David Schmenk wrote:
> Michael J. Mahon wrote:
>> Warren Ernst wrote:
>>> On Feb 6, 8:14 am, BLuRry  wrote:
>>>> On Feb 6, 9:51 am, sicklittlemonkey
 wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> On Feb 6, 1:57 pm, BLuRry
 wrote:
>>>>>> Let me know if you have a //c+ in the pile you're
looking to 
>>>>>> off-load,
>>>>>> pretty please!  :-)
>>>>> You're hoping airport security will be less suspicious
of the guy
>>>>> booked into seat "2e" if his laptop isn't
bundled with a giant brick
>>>>> on a leash, right? ;-)
>>>>> Cheers,
>>>>> Nick.
>>>> Yeah, pretty much.  Actually, if I had a //c+ then I could
cram extra
>>>> goodies in the case.  The memory expansion port, for
example, would be
>>>> very handy for some fun on-the-road tinkering.  Something along the
>>>> lines of what AGS does to hack RWTS for DOS 3.3 compatibility, for
>>>> example.  :-)
>>>>
>>>> -B
>>>
>>> Something tells me our little group could keep ourselves supplied with
>>> motherboards, monitors, drives, and cases for another decade if we
>>> could just get our act together and pool our resources with this
>>> outfit.
>>>
>>> Any thoughts on the subject?
>>
>> A very interesting idea, Warren.
>>
>> It requires more than a little organization and commitment to make it
>> happen and keep it going, but I like the idea of a warehouse with
>> low-humidity, moderate temperature long-term storage of Apple II
>> gear, maintained by and available to the Apple II community.
>>
>> In fact, stocking it would never be a problem.  The problem would
>> be organizing it and keeping it operating.
>>
>> It would solve a major problem for me, since despite my best efforts
>> I don't expect to live forever, and would relish the idea of my trove
>> becoming available to those who could appreciate it and put it to use.
>>
>> I'll bet I'm one of many, and there will be many tons of Apple gear that
>> will be looking for a "home" in the years to come--an
"A2 Central" like
>> this could be a great solution!
>>
>> I can envision an Apple II "Mecca" in the desert, with
permanent staff,
>> visiting researchers, and both sales and a lending library for Apple II
>> equipment.
>>
>> Funding and staffing then become the issues.
>>
> 
> When talking with the man leading me through Computer Corps warehouse, 
> he mentioned a museum of sorts that they hoped to build some day.  Not 
> just Apple II related, either.  However, it is pretty hard to envision 
> who or what would pay for this.  It's not like the Nevada State Train 
> Museum - the 70's and 80's don't cut it as the heyday of Nevada. 
> Something like the Computer History Museum in Mountain View probably is 
> the best bet, long term.

The problem with "museums" is that they have a much different agenda
that is not very "user"-friendly.

As a member of the CHM, I really appreciate what they do to preserve
the artifacts and "thread" of the past, but, understandably, they are
quite general in their coverage, with no real areas of specialization.

I also know of several attempts to establish collections of "general"
microcomputer hardware and software, and, in my opinion, the result is
always much too diffuse to support any real experimentation with the
hardware and software.

Put another way, microcomputers were rather specialized environments
in the days prior to the PC/Mac standardization, and it is rare that
any particular person would be passionate and expert in very many of
them.  I expect that *most* Apple II devotees are primarily interested
in Apple II's, and are not deeply interested in other platforms.

A good collection of any one platform, certainly of one as prolific as
the Apple II, would be quite large--larger than could be accommodated
for multiple platforms without prodigious amounts of space.

And, while preservation is clearly a necessary goal, the kind of thing
I envision would encourage use, even experimentation and modification,
which clearly go beyond a museum's charter.

Redundancy in the collection would, therefore, be encouraged, to support
use, sales, and lending, not just saving the "best example" of something
for display.

Of course, you are correct that this is probably impractical.  The
Apple II community is probably not able to support such an undertaking,
even with lavish donations of equipment (which is never the problem for
"modern artifact" museums ;-).  Further, it is only reasonable to expect
that the Apple II community is generally shrinking, which will make any
such enterprise ultimately untenable, with more and more donations to
fewer and fewer caretakers...

I've been curious over the years about how the average age of the
community is changing with time.  I'm sure it's not increasing at
the rate of a year per year, but it probably isn't much lower.

-michael

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