A word to the wise re: University surplus...

  You ultimately get what you pay for.  Some stuff at UMCP is good stuff,
some of it is quite broken.  I picked up a DS2100 there some months ago;
broken cache I think (didn't extensively test it though).
  A SE/30 I bought not long ago either lost a
motherboard.  Most of it's been used, and used pretty hard.  Of course,
there's a lot of good stuff too.  If you go to T.T., try to stay away from
the lab machines (or, at least the old WAM/GLUE lab machines).  They run a
wide gambit of reliability.  YMWV.  I've bought well over 20
CPU's alone from them though.  They're at least good for parts.  One cool
thing..  AUI->10BaseT transcievers for $1.00/each!  It has RJ-45 cable
too... just plug it to the back of your unit and into a hub and you're
off.

  I'm waiting for the Physics Dept.'s VAX cluster and DECnet-work to come
on down... it's an 8650 (or is it 8250?) with an HSC, but some good
monitors, a VS4000 or two, a 3600, terminals, and more.  A very good and
close friend of mine runs the beasties now, and they're days are
definitely numbered.  I think it's supposed to be less than a year or
maybe even as little as 3 months.  In the TT way, they'll have a silent
auction on it I'm sure.

Dan Kosack.