Australian Computer Museum Looking For Space 197
tqft writes "The Australian Computer Museum Society needs space. Basically they have nowhere to store their large collection of hardware. Can you help? Do you or your employer have the floor space they could use? Or should it all be trashed?"
Australian Computer Museum is Dying (Score:2, Interesting)
Today, as I read the latest discussions on the future of the Australian Computer Museum project, I see the same problem; a few new faces and many of the old going over the same tired arguments and suggesting variations on the same worthless schemes. Frankly I'm sick of it.
Australian Computer Museum used to be fun. It used to be about doing things the right way. It used to be something that you could sink your teeth into when the mundane chores of programming for a living got you down. It was something cool and exciting; a way to spend your spare time on an endeavour you loved that was at the same time wholesome and worthwhile.
It's not anymore. It's about bylaws and committees and reports and milestones, telling others what to do and doing what you're told. It's about who can rant the longest or shout the loudest or mislead the most people into a bloc in order to legitimise doing what they think is best. Individuals notwithstanding, the project as a whole has lost track of where it's going, and has instead become obsessed with process and mechanics.
So I'm leaving core. I don't want to feel like I should be "doing something" about a project that has lost interest in having something done for it. I don't have the energy to fight what has clearly become a losing battle; I have a life to live and a job to keep, and I won't achieve any of the goals I personally consider worthwhile if I remain obligated to care for the project.
May I propose a cardasian question? (Score:5, Interesting)
This can't be said about ecosystem because that's something we don't, and may not ever fully understand - so it is beneficial to keep species around because they can have potentially very important uses, but old computer hardware are stuff that was created by humans in the first place, so - despite some token items, why do we keep it all instead of dedicating resources to creating new and better stuff?
It's like a child who builds some lego creation but would not tear it down even though his current abilities in making lego based stuff are so much more advanced.
and, this question I think was asked on DS9, by who I forget - but certainly a Cardasian.
Dupes (Score:4, Interesting)
Once you have the collection down to a more manageable size, then ask for help. Storing loads of junk at someone else's expense is a little much to ask.
Or, have a yard sale and give the shit away. At least _someone_ might enjoy it. A Beowulf cluster of junk collectors, if you will. Cost: zero.
How bout take it all to the outback? (Score:2, Interesting)
Why such a large collection? (Score:2, Interesting)
I don't go asking others to store all the stuff that I have around the house, if I want to recover some space then I sort through it and throw the useless stuff out... but that takes some effort so I don't do it very often, maybe they are as lazy as me?
Re:Dupes (Score:4, Interesting)
Get rid of the duplicates, or at least keep no more than two of a kind
The problem with that is that if you want to keep an ancient computer in working order you need a source for parts. If you throw all the duplicates away it's much harder to repair your only working machine if it breaks.
JP
Re:I also have many crappy computers needing stora (Score:5, Interesting)
- A fuzzy 17 inch monitor
- An old Indigo2 computer sans hard drive (and more imporantly, sans hard drive bracket.)
- A dual Pentium Pro 180, with 3 GB SCSI hard drive
- An old AMD computer, processor type forgotten. (Probably about a 400 Mhz) something.
- Some sort of IDE raid card
- About 12 hard drives totaling 8 GB of storage
When I was your age, we didn't have monitors. We used mom and dad's TV! The Indigo2 wasn't even planned at that point, dual CPU's and IDE disks were pure rocket science.Since you call this fully useable equipment "old" (keep in mind, the stuff you mention make perfect *nix firewalls/servers), here's some of the stuff I've got at home, in my own personal little "museum" -- from the top of my head: Probably 100 kilograms of 8086 PCs, Oric-1, Apple ][, C64, Texas Instruments TI99/4A, lots of Amiga 500's, a few 68k Mac's, and lots of old game consoles (b&w ping pong).
Now that's the stuff that works. From the stuff that unfortunately doesn't work anymore, the list is too long. An example would be the extremly rare West PC 800, a "dual cpu" 6502/Z80 Apple][ clone made in Norway in the early eighties. It's so rare, I can't find any spare parts, nor info about it on the net.
Oh well.
Re:I also have many crappy computers needing stora (Score:2, Interesting)
> You've got an Oric? Gimme!
I won't sell it for anything in the world
But seriously, eBay [ebay.com] is a great spot for buying old computers [ebay.com].
Well, especially if you're a fanatic nostalgic like me.