- vcf-midatlantic - lists.vcfed.org

Sneak preview of this year's VCF shirt design
by Evan Koblentz 05 Feb '18

05 Feb '18

Here's a sneak preview of the shirt design for all of our 2018 events. As usual, each event will be a different shirt color. Any similarity to a certain VCF/MA member in Pittsburgh is purely coincidental. :) https://vcfed.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/pnw-shirt-front-1.png

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Tandy plastic repair
by Mike Loewen 05 Feb '18

05 Feb '18

What sort of adhesive works well for repairing cracks in a Tandy 6000 shell? Mike Loewen mloewen(a)cpumagic.scol.pa.us Old Technology http://q7.neurotica.com/Oldtech/

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HP dual-floppy at auction
by Mike Loewen 05 Feb '18

05 Feb '18

I noticed this HP 82901M dual DSDD HPIB drive up for auction: Ebay 263475746952 This would be a good match for an HP85/87 micro that has the HPIB cartridge and storage ROM, or a standard 87XM. No connection to the seller, and no idea if it works but it looks clean. These units have Tandon TM100-2 drives installed. Mike Loewen mloewen(a)cpumagic.scol.pa.us Old Technology http://q7.neurotica.com/Oldtech/

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Need docent this Sunday Feb. 11 & for workshop
by Jeffrey Brace 05 Feb '18

05 Feb '18

Evan and I will be in Seattle for VCF PNW. We need someone for Sunday. Dromgoole will be here Saturday. Also for the workshop 3/3 & 3/4. We need one hour signups: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1uJklCb5HcA1c1uKQFVCSLcHhxzhKTiFQhfu…

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Museum Report 2018-02-04 February 4, 2018
by Jeffrey Brace 04 Feb '18

04 Feb '18

A small amount of people today, due to Superbowl Sunday and rainy weather. Lou stopped by. He has an interest in the Next Machine. He couldn't make it to the last workshop, but will be here for the March 3 & 4 one. He was able to take pictures of the different machines. Tony Bogan worked on detailed diagnosis of more compact macs from the warehouse. I worked on getting docents for future dates as well as teaching Tony how to operate the C64. And Tony taught me some more about the Compact macs. Also working on the docent manual.

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Unscientific informal keyboard poll...
by Evan Koblentz 04 Feb '18

04 Feb '18

We may be getting a proper server for the museum rack. It would replace the tablet-serving Pi and have other uses too. To save space, we'll get a combination keyboard/pointing device. But which kind of pointing device -- trackpad (laptop style) or trackball? My vote would be trackpad. Curious what you all think.

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] A Tale of Two NeXTstations
by Lou 04 Feb '18

04 Feb '18

Great to hear you got one of the NeXTstations working! I might actually be heading up to the museum today with the missus so it would actually be neat to see one of these working in person (especially since I will be getting my hands on a complete unit soon). As for the other unit and hardware password, have you tried booting it without the PRAM battery? I read somewhere that the PRAM stores the hardware password and booting it without the battery installed (and waiting a few minutes) it will try to boot from network but can be configured to drive. I do not know if this was attempted yet but in any case if we are heading up today we can talk more about it if the museum isn't swamped. Here's hoping we can figure this out! -Lou

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A Tale of Two NeXTstations
by Adam Michlin 04 Feb '18

