[GreenKeys] What is to become of NADCOMM?

[greenkeys@mailman.qth.net]

I was told that the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry once had at
least a Model 15 on display, but that was a long time ago.  Museums do
have their agendas, and Smithsonian particularly has to limit what comes
in the door.  Probably they go for the originals, like Morse's first
instruments and Bell's first and that sort of thing, and later stuff is
just examples of the type, not the original, historic artifact.

I just finished an interesting book.  "Artifacts: An archaeologist's
year in Silicon Valley" by Christine A. Finn.  Lots said about the whole
Silicon Valley experience, but particularly a lot said about collectors
of stuff.  Guy in Oakland who collects old computers, and makes money at
it because people come in with old floppy disks they can't read, or
moviemakers need things for a movie.  A collector primarily of rare
books who bought at an auction the slide rule used by J. Presper Eckert
to design ENIAC.  Some guy in Seattle who bought a piece of ENIAC.
And she has some things to say about the passage of an item from leading
edge to obsolete to collector's item, and what makes things collectible.