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(Disclaimer: I am a member of the Computer History Museum.) We have the Computer History Museum in Mountain View (https://computerhistory.org/ https://computer

(Disclaimer: I am a member of the Computer History Museum.) We have the Computer History Museum in Mountain View (https://computerhistory.org/ https://computerhistory.org/). While unfortunately visitors are not allowed to touch the equipment unlike the Living Computers Museum in Seattle, this is still a wonderful place for people to learn about the history of computing. In addition, the Computer History Museum has many events, often free, where pioneers of computing are invited to give talks about their work. I’ve been to events that celebrated the Xerox Alto, Smalltalk, the Apple Lisa, and the original Apple Macintosh. I’ve met Dan Ingalls (Smalltalk), Charles Simonyi (Bravo and Microsoft Word), Marshall Kirk McKusick (BSD), and Donald Knuth at the Computer History Museum, and I’ve seen Adele Goldberg (Smalltalk), Jean Louis Gassee (Apple, Be), and even Steve Wozniak in attendance. It’s an amazing privilege being able to have casual conversations with people who have profoundly shaped society. It’s truly a blessing that we have this important resource in Silicon Valley and that there is a stream of donors who help keep this museum alive. I wish the Living Computers Museum in Seattle had the same type of leadership the Computer History Museum has, but barring any last-minute interventions it may be too late to save that museum.

thriftwy 2y ago
Exactly the one I meant under the theme park comment - another one is Monterey Bay Aquarium. Don't get me wrong, both are awesome museums. One thing that caught my attention in CHM is that as you approach the end of century, it becomes an exposition of bright boxes of computer software - quite a change from mechanical marvels of early last century or metal and plastic boxes of mid-century. But overall it's pretty great and totally worth a visit.
KerrAvon 2y ago
It's definitely too late for LCM -- the heirs don't care about the societal value and are parting it out. It's gone. It'd be super cool if CHM added a living computers wing. They've done a few nice restorations of some large machines, but it's not really the same as something like making a few terminals connected to a PDP-10 directly available to the public. Or some of the early, weird PCs, Unix boxes, Lisp machines.
- VonGuard 2y ago
  The Museum of Art and Digital Entertainment in Oakland has all-playable exhibitions of home computer and console games on original hardware. You can play something on the C64, Atari 800 or Sega Genesis, for example.
- dsand 2y ago
  There are no heirs for LCM. Allen's will specified what do to in particular with a few of his many assets. But for all the rest, he wrote to sell it all, and donate the raised money to charities. So the will's executor (his sister) does not have the latitude to divert some assets to other outcomes. LCM was never self-sustaining via tickets. It always needed yearly infusions of cash from Allen. Re-opening it as it was would require similar levels of cash to burn. I wish that Allen had loved the LCM enough to design an endowment to keep it going, and had specified in the will how to treat LCM specially. But he did not. What he wanted instead for his legacy, was large cash donations to various charities.
  - ghaff 2y ago
    The people railing here are ignoring the fact that for whatever reason (he didn't actually care that much, he was sick and didn't have the time) didn't explicitly provide for this museum to be maintained into the foreseeable future. That may or may not be a bad outcome but it's what happens when someone passes and they haven't made an explicit provision with funding for something they owned. By and large, museums need to cover their operating costs and apparently this one didn't.
anigbrowl 2y ago
I love the CHM and I wish it would invest more effort in interactivity. Visiting is a mix of excitement and frustration; it's thrilling to see Great Computers of History up close but depressing not to see any of them doing anything that would help viewers appreciate what it might have been like to use it.

thriftwy 2y ago

Exactly the one I meant under the theme park comment - another one is Monterey Bay Aquarium. Don't get me wrong, both are awesome museums. One thing that caught my attention in CHM is that as you approach the end of century, it becomes an exposition of bright boxes of computer software - quite a change from mechanical marvels of early last century or metal and plastic boxes of mid-century. But overall it's pretty great and totally worth a visit.

KerrAvon 2y ago

It's definitely too late for LCM -- the heirs don't care about the societal value and are parting it out. It's gone. It'd be super cool if CHM added a living computers wing. They've done a few nice restorations of some large machines, but it's not really the same as something like making a few terminals connected to a PDP-10 directly available to the public. Or some of the early, weird PCs, Unix boxes, Lisp machines.

VonGuard 2y ago
The Museum of Art and Digital Entertainment in Oakland has all-playable exhibitions of home computer and console games on original hardware. You can play something on the C64, Atari 800 or Sega Genesis, for example.
dsand 2y ago
There are no heirs for LCM. Allen's will specified what do to in particular with a few of his many assets. But for all the rest, he wrote to sell it all, and donate the raised money to charities. So the will's executor (his sister) does not have the latitude to divert some assets to other outcomes. LCM was never self-sustaining via tickets. It always needed yearly infusions of cash from Allen. Re-opening it as it was would require similar levels of cash to burn. I wish that Allen had loved the LCM enough to design an endowment to keep it going, and had specified in the will how to treat LCM specially. But he did not. What he wanted instead for his legacy, was large cash donations to various charities.
- ghaff 2y ago
  The people railing here are ignoring the fact that for whatever reason (he didn't actually care that much, he was sick and didn't have the time) didn't explicitly provide for this museum to be maintained into the foreseeable future. That may or may not be a bad outcome but it's what happens when someone passes and they haven't made an explicit provision with funding for something they owned. By and large, museums need to cover their operating costs and apparently this one didn't.

anigbrowl 2y ago

I love the CHM and I wish it would invest more effort in interactivity. Visiting is a mix of excitement and frustration; it's thrilling to see Great Computers of History up close but depressing not to see any of them doing anything that would help viewers appreciate what it might have been like to use it.