The Pointless Museum
March 18, 2008 6:40 PM Subscribe
The Pointless Museum [via mefi projects]
"The Pointless Museum is a growing collection of books, cards, games and other half-forgotten things. It includes 70s futurism books like The Usborne Book of the Future and The World of Tomorrow - School, work and play; a number of sets of Top Trumps and other card games, and programming books for home computers that hardly anyone ever owned."
"The Pointless Museum is a growing collection of books, cards, games and other half-forgotten things. It includes 70s futurism books like The Usborne Book of the Future and The World of Tomorrow - School, work and play; a number of sets of Top Trumps and other card games, and programming books for home computers that hardly anyone ever owned."
This post was deleted for the following reason: Poster's Request -- frimble
Only but so pointless... half, if not all of those nintendo games either are, or will very soon, be available to play for wii download.
posted by Dave Faris at 7:04 PM on March 18, 2008
posted by Dave Faris at 7:04 PM on March 18, 2008
Picturing those librarians busily feeding the centralized computer the information I need to have at my fingertips. Super librarians, working tirelessly 24 hours a day just so I can read about Haley's Comet. Awesome.
posted by Marie Mon Dieu at 7:12 PM on March 18, 2008
posted by Marie Mon Dieu at 7:12 PM on March 18, 2008
I thought this was sort of a lame website with a bunch of meh crap until I found the Usborne Book of the Future which I totally owned and loved and read for hours at a time over and over and over and over again....
So now I think this is a great site.
posted by rokusan at 7:33 PM on March 18, 2008
So now I think this is a great site.
posted by rokusan at 7:33 PM on March 18, 2008
(Not that I mind, but how do things get from Projects to the front page anyway? Is there some sort of self-linking voodoo involved?)
posted by rokusan at 7:33 PM on March 18, 2008
posted by rokusan at 7:33 PM on March 18, 2008
No. Exactly the opposite. Things are posted to Projects and if another metafilter user ... someone not intimately involved in the creation of the site ... think it's good enough for the front page, they post it.
posted by Dave Faris at 7:37 PM on March 18, 2008
posted by Dave Faris at 7:37 PM on March 18, 2008
You don't have to have a point to have a point, Oblio.
posted by kuujjuarapik at 7:46 PM on March 18, 2008 [1 favorite]
posted by kuujjuarapik at 7:46 PM on March 18, 2008 [1 favorite]
it rarely does.
posted by kuujjuarapik at 8:03 PM on March 18, 2008
posted by kuujjuarapik at 8:03 PM on March 18, 2008
I think I had that Golden Egg game. It has that eerie familiarity of half-remembered childhood images.
One thing I don't like is the name: "Pointless Museum." Oy, stop with the arch irony already. Obviously there's some point to the person who compiled this museum, if only to archive old nifty stuff that has been randomly assembled. There's nothing wrong with admitting you have an intent. This took longer to assemble than most things that literally are pointless.
posted by Miko at 8:48 PM on March 18, 2008
One thing I don't like is the name: "Pointless Museum." Oy, stop with the arch irony already. Obviously there's some point to the person who compiled this museum, if only to archive old nifty stuff that has been randomly assembled. There's nothing wrong with admitting you have an intent. This took longer to assemble than most things that literally are pointless.
posted by Miko at 8:48 PM on March 18, 2008
So King Kong is stronger and has more killing power than godzilla... blasphemy. Godzilla knocks over city blocks, King Kong climbs up a building. And for god's sake, is godzilla wearing a bow tie?!
Death personified has a killing power rating of... 95/100? Two points fewer than King Kong...?
Those cards are amusing.
posted by Huck500 at 9:04 PM on March 18, 2008 [1 favorite]
Death personified has a killing power rating of... 95/100? Two points fewer than King Kong...?
Those cards are amusing.
posted by Huck500 at 9:04 PM on March 18, 2008 [1 favorite]
Heh, nice -- definitely a good way to spend your time.
The funny thing about those old computer manuals is that the basic architecture in today's CPUs are pretty much the same (more specifically, as the IBM360/91 developed in 1967).
So, really, those manuals aren't completely useless. They're decent beginner introductions.
posted by spiderskull at 12:53 AM on March 19, 2008
The funny thing about those old computer manuals is that the basic architecture in today's CPUs are pretty much the same (more specifically, as the IBM360/91 developed in 1967).
So, really, those manuals aren't completely useless. They're decent beginner introductions.
posted by spiderskull at 12:53 AM on March 19, 2008
One thing I don't like is the name: "Pointless Museum." Oy, stop with the arch irony already.
It wasn't really meant to be arch, or ironic. I spent about a month trying to come up with a decent name, but I failed and ended up with that
posted by ZippityBuddha at 10:07 AM on March 19, 2008
It wasn't really meant to be arch, or ironic. I spent about a month trying to come up with a decent name, but I failed and ended up with that
posted by ZippityBuddha at 10:07 AM on March 19, 2008
Sorry, should have said that in Projects, and more nicely. It would be fun to try to help with name.
posted by Miko at 11:04 AM on March 19, 2008
posted by Miko at 11:04 AM on March 19, 2008
Sorry
There's no need to apologise. I can see what you meant, I just hadn't thought of it like that at all.
Cheers
posted by ZippityBuddha at 11:17 AM on March 19, 2008
There's no need to apologise. I can see what you meant, I just hadn't thought of it like that at all.
Cheers
posted by ZippityBuddha at 11:17 AM on March 19, 2008
Cool stuff, thanks item! I just bought a copy of "The World of Tomorrow - School, Work and Play." It seems like there were a lot of these books around a while ago, and I was wondering, does the 'futurism' genre still exist? And if so, are there any cool children's books of life in 2050 to be had?
BTW Neil Ardley was a busy man - illustrator, painter, etc. Here's his web site.
posted by carter at 11:18 AM on March 19, 2008
BTW Neil Ardley was a busy man - illustrator, painter, etc. Here's his web site.
posted by carter at 11:18 AM on March 19, 2008
ZippityBuddha: Would you like to add the Pointless Museum to the Museum of Online Museums?
I think you'd just need to email Coudal Partners to submit a link to MooM. I'm on the MooM board, but I've never tried to add a link (and I'm still waiting for my coffee mug, gosh durn it).
posted by homelystar at 2:23 PM on March 19, 2008
I think you'd just need to email Coudal Partners to submit a link to MooM. I'm on the MooM board, but I've never tried to add a link (and I'm still waiting for my coffee mug, gosh durn it).
posted by homelystar at 2:23 PM on March 19, 2008
I love this kind of stuff. Thanks ZippityBuddha and item.
posted by marxchivist at 3:21 PM on March 19, 2008
posted by marxchivist at 3:21 PM on March 19, 2008
The Usbourne Book of the Future was awesome. It's why I got my first computer. I read it so many times and dreamed of owning a "risto" so I'd be able to tell people if I was going to be late for an appointment.
Seconding the thanks, you two.
posted by brighton at 3:42 PM on March 20, 2008
Seconding the thanks, you two.
posted by brighton at 3:42 PM on March 20, 2008
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