I took the photos for the cover of my first book on an Alto that was rescued from the museum. This was when it was "closed for the pandemic."
Anyhow, this guy had two working Altos in his basement in Bothell.
Living Computers Museum to permanently close, auction vintage items
101–110 of 268 posts
Re: Living Computers Museum to permanently close, auction vintage items
#102Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Presumably billg is reading this thread already. I would assume he's not wasting his time with HN. He's rich enough and well-known enough that I'd think he'd be able to get superior versions of everything HN can provide.
I mean, if you have billg money, I guess you could have a couple ex-FAAMG software developers on payroll just so you could call them up at any hour of the day and have them give you uninformed hot-takes about an article you found online and just forwarded them, and need them to tell you something based on the headline without actually reading the article, but that seems a bit weird. I don't even have Snoop Dogg money…
the hn experience wouldn't be complete with only uninformed hot takes; it also requires that they argue with everything you say and then accuse you of being disingenuous
Re: Living Computers Museum to permanently close, auction vintage items
#103Paul Allen sure didn't have great foresight for post death. First Cinerama and now the computer museum. The current sentiment with seattle lifers is that he used Seattle as a playground and didn't actually care about the longevity. EMP now MoPop just keeps hanging on by a thread as well and has gone through lots of turmoil.
I think that's too harsh. A lot of people have a blind spot to their own mortality. He died at 65, far before most people have their affairs in order.
Not really. Anyone that rich has financial advisors who will certainly bug them about that.
Re: Living Computers Museum to permanently close, auction vintage items
#104The sad reality is that you can spend a lifetime collecting something, the but likelihood that any of your potential heirs is also interested in it, is pretty close to zero. That's true of multi-million dollar vintage computers, or your childhood stamp collection that's mostly worthless. Paul's mistake was not properly establishing a foundation & endowment to maintain this musuem, which almost certainly leaks lots of…
You're not going to get 50 cents if I know anything about it.
Maybe if you started selling today you could get that, an estate auction will get a few pennies.
Re: Living Computers Museum to permanently close, auction vintage items
#105Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think that's too harsh. A lot of people have a blind spot to their own mortality. He died at 65, far before most people have their affairs in order.
But he was given a diagnosis of cancer. It's not like he was hit by a bus. He had several months.
Even for someone like Allen a few minutes with Quicken Willmaker would have been able to setup a trust to keep any of these things going in perpetuity.
He likely didn't like thinking about it.
Re: Living Computers Museum to permanently close, auction vintage items
#106The sad reality is that you can spend a lifetime collecting something, the but likelihood that any of your potential heirs is also interested in it, is pretty close to zero. That's true of multi-million dollar vintage computers, or your childhood stamp collection that's mostly worthless. Paul's mistake was not properly establishing a foundation & endowment to maintain this musuem, which almost certainly leaks lots of…
Personal collections are for enjoyment, not investment.
I liquidated some of my fathers things for effectively nothing. That he spent decades acquiring.
Re: Living Computers Museum to permanently close, auction vintage items
#107The museum was also a generous community space; I remember attending a Seattle Indies game jam and other events before the pandemic. It was very special to be surrounded by reminders of early-computing exploratory spirit.
Re: Living Computers Museum to permanently close, auction vintage items
#108Earlier quoted context omitted.
> So, out of concern for the condition of any items that may still be inside, I snooped around the perimeter looking for a way in How does concern for the items inside lead you to looking for a way to break in?
if the building is unguarded and full of valuable items, someone will loot it. if you're the one that loots it, you get to decide what happens to them. if you don't, someone else will
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Re: Living Computers Museum to permanently close, auction vintage items
#109rest in peace, thank you for giving me the memory of what root on an '11 felt like for dms, and a little of that all asm love for the single cve. Someday i will write it a sister and publish in TLCHM memory. farewell friend and thank you for the fish
Re: Living Computers Museum to permanently close, auction vintage items
#110Earlier quoted context omitted.
Because companies are there to make money, especially those owned mostly by nameless shareholders and run by committee. And this "brand building" that you describe here has basically zero return on investment. Of course some company - proablably a private one (not public), could invest into it, but if you want to burn money on something your CEO likes or the owners like, you can use other ideas like paying millions t…
250,000 students a year benefit from Ontario Science Center, the best of whom go onto the engineering and computer science programs of Canadian universities like U of Waterloo and U of Toronto, from where they are recruited by North American tech companies. > zero return on investment Any junior i-banker can produce a spreadsheet showing the lifetime labor value of high-quality technical talent educated at Canadian u…
Any junior banker can produce a spreadsheet for you that will claim anything you want - it is called Management Consulting.
Anyway, since you know better how those big companies can invest, you can use your own money to reap the benefits. Money is literally lying on the street for you.