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  From: Dale Long <dalel@loftuscomp.com.au>
  To  : Richard Russell <richardrussell@mail.com>
  Date: Fri, 29 Dec 2000 15:17:41 +1030 (CST)

RE: Computer Museum

On Fri, 29 Dec 2000, Richard Russell wrote:
> My suggestion for someone who may want to do this: find out about the
> history of computing in Adelaide, and dig up the relelvant old people and
> computers, and see what you find. Don't bother with a random Sun 3, unless
> it's "just like the one that so and so used to do blah in 1973" or
> something. It would have to be focussed around interesting events in the
> development of the CS and EE departments of Unis and TAFEs (and schools), as
> well as the development of industry...

It seems that the purpose of the museum needs to be evaluated.
Will it be a museum of sentimental value or 'geek' interest? Eg: "I used
to use one of those, nice to see it again" or "Gee, I never saw a real
PDP-11" etc...

Or is the purpose one of presenting historically significant computers?
Eg: "This is PDP-11 that first ran Unix", or "This is the host that Ludwig
was first developed on... And against this wall you will find the original
Ludwig developers...".

I would like to see both types in the one museum.

It would be interesting to see the range of machines Sun developed (not
all of them). This would apply to other suppliers. Seeing a
range of machines gives a sense of historical perspective.
Experimental and proto-type machines would be equaly interesting. 

It would be a stole down memory lane to see machines such as the ZX81,
Spectrum, Comodore 64, BBC B, VZ300 and so on.

There are many virtual museums on the web that do this.

But, who would want to see this? Are we just a bunch of geeks clinging on
to memories? Maybe it is worthwhile to reflect on ones' past...

...and remember the good old days when the net was not filtered and you
could control access to your own hard disks. :-)

Dale.

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