Private Collector Builds Apple Pop-Up Museum

David Greelish, Founder of the Atlanta Historical Computing Society, has taken it upon himself to "tell the story of Apple.” Greelish partnered with Lonnie Mimms, a local computer collector, with a museum-quality exhibit dubbed the "Apple Pop-Up Museum." From the article: "...Mimms wanted to focus specifically on Apple—partly because of Steve Jobs' recent passing, but also because of Apple's 'overwhelming success and stardom.' And so the two teamed together to create the Apple Pop-Up Museum, which will be part of the Vintage Computer Festival Southeast 1.0 when it opens in Atlanta on April 20 and 21, 2013. In a twist of historical fate, the show will be held in an old CompUSA store, with 6,000 feet of the CompUSA regional corporate offices being used for the Apple Pop-Up museum. '[Mimms] and his staff are literally building a museum within the separate rooms,' Greelish told Ars."

Comments

Pay to look at Apple stuff?

[tumutbound]

Historical or not, who is going to pay $15 to look at a bunch on old Apple computers?

Re:Pay to look at Apple stuff?

[sixminuteabs]

I can start with all of the jackasses who have the stickers on their rear windshield. After that, the dumbasses who wait in line for more than 24 hours to get the iphone 4s. Add anyone ever stupid enough to pay $100 for MobileMe service. This guy is going to make a fortune.

Re:Pay to look at Apple stuff?

[Sponge Bath]

Did someone owning an Apple product hurt you? You are displaying a bizarre obsession.

Re:Pay to look at Apple stuff?

[jedidiah]

It's 2013. Standing in line for days for some consumer product that you can have shipped to your door the moment it's available is just retarded. It's like some kind of throwback to the 70s.

It's pretty much the opposite of the trendiness that Apple is trying to sell.

Re:Pay to look at Apple stuff?

[slashmydots]

And don't forget paying to be lied to. My museum would be just as biased, just in a more realistic direction, towards all their hundreds of law suits they lost, law violations, unfair practices, unfair pricing, bad staff, bad support, bad design, illegal design and materials, horrible product flops, monopoly abuse, and how impossible to work with Steve Jobs was and how much other employees hated him. Oh and don't forget his 25 year long obsession with not putting fans into things which caused horrible overheating problems in numerous devices. That's ACTUAL reality for an ACTUAL museum. I have a feeling this particular museum might leave that out.

Re: Pay to look at Apple stuff?

[Anonymous Coward]

This is a museum about Apple, not Microsoft. I think you've got the wrong memo.

Re:Pay to look at Apple stuff?

[Anonymous Coward]

I think your list is in reverse order, as each group of people is most likely a subset of the prior group, and I would expect would be more likely than the prior group to pay to visit such a museum.

Re:Pay to look at Apple stuff?

[Golddess]

Standing in line for days for some consumer product that you can have shipped to your door the moment it's available is just retarded.

Maybe I misunderstand something, but I thought it wouldn't be shipped the moment it's released. That due to the volume of pre-orders, it could several weeks before the person gets their shiney if they were to order online vs waiting out in the cold rain.

Now whether the shortage is an actual shortage, or a manufactured shortage, I don't know.

Re: Pay to look at Apple stuff?

[Anonymous Coward]

All of my wat.

Re:Pay to look at Apple stuff?

[Runaway1956]

Actually, standing in line, even camping out overnight, was retarded in the '70's. Maybe if you're starving, and you're waiting to get into a soup kitchen, then it might be justified.

Re:Pay to look at Apple stuff?

[Anonymous Coward]

Did someone owning an Apple product hurt you? You are displaying a bizarre obsession.

Obsession? He is making a comment, not starting a museum. There is a *lot* of computing equipment that came before apple, much much better than apple. Don't get me wrong, its not bad, its just ---humdrum. They have done very little to progress the art of computing. They *have* progressed the art of the user interface, that is, they have dumbed it down so much that (and this *has* been tested), even a chimpanzee can operate one of their units. Its a natural progression: kids that grew up with 'Speak and Spell', have a grown up version. Nothing complicated, nothing technical, ..but thats all you get too, nothing complicated, nothing technical. Big bold shiny primary colors that keep the user playing and fascinated all day long. They have been moving from keyboards and mice (input device) to 'just point and click', which means its primarily an output device. At some point in the progression, you will have a very user friendly, extremely expensive T.V. set.

Re:Pay to look at Apple stuff?

[Anonymous Coward]

I wanna see the end of the tour where Steve Jobs pops up from a casket, head spinning, puking green goop and chanting f**k me! f**k me! f**k me!

