It amazes me how difficult it is to keep computer museums alive.
Like Boston used to have a great computer museum in the 1980s back when Boston had a computer industry. I guess though it is hard to keep a PDP-10 alive today and it's not impressive to kids today to play LUNAR LANDER on a VT-102.
Not all computer museums fail - there are a few that have endured. The one in Mountain View, for instance, is a direct continuation of the one from Boston.
A lot of very nice computer collections are parts of bigger ones in larger, less specialised, museums.
It’s rare for museums to keep artefacts operational. The ones that still work are usually treated as the big attraction because they demand attention and maintenance.
I was recently in Bletchley Park, where I saw a partially working Bombe (they only run it partially because of the wear), and their smaller computer museum (there are a lot of machines that are available for visitors to play with) and the one in Cambridge, which has classrooms with BBC micros, as well as many other interesting machines - Suns, SGIs, Amigas, Ataris, Spectrums, and even a Lisa, which had a boot issue.
I have to say the kids in the last two seemed thrilled to play Lemmings on Amigas and Archimedes machines. Not a PDP-1, but still cool.
Antiquities and heirlooms can be a good stable investment, the same reason people trade art or watches or guns or cars. Some of these are fun to use without reducing value.
In the Netherlands there is a computer museum with a huge collection. The computers can be used by anyone. Really a great experience for kids these days and adults.
Sigh, I offered cool IMSAI gear with loads of cards to a computer museum, and they preferred "autographed" stuff, "prestige" items, negating the pioneer spirit of those of us who soldered countless thousands of parts, sockets and interconnects.
Dsigned by Ty Warner, of course) the experience will live with me as long as I live and can instill in younger people that pioneer spirit (perhaps with SBC's and real-world interfaces) and fun times growing up with these gizmos.
I don't see them as museum pieces to be hung on a wall, and guarded. What good does that do in the tech world as opposed to the art world? I recall hearing about the greatest art theft of all time, IIRC, the one at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. [0]
I previously visited that museum, at a time when passive photography was considered harmful (probably a holdover from the Salem Witchcraft Trials, and thoroughly debunked) and got a raft of shit from a curator about having evil photographic gear in my possession.
Since I never knew his name I never thought to look up whether he was one of the guards bound and gagged in the robbery.
More to the point, "treasures" ( and these are treasures) are for fools to hoard, and you can learn from mere observation, whereas the old gizmos are still "playable"
In fact, a few frayed ribbon cables still need replacement.
> they preferred "autographed" stuff, "prestige" items
That’s sad. Maybe other museums would be more enlightened. In the end, unless the museum is well funded by a government grant or something similar, it’ll need to recover costs from tickets, and prestige items are something they can advertise to the muggles.
Keeping these machines running is hard work and, for the most part, unpredictable - they will go down and need maintenance from time to time. These is a constant tension between keeping it operational and keeping it original, as tools, materials, parts, and techniques become unavailable, and replacing parts with modern equivalents is a last resort.
It amazes me how difficult it is to keep computer museums alive.
Like Boston used to have a great computer museum in the 1980s back when Boston had a computer industry. I guess though it is hard to keep a PDP-10 alive today and it's not impressive to kids today to play LUNAR LANDER on a VT-102.
Not all computer museums fail - there are a few that have endured. The one in Mountain View, for instance, is a direct continuation of the one from Boston.
A lot of very nice computer collections are parts of bigger ones in larger, less specialised, museums.
It’s rare for museums to keep artefacts operational. The ones that still work are usually treated as the big attraction because they demand attention and maintenance.
I was recently in Bletchley Park, where I saw a partially working Bombe (they only run it partially because of the wear), and their smaller computer museum (there are a lot of machines that are available for visitors to play with) and the one in Cambridge, which has classrooms with BBC micros, as well as many other interesting machines - Suns, SGIs, Amigas, Ataris, Spectrums, and even a Lisa, which had a boot issue.
I have to say the kids in the last two seemed thrilled to play Lemmings on Amigas and Archimedes machines. Not a PDP-1, but still cool.
> It’s rare for museums to keep artefacts operational.
The Living Computer Museum tried until the money ran out. Here's the auction list from when the Living Computer Museum was liquidated.[1]
[1] https://onlineonly.christies.com/s/firsts-history-computing-...
Paul Allen did not structure the financials for it to succeed, which is unfortunate. I got to go there once and it was amazing.
Wow I’m surprised by how high the realized prices are
Who is buying these things? Private collectors?
Antiquities and heirlooms can be a good stable investment, the same reason people trade art or watches or guns or cars. Some of these are fun to use without reducing value.
I suspect this applies to almost all museums.
In the Netherlands there is a computer museum with a huge collection. The computers can be used by anyone. Really a great experience for kids these days and adults.
https://www.homecomputermuseum.nl/en/
Sigh, I offered cool IMSAI gear with loads of cards to a computer museum, and they preferred "autographed" stuff, "prestige" items, negating the pioneer spirit of those of us who soldered countless thousands of parts, sockets and interconnects.
Dsigned by Ty Warner, of course) the experience will live with me as long as I live and can instill in younger people that pioneer spirit (perhaps with SBC's and real-world interfaces) and fun times growing up with these gizmos.
I don't see them as museum pieces to be hung on a wall, and guarded. What good does that do in the tech world as opposed to the art world? I recall hearing about the greatest art theft of all time, IIRC, the one at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. [0]
I previously visited that museum, at a time when passive photography was considered harmful (probably a holdover from the Salem Witchcraft Trials, and thoroughly debunked) and got a raft of shit from a curator about having evil photographic gear in my possession.
Since I never knew his name I never thought to look up whether he was one of the guards bound and gagged in the robbery.
More to the point, "treasures" ( and these are treasures) are for fools to hoard, and you can learn from mere observation, whereas the old gizmos are still "playable"
In fact, a few frayed ribbon cables still need replacement.
UNLESS WE HAVE FORGOTTEN HOW TO DO SO.
Claude refused to.
[0] https://www.fbi.gov/history/cases-and-criminals/isabella-ste...
> they preferred "autographed" stuff, "prestige" items
That’s sad. Maybe other museums would be more enlightened. In the end, unless the museum is well funded by a government grant or something similar, it’ll need to recover costs from tickets, and prestige items are something they can advertise to the muggles.
Keeping these machines running is hard work and, for the most part, unpredictable - they will go down and need maintenance from time to time. These is a constant tension between keeping it operational and keeping it original, as tools, materials, parts, and techniques become unavailable, and replacing parts with modern equivalents is a last resort.
Very cool and good work. Thank you!