Taking control of your collection

From: Corda Albert J DLVA <CordaAJ_at_nswc.navy.mil>
Date: Tue Feb 5 13:51:47 2002

I'm in the same predicament... Being unmarried, I haven't
had a significant other to rein me in, so as a result
I live in a 3000 sq. ft. house, most of which is used for
storage. I do manage to keep "paths" clear through each
room, though. When I first bought the house (~10 years ago),
I built an 800 sq ft. garage with the intention of using it as
a workshop. Unfortunately, I filled the garage within
less than a year (from scratch...). What's really frightening
is that when I bought the house, I was really starting
from zero. My previous (much smaller) home had been
completely destroyed in a house fire (long story concerning
theft, home invasion and arson...), leaving me with
the clothes on my back and little else.

The problem is, I _like_ collecting odball systems. I truely
believe in preserving the history of the development of
computer architectures, and the accompanying enabling
technology, and (except for this group, and 1 or 2 private
computer museums/clubs) perceive of very little actually
being done in the public sector to achieve that goal.

I can't say that I actually specialize (although most of
my systems consist of SGI, Sun and DEC gear). I've always
justified my acquisitions to myself by convincing myself
that I was going to net everything together and use 'em
for software R&D (AI stuff). If I can ever manage to
get a broadband network hookup (another horror story)
the I'd like to begin work on an online systems archive.

I've finally reached the point, however, when I feel
as if I've stepped over an invisible line that separates
the rational from the irrational. I finally feel uncomfortable
in my home, and I am trying to exert some control over myself.
I recently turned down a SparcCenter 2000 (sans CPU boards).
I'm quite proud of that (although I don't know if I would
have been able to resist it if it had been a 2000E with
cpus :-)

My current approach is to try to thin out the mess by packing
the truck up with stuff I know I'll never get around to,
and taking it to a local computer surplus store. No, I'm not
selling it to them... I'm _giving_ it to them. They then
sort out the stuff they want (out of my sight, thank god)
and scrap what they consider useless. In return,
they will often cut me a deal on any items they get that
seem to be interesting.

I'm beginning to believe that the urge to "collect", left
unrestricted, can eventually be just as damaging to an
individual as an uncontrolled urge to gamble or drink.
Perhaps this is just another manifestation of a variant
of obsessive/compulsive disorder...

Or then again, it could be just plain, ole-fashioned fun :)

-al-
-acorda_at_1bigred.com
Received on Tue Feb 05 2002 - 13:51:47 GMT