04 Feb '18

Dear List, As most of you know, VCF received not one but two NeXTstations as donations over the past months. We managed to piece together a working combination for museum display as well as hack into the administrator password without too much trouble. Alas, about a month ago, the machine simply stopped turning on. This was diagnosed (thanks Ian!) at the most recent VCF workshop as a dead battery. At the same time, the hard drive appeared to be no longer functional (stay tuned for more on that). So I ordered a battery... oops, wrong battery. Oh well. Ordered the correct battery and it came in yesterday in a box with more warning labels than a one would expect on packaging for a vial of Bubonic Plague. I think lithium batteries have people just a tad spooked. It had always bothered me that both the battery and the hard drive exactly at the same time. 30 year old computers.. sure, battery will die and hard drive will die, but at the same exact time? As the NeXTperts on the list will tell you, there was absolutely nothing wrong with the hard drive. Someone at NeXT just had the bright idea to default to network boot when the battery died. So I installed the correct battery today and.. well.. nothing happened when it was turned on. Dejected, I went about other business but kept processing in the back of my mind at how replacing the battery didn't fix it. Bad leads? Did I put in the battery backwards (no, I was very careful)? Did I plug the keyboard in (for those who may not know, the NeXT uses a soft power on key on the keyboard... which, ugh, connects to the monitor). We were about to leave for the day and I figured I would give it one last shot. So I checked the keyboard cable... all good. Then it hit me... was it even plugged in? Just about everyone on the list has experienced the answer to this question. So I plugged it in, computer powered on. We looked up the key sequence to boot in to the ROM monitor and switch it to default to boot off the SCSI drive and all is well. Now, what we still can't figure out is how to disable the ROM hardware password on the other machine (not the su password... please, everyone wants to answer this question with that how-to - been there, done that). The NeXT manual at: http://www.nextcomputers.org/NeXTfiles/Docs/NeXTStep/3.3/nsa/ Has this to say about it: "Warning: If you set the hardware password, protect it carefully. If it should be lost, recovery is a complex procedure." Any suggestions are greatly appreciated! And yes, we have asked the person who donated the machine (he can't remember). Best wishes, -Adam

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Museum report
by Evan Koblentz 04 Feb '18

04 Feb '18

Another busy day. Adam and I arrived at 1pm. Brace and Tony were already there. Tony worked on some of our Macs. I showed around a VIP for the first hour. We took in a donation of three boxes of books. Several families came through for tours. Brace, Adam, and I cleaned some warehouse items in anticipation of an upcoming prop rental deal. (I'm not at liberty to share any details.) Adam inspired us to clean the museum workbench area too. Adam got one of our Next slabs working! He will elaborate. It's a funny story.

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March 3 & 4, 2018 VCF Repair Workshop reminder
by Jeffrey Brace 03 Feb '18

03 Feb '18

Signup here if interested: < https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/123vqgOH6iteYwHwLiANXmdSUvZOTEMTArZR… >

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Terminator resistor pack
by Richard Cini 03 Feb '18

03 Feb '18

This is kind of an odd request but would anyone have a spare resistor terminator pack for a Quantum Q540 drive that they could send me? It’s a 14-pin 220/330 ohm pack I believe. Please contact me off-list if you have one. Thanks! Rich Cini Get Outlook for iOS

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ZORK1 configuration file
by Richard Cini 02 Feb '18

02 Feb '18

All – On MS-DOS, it seems that ZORK uses an ANSI driver…not sure why for a text adventure, but it does. The machine I have runs DOS but has no video board – everything is piped over the serial port, and the ANSI driver doesn’t work. Does anyone know of a way to force it to work without the ANSI driver? ZORK does run, but it displays annoying control characters on each line. I was just looking for a way to clean it up and not need the driver. Thanks! Rich -- Rich Cini http://www.classiccmp.org/cini http://www.classiccmp.org/altair32

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] Sneak preview of this year's VCF shirt design
by Brian L. Stuart 01 Feb '18

01 Feb '18

Very cool indeed. However, we might want the swag from 2019 events to in some way acknowledge that it will be the 50th anniversary of both UNIX and the ARPANET. BLS -------------------------------------------- On Thu, 2/1/18, William Sudbrink via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> wrote: Love it! -----Original Message----- From: vcf-midatlantic [mailto:vcf-midatlantic-bounces@lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org] On Behalf Of Jeff Salzman via vcf-midatlantic I'd like to make a suggestion for next year's shirt... :) Hopefully the direct Facebook link works. https://scontent-iad3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/27655522_10203703565387718_78…

