To add one of my obscure bits of hardware to: The BeBox Registry.
I literally stumbled upon this site this morning, as I was considering putting the old box up on eBay or something. You see I have a rather vast collection of odd computer hardware stashed away in a few places. Mostly Non-Intel CPU workstations and servers. One of these is a BeBox. About 1800 of these were built and I managed to snag one from a friend of mine about 8 years ago (Hi Jeff!)
…
Then I came to my senses… I can’t put this on eBay. What I have is a collection of obscure, high-end systems from the 90s. These are the last gasp of non-Intel driven errata before that branch of computing lost its momentum. I have PPC, Motorola 68K, Sun Sparc, MIPS and Alpha boxes. I imagine if you liken the pre-PC era like the Brass Era of automobiles, these machines are like the explosion of brands pre-WW2. I have the computing equivalent of Auburns, Cords, Dusenbergs, REOs, Pierce-Arrows and the like. Names like Be, NeXT, SGI, Sun, and of course Apple. They are like used cars now, like those REOs in the 40s; old cars from failed, or merged into some larger entity companies, whose usefulness is gone and whose parts are unavailable. They have little value now, but it should grow over time. I even have a few “one of a kind” machines – unshipped prototypes.
So no eBay. Instead I’ll catalog them here over time. (You’ll note I created a new category for this subject .) Should be fun.
Think 401K, chuck. Think retirement funds.
That’s why I’m saving my (acquired in ’80 for $25) Altair 5000..AND my copy of the first issue of “Byte” magazine which had on its cover? An Altair 5000…..!
Retirement, m’boy, retirement.
Paul… For my children maybe, not for me… the question is will they know what they are!? 😉
Like your Mom & Dad’s Auburn or the Silverstone I guess.
–chuck
Do as I’m doing: I’m writing a loooong narrative, called “The Story Of All My Shit!”
Although I was unusually close (physially and emotionally) to my parents efore heir deaths in 1997, there were still bits and pieces for which I have NO freakin’ clue as to the what/why/where of it/them.
Ergo, I’m putting it all down in a codecil for my LWAT, so that the collection of rocks have a provenance for whomever will get’m…or the weird trophies I *did* keep will have the story of how it was earned, or just stuff I’ve collected, over the years.
At least then, *they’ll* have a story to tell people of the big, funny-lookin’ rock they now have on THEIR mantle, or the connecting rod that’s bent all to hell!
‘Nuther cuppla years, I’ll have it alll done!
Careful, chuck…yer mentioned by *name* in that will….
:):):)