Tag: be-inc

The Last Be Press Release?

Hopefully this will not be the last Be press release. A victory press release in their lawsuit against Microsoft (followed immediately by a victory lap around the Valley) would be nice.

I was playing with the Google Toolbar earlier today, and discovered another weblog that was linking to mine.

Dan Sandler is another former Be employee, though he and I never met or worked at Be at the same time. He noted the passing of Be from a press release, and also wrote a nice essay about what it was like to work there, and then leave.

Hopefully the press release won’t be Be’s last. A victory over Microsoft in their lawsuit would almost certainly generate enough money to send out one last note to the world. We can all hope.

What I Bought

What I bought at the Be liquidation auction

So I went to the Be liquidation auction last week, and was the high bidder on a lot of “BeBox chassis.” It was a giant pile of BeBox carcasses, piled high up outside Baron’s old cube.

When I went back the next day to pick up my winnings, in that pile there were 20 computer boxes, 19 BeBoxes and one random PC (a dual-Pentium II system, gutted), plus three miscellaneous 17″ monitors, and some keyboards, and some other junk.

I managed to squeeze 15 BeBoxes and the PC into my Integra hatchback, which was a lot more than I’d expected. I wish I’d managed to fit the other four, though, because when I returned to pick up the rest of the lot, the 4 remaining BeBox carcasses had been swiped. Oh, well, the auctioneers refunded me $55, and 15 carcasses is more than my wife wants in our living room anyway.

Tonight I processed three of the 15. I got two working, and set one aside as probably dead. Of the rest, at least three look like they might be salvageable. My biggest problem is going to be finding RAM for the machines, which use totally obsolete SIMMs.

The individual BeBoxes went for $175 at the auction, and I heard that not all of them worked. After the refund my lot cost $400 + sales tax + auction fees, or around $475. So if I get one more working, I’m ahead.

Not that that makes Rochelle any happier to have them on the floor of the living room.