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Hey Apple People! New Movie
by Chris Fala 01 Feb '18

01 Feb '18

New Steve Jobs movie on Indiegogo by the same people who made the Commodore movie which featured Bil Herd as narrator. Despite the fact that there are several other Steve Jobs movies, this one looks worth backing. https://igg.me/at/4FCnq4eiWlE/x/18092503

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Interesting Game Show Tidbit
by jsalzman＠gmail.com 30 Jan '18

30 Jan '18

I was not aware of this fact... as described on the Tic Tac Dough Wikipedia page. "The gameboard on the original 1950s series used rolling drums (each containing the same nine categories) to display subject categories, with light displays beneath them to indicate X's and O's. When *Tic-Tac-Dough* was revived in 1978, the gameboard was made up of nine Apple II <https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_II> monitors linked to a central Altair 8800 <https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altair_8800> computer, which displayed the categories, X's and O's. The 1990 series used a completely computer generated setup." https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tic-Tac-Dough Jeff Salzman

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OT: (sort of...it is vintage) looking for an ADM-3A
by Tony Bogan 30 Jan '18

30 Jan '18

All, I have a friend in Georgia that is a fellow collector/enthusiast (exhibited at VCF SE recently) that is looking for an ADM-3A to use with her Altair. Not having any real knowledge of the early terminals I told her I'd see if anyone here perhaps had one they'd be interested in selling. If so just response to me in this thread or off list and I will gladly put you in touch with her. Very nice lady by the name of Jen. Evan you'll likely remember her, she Loaned a iic monitor to you for the robotics exhibit at VCF SE last year. Thanks in advance, she's helped me with items in the past and I'd love to be able to return the favor. Tony Sent from my iPhone

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Needed: Keyboard drawer for a rack
by Evan Koblentz 29 Jan '18

29 Jan '18

Anybody have one to donate? We could use this in the museum rack.

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Museum Report - 1/28/18
by Tony Bogan 29 Jan '18

29 Jan '18

Went to the museum today to work on removing batteries and evaluating some of the compact Macs in the warehouse, and had a couple hours off of work to be docent for awhile at the museum and do some cleaning. Didn’t end up getting much done with computers (only got through one!) because the museum was quite busy today. Ended up being able to stay till 5pm. Info age proper had about 60 visitors total today. About half of them came to the VCF museum. When the rain was on people stayed in the main Hotel building…when it let up we got some visitors down our way! Had three generations of family as my first visitors of the day…a Grandfather, son and grandson. They were very interested and spent a good 30 minutes taking the tour and asking questions. I had two very large families (6 and 9 people respectively) that came in. One early and one late in the day. Both stayed for a good 20+ minutes. The first had grandfather, son and grandson as well…the grandfather was excited to see the IBM and the Digital VAX as he worked on those machines. He stayed 10 minutes after the rest of the family went outside :-) In between I had several couples come in with mild to high interest and a mother and son who stayed for almost 40 minutes. The son was very interested (about 9 years old) and the mother was thrilled to see the machines of her youth (micros) I had a few other couples come through that started off browsing, not wanting the guided tour, and then came and asked for more information and took the whole ,02 tour anyway! I honestly did not have any low interest groups/individuals today. Everyone asked lots of questions, stopped at the machines they either owned, used in school or worked on at some point in their careers. I did not have a single set of drive by tourists today! I started in the Signal Corp room sweeping up and made my way down the hall to the front door when my first visitors came. I next planned to sweep up the museum but never made it through with the broom as each time I’d start I got another group of visitors. I have the first of three macs to remove the batteries and log serial #s etc. Over the next few months I hope to have all the macs and Apple IIs done (obviously only the macs have batteries to remove except the IIgs, and the last of those has had it removed) Great day for my first (unofficial) day as Docent! Tony Bogan

