
Vintage Computer Fans Keep the Great Machines of the Past Running - ohjeez
http://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/geek-life/history/theyre-alive-vintage-computer-fans-keep-the-great-machines-of-the-past-running?
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elahd
I expected this to be a piece on well built air circulators.

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IrishJourno
I'm the author of this article, but: BWAHAHAHAHA! That honestly never occurred
to me, note to self....

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nsxwolf
Glad you showed the TI-99/4A there at the end!

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IrishJourno
This one had the very fancy giant expansion box I never had!

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nsxwolf
I have two! :)

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f_allwein
Given that these computers are so important for our culture/ history, it is
surprising not more museums exhibit them. I'm sure they would make popular
exhibits.

The UK has the national museum of computing in Bletchley Park, which has a
nice collection, although not all of them worked when I visited. I guess it
must be a nightmare keeping them running...

[http://www.tnmoc.org](http://www.tnmoc.org)

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nigwil_
They are important to our history, particularly as they represent the
beginning steps in a fundamentally new technology.

I would argue that our efforts to preserve what is a unique time in computing
history, the birth of the electronic computer (and the software abstractions
they support), has at best been feeble, and at worst derelict.

Generally we have made a passable effort at preserving good examples of the
early machines, however our effort around preserving the important milestones
for software has been dismal. Trying to reconstruct a coherent view of the
history of ideas across the early software arena is now problematic and daily
becoming more difficult.

Summoning a small amount of polemic our attempts so far at preserving the
software side are akin to burning 99% of oil paintings, since "surely one
example of an oil painting represents all of them" approach to the history of
software.

A small group is making an effort to find and capture software artifacts:

[http://www.softwarepreservation.org/](http://www.softwarepreservation.org/)

My own list (solely reflecting my interests) is here:

[http://www.retrocomputingtasmania.com/home/projects/spg](http://www.retrocomputingtasmania.com/home/projects/spg)

If anyone is interested in these efforts please consider helping or chasing
down software that you consider is important and seeding the Internet where
practical.

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DerekL
I'm happy to learn that VCF West (the original Vintage Computer Festival) is
being held in August. I've attended many times, but the last time it was held
was 2007.

