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The History of Computing Auctioned at Christie's
Larry Groebe writes "The most amazing unified collection of books, papers, and similar material on the history of computing is about to go on sale at Christie's auction house. Want a signed copy of 'Rossum's Universal Robots?' Original papers on the Eniac? Alan Turning's original proof of universal computability? Letters from Charles Babbage himself? It's in there, to anyone with (a whole lot of) money. Check out the estimated price on the 1974 journal article by Vinton Cerf describing IP addressing. It's increased in value in the past 30 years...just a bit."
Wanna see my authetic Vint Cerf letter from 1974?
Apparently the entire online catalog is Slashdotted.
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
The history of the history of recursion?
I hope they put these items in a museum where everyone can see them. Considering the ever-growing importance of the computer in the last half-century, I think papers like these should be part of an exhibit making the rounds across the globe. Smithsonian, perhaps?
"OH SHIT, THERE'S A HORSE IN THE HOSPITAL!"
If I were Bill Gates I'd shell out some money for that stuff.
Coral here
What are we going to do tonight Brain?
Wow. They really did spell it that way. All the souls I've led astray. No amount of Windows usage can atone for the misgrammaticalous advice I've given.
I will never RTFA again. Who knows what else I'll find out?
The message on the other side of this sig is false.
I have Charles Babbage's ego in a box somewhere. Should be worth a bit.
Evil people are out to get you.
The estimated bids for these items are ridiculously inflated. If they get 10% of what they are estimating they will be doing great.
Just kidding folks...no need to get your panties all in a bunch.
An Indian-American Hindu committed to non-violent thought/speech/action alarmed by the global explosion of radical Islam
Alan Turning, Alan Turing's little known revolutionary (pun intended) contemporary.
Brandon D. Valentine
Isn't it interesting that in an era when digitization and electronic archival are increasingly important, memorabilia such as this is so highly valued?
Where's that old C64 when I need a few hundred thousand... man, what people will pay for outdated tech!
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
What about the Pink Shirt book; the Devil book; the Dragon book; or the Red book, otherwise known as the ugly Red Book that won't fit on a shelf... Will these books also be auctioned off?
Signed,
Joey
Imagine it.
In this corner, hailing from the great state of Washington, weighing in at 160 lbs, the richest human being to ever walk the face of the planet, the man who could buy and sell my ass with his couch change, "Dollar" Bill Gates!
And in this corner, the dark horse challenger hailing from parts unknown, weighing in at a whopping 13 stone, sporting a dapper "Villain on a traintrack with a rope and damsel" beard, "BulletProof (TM)" Larry Ellison.
Of course, Bill bought the judges after the damn promoters ruined the sport....
Further more Susan, I wouldn't be the least bit surprised to learn that all four of them habitually smoked marijuana cig
+1+1+1+1+1+1+1,... Recursive
NetInfo connection failed for server 127.0.0.1/local
zero based index
Further more Susan, I wouldn't be the least bit surprised to learn that all four of them habitually smoked marijuana cig
Some people have more dollars than sense (say it out loud)
"I'd rather be a lightning rod than a seismometer." -Ken Kesey
...Which brings me to the annoyance factor. This collection is going to be scattered to the four winds. Looking at some of the pre-auction estimates, no one person, and very few institutions, will have the scratch that it would take to keep the collection together. Taken seperately, each of these items has a historical context, but taken together, they chart the idealistic, scientific, and technological foundations of the Internet.
Auctioning the library off in such a piecemeal fashion just seems wrong, IMNSHO.
Doing my level best to piss off the religious right wing...
Remember, 0 is NULL.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
Christie's site always runs more slowly than molasses in a North Dakota winter.
Doing my level best to piss off the religious right wing...
Go to the reply to the parent post that tells you where to find out.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
I bet Alan Turing is Turning pale.
These aren't the sigs you're looking for.
On the other hand, if they had Turing's, I would definitly fork over the cash.
I read that as compatibility. That would have helped my programming and explained his homosexuality all at once! (Not that I have anything against that.)
You can hold down the "B" button for continuous firing.
Why doesn't Paul Allen or Bill Gates cough up some $$$ to buy the entire collection and donate it to the Smithsonian? Somebody in the biz with the bucks needs to step up to the plate here..
ciao,
-X
This is where Bill Gates should step in and buy these things, thus preserving them for posterity.
It would be a shame if this collection is to be fragmented (although it is not by one author or decade) and sold to different people, and perhaps different countries.
Who else would be in the computer industry and have the money to buy all this. Unless it is Larry Ellison tried to one up Gates that is...
2bits.com, Inc: Drupal, WordPress, and LAMP performance tuning.
Check out the estimated price on the 1974 journal article by Vinton Cerf describing IP adressing.
Once again Gore is buying up evidence that disproves he invented the internet.
...it would be cool if it would be cool if it was there.
You can hold down the "B" button for continuous firing.
Actually his Evil Twin Paul Allen would be a better bet.
"Who are in control, they are not in control of anything - they don't even control themselves!" - Glen Beck
As he pointed out in his blog, there's nothing by Gibson in the entire catalog. Although not a "historical" document, it certainly is important when it comes to the history of computing as a major literary work. Sigh... like I could afford a first-edition signed Gollancz anyway ;)
Condemnant quod non intellegunt.
you can't return it if it's out of the shrinkwrap.
Duh.
-dameron
-dameron
I agree it's a shame this material will become scattered all around, but the thing that bothers me the most is that much of this stuff will end up in a bunch of different private collections. Stuff like this should be kept together in a safe place after making digital copies and publishing them on the internet to be shared with everybody.
