- vcf-midatlantic - lists.vcfed.org

Re: [vcf-midatlantic] Should the new museum have a name?
by Evan Koblentz 20 Feb '16

20 Feb '16

>>> If we decide to have a name, then I'd lean toward two angles: 1. Not box ourselves in to "New Jersey". 2. Not box ourselves in to "museum". For example, "Eastern Computer History Center" or something like that. >> That name seems pretty close to me. What makes our center unique is that the computers are still alive mostly. “Eastern Computer Living History Center”. I think we should try to capture that out old computers work and if they don’t we are trying to fix them. Right, but "Living" is already taken by LCM out in Seattle, and five words is too many. What's a good synonym for "living" or "hands-on" in this context? Or maybe it doesn't have to be a direct synonym. We could use a work that * evokes * our mission. For example, "Eastern Computer History Laboratory". I don't necessarily think "laboratory" is the right word, but maybe something along those lines. I won't be happy until we find the perfect name, if we're going to have a name for it at all. "VCF Command" may suffice. :) We had a similar discussion when naming the old group 11 years ago.... Random thought: If we find a good word starting with "O" then Eastern Computer History (blank) becomes ECHO. Very appropriate!!!

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One more helper tomorrow.... please?
by Evan Koblentz 19 Feb '16

19 Feb '16

Anybody outside the usual group interested in helping at the museum tomorrow? So far it's only Jeff J. and me. (Tony and Jeff B. deserve a week off.) One more reliable helper would be very, ummm.... helpful. :) Fear not: we aren't do much heavy schlepping tomorrow. Just a whole bunch of small things. Starting at the museum at 10am.

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Double door -- more progress!
by Evan Koblentz 19 Feb '16

19 Feb '16

There's been more progress on the new doorway for our new museum. At first it was an ordinary single door. InfoAge + VCF hired a contractor to make it a double door. Two weeks ago, the contractor removed the single door, cut open the wall, and built the frame for the double door. Last week, the town inspector approved the frame. Today, the contractor hung the new doors and installed a temporary lock on the inside (we can enter from the other doorway which locks from the hallway side.) The "new" doors aren't actually new. They are historic WW2 doors, per the exact style that was used at Camp Evans in the early/mid-1940s. Two steps remain. First, the doors need handles and proper locks. Contractor said the town requires crash bars or lever-style handles for handicapped and/or emergency access. InfoAge will decide how to process with that. Second, the WW2 doors need painting, glass cleaning, and the walls around the frame need some new drywall or sheetrock. Anyway, there are two months to get all that done. For now we have locking doors again, and finally the ability to bring in the UNIVAC for display! The new doors open 180 degrees into the hallway, so they'll be flat against the hallway wall and out of our way during moving time. Security-wise, the point of these doors is to prevent random InfoAge volunteers (etc.) from wondering where they needn't be. These doors are not going to stop a determined criminal. Basically they're for simple peace-of-mind and so we can move in larger computer artifacts. Here are pictures of their current status: http://www.vcfed.org/evan/doubledoor.jpg (from inside our room) http://www.vcfed.org/evan/hallwaydoor.jpg (from the hallway side)

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] OT: Tools
by tom.hornberger＠verizon.net 19 Feb '16

19 Feb '16

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] OT: Tools
by mark＠markesystems.com 18 Feb '16

18 Feb '16

Chris asked: > Did someone here say that Jegs screwdrivers are good quality? Dave responded: > I'd be awfully suspicious at that price. Twenty bucks is about the > right price point for one or maybe two GOOD screwdrivers. Surely not 69! Another Chris concurred: > Dave, I am also in that camp. That all said, I actually have a set of these on one of my workbenches, and have been quite happy with them. Understand, I'm old and cranky enough to not put up with crappy tools, and over the years most of the junk has been jettisoned. I bought this set (for a bit more money, but still cheap) on a whim, and was quite surprised to find out that they're actually pretty good. (They're on my electronics bench, so they don't get abused very much, and I haven't worn one enough to have to re-grind one yet.) My only real complaint is that there are no cabinetry screwdrivers in the set (the kind that doesn't flare at the tip, so you can use it in a hole that's the same size as the screw head). ~~ Mark Moulding

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OT: Free Pallets
by Jeffrey Brace 18 Feb '16

18 Feb '16

InfoAge has *lots* of pallets left over from Camp Evans Base Of Terror. The fire department said that they can't be used next year. They are free for the taking. Come by InfoAge Saturday from 12 to 4 pm and take as many as you want! They need to get rid of all of them.

