At 02:05 PM 3/27/96 -0200, Andre Skarzynski wrote:

>We must not allow these beasts to be scraped! Too many hobbiests think they 
>can't use these big VAXen because of the power supplies, which is not actually
>true, as my friend has proven.

I know that this is getting further off-topic, but...

I have been caring and feeding a range of older VAXes for the last four years.
Systems I've looked after include 11/780,11/785, 8600, 8800, 8820, 63x0. In
my case this has been relatively easy as I've had access to lots of spares,
a good working friendship with Digital FS staff and a sympathetic boss! Having
said that, I doubt if I would have the time, patience or the power to run such
systems at home. They really do require a 'decent' environment to live in. An
airconditioned computer room is fine - even so we have had a number of major
failures due to power and other environmental problems. The worst was a power
glitch that blew up multiple boards in an 8800. After weeks of trying to fix it
the system was scrapped as unfixable.

 Huw Davies                      | e-mail: Huw.Davies@latrobe.edu.au
 Information Technology Services | Phone: +61 3 9479 1550  Fax: +61 3 9479 1999
 La Trobe University             | "My Alfas keep me poor in a monetary
 Melbourne Australia 3083        | sense, but rich in so many other ways"