Vintage Technology Collector

Here is something you don't see to often a MITS Altair 680 For Sale on eBay. This is not worth as much a MITS Altair 8800, but its worth a look. Here is an excerpt from the auction: "here is a neat vintage computer up for auction. you dont see many of these for sale and its in pretty nice condition too! this was from an estate and i am almost positive he was the original owner. i have powered it up and it seems to work (i was told that it did). all i have is the computer itself - i didnt get any documentation or software with it, sorry, but there is a lot of information about these on the net if you google it. you can get all the documentation and schematics and user manuals on the net. i got this with an mits imsai which i am going to auction later too. this thing has been sitting in a box put away for ages so i am unsure of its electrical condition, so it is sold as is, but i did have it powered up for quite awhile. winning bidder pays shipping cost and please be in touch...

This guy had an prototype Apple Lisa 1 with Twiggy drives (5.25" floppy drives, known for being unreliable) donated to him. This computer would be the prize for any computer collection. Check out the photos on this site , they're pretty detailed.

eBay had a very complete IMSAI Computer system available for about $2000. It really was one of the most complete systems I have seen there for a long time. I would check out this eBay page before its gets cleared off the system. Here is an excerpt from the auction: "This IMSAI Computer system was purchased and constructed in the late 1970’s. It was used in the office of a small company to handle bookkeeping and inventory. This system was used daily right up to the day that more advanced computers came available, that our office eventually purchased. This system has been carefully stored for almost 30 years and I hope the pictures reflect that. All items have the basic wear of items with this much age behind them. There are no dents – bangs – or deep scratches on the hardware - the manuals and floppy disks were stored in dry location with no water or mold damage."

BBC NEWS reports: "Sixty years ago the 'modern computer' was born in a lab in Manchester. The Small Scale Experimental Machine, or 'Baby', was the first to contain memory which could store a program. The room-sized computer's ability to carry out different tasks - without having to be rebuilt - has led some to describe it as the 'first modern PC'." You might say we have come a long way. Check out the video on the page to see how far.

The Difference Engine was an accurate mechanical calculator designed by Charles Babbage in the 1840s, but was never built in its inventor's lifetime. Here, its modern builder explains how it works.

The video contains every example of why you should higher engineers to do your recruiting videos. They just make you want to come to work at Bell Labs (all being said sarcastically). I am assuming the video is from the late 70's early 80's because of the R2D2 reference.