The History of Computing Auctioned at Christie's 177
Larry Groebe writes "The most amazing unified collection of books, papers, and similar material on the history of computing is about to go on sale at Christie's auction house. Want a signed copy of 'Rossum's Universal Robots?' Original papers on the Eniac? Alan Turning's original proof of universal computability? Letters from Charles Babbage himself? It's in there, to anyone with (a whole lot of) money. Check out the estimated price on the 1974 journal article by Vinton Cerf describing IP addressing. It's increased in value in the past 30 years...just a bit."
Hey baby (Score:5, Funny)
The sale's not going well (Score:3, Funny)
Do they have... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Do they have... (Score:5, Funny)
yes [slashdot.org]
Re:Do they have... (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Do they have... (Score:2)
Re:Do they have... (Score:2)
Re:Sure!!! (Score:2)
Re:MOD PARENT UP (Score:1)
Re:Do they have... (Score:3, Funny)
See the section labeled department of redundancy department.
Re:Do they have... (Score:1)
I think you mean 'stacked'.
To find out... (Score:2)
No, but... (Score:1)
Historical Documents Deserve A Prominent Place. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Historical Documents Deserve A Prominent Place. (Score:1, Funny)
- So do you!
(sorry bad joke)
Re:Historical Documents Deserve A Prominent Place. (Score:3, Interesting)
put them in a museum but how about PDF or PS copies on line. I want to read this stuff but not at the price being asked.
Re:Historical Documents Deserve A Prominent Place. (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Historical Documents Deserve A Prominent Place. (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Historical Documents Deserve A Prominent Place. (Score:3, Informative)
--HC
Re:Historical Documents Deserve A Prominent Place. (Score:2)
Re:Historical Documents Deserve A Prominent Place. (Score:2)
And how about selling Altair kits in the gift shop?
Re:Historical Documents Deserve A Prominent Place. (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Historical Documents Deserve A Prominent Place. (Score:2, Flamebait)
Re:Historical Documents Deserve A Prominent Place. (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Historical Documents Deserve A Prominent Place. (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Historical Documents Deserve A Prominent Place. (Score:2)
Let me guess. You're the kind of fool that tells an end user who tries out Linux and has a problem that they should build a solution to the problem themselves, if one doesn't exist.
Bill Gates (Score:1, Offtopic)
Re:Bill Gates (Score:2, Funny)
And then what? Dig a hole in your back yard and burn everything in it that challenges your vise-like grip on the IT market? Or file it away, with a very Blofeld-ish, "Quaint, quaint."
Re:Bill Gates (Score:1, Funny)
Re:Bill Gates (Score:2)
Paul Allen (Score:2)
Re:Bill Gates (Score:2)
Perhaps he will. He purchased Leonardo da Vinci's Codex Leicester at auction for $30 million and founded Corbis, which owns historically significant collections like the Bettmann Achieve.
Re:Bill Gates (Score:2)
The bidding on some of these pieces is going to be insane.
getting slow (Score:2)
Computors (Score:5, Funny)
I will never RTFA again. Who knows what else I'll find out?
Re:Computors (Score:2, Funny)
Indeed. For penance, do 3 Gentoo stage 2 installs, and learn to send mail with Emacs.
Re:Computors (Score:3, Informative)
or
Yep, those are people that do computations - computers.
Re:Computors (Score:2)
I have... (Score:4, Funny)
Re:I have... (Score:2, Funny)
Oh sure, but... (Score:2)
Duh.
-dameron
estimated bids are ridiculous (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:estimated bids are ridiculous (Score:3, Insightful)
Just because you don't have the money doesn't mean quite a few people don't. I would expect historically interesting documents to fetch a decent price. Someone will want them, hopefully for a museum (A tech museum somewhere) - I could see Bill J, Scott M, Bill G, Steve J. putting bids on documents that particularly inspired them.
Re:estimated bids are ridiculous (Score:2)
god forbid we should trust people who do this -- well -- for a living, when we can trust a guy on slashdot who has an opinion and fingers.
One man's trash... (Score:2)
Re:One man's trash... (Score:3, Insightful)
and i'm going out on a limb here
christie's employs people with experience in correctly valuing antiques and memorabilia. gee, i wonder who i should trust -- the experts, with years of proven experience in the field, or an anonymous coward?
yawn.
It can't be! (Score:2)
Also featured on Page 3 of the catalog... (Score:5, Funny)
Just kidding folks...no need to get your panties all in a bunch.
As the Alan Turns... (Score:1)
Re:As the Alan Turns... (Score:3, Funny)
Turing's grave was dug by intolerance. (Score:4, Informative)
Re:As the Alan Turns... (Score:3, Funny)
Will he ever stop spinning, or will his ghost keep halting me forever???
Re:As the Alan Turns... (Score:2)
Worth noting (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Worth noting (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Worth noting (Score:2)
Hah! I bet if you try to read the material without the Rights Sunglasses, your eyes will explode.
Re:Worth noting (Score:2)
Grandparent says
parent says ...
You laugh, but there's a grain of truth to it actually. Think of all of the patents which have been granted which cover some of the aspects held in this haul.
If someone who didn't play well with other children owned these, could they conveniently forget about all of the prior art
Re:Worth noting (Score:1)
Re:Worth noting (Score:2)
Implicit in this statement is the (vaild) observation that much human thought which has only ever existed as digital records will not retain the personal, tangible quality physical records have.
