Terminal bashing (Re: POSIX bashing)

[Don Libes]

In article <JOZALZ2 at xds13.ferranti.com> peter at ficc.ferranti.com (peter da silva) writes:
>In article <130073 at uunet.UU.NET>, rbj at uunet.UU.NET (Root Boy Jim) writes:
>> At NBS, the excess property people didn't even bother hauling the
>> many Datamedia 1521 terminals to whoever auctions them off. They'd
>> simply SMASH the screens, and throw them away.
>
>That's disgusting. I know lots of people who would pay $25 or so for these
>because that's all they can afford. They'd love some cheap terminals. We
>have hundreds of people on local BBSes who *can'* afford a terminal and call
>up using those horrible 40-column teletext devices U.S.Videotel rents.
>
>If nothing else, donate them to some charity. Throw in some $50 1200 baud
>modems and a list of BBS numbers. DON'T WASTE A PERFECTLY GOOD RESOURCE!
>
>(I'm sorry, but this is insane. Your Government In Action)

Since I work at NIST (was NBS) let me give you the real story.  (Ok,
not necessarily real, but a good story.)

I've not seen it with my own eyes, but what Jim says, I've heard from
others and I wouldn't be surprised if it were true.

Consider the kind of paperwork that the government would have to
handle to give away stuff.  There would be liability forms, waiver
forms, inventory forms, dept of redundancy dept forms, etc, etc.  We'd
need a property officer, office, files, regular auditing, etc., etc.
And all of this stuff generates its own overhead (health insurance,
janatorial, personnel, office space, etc.)  Believe me - it would cost
(taxpayers) $500 to give away each $25 terminal.  Maybe more.

Ironically, much of this overhead exists as safeguards to prevent the
government from spending money unwisely.  Financially, it's a no-win
situation.  But when the government gets involved in charity it makes
the financial hotbed tepid by comparison.  (They don't care about
money until it either gets 9 or 10 zeros behind it, or it has
something to do with honorarium.)  Historically, the feds have never
known what they were doing when it came to social services and now you
want to get them involved in another area.  Forget you suggested it.
(It's easier to ask for a piece of Alaska.)

I suppose it's no excuse, but our trash really is worn-out.  The
terminals that get thrown out really are old and beaten.  We do have a
dusty cellar for storing things that might be used in an experiment
next year.  (We have some computers with mercury delay lines gathering
dust in the same place as a bunch of Sun 1s.  On the other hand, we
still have an IMSAI controlling experiments in one of our labs.)

By the way, I attended the Trenton Computer Festival last week and in
the flea market, people were selling these same old terminals for $5.
1200 baud modems were $10.  The talks were pretty good, too.

Don Libes          libes at cme.nist.gov      ...!uunet!cme-durer!libes