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Busy museum day!
by Evan Koblentz 28 Jan '18

28 Jan '18

Lots to report today. Adam and I got there at 11. Peter C. (of VCF East Tandy team fame) was also arrived at that time. Tony and Mouse arrived soon after. So for a while we had five people there. Adam focused on warehouse organization all day, Tony helped Mouse with fixing a Mac and a IIGS, while Pete and I rearranged some things in our rack. Then after lunch I gave Mouse/Pete docent training. There were tons of visitors today. It was non-stop, one family and another all day long. Most of them were very interested. The last group (a father and 12-year-old son) arrived just before closing, stayed until 5:45, and geeked out with us. Adam and I stayed to do more warehouse work from 6-9pm. Many things were overflowing into aisles or were left in the wrong spots. We moved all of that stuff to the proper locations. Now the warehouse is more presentable because the aisles are all clear/safe. We also moved some things to "the sell pile" for the next workshop and/or VCF East.

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Closed tomorrow
by Evan Koblentz 28 Jan '18

28 Jan '18

Our museum is closed tomorrow. Five people today was awesome, but unfortunately we don't have anyone for tomorrow.

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OT: Temporary Position: Open-Source DBA role in Somerville NJ
by Jeffrey Brace 27 Jan '18

27 Jan '18

Contact me if you are interested or know anyone that is. Got an e-mail for someone looking for: *Summary:* Database Administrator supporting all aspects of database administration for Open Source DBMS platforms deployed to support their Automation Initiatives (RPA). Will be expected to maintain a strong level of IT industry knowledge and industry trends and how they impact the environment. Implement relevant best practices on Open Source DBA operations. This DBA must understand the Open Source DBMS technologies such as Oracle’s MYSQL, MongoDB, PostgreSQL and Maria DB. A successful candidate will support business partners when called upon in the role of subject matter expert. *Knowledge, Skills and Competencies:* - Five years (or equivalent knowledge) of hands on technical database/DBA support - Oracle’s MySQL, MongoDB, or PostgreSQL knowledge preferred. - Beneficial, but not required: S3 Emulator, Solr, Nexus, RIAK - Ability to work independently and on a team with colleagues across the globe - Excellent written and verbal communication skills

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Updated group calendar page
by Evan Koblentz 26 Jan '18

26 Jan '18

I updated our group calendar page: http://vcfed.org/wp/groups/vcf-mid-atlantic/vcf-mid-atlantic-calendar/ ..... did I miss anything?

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Terminator HUD from year 2029 has 6502 code
by Glenn Roberts 25 Jan '18

25 Jan '18

perhaps old news to this group (though I hadn't seen it discussed here...) but anyway, For Your Amusement: I was recently re-watching the first Terminator movie about a Cyborg from 2029 that comes back to 1984 (a plot I'm sure you're all familiar with...). The "data" that flashes up on the Terminator's Head-Up Display is actually Apple 6502 code out of a 1980's Nibble magazine! how's that for "futuristic"?! i literally laughed out loud when i saw it. of course I soon discovered that lots of folks have analyzed this :-) .. here's an old discussion thread ... http://www.pagetable.com/?p=64 pretty funny... - Glenn

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Vintage-looking terminal emulator
by Richard Cini 24 Jan '18

24 Jan '18

All — I have plenty of terminal emulator programs (HyperTerm, PuTty, etc.) and different screen fonts that simulate an old terminal (like the VT220 font) but does anyone know of or have used a cheap/free terminal emulator which actually looks like an old terminal screen (with the bezel and such)? I’m going to do some research today but if there are any group favorites I’d like to check them out. Thanks!Rich Get Outlook for iOS

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OT / Looking for modems
by Herb Johnson 24 Jan '18

24 Jan '18

> Anyone have Hayes 2400 Baud Smartmodem > floating around? The two specific Hays models I am interested in are > 217AA and 07-00056. Why only 2400 baud modems? Don't faster modems fall back to 2400? Herb -- Herbert R. Johnson, New Jersey in the USA http://www.retrotechnology.com OR .net

