The final 'Garage' sale...

From: Jay West <jwest_at_classiccmp.org>
Date: Wed May 28 14:16:00 2003

Jim;

As I read your email a profound sadness overcomes.... I guess this hobby
(moreso, to people like us) can very easily become all-consuming both
financially and psychologically. I, and I am quite sure others on the list
definitely feel and share your pain. Several times since getting into the
hobby I have been to the point of just giving up, feeling that required
items for a particular system are simply never to be found again. Or seeing
a particular piece and not being able to swing the cash at the time. Or
putting the family through grief when I stay up till the wee hours for weeks
on end trying to get something working. Or wondering how on earth I'm going
to get a piece that I have obtained transported. Or storage once it
arrives... well, I'm sure everyone here can identify. So far, fortunately,
every time I've hit that point I've been able to overcome it - either with
unwarranted optimism or by walking away from it for a month or so.

It royally sucks to me that many of us (probably not me, but many here
anyways) have extremely important ranges of computing history - and that
without us, they will NOT survive from what I can see, at least as a
representative range of systems. Most museums simply don't care, or want to,
represent the whole of computing history. That is something that is so
central to our culture, the very fabric of our current daily lives. I'm not
talking about a classic "straight 8", or a DG nova - these will likely be
represented. But the entire gamut that we have (most of us) lived through -
from the DECs to the altair and apples and heathkits up to, yes... I'll say
it... modern PC's. Pick any one of them, and unless they were in the top
tier of name recognition I don't think they will be around in museums - an
exidy sorcerer for example - unless we preserve them. Future generations
must know that it wasn't just the Apple and IBM PC. It is this very
degeneration of view into "years ago people used apples and PC's" that is so
wrong, given that the whole progress was possible because of VARIED systems.
Almost everyone used something different; that's what got our technology
where it is today. That's why we are a bit stagnated with the current
Windows monopoly.

To bring in another thread that's been going on on the list... I am also
very concerned that many of these systems need to be preserved NOW, rather
than later with regards to the ability to repair them. Yes, new (young)
people can be trained in basic TTL repair and troubleshooting. But I don't
see a lot of that going on, or at least, not enough to make sure that a fair
number of these machines stay running.

Long story short, I am very concerned with the trend. I wish I had answers.
Jim, I sincerely hope that you manage to at least hold onto a system or two,
and can stay active on this list. I'm sure we all empathize and wish you the
very best, as well as sincerely thank you for your past participation here.

Regards,

Jay West
Received on Wed May 28 2003 - 14:16:00 BST