Welcome to the Goodwill Computer Museum (Video)

Goodwill Industries rehabs computers and sells computer parts, at least in Austin, Texas. The Goodwill Computer Museum is a natural outgrowth of that effort. In this video, museum curator Lisa Worley takes Slashdot's Timothy Lord on a tour of the museum. Remember that TRS-80 you threw away in 1982? Well, they saved several of them to stimulate your nostalgia-based pleasure nodules. Ditto many other devices both common and rare, including a pre-Dell computer made and signed by Texas computer celebrity Michael Dell. So sit back and enjoy the ride, as Timothy does the walking and Lisa does the talking, kind of like Night at the Museum -- but without CGI dinosaurs and other life forms getting between you and the classic computers.

Comments

Gave up

[mypalmike]

The pre-video ad was like 3 hours long so I gave up.

Weird Location

[dodgerfan]

I visited there last year when I was in Austin for Formula 1. We happened to stumble upon the location as it's located in a strip mall right next to a Wal-Mart. The museum is pretty cool and has some neat stuff. If you are in the area it's definitely worth a look. There is also a great Goodwill computer store right next door with parts for older stuff (Mostly Dell, of course).

Re:Remember that TRS-80 you threw away in 1982?

[n1ywb]

The problem with old computers is power consumption. A newer Atom or ARM will do the same job at 2 watts that a clunky old PC would consume 200 for. $0.15/kwh * 200 watts * 24 hours * 365 days = $262.8. That'll buy a lot of RaspberryPIs and their power consumption is practically negligable. The other problem is they're big. If you only run it infrequently and real estate is not an issue then whatever, might as well keep the old one.