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Re-Opened Computer History Museum Explored

Posted by simoniker on from the room-sized-drool-objects dept.

gosand writes "An article over at OSNews gives a nice overview of the recently re-opened Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA. There are some good pictures in the article, and also at the Museum's website. They have a lot of very interesting computers, including an Apple I (signed by Woz), an Enigma machine, and Crays 1, 2, and 3 (yes, there was a 3!) Maybe you have something sitting in your basement that you would like to donate?"

11 of 181 comments (clear)

  1. Let's get this out of the way. by Chess_the_cat · · Score: 5, Informative

    What the Museum does not look for in a donation: It's difficult for us to turn people away when they have taken the time to contact us about a particular item. Sadly, we must do this when the item in question is something the Museum already has or has decided does not meet our criteria. Some of the items the Museum can no longer accept include: IBM PC IBM PC Jr Commodore PET Commodore 64 Commodore VIC-20 Apple II (+/c/e) TI 99/4 Timex Sinclair

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    1. Re:Let's get this out of the way. by Computer+History+Mus · · Score: 5, Informative
      Yep. Site went down. Thanks all for the vote of popularity. Server has been reoptimized for the flood and should be able to handle it.

      While we're not running on the Altair, our Apache daemon had all those nice friendly timeouts and keepalives active for the leisurely browser, not for the flood of hits of getting slashdotted.

      To dispell the foreseeable endless debate regarding what the museum is about, and whether or not we're an international museum, you just have to visit in person.
      http://www.computerhistory.org/about/tour/

      We have THE LARGEST collection of computing artifacts in the world. Period. The site doesn't do it justice at the moment, but keep an eye out.. lots to come.

      The collection does include international representative machines, including a great deal from the UK. Only about 10% of our collection is actually on display, and even less is currently available on the web. If you want to help us change that, come volunteer.

      We have a great volunteer pool and are always looking for people excited about computing to come and help out.

      Director of IT and Webmaster
      webmaster@computerhistory.org

  2. Who needs electronic parts recycling centers... by double-oh+three · · Score: 5, Funny

    ... when you can send all your old junk/I mean treasured old computers to a museum?

    --
    "For years, I struggled with reality... but I'm happy to say I finally won out over it." -- Elwood P. Dowd
  3. Old by mindshadow · · Score: 5, Funny

    I don't want to see anything created after I was born be in something called a "museum" ... it makes me feel old...

  4. Donation? by nacturation · · Score: 5, Funny
    Maybe you have something sitting in your basement that you would like to donate?

    I have a really old computer from thousands of years ago. The name brand is "Abacus" and I believe they had many patents on the technology. The computer works by having the operator move beads based upon the calculation being performed. This is known as programming. Once the program has been written, the answer is immediately available. Execution time from programming it to getting the answer is zero, meaning that this Abacus brand computer is infinitely fast.

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  5. Uh oh by Smidge204 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Quick, somebody donate a new webserver!

    =Smidge=

  6. Repair, Clean, Repeat by waldoiverson · · Score: 5, Interesting

    this organization seems to count on donations for their displays. does anyone know what sort of process they use for cleaning, repairing and sorting the different devices that arrive at their doorstep? also, what happens to those computers that are donated but not used for display purposes? curiously yours.

    1. Re:Repair, Clean, Repeat by taped2thedesk · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I am currently working on restoring a piece of the ENIAC at the University of Michigan - I know that when the piece was prepared for display, they literally put the computer in the back of a pickup truck and took it to the local do-it-yourself high-pressure car wash. Can't exactly do that with today's computers, eh?

  7. Re:Computers by fishbowl · · Score: 5, Insightful

    >the world would never need more than three
    >computers.

    Well, that's liberally paraphrased, but the thing to understand is the person who said that was *right*.

    He was making a practical observation about the market, and the market would have been saturated at just a handful of the computers of the day.

    A person making a business plan for the next fiscal year doesn't need to worry about a technological revolution that may take place over the next decade or half century.

    --
    -fb Everything not expressly forbidden is now mandatory.
  8. The whole internet, on a single piece of 8.5x11 by robindmorris · · Score: 5, Interesting
    The computer history museum used to be housed in an old warehouse on Moffett Field (which also has a huge hangar that was used for airships). I visited there a while ago, and they have a great collection of stuff.

    One of the more interesting things was the internet (or arpanet) router. A six-foot high cabinet. And stuck on the side, was a hand-drawn map of the entire internet. On one piece of 8.5x11. With about 15 nodes. I hope it didn't fall off when they moved it to the new museum.

  9. Don't forget the software! by Mainframes+ROCK! · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Hello, also don't forget that a huge amount of historic software has become lost; a partial list that comes to mind for the IBM 360/370 is Algol-W, PLUTO, the source code for PL/C, York APL, and many many others. Two of the first time shared operating systems, CTSS and JOSS appear to be gone too. These systems could live on through emulation if they could be found again.

    If you have old (non-copyrighted) software for the IBM 360/370 please contact the good folks at http://cbttape.org/

    If you have any code post 1967 for Dartmouth Basic please check out http://dtss.org/

    And if you have any influence with the University of Waterloo, ask them to open source or at least again market their old 370 products!

    Thanks!