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SIX WEEKS to VCF East exhibit DEADLINE - April 1st
by Evan Koblentz 18 Feb '16

18 Feb '16

There are only SIX weeks until the VCF East exhibit registration deadline. They're going to go very fast. Register your exhibits now. Not doing so makes life extremely difficult for us. We waste a lot of time chasing down people who we know usually exhibit, and we delay ordering the table rental, arranging the layout, and other things. Reg link: http://www.vcfed.org/registration/east_exhibitor_register-online.php

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OT: Tools
by chrisjpf33＠gmail.com 17 Feb '16

17 Feb '16

Did someone here say that Jegs screwdrivers are good quality? http://www.ebay.com/itm/111515554297

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Heathkit computer colors
by Richard Cini 16 Feb '16

16 Feb '16

All — Well, the removal of the black latex paint hasn’t gone too well. Not sure what kind of paint was used, but it’s been almost impossible to get off without damaging the paint underneath. I’ve tried two organic removers and Goof Off. The paint almost looks like the flat black used in stage productions for back stage. I need to remove the switch labels and the badges (one should peel off and the other has plastic posts that I’ll need to cut the metal rings on the posts). Then, I plan on going at it with the harshest stuff I have and then repaint it. Does anyone know what color was used or have a match recommendation? Thanks! Rich -- Rich Cini Collector of Classic Computers Build Master and lead engineer, Altair32 Emulator http://www.classiccmp.org/cini http://www.classiccmp.org/altair32

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ENIAC day
by Evan Koblentz 16 Feb '16

16 Feb '16

Today is the 70th anniversary of when the University of Pennsylvania Moore School of Engineering and the Army ordnance department unveiled ENIAC to the public in 1946. The computer was in production use several months prior and ran until the early 1950s at Aberdeen (Maryland) Proving Ground. I represented VCF today at a ceremony at the Moore School. They showed a computer simulated walk-through of the classroom-sized ENIAC and debuted a 3D printed model of it. I'm going to follow up and see if we can get the files to make our own. :) There was also a lecture by professional historians Thomas Haigh and Mark Priestley, who are two of the three co-authors of the new book ENIAC in Action which is the best examination yet of how the machine worked and was actually used. Several friends-of-VCF were there including Bill Mauchly, IEEE History Center staff, Dick Moberg, etc. .... Also met a Penn CS professor who learned programming on a PDP-8 and IBM 1130, so of course I invited him to visit us.

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] ENIAC day
by Brian L. Stuart 16 Feb '16

16 Feb '16

On Tue, 2/16/16, Evan Koblentz via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> wrote: >> Was this open to the public? > > Yes in reality; not sure in policy. Received a private invitation > so I didn't feel right sharing it. Then started seeing public Facebook > posts about it in the last day or two but I don’t know if those were > authorized or rogue, because I couldn't find anything about it on the > web. Upon arrival they were letting anyone inside. I'm pretty sure it was in policy as well. The announcement I got didn't contain anything suggesting restricted attendance. In fact, I would have been there, but I had a class that spanned the two talks. (I was particularly interested in going since I'm in the process of writing a cycle-level simulator of it.) I've got an inquiry in as to the availability of recordings of the talks. Hopefully, they'll be publicly available soon. BLS

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Feb. 27-28 workshop
by Evan Koblentz 15 Feb '16

15 Feb '16

There is a twist to the next repair workshop on Feb. 27-28: we'll be moving the big systems out of the old museum that weekend. Hope to start Saturday morning and get it done in a few hours, so we can have a normal workshop the rest of the weekend. InfoAge gave us permission to Glitch operate their forklift. He has a lot of experience and safety training. The stuff we'll have to move is: Bendix G-15, tape drive, possibly its desk; all four racks of George; IBM 1130, printer, card reader, and 029; Vax 785; a couple of display cases; and the PDP-8. There may be other things. We'll use blankets to protect the systems from the forklift itself. Only actually lifting and moving stuff a very short distance -- about 25 feet -- but it's across beat-up old blacktop which is why we're not just pushing everything on their old caster wheels. There will be a specific order in which we need to move things into the new museum. Jon will be in charge of safety and loading/unloading.

