help requested in Arkansas rescue

[Allison]

>
>Subject: Re: help requested in Arkansas rescue
>   From: "Teo Zenios" <teoz at neo.rr.com>
>   Date: Tue, 25 Oct 2005 12:21:16 -0400
>     To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org>
>
>
>----- Original Message ----- 
>From: "Allison" <ajp166 at bellatlantic.net>
>To: <cctalk at classiccmp.org>
>Sent: Tuesday, October 25, 2005 10:10 AM
>Subject: Re: help requested in Arkansas rescue
>
>
>> One good reason is that someday resources will appear to fully utilize it.
>> That can also be read as keeping it from the scrap heap until such time.
>>
>> The other which is ugly is people storing and loosing to financial
>> disaster or other physical disaster(weather, flood or fire) large amounts
>> of hardware that end up as scrap.
>>
>> I've had to pass on gathering some hardware for lack of long term
>supportable
>> space and in other cases where I've collected more than I could sold off
>excess
>> so it would not be lost to the trash.  I've also had hardware that I did
>trash
>> as likley of little to no value historically or as $$$ (mostly PCs of the
>late
>> XT clone and AT clones and the 386s).  To me long term supportable space
>for
>> systems and board is stuff that can be accessed fairly easily and allows
>actual
>> test, repair and use.
>>
>>
>>
>> Allison
>
>Do you mean you save items at your own expense because someday some museum
>might want it, or you intend to hit the lottery and move the machine to a
>facility setup for it and other gems?

None of the above though those are possible. It's more like I have a 
collection of systems and boards that are actively if only intermittently 
used.  The key is functional and usable.  the latter requires some space 
and local storage.

>Personally anything with real historical value should be in a museum where
>others can see it and learn about it. Most items that end up in a personal
>collection that are not mainstream collectable just end up getting trashed
>when that person dies or if lucky some other collector gets to hide it in
>their warehouse away from view until they too die (or lose funding for the
>storage).

My evenual demise is provided for.  As to historical, I have stuff I've used
some since day one (Altair 8800 sn200 that no ware hear original) and some 
I've built.  Most of the real history is lost just looking at it.  It's 
what I did, why and how the equipment and I were invoved with various things.
Same for the library of documentation tt's there to allow me to research, 
repair and occasionally relax with.

>I have about all the machines I can setup and run without tripping over them
>or using living space for their storage, although I need to rethink my
>magazine and software storage methods.

 I'm at saturation.  Occasionally I reorganize or mod a closet and get 
some space.

>I guess the reason I replied to begin with is that while a Cray system does
>sound cool in the geek sense (I picture circuit boards immersed in
>fleuro-inert when I hear the name) I just don't see the average collector
>having the time and resources to get it running and actually do something
>with it. Once the cool factor wears out what are you getting out of having
>the thing in storage?

Thats a personal question I suspect.  But with some machines its preserving
the last known or one of the very few. PDP12s were never common and few 
are operable that do exist. Whos got a complete IBM360??  The Cray was only
a few in existance and fewer remain.  If your lucky enough to snag one and 
store it.. there's something special about the last one.


Allison