I vaguely remember a story about an Acorn Archimedes[1] or it's Unix variant used for some embedded system in the City of London that was caught in an IRA bomb blast.
Apparently that booted up like a trooper and carried afterwards too.
If you don't count swapping the RAM, clock crystal, and the entire power supply.
As others have said, given the rarity of these machines, it's just sad to see them mistreated. One day there won't be any left, and stuff like this only makes that day come sooner.
Yeah, I reached that point in the article and had to go back to make sure I read correctly. In what world was it "all original hardware?" And what is the point of this test if components are going to be gradually replaced as they fail? Why not just burn the logic board and drop in a new one? Smash the CRT and buy a replacement? smh
Wow, you're a really tough guy. Too cowardly to make good on your threats, though -- note the "someone should" kick my ass, because you know deep down you tremble at the thought of serious confrontation, so you hope someone else does the dirty work for you. Consider therapy and/or anger management classes!
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We've banned both these accounts for breaking HN's rules. Flamewar like this isn't allowed here.
If you don't want to be banned, you're welcome to email hn@ycombinator.com and give us reason to believe that you'll follow the rules in the future. They're here: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html.
When I was a kid we had an Apple dot matrix printer and a colour ribbon. My brother insisted we only use the ribbon for special things because there’s only so much of it.
(Maybe next Midwest VCF, someone can create a diversion to allow the "CLO" to make a fast move and get Crusty somewhere where he can get the retrobrite he's been craving.)
I don't have a huge affinity for old tech/computers but this just seems.... pointless? I won't go as far to say "pointlessly cruel" since it's a machine but still, destruction for the sake of destruction. It's like those YouTube/TikTok'ers who waste food or destroy things as "pranks", I just don't get it.
Pretty sure, for all you weirdos with poor senses of humor, that the folks behind this do more to preserve retro computers than most of you put together.
This was a beautiful art project that is well and humorously presented.
> Mike mentioned the scrapper guy saying that it had been left outside for around six months prior, and once we opened it up, that became pretty obvious.
This machine was already scrap. They managed to get it working and found a purpose for it. And even after all the torture they put it through, they committed to getting it working again and again.
I think that's way more admerable than the people you're comparing with.
> I think that's way more admerable than the people you're comparing with.
That's fair and I agree with you, it still just feels off to me. As in I felt uncomfortable reading through it. I'm saying they are bad people or anything, just I don't understand it.
This makes me hurt, deeply... I've always subscribed to the philosophy that, since there's only so many vintage Macs in the world, every one is precious... I've cried when I've broken CRTs in compact Macs!
Yeah I was keen when they were just showing off how hardy the thing was. But when they started raiding parts from other machines its a bit hard to justify the gag anymore.
The part I find rather unsettling is the fact that it's not clear what the flavour is. Is this vodka flavoured to taste like Old Bay? Or is it some other substance that's flavoured to taste like vodka?
That thing had absolutely no business booting. Once upon a time I had a Compaq Deskpro server that we joked you could drop off the third story of a building and get fined for damage to the pavement. We fully expected it would survive but this is on another level, absolutely brutal, especially the immersion.
I worked at a place in the late 90s that had a mix of older actual Apple Macs and newer Power Computing towers. One night some water line in the ceiling went and almost all of the machines got showers. Most of the wet Power Computing died but none of the Apple machines did. There was even one that retained probably a quart of water that was dumped out through the disk drive holes the next morning.
At first glance I thought it's one of those machines that get fitted to run a CNC mill or something for decades. But no this is engagement vandalism, so sad.
> Crusty is the result of two years of pure hell inflicted upon a poor, hapless Macintosh SE that has begged for death at every stage and yet has consistently been deprived of it. Crusty has been dragged, kicked, buried, submerged in creek water, dunked in alcohol, battery bombed, washed with dish soap, hand soap, body wash, conditioner, Old Bay Vodka, and multiple types of solvents
This is sad and disturbing. I'd be a bit concerned and wary of the mental health/behaviour of the man who did this.
That's a bit harsh. It sounds a bit more like they are doing an experiment, roughly, and semi joking around. Like, 'look at all tye crazy things I did to this'.
I'm not sure were at the point of ai personhood where we start worrying about the computers feelings. By that logic server farms would be as bad as factory farms
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1997_Colombo_World_Trade_Centr...
I particularly recall a Sun pizza box server that had been blown well clear of the desk it was one that worked fine.
Crusty reminds me more of what Top Gear did to the Toyota pickup though.