[tech] Project "What is this thing?" #1

[Andrew Williams]

On 2018-05-10 8:46 PM, Felix von Perger wrote:

> I'll be sending out emails on a fairly regular basis, each with photos 
> of an item found on shelves or under desks. If you recognise the object 
> in question, or if you know anything about its history, then please 
> reply to this email and contribute to the project by answering any of 
> the following questions:
> 
>   * What is it? Does it have a name?
>   * What vintage is it, when was it made and when was it donated?
>   * Who was involved in using, breaking, fixing or building it?
>   * What was it used for? What can it do? What is its story?
>   * If essential parts are missing from the photos, where might they be?
>     What did they do and what do they look like?
>   * Does it still work? How do you use it? Is there any existing
>     documentation?
>   * Is it worth keeping? Why does the club need it? Would anyone want it
>     if the club is going to throw it out?
> 
> The information gathered from this project will be made available on the 
> wiki page <http://wiki.ucc.asn.au/ProjectWhatIsThat>. As more items are 
> documented, I will make a new wiki page for each item and add a link to 
> it on the main project page.
> 
> Thank you for your contributions and I hope that this project will be 
> informative and entertaining for everyone involved.
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> The first item I looked at was the computer with a blue case retrieved 
> from the top shelf behind the door.

That's one of the BeBox's:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BeBox

One is owned by Peter Lewis (joined the same year as me, and another 
life-member). I don't know which one Pete owns, and I can't remember 
where the other one came from. They are rare and unusual machines...

I've attached a few emails from the UCC list back in 2012 describing the 
most recent time they were running. I've also CC'd Peter Lewis, Alex 
Dawson, Mark Tearle, and Grahame Bowland.

Andrew
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From: Grahame Bowland <grahame at angrygoats.net>
Subject: Re: [ucc] Magenta and the other BeBox
Date: Sun, 1 Apr 2012 01:16:56 +0800
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From: Alex Dawson <alex at theducks.org>
Subject: Re: [ucc] Magenta and the other BeBox
Date: Thu, 3 May 2012 10:17:32 +0800
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