10 Aug
2008
10 Aug
'08
7:08 a.m.
It feels like a victory against planned obsolescence to get one
of these things running and doing something useful.
bs
On Wed, 6 Aug 2008, Rick Bensene wrote:
Tony Duell wrote:
Am I the only 'collector' who doesn't
much care about the value of the
items hi his colelction? I collect things becuase
I'm interested in
them,
I find them beautiful (in a somewhat odd way, I
can appreciate the
good
design in a PDP11 or HP98x0 CPU, for example). I
don't collect in the
hope that I'll be able to sell them later for more money.
No, Tony, at least there is someone else who has the same appreciation
(not in terms of monetary value doing such), but in the glory of design
and implementation. I don't care about the value of the calculators in
the Old Calculator Museum. Frankly, I really could care less what they
are worth. I do what I do because I have a great passion for this
particular part of our technological history, and there is such a
wonderful diversity of methods that various companies and engineers
invented to do the same basic functions, and each has its own beauty and
individuality, as well as (in some cases) places in history that are
significant.
I state in the website that none of the stuff is for sale. It isn't.
When I die, it'll be taken care of properly.
That's all that matters to me. This stuff isn't an investment, except
in the time that I spend pondering the designs and troubleshooting
machines that there are no schematics for, or figuring out how to
program a programmable calculator that there's no documentation known to
exist in terms of its instruction set, as well as documenting what
tidbits I can learn on the website for others to hopefully get some
enjoyment and education from.
Tinkering around with this stuff makes me happy. Digging through old
documents and finding shreds of historical significance that tie
together is the most wonderful kind of detective work. Communicating
with folks who "were there", like Tom Osborn(HP 9100/9800), Allen
Frankel (son of Stanley Frankel, developer of the SCM 240SR, and the
design of the Diehl
Combitron, and some early small computers, as well as being a nuclear
physicist involved in the Manhattan Project), Harold Koplow (Microcode
designer of Wang's 700-Series machines and others, including the 2200
BASIC computer, and word-processing systems), and many others is such a
great privilege. Sharing what I learn is pure joy.
The value is in those things, not dollars. I agree completely with
Tony's philosophy. Others may feel differently about these kinds of
things, and that's their right, and I'll fight to the death to defend
their right to feel that way, as well as for the right for Tony and
myself think the way we do.
Rick Bensene
The Old Calculator Museum
http://oldcalculatormuseum.com