[rescue] WTB: Good 'antique' computer for education

[Dave McGuire]

On July 26, sambo at charm.net wrote:
> >   Should you choose to go the VAX route, contact me privately...I can
> > help you obtain a useful machine for minimal cash outlay.
> 
> Hi. Welcome back. Glad to see you couldn't stay away.

  Well, some people can be very convincing. ;)

> I wonder if that offer would be open to others as well? I'd love to get
> my hands on a VAX for almost exactly the smae reasons (my own education,
> not my wife's). There's a shop near me with two of them (VAXStation
> 3000, I think), but the guy wants ~$150 each, which seems horribly
> unreasonable to me. He says he doesn't care if he sells 'em or not. He
> seems to think he'll get his price from someone for "collector value".

  And he might do just that.  One never knows.

  I have a large number of VAX systems of various models here.  I don't
want to get rid of all of them, but I would like to find new homes for
some of them.  Practically speaking, there's just very little I can do
with EIGHT VAXstation-3100/m38 boxes.

  But even worse, I have upwards of THIRTY DECstation-3100 boxes.  And a
few DECstation-5000s.  I would like to find new homes for the majority
of them.  For the uninitiated, they are early MIPS R2000/R3000 based
RISC workstations.  The run Ultrix or NetBSD quite well, and make
decent light-duty servers (running headless) or somewhat usable
workstations with a bitmapped console.

  There is also a VAX8700 here that I'd like to find a new home for.
This is a BIG machine (~1800 lbs) so don't ask if you're not serious.

  I'm quite aware that the resale value of this type of equipment is
very low nowadays.  For those who are listening, this very effectively
teaches us the difference between "worthless" and "useless".
Therefore I would ask for very little, if any, real money in return
for any of this hardware.  Trades are always a good idea.  My "wants"
list can be found at http://www.neurotica.com/wants.html.

  One thing that I will insist upon, though, is that any equipment you
get from me will not get scrapped.  If it winds up sitting around
collecting dust, give it to someone who will use it, or send it back
to me.  Don't throw it in the trash.  The trash is for old coffee
cups, cheeseburger wrappers, and catbox skimmings...not computer
hardware.


               -Dave McGuire