Slashdot Mirror
Librarians Fighting to Save Moore's Law Issue
wambaugh writes "As
reported earlier, Intel is offering $10,000 for a copy of the April 19, 1965 issue of Electronics containing Moore's original article predicting
'Moore's Law.' Now it is
being reported that
academic science libraries are having to
make sure no go-getters make off with their copies. At least one
copy is
already missing from the University of Illinois. Too bad Intel won't settle for a pdf."
Lo and behold... brothers of Slashdot; here is an Ebay auction with an alleged copy of the Electronics mag from 1965, that (purportedly) did not come from a library.
My grand-pappy used to say, "if it looks too good to be true, it is." I'm guessing that Intel's prerequisite about having an intact magazine will put this auction out of the running for the $10k prize, as the pages are all put in anti-acid sleeves, according to the seller.
Not sure if it's legit but if Intel wants to save a buck or two they might call an emergency meeting and head over to buy it. Unless this auction is a hoax. Caveat Emptor sirrahs...
The dangers of knowledge trigger emotional distress in human beings.
of being a few blocks from Grainger (the library from which the U of I copy was stolen). I spend quite a good deal of time there, it's really unfortunate.
All your Sybase are belong to us.
If the MIT stamp and the Harvard stamp aren't on the same page, then both issues could be disassembled to form a complete stampless issue.
As a fellow Illini I understand the feeling, and I have an especially strong feeling on this particular issue. As it happens, after reading about the Moore's law article on Slashdot I popped into the library on one of my regular trips, actually found the book and read through it (though I didn't walk off with it!). Part of me wanted to take it down to the desk and suggest that it be kept under lock and key for a few weeks, but for some reason I didn't act on that instinct, and boy do I feel dumb. The next day it walked away =(
That is a good theory and entirely reasonable.
What bothers me is that $10K is nothing ( an accounting rounding error ) for Intel and thus they should have exercised some intelligence in honour of Moores Law and Intel engineering traditions.
They should have "thought" a little bit and done something worthwhile for the world instead of sending money crazed loons after an old magazine.
Hopefully, please, Intel did not do this simply to save marketting budget. I would like to think that a company with such a long and successful history could do better than this sort of nonesense.
Dennis at Blastwave.org
http://www.blastwave.org/
An OpenSolaris Community Site
I know what you mean everyone is out there for a quick dollar
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Having worked extensively in the UIUC library system while I was a student there, I have to say, chances are just as likely this copy is filed next to "Dr. Hibbert's Guide to Good Horse Nutrition" in the veterinary library on the other side of campus.
Never ascribe to malice that which is adequately explained by incompetence. Especially when a state beaurocracy is involved.
My mum works at the CSU Mitchell (Bathurst) library. Just recently they caught some nutter that was cutting sections out of books. I think he was cutting out sections on poisonous animals, dunno why. The police searched his place and found lots of other pages he'd also cut out. The library workers didn't know about all of the books he'd attacked. I don't know if they're still working on these books, but my mum was saying it would take a long time to find which books the pages came from and sort out the different copies. That's right, many of the pages were from nursing textbooks, of which they have multiple copies and this nutter felt compelled to attack all of them. He might have also attacked books at the local city library. It's amazing how much of a problem can be created by a mentally-disturbed individual with a craft knife.
A similar situation happened recently in the University of Toronto library. A fellow who lives only blocks from the library heard about the "reward" and remembering that the library had a copy he went to check it out. It was in perfect shape. So he informed the library staff about what was happening.
The library contacted Intel and told them they had a copy, and the condition of said copy. Intel asked them if they would be willing to sell, and the library said no, but they would certainly be willing to loan them their copy if they were interested.
A reporter asked the library why they wouldn't sell. "Ten thousand dollars can buy a lot of books" they said. The library curator politely told the reporter that if they did that then members of the community wouldn't be able to enjoy this particular magazine anymore, and that they weren't in the business of selling books, they were in the business of buying books and making them available to the public.