One of my favorite movies growing up was Desk Set, a 1957 Hepburn-Tracy romantic comedy about a computer expert (Spencer Tracy) who is sent to a television studio’s library/research division (headed up by Katherine Hepburn) to install a massive ENIAC-style … Continue reading
In 2010 my Uncle Ron passed away. When my aunt was going through his things and trying to figure out what to do with his stuff, she came across his old Apple IIe computer. She asked my dad what she should do with it and he told her that I would probably be interested in it. Growing up we had had a very similar machine and it was the primary computer in our home for most of the 80s, and so I was very interested in seeing one again. I took it home and set it up, and I was immediately overcome with nostalgia. The memories of the hours spent playing around with an Apple IIe flooded back. I had also just recently acquired a new Canon HD camera, and so I decided to film my experience with the Apple IIe.
The response to the video was incredibly positive. I had dozens of people tell me how they too had been whisked back to the 80s and their fond memories of a age when the Apple was rainbow-coloured. That was just the beginning.
In the months that followed I found myself thinking more and more about older technology. I acquired a giant cabinet tube TV, and then a record player/8-track/cassette player/radio combo. And the more I started to collect, the more I started to figure out about what it was I was looking for. This blog will be a record of what I’ve found. My collection has now grown to over 30 pieces, mostly of the audio-visual variety, some pieces going back to the early fifties. My plan is to take pictures and video of each piece, give a bit of history about what it is, a bit of personal history of how I came to acquire it, and then maybe talk a bit about why I think it’s important.
To begin, here is the video that started it all.
The Museum of Obsolete Technology 