Love 'em or hate 'em...

From: Dave McGuire <mcguire_at_neurotica.com>
Date: Thu Nov 16 14:08:29 2000

On November 16, Charles P. Hobbs (SoCalTip) wrote:
> Wonder what happened to the swapmeets/hamfests/etc?

  Hamfests? Hah. Hamfests turned into "new taiwanese PC clone hardware
dealer fests" years ago.

  There are still a few around here (Washington DC area) where there's
some actual RADIO (gasp!) gear, but not many. I enjoy them very much,
even though they tend to be full of very old people who give me dirty
looks because I have long hair. Ahh, passing of judgement,
stereotypes...I just LOVE our society. *puke*

  I, too, am disturbed by eBay's effects on the classic computer world.
But for me, around here, I have a very hard time finding ANY older
hardware. A pdp11/53 or a MicroVAX is the best one can hope for in
this area these days; finding a pdp8/i languishing in a storeroom is
nigh impossible here anymore. I buy a LOT of stuff on eBay
(Mr. Spreadsheet tells me $70,364.16 in the past 2 years), including a
supercomputer and a car, and for all our complaints about it, it has
allowed me to get my hands on some stuff that I've been looking for
for a VERY long time with no success. Sure, I wind up paying more for
it that some people here might consider reasonable...but the alternative,
for me, is often *not having it at all*.

          -Dave McGuire
Received on Thu Nov 16 2000 - 14:08:29 GMT