Comments on: The Pointless Museum

The Pointless Museum

Item — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 18:40:28 -0800

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."

By: BrotherCaine

BrotherCaine — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 18:46:43 -0800

But will this FPP be archived there? Just kidding.

By: Dave Faris

Dave Faris — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 19:04:42 -0800

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.

By: Marie Mon Dieu

Marie Mon Dieu — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 19:12:57 -0800

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.

By: rokusan

rokusan — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 19:33:08 -0800

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.

By: rokusan

rokusan — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 19:33:44 -0800

(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?)

By: Dave Faris

Dave Faris — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 19:37:06 -0800

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.

By: kuujjuarapik

kuujjuarapik — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 19:46:12 -0800

You don't have to have a point to have a point, Oblio.

By: wendell

wendell — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 19:48:07 -0800

Yeah, pointless, like Oblio.

By: wendell

wendell — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 19:49:09 -0800

kuujjuarapik, this will not wendell for you.

By: kuujjuarapik

kuujjuarapik — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 20:03:52 -0800

it rarely does.

By: Miko

Miko — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 20:48:50 -0800

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.

By: Huck500

Huck500 — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 21:04:04 -0800

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.

By: kozad

kozad — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 22:20:49 -0800

Pointless. Try looking up police in the "index."

By: spiderskull

spiderskull — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 00:53:11 -0800

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.

By: ZippityBuddha

ZippityBuddha — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 10:07:45 -0800

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

By: Miko

Miko — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 11:04:13 -0800

Sorry, should have said that in Projects, and more nicely. It would be fun to try to help with name.

By: ZippityBuddha

ZippityBuddha — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 11:17:25 -0800

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

By: carter

carter — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 11:18:27 -0800

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.

By: homelystar

homelystar — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 14:23:39 -0800

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).

By: marxchivist

marxchivist — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 15:21:30 -0800

I love this kind of stuff. Thanks ZippityBuddha and item.

By: brighton

brighton — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 15:42:26 -0800

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.