quicksilver
Active member
Ok, how about some stories about your routine or one-time Mac scavenging experiences - even if they didn't land you any "conquests".
The reason I bring this up is a few years ago I had one of the best times of my life (some people would say "sadly" but scr*w them!) digging around for computer equipment and other fun stuff.
I was working at a major US university. A new science building had just gone up and was connected to several related buildings in the area through bridges or tunnels (cool!) making the start of a science "complex".
Well, all the faculty who were housed in old quarters way on the other side of campus away from most of the science departments were glad to get to move into the new space.
I was glad to get permission to go through the vacated building and take whatever I wanted! Well, whatever I wanted for use at work...but it soon became apparent that nobody cared what you took for what purpose as alot of it was being destroyed before it left the building grounds for recycling.
Ok, to set the stage, consider being given a some keys and turned loose to wander through a huge rambling building built in 1913 and successively expanded no less than 6 times in: 1931, 1938, 1940, 1947, 1952, and 1968. And I'm sure these were only the major renovations. All these changes resulted in a primarily Gothic looking building with additions of all shapes and sizes protruding everywhere and then being surrounded by newer additions. Nooks and crannies everywhere, just when you thought you'd seen it all a new trip would show you another lab, set of rooms or entire floor! There were at least two places where the architecture created "1 and 1/2" floors between floors 1 and 2. These were full height floors but were just small areas that could only be accessed from their own stairwells. Newer areas with the basic "school-look" of the 50s and 60s mixed with spaces with carved wooden doors, hardwood floors, big oak tables and paneled walls. I walked along railed walkways through huge old attics to reach modern storage spaces that couldn't be accessed any other way. I stuck my head (or had someone else stick their head) in all the little storage spaces the offices on the top floors had where the slant of the roof made the spot otherwise too low.
The exploration was made even more fun by the fact that some locks were so old, the "master" keys did not open the doors. Yet a bit of hunting might turn up a key which opened a closed door inside of which might be an old desk with a key ring and so on and so on...
I was so enthralled by it all and got so much stuff that I can't even remember all of the Mac stuff. I remember a Plus that was still sitting on the desk it had probably always sat on in an office long vacated by some retired faculty member. Plus, keyboard, mouse, mouse pad, printer, Radius Full-Page display, disks, System 6 manuals were all right there. I remember IIcis and Mac IIs in the small library that was still filled with books (probably those not worth taking to whatever new library absorbed that one). Another much older wood paneled library with basically nothing left but a huge pile of Asante networking hubs. Three complete looking NeXT Cubes that were unfortunately in a room I never could get into. And as I said nobody really cared what happened to the stuff but you still couldn't say hey can I get a locksmith out here so I can take those NeXT systems home? Enough LaserWriter IIs that I used them to make a small wall around a pile of things I wanted. Also LaserJet IIs and IIIs - I remember the janitor asking if I could find him one. I remember some LCIIIs and Quadra 700. Lots of monitors from the early 12" ones to that 17" AV display with the speakers mounted below the monitor. I had that and another w/o the speakers running on my Quicksilver for awhile.
You could spot there areas with greater Mac influence - a cluster of old Macs in a space which must have belonged to one research group. The tragedy of seeing G4 boxes that turned up empty. Some old office that was semi-converted into a room for the phone system (but still looked like it was the office of a few unlucky grad students) that had a Quicksilver poster on the wall.
Also tons of lab equipment I desperately needed. Even if it was just glassware it helped. I still have a box of 500 mL beakers that according to the label were delivered to the university in '62 and never opened. The place was just overflowing with stuff. Piles on both sides of the hallways, piles in labs, in the classrooms. Many areas seemed to have been abandoned as they were before the move. I had the idea that the building was being retired as old faculty left or individual departments found space elsewhere. This was definitely home to the old-guard, I met a department head (not too young himself) who was helping to clear out the lab of a professor who was still around but had no students and was way past the age he could do it himself. In fact we were specifically hunting for materials or notes some people may have forgotten they had in their old space. And even the people that still had active research or teaching programs took the usual view of grant money and didn't bother to move anything they could buy again.
It was a thrill all around. Lots of cool free stuff. Wandering through a maze. Some pretty spooky areas - even I wouldn't venture too far into some ares of the basement 8-o . I took students and friends through and got requests to go back again or show someone new. Seeing other people's reactions was a good part of the fun. Most were just like me the first time I was there. I had a pair of students find two big wooden mallets (the kind where the head is built of multiple strips of wood like a barrell w/ iron rings) that one ended up taking home to display on his wall and claim as midieval weaponry. Challenged another student who bragged about lifting weights to pick up the base to a solid marble balance table which, with the top off looked like a giant marble barbell - somehow he lifted it a few inches. Discovered some areas of the building were still in use when I was wondering down a nearly pitch black hallway and opened a door to see a wall of rats in cages who made a fuss over being surprised (not as much as me).
If I think of more Mac content I'll add it. I know there was at least once when my car was entirely filled with Mac stuff. Most of it was old and common but it kept me entertained for awhile. I've had hunts that have netted me much better stuff in a lot less time but none were anywhere near as fun!
