- vcf-midatlantic - lists.vcfed.org

Care and feeding of my desoldering station?
by Neil Cherry 02 Feb '17

02 Feb '17

Okay, I want to back up my brag that I kept my soldering station working (actually the tip, this station was beat up 30 years ago but it's gotten worse). SO I have this cheap Aoyue desoldering station. I've been keeping the spring and the nozzle clean but I'm puzzled as the why the large tube of silicone? It doesn't really explain in the manual how to maintain the station and the large tube seems a bit much for the vacuum attachment at the based. Any hints tips, or clues? -- Linux Home Automation Neil Cherry ncherry(a)linuxha.com http://www.linuxha.com/ Main site http://linuxha.blogspot.com/ My HA Blog Author of: Linux Smart Homes For Dummies

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] Eniac in the "news"
by Brian L. Stuart 02 Feb '17

02 Feb '17

On Tue, 1/31/17, William Dudley via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> wrote: > http://hackaday.com/2017/01/31/eniac-the-way-we-were If anyone is interested in an alternative simulator, the one I've been developing is available: http://cs.drexel.edu/~bls96/eniac/eniac.html BLS

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] <---is this necessary?
by william degnan 02 Feb '17

02 Feb '17

On Feb 1, 2017 7:59 PM, "Bob Flanders via vcf-midatlantic" < vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> wrote: > > I vote keep it as it is. > > Or change at random

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<---is this necessary?
by Herb Johnson 02 Feb '17

02 Feb '17

Question to the list moderator. We've posted in the "subject" line, the phrase "[vcf-midatlantic]" for some time now. But a recent post did not have that phrase, and apparently it at least made the Web archive for the list. Evan - it's your call. Is this phrase really necessary, or desirable? Herb -- Herbert R. Johnson, New Jersey in the USA http://www.retrotechnology.com OR .net

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Two more teachers needed for Friday @ VCF East
by Evan Koblentz 02 Feb '17

02 Feb '17

Everyone, The speakers (but not yet the times etc.) for Friday @ VCF East are posted here: http://vcfed.org/wp/classes/. We need two things: 1. An instructor for the power supply topic 2. One more topic/instructor Given all the knowledge in this group, someone must be interested... ________________________________ 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

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The next workshop sign up sheet (Feb 11 & 12, 2017)
by Jeffrey Brace 02 Feb '17

02 Feb '17

For those of you that missed it in my last e-mail with all the important info. Here is the signup sheet again: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/13GnWX3AajJRMede2N7BrVht2j26hyt4lQoO… -- Jeff Brace - ark72axow(a)gmail.com

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Brian Stuart's latest ENIAC talk
by Evan Koblentz 01 Feb '17

01 Feb '17

Our own BLS is giving another ENIAC talk on Thursday, February 16, at 8pm for the Princeton ACM/IEEE meeting. Details: - Refreshments and networking at 7:30 pm - Small Auditorium, Room CS 105, Computer Science Building, Princeton University - Information: Dennis Mancl (908) 285-1066 - http://PrincetonACM.acm.org - A pre-meeting dinner is held at 6:00 p.m. at Ruby Tuesday’s Restaurant on Route 1. Please send email to princetonacm(a)gmail.com in advance if you plan to attend the dinner Brian can chime in, but I assume this is basically a repeat of his VCF East XI talk from last spring, with updates about his emulator project. ________________________________ 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

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UPDATE! Re: Successful workshop January 14&15, 2017
by SVCatITC＠aol.com 01 Feb '17