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Web site back to normal
by Evan Koblentz 15 Feb '16

15 Feb '16

Everyone, Our site is back to normal. Darren fixed the logo, header text, social media links, and blog menu item. I made a change last night: removed the static "Sound Bytes" widget+page and replaced it with a quote widget that changing the quote every 30 seconds. Will add more quotes (famous folks talking about VCF) as they are available. Remember, when telling people our domain, the correct one is vcfed.org. VC Forum is also now on our domain at vcfed.org/forum. I have to find a good way to integrate it. Meanwhile we'll make all the colors match, etc., but that will take a few days.

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VCFSE
by Peter Cetinski 15 Feb '16

15 Feb '16

Is VCFSE part of VCF? I don’t see it on the website.

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Received H11 - it works!
by Richard Cini 15 Feb '16

15 Feb '16

All — Made some good progress today. I built the console cable and verified that the serial console board was properly jumpered. I put in all of the boards and turned it on and I saw the following on the console: 173002 @ Yea! Looks like it works. I connected it to PDP11GUI and ran a memory test and it seems to be fine. Interestingly, the RUN light only blinks at startup and no other time. Not sure what that means, but it’s running. I have a couple of things to do: * I need to repair the side panels. I bought epoxy putty today and I’ll give that a try tomorrow. * I’d like to remove the flat black paint from the metal front panel. Any recommendations? It looks like regular latex paint on top of the painted metal panel. I have a 3M “safe” (non-VOC) paint stripper that I was going to try. * I have another SLU that I’d like to configure for use with the TU58 emulator. Any advice on this? Thanks! Very exciting day indeed. Rich -- Rich Cini Collector of Classic Computers Build Master and lead engineer, Altair32 Emulator http://www.classiccmp.org/cini http://www.classiccmp.org/altair32

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Teletype Session at VCF
by william degnan 14 Feb '16

14 Feb '16

Persons planning to or considering the teletype class for this upcoming VCF U on Friday contact me privately if you'd like to bring your Teletype (ASR 33/32) as a demo unit for diagnosing issues with it. We may be able to have more than one. We have to clear each machine in advance, I am told, for insurance reasons. More Info: vintagecomputer.net/teletype Contact: vintagecomputer.net/contact.cfm -- @ BillDeg: Web: vintagecomputer.net Twitter: @billdeg <https://twitter.com/billdeg> Youtube: @billdeg <https://www.youtube.com/user/billdeg> Unauthorized Bio <http://www.vintagecomputer.net/readme.cfm>

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Site is back!!! (mostly)
by Evan Koblentz 14 Feb '16

14 Feb '16

I can't say "thank you" enough to Bill Dudley. Dilbert once again saved the pointy-haired boss from the boss' own stupidity. :) There are two or three small fixes needed in the WordPress stuff (our logo, a menu item here and there), but the important thing is our actual content is alive and back online. The primary URL until yesterday was vintagecomputerfederation.org. That is way too long. The new primary URL, as of right now, is vcfed.org. Vintagecomputerederation.org (and .com) forward to the short one. I still have to make vcfed.com forward to the .org too, but there's some glitch where it is not appearing inthe cpanel drop-down box for redirects. We'll get it sorted out.

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HELP!!!!!! MySQL / MyPHPadmin
by Evan Koblentz 14 Feb '16

14 Feb '16

I need to talk on the phone with someone who's very good at MyPHPadmin / MySQL, right now. No time/patience for going back and forth on email.