Re:Pay to look at Apple stuff?

[Anonymous Coward]

Sounds like someone was jealous they weren't able to get tickets to [INSERT FAVORITE ROCK GROUP HERE]. :P

Re:Pay to look at Apple stuff?

[Anonymous Coward]

Nothing technical? You do realize that OSX is Unix right? With a fully functional shell and the ability to do just about everything that entails including compiling your own binaries, etc.

Re:Pay to look at Apple stuff?

[AmiMoJo]

You get to hang out with the other hipsters. It's mutual masturbation.

Re:Pay to look at Apple stuff?

[Anonymous Coward]

It would at least be cool if they displayed both the production price and the retail price for those devices.
The difference between those numbers is the actual success story behind apple.

Re:Pay to look at Apple stuff?

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah, I dropped an old iMac on his foot once.

Yay consumerism!

[Anonymous Coward]

They should open up store dedicated for Walmart too, after all they've been doing stellar job to suck up all the small retailers.

Don't say "Apple"

[Impy the Impiuos Imp]

"After a ceast-and-decist letter, they renamed it the Jackasses Popup Museum."

Literally!

[Anonymous Coward]

It's a good thing the author made it clear that they were building a museum in the literal sense of the phrase. Otherwise, I might have needed to look at the context of the article about museum building to determine that 'museum building' in this case was not the oft-used figurative sense of 'museum building'.

popup?

[anagama]

What the hell is a popup museum. It could have been explained in the summary.

Re:popup?

[i kan reed]

Every visitor is their 1 millionth visitor. They just have to click here to claim their prize.

Re:popup?

[Anonymous Coward]

It's a museum of all the User Agreements that poup when you install Apple software. Duh.....

Re:popup?

[pdabbadabba]

Well, I know that a "pop-up store" is, roughly, a very small, temporary, and in some sense "unofficial" (or, unofficial seeming) store where a limited selection of merchandise is sold out of a space not normally used for the purpose. I assume a pop-up museum is analogous.

Re:popup?

[Anonymous Coward]

So it's a bit like a mom-and-pop store, except that... ohnevermind.

That's still somewhat better than a gallery of dialog boxes and error messages, which was my first thought...

Re:popup?

[nathan.fulton]

pop-ups as in http://www.artinfo.com/news/story/802841/pop-up-populism-how-the-temporary-architecture-craze-is-changing-our-relationship-to-the-built-environment

Re:popup?

[Fallingcow]

I really did think it was a museum of UI pop-up notifications and dialogs when I saw the headline.

Which was way more interesting than what it turned out to be.

Re:popup?

[Anonymous Coward]

WINNER!

Re:popup?

[jedidiah]

In museum terms, that sort of thing would be a traveling exhibit. It's something that would reside in different real museums like the Da Vinci tech museum in Milan.

Re:popup?

[SeaFox]

I did, too.
Which sounded kinda dumb at first but a roving computer collection also sounds lame.

I think the story of Apple being told as a very long open-face pop-up-book would be better. Lots of cardboard stand-up recreations of important Apple events and scale model buildings.

Re:popup?

[tlhIngan]

Well, I know that a "pop-up store" is, roughly, a very small, temporary, and in some sense "unofficial" (or, unofficial seeming) store where a limited selection of merchandise is sold out of a space not normally used for the purpose. I assume a pop-up museum is analogous.

More genreally speaking, a pop-up store is an extremely temporary store. Not like say, your calendar kiosk that's only there 3 months of the year temporary, but REALLY temporary - the longest they're around is a week, more commonly, 2-4 days.

They do occupy storefronts that are otherwise empty so they can be selling from what was a store.

They are often run by the affiliated companies wanting to "break in" or do some exclusive thing (e.g., sell their goods in a new market). Usually only good for clothing stores by exclusive brands - they can attract huge crowds are basically are only published on social networks and such. Miss it and it's gone.

Likewise, a pop-up museum would be similar - something that's done extremely temporarily.

Yay for reading media that diversifies interest - deadtree newspapers (I only know because the headline and photo looked interesting. I wouldn't have clicked it online, but since it was there on the page...).

Website

[Dan East]

The Apple Popup Museum website does not load correctly on an Apple iPad. Mildly ironic.

Re:Website

[Anonymous Coward]

You will have to disable the popup museum blocker.

Re:Website

[Anonymous Coward]

You're holding it wrong!

Does it include?

[wbr1]

A hipster popping wood anytime a new iDevice is rumored to be in the works?