01 Feb '17

Hello All; Newbe here. I will take Jeff Brace's advice and detail what I worked on that was pix'ed. (See Jeff's link to the Google drive where the pix are located) I have been working on the museum presentation of the EAI TR20. So far, the restoration has been behind the scenes. Visitors will see the computer in a blue rack, sleeping. We pulled all the amplifier trays from the computer and then put the patch panel back, thereby allowing us to work on the defective components without disturbing the display and not making it any uglier than it already is. The large spaces between the computer are destined for a flatbed plotter (above) and a storage scope (below). With the new fabricated test bed (pix), we now can test and repair the amplifier trays at our convenience (workshop days). The pix that Jeff took of my stuff are as follows: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B9SJLfGXYiG5LS1hMU8yX19fQWM?usp=shar ing IMG_5061.jpg: Could keep the bench a little cleaner. I tend to spread out. IMG_5065 to IMG_5066.jpg: Test Bed finished and fired up. YEAH it's ALIVE! IMG_5067.jpg: Test extender cable is firing up an EAI TR10/20 amplifier tray. Farm fresh picked from the boneyard storage at my warehouse, and it WORKED FIRST SHOT! (Parts and tray components are from my collection.) IMG_5068.jpg: EAI PC-12 Industrial Systems test setup box (glorified DC multimeter) I've jazzed this up with an internal +/- 10v reference supply. This is nice eye candy while doing repairs, and it has the same look and feel of the TR20 front panel. 50 year old technology diagnosing 50 year old technology. Just thought others might want to share in the progress and joy! I will continue diagnosing museum components at next workshop (Feb 11-12) Bill Inderrieden In a message dated 1/16/2017 12:05:17 P.M. Eastern Standard Time, vcf-midatlantic-request(a)lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org writes: Message: 7 Date: Mon, 16 Jan 2017 01:25:23 -0500 From: Jeffrey Brace <ark72axow(a)gmail.com> To: vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> Subject: [vcf-midatlantic] Successful workshop January 14&15, 2017 Message-ID: <CAKVfvQxiQA-Z_nzbSnMc-P=TnZJaLWtY84C+HccSzw=OrbgLgQ(a)mail.gmail.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 Just wanted to write a quick e-mail to thank all those who attended the workshop. It was another successful workshop. It was a good idea to have the workshop in the bigger space. It accommodates more people. A lot of things got fixed and there was a lot of sharing of knowledge and expertise. Here are some phones from my iPhone which are raw, unedited and not the best quality (sorry I forgot to bring my Nikon): https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B9SJLfGXYiG5LS1hMU8yX19fQWM?usp=shar ing If anyone wants to chime in on what the worked on, their progress and what they need to work on next. -- Jeff Brace - ark72axow(a)gmail.com End of vcf-midatlantic Digest, Vol 15, Issue 16

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Eniac in the "news"
by William Dudley 31 Jan '17

31 Jan '17

http://hackaday.com/2017/01/31/eniac-the-way-we-were Bill Dudley This email is free of malware because I run Linux.

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sort of OT: "vintage" Oscilloscope for sale
by William Dudley 31 Jan '17

31 Jan '17

I have a pristine but untested RCA/Heath oscilloscope, looks to be from the 80's. Debug your Apple ][ with period appropriate hardware? Looking for $25 but make an offer if you think that's too salty. (The money is for the owner; I'm just the middleman.) picture here: http://www.dudley.nu/oscope_825.jpg I've also located and downloaded the Heath manual for it, and will make that available to the buyer. Bill Dudley This email is free of malware because I run Linux.

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PDP industrial/11 Progress
by william degnan 31 Jan '17

31 Jan '17

Hey all ... very happy to report I finally got my PDP 11/40 "industrial/11" to boot using RL11 controller to RL02 drive, running RT-11 at the moment. Long story short, the CPU and power seemed OK but I could not get the @#$! thing to boot RT-11 using an RL11 controller. I have been combing through the system for the better part of a year I guess to try to figure out why. I'll write up what I finally did to get it to work when I get the chance, but in short the DD11-CF backplane I was using had issues and was the cause of my problems. The industrial/11 is a PDP 11/40 with a red white and blue front panel, and most of the hardware is 1974. I need to add more RAM as I am only using 16K core at the moment but it's enough to boot the RT11 disk Ray Fantini so kindly made for me. Whew. Bill

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OT: SD card reader (USB) needed
by Andy Meyer 30 Jan '17

30 Jan '17

Does anyone have an SD card reader to USB that I can buy/borrow? I seem to have misplaced mine. Reply direct to me. Thanks Andy

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All robots need arms
by Evan Koblentz 30 Jan '17

30 Jan '17

This is entirely Dan's fault. :) He joked about an arm for Leinard Legobot, I said it's too difficult, and then of course I was up all night and all morning building it! Right now I have an arm that extends out of Leinad like an extension ladder. It works pretty well but its only capability is to emerge and retract. Not very exciting. Oh... and I used Lego hydraulics to make it tilt up and down. :) You have to pump it manually. I could automate the pumping with another motor, but all of the interface box ports are full. ________________________________ 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

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Signup for repair workshop! (Feb 11 & 12, 2017). Be there or be cubed.
by Jeffrey Brace 30 Jan '17

