The Australian Computer Museum Society

The <a href="http://www.acms.org.au/" target="_blank">ACMS</a> was founded in 1994 and presided by John Deane (the co-inventor of WiFi at CSIRO) to preserve, restore and display working historical computers for both the younger generation to learn about the past, and for the older generation to enjoy and reminisce back when a "bug" was actually an insect stuck in the circuit board. By becoming a patron, you can donate as little as $1 per month ($12 a year). Every cent counts! The ACMS is an Australian <a href="http://abr.business.gov.au/SearchByAbn.aspx?abn=89972080502">registered Charity</a> and Not For Profit association. The ACMS consists entirely of unpaid volunteers - every donation is used for the preservation and restoration of our IT history. The Museum collection includes all forms of computers, many of them in working order, from 1800s mechanical totalisators, to early calculators, word processors, tape and punch card operated mainframes, mini and micro computers such as Apple, Amiga, IBM, SGI, Casio, DEC, Amdahl, Philips, PDP, HP, Tektronix, Rockwell, Microsoft, Singer, Data General, NEC, Daewoo, Canon, General Robotics, 3Com, MicroBee and many, many more. We have 16kb of RAM the size of a laptop, 4MB mechanically operated <a href="https://scontent.fsyd4-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/1001951_481219501973894_1437448781_n.jpg?oh=a27388394d40d0093c70fb1a7d787581&amp;oe=59A2E4A9">disk drive the size of a dining table</a> and USB thumb drives with moving parts and spinning disks. Much of the collection includes unique, one of a kind Australian hand-built computers before Microsoft and IBM took the world by storm. Rare working items have been used in Australian <a href="http://www.starringthecomputer.com/appearance.html?f=655&amp;c=327">movies</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmPta19GSFU">music videos</a>, even <a href="http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/11/11/vintage_ibm_tape_drive_moon_dust_data/" target="_blank">borrowed by NASA to recover moon landing</a> tape data. Thus far, both major political parties of Australia have not been interested in preservation or display. Likewise, corporations are hesitant to donate funds or warehouse storage to preserve Australian Computing History. Which leaves the people. With people power, for only a few dollars a month, we can band together to ensure our innovative past is protected for the future. The US, UK, Canada and New Zealand all have government and corporate sponsored computer museums, leaving Australia as the odd one out. Please share with your friends, colleagues, business associates and IT groups. Thank you all!

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