Also interesting is the potential that, if our society ever self destructs, a truly staggering body of knowledge will be lost. I know, no one thinks this is likely. They probably thought the s
Re:Worth noting (Score:2)
Re:Worth noting (Score:3, Interesting)
The window of opportunity for getting at knowledge on various media is decreasing exponentionally. For example: books can still be accessed (ever since they were invented essentially). However, nowadays it is getting harder to g
Dang! (Score:1)
Re:Dang! (Score:2)
What about (Score:5, Funny)
Signed,
Joey
sort of (Score:2)
255 lots? (Score:4, Funny)
Re:255 lots? (Score:2)
No, 255 is correct. (Score:5, Funny)
Re:No, 255 is correct. (Score:2)
0 isn't NULL, but it *is*.... zero.
Are we to assume that Christies are never out of stock and we can use the '0' to represent something else?
Re:No, 255 is correct. (Score:2)
That's what everyone thought, until the Arabs went and invented this damn 0 thing. :)
The problem is not merely that you have to represent zero items, but rather that you have to have something to represent when there's nothing more to represent. This is known as a sentinel value. In C, the value of 0 is used to terminate strings. You cannot have a 0 in a string, because otherwise all strings would be infinitely long.
(Infinite,
Re:No, 255 is correct. (Score:2)
Sorry to pick nits, but 0 was invented (discovered?) in India. The arabs copied the numeral system from the Indians and the other civilizations copied it from the arabs. Hence, the so-called Arabic numeral system is really the Indian numeral system. Or so, i've read somewhere
Re:255 lots? (Score:2)
Re:255 lots? (Score:5, Funny)
If they slap in another lot, it'll roll round to 0. Damn those legacy systems!
Intrigued, but annoyed (Score:5, Insightful)
...Which brings me to the annoyance factor. This collection is going to be scattered to the four winds. Looking at some of the pre-auction estimates, no one person, and very few institutions, will have the scratch that it would take to keep the collection together. Taken seperately, each of these items has a historical context, but taken together, they chart the idealistic, scientific, and technological foundations of the Internet.
Auctioning the library off in such a piecemeal fashion just seems wrong, IMNSHO.
Re:Intrigued, but annoyed (Score:3, Insightful)
What do you mean - I know people that this would be chump change for (ever go on a drinking spree with someone with more money than sense and get a sip of whiskey out of a multi-thousand dollar bottle ?)
Bill G easily has this kind of money - heck the brothers google do as well.
I could see Andy B from Sun, Steve Jobs from Apple, and maybe the Woz
Re:Intrigued, but annoyed (Score:2, Interesting)
Furthermore, there are Rare Book Libraries all over the place who already have a lot of this kind of material (i happen to work in one of them). That means if the material does get scattered to a certain extent, the material is going to be added to these kind of collections tha
I am annoyed as well (Score:2)
Re:I am annoyed as well (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Intrigued, but annoyed (Score:2)
Whether that is wrong or not, I do think important historical documents should be electronically 'preserved' and made available for the benefit of the public. Some institutions and companies make an effort but not all and quality is variable - the British Library recently scanned some 17th century Shakespeare Quartos and put images of them up online in jpeg format. They are readable but not as readable as if they'd used some
For those gloating over the latest Slashdotting... (Score:2)
Christie's site always runs more slowly than molasses in a North Dakota winter.
Re:For those gloating over the latest Slashdotting (Score:2)
The only other sites I know that are this slow are scammer sites.
Turning? (Score:1)
I wouldn't pay a dime... (Score:2, Interesting)
On the other hand, if they had Turing's, I would definitly fork over the cash.
Re:I wouldn't pay a dime... (Score:2)
Given that some of these documents (including Turing's Proof of Computing) are just prints [christies.com] of some antique conference proceedings, I would think twice about cracking the piggy.
Now, if these were Turing's original manuscripts, I'd might even consider spilling the 20000 for them (of course, my wife would leave me if she found out what I bought for that price) =)
Oops. (Score:1)
I read that as compatibility. That would have helped my programming and explained his homosexuality [lambda.net] all at once! (Not that I have anything against that.)
How about a benefactor? (Score:5, Insightful)
ciao,
-X
Re:How about a benefactor? (Score:2)
Re:How about a benefactor? (Score:2)
This is where Bill Gates should step in (Score:2)
This is where Bill Gates should step in and buy these things, thus preserving them for posterity.
It would be a shame if this collection is to be fragmented (although it is not by one author or decade) and sold to different people, and perhaps different countries.
Who else would be in the computer industry and have the money to buy all this. Unless it is Larry Ellison tried to one up Gates that is...
Re:This is where Bill Gates should step in (Score:2)
I'd like to see these on permanent display by an organization whose sole function is to make great works available to the public.
Sam Nitzberg
Re:This is where Bill Gates should step in (Score:2)
I agree with you that a public institution is far better than a private collection.
However, do they have the money? Do they have a chance to win the auction?
Bill G (or Larry E) is not my first choice, but rather a last resort, because he has the money.
Cerf article (Score:1, Flamebait)
Once again Gore is buying up evidence that disproves he invented the internet.
Re:Cerf article (Score:3, Funny)
Those papers... (Score:2, Funny)
Intrestingly Enough (Score:2)
can I pay... (Score:2, Funny)
buy the catalog (Score:4, Interesting)
i have no connection w/ christies whatsoever. But i suggest buying the catalog if this interests you. I had a friend a few years back who lent me his catalog for a very comprehensive auction of Soviet space program stuff. Like full suits. 1:1 models of lunar landers. Some very cool stuff. The catalog was well put together, with lots of large images. Definitely worth the 30 bones.
why did i ever give it back to him?
history of computers... (Score:2, Interesting)
Why? (Score:2, Interesting)
should be scanned (Score:2)