Oldest machine (was: Re: Good haul of old pc stuph)

[Tony Duell]

> 
> Scott Stevens wrote:
> > Does others here also value some of their equipment for the asset
> > tags on it?  I have gear from places like the Jet Propulsion
> > Laboratory for instance.
> 
> Yep - I tend to try and leave those on if they're something interesting, even 
> if I'm cleaning the rest of the machine up as much as possible. Partly to aid 

I can think of one good reason to remove them, and that is if you suspect 
that the assets records at the company are not all that they should be. I 
am asusming, of course, that you did obtain the machine legally, but if 
you were later found to have a machine with a 'foo company' asset label, 
and if there were no records that you'd actually bought it from them, 
you could have a lot of explaining to do.

> my own memory too, because I can never remember where I got half my stuff 
> from! :-)

Why does it matter who previously used a machine? It's the same machine, 
isn't it? To me computers are interesting becuase of how they work, what 
they do, etc, not who used them.

> 
> On a related note, there's also something nice about finding signed 
> documentation once owned by well-known staff at the company which produced 

I think I've told this story before, but anyway... Shortly  after I got 
my P850, I met some people from the Philips research labs, and 
half-jokingly asked if they had any documentation. I was very pleased 
when, a few days later, a parcel arrived containing some user and 
technical manuals for related machines, including the P851. The P851 User 
manual had a name writeen in ballpoint on the cover.

About 15 years later, a P851 and P854 were offered via the CCS. I lept at 
the chance and contacted the owner without delay. He was happy for me to 
take them on, so I went down and collected a P851, P854, floppy drives, 
spare boards, and yet more documentation.

The point of mentioning this now? The chap I got them from was the person 
who'd written his name on the cover of that user manual :-)

-tony