30 Jan '17

DATE: February 11 & 12, 2017 LOCATION: InfoAge Building 9032A - (2201 Marconi Road, Wall Township, NJ) TIME: Start about 10 A.M. on Saturday and ends whenever we go to sleep. End about 5 P.M. on Sunday. (Starts around 10 A.M. Sunday morning) SIGNUP: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/13GnWX3AajJRMede2N7BrVht2j26hyt4lQoO… COST: - $10 for all members attending the workshop, which VCF donates to InfoAge as thanks for providing the space for us. - $25 for those wanting to stay overnight. Please pay me when you get there so that I don't forget. OVERNIGHT: Bring your own pillow, blankets, soap etc. We provide a bed frame and an uncovered mattress. There are showers and a kitchen for your use. - We will have PayPal credit card swipes available. EQUIPMENT: - VCF will provide a table and you can use any available electrical outlet. - Bring your own tools, power strips, power cords, and supplies etc. DRINKS: You should bring your own. I would recommend bringing a cooler of some type. FOOD: You provide your own. We may order pizza or go out to a dinner. Usually, we make a decision when everyone gets hungry. GATE: During the hours from 1 pm to 5 pm close the front gate behind you. We want museum visitors to go to the front lobby and not wander through the middle of the campus. Outside of those times, you can feel free to leave the gate open. PARKING: Park across from 9032A on the grass area. WEATHER: We will watch the weather very carefully. Snow is a predicted Saturday. We will make a judgment Friday night weather we will cancel due to snow. QUESTIONS? Please ask me (Jeff Brace) or Evan. My cell is 732-759-1783 and Evan’s is 646-546-9999 in case you need to contact us. See everyone there! And have fun! -- Jeff Brace - ark72axow(a)gmail.com

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CompuPro question/help
by Richard A Cini 30 Jan '17

30 Jan '17

All – I’ve been struggling recently getting any kind of x86-type system running on the S100. I have a mix of boards, but couldn’t get any to get me to a “boot”. Rich Camarda has a bunch of boards on eBay, so I emailed him to get confirmed jumper settings. To start, this is what I had in my system: CompuPro 86/87, RAM22, Disk 1, and the System Support board. While I don’t have a CompuPro diskette, I at least wanted to get the boot sequence to work. Nothing would work, even pared down to the troubleshooting-minimum from the manual (the CPU and Disk 1). For the drives, I’m using modified YD-380 PC/AT drives to replace 8” as I do on my IMSAI. I have an SCP 8086 board so I swapped it for the 86/87 board and now I get the boot activity (drive access, pause, drive access, etc.) per the description in the manual. Not sure what’s wrong with the 86/87 board I have (was bought “working” but who knows), so if there’s an expert out there, please contact me off-list. I also have a few Z80 processor boards I wouldn’t mind trading for the CompuPro Z80 CPU card. Also contact me off-list for that. Next up is getting something bootable going. Thanks! Rich -- Rich Cini http://www.classiccmp.org/cini http://www.classiccmp.org/altair32

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New Floppy Days Podcast #69 - The Commodore Vic-20 History, with Brian Bagnall, Michael Tomczyk, Neil Harris
by Randall Kindig 29 Jan '17

29 Jan '17

http://floppydays.libsyn.com/floppy-days-69-the-commodore-vic-20-history-wi… <http://floppydays.libsyn.com/floppy-days-69-the-commodore-vic-20-history-wi…> A new episode of Floppy Days about the Commodore Vic-20!! I was able to get a few notables from the Commodore & Vic-20 community to help me do this documentary-style retrospect on the history of this important machine. Some of the people you may have heard of Including: Michael Tomczyk - Advisor to Jack Tramiel and leader of the Vic Commando Team Neil Harris - Commodore employee and key member of the Vic Commando Team, before he went to Atari with the Tramiels Brian Bagnall - author of "Commodore: A Company on the Edge" I hope you enjoy this!! Randy Kindig, host Floppy Days Podcast floppydays.com

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Some interesting testimonies on BASIC
by Douglas Crawford 29 Jan '17

29 Jan '17

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Museum Report 2017-01-29 January 29, 2017
by Jeffrey Brace 29 Jan '17

29 Jan '17

It was a slow day today probably because the Apollo Guidance Lecture by O'Brien down the road at the TIROS site. Steve Anderson stopped by and donated a Variac: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9SJLfGXYiG5SDh2ZFlpa1dZWkE/view?usp=shari… A mother and son stopped by and had medium interest, who paid attention the whole way around the tour. Nick Lordi stopped by to see what's new. He was at the lecture. I told him about Brian Stuarts VCF East exhibit since he is very interested in FORTH. I worked on documenting which computers in the exhibits need repair and which ones need demos. I also tested out some donated C64 equipment. Another group of 2 with high interest another group of 4 came with moderate interest. The 2 really like the IBM 1130 and were visiting from Florida. One of them had worked on it before. There were here at VCF East and will return again. -- Jeff Brace - ark72axow(a)gmail.com

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Poly 88
by Evan Koblentz 29 Jan '17

