The Computer History Museum and its Counterpoint

Last weekend we visited two shrines of "all things computer." 

We went to the in Mountain View and to the eclectic store, WeirdStuff Warehouse, in Sunnyvale. Both are great places to introduce kids to the amazing chronology of computer inventions.

Both my husband's and my family were early adopters of computers growing up. Our house was IBM until the Mac came out; my husband had an Apple II, so we could walk both sides of the aisle with our son. It was fun to show him the computers we used when we were young.  

At the Computer History Museum, I told stories from my childhood of printing labels for our home business where if the cat sat on the printer (wanting to attack the roller ball printing back and forth) and messed up the paper, we had to start from the very beginning of the 20,000 label run because you couldn't start the sequence in the middle.

My husband got to share about his dad being less than thrilled about staying inside and programming an Apple II. My mother, on the other hand, got me my first computer (a TRS-80) when I was 12 because she wanted me to program). Here, I got to show our son what all of those old computers looked like. So our son got to learn about us, our childhood and his grandparents. It was fun to talk, show and share as a family.

Then we went to the grittier, darker side of computers—WeirdStuff Warehouse. This store is a huge warehouse of computer gear which has been recycled over the ages: stacks of Iomega drives, palm devices, switchers, routers—you name it, it was there. It all represented just a tip of the wide world of tech waste. Our son loved seeing all of the circuit boards—"they look like little cities."

WeirdStuff is for the down-and-dirty enthusiast or someone looking for a piece of hardware to match something that they already have (but perhaps needing a spare part or replacement circuit board). We came away with some old-school switches (lots of fun for our son) and a keyboard—all for a bargain.

And, WeirdStuff is the ultimate in reduce-reuse-recycle.  They'll take pretty much any piece of computer or electronic gear as a recycle donation—much better than throwing into the trash, which you can't really do anymore. Keeps them in business and gives everyone a chance to see or purchase technology time pieces.

Both the Computer History Museum and WeirdStuff were a walk down Memory Lane. We both have had many different computers in our lifetimes—and they are all preserved here. 

One issue though: The question of tech-waste is highlighted by what you see—so many things piled high. If people can't use it how can it all be recycled and who will do it? 

For our family it was a sober, important counter-point to taking things for granted.

The Basics:

Both places are not too from each other, on opposite sides of Moffett Field from each other.

Computer History Museum

1401 N Shoreline Blvd., Mountain View, CA 94043

WeirdStuff Warehouse

384 W. Caribbean Drive, Sunnyvale, CA