The Living Computer Museum auction listing | Hacker News Reader

The Living Computer Museum auction listing

onlineonly.christies.com

35 pointsrrix220 comments

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...

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.

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.

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.

Oh, I wasn't aware of this, very cool. Thanks for sharing.

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

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

“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.

Unless she's sheltering that money under a family foundation and doling it back to themselves via directors' stipends, who's holding her to that promise?

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.

There is a CADR too.

I got work with a Xerox Star when I had a job at Western Union. It was wonderful. It took many years for Mac and Windows to catch up.

There's an Alto in another auction, starting in 24 days:

https://www.christies.com/en/lot/lot-6495042

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?

maybe no one knows what to do with it? This is the problem with collecting. it needs storage and time. Many people don't want to devote the time to having to run a museum. It's not a matter of cheapness.

In the case of LCM, it would have simply been a matter of employing the people who previously worked there. I don't blame anyone for not wanting to do it - that seems like a strange thing to do - but it is not a mystery what needed to be done.

I wouldn't want to speculate on what Paul Allen's sister would have asked for everything, or whether she's even someone who can be dealt with. But I do tend to think we're going to see these priceless historical artifacts go for pennies on the dollar. There's a lot that could be said about that, but certainly the work of the people who were employed at that museum was a great part of its value.

then they aren't priceless if that is what people are willing to pay? Storage imposes a cost. it's the white elephant problem.

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

What a shame

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.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CDC_6000_series#Versions

The 6500 was equivalent of 80M USD new when released.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com