29 Jan '17

Everyone, Several years ago, one of the legacy MARCH members told me he owns a Poly 88 and would consider donating it to us after finishing a project to get some data off 8" disks. I thought it was Nick L., but I emailed him and he said nope, wasn't me. Anybody know who I mean? If so -- or if it was you -- then please email me off-list. ________________________________ 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

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FYI, email header from the strange problem with the List Server
by Dan Roganti 29 Jan '17

29 Jan '17

On Sun, Jan 29, 2017 at 7:50 AM, Evan Koblentz <evan(a)vcfed.org> wrote: > Ps. Once again my reply went to you instead of to the list. I don't know > why. It is frustrating. Going to re-send it to the list which was my > intention. > > FYI, that List Server glitch that I mentioned the other day, I think it may confuse some of our Email Clients supposed to be only one recipient sent by the List Server so then no CC or BCC should be added by the List Server The "REPLY-TO" field is always correct other List Servers I'm on never seem to do this not sure what others see in their Email Client, but this one, sometimes I get this in my email header with 2 recipients from: Evan Koblentz via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> reply-to:vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> to: vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> cc: Evan Koblentz <evan(a)vcfed.org> or this, with 2 recipients, -and- 2 instances of an email address in the "REPLY-TO" field and 2 copies of the List address, one in the :REPLY-TO" field and another one in the "TO:" field from: Brian L. Stuart via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> reply-to:"Brian L. Stuart" <blstuart(a)bellsouth.net>,vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> to: vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> cc: "Brian L. Stuart" <blstuart(a)bellsouth.net> date: Sat, Jan 21, 2017 at 4:32 PM subject:Re: [vcf-midatlantic] C Compilers (was Re: Perhaps I asked the wrong question...) a normal example from CCTALK from: Rik Bos <hp-fix(a)xs4all.nl> reply-to:"General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" < cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> to: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" < cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> date: Thu, Oct 16, 2014 at 4:53 AM subject:RE: HP 2100A vs. 2100S resolved?

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] Why my program IS working
by Dan Roganti 29 Jan '17

29 Jan '17

ugh mine did too, it only went directly to your email I'm telling ya, it's that List Server glitch that I mentioned On Sun, Jan 29, 2017 at 7:38 AM, Evan Koblentz <evan(a)vcfed.org> wrote: > >> so you might be wondering, why should I add that > > Not wondering at all. :) Already used that idea in previous versions and > it's a common example in many of the Lego programming manuals. > ok cool Now, get the Board to buy or ask for more donations of Legos and make a ~bigger~ one next time don't fall victim that many of us failed sometimes, by using the old project for spare parts in the new project I saw you did that once already Save the old one too

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curious but too little about vintage machines
by Jeffrey Jonas 29 Jan '17

29 Jan '17

A quick history of copy protection, but does not mention Apple ][ half-track formats or the laser-burned floppy disks. http://boingboing.net/2017/01/28/a-lively-history-of-drm-and-ga.html https://youtu.be/HjEbpMgiL7U a 17 min video about vintage copy protection methods

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Museum Report - 22-Jan-2017
by Todd George 29 Jan '17

29 Jan '17

Quick museum report for today. It was a bit of a slow day, but we did have one really interested visitor. Her name is Lynn, she has a long history with computers and said the museum looked a lot like her basement. She mentioned quite a few items she had in her collection, including a wall-mounted Apple //e that boots to Frogger, and TI-99/4A among a lot of other items. She spent a lot of time in the museum. I described our group and invited her to VCF East. She indicated having some prior interaction with Bil Herd during her employment (but not with Commodore). I mentioned that he has a habit of showing up at VCF East, she expressed interest in saying Hi to him. She also indicated that she had never owned a Commodore machine. Was very nice talking with her. We also had a family stop by, they were mostly looking for the Model Train guys but spent a few minutes talking with me. They asked if we had any Burroughs equipment. I mentioned that there was nothing on exhibit, but that doesn't mean we won't have some on display one day. I spent my free time working on the Apple ][ disk drive. It squeaked loudly and sounded altogether terrible, I also witnessed the demo program the Apple was running lock up on disk access a few times. I cleaned and lubed it. It no longer squeaks and in testing the graphic demo seemed much more stable. I also noticed that the Macintosh seems to have an issue with the floppy, but I did not have the proper equipment with me to image another disk for it. I think I remember it being mentioned previously, but we need an RGB cable for the Amiga 500 that's on display. I spent a little time playing around with imaging some additional Commodore music disks (as I did bring equipment for that with me) but didn't have much success prior to running out of time. See ya! -Todd