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HP 87XM and 82901M
by Mike Loewen 24 Jan '18

24 Jan '18

I recently picked up a 82901M dual-floppy drive to go with my HP 87XM. It took a little cleaning and lube, but it's up and running. I used ImageDisk to create a DEMO DISK and ran a few of the demo programs: http://q7.neurotica.com/Oldtech/HP/HP87XM/ Software for the 80-series machines is available in Teledisk format on the HP Computer Museum site: http://www.hpmuseum.net/collection_software.php Mike Loewen mloewen(a)cpumagic.scol.pa.us Old Technology http://q7.neurotica.com/Oldtech/

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] eBay alert -- PETs nearby
by Jeffrey Brace 23 Jan '18

23 Jan '18

> > was one, I would consider making the long trip to go fetch them and then > find homes for duplicates. Besides, I have no idea where I would put them > all... > -Alexander 'Z' Pierson > What?!? Then you are not a true hoarder. A *true* hoarder would *find* a place for them ;) If you cannot, then you will be shunned: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5c2etjMl3WM

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Craigslist Free Demon Attack for Commodore VIC20
by Christian Liendo 23 Jan '18

23 Jan '18

https://newjersey.craigslist.org/zip/d/free-demon-attack-for/6467678817.html It's in NJ. so I figured someone would want it

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dropping a few bits (was modem error correction)
by Jeffrey Jonas 22 Jan '18

22 Jan '18

re: John Heritage Subject: Modem Error Correction - when/what baud/bps? > My questions are -- is this a correct recollection? > and when did error correction become pretty standard ... My memory may have dropped a few bits but I remember that error correction was first in the protocol the programs implemented, not the modem. Early modems had very little signal processing. The first ones didn't even auto-dial! "smart modems" added a microcontroller mostly for autodialing. That's why xmodem, uucp and such were developed. A checksum or CRC (cyclic redundency check) was added to each block. Any error caused the entire block to be sent again. Once micro-controllers were cheap enough, error correcting was moved into the modem hardware (so long as both modems supported the same "standard"). There were several totally incompatible families of modems - async (home users, bbs) - synchronous (mainframe links) - PEP (Telebit trailblazers, favored by Unix/uucp) > i.e. An early 300 or 1200 baud "client and BBS" (or server) > would typically send the 8 bits for an ASCII byte > and an additional 2 bits -- a start and stop bit ... Once modems gained DSP (digital signal processors), the data format you "fed it" externally bore little relationship to the symbols used among the modems. External modems usually use asynchronous serial via RS232 to a UART. Internal modems are parallel, so there's no stop/start bits. Early modems were FSK: frequency shift keying. One tone for a '1' or mark, another tone for '0' or space (thus the museum's all discrete-part acoustic-coupled modem in the wood box). Faster modems use frequency and phase shifting together. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phase-shift_keying https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constellation_diagram enough? -- Jeff Jonas

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Apple //e minor surgery
by Dean Notarnicola 22 Jan '18

22 Jan '18

While watching the NFL championships, I finally got around to fixing a non-working rescue ][e. After a power supply connector adjustment, chip reseating, keyswitch replacement, and a good cleaning, she's good as new. Not a big deal, and not my first restore, but I mention it because it occurred to me that, a few years ago, I wouldn't have had the confidence to do this. So, a huge thank you to everyone connected to VCF who have been so helpful, encouraging and generous with thier time and knowledge over the years. You know who you are, and you'll all be modest and say it's nothing, but it means a lot to me.

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parts bags, still on your grocer's shelves
by Jeffrey Jonas 22 Jan '18

22 Jan '18

I found nice zip-lock parts bags in the supermarket: box of 80: 3 1/2" x 5 7/8", double zipper on the top (short-way). They were originally "Hefty basics snack portion pack" in a yellow box. The same bags are now "Presto portion pack snack bags" in a rather generic looking box. Walmart sells teeny ziplock bags in the crafts section, next to the beads.

