> We are not Living Computers, but in May of 2024 the Living Computers Remote Vintage Systems were acquired and transfered to us. We immediately combined these systems with SDF.ORG's Vintage Systems under the BOOTSTRAP membership. Additionally the Software Preservation Engineering Lab was also acquired and transferred allowing us to greatly expand our library and hardware capabilities in being able to do data transfer and recovery.
> We are grateful to the The Mimms Museum of Technology and Art for granting us Legacy Use of Living Computers with particular artifacts in the collection.
ICM on a Saturday and Connections Museum on a Sunday is a delightful pairing! Close to the airport too if your just popping by on a layover, though plan on 2 to 4 hours for each
A fantastic collection and restoration effort. I highly encourage a visit. I was in Seattle last year and had recently joined and pinged about maybe getting a tour. It was right before a vintage computer festival and despite being busy getting ready, Stephen, the director, encouraged me to drop in.
I would've been happy just looking (and not even touching) by myself for 15 or 20 minutes given the circumstances, but Stephen spent 1.5 hours with me in a hands-on tour, including playing Spacewar. He genuinely cares about these machines, their preservation, and spreading enthusiasm about them. I only wish I was a little closer (3 hours away in Portland) or I'd spend more time on-site helping with the effort.
This is such a cool museum. Calling it a museum doesn’t do it justice though: it’s more of an interactive experience, with many generations of communications equipment under one roof.
It's awesome seeing physical computing history preserved like this, especially the lesser-known enterprise machines that usually just get scrapped when a company shuts down.
That looks like a very useful way to convert one's obsession with holding on to old computers and tinkering with them to a socially-education experience.
But who will keep the keyboards clean from all of the crud that collects over the years? :-P
cool. the orange glow reminds me of the first time i used a networked computer....
the Plato system. I was about 12 and some dude on the dungeon game said he was in california. I was in northern Michigan. That broke my brain for the day.
Really awesome looking collection! I want to go next time I visit Seattle.
I know there's a great museum near Atlanta for those interested in vintage computing who live on the other side of the country -- https://mimmsmuseum.org
I believe both of these museums got lots of artifacts from the LCM, so its legacy lives on
Just heard about this post. Interim Computer Museum is an extension of the SDF Public Access UNIX System's Vintage Systems program. Thank you to all who have supported our efforts over the years! ICM will allow SDF.ORG to continue to be a UNIX platform for implementing new and interesting community ideas and Interim Computer Museum will handle the retrospective aspect of the amazing computer history in our collective recent past.
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[ 3.4 ms ] story [ 66.9 ms ] threadThe Interim Computer Museum - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37304983 - Aug 2023 (15 comments)
Living Computers Museum to permanently close, auction vintage items
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40789179
> Is this the Living Computer Museum?
> We are not Living Computers, but in May of 2024 the Living Computers Remote Vintage Systems were acquired and transfered to us. We immediately combined these systems with SDF.ORG's Vintage Systems under the BOOTSTRAP membership. Additionally the Software Preservation Engineering Lab was also acquired and transferred allowing us to greatly expand our library and hardware capabilities in being able to do data transfer and recovery.
> We are grateful to the The Mimms Museum of Technology and Art for granting us Legacy Use of Living Computers with particular artifacts in the collection.
https://icm.museum/?faq
I would've been happy just looking (and not even touching) by myself for 15 or 20 minutes given the circumstances, but Stephen spent 1.5 hours with me in a hands-on tour, including playing Spacewar. He genuinely cares about these machines, their preservation, and spreading enthusiasm about them. I only wish I was a little closer (3 hours away in Portland) or I'd spend more time on-site helping with the effort.
See Colin Burke and Pieces of the Action
But who will keep the keyboards clean from all of the crud that collects over the years? :-P
the Plato system. I was about 12 and some dude on the dungeon game said he was in california. I was in northern Michigan. That broke my brain for the day.
I know there's a great museum near Atlanta for those interested in vintage computing who live on the other side of the country -- https://mimmsmuseum.org
I believe both of these museums got lots of artifacts from the LCM, so its legacy lives on
The fact you can actually log into some of the old Unix machines is awesome lol.
If I’m ever in Seattle I’m 100% checking this place out.