Re:Does it include?

[Anonymous Coward]

Slashdot, where nerds strut around being smug and hip by blaming the users of Apple products of being smug and hip.

Pop-up museum def

[Anonymous Coward]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Museum#Pop-up_museums

Re:Pop-up museum def

[PPH]

Thanks. I was wondering who would be interested in seeing a bunch of message boxes with little Mac smiley faces or pictures of bombs.

Wow!

[macbeth66]

I've got some toast with the image of Steve Jobs on it.

Yes because there was no Altair

[sl4shd0rk]

People seem to think personal microcomputing started wtih Jobs, Wozniak and Apple and want to adorn history with misinformation. Yeah, the old Apples were pretty revolutaionary however The Home Brew Computer Club[1] was where it all started. With the Altair 88[0] and many other people besides Jobs and Wozniak.

[0] - http://www.techrepublic.com/photos/inside-the-altair-8800-vintage-computer/1453?seq=15
[1] - http://www.silicon-valley-story.de/sv/pc_homebrew.html

Re:Yes because there was no Altair

[Anonymous Coward]

People seem to think personal microcomputing started wtih Jobs, Wozniak and Apple and want to adorn history with misinformation. Yeah, the old Apples were pretty revolutaionary however The Home Brew Computer Club[1] was where it all started. With the Altair 88[0] and many other people besides Jobs and Wozniak.

[0] - http://www.techrepublic.com/photos/inside-the-altair-8800-vintage-computer/1453?seq=15
[1] - http://www.silicon-valley-story.de/sv/pc_homebrew.html

The Altair was a kit, not a complete PC; they mostly selected components that hobbyists could already buy and assemble...and sold them to hobbyists to assemble.

The Apple II (the Apple I was also a kit) was a finished product that regular people could buy. Of course, it beat the Commodore and other early PCs to market by a matter of months, essentially no time at all.

A better counterexample would be the IBM 5100 (complicated by the fact that it cost more than the average house at the time, so it wasn't really personal.) Or possibly the HP 9100A, which would have been the first personal computer except for the fact that they called it a "calculator" for marketing reasons.

Re:Yes because there was no Altair

[Anonymous Coward]

Apple fan boys always add conditions favorable to Apple in regards to what constitutes innovation. In this case, someone has suggested that the Altair was the first personal computer (before Apple), and, predictably, a fan boy has attempted to dismiss this suggestion, by claiming that the Altair was a kit. I don't know whether the Altair was always sold as a kit of if one could also get it pre-assembled, but regardless, it was still a personal computer that predated Apple.

Furthermore, as an earlier post claimed, there were other players besides Apple and Altair -- many of them. Here is an ad for the IMSAI 8080 which was released in 1975 (the year before Apple Computer formed): http://bluefaqs.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/Imsai-8080.jpg Note that in the ad, it calls the machine a "personal computer." The IMSAI 8080 came both in kits and pre-assembled. Again, this decidedly "personal" computer could be bought fully assembled in the year prior to Apple Computer's start as a company. More info on the IMSAI 8080 is here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IMSAI_8080

And, again, there were plenty of other players.

However, one can go back much further to find an earlier personal computer that came both in kits and pre-assembled -- the retail Heathkit EC-1 was launched in 1960: http://www.oldcomputermuseum.com/heathkit_ec1.html

In addition, Apple fanboys will be disappointed to learn the truth that there were plenty of other manufacturers selling their GUI machines, in the period between the Xerox Alto and the Apple Lisa (Apple's first GUI).

Really, the 1973 Xerox Alto was the prototype for the personal computer as we know it today, regardless of its price or marketing.

Re:Yes because there was no Altair

[AmiMoJo]

This happens all the time. The first computer was British, the first guy to fly faster than sound in level flight was a German in the 1940s. If you do something first you need a good PR agent or someone else will duplicate it, and not necessarily with any malice, claim credit.

Re:Yes because there was no Altair

[tlhIngan]

People seem to think personal microcomputing started wtih Jobs, Wozniak and Apple and want to adorn history with misinformation. Yeah, the old Apples were pretty revolutaionary however The Home Brew Computer Club[1] was where it all started. With the Altair 88[0] and many other people besides Jobs and Wozniak.

It depends how you define personal computing. You're correct if you're referring to a computer people can own. If you want to talk about computers that are, well, computers with keyboards and screens rather than something you attach a terminal to, Woz pretty much invented that. The Apple 1 is basically a computer mashed together with a terminal, resulting in an integrated unit (the Apple 1 started as a headless computer that Woz was playing around with, but he then realized regular people wanted a keyboard and screen, not to plug it into another box). The Apple II refined it to have the screen and keyboard integrated into its design, and not as a tacked on addition.