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OT / Looking for modems
by Martin A Flynn 22 Jan '18

22 Jan '18

I have a home project underway to set up a Citadel BBS on reasonably current hardware (HP DL360 G8 with an 8 port Digi Neo Card) Where I'm stuck is modems. Anyone have Hayes 2400 Baud Smartmodem floating around? The two specific Hays models I am interested in are 217AA and 07-00056. Before anyone asks: Dial tone is from a PBX, BBS calls will be from other analog ports on the BBS. PSTN access is blocked at the moment) Martin

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Microsoft BASIC 1.0 for the Mac 128k
by Jeffrey Brace 22 Jan '18

22 Jan '18

Now at the VCF museum. Courtesy of Corey Little who copied it. I will play with it some more when grad studies are finished. Was there a Pascal for the 128k? -- Jeff Brace

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Museum Report 2018-01-21 January 21, 2018
by Jeffrey Brace 22 Jan '18

22 Jan '18

I was at the InfoAge front desk since it was VCF's turn. Steve Anderson filled in at the VCF museum. Much thanks to him to fill in at the last minute! About 20 visitors to Infoage, 10 made their way to VCF. Maybe Steve can report on their interest level. == Jeff Brace

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Modem Error Correction - when/what baud/bps?
by John Heritage 21 Jan '18

21 Jan '18

Techie questions -- IIRC -- Part of the reason modem error correction was a big deal was because in addition to improving transfer accuracy (i.e. less loss), error correction typically reduced the number of transmitted bits per byte from 10 to 8. i.e. An early 300 or 1200 baud "client and BBS" (or server) would typically send the 8 bits for an ASCII byte* and an additional 2 bits -- a start and stop bit, or similar, but later error correcting modems (i.e. 9600bps or higher) would only need 8 bits. In practice, a 2400bps modem without error correction would be limited to ~ 240 characters per second, while the same modem with error correction would be ~ 300 characters per second raw throughput. My questions are -- is this a correct recollection? and when did error correction become pretty standard -- was it the 2400 "baud" era or was it more like 9600 bps and above? I was lucky enough to go from 1200 bps to 9600 bps in one jump, though later someone gifted me a 2400 baud modem that also had error correction, and I used that for a second machine in the house.. Thanks, John *Yes, ASCII wasn't always a standard :)

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Museum Report 2018-01-20 January 20, 2018
by Jeffrey Brace 21 Jan '18

21 Jan '18

About a dozen or so visitors today in batches of 2's and 3's. Some were passers by. Some with moderate interest. One lady stayed for 30 to 40 minutes because she remembered a lot of the micros, especially the Commodore 64, which I was glad to show off ;) Another guy said that he worked with a Data General machine and wondered if we had any more of them. I keep telling everyone about the upcoming VCF East. Many seemed interested. A nice day even though a bit nippy.

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eBay alert -- PETs nearby
by Evan Koblentz 20 Jan '18

20 Jan '18

https://www.ebay.com/itm/142630770116 ________________________________ Evan Koblentz, director Vintage Computer Federation a 501(c)(3) educational non-profit evan(a)vcfed.org (646) 546-9999 www.vcfed.org facebook.com/vcfederation twitter.com/vcfederation instagram.com/vcfederation

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Has anyone read Introduction to the History of Computing: A Computing History Primer
by Christian Liendo 20 Jan '18

20 Jan '18

Has anyone read Introduction to the History of Computing: A Computing History Primer Gerard O'Regan. Looking for opinions before I try to get this to read. https://books.google.com/books?id=6u16DAAAQBAJ

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Please read
by Evan Koblentz 20 Jan '18

