Blog entries from July, 2007

Despite spending the day picking up a Twentieth Anniversary Macintosh I also got around to listing my IBM PS/2 50z and IBM PS/2 65sx systems and parts on eBay.

Contrary to what I said earlier in the week, I decided that I couldn’t be bothered listing the parts individually. You have to remember that my main goal here is to reduce the number of actual items in my collection down to a manageable level, not to make a profit.

If there are no takers I only have to hold on to these items for two weeks after the end of the auction. That is when my area is up for the Annual Hard Rubbish Collection.

That also means that I have only three weeks to perform the culling of other bulky items. Nothing like a deadline to make things move.

The Twentieth Anniversary Macintosh I mentioned earlier in the week is now in my possession after I picked it up from Geelong.

Although I took a few photos while unboxing it I need to take a number of them again with better lighting. However, I did put at least one photo up:

Twentieth Anniversary Macintosh (TAM)

I do have one issue with it: the box is huge. Even if I rearrange the shelves so it can be featured, the box (which contains a number of smaller boxes) will need to be stored somewhere.

Last night and this afternoon I finally got around to putting the better photos from the airshow up on Flickr:

– Australian International Airshow 2007

I haven’t quite finished putting meaningful titles and tags on all of the photos…

As of this evening, my IBM PC and IBM PC XT are merely a memory (except for the photos and descriptions). Their new owner is building up a collection of early IBM PCs and these are destined to be restored, or be used for parts in the restoration of other systems. Either way, they are going to a good home.

So what’s next? Last weekend I started looking through the IBM PS/2 50z, the IBM PS/2 65sx and the parts I have for those. Over the past few weeks I have seen individual parts pop up on eBay so I think I will sell these in a few lots instead of a single bulk lot:

• two 50z system units (one with CPU upgrade), one monitor and one keyboard (a Model M)
• the 65sx system unit
• the other Model M keyboard
• MCA memory cards
• MCA SCSI card
• other PS/2 bits and pieces

So that’s the goings. What about the comings?

First up is an eBay auction for an IBM PC Convertible that ends in three and a half days. While I already have one of these, this one includes the thermal printer slice. I’m going to keep my eye on it and I may yet place a bid.

Next up is a Twentieth Anniversary Macintosh that I was contacted about directly. I need to decide if I want this (a revisit of similar thoughts), and if I do, how much do I want to offer?

This morning the first electric train ran out along the newly electrified line to Craigieburn. Hopefully this means that they are on schedule to start running in October.

Why is this significant? Because it is a thin excuse to catch a train to Craigieburn and then ride back down along the Craigieburn Bypass of the Hume Freeway to the ring road:

Where to after I get back to the ring road is still to be answered (maybe further north beyond Epping). But this is a starting point that includes a section of path I have yet to cover.

The eBay auction for my IBM PC, IBM PC XT and related parts ended last night for AU$200 more than I had even considered.

Even though the auction has only just ended I did move them out of my computer room as part of the listing process. This allowed me (when I finally got around to it) to rearrange a couple of the items in my collection into the vacated space.

My Indys, SPARCstations, the Plus and the Portable have been blocking my access to the shelves and the cupboard for so long that it was a bit surreal with them out of the way. I still have a JX display and an Apple display in the middle of the floor, but that is nothing compared to before.

Now to follow through with the PS/2 items which would free up space so I could start sorting through the Apple items that are in the cupboard…

Two months ago I purchased another set of apple speakers that were identical to a set I already had, except beige instead of black.

Since they were coming from the US, it took until today for them to arrive. However, I wasted no time in putting up some photos along with descriptions of both sets:

While looking for a photo of an Apple CD300 to clarify an eBay auction I ended up at a page on Wikimedia Commons.

The Apple CD150 image caught my eye. First because I thought that it was actually a photo of an Apple CD300e Plus, and then because it was strangely familiar. How many other people take photos of items against an old blue sheet?

Sure enough, it is my image from the page in my collection for the Apple CD300e Plus. But my name isn’t “Marco Mioli” and this site isn’t called “All About Apple”.

Did someone change my name when I wasn’t looking? I hope not…

I did some further digging and found that there are at least five photos of mine that have been put both on the “All About Apple” site and on Wikimedia Commons. Only the misnamed CD300e Plus image is still part of my site following the update I did last week. But that doesn’t excuse the clear copyright violation.

What annoys me about this is the license statement that was specified on Wikipedia Commons. It is blatantly incorrect, and is deliberate.

I do know of a couple of sites that have mirrored sections of my site. In one case they asked first and in the other they didn’t. But in those cases I didn’t mind as they attributed me as the author and included a link to my site.

Right now I need to go to bed, but tomorrow night I will contact the “All About Apple” site AND find out how to report to Wikimedia Commons that the images are being used without permission and with an incorrect licence.

Related to this is that for a while now I have been meaning to apply a Creative Commons license (probably Attribution-ShareAlike) to this site…

I have just finished following through on my resolution to get rid of my IBM PC, IBM PC XT and related parts.

This time next week I will either have someone to take them off my hands (eBay auction) or I will be finding somewhere to store them until the upcoming hard rubbish collection.

Right now I am considering doing the same thing with more of my IBM items; the IBM PS/2 50z and IBM PS/2 65sx.

Last night del.icio.us/popular led me to My War on Clutter on 43 Folders. This in turn led me to Unclutterer and a number of other sites about organising your stuff.

I have been inspired.

Earlier in the year I asked “Why do I collect computers?“, but I have yet to really do anything about thinning out the collection.

Today I made a resolution:

By the end of this weekend (July 7/8 2007) I will have:

1. taken new photos of my IBM PC, IBM PC XT and related parts;
2. added the photos and descriptions to the collection; and
3. listed it all on eBay.

These two items are big and bulky and by getting rid of them I can free up a significant amount of space. Furthermore, I don’t know if these items even work. Since I don’t really have an interest in them I hope someone else does. This isn’t without precedent as I did the same thing with the Personal Iris, DECstation 2100 and DECstation 5000.

Over the past weekend I have been sorting through some of my smaller Apple items with the end result being a number of photos added to the collection:

• Apple Hand Controllers //e and //c
• Apple IIe Card
• Apple IIe Mouse Interface
• Apple II SCSI Card
• Apple II Super Serial Card
• Apple keyboards
• Apple mice
• AppleCD SC Plus
• Apple Hard Disk 20SC
• Apple QuickTake 100

Unfortunately, this is only the tip of the iceberg as there is a lot I still need to sort through.