On Wednesday, October 2, 2002, Geoff Roberts wrote:
> From: "Zane H. Healy" <healyzh_at_aracnet.com>
> > > 'cause when Windoze 95 becomes on topic, it just might not be fun
> > > anymore.
> >
> > The only problem is then you block stuff that falls under the
> > non-Windows/"Really Cool Tech" catagories. I'd say retain the 10 year
> > rule and just state that an exception to that rule is that Microsoft
> > OS's newer than Windows 3.11 & x86 PC's with PCI slots are off-topic.
>
> I suppose we must maintain a timeline of systems and software, including,
> at the appropriate times, Win9x, NT and whatever comes after it. Remember
> that 30 years from now ... a quaint P4-2Ghz with XP Pro and a 17" tube
> monitor might be a unique antique system.
Would anyone object to adding an official 'cool factor clause' to the
10-year rule? We already sorta have that now, where a newer computer (e.g.
mid-90s SGI MIPS) has sufficient cool factor that we're ok with it. All we
need is a concept of negative cool factor, so that some computers (e.g.
Packard Bell PC) might never be on-topic.
In reality, this isn't any more ambiguous than what we already have. The
other option would be to develop some sort of unit for classicity and set a
threshold above which a machine is on-topic.
--
Jeffrey Sharp
Received on Wed Oct 02 2002 - 19:49:01 BST