- vcf-midatlantic - lists.vcfed.org

Repair Workshop 3/7 & 3/8, 2020 Information
by Jeffrey Brace 05 Mar '20

05 Mar '20

We still have space in this weekend's repair workshop. As a reminder the workshop is $10 *per* person, *per* day. Sorry this is InfoAge's rule and not our decision. So that means for two days it is $20. Sign up to guarantee a table. DATE: March 7 & 8, 2020 LOCATION: InfoAge Building 9059 (CDL Hackerspace - Formerly IXR) - (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/1DySkGulduRUxJuPwK2RUEdP_yKD8YiDEn7K… > COST: - $10 per person, PER day. This is required by InfoAge for us to pay for renting the space. - $25 for those wanting to stay overnight (Money goes to InfoAge). Please pay ME (Jeff Brace) when you get there so that I don't forget. Credit cards accepted. I will be using VCF's PayPal Here tablet with bluetooth credit card machine. 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. - You can pay via PayPal to paypal(a)vcfed.org. or to me via cash or credit card in person. 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. - If you need particular tools that you don't know or particular parts, please post to the list for those going. They may have what you need. Let them know ahead of time. DRINKS: You should bring your own. There is a full sized refrigerator to keep them cool. FOOD: Bring your own, but we will usually order pizza or go out to eat for dinner. If the weather is nice, then we might cook burgers out back. 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 in the main parking lot, unless you are unloading. InfoAge doesn't like us parking on the lawn anymore. QUESTIONS? Contact Jeff: 732-759-1783 jeffrey(a)vcfed.org Have fun everyone! -- ========================================= Jeff Brace Vice President & Board Member, VCF East Showrunner Vintage Computer Federation http://www.vcfed.org/ jeffrey(a)vcfed.org

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] cincinatti teletype (telex model 32)
by Jeff G 04 Mar '20

04 Mar '20

Correct, Model 32 were all TELEX or TWX as far as I'm aware. If it has the rotary dial with the pushbuttons, there was a weird process for connecting via TELEX, there's youtube vids of showing the connection process. Telex lines were not normal POTS lines (took a lot of research to determine that lol) - close but not the same. Even if they supported dial-up, remember they're 5-bit 45.5baud which is odd to most computer stuff. ASR33 is much more serial compatible. I thought I-TELEX (German) was supposed to properly emulate Telex lines, but in watching a few videos I see them using the TTY keyboard to dial, so not sure if that's true anymore, as they mention something about having a hard time getting modems. On the loop, I think 20-60 seems to be the range; on my Hal ST-6 (RTTY teletype unit) it seems to sit idle at 60ma, and I think active bounces around 20ma, but you may want to verify that (as will I). >From what I recently read, 12v is usable for local and perhaps fairly short distance, but anything beyond that needs higher voltage to compensate for the inductance of the magnets. Some Navy stuff that was "Tempest" grade apparently used as little as 7v. I pipe the ITTY stream into the Hal ST-6 to let mine run, and hope that if I can rig up a better antenna someday I may even actually try RTTY through it. Would love to find a 15/19 purely for the aesthetics of them! Jeff aka Bags aka KC3GJX

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DEC Rainbow 100+
by Adam Michlin 04 Mar '20

04 Mar '20

Hi Everyone, So we have an absolutely gorgeous, looking almost brand new, completely dec'ed out (see what I did there?), DEC Rainbow 100+ for hands on use in the museum now in the new business office display. It currently boots up to MS-DOS and runs the DEC WPS word processor. It also seems to have 123 installed, although there may have a copy protection issue. But what intrigues me the most is that the MS-DOS boot disk is E:... C: and D: appear to exist, but aren't MS-DOS formated. So, I'm guessing these might be CP/M partitions for the Z80 processor also in the DEC Rainbow. But, the big question, how do we tell it to boot CP/M? And, I understand it can also function as a standand alone VT-100 terminal. How do we get it to go into that mode? This opens an entirely different world of uses once it is rotated out as the "business" computer on the business desk. Oh... most importantly... I had forgotten how absolutely gorgeous smooth scroll is. Thanks much, -Adam

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] cincinatti teletype (telex model 32)
by Ethan Dicks 03 Mar '20

