding aside, it would be most unfortunate,
for various reasons, if no working Apple Lisas, like other systems,
were left if they could have been preserved.
Please consider this: let's suppose there was some machine that you
really wanted, that you spend years trying to find, then, you find
one... it's owner says "I've got two of them, and you can have one as
soon as I fix a little problem with one of them," and he proceeds to
do some board swapping, PSU swapping, etc., and, then you learn that
he's fried all of the chips in both machines and decides to weld 'em
both together, glue a cushon to the top of one of them, and sell it on
e-bay as a high-tech ottoman?
Perhaps we both jumped to unfair conclusions about each other, and
said things that annoyed each other; let's both stop the feuding and
divert the energy used for such to something that we both, in our own
ways, think worthy of working on (preserving classic computers), and
realize lessons to be learned from this litle flamefest. A truce?
--
R. D. Davis
rdd_at_perqlogic.com
http://www.perqlogic.com/rdd
410-744-4900
Received on Thu May 25 2000 - 22:36:52 BST