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] Why isn't my program working?
by Dan Roganti 28 Jan '17

28 Jan '17

On Sat, Jan 28, 2017 at 6:11 PM, Evan Koblentz <evan(a)vcfed.org> wrote: > You read that way out of context. The "2" was a typo in my REMark in the > code. I meant "1" there which we both know is the second bit. > > > ok just trying to keep the info organized

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] Why isn't my program working?
by Dan Roganti 28 Jan '17

28 Jan '17

On Sat, Jan 28, 2017 at 5:56 PM, Evan Koblentz <evan(a)vcfed.org> wrote: > >> Yes, typo in the remark. > > No that's the digit value if binary bit# 1 which equals 2 > > What? No, you're wrong. That is from a comment I put in today. > please read my explanation from my last reply about Binary numbers Bit# 0 -- Digit Value = 1 Bit# 1 -- Digit Value = 2 <------------this is the one we were using in the 1stcode, Bit# 2 -- Digit Value = 4 in the 2nd version of the code we tried almost every bit here Bit# 3 -- Digit Value = 8 Bit# 4 -- Digit Value = 16 Bit# 5 -- Digit Value = 32 Bit# 6 -- Digit Value = 64 Bit# 7 -- Digit Value = 128

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semt-ot: embedded Linux roundup
by Jeffrey Jonas 28 Jan '17

28 Jan '17

I did a quickie presentation for Unigroup: NYC's Unix/Linux/BSD/... user group http://unigroup.org/ It was essentially a roundup of what's on my workbench (and some stuff I wish I had) http://ferretronix.com/unigroup/2016/ 2016: the year of the cheap embedded Linux system and IoT -- jeff jonas

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Apple // spotted on Marvel's Agent's of SHIELD S04E09
by Jeffrey Brace 28 Jan '17

28 Jan '17

I was watching Marvel's Agent's of SHIELD Season 4 Episode 9 and the power goes out from a robot attack and they have to resort to "primitive" pre-internet methods of getting the base running without using "hackable" methods. First, I see a 5 1/4" floppy, then a glimpse of two Apple //s! It is at 32:20 I guess with so many Commodore 64's out there in TV shows that an Apple // was bound to show up. ;) -- Jeff Brace - ark72axow(a)gmail.com

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Apollo Guidance Computer
by Evan Koblentz 27 Jan '17

27 Jan '17

Fyi -- Our own Frank O., who (literally) wrote the book about the Apollo Guidance Computer, is giving a talk on this subject Sunday at 2pm. It will be in building behind the satellite dish (down the road from the main InfoAge campus -- 2300 Marconi Rd.) ________________________________ 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

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East XII exhibits update
by Evan Koblentz 27 Jan '17

27 Jan '17

There are 10 standard exhibits (no counting the three team exhibits which equal about 15 standard exhibits, so 25 total). The list is here: http://vcfed.org/wp/festivals/vintage-computer-festival-east/vcf-east-exhib…. Needs some big iron and S-100. :) ________________________________ 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

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Looking for a dialup BBS with 300/1200 baud capability
by Matt Patoray 27 Jan '17

27 Jan '17

Looking to test a modem only terminal l fixed the other day. I am looking for a BBS or someone I can dial into with the landline to test the 300/1200 baud modem. Does anyone know of anything in the US that I could call? Sent from my iPhone

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Commodore B 120-wha?
by william degnan 27 Jan '17

27 Jan '17

http://vintagecomputer.net/browse_thread.cfm?id=666 An early product announcement for the Commodore "C128" Can you spot what's wrong? b

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My VCFE exhibit would like a cool Kermit host to talk to
by Douglas Crawford 27 Jan '17

27 Jan '17

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] Next workshop is February 11&12, 2017, who's coming?
by Blatboy 26 Jan '17

26 Jan '17

There is a chance I'd get a hotel that weekend, as my wife may come out. I know folks have done that... have thee recommendations for hotels in the area? Thanks! Walter http://www.jwalterhawkes.com http://www.blatboy.com like to know where/when I'm playing? Click here <http://www.blatomaster.com/mlist.php> to sign up for my list, and let the babble begin.