"In prison you just have to shut your eyes and take it. Here you have to shut your eyes and give it."
...belong in a museum! *cracks Indy whip*
I've actually got a copy of this book floating around. It gives quite detailed descriptions of how many of the early machines worked. A very interesting read. I also have a copy of Coleridge's "Treatise on Method", which in a roundabout way was part of what inspired hypertext, or so I've read.
I can't believe how many people ahve mentioned that Bill Gates should step up and buy the whole lot. Not that I think this would be a bad thing, but It is great how many people think they know how he should spend his cash.
My undergraduate university is in possesion of the journal article's listed for sale--in their original journals of course. I wonder what other expensive articles I can go in and mark up with my highlighter ;)
NMG
The authorities hounded Turing into killing himself because everyone knows a gay geek can't be trusted. Outside of computer nerds not many people have even heard of him, let alone know what he did in WW2 or how he died.
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
with stock options?
I think if I was paying them 10 to 25% of the millions they collect, they could at least get a professional to build their web site.
The only other sites I know that are this slow are scammer sites.
It's Christie's, as in belonging to Christie. That would be James Christie. What did apostrophes ever do to you?
sometime in the 90s the DOD stopped giving hard copies of the rainbow books out to the public. i waited a few years after they stopped and sold mine on ebay for around 500.
sigh... this was in Wired two months ago.
more info can be found at the current owner's site.
Jeremy Logan's Website.
i have no connection w/ christies whatsoever. But i suggest buying the catalog if this interests you. I had a friend a few years back who lent me his catalog for a very comprehensive auction of Soviet space program stuff. Like full suits. 1:1 models of lunar landers. Some very cool stuff. The catalog was well put together, with lots of large images. Definitely worth the 30 bones.
why did i ever give it back to him?
"Our interests are to see if we can't scale it up to something more exciting," he said.
This stuff should really go into a museum and not into private collections. :-(
"...or the Red book, otherwise known as the ugly Red Book that won't fit on a shelf..."
He's referencing the movie 'Hackers.'
wouldn't it make sense to put it on ebay?
Get your torrents...
Interesting with that magnetic wire(lot no 244) there, seeing as there still are magnetic wire readers around(mostly audio, but one can adapt).
My dad actually have plans on how to build them in some old tech magazines from the 40's-50's. Those magazines are quite en interesting read, like the one focusing on THE ATOM. But I digress...
You could build your own wire reader using modern day hardware. Might be able to pick up the data. It is already known it's stored at 128 bits per inch according to the lot.
Question is if you'd really want to - after all you'd run the risk of lawsuits for revealing trade secrets!
It was tape, not wire. Well, the principle's still the same
There's no uncashed check in there for $2.56 from Dr. Knuth. I consider that a glaring omission.
"... but It is great how many people think they know how he should spend his cash."
Why should that be surprising? We know better than it's creator about how the fruits of one's efforts should be distributed. Here, let me demonstrate by downloading some copyrighted content, and distributing it to the world.
Being plain nosey I scratched around various blogs and the owners' site, but I don't see any rational explanation for this sale. If Jeremy has fallen on bad times and needs the cash I can forgive him, but this collection is a significant fraction of the sum total of human knowledge, and thus belongs to all mankind. Dispersing it to the four winds is usually the lot of soul-less deceased estate executors.
Gimme power!!!
Your head a splode
Not only that but they all came from a private collection as well. Stuff like this must move around all the time. It happens in the art world.
If you are lucky enough to be rich you too can preserve and enjoy a piece of history. It's part of being a responsible millionaire. Give it to the Smithsonian when you are dead and ready or pass it on like the seller is doing here.
I would love to look after a few these myself but the moths would probably like the taste too much. Better that it survives somewhere than nowhere.
But a dollar's a hundred sense!
All the docs should be scanned/ocrd and mad available for free on the net. To not do so would be highly ironic.
While for the nerdness factor of this set i would of course love to have them all. Since I am a Computer Science major intrerested in AI. They are indeed just books.
Anyways, I'm keeping all my Goosebumps incase there's a "Compilation of shitty horror short stories for children" auction anytime soon. Because hey, you never know...
OK, so now I have to thank slashdot for actually making my browsing profitable instead of just edifying. Browsing this catalog, I foundI actually have one of these items (no, I'm not telling you which). And I thought it was merely a neat piece of memorabilia, as opposed to something that might be of potential value. So I've had an Antiques Roadshow moment!
I've been following computing history items on eBay and ABE Books for years now, and I'm convinced that most of the electronic computing items won't go for a fraction of Christie's estimated price ranges.
There are a handful of truly rare items in there, but most of it is fairly common material with absurd prices.
"High Speed Computing Devices" by ERA with the "rare" paper covers. Puhleeze. I bought a copy through ABE for $20 maybe 3 years ago, and I got to choose from among several sellers. Christie's says it's worth $800-1200.
I don't know much about the autograph market but I remember hearing that Grace Hopper's autograph wasn't worth more than a hundred bucks or so. I doubt any of the other Giants are worth 10-100 times as much.
Also, lots of the items are REPRINTS of articles. Lot 211 a major "Von Neumann" paper that forms the foundation of computer architecture. Oh, by the way, it's really a decades-later reprint from DATAMATION, a trade rag, but never mind, Christies says it's worth $2-3K. A copy once sat in just about every DP manager's office in the country. Rare? Hardly.
I'd love to be wrong, though - it would mean that this junk I've collected over the past few decades is really worth a lot. But that would make it much harder to clean the trash out of my bookshelves.