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Final Write-up Dell Dimension XPS 466V
by william degnan 14 Feb '16

14 Feb '16

Final Write-up Dell Dimension XPS 466V http://vintagecomputer.net/browse_thread.cfm?id=626 -- @ BillDeg: Web: vintagecomputer.net Twitter: @billdeg <https://twitter.com/billdeg> Youtube: @billdeg <https://www.youtube.com/user/billdeg> Unauthorized Bio <http://www.vintagecomputer.net/readme.cfm>

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DNS changes happening NOW
by Evan Koblentz 14 Feb '16

14 Feb '16

Our main DNS changed from GoDaddy to the new company a few minutes ago. Let's see if this list still works....

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museum move report
by Evan Koblentz 13 Feb '16

13 Feb '16

Last week, we (me, Tony, Steve A.) cleared the first two of the old museum rooms (consumer/business micros). Today, we (me, Tony, Jeff B.) cleared 90% of the homebrew-era room. It took longer than the other rooms because there were more loose things to pack and a lot of stuff under the tables. Next weekend, we'll finish the homebrew room and hopefully get everything except computers/display cases out of the mainframe room.

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] Side panels for our PDP-8
by VAXman＠tmesis.org 13 Feb '16

13 Feb '16

Evan Koblentz via vcf-midatlantic writes: >>> Shaming me into making it by publicly asking where we can get one >made= . It seems to work for my wife to get me to fix things so maybe >they spok= e on how to motivate me. > >I can neither confirm nor deny that. :) Are the none smoked plexiglass parts not make of aluminum? Somebody with a CNC router or, perhaps, a 3D printer could produce those parts to integrate with the plexiglass formed piece. A little painting detail could make the CNC routed or 3D printed parts look close to the authentic real deal.

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OT: Bass or Guitar Players?
by william degnan 13 Feb '16

13 Feb '16

I am looking to get another 5 string bass, something good. I have a Taylor 414CE or a vintage computer(s) to trade. I am looking for something like an original Tobias, a nice Fender Jazz, etc. I prefer someone local to Phila/Balt. area. -- @ BillDeg: Web: vintagecomputer.net Twitter: @billdeg <https://twitter.com/billdeg> Youtube: @billdeg <https://www.youtube.com/user/billdeg> Unauthorized Bio <http://www.vintagecomputer.net/readme.cfm>

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Side panels for our PDP-8
by Evan Koblentz 13 Feb '16

13 Feb '16

Rich's posts about his H-11 made me wonder: can anyone recommend a business where we can have replica side covers made for the PDP-8? We have both of the original covers. One is intact and in good shape. The other is broken into multiple pieces and there's a whole piece missing. I looked a few years ago, but failed to find any local businesses that could make replica covers. The covers don't have to be * exactly * like the originals, they just have to evoke the originals.

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OT: F/S: Chromebook
by Evan Koblentz 13 Feb '16

13 Feb '16

Anybody want my Asus Chromebook? It's a 2014 model. I am very happy with it, just looking to get the kind that folds into a tablet. Minor cosmetic issues on the case. Screen is in perfect condition. $100 Pictures: http://www.snarc.net/cb/ $100

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Received H11-a shipping mess!
by Herb Johnson 12 Feb '16

12 Feb '16

Rich, congrats on your H11 purchase, sorry to hear about the shipping problems but thanks for describing them in this discussion group. The subject of packing is significant to me, and you've provided a cautionary tale. I spend a lot of time and effort in packing stuff I sell, and I go to great pains to explain to my customers why that's necessary. Some number of them simply don't understand what packing is about, or seem to have awareness of how fragile some vintage computers can be. That's especially true for old CRT monitors, more so for color CRT monitors - their plastic cases just crumble under stress. Rich, would you mind giving some further information about the packing if you can, privately or in public reply? Did the seller pack themselves, or did the seller ask a shipping service to pack? And can you give some idea of how little packing material there was? A simple metric would be the thickness of any styrofoam between chassis and box, if it was "peanuts" or solid styrofoam, etc. Some may think these are boring, nit-picky questions. Rich would likely disagree that it's a boring subject. I'm trying to learn from his experience. herb -- Herbert R. Johnson, New Jersey USA http://www.retrotechnology.com OR .net

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WIn 3.1 gaming - source for gamepad drivers
by william degnan 12 Feb '16