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Next workshop is February 11&12, 2017, who's coming?
by Jeffrey Brace 26 Jan '17

26 Jan '17

Please let me know *here *or *there*: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/13GnWX3AajJRMede2N7BrVht2j26hyt4lQoO… -- Jeff Brace - ark72axow(a)gmail.com

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] Next workshop is February 11&12, 2017, who's coming?
by Dan Roganti 26 Jan '17

26 Jan '17

On Thu, Jan 26, 2017 at 1:53 PM, Evan Koblentz <evan(a)vcfed.org> wrote: from: Evan Koblentz <evan(a)vcfed.org> to: Dan Roganti <ragooman(a)gmail.com> date: Thu, Jan 26, 2017 at 1:53 PM Oops I replied only to Dan: > > > > On 01/26/2017 01:53 PM, Evan Koblentz wrote: > from: Evan Koblentz <evan(a)vcfed.org> to: Dan Roganti <ragooman(a)gmail.com> date: Thu, Jan 26, 2017 at 1:53 PM > sorry to interject, >>> about the VCF lodging, >>> since its getting closer >>> can members still use the Dorms, >>> or have they been removed already >>> >> >> Removed? Not at all. We use the dorm building for all of our events now. >> >> Jeff B. and/or I will send a separate message about staying there during >> VCF East. >> > actually, you did it twice :) this time I replied to the list I still think it's the weird glitch on the List server or did you intentionaly just click on the plain 'Reply' button cause if you don't click Reply-all it only goes to the individual person cause i see these details below in the header info inside my email plenty of times ---- from: Dan Roganti <ragooman(a)gmail.com> to: Neil Cherry <ncherry(a)linuxha.com> cc: vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> date: Fri, Jan 20, 2017 at 1:10 PM subject:Re: [vcf-midatlantic] cross platform coding for the Apple ][ mailed-by:gmail.com ----- the "vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org" should always be in the TO: field and then there's another recipient in the CC: field so that person would get 2 emails instead the List server really shouldn't have another recipient, either CC or BCC like there is in this example

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Looking for external disk enclosure
by Jason Perkins 26 Jan '17

26 Jan '17

I'm looking for an enclosure I can mount my extra Lisa Widget disk in. The disk has normal 5.25 mountings on the bottom, but is taller than a normal full height drive by a couple inches due to the controller boards mounted on top. Does anyone have an old enclosure kicking around they'd want to part with? I'd prefer one that's beige to match the Lisa's plastics. Thanks! -- Jason Perkins 313 355 0085

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Festival archives being posted
by Evan Koblentz 26 Jan '17

26 Jan '17

Several people asked me about archive pages for past Vintage Computer Festival events. Much of the information was lost during a rebuild of the former Festival owner's web site, however, much of the same information was also available at Archive.org. Tonight we posted about 50% of the basic date from past Festivals -- when, where, who -- at http://vcfed.org/wp/festivals/archives-show-summaries/. (It would be a HUGE amount of work to post the exact web sites from past Festivals, and there's not much point to saving the logistical information about what time of day people will speak, etc., so what we are posting seems like a good balance.) We hope to get the remaining 50% onto the page soon. PS. You'll notice that the page is being populated from the bottom-up. No particular reason why. ________________________________ 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

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Introduction from Newark, DE
by Paul Rickards 26 Jan '17

26 Jan '17

Hi all, I've recently joined the VCF Mid-Atlantic list and thought I would introduce myself (hope that's OK). I'm from the Newark, DE. My interests started with collecting 8-bit home computers, printers, accessories-- usually the ones that I couldn't have when I was younger. But my interests stretch well beyond those now. I'm a computer programmer by trade during the day but work on collecting, repairing and restoring vintage computers any time I can. I'm also currently into vintage pen plotters ever since I had a Commodore 1520 when I was younger. (I recently designed a 3D printable X/Y replacement gear (the old ones split) that can be found on Shapeways.) I'm also an avid photographer. I've missed the VCF East in NJ several years in a row but am committing to it this year. I'm also enjoying the conversations on the list. I'm on Twitter @paulrickards if folks care to chat there. I sometimes blog projects I've worked on (converting a SX-64 to a DX-64 dual drive for example) here: http://biosrhythm.com/ Anyone else in the Northern DE area? Cheers, Paul Rickards

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Huge collection F/S out west
by Evan Koblentz 26 Jan '17

26 Jan '17

Our good friend Sellam Ismail -- founder of the original Vintage Computer Festival -- is selling his whole collection: http://www.vcfed.org/forum/showthread.php?55964-Selling-Off-the-Collection For anyone wondering: VCFed does not purchase artifacts, and Sellam is not in position to donate to us. There are two things on his list that our collection is conspicuously missing: the Sphere 1 and the Poly 88. Quite serious: would anyone consider purchasing either/both of those from his collection and donating them to us? It would be tax-deductible. ________________________________ 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

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Service a scope and solder/desolder station setting recommendations
by Neil Cherry 25 Jan '17