20 Jan '18

Everyone, This is very important. We need help. We've got a problem at the museum: there is a severe lack of tour guides. Jeff B. and I wind up doing almost all of the docent duty by ourselves. We almost never get a weekend off. There are 183 people on this list. We shouldn't have this problem. Dean, Corey, Doug, Todd, Bill Drom., and Steve A. all take some days -- we're grateful for their help -- but we desperately need more people. PLEASE, if you have any interest in being a tour guide at our computer museum, then email Jeff B. and I off-list. The requirements are simple: be enthusiastic about computer history, be good at interacting with families, be reliable, and represent VCF professionally. You don't have to be an expert on every aspect of computer history -- we will teach you everything you need to know. It is distressing when the only responses we get are "Wish I could, but" or crickets. In addition, every month or two, it is VCF's turn to have a front desk volunteer for Infoage itself. So we need people for that role too.

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MOS 6501 seems to have sold for $5000
by Christian Liendo 20 Jan '18

20 Jan '18

https://www.ebay.com/itm/MOS-MCS-6501-CPU-IC-DATE-3475-VINTAGE-MICROPROCESS…

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TV alert
by Evan Koblentz 19 Jan '18

19 Jan '18

Reminder to everyone: tune to CBS on Thursday, Jan. 18 at 8:30pm. The "Young Sheldon" show (spinoff of Big Bang Theory) is featuring 10-year-old Sheldon getting his first computer, a Tandy 1000, which the set designers sourced from us. Here are some publicity photos: https://www.spoilertv.com/2018/01/young-sheldon-episode-112-computer.html

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New TestFDC Results Registry
by systems_glitch 18 Jan '18

18 Jan '18

I'd been trying to reach Dave Dunfield with new TestFDC results since apparently August with no results. So, I wrote a new TestFDC registry into my site: https://services.theglitchworks.net/ng/testfdc_results This registry currently includes Dave's last registry update from 2007. There's now a form for entering your results, you can find it as a link from the registry, or here: https://services.theglitchworks.net/ng/testfdc_results/new Result submissions have to be manually approved currently so that the registry doesn't get spammed. Text export forthcoming. Any suggestions welcome! Moderators, if someone wants to sticky this (here or in other forums), I think this would be a valuable resource for anyone wanting to use ImageDisk on non-PC formats. Thanks, Jonathan

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AT&T UNIX PC 7300 (3b1) disassembly video
by AJ Palmgren 18 Jan '18

18 Jan '18

While I'm thinking about it, for any/all who might be interested, just last week, I created a step-by-step video for disassembling a UNIX PC 7300 (with a few comments/comparisons for the 3b1) https://youtu.be/vYKS-jOdcsQ I've always found them tricky to work on with the way they are packed together, so I hope this could help others who might want to take a crack at a repair/restoration (or, heaven forbid...a "part-out") -- Thanks, AJ http://MightyFrame.com http://QICreader.com http://UnixPC.blogspot.com

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April 2018 Workshop Date
by Jeffrey Brace 18 Jan '18

18 Jan '18

I found out that April 14 isn't available, so the April workshop will be April 7 & 8. Signup here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/15skPd9SrZ2WsHMoTBTrrvBNwG1nbixVNfey…

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OT: Looking for pinball machine repair
by Kelly Leavitt 16 Jan '18

16 Jan '18

Have a friend in Vernon NJ looking for someone to fix is 1950's era relay based pinball/baseball game. Contact me off list if you know anyone. Thanks, Kelly

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Successful workshop! : Jan 13 & 14, 2018
by Jeffrey Brace 16 Jan '18

