Hello,

--- On Mon, 3/8/10, Scott Holder <[email protected]> wrote:

> I'd much rather get the enjoyment of playing with and even getting good 
> use out of a vintage machine than the bragging rights of having something
> in the closet.

[nods in understanding]

I think the important thing would be to ask yourself what kind of person you 
are and which course of action gives you the greatest pleasure.  For instance, 
I have friends who collect books, and some of them seem to derive as much 
enjoyment from a book just sitting there on their bookshelf than they do from 
actually picking it up and reading it. 

(Indeed, some of them look like they're going to have a stroke if I appear to 
be reaching out to pluck it off their shelf.)

Conversely, I know a few folks who bought a lot of high-tech toys they salted 
away and promised themselves they'd get around to messing with "later."  Now, 
with the economy (still) in the dumper, quite a few of them have had to throw 
their toys up on eBay to trade them for money they need to take care of more 
pressing concerns.  So the idea they had of preserving their toys and playing 
with them "later" never really panned out.

If you'll pardon my saying so, the comment you made:

>It seems a shame to box it and never use it. 

...seems to indicate you get more enjoyment out of playing with the machine 
rather than having it sit safely in a closet somewhere.  Of course, I can't see 
the expression on your face under both conditions, so I don't know for sure.

You may want to consider getting a second Fat Mac as a "beater" unit.  My book 
collecting friends make it a point to have two copies of each book they own, 
with one being a "shelf copy" (I believe that's the right term; "collector 
copy" might be more accurate) and the other being a "reading copy," that they 
can take down, read, and treat any old how because, well, that's what reading 
copies are for.

It's their way of having their cake and eating it too.  Of course, a compact 
Mac takes up much more space than a typical book does, so I don't know if 
that's feasible in your case or not.  Real estate can get expensive, and I know 
folks who have just enough room in their homes for a knife, fork, spoon, a 
$5,000 stereo and....that's it.

It might also be worth considering that nothing man-made is meant to last 
forever, and even a decade is probably pushing it for most consumer items.  I 
wonder if the folks who designed and built the Macintosh in 1984 had any 
inkling that people would still be using and discussing the machines a 
quarter-century later?


Best,

James Fraser






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