25 Jan '17

I was working on my Atari 600xl the other day and was using the scope to see if it was working. I get a nice clean color TV signal (sorry no working NTSC TV) until I bumped the scope and it went out of sync. No amount of fiddling with the buttons and dials helped get back that pretty signal but I could see it was still there. So now I want to service the Tektronics scope but I'm not sure where to start. Next up on the top 10 list is: does anyone have pointers for solder types and temperature setting for solder and desoldering stations? I have a 30 year old Weller station that heats perfectly for older 60/40. I have a newer Hakko (?) with 2 tips (I think 700 and 800F). And I have the cheap (but working) Aoyue which is adjustable. Obviously leaving it turned up to 11 (480) is not a good idea as that will just burn it out and damage the work. Any pointers, recommendations, links ... etc? Thanks -- Linux Home Automation Neil Cherry ncherry(a)linuxha.com http://www.linuxha.com/ Main site http://linuxha.blogspot.com/ My HA Blog Author of: Linux Smart Homes For Dummies

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OT: repurposing Palm PDA, Sony PSP, Nintendo DS, Mattel Juicebox
by Jeffrey Jonas 25 Jan '17

25 Jan '17

Definitely off topic for being "too new" I'd love to keep my "old" stuff running in new ways. Does anyone have archives of apps, hacks or development tools for - Palm PDAs, including Handspring Visor I'd love to recreate the development tools I had at a previous job: CodeWarrior compiler with plenty of libraries for cross platform development. That was before Freescale destroyed CodeWarrior to sell only their chips :-( - Sony PSP, particularly network apps such as VPN and terminal emulation - Nintendo DS: I think there was a cartridge specifically for making it hackable - The Mattel Juicebox was the darling of the Linux world for a week or 2 but then quickly abandoned. Same story for the iOpener network appliance. - Network appliances: 3com Audrey, Netpliance iOpener Were any of you into that scene? -- jeff jonas

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Perhaps I asked the wrong question... FORTH
by Herb Johnson 24 Jan '17

24 Jan '17

On my Web site: stuff about FORTH. FORTH was one of many computing languages used in early microcomputing. It was implemented in a few thousands of bytes, and as an interpreter it could be extended. Memory was expensive so these were good attributes. It was also a monitor program; a number of 1980's commercial computers had a FORTH boot monitor. COSMAC 1802 ----------- www.retrotechnology.com/memship/figforth_1802.html FIG produced a series of 8-bit FORTHs in the late 1970's. www.retrotechnology.com/memship/hhc_forth.html Hand-Held Computer (HHC) he constructed in the late 1970's from a COSMAC 1802 processor and supported with a FORTH-79 based monitor and calculator program he created. I and others disassembled his FORTH and binary, without the Windows development system he abandoned later. www.retrotechnology.com/memship/8th.html A reduced FORTH for the 1802, which he called "8th". http://www.retrotechnology.com/memship/amsat.html IPS is a threaded language and develoment enviroment, similar to Forth. It was used to develop the programming on the Oscar Phase 3 satellites which used 1802's and later other processors. These were early amateur-radio satellites. IPS was in use for other satellite development. http://www.retrotechnology.com/memship/mem_basys.html A simple 1802 wheeled robot which ran on BASIC or 8th. Intel 8080 ----------- http://www.retrotechnology.com/restore/prob_solv.html I resurrected a S-100 Problem Solver System. I noted the boot diskette had the STOIC operating environment. I recalled STOIC as one of many packages distributed with CP/M programs; Both the recent and prior owners had worked with the STOIC language. Rich explained the FORTH roots of STOIC and we discussed our histories with FORTH. [Links about STOIC are at the end of the Web page.] http://www.retrotechnology.com/dri/kildall_interview_atwork.htm Gary Kildall has an opinion about FORTH and its adherents. Kildall's academic work was in computing languages; of course PL/M was his creation. He developed CP/M and founded Digital Research. HErb Johnson

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VCF East exhibitors, start signing up
by Evan Koblentz 24 Jan '17

24 Jan '17

http://vcfed.org/wp/festivals/vintage-computer-festival-east/vcf-east-exhib… The three teams equal about 10-15 regular exhibits. There are six regular exhibits so far. There is room for plenty more!!! Please start signing up your exhibits.

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Museum report
by Evan Koblentz 22 Jan '17

22 Jan '17

Busy day. There was an InfoAge group leader's meeting at 9am (IA management didn't say anything new), we had a pre-scheduled visitor arrive at 11:00. for a tour, and another visitor (Henry from ReactiveMicro.com who hadn't seen us since the old museum) at 2:00. There were also several regular visitors today.