Woz basically created the interface that lets a computer hook to a TV directly (not completely new as Ralph Baer did it with the brown box, but Woz did it with a proper character generator and everything).

Can it bring jobs back to ex-CompUSA employees?

[damn_registrars]

At lot of people worked in those buildings and got the shaft when the company collapsed under the weight of its own corporate stupidity. We shouldn't be celebrating someone making use of the buildings if they aren't doing anything to help the retail slaves find work.

Re:Can it bring jobs back to ex-CompUSA employees?

[Anonymous Coward]

Hey, you win some, you lose some. Deal with it. CompUSA (in its original form) died at least four years ago. The "retail slaves" have had those four years to find a new job, a task which shouldn't be hard, given your dismissive labeling of them. It is NOT the responsibility of anybody using any property once touched by CompUSA to pay tribute to ex-employees until the end of time. What, are you assuming the offices are haunted by the ghosts of "retail slaves", except they're alive and just lazy? Funny, I thought we lived in the MODERN world...

Re:Can it bring jobs back to ex-CompUSA employees?

[tgd]

At lot of people worked in those buildings and got the shaft when the company collapsed under the weight of its own corporate stupidity. We shouldn't be celebrating someone making use of the buildings if they aren't doing anything to help the retail slaves find work.

A corporation is the sum of its employees... and their failure wasn't just executive stupidity.

Re:Can it bring jobs back to ex-CompUSA employees?

[damn_registrars]

At lot of people worked in those buildings and got the shaft when the company collapsed under the weight of its own corporate stupidity. We shouldn't be celebrating someone making use of the buildings if they aren't doing anything to help the retail slaves find work.

A corporation is the sum of its employees... and their failure wasn't just executive stupidity.

I worked at CompUSA for quite some time back when they were doing well as a company (before they were bought out by Carlos Slim). I can tell you that the hands of myself and other retail slaves in that company were shackled by stupidity from middle and upper management (to be fair, our store managers were actually quite good but they were also restrained by cluelessness from district and corporate). The employees worked hard and still faced the consequences of those up above who seldom - if ever - entered actual stores. To make matters worse, one year after posting the 3rd or 4th consecutive year with record numbers for our region, our managers asked their superiors where their annual bonuses were for that year - they were told "you get to keep your jobs".

So in the case of CompUSA, the failure of the chain belongs to the executives. They restrained the people who were doing actual work and took the whole damned thing down in doing so.

Re:Can it bring jobs back to ex-CompUSA employees?

[Anonymous Coward]

So what's your point? You're seriously still bitter four years later? You haven't found a different job in all that time? You want fucking shrines built on the sites of every old CompUSA store and office to preserve the memory of Yet Another Store Screwed By Management? What, are all the former Crazy Eddies now historical monuments? That was another electronics retailer that collapsed due to management and ownership doing stupid shit.

If that's not what you're after, then what IS your point? Has your mind just been locked in that time and you've never gotten over it? Do you seriously dedicate that much of your life to re-living that fateful day when you no longer had a single particular retail slave job? Get over it. A company died four years ago. Its effect on the world was minimal, as it had strong competition and didn't do much unique and new. The world has no obligation to care about this old, defunct company. Someone's going to take over that property sometime.

Re:Can it bring jobs back to ex-CompUSA employees?

[MrTester]

Wow. Im thinking you dont have much real world experience. Either that or your just not paying attention.
It doesnt matter how talented your workforce is if management is bound and determined to ignore their skills.

Re:Can it bring jobs back to ex-CompUSA employees?

[damn_registrars]

If that's not what you're after, then what IS your point?

My point is that there were jobs there, and now there are none. There were hardworking and smart employees there, and they lost their jobs because of their inept corporate overlords. The retail slaves busted their asses and were given pinkslips in return. The corporate bigwigs ruined a company and took big bonuses in return.

Do you seriously dedicate that much of your life to re-living that fateful day when you no longer had a single particular retail slave job?

No. I left the company before it was bought out by Carlos Slim. Even at that time it was clear that corporate management was utterly clueless and didn't give a shit.

Its effect on the world was minimal, as it had strong competition and didn't do much unique and new.

At the time, it had strong competition. Now a lot of areas have only Best Buy.

The world has no obligation to care about this old, defunct company.

I never said the world had any obligation to it. Similarly if you are struck by a bus tonight the world owes you nothing for that as well. That doesn't mean it doesn't effect anyone, however.