03 Mar '20

On Tue, Mar 3, 2020 at 1:03 PM Jeff G via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vcfed.org> wrote: > FYI, not much need to bother with the circuit boards. The meat of it (the > teletype portion) is non-electronic and doesn't really depend on the boards > at all. The phone part on the right was a Telex dialer, and it won't work > with anything you can find today, short of possibly I-Telex. Not POTS then? My ASR-33 with Data Set is totally POTS. I tested it by dialing up CompuServe. > If you need help wiring, etc let me know as I have a 32 and can send pics. > You'll need a loop supply capable of 60ma, which can even be a 12v supply > just to shut it up while testing/running. Without a loop supply it'll chunk > non-stop. Usually "proper" teletype loop supplies are around 120V DC though. I'm restoring a number of Model 15s and Model 19s and a Model 14 for a friend. I'm aware of 120VDC 60mA current loops. The ASR-33 is 20mA @ 12VDC (or so). You are saying that the selector magnet in an ASR-32 pulls 60mA? -ethan

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Re: cincinatti teletype (telex model 32)
by Jeff G 03 Mar '20

03 Mar '20

FYI, not much need to bother with the circuit boards. The meat of it (the teletype portion) is non-electronic and doesn't really depend on the boards at all. The phone part on the right was a Telex dialer, and it won't work with anything you can find today, short of possibly I-Telex. If you need help wiring, etc let me know as I have a 32 and can send pics. You'll need a loop supply capable of 60ma, which can even be a 12v supply just to shut it up while testing/running. Without a loop supply it'll chunk non-stop. Usually "proper" teletype loop supplies are around 120V DC though. Jeff G aka Bags

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] Data recovery of 8mm DAT tape (Sun Workstation)
by Jeffrey Brace 03 Mar '20

03 Mar '20

On Mon, Mar 2, 2020 at 10:01 PM Jonathan Sturges via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vcfed.org> wrote: > > > Someone asks: > > "I?ve 2-3 old 8mm DAT tapes from my sun workstation that I used to back > up > > my sun workstations. I purchased a 8mm drive (along with a scsi > controller, > > cables, etc) to read the stuff, but was only able to recover a bit of the > > data from them." > > > Does someone have the hardware and/or knowledge to recover this for this > > individual? > > Jeff, > I have an Exabyte 8705 drive and several Suns that support it, so I should > be able to help. I have some questions however. Feel free to pass along > my contact info. > OK. Done. FYI the guy who is inquiring co-wrote SATAN (Security Administrator Tool for Analyzing Networks ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Security_Administrator_Tool_for_Analyzing_Net… ). > thanks, > Jonathan > -- ========================================= Jeff Brace Vice President & Board Member, VCF East Showrunner Vintage Computer Federation http://www.vcfed.org/ jeffrey(a)vcfed.org

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cincinatti teletype (telex model 32)
by Bill Degnan 03 Mar '20

03 Mar '20

if anyone on this list is near cincinnati this weekend, let me know (privately) through vintagecomputer.net (or call me)... http://vintagecomputer.net/temp/DSCN3628.JPG http://vintagecomputer.net/temp/DSCN3629.JPG <http://vintagecomputer.net/temp/DSCN3628.JPG> first come first served. I don't know the donor, I can't answer questions about it. Bill

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] Data recovery of 8mm DAT tape (Sun Workstation)
by Jonathan Sturges 03 Mar '20

03 Mar '20

> Someone asks: > "I?ve 2-3 old 8mm DAT tapes from my sun workstation that I used to back up > my sun workstations. I purchased a 8mm drive (along with a scsi controller, > cables, etc) to read the stuff, but was only able to recover a bit of the > data from them." > Does someone have the hardware and/or knowledge to recover this for this > individual? Jeff, I have an Exabyte 8705 drive and several Suns that support it, so I should be able to help. I have some questions however. Feel free to pass along my contact info. thanks, Jonathan

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WTB: XT class 286 upgrade card
by Jason Perkins 02 Mar '20

02 Mar '20

Hi all, I'm looking to buy a 286 upgrade card... the kind that go into an ISA slot, and plug into the 8088 socket with a ribbon cable. Does anyone have one they'd like to sell? Thanks! -- Jason Perkins 313 355 0085

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Data recovery of 8mm DAT tape (Sun Workstation)
by Jeffrey Brace 02 Mar '20

