[rescue] another sandia/los Alamos auction

[Dan Sikorski]

Patrick Finnegan wrote:

>Yep.  I'm doubtful he'll get rid of either one, as the only reason he 
>wanted to get rid of the SP is because it didn't have the switch.  For 
>some reason, our department wants to keep multiple spare SP switches 
>when they're worth on the order of $200-$300.  Sigh.  
>  
>
That's ok, i really don't need either of them.  They're bigger than what 
i can allot space for right now, and besides, i have too much to do with 
the machines i already have, i definately don't need to get any more at 
this time.

>Yep.  I've borrowed it to scan it - a guy "at work" has it and is 
>unlikely to give it up anytime soon.  The salvage op actually had to 
>bid on that machine to get it, btw, they paid about $10k for it... and 
>they've easily made up for that + the time to disassemble it by 
>reselling it for the gold and other stuff in it.  Personally, I don't 
>mind too much because they aren't really that well funded, and if they 
>hadn't done they, it might be difficult to impossible to get other 
>stuff out of there for cheaply.  Yeah, it sucks from a "preservation" 
>stand point, but I think overall more good than bad has ended up coming 
>out of it... unless Dave was willing to post the $20k+ that they 
>probably made off of it in scrap value.
>
>  
>
How well did the scanning work?  I tried to take a few pictures of mine, 
but they didn't come out worth a crap.  I know that they paid $10k for 
it, i talked to Don about it quite a bit when it was in there.  I still 
don't like to see that happen to a machine though.  That should have 
went to a museum, it shouldn't have been ripped apart.

>They do that every so often.  The summer after my freshman year here, 
>there was a *pristine* VAX 11/780 sitting in the hallway of the 
>basement of Physics for a while.  If I'd had a clue back then, or 
>somewhere to put it, I'd have grabbed it.  It ended up getting brought 
>out to salvage and tossed off the back of the truck straight onto the 
>scrap heap.  ("Why would anyone want that old thing?!?")  I like to 
>think that I've helped sway them away from scrapping some things since 
>I've started going there..
>
>  
>
That's why i went at least weekly once i started really going there.  
Most of the time there wasn't anything interesting, but every once in a 
while, there would be a gold mine.

>If you're coming down, let me know, I'd be glad to meet up with you.  
>However, they're definately on "clean out" mode on the place, and 
>there's not been much of any worth that's gone out there in the past 
>month or two.
>
>  
>
I'll keep that in mind.  It's never a bad deal to meet up with some like 
minded people, if only to try and convince myself that i'm not crazy.  :)

>I haven't gone before, but I've thought about it before.  Is it really 
>as good as the BBQ around Kansas City?   There's a "very southern BBQ" 
>chain in KC that has the absolute best BBQ I've ever had.  Nothing else 
>I've had comes close to it.  Damn, I wish I remembered the name of it.
>  
>
Well, i can't comment about what is around Kansas City.  South Street is 
the only real decent place i've had BBQ, but god damn, it's good stuff.  
Nothing else I've had comes close to it.  :)  I'm serious, go there 
tomorrow.  South Street, Salvage, and the Sunrise Cafe (little greasy 
spoon downtown, great breakfast, try "The Challenge") are the three 
places that i miss in Lafayette.  I've typically made it down there once 
a year for the past few years to visit those three places.

    -Dan Sikorski