THE NOVA COMES HOME

After several months of being separated from my beloved machine, I managed to convince my parents to let me take it home. How I managed to pull off this stunt is anybodys guess, but the day finally came where I was able to rescue it from its cold and lonely compartment, and give it the love and attention it deserved.

After several e-mails and a visit, I organised with Toby and Finn to pick it up. The days leading up to it were filled with excitement and anticipation. I'd be dancing around the house chanting "I can't wait 'til Sun-day, I can't wait 'til Sun-day..." when my father would ask me if I was seeing a girl that day. "Nope, I'm getting the Nova!" I'd giggle. His face dropped.

The day came and Toby, wisely, took along his digital camera. He also thought it a good idea to unclutter his study by taking a bunch of monochrome Sun monitors to fill the void in the storage compartment left by the Nova 3's absence. Those trolleys are a lot of fun, you know.

Now it was time for moving things. Hoo boy!!! As you can see, the storage compartment was rather full, and things needed to be moved to get to the Nova. I'm sorry to say that the Nova 3 is the only box here that belongs to me, the rest are Toby's. Starting from the left in the foreground we have a bunch of old Macs, next to which is the Nova 3. The machine under my arm, as I lean against it looking smug, is a Nova 4 with its face removed. Above my elbow is a Kennedy tape unit, under my armpit are some disk packs, and behind my botty is a VAX-11/750 . Mmmmm, yummy!

As you can see, a lot had to be removed to get to the machine. Here you see me holding the terminal, with its 'Star Trek' stylings, while in the background Finn models its accompanying keyboard. One thing you've gotta love about Data General is their use of blue.