02 Mar '20

Someone asks: "I’ve 2-3 old 8mm DAT tapes from my sun workstation that I used to back up my sun workstations. I purchased a 8mm drive (along with a scsi controller, cables, etc) to read the stuff, but was only able to recover a bit of the data from them." Does someone have the hardware and/or knowledge to recover this for this individual? -- ========================================= Jeff Brace Vice President & Board Member, VCF East Showrunner Vintage Computer Federation http://www.vcfed.org/ jeffrey(a)vcfed.org

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yet another retro source: thebrewingacademy.com/
by Jeffrey Jonas 02 Mar '20

02 Mar '20

I do not remember anyone mentioning this source of retrofits and retro-kits: https://thebrewingacademy.com/ for example: https://thebrewingacademy.com/products/texas-instruments-99-4a-flashrom-99 The Brewing Academy FR99: FlashROM 99 Cartridge for the Texas Instruments 99/4a $34.99 The Flash ROM Cartridge for Texas Instrument 99/4a , or FlashROM 99 for short, is a cartridge for the TI 99/4A home computer that allows for running ROM cartridge images stored on an SD card. The FlashROM 99 supports ROM-only images of up to 32K that use the write-to->60xx bank switching scheme. It will not work with programs using GROMs or CRU-based bank switching. The cartridge does not require the Peripheral Expansion Box and runs on both PAL and NTSC consoles. Apologies if this was already known. -- jeff jonas

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GEOS 128 processor and SD card solution
by Jeffrey Brace 01 Mar '20

01 Mar '20

I'm researching use of GEOS 128. I've always been a C64 user and have used the C64 version of GEOS (Version 2). Does anyone know which processor is used by GEOS 128? Is it the 8502 or Z80? Also is there a uIEC that will work on a C128 *and* work with GEOS 128? I know that there was a bounty to make the uIEC work with GEOS 64. Thanks! -- ========================================= Jeff Brace Vice President & Board Member, VCF East Showrunner Vintage Computer Federation http://www.vcfed.org/ jeffrey(a)vcfed.org

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Repair Workshop March 7 & 8 - Signup
by Jeffrey Brace 01 Mar '20

01 Mar '20

The next repair workshop is next weekend. You can signup here: < https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1DySkGulduRUxJuPwK2RUEdP_yKD8YiDEn7K… > I'd love someone to assess the museum's SWTPC and the Heathkit H89. I have no idea if they are working and hesitant to just plug it in and turn it on, without assessing it's condition first. We are getting close to 100% of the machines in the museum working. -- ========================================= Jeff Brace Vice President & Board Member, VCF East Showrunner Vintage Computer Federation http://www.vcfed.org/ jeffrey(a)vcfed.org Access the Internet [image: QualityInnSuites] × User Agreement Close Welcome! By clicking the Login button, you agree to the terms of our User Agreement <#agreement-popup>. If you have technical questions or difficulty with your login, please contact technical support at 1-866-458-0860 Powered by Aware Software <http://wanderingwifi.com> QualitySuites.com <http://www.qualitysuites.com/> © 1995-2009. Choice Hotels International, Inc. All rights reserved. <#DAB4FAD8-2DD7-40BB-A1B8-4E2AA1F9FDF2>

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Museum Report 2020-02-29
by Jeffrey Brace 01 Mar '20

01 Mar '20

Hello Everyone, Sorry I haven't been sending regular museum reports lately. Things have been busy with VCF East prep and museum rearranging. We have been getting about 20 visitors each weekend day. Today was about 25 with 15 of them being a photography group touring InfoAge campus. I have the C64 setup in the 80's bedroom area of the museum with The Print Shop and a Star NX-10 printer. My idea is that visitors can print a one page graphic or whatever they want as a souvenir. It takes a while to print, so longer pages would take too much time. Lots of new machines on display like the Zorba, and two Soviet clone computers, Tandy Portable, etc. I have been training a new docent named Dennis who is a 17 year old Junior in high school. He is picking up things very quickly. It is really fun to get his point of view since almost everything is new to him. Like today he asked "What's this?" (It was a floppy disk notcher). So Tony and I explained to him. I'm hoping to recruit more people to be docents to spread the load docent coverage. -- ========================================= Jeff Brace Vice President & Board Member, VCF East Showrunner Vintage Computer Federation http://www.vcfed.org/ jeffrey(a)vcfed.org

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] Data Recovery from Jaz Cartridge
by Jonathan Sturges 29 Feb '20