12 Feb '16

[repost from vintage-computer.com] Does anyone have a win 3.1 driver for any of the following game pads? I searched the web, found nothing matching yet. 1. microsoft sidewinder game pad 2. radioshack gamepad 3. Interact pc propad 4 I tried here: http://www.vogonsdrivers.com/index.php?catid=29 ...but there were no matches for Win 3.1, DOS 1.44 drive. -- @ BillDeg: Web: vintagecomputer.net Twitter: @billdeg <https://twitter.com/billdeg> Youtube: @billdeg <https://www.youtube.com/user/billdeg> Unauthorized Bio <http://www.vintagecomputer.net/readme.cfm>

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Received H11-a shipping mess!
by Richard Cini 12 Feb '16

12 Feb '16

All — I got a hold of a Heathkit H11, which arrived today and the person I got it from did everything wrong when shipping it. First, the good…it actually has more boards than I thought it did. It has the M7270 CPU, an H11-5 serial board, and two WHA-11-16 16kw x 16bit memory boards. Now, the bad…there was inadequate packaging so it got bounced around by UPS. The CPU board was dislodged and the other three were shoved down one notch in the cage so that a board was plugged into row 1 but it sat in row 2’s card edge guide. It must have been dropped or thrown because the side panel threaded inserts cracked the case. Looks like I need some epoxy to as to re-anchor the threaded screw inserts. The chassis has serial #00744 but no other serial number stickers. No console cable was provided but I have the manual for the serial board, so I’ll make one up (looks like 3-wire plus two for a paper tape). There is a massive Sprague capacitor on the PS, so I removed all boards and disconnected the PS from the backplane. I’m going to put it on a variac with lightbulb current limiter and bring it up over a few hours — maybe 15v/hour or something like that. It’s a two-switch front panel with a 3rd toggle switch connected to two posts on the power supply board — function unknown since I don’t have the manual. The front panel was painted with flat black paint, but it’s chipping in spots so I might be able to get it off (would need recommendations for non-damaging paint remover). The CPU has 5 40-pin chips (two purple ceramic and three PDIP). Supposedly the H11 has a monitor PROM or something like it, but I don’t see anything like a PROM on the board. Guess I have to wait until I get it running! Is there anything else I should know about the H11 while bringing it up? Thanks! Rich -- Rich Cini Collector of Classic Computers Build Master and lead engineer, Altair32 Emulator http://www.classiccmp.org/cini http://www.classiccmp.org/altair32

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Interest in Lawrence Livermore Labs MST-80 Intel 8080 Trainers?
by Systems Glitch 12 Feb '16

12 Feb '16

All, One of my parts/test equipment suppliers has contacted me with an offer on 6 or 7 Lawrence Livermore Labs MST-80(B?) trainers. These are 8080 trainers in a briefcase -- I brought mine to VCF East a few years ago. They have a keypad and three hex displays and can be controlled via a ROM monitor. Expansion is really simple, and the MST-80 provides DIP headers for address/data/control signals, as well as onboard I/O ports and 10 LEDs. The manuals are available online (IIRC Doug Crawford scanned his manual and that's the copy most people have), I don't yet know if any of these come with a hardcopy of it. What I'd like to know from list members is: - What would you pay for a repaired/tested/working unit? - What would you pay for an "as is" but not trashed unit? (cosmetically OK, all bits present, just untested) - What would you pay for just the board, in the event the briefcases are torn up? (haven't seen them yet) I'm trying to figure out what a fair offer is. They will of course be made available to VCFers if I purchase them! Thanks, Jonathan

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Help needed this Saturday
by Evan Koblentz 11 Feb '16

11 Feb '16

We need one or two hard-working helpers at the museum this Saturday, starting around 9-10am and ending by the early evening. Lunch is on us. Goal is to move everything out of the homebrew-era room and move everything except computers out of the minis/mainframe room. Tony will be there with his empty cargo van from about noon-4pm but we definitely need another reliable helper or two. Lots of things to pack up and schlep.

