Making space for another orphan
Should I pat myself on the shoulder or slap myself silly? I’ve done it again, despite dire warnings and attempts by my loved ones to show me the error of my ways. I’ve taken another orphan into my home, to protect it against the fierce “recyclers” and provide shelter for one that should be old enough to take care of itself. In passing, how old do you have to be to get adult status in a modern world?
Today, a coworker who is aware of the soft spot in my heart for the abandoned, called me aside and told me to reach out and hold onto my new friend’s hand handle. Another abandoned oldtimer from the world of data processing; another portable computer.
This one has been around for about two decades, as near as we could find out from the web. A sleek form, with a flashy amber plasma screen and a full 640 KB of RAM and a hard drive and an expansion port. Here’s a picture:
Unlike many orphans, this one is “fully functional” and I can’t wait to dig out the diskette archives in the basement. With almost 15 Megs of empty hard drive space, I’m sure I can find something to load up. Maybe a good telnet emulator (if I can find a modem), or yet another instance of my genealogy database. How about a copy of Adventure? Maybe a Sierra game, if all the diskettes for the set are still intact. Wordstar! I miss my Wordstar…
It’s true, I’m a hopeless romantic when it comes to early technology. This one is even older than my children; think of the things to be learned about mankind and machines in the time before their births. This will surely be as much fun as a Commodore 64, even if the screen is hues of orange. Side by side with my Kaypro, I can see then celebrating Irish holidays together. This one’s a bit lighter than Sassafras, but with a brick or two I will have a balanced load when I stagger up from the cellar.
On the bus trip home this evening, I caught the admiring glances from the older passengers. Do they also dream of electric sheep?