29 Feb '20

> Someone sent me a message requesting data recovery services. If anyone is > interested or capable, then I will forward the contact info. Jeff, I have 2 different SCSI to FireWire adapters, plus one of those Microtech SCSI to USB adapters, and the obligatory cache of PCI SCSI cards for desktop systems. I'd be glad to help recover your friend's data. There's good backwards compatibility for Windows filesystems, so if you can find OS drivers for the Microtech adapters, the disks should mount right up. That, or just load the appropriate Windows drivers for SCSI card du jour. If you're still looking for help, let me know... I can also bring bits up to InfoAge during a workshop. -Jonathan

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any source for Pocket Chip (other than ebay)
by Jeffrey Jonas 29 Feb '20

29 Feb '20

Now that the "Next Thing Co" went bust, is there any source for their wonderful "Pocket C.H.I.P." Handheld Linux Computer? There must've been some inventory in a warehouse or 2. Ebay prices are unrealistically high :-( -- jeff jonas

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] suggested viewing
by Ethan O'Toole 28 Feb '20

28 Feb '20

On Thu, 27 Feb 2020, Jeff G via vcf-midatlantic wrote: [NON-Text Body part not included] Regarding Secret life of Machines... did that air in the USA? I found it on BitTorrent or something years ago but had never heard of it prior. - Ethan

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MagicCap & General Magic
by Richard Cini 28 Feb '20

28 Feb '20

All – I was in LA this past week and on the flight there, they had the documentary “General Magic” from 2018. I don’t remember hearing about the movie, but I definitely remember General Magic. I didn’t have time to watch it on the plane but I watched some YouTube videos after I got to LA. Fascinating story, kind of reminds me of Jerry Kaplan and the EO. If you look, the raw documentary footage on YT is great, especially the huge prototypes and the struggles to find a decent touch screen. Anyway, as I started digging, I found this link from Adafruit: https://learn.adafruit.com/magic-cap-the-smartphone-os-from-the-90s/overview So, this was a good reason to reinstall Basilisk II on my Mac (needed to be updated for Catalina anyway), and play around with it. It’s amazing how many concepts made it into other products, and of course how prolific the people were overall. Also interesting is the use of the phrase in 1992 of “the cloud” to describe virtualized data services, something we take for granted now. When GM blew-up, the IP was sold (even though Andy Hertzfeld tried to buy it), but I’ve seen two references to Paul Allen/Vulcan and Nathan Myhrvold/Intellectual Ventures buying them for a “failed startup graveyard” of sorts. That’s the kind of software I wish would be opened-up, but there are many patents associated with it which are still relevant, so I doubt it would happen. Anyway, great thing to learn about over the trip. Rich -- Rich Cini http://www.classiccmp.org/cini http://www.classiccmp.org/altair32

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Honeywell h-316 power supply
by Mike Loewen 28 Feb '20

28 Feb '20

I received the following from someone who has a Honeywell 316 power supply. If anyone is interested, send me a note off-list and I'll give you his contact info. He's in Vero Beach, FL. Mike Loewen mloewen(a)cpumagic.scol.pa.us Old Technology http://q7.neurotica.com/Oldtech/ ---------- Forwarded message ---------- "I purchased some items from the estate of a space coast military electronics engineer and in it is a power supply for a Honeywell 316. As I understand, that computer was important to the ARPANET program but I have no practical use for it. It has paper copy's from the h316 maintenance manual of the chapter on the power supply. I would have attached pictures but I didn't want to seem suspicious with my first contact with you. My question is, do you have interest in this item? And if you don't, do you know of a good home for it? Thank you in advance."

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] suggested viewing
by Chris Fala 27 Feb '20

27 Feb '20

Tried to resist but had to chime in. +5! On Thu, Feb 27, 2020 at 4:28 PM Alexander Pierson via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vcfed.org> wrote: > 4th'd: The Secret Life of Machines was incredibly inspiring to me a few > years back when I first discovered it. I stayed up all night watching > episode after episode. The one about the fax machine was particularly eye > opening. > -Alexander 'Z' Pierson > > > On Thursday, February 27, 2020, 04:09:06 PM EST, Jason Perkins via > vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vcfed.org> wrote: > > 3x on Secret Life of Machines. One of my favorite programs! > > On Thu, Feb 27, 2020 at 12:25 PM Jeff G via vcf-midatlantic < > vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vcfed.org> wrote: > > > Secret life of machines was hands down me and my dads FAVORITE show to > > watch back in the day. You can find all the Episodes online, and even now > > the shows are still relevant. > > > > Jeff aka Bags > > > > > -- > Jason Perkins > 313 355 0085 > >

