I have to give up my collection.
So if you're interested in some pieces or know someone who might, please send me an e-mail.
It i so sad to see that many old computers with all the equippment, software and documentation going to be discarted - what nobody claims now will be ditched into the trash on monday.
Ok, i take comfort in my loot: Two fully equipped Sun Enterprise E-450, three Sun Ultra 2, tow Sun 3/80, one Apple PowerMac 8600/200, one Apple PowerMac G3 Tower and last, but not least the huge chest with dozens of s-bus cards and m-bus modules. Plus a lot of bits and pieces like memory, hard drives and frames, cables, adaptors and processors, software and manuals.
But there comes the point when even a VW Touran is full. I looked longingly on several remaining stacks of Suns (Ultra 1 and SparcStations), DECs, Apollos, HPs, SGIs and Apples. Even worse: 50 boxes with documentation and manuals for all these.
Every time such a collection is thrown away a piece of computer history is gone too. Besides all the mass products and trivial things we might miss some jewels that sould be preserved. But what exactly should we preserve? The hardware? Ready to run? What's about the software? Operating system? Applications (with licenses)? The whole ambience - manuals, periperals and network? You see, this can lead into unexpected complexity.
During lunch at the Mexican we discussed extensively this topic. To give form to the thing i suggested to launch and register a club here in Germany for preserving old computers. If you're interested, please contact me via e-mail (address see below)!
'Cause i own some kind of working Mac hardware (for example Performa 630, PowerMac 6100/66, PowerMac 7500/100, G4 Cube) i think i can judge the quality of these emulators quite well - my conclusion: very advisable!
This means that in the future i cannot show my machines running anymore. But of couse i'd be glad if still someone wanted to visit me and my computers.
Hello? Am i colecting old computers or what???
Yesterday night he gave the thing into my hands and feeling very proud i drove home. Additionally i got a power supply and serial cable and hopefully he'll find software and manuals somwhere too.
Ok, it still is beta. Maybe i'll try later again.
Have you found a way to submit a bug report? I haven't. Bummer!
First, we gave energy to John, an old Sun 3/260 which Dennis had given to me years ago. We were curious if he would still run and yes, he did! We noticed a yellow light on the second memory board indicating a correctable ECC error, but that didn't stop the show. We were able to identify the offending chip where the one bit had flipped in less than five minutes.
Later on we screwed together my 4/670, where i had massive problems with the memory board - and made it run. Oh, yes, the 4/600MP is a topic i never get tired of. Dennis wanted to have one of my 4/630, but unfortunately their serial ports were fried.
Stuffing a couple of VAXen and some other treasures into Dennis car, they left late at night heading home.
The last two videos are typical for the whole time - wind shakes the telescope and clouds obscure the sun or confuse the webcam shutter settings. Some shreds of clouds are better - they even add some vibe to the first two videos.
I won't conceal a curious symptom of a failed NVRAM here: The machine doesn't initialize its hardware properly: It won't boot from either disk or ethernet until the NVRAM checksum is correct.
And now something completely different - Project Games.
Gaming on computers is almost as old as computers themselves and probably most computers were victims of gaming, except for these extraordinary expensive ones that were run by white-collar workers (or worse: suits).
On most of my computers you can find the one or the other game too. And all these old games have one thing in common: They win over modern graphics oriented games by their brilliant game idea. So try it and have fun!
Now everybody is invited to visit my collection live!
Sooner or later it will be inevitable to take a little fee, but for some weeks (beta test) i'll only place a donation piggy bank at the entrance.
My Museum is open Monday and Wednesday from 18 to 22 and Tuesday and Thursday from 20:30 to 23 o'clock. Of course i'd be glad to arrange other appointments.
Since the museum is more of a hobby it might happen that i come late or have to close for a day. To avoid hassles, i'd suggest that you send me an e-Mail before you visit me. Plus having your e-Mail address will allow me to postpone.
And please have a look at my Calendar, because i'll announce all open and close hours here, especially the short terms.