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Computer training on 3/4" tape
by Kelly Leavitt 11 Feb '16

11 Feb '16

I have 3 training tapes on ¾" uMatic tape. Anyone want these? Two are about Symphony, one is about the PC. Come get them or cover postage. Kelly

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Ohio Scientific 495 Prototype Boards
by Systems Glitch 11 Feb '16

11 Feb '16

I finally found an Ohio Scientific 495 prototype board recently, on eBay! I've been searching for one for years -- I only know for sure of one other 495 board in existence. Apparently they're desirable, as I had to pay > $100 for it. Here's what I got: http://imgur.com/43MjWTd The previous owner didn't get much done with it -- looks like they had laid out some buffering and that was about it. I stripped it off, which was super simple as the board is single-sided with no plated-through holes. I was going to start using it when I thought, wouldn't it be cool to reproduce the boards so other people could get them? I removed the Molex KK-156 connectors in preparation for scanning the board and making UV photoresist negatives. Instead of making a photocopy board, though, I sent it off for a high-resolution scan and conversion to DXF/Gerber+Excellon Drill files. I got the results back yesterday: http://imgur.com/in0xfbX It's a 1:1 scan with no clean-up, so the scan definitely reflects the "tape and film" original. Not all of the pads are perfectly lined up and the drills aren't always on center. I decided to leave it like that as it doesn't really harm such a simple board. I did add a bit of text at the bottom left corner, so that the reproduction boards don't end up misrepresented as brand-new originals or something. I sent the Gerbers off to get a small test run done, but I'll probably do a much larger run (25 or more) once they're proved out. If anyone wants one, let me know. I'm going to put together some tutorials/plans on how to use them to build useful OSI-compatible boards -- like a RAM board that uses 32K x 8 "modern" 28-pin static RAM! Thanks, Jonathan

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Stools
by Evan Koblentz 11 Feb '16

11 Feb '16

I'm sure everyone remembers the discussion about stools. It was... non-crappy. Corey/Jeff B./and I decided it's better to get nice stools which cost more than cheaper ones which won't make us happy. We ordered five stools with pneumatic adjustment, wheels, and padded seats. They're about $40 each. The $20 ones aren't adjustable, don't have wheels, and you sit on hard particle board. As with the warehouse shelving, we will order more stools as budget allows. Goal is to get 20 of them. (In other news, we now have an Amazon Business account. Better than using our personal accounts and it applies our sales tax exemption.)

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Measuring wheel
by Jeffrey Brace 10 Feb '16

10 Feb '16

Does anyone have a measuring wheel that I could borrow? I'm trying to get an accurate measure of distances in and around InfoAge campus buildings.

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FS: S-100 System Services (Altair, IMSAI, SOL-20, Cromemco, et c.)
by Systems Glitch 09 Feb '16

09 Feb '16

Full writeup and contact information: http://www.glitchwrks.com/2016/02/09/s100-repair I've been doing S-100 board and system level repair for several years now, and decided to actually put out a public offering of services. I can handle board repair/rework, full system refurbishing, board exchange, custom board/system buildout and design, et c. Past work includes S-100 repair done for the Vintage Computer Museum east coast museum and many private customers. If you'd like a custom one-off interface for another piece of equipment you have, I'm happy to design and assemble a S-100 board for it. For example, I've interfaced several different paper tape readers to the S-100 bus for people, including a high-speed HP minicomputer reader. Several users here have either bought S-100 boards from me, or had me repair boards for them in the past. Thanks, Jonathan

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Micro exhibit: What goes where?
by Evan Koblentz 09 Feb '16

09 Feb '16

Over at http://www.vcf.org/evan/whatgoeswhere.jpg you'll find my latest list of which microcomputers should be displayed in our new space. Left column is the bottom (primary) shelf, which is where we'll have systems that are operable (not all of them, but many). Right column is the top shelf, where most systems will lack screens and stuff. Blank spots are where I could use suggestions about what to put (and why). Chart is sorted by year of the left column item. Some of the top-shelf items are obvious, for example other Apples above the Apple II, other Commodores above the 64, etc. Others are, shall we say, "creative", for Horizon about the Xitan (because they're both Z-80 but the Xitan is an NJ product), Z-100 above the H-89 (to show that electronics kit maker Heathkit was involved in the computer field too; Z-100 was an H-100 inside), Epson QX-10 above the Lisa (office suite apps), and so on ..... one or two items are a little more random because they didn't fit anywhere else, such as the OSI above the 99/4A. Constructive criticism is welcome and especially good suggestions for what to put in the four blank boxes.

