Housing collections

[Roy J. Tellason]

On Wednesday 28 December 2005 08:09 pm, Scott Stevens wrote:
> > My lot is fairly large (0.23 acres) and I have a huge area in the back
> > of the lot that is essentially "unused", where I could build
> > something.  But for a public museum I'd rather not have it in the back
> > yard of my house, so I am considering purchasing some undeveloped land
> > in a cheaper part of the city.

I wouldn't consider that size to be "fairly large" but then I'm thinking in 
terms of "several acres",  probably as rural as I can manage to get...

> I am a collector, and consider myself somewhat of a conservator,
> but I don't personally have interest in maintaining a museum.
> Right now my storage system borders on being a disaster, in part
> because of a lack of organization and optimization of space.

Sounds familiar.  I have the larger of two "bedrooms" in a second floor 
apartment with way too much stuff in it,  stuff in the hallway,  in front of 
my bookshelves,  and a 10x20 storage unit.

> I have 3-4 spare acres here, though, and long term plans include
> putting down a cement slab out there and then a pole building.
> Insulation and heat eventually, so it can be a place to operate
> instead of just for storage.  At present the second bedroom is
> completely crammed, my 'main labspace' room is so congested that
> I can't even get to the electronics bench..., I have to be very
> careful what I leave in the garage (unheated, somewhat unsealed
> against the elements)

Euw.  What would worry me more than anything else about not being completely 
sealed is rodents,  they can be very destructive.  We've had a problem with 
mice here in the house this year.

> I am at the point where it's time to post giveaways and
> real-cheap-sale items on eBay just to get rid of some of the
> excess, which isn't necessarily museum-grade stuff, but then... I
> don't necessarily subscribe to the 'ten year rule' (make that- I
> don't subscribe to it AT ALL in my personal collection.  I have
> some things much older, and quite a bit of newer stuff that I
> like having, too.  Usually things that don't get mentioned here
> because that isn't the focus of this list, but it belongs at
> least in this post.

I hear ya!  :-)

> I'm a hardware person, and what I really want to focus more time
> on is using some of the 'classic' silicon I have accumulated.
> Z80 sbcs (real Z80, not the new clones and ASIC things) and the
> Intel 8088 project that I've half completed.  All those wonderful
> 8255, 6821 and Z80 peripheral chips, all the SRAM parts I have,
> etc.

I have a bunch of that stuff on hand as well,  plus 6502,  6510,  6522,  6526,  
and some vic20- and c64-specific parts -- not because I have any particular 
enthusiasm for those chips,  but because I used to fix 'em.  And a 6809,  and 
I think a z8001 somewhere.  And then those 80xx microcontroller chips,  and 
probably others.

> I'm now in the process of dipping my feet in the GnuEDA package, because I
> need a decent robust schematic capture program that isn't either an illegal
> 'evaluation' copy or a four figure investment.

I downloaded that at one point and had subscribed to their user list but it 
read too much like a developer's list to suit me,  and I never did get around 
to getting it installed and configured.

> In it's recent incarnation built on NetBSD/i386 I am so far very impressed
> with Gschem.  (I *like* the fact that I have the complete source for the
> entire setup.

Yes.  I like that sort of thing very much myself.  :-)

> Schematics I create are mine forever, etc. etc.)
>
> Housing my collection?  It's a *disaster* but my wife puts up
> with it.  She isn't even complaing loudly yet that I haven't
> moved the bandsaw she gave me for Christmas (she works at
> Menards) out of the living room yet.

Heh.  Sounds like you're definitely worse than I am!  :-)

-- 
Member of the toughest, meanest, deadliest, most unrelenting -- and
ablest -- form of life in this section of space,  a critter that can
be killed but can't be tamed.  --Robert A. Heinlein, "The Puppet Masters"
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