Dear Jim, Please see my response inline...
On 25/01/2019 23:04, Jim Manley wrote: > Hi Andrew, Hi Jim, > If it’s any consolation I needed no consolation because I already knew that these machines are going to a good home. But your message is great to read. This sounds like an amazing project. > the users of these components will be high > school students in an extremely rural area at the lowest level of > poverty in the U.S. The students are eager to learn computing and > networking principles, and these will provide opportunities for that in > spades. I think that learning foundational principles on real AlphaServers, with a good teacher, /actually sets up students in greater stead compared to computers based in the x86_84 universe, for example/. I mean this on many levels and across varying dimensions. Kind of like how I learned computer architecture from Hennessey & Patterson using MIPS and a RISC ISA. The concepts translated easily and well. All you need is genuine interest. I don't know much about the socioeconomic profile of Montana. I spent much of my in many parts of the US, mostly for personal reasons, and I loved the country in general. Unfortunately I never had a chance to go to Montana. > The performance level of these, compared with current technology, is > unimportant, as getting the right answers is more significant than how > fast they were computed. Are you referring writing networked computer programs to solve problems? I was discussing with my partner earlier this week that knowing about computing skills, like how networking _really_ works, is critical future knowledge for people who want to stay street smart in the universe of electrons whizzing by. It's going to be seriously important. > These components were used for data services, > so that fulfills the trifecta of computing, data structures, and > networking (and at fiber channel speeds, AIUI). This trifecta of "computing, data structures, and networking" intrgues me. Is it part of some curriculum? Or is it a grouping of computing concepts that you have identified as being meaningful? In the second sense I think I get it if I think hard enough. > We’ll make some videos eventually as they puzzle their way through > getting software licenses acquired and installed, things are configured > to work together, and we get proof-of-life command line prompts. I have a huge and active interest in education. I would be very interested to hear about how you get on with this. > I hope you are able to acquire your own Alphaservers and whatever other > techno-toys you covet in the near future. I don't like phrases like "techno-toys", regardless of how they are intended to come across. Similarly, words like "gizmos" and "gadgets". They rub me the wrong way but it is not a conversation I want to have right now. I'm not looking for AlphaServers to fulfil some sort of fetish. Rather, I have a specific project use case for them, and I would like to include them in this project I'm working on. I wish you all the very best in this work, Jim, and I believe that motivated students will appreciate the value of something clearly amazing like an AlphaServer. As I mentioned above, I've got a genuine interest in education and would love to hear how it goes. Do you mind if I ping you again in 6-12 months? Kind regards, Andrew > On Fri, Jan 25, 2019 at 2:58 PM Andrew Luke Nesbit > <ullbek...@andrewnesbit.org <mailto:ullbek...@andrewnesbit.org>> wrote: > > Dear Richard, > > Thank you for replying in such a considered way. Please see below for > comments. > > On 25/01/2019 00:07, Richard Loken via cctalk wrote: > > > All of you have at one time expressed interest in all or part of > this > > rack full of Alphaservers and one of you even talked about > driving a truck > > up from Montana and taking it all home. > > All I can think of at this moment is how beautiful it must be to > go on a > road trip in Montana. > > > Are any of you still interested? > > I remain tremendously interested in learning about AlphaServers and > acuiring another one or two. > > But I live in London, UK. I was considering paying for the cheapest > slow seamail. Other people have less crazy ideas. I doubt that > my idea > is appealing to Richard either. > > > First priority goes to anybody willing to come up here and pick > up all > > or part of the collection. I will consider shipping if that is > what it > > comes down to but the packing and transprotation will be > expensive for > > the DS15 and extremely expensive for the other units. > > From reading the rest of this thread, it looks as though you've > already > found your collector/s and arranged a date. > > I'm very happy that these are going to a good home. It's fabulous > that > the flame is carrying on. > > For future reference, if anybody sees AlphaServers or similarly > interesting hardware closer to home (UK or EU), then please do let me > know! Thank you!! > > Kind regards, > > Andrew > > > -- OpenPGP key: EB28 0338 28B7 19DA DAB0 B193 D21D 996E 883B E5B9