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Next workshop - Feb. 27-28
by Evan Koblentz 08 Feb '16

08 Feb '16

Fix things and be merry.

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What's on the S-100 museum shelving unit?
by Evan Koblentz 08 Feb '16

08 Feb '16

Dumb question -- I'm trying to remember which systems are on the shelving unit left of the Apple 1 in our (now closed) museum. I know we have the SWTPc 6800, SOL-20, and Cromemco 2-ZH there. Anybody remember what else is on those shelves? Anyone have a recent picture of that room?

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] Double door progess
by Evan Koblentz 08 Feb '16

08 Feb '16

I checked with Fred about the exit signs. He said our room has a maximum capacity of 50 people, and exit signs are only required above that amount.

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] Double door progess
by Evan Koblentz 08 Feb '16

08 Feb '16

> There will have to be a lighted exit sign in that general area, right? All I know is the town inspector gave a thumbs-up to the building/room in its current state.

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] Double door progess
by Tony Bogan 08 Feb '16

08 Feb '16

Sent from my iPhone > On Feb 8, 2016, at 12:11 PM, Bill Sudbrink via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> wrote: > > I assume that the outlet above the door is for the > "EXIT" sign? > > Bill S. Funny you should say that, I told Evan when we were moving all the computers we should get a vintage computer sign of come kind (old computer fest/data center sign from 70s/80s) and put it

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] Double door progess
by Martin Flynn 08 Feb '16

08 Feb '16

Clock > On Feb 8, 2016, at 12:11 PM, Bill Sudbrink via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> wrote: > > I assume that the outlet above the door is for the > "EXIT" sign? > > Bill S. > >

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Double door progess
by Evan Koblentz 08 Feb '16

08 Feb '16

There are three doors into our new museum space. One of them is being converted into a double door, so that we can display big stuff like our UNIVAC. Check out the attached photo to see the progress!

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Printer update
by Evan Koblentz 07 Feb '16

07 Feb '16

Unfortunately the printer offered to us at the recent workshop didn't work. Its insides rattled around and made a grinding noise. But, the story has a happy ending! Corey C. is donating a brand new one to us. The new one does wide format (up to 19" wide, same as most other entry-level units), is also a copier/scanner, and has wireless printing from Android/iOS devices.

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What should be on our (tiny) workbench?
by Evan Koblentz 07 Feb '16

07 Feb '16

As previously mentioned, our new museum space will have a small bench area. This won't be a fully equipped workshop, due to space (and also because we can use the IXR hackerspace's workshop whenever needed), but it will be good for quick/simple projects. What equipment should be put in there? So far: - Martin's getting us a nice SFF computer - We will get a budget wide-format (13x19) printer - Corey donated a desoldering station - I still need to check if we already have a scope - Alex J. donated a variac We'll need a decent soldering station and a set of tools. As you would all guess, my strong preference is to have one nice matching set of tools, not a hundred mismatched parts. What else should be seek, especially re: anything of significant cost? Of course, our * other * strong preference is to have everything donated. :)

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Casters!
by Evan Koblentz 07 Feb '16

07 Feb '16

Good news about our shelving. Funding presented itself today for us to put all the new shelving units on caster wheels (as in the warehouse). That will make it waaaaaaaaay easier to move stuff around for maintenance, cabling, reorganization, etc. -- thank you to the donor!