16 Jan '18

We had 21 people show up and work on various equipment. Some things got fixed completely, some things need more work. It is always nice to meet with and learn from such a smart group of guys. Always a fun time with you guys! Special Thanks: Bill Dromgoole for working on the Univac Dave Gesswein for working on the PDP 8 Adam and John S for working on testing of joysticks and VCF Commodores Ian for helping everyone with everything. Tony for letting us use his van to transport and heavy lifting Jeff G for sweeping up And all others for overall helping with various things. The next workshop will be March 3 & 4. You can sign up here: < https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/123vqgOH6iteYwHwLiANXmdSUvZOTEMTArZR… > Here are some pictures that I took: < https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B9SJLfGXYiG5LTVDNnFYZ0RuamM?usp=sha… >

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Next Workshop March 3, 2018, April ?
by Jeffrey Brace 15 Jan '18

15 Jan '18

Thinking ahead. We have the next workshop scheduled for March 3 & 4. Which date for the April workshop? April 7 April 14 Vote now.

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Thank you to all for a great VCF Weekend!
by C.J. Slade 15 Jan '18

15 Jan '18

We wanted to thank Evan, Jeff, Ian, Eric & the many, many others at VCF who were so welcoming to Connor (age 10) this weekend at the Jan. VCF workshop. He had a great time learning from everyone and is already asking when the next VCF event will be that he can attend. Special thanks to Evan for the invitation & introductions, Eric for time teaching programming BASIC graphics, to Ian for resourcefulness to fix the ImageWriter II print head, and to person who brought Apple IIGS games. Since the workshop, Connor has spent all Sat night and all day Sunday programming in BASIC, including his new print program and playing Kings Quest on the Apple IIgs! He also enjoyed seeing the other computers and has been researching Tandy & Commodore computers as well. Thank you again for being so welcoming & inspiring interest in vintage computers! - Connor S. & Family

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Applesauce - .WOZ File Spec Released
by Henry S. Courbis 15 Jan '18

15 Jan '18

I'm happy to announce a major step in the Applesauce project: Preliminary release of the .WOZ file spec. File spec can be found here: http://evolutioninteractive.com/applesauce/woz_reference.pdf Applesauce info can be found here along with the file spec, detailed project info, and pics of the UI: https://wiki.reactivemicro.com/Applesauce More info about the different file formats of Applesauce can be found here: https://wiki.reactivemicro.com/Applesauce#Applesauce_Image_File_Format_.28.… Background: Applesauce is currently an Apple II targeted disk imaging solution which allows preservation of protected floppies. Other platforms are also supported like Atari. This goes WAY beyond what Catweasel or KryoFlux has been able to achieve. The creation of the .WOZ file format allows programmers to create their own software to use protected and unprotected images alike. Those who wrote emulators are now able to add support for example, and several of them are working on it as you read this. Applesauce allow original disks to be fully preserved. The ENTIRE flux state of the medium is read and preserved unlike other copy solutions like EDD. This means originals disks could be reproduced and the "art" which is copy protection is also preserved as a disk no longer needs to be cracked in order to be preserved due to the imitations of other file formats. Question: Why aren't other platforms supported? Answer: In short - they are. Other disk formats are very simple in comparison to Apple II. Once Apple II support is perfected then adding support for other platforms is trivial, and will happen later in the year. Congrats to John Morris for this milestone! And I and others look forward to working with him to help bing Applesauce to the Retro Community. In related news... Be sure to subscribe to the ReActiveMicro.com Newsletter to know instantly about project release updates (such as Applesauce preorder information): https://www.reactivemicro.com/news/email-newsletter/ Henry S. Courbis Office Toll Free: (800) REACTIVE (732-2848) Office/Mobile Direct: (856) 779-1900 www.ReActiveMicro.com <http://www.ReactiveMicro.com> - Sales, Support, and News, Our Headquarters on the Internet ReActiveMicro.com/wiki - Support, Software, Manuals, and History. Create your own page today! Facebook.com/reactivemicrousa - Our Social Media Outlet and Support

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Lisa auction ending in 40 minutes
by Evan Koblentz 15 Jan '18

15 Jan '18

My guess is it'll sell for 60-70. http://tinyurl.com/y9vcxfaq

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