just outta curiosity

From: Billy D'Augustine <azog_at_azog.org>
Date: Sun Apr 8 15:02:36 2001

Well, I for one could give you stories that would raise the hairs on the
back of your neck. I used to work in a "second-hand" computer shop,
affiliated with a recycling firm. They would take things that looked
suitable and sell them. Things that looked "interesting" would go into a
warehouse. Things that nobody knew, or obviously were "outdated" were
hammered and melted for gold. In ~1993 I once asked the guy if he had any
suitable machines to run Unix, and he said "what?". I did get a fair share
of decent stuff from this place. After about a year or so, they gave up on
anything that was non-Intel and would just melt it down regardless... I know
that several VAX 780s, 750s, and periphs meet with unfortunate fates... I
saved a 730 and an 11/73 for $100 each (no longer have them)...

The moral of the story? If there is one, it's about cluelessness being the
accepted norm, and an anti-educational mindset. "Computers? I'm ub3r7ee7
hax0r, I can take down amazon in 10 minutes!", from someone who doesn't
understand, nor could ever fathom, that some machines actually had 36-bits,
or even 17- and 18- bits, or that one time, a "bit" in a processor was
several physical devices you could actually hold... Me, I'm not that old,
but I love the machines :)

>
> WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH THOSE PEOPLE?!?
> i have a little shelf that has all of my old processors sitting on
> it....since the machines wouldnt work....i have a processor from every
> generation of the X86...some Atari processors...and i think actually a few
> gaming console processors....
>
Received on Sun Apr 08 2001 - 15:02:36 BST