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Goodbye, Computers
Sep. 23rd, 2010 12:26 amMany, many computers went out of the house today. And, other assorted electronics. All thanks to local electronics recyclers. I have a very hard time letting go of computers. Part of that is because you always worry if you got everything off of it. But part of it is because I feel a lot of investment in my old computers.
The one that was hardest to get rid of was my Twentieth Anniversary Mac (TAM). Mind you, I haven't used it for 8 or 9 years and it was getting long in the tooth even then. But, it was such a wonderful computer: color LCD before people were really using LCD. Magnificent speakers. A keyboard with built-in trackpad just as that was getting popular. All around a great machine.
It was also my first real adult computer. I'd gotten myself a Mac laptop as a graduation present around '93 and I'd had one or two UNIX machines running at home before I got the TAM. But the TAM was the first machine I could really word process on, that I could layout stuff on, and that I could play games on.
I fondly remembering playing one of the early Heroes of Might & Magic for hours and hours on that machine in my old apartment. It's also the computer that Eric R. and I used to do some of the books for RQ-Con II and the computer that I laid out the (big) post-con book on.
(And yes, I could have gotten $$$ from it on eBay, but it was very much not in mint condition any more, and some of the parts had gone missing in the last 9 years. Beyond which, I have piles of stuff in this house that I mean to eBay, and which I can't find time for. A computer out of the house is worth two eBays in the bush.)
The one thing that makes me feel better about letting my TAM go is that the modern iMacs--which are Apple's general machines--are *almost* as kick-ass as that TAM. They don't have as good of sound or a keyboard that works with the machine as well as the TAM's did, but in display capabilities they're lightyears ahead ...
I also got rid of the aforementioned Apple laptop, the scanner that I paid $1000 for when I was putting together that post-con book (but which hasn't been used for years due to its SCSIness), my first iMac (which I had considerably less attachment for, I think because I bought such a low-end model that it was getting laggy almost as soon as I bought it, but also because it was replaced by a better work PC a few years later), and some recently retired Skotos machines.
Rest in Peace, little computers. Hopefully the recyclers will find new homes for some of you!
The one that was hardest to get rid of was my Twentieth Anniversary Mac (TAM). Mind you, I haven't used it for 8 or 9 years and it was getting long in the tooth even then. But, it was such a wonderful computer: color LCD before people were really using LCD. Magnificent speakers. A keyboard with built-in trackpad just as that was getting popular. All around a great machine.
It was also my first real adult computer. I'd gotten myself a Mac laptop as a graduation present around '93 and I'd had one or two UNIX machines running at home before I got the TAM. But the TAM was the first machine I could really word process on, that I could layout stuff on, and that I could play games on.
I fondly remembering playing one of the early Heroes of Might & Magic for hours and hours on that machine in my old apartment. It's also the computer that Eric R. and I used to do some of the books for RQ-Con II and the computer that I laid out the (big) post-con book on.
(And yes, I could have gotten $$$ from it on eBay, but it was very much not in mint condition any more, and some of the parts had gone missing in the last 9 years. Beyond which, I have piles of stuff in this house that I mean to eBay, and which I can't find time for. A computer out of the house is worth two eBays in the bush.)
The one thing that makes me feel better about letting my TAM go is that the modern iMacs--which are Apple's general machines--are *almost* as kick-ass as that TAM. They don't have as good of sound or a keyboard that works with the machine as well as the TAM's did, but in display capabilities they're lightyears ahead ...
I also got rid of the aforementioned Apple laptop, the scanner that I paid $1000 for when I was putting together that post-con book (but which hasn't been used for years due to its SCSIness), my first iMac (which I had considerably less attachment for, I think because I bought such a low-end model that it was getting laggy almost as soon as I bought it, but also because it was replaced by a better work PC a few years later), and some recently retired Skotos machines.
Rest in Peace, little computers. Hopefully the recyclers will find new homes for some of you!