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.
The Computer Museum of America reclamation project
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Re: The Computer Museum of America reclamation project
#12Earlier quoted context omitted.
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 mainten…
> 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-...
Wow I’m surprised by how high the realized prices are
Who is buying these things? Private collectors?
Re: The Computer Museum of America reclamation project
#13Earlier quoted context omitted.
> 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-...
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.
Re: The Computer Museum of America reclamation project
#14Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
> Antiquities and heirlooms can be a good stable investment, the same reason people trade art or watches or guns or cars.
It is only an investment if it (likely) gains yield. Otherwise it is just a means of preservation of value.
Re: The Computer Museum of America reclamation project
#15I just came back from the The National Museum of Computing (TNMOC) in the UK at Bletchley Park. It was fantastic. They have a wide variety of working systems that you can play with, from home computers to mainframes, as well as Bombes and the Colossus (used to break the Lorenz cipher), and WITCH. Very cool. https://www.tnmoc.org/
Quasi-related: If you're into old telephone switching equipment (some of which is computer-based), the Connections Museum in Seattle is not to be missed.
Re: The Computer Museum of America reclamation project
#16Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
> Antiquities and heirlooms can be a good stable investment, the same reason people trade art or watches or guns or cars. It is only an investment if it (likely) gains yield. Otherwise it is just a means of preservation of value.
Most of these things have large categories that are inherently disinflationary. You can't make a new authentic vintage Ferrari. Whether they are fungible is the main problem and case by case. But you generally don't do it to build wealth, it's an expression of it that happens to have yields if taken seriously.
Re: The Computer Museum of America reclamation project
#17Earlier quoted context omitted.
> 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-...
Wow I’m surprised by how high the realized prices are Who is buying these things? Private collectors?
I think the prices are still really modest if you look at them in perspective. One of the small, irreplaceable stock of surviving PDP-10s could be had for less than the cost of a mediocre used Ferrari.
Re: The Computer Museum of America reclamation project
#18It 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.
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Re: The Computer Museum of America reclamation project
#19It 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 mainten…
There is Large Scale Systems Museum in Western PA.
Rhode Island Computer Museum https://www.ricomputermuseum.org/Home
Re: The Computer Museum of America reclamation project
#20It 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.
Usually these appeal mostly to people in the field. I've tried to take many people to computer museums but generally they aren't interested unless they are software engineers themselves.