Date   : Mon, 17 Oct 2005 23:21:58 +0100
From   : "David Hunt" <dm.hunt@...>
Subject: Computer Museum gets cash from Gates

I remember a while back, we were discussing getting some cash to pay for
hosting etc. for our loads of retro stuff.

Check out this link <http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4350972.stm>

The "Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation" has given £8.5 million to the
"Computer History Museum" in Los Angeles, USA.

Perhaps we should e-mail Bill and ask for some cash.

I visited this Museum in 2003 after attending Micro$oft's PDC 2003 -
gosh
was Longhorn that long ago... ooops Vista, um Bill where is it?

There was hardly any Acorn stuff there. They had the guts of an Atom and
the
guts of a BBC B (a US one with the extra shielding and maxed out
motherboard) - they had an old time fav. of mine, the Sinclair ZX80, the
ohmigod, can't compute and display at same time. Lots of mini-computers,
a
Cray I and a very old IBM 390 (I think)

There was total saturation of IBM and Apple, but not hardly any Compaq,
they
had a nasty looking Deskpro 286 and no other Compaq desktops. Anyhows, I
found the whole experience rather clinical, perhaps painful. Hardly
anything
worked and you weren't allowed to "play" with the interesting stuff. I
am
sure the Brits can do a better job, despite the lack of £80 million...

Dave ;)