Someone's going to take over that property sometime.

Or they will tear it down and make a parking lot. The chances of there being as many jobs in that spot as there were when it was CompUSA is not great.

Re:Can it bring jobs back to ex-CompUSA employees?

[anagama]

I remember my first and last experience at CommyUSA as I named it -- some bastard at the door asking to check my bag against my receipt. I asked him if he had a reasonably articulable suspicion that I was shoplifting. He said no. So I said "no you can't check my bag."

Never went back. Glad they died. This same policy is why I WorstBuy has lost thousands of dollars in sales it could have made to me, and I learned a little patience to boot in waiting for my NewEgg packages.

WHAT A LOSER

[Anonymous Coward]

nuff said...

Added attraction

[Anonymous Coward]

I hear that Saint Steve may provide a visitation on Sundays.

Call it what it is

[Anonymous Coward]

a Temporary Exhibit. Screw this "Popup Museum" hipster wank.

What's with the veneration

[wiredlogic]

Jobs had a massive personality disorder and treated most people like shit. He made it to the top because we have a society that rewards narcissists. For this he deserves to have the history books rewritten to paint him as a saint?

Re:What's with the veneration

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes, all hail RMS.

Re:What's with the veneration

[Anonymous Coward]

Jobs had a massive personality disorder and treated most people like shit.

Sounds just like a lot of Slashdotters.

Re:What's with the veneration

[Anonymous Coward]

Isn't that the norm? Gates is going to die a saint, too, despite going to his grave just as much of an asshole as he was 20 years ago.

Re:What's with the veneration

[Anonymous Coward]

Jobs had a massive personality disorder and treated most people like shit. He made it to the top because we have a society that rewards narcissists. For this he deserves to have the history books rewritten to paint him as a saint?

Well, yes. Obviously, by your own statement, we have a society and culture that rewards narcissists. History books are written by the cultures that "win". Therefore, it makes perfect sense that our history books will paint a selfish narcissistic prick as a saint. You answered your own question.

Re:What's with the veneration

[Anonymous Coward]

Jobs had a massive personality disorder and treated most people like shit. He made it to the top because we have a society that rewards narcissists. For this he deserves to have the history books rewritten to paint him as a saint?

Please cite the history books (re)written to cast him as a saint.

I am perfectly happy with admiring someone's achievements despite being aware of their flaws. RMS has the social skills of a porcupine that's just been sprayed by a skunk, but he's still a masterful programmer and a passionate defender of freedom.

Re:What's with the veneration

[Nemyst]

Success elicits veneration.

Re:What's with the veneration

[SeaFox]

Historically the history of the world is written by the victors of wars between nations.

Bucking the trend

[Anonymous Coward]

Of comments about Apple on ./

I would pay to see the exhibit if it was close enough to me. I won't travel to Atlanta for the privilege, but...

Credit where due- Apple has had a big impact on personal computing and a lot of it has been pretty good. They did, in fact, help get personal computers to the masses and continue to have an impact today, although nowadays most of their impact is detrimental.

I would never BUY one, mind you, and I would much rather run one of the other BSDs than Apple's messed up version, but as a part of personal computing history they are pretty huge.

Of course the museum would be much better if they show a more complete history- the innovators and then the folks who took the innovations and marketed them successfully.

In true Apple fashion

[Anonymous Coward]

He will now be suing every other museum for copying him.

hackers vs (wannabe) happy shiny people

[Thud457]

Apple II : Woz :: Macintosh : Jobs

More SOMA please!

any manager like that should be gutted

[Thud457]

they were told "you get to keep your jobs".

There isn't a surer sign that a job isn't worth keeping.

It's just a matter of minutes...

[lsolano]

...before the first stupid apple fanboy will take his/her tent to be the fist in line to visit that museum.

Re: Can it bring jobs back to ex-CompUSA employees

[JSquare79]

They have built shrines at most of the old CompUSA stores here in Atlanta. They call them "Total Wine." I feel they make a much better use of the space.

It's More than an Apple Museum

[antispam_ben]

He's got a LOT of old computers, not just Apples, including TWO (Qty 2) Cray 1 computers! I think I'd rather see one of those operating than all the rest of his stuff, including his two Apple 1's. Check out this interview from a few months back:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Fu5wcgWdJQI

Also, this popup museum is only PART (though it's looking like the biggest part) of the Vintage Computer Festival Southeast 1.0 (hope I got that name right). There will be plenty of classic computers with no connection to Apple, some of it predating the Apple 1.