On Wed, 11 Oct 2000, Sellam Ismail wrote:
> Is this an act, or are you really such a jack-ass?
Having once met a donkey, I can say that I found it to be a much more
affable, and well mannered, creature than you appear to be; hence, I
don't take that as an insult as you apparently intended it to be. To
answer your question, however, I don't have four feet, have no long
ears, and no tail, so, it's not at all difficult to deduce that the
answer to your question is no.
> What about the VCF makes you think it will "cause damage to hamfests and
> deplete them of the few remaining 'vintage' computers"? The VCF *is* a
> place to go find old computers. Do you actually think people would go to
> hamfests and scour them for all the old computer crap they can find just
> to bring it to the VCF and hawk it for eBay prices? You fool!
The VCF is also a place to draw the attention of non-hackers to
computer collecting; while the prices of older equipment at VCF may
not be terribly high, in terms of e-bay pricing or affordability for
most of us here, I recon that they're still far higher than they were
at hamfests several years ago.
> Are you therefore meaning to imply that the VCF is in fact detrimental to
> the hobby of collecting and perserving computers and their history? You
> idiot!
No, I neither said nor implied that. Now, who is the idiot? Perhaps
you'll learn to wait for answers before jumping to conclusions. Yes
Sellam, evolution is possible for all creatures, even you. :-) What I
was implying is that it's harmful for those of us who like to collect
and hack interesting finds that we pick up for a few dollars -
treasures that were someone else's trash, you might say. In years
past, before computer, and other vintage electronics, collecting
became fashionable, some of us were able to spend less than US$100 and
fill up a large station wagon with all sorts of computers, plus a few
bits of Heathkit equipment, various electronic components, some audio
stuff with tubes (valves), and then come home to find lots more
interesing old computer finds lurking for-sale on Usenet, often for
the cost of shipping.
We didn't collect just for the sake of collecting or squirreling away
equipment, for future profit, to complete a "collection," etc. We
collected to have more fun toys to take apart, examine, repair,
restore and hack.
I sense that this group is composed of two different groups of people,
who still have something in common - a desire to obtain and preserve
older equipment. We just have differnt ideas as to how we go about
it, the "serious collectors" and shelf-liners who are more interested
in history and unmodified equipment verses the hackers who preserve
equipment through curiosity, tinkering and reverse engineering and are
responsible for the actual preservation of working systems. The
former go around thinking "what's it worth" the later "neat, a new toy
to hack!" I could expand upon this further, but I haven't the time
tonight, alas.
Perhaps we can have a discussion here about this without it turning
into a flamefest.
> Is there a LART big enough to shut you up once and for all? I'm looking
> for it.
Good luck! By the way Sellam, something tells me that you're having a
truly interesting month, one that will grow all the more "interesting"
experiences as it progresses, that you may even learn something from
by a strange twist of karma. Having fun yet?
> YOU COMPLETE MORON!
Oh stop looking into the mirror and muttering your thoughts to this
group as you do so, before you risk further embarassment. ;-)
All that said, I think that there's still probably much more that we
agree about regarding older computers than we disagree about, and,
while I don't like some things about VCF, I think that in some ways
it's been quite beneficial to computer preservation, particularly from
a historical perspective, as it helps to draw people together with a
common interest who can share their knowledge of various machines, so,
you see that I have mixed feelings about VCF, not all good, not all bad.
I see and understand your perspective; can you see and understand
mine?
Have a good night, and, I do wish you good luck with collecting and
preserving, and with having fun with these activities.
--
Copyright (C) 2000 R. D. Davis "The best way to gain a true understanding of
All Rights Reserved Wile E. Coyote on the Roadrunner cartoons is to
rdd_at_perqlogic.com 410-744-4900 fly, head-first, off a horse into something like
http://www.perqlogic.com/rdd a fence or a tree; trust me, this works." --RDD
Received on Wed Oct 11 2000 - 23:23:47 BST