The trunk to the black PF Cruiser popped open to reveal a pile of vintage computers, keyboards, boxes of software and other tech goodies destined for ELL. In the car’s backseat was another mound of vintage tech. The man who provided this “Christmas in June” experience was none other than Bill Bly, pioneering electronic literature artist and author of We Descend––one of the five works that Stuart Moulthrop and I worked to preserve in the Pathfinders project. Bill, who drove to WSUV from Pennsylvania by way of Seattle, was on his way to Denver to visit with Deena Larsen, another pioneering electronic artist. Both will end up in Milwaukee next week for the Electronic Literature Organization 2014 Conference.
I will be posting a complete inventory of the new vintage Mac and software Bill gave me once Jeff has a chance to clean it up and get it ready for use in the lab. But I will admit that I got my first Classic II, one of the first tiny Mac laptops, access to OS 8.0, a gorgeous white iMac, a non-beta version of Perseus, and the dandiest padded carrier for a Classic computer.
And yes, that is the biggest Mac that Apple ever made. I think after much consideration we will name it Wampa. Star Wars fans will understand what we mean. For those who do not, here is a link to the Wookiepedia page for the Wampa.