Posted by Richard Crowley on 12/05/05 03:23

"bmcswain" wrote ...
> In
> 1983 I had lots of talent to fix a box from the late 60's and early
> 70's. By the time I left the group in 1987, all the talent had
> retired
> or resigned. There was no one to be found that fix them. There were
> no spare parts. I expect in 2005 (only 20 years more) there is
> nothing you can do to fix one or any software to run one. That's
> about
> a total of only 40 years since the 360 was originally sold.

In the mid 1970s, I was contacted by our local IBM field
office and asked if I was interested in contracting to them
to fix an IBM 1620 in Palm Springs. Seems that I was the
only person east of Los Angeles that knew how to work on
them (because I maintained the one owned by my employer).
None of the IBM employees left in the field office had ever
even seen a 1620 system.

Last I heard, Hollywood was transfering all the old film
content to high-res digital because the films are falling
apart. And releasing more and more new titles as digital
because it is rapidly becoming cheaper than making
thousands of copies of the 7-8 big heavy rolls of 35mm
film. As theatres switch to digital, in 10 years there will
be many towns where no traditional projectors are left.

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