Thanks, everybody, for some thoughtful discussion on this...like I said, I *did* muse about whether to *do* this, and then some more about whether to let people know it had been done.

I'm no stranger to rare machinery or the preservationist mentality. I own two cars that are homologation specials (with less than 1100 in the US, before half of them were wrecked and 3/4 beaten to within inches of their lives), I ride a motorcycle of which only 200 exist (16 in the states), and I could go on. [By the way, there's no parallel between driving without seatbelts and riding a motorcycle...in the latter case, leathers and a helmet are *much* better protection than the interior of a '57 Chevy, whose steering column *itself* is a deadly weapon in a crash.] It's always tough, deciding whether something is going to become a garage queen or be treated as it was intended.

Does anybody actually have production numbers on the various models of Predicta? How about the numerous finishes? The options (e.g., UHF)? Does anybody know how many survive, in some form or another? My suspicion is, although there are probably only a few functional ones around, that there are probably quite a few tucked away in attics and such...everybody who ever would've purchased one of seen on knows they're special. I'm just curious, and I *would* like to avoid ever doing anything stupid to a really rare variety.

I didn't use a Telestar reproduction because I didn't have time to be on their waiting list. I'd definitely talk to them before doing many more of these (not that I'm really planning on it anyway), because it *would* make me feel better not to work over the genuine ones.

The reason it's a Pedestal is that it was never intended to really be a general purpose computer. What we made for the client was a very classy gaming console...kind of a cross between a Playstation and a beautiful piece of classic office furniture, like an original Eames chair of some sort. The fact that it's also a general-purpose computer inside this initial configuration is kind of gravy. A desktop box wouldn't have been appropriate for the project (and the Princess isn't very attractive, either).

Enough for now.

Scott