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The Living Computer Museum auction listing

by rrix2 on 8/17/24, 4:41 PM with 20 comments

• by aworks on 8/17/24, 6:26 PM

  A card processor for sale leads me to this comment:

  "Finally, many customers found plugboard programming easier than programming with code, both because they were more familiar with it and because it is visual and direct."

  https://onlineonly.christies.com/s/firsts-history-computing-... https://www.righto.com/2022/04/reverse-engineering-mysteriou...

• by ThinkBeat on 8/17/24, 6:39 PM

  It would have been appropriate for another wealthy person to just buy the museum out entirely / pay the ones closing it down / and reopen it.

  Preferably then donated the entire collection to some non-profit or whatever other way to organize. and include some clause that selling them off is not possible.

  That person being Gates would have made sense. But obviously this did not happen.

  As philanthropy.

• by Mistletoe on 8/17/24, 5:21 PM

  https://www.geekwire.com/2024/fans-upset-by-closure-of-livin... why-seattle-museum-couldnt-be-saved/

  Background for others that may not know. I don't understand Jody Allen's motivations here.

• by rrix2 on 8/17/24, 4:42 PM

  Most of their functional unix machines ended up with https://icm.museum/ but there's some cool stuff in these auctions that will hopefully be put on display or managed by a group who can keep them running rather than warehoused.

• by ChrisArchitect on 8/17/24, 7:00 PM

  Saw this a few days ago, made me sad :(

  Discussion about the closure: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40789179

• by geor9e on 8/17/24, 6:21 PM

  “The Living Computer Museum also fulfills my hope that the achievements of early computer engineers aren’t lost to time.” - Paul Allen

  "Allen’s wishes were for his considerable assets to be sold off and for the proceeds to go to charity." - Jody Allen, Paul's sister and manager of his estate

  That makes no sense Jody.

• by paulpauper on 8/17/24, 5:57 PM

  XEROX STAR 1108 PERSONAL COMPUTER8

  does it work? If only I kept my old computers they would have retained their value , and then some . who could have guessed that old computers would be a good investment

  Of course the Apple 1 is reallly expensive.

  A working Alto would be amazing.

• by sterlind on 8/17/24, 5:43 PM

  This is incredibly depressing. Such a priceless collection of unique computing artifacts, many the last examples of their kind. And at the LCM the public could reach out and touch them, play games on them, explore them!

  And now the collection is parceled off and scattered six ways to Sunday, so an heiress can add a few million to her inheritance of billions, presumably.

  How many of these will languish and fall to neglect? And why the fuck did none of the rich tech bros buy out the museum to keep it open? What will become of that CDC 6500?

• by brianjking on 8/17/24, 6:03 PM

  Such a shame, it was easily one of the coolest experiences of my life.

• by rsingel on 8/17/24, 5:03 PM

  What a shame

• by creeble on 8/17/24, 7:16 PM

  Yeah, I don't know who labelled a CDC 6500 a "supercomputer".

  My first college course used a 6600, and there was nothing "super" about it, except the time you waited for your job to run.