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Comment by wrs | Hacker News Reader

This reminds me of the fantastic Connections Museum in Seattle [0] that maintains historical telephone switching equipment in (mostly) working condition with an all-volunteer staff. When I first visited, I was surprised to see that all the volunteers were about half the age I expected! You can see some of them on the YouTube channel [1].

[0] https://www.telcomhistory.org/connections-museum-seattle/

[1] https://youtube.com/@ConnectionsMuseum

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Whenever I see this my joy is tempered by mourning for the loss of the living computer museum to accountants eating at the corpse of Paul Allen.

The living computer museum was a great place to visit, but it is not the accounts eating away. It is his sister.

I’m with you! It was my dream to retire and become one of the old guys in lab coats repairing stuff at Living Computers. Maybe they’ll get that sorted out and I’ll still get a chance.

Not likely. As mentioned in a parallel comment it’s partially that Jody Allen, his sister, doesn’t value the geek culture in the least and partially that the owner, Vulcan, is run by MBA accountants that are finally unshackled by their eccentric nerd funder. Between them they’re seeking to put the nerd passions of Allen to death and focus squarely on playing money managers. There appears to be little respecting of his legacy or wishes in his estate management and a lot of avarice.

This has been an unexpected and enjoyable rabbit hole for me. Thanks for posting.

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