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Moving report
by Evan Koblentz 07 Feb '16

07 Feb '16

Steve A., Tony, and I had a very productive day moving stuff from the old museum to the new one. In the first two rooms (consumer + business microcomputers), we moved ALL of our artifacts -- systems, books, peripherals, etc. -- into one corner of the new space. Steve has a station wagon and Tony has a cargo van. Both arrived with their vehicles empty, and we made several trips with each car pretty well loaded. All that's left of ours in those two rooms are the white wire shelving attached to the walls. That will be very easy to take down; we'll do it next time. We left behind the ugly metal desks and the carpet. InfoAge plans to dispose of the desks in their own way, which is fine with me! Moving those by ourselves would be very difficult and time-consuming. Next weekend (not yet sure which day), we'll tackle the homebrew-era room. That will be slightly more challenging than today's effort, because the systems are heavier. The only really heavy thing we had to move today was the IBM 5100 dual 8" floppy cabinet. You all know what's looming -- the big stuff. These include two heavy-ass display cases, Bendix G-15 and its desk, George (four full racks), IBM 1130 (computer, printer, card reader, 029 keypunch), PDP-8 + teletype, and I forget the model number of the other double-wide DEC mini -- 785? We need to plan that move carefully and have the right volunteers in place. Basically, we just have to get across the sidewalk, concrete ramp, and gravel-covered blacktop -- a distance of about 25 feet. Then we'll be indoors on perfectly flat concrete. Probably the most important thing we'll need for that move is a couple of people who are very experienced with moving the large stuff.

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Museum move
by Evan Koblentz 07 Feb '16

07 Feb '16

We closed our museum (for the next couple of months) and began moving during the workshop this weekend. So far, we moved 26 boxes of books, with several more to go. We also bought our own trash can so we don't have to keep borrowing an InfoAge one, and we bought a box of contractor-grade trash bags. Jeff J. brought in the wide printer, which printer guru Ian thinks will work. We will get new cartridges to test it. Corey C. brought in a desoldering station. We'll need to get a regular soldering station, tools, etc. (we probably already have a decent scope: I don't know much about those, but I do know IA has a few and we might too; I'm honestly not sure if there if there is one in our warehouse.) This week I'll order the shelving. Fred and the InfoAge board chairmam both asked us to show our layout plan to InfoAge's design consultant (he's a volunteer). We did that, and he gave it the okay. Several of our own members saw the design during the workshop and everyone seems to like it. A few people made very helpful suggestions that we will use. There will be several "please help us move" emails from me during the next few weeks/months.

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So, we're going to need an office computer.
by Evan Koblentz 06 Feb '16

06 Feb '16

We're going to need a computer for the new museum's office/workbench area. Requirements: 1. It must have a very small footprint. A full tower, anything rack-mounted, servers, etc. are not suitable for our current situation. Ideally a "mini" case (ha! a minicomputer...) would serve us well. 2. We don't need a laptop and would rather have a desktop anyhow, so we can more easily upgrade it and avoid proprietary stuff. 3. Its motherboard should have a sufficient CPU and enough RAM capacity to run a modern operating system. 4. Serial port. :) 5. We'll need this in the next few weeks. That's about it. I figure we can buy a cheap SSD, install Windows 7 SP1 -- which is the least-worst version of Windows -- and make it dual-boot into Linux. I can do all of that myself, but it would certainly save time if the system gets to us already configured this way. I have a spare USB keyboard/mouse to donate. VCF owns a few small-ish square LCDs, but we could definitely use a donation of a modern wide-screen LCD -- perhaps a 22-inch or around that size.

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1992
by william degnan 06 Feb '16

06 Feb '16

Marketshare of US Micros, 1991 to 1992 (during period when Win 3.1 was launched) The two charts are slanted because one is US and one is "the world" but the impact of clones is still obvious. *TABLE 1. 1991 U.S. market share (source: Fortune Sept. 21, 1992)* Company Market share (%) ------- ---------------- IBM 18.6 Apple 14.0 Packard Bell 5.7 Tandy/Grid 4.1 Gateway 2000 3.6 Compaq 3.5 Everex 3.0 AST 2.5 Epson 2.2 Dell 2.1 NEC 2.1 *TABLE 2. Worldwide PC-market share, 1992.(source: The Economist, January 30, 1993)* Company Market share (%) ------- ---------------- IBM 12.4 Apple 11.9 Compaq 6.6 NEC 5.1 Dell 3.5 Others 60.5 <---- Clone makers

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