>From: ard_at_p850ug1.demon.co.uk (Tony Duell)
>Reply-To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic
>Posts"<cctalk_at_classiccmp.org>
>To: cctalk_at_classiccmp.org
>Subject: Re: *** Ideas needed for developing interactive displays....
>Date: Tue, 7 Sep 2004 23:29:32 +0100 (BST)
<SNIP>
> > While I have not been following every message in this thread..It seems
>like
> > a replica might be the best way to go. Could definitely "play some
>games" to
>
>NO!!!!
>
>Sorry, but I object to technical museums that present replicas (and
>emulators hidden inside the case of an older machine, and...) as the real
>thing. You would not accept an art gallery that showed copies of the
>famous paintings, you shouldn't accept it for computers either.
>
>If I go to a museum it's because I want to see the real machine -- one I
>don't happen to already have. I don't want to see a fake.
>
>-tony
I mostly agree. Technical museums shouldn't play games with "fake" hardware.
Demonstrating said hardware is another matter. It would be really cool to
sit at the console of a Univac and run some calculations on it, watch the
power meters twitch as the accumulators spin. Maybe run the infamous
election prediction algorithm :)
Running an actual Univac, however, would be cost prohibitive, in electricity
alone if not in maintanance. Get a Univac all set up, maybe with just enough
B+ to get some of the heater elements lit up for show, complete and in
working order, mind you. But if people want to play with one have an
accurate simulator set up, driven by a PDP11 or Palm Pilot or something
equally humorous. It would clearly be marked as a simulator, but you'd get
the full effect of operating a Univac. Maybe even have it blow a tube now
and then :)
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Received on Tue Sep 07 2004 - 23:17:16 BST