Keeping the Hard Drives Intact

The Computer History Museum is certainly something else. Filled from wall-to-wall with antique computing devices, this museum is certainly something that should be relished in Triumph of the Nerds. The museum has a wide range of computers, including things like the IBM, or Big Blue, 1401 mainframe computers of the 1960s and the Colossus WWII decoder. Robert Garner and his group of computer friends take care of the museum and all of its wonders, including the strange smells that come with it. I'd rather not attach pictures of each machine in this Californian museum, so if you'd like to take a look at the article click here. 

I am most impressed by the tape-reader machines and vacuum tube mainframe computers. To imagine that the machines I am working on descended from those old guys is phenomenal. The care and restoration processes that the workers at the museum go through shows how difficult it must have been when these machines were actually being used. It has always been a dream of mine to take an old school Apple (back when they had the Macintosh rainbow logo), knock out the screen, and replace it with a new monitor linked to a hidden Mac Mini or laptop with the latest operating system and graphics. I've always liked the look of those older desktop computers, and honestly, I don't need the added space of a flat-screen monitor, my desk is too big already. Also, something about typing on those old keyboards that clicked loudly brings back memories of elementary school. 

This is a nice panorama of one of the rooms in the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California (not too far from Cupertino, the headquarters of Apple).