The reason I bring this up is a few years ago I had one of the best times of my life (some people would say "sadly" but scr*w them!) digging around for computer equipment and other fun stuff.
I was working at a major US university. A new science building had just gone up and was connected to several related buildings in the area through bridges or tunnels (cool!) making the start of a science "complex".
Well, all the faculty who were housed in old quarters way on the other side of campus away from most of the science departments were glad to get to move into the new space.
I was glad to get permission to go through the vacated building and take whatever I wanted! Well, whatever I wanted for use at work...but it soon became apparent that nobody cared what you took for what purpose as alot of it was being destroyed before it left the building grounds for recycling.
Ok, to set the stage, consider being given a some keys and turned loose to wander through a huge rambling building built in 1913 and successively expanded no less than 6 times in: 1931, 1938, 1940, 1947, 1952, and 1968. And I'm sure these were only the major renovations. All these changes resulted in a primarily Gothic looking building with additions of all shapes and sizes protruding everywhere and then being surrounded by newer additions. Nooks and crannies everywhere, just when you thought you'd seen it all a new trip would show you another lab, set of rooms or entire floor! There were at least two places where the architecture created "1 and 1/2" floors between floors 1 and 2. These were full height floors but were just small areas that could only be accessed from their own stairwells. Newer areas with the basic "school-look" of the 50s and 60s mixed with spaces with carved wooden doors, hardwood floors, big oak tables and paneled walls. I walked along railed walkways through huge old attics to reach modern storage spaces that couldn't be accessed any other way. I stuck my head (or had someone else stick their head) in all the little storage spaces the offices on the top floors had where the slant of the roof made the spot otherwise too low.
The exploration was made even more fun by the fact that some locks were so old, the "master" keys did not open the doors. Yet a bit of hunting might turn up a key which opened a closed door inside of which might be an old desk with a key ring and so on and so on...
I was so enthralled by it all and got so much stuff that I can't even remember all of the Mac stuff. I remember a Plus that was still sitting on the desk it had probably always sat on in an office long vacated by some retired faculty member. Plus, keyboard, mouse, mouse pad, printer, Radius Full-Page display, disks, System 6 manuals were all right there. I remember IIcis and Mac IIs in the small library that was still filled with books (probably those not worth taking to whatever new library absorbed that one). Another much older wood paneled library with basically nothing left but a huge pile of Asante networking hubs. Three complete looking NeXT Cubes that were unfortunately in a room I never could get into. And as I said nobody really cared what happened to the stuff but you still couldn't say hey can I get a locksmith out here so I can take those NeXT systems home? Enough LaserWriter IIs that I used them to make a small wall around a pile of things I wanted. Also LaserJet IIs and IIIs - I remember the janitor asking if I could find him one. I remember some LCIIIs and Quadra 700. Lots of monitors from the early 12" ones to that 17" AV display with the speakers mounted below the monitor. I had that and another w/o the speakers running on my Quicksilver for awhile.
You could spot there areas with greater Mac influence - a cluster of old Macs in a space which must have belonged to one research group. The tragedy of seeing G4 boxes that turned up empty. Some old office that was semi-converted into a room for the phone system (but still looked like it was the office of a few unlucky grad students) that had a Quicksilver poster on the wall.
Also tons of lab equipment I desperately needed. Even if it was just glassware it helped. I still have a box of 500 mL beakers that according to the label were delivered to the university in '62 and never opened. The place was just overflowing with stuff. Piles on both sides of the hallways, piles in labs, in the classrooms. Many areas seemed to have been abandoned as they were before the move. I had the idea that the building was being retired as old faculty left or individual departments found space elsewhere. This was definitely home to the old-guard, I met a department head (not too young himself) who was helping to clear out the lab of a professor who was still around but had no students and was way past the age he could do it himself. In fact we were specifically hunting for materials or notes some people may have forgotten they had in their old space. And even the people that still had active research or teaching programs took the usual view of grant money and didn't bother to move anything they could buy again.
It was a thrill all around. Lots of cool free stuff. Wandering through a maze. Some pretty spooky areas - even I wouldn't venture too far into some ares of the basement 8-o . I took students and friends through and got requests to go back again or show someone new. Seeing other people's reactions was a good part of the fun. Most were just like me the first time I was there. I had a pair of students find two big wooden mallets (the kind where the head is built of multiple strips of wood like a barrell w/ iron rings) that one ended up taking home to display on his wall and claim as midieval weaponry. Challenged another student who bragged about lifting weights to pick up the base to a solid marble balance table which, with the top off looked like a giant marble barbell - somehow he lifted it a few inches. Discovered some areas of the building were still in use when I was wondering down a nearly pitch black hallway and opened a door to see a wall of rats in cages who made a fuss over being surprised (not as much as me).
If I think of more Mac content I'll add it. I know there was at least once when my car was entirely filled with Mac stuff. Most of it was old and common but it kept me entertained for awhile. I've had hunts that have netted me much better stuff in a lot less time but none were anywhere near as fun!
