Documenting how old computers were used

From: Vintage Computer GAWD! <foo_at_siconic.com>
Date: Fri May 26 20:48:20 2000

On Fri, 26 May 2000, Mark Gregory wrote:

> It seems to me that increasingly, social historians and museums are more
> interested in _how_ an artifact was used than in the thing itself. But
> often , especially when I receive multiple examples of the same system, I
> mix and match parts and programs to suit myself, and lose track of which
> disk drive came with which CPU, which software was originally installed on
> each, etc. Information is obviously being lost here.
>
> I'd be interested to know what other list members are doing, and how
> important you think the information being lost is.

In fact, this is a subject I have been thinking about recently and I'm
hoping to commission a talk for the next VCF. Any takers?

I keep the systems I receive intact, as long as they came from the
original owner. If I purchase something from a flea market or thrift
store, it is usually already separated from the of the unit, and even if
not, the context is lost. So I don't have problems with separating those
pieces or mixing and matching them with other systems.

As far as any books I receive with a computer, I have decided to separate
those out into my library, but note whom they came from. The same would
go for software.

Sellam International Man of Intrigue and Danger
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Looking for a six in a pile of nines...

                              Coming soon: VCF 4.0!
                         VCF East: Planning in Progress
                    See http://www.vintage.org for details!
Received on Fri May 26 2000 - 20:48:20 BST

This archive was generated by hypermail 2.3.0 : Fri Oct 10 2014 - 23:33:10 BST