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] Perhaps I asked the wrong question... FORTH
by Brian L. Stuart 22 Jan '17

22 Jan '17

On Fri, 1/20/17, Dave McGuire via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> wrote: > Schweet. > Have you ever seen CamelForth? I've only taken a cursory look at it, but never actually run it. I've generally heard good things about it though. > Brian, speaking of PDP-11 Forths, have you seen SOL-11? I had not. But it turns out that I'm planning to show something similar running on a little LSI-11 in a BA11-VA box. I'm going to try to dust off something I wrote *mumble* years ago back in college. For several years, the August issue of Byte was dedicated to a particular language. The year I graduated from high school it was Forth. So I arrive at college with the latest issue of Byte in hand and am thinking this looks like kind of a cool language. Of course, I ask if we've got a Forth implementation on the school's 11/70 to play with. When the answer was no, the natural response was, "ok, I'll write one." That was the genesis of a college nickname, Sir Forth. Senior year comes along and I decide to write a small OS for my CS senior project. That Forth implementation becomes the shell/application language for the OS. So it's long overdue to be returned to a running state. BLS

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HP rack door hinges needed
by Evan Koblentz 22 Jan '17

22 Jan '17

VCFed got this during the workshop weekend: http://vcfed.org/evan/hpmini.jpg We have the left/right cabinet doors, but the cabinets are missing all of the hinges where the door pins sit. Does anybody have spares?

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Forth exhibit (was Re: Perhaps I asked the wrong question... FORTH)
by Brian L. Stuart 21 Jan '17

21 Jan '17

On Fri, 1/20/17, Jim Scheef <js(a)sdf.org> wrote: > An exhibit on Fourth should explain the stack archtecture and other things > that make Fourth unique (and a write-only language). An excellent topic. Indeed. My initial plan is to have a poster that explains the basic idea of a stack and how a stack language works. Then if time permits, I want to write a little tutorial running on one of the machines running Forth that covers things a little deeper. BLS

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] C Compilers (was Re: Perhaps I asked the wrong question...)
by Brian L. Stuart 21 Jan '17

21 Jan '17

On Sat, 1/21/17, Dave McGuire via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> wrote: > Innnnteresting. I've played with clang, and eventually started > asking "what's the point?"...but kenc is something I've never heard of, > and Ken Thompson's toenail clippings know more about programming > languages than I ever will, so I'd like to look at that compiler. > Does/can it target bare-metal ARM7/Cortex-M families? Yes, it does. Now, I'll admit that I haven't played with the packages that are targetted at general use for e.g. Linux. However, someone recently said they were successful in biulding the Pi version of Plan 9 using it. And I did use the version that is packaged as part of Inferno to do an Inferno port to a little ARM box created by Sun Labs. Along the way, I added an output format to the linker so it would directly produce the format the SunSPOT expected. One unusual thing you'll find about these compilers is that the division of responsibility is a little different than is typical. The object files are actually in a form of intermediate code (though not portable between architectures) and the actual code generation is done in the linker. BLS

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] Perhaps I asked the wrong question... FORTH
by Brian L. Stuart 21 Jan '17

21 Jan '17

On Fri, 1/20/17, Evan Koblentz <evan(a)vcfed.org> wrote: > Do it! Registration is here: There definitely seems to be a lot of interest in a Forth exhibit, so my third appearance at VCF-E will be forth. I just registered it on the VCFed site. For the next month, my time still needs to be primarily ENIAC focused, but that should still give me plenty of time to put together the exhibit I've got in mind. BLS

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link-editor fun and games before virtual memory (was C compiler)
by Jeffrey Jonas 21 Jan '17

21 Jan '17

> The IDE isolated the programmers > from full control of the compiler and its code generation options. Once upon a time, programmers were REQUIRED to understand and sometimes manually configure the link-editor. That allowed for things like load-no-call: load debugging modules/subroutines that were not called anywhere, but were available when debugging. Before virtual memory, there were overlays. The IBM 1130 made that simple with LOCAL (load on call) and SOCAL (system call load on call) directives. But only one was loaded at a time: one load-on-call could not call another. I think the IBM 360 allowed for specifying a tree of nested overlays. When using the PIC18, I had to configure the linker to load my "C" code around the boot loader. 'tis the joy of not using absolute addresses for everything. .csect is the IBM pseudo-op for such things: http://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/ssw_aix_71/com.ibm.aix.alangref/… Everyone had their own names for such stuff :-( Anyone who hand-coded assembler did absolute addressing. I worked on a project where the assembler did not generate relocatable code. Everything was absolute addressing, requiring the build-meister to manually map out memory for all modules, storage sections, temporary scratch-pad areas, etc. It was easy to trash memory when anything changed size. -- jeffj

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