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] suggested viewing
by Jason Perkins 27 Feb '20

27 Feb '20

3x on Secret Life of Machines. One of my favorite programs! On Thu, Feb 27, 2020 at 12:25 PM Jeff G via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vcfed.org> wrote: > Secret life of machines was hands down me and my dads FAVORITE show to > watch back in the day. You can find all the Episodes online, and even now > the shows are still relevant. > > Jeff aka Bags > -- Jason Perkins 313 355 0085

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suggested viewing
by Jeff G 27 Feb '20

27 Feb '20

Secret life of machines was hands down me and my dads FAVORITE show to watch back in the day. You can find all the Episodes online, and even now the shows are still relevant. Jeff aka Bags

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suggested viewing
by Jeffrey Jonas 27 Feb '20

27 Feb '20

Wintergatan is famous for making amazing marble music machines, and a weekly video of other mechanical music machines: https://www.youtube.com/user/wintergatan2000/videos One of his marble machines was exhibited at a museum just for music machines: https://www.museumspeelklok.nl/lang/en/ just one of many music museums: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_music_museums James Burke's "Connections" shows how cams and pegged cylinders evolved into punched card looms and tabulator cards episide 4 "Faith in Numbers" https://youtu.be/z6yL0_sDnX0?t=2150 "The Secret Life Of Machines" http://www.secretlifeofmachines.com/ explores computer history in the episode "The Word Processor" https://youtu.be/nN9wNvEnn-Q enjoy! -- Jeff Jonas

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Hayes 300bps SmartModem for museum exhbit?
by Adam Michlin 27 Feb '20

27 Feb '20

Hi Everyone, We're building a museum exhbit on historical modems. RIght now we have: Acoustic USR 300 bps USR Dual Standard Courier 14.4kbps (Sysop badged) Telebit T2500 Hayes 9600 bps USR Sportster V.92 The idea is feature the beginnings (acoustic) and ends (USR V.92) and several important modems in both the hobbyist space (the Dual Standard being very popular with BBSs) and the business space (Telebit). We'd like to replace the Hayes 9600 with a Hayes 300 SmartModem so people can see the modem that birthed the Hayes command set. Research indicates that the 300 is the first with the Hayes AT command set, but any corrections are welcome. Does anyone have a 300 they would be wiling to donate or lend? Museum exhibits will be changed much more frequently, although not on any set schedule as of yet, so any loan will most certainly be for less than one year. I'll add that, as it stands, this is a behind glass exhibit. There certainly is the possibility of connecting some of these (or other) modems to machines as we consider possible infrastructure capabilities on the museum. Thanks! -Adam

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Data Recovery from Jaz Cartridge
by Jeffrey Brace 27 Feb '20

27 Feb '20

Someone sent me a message requesting data recovery services. If anyone is interested or capable, then I will forward the contact info. Here is the request: I have a friend who needs data recovery for his Iomega *Jaz* Drive -- he has around a dozen 1GB disks. He asked me to help. He has (1) the drive, (2) the “*Jaz Traveller*” adapter, and (3) the cable. He has no software to install. This drive uses a SCSI interface and many people are selling (*gouging*) little SCSI to USB adapters ( Adaptec USB2xchange, Jaz Scsi to USB, and Microtech SCSI to USB) , on ebay and elsewhere for $250-$300 but noone states they were able to see a (say) File Explorer view of the files when they put the USB cable into a modern machine (say Vista, Win 7, Win8, Win10). I don't think that these adapters would work and my friend can't afford $300 for an adapter that might not work. On the other hand, I concluded that since the “*Jaz Traveller*” adapter he does have claims to convert SCSI to the Parallel Printer Port Interface (the shape and number of pins for SCSI is similar to PPP Interface), he has enough equipment to connect the cables to a PPP on a machine which has what I believe is called the guest95.exe Jaz software. This is a standalone app that runs on Windows 95 and reads from the PPP. I do have a Windows 95 machine but I cannot find guest95.exe except on very dark and evil sites where I do not trust that download to be anything but a virus and I cannot risk my machine that way. On one site, I downloaded three .rar files but they were in error with regard to a part being missing. I am thinking perhaps one of your vintage cronies still has a working Jaz Drive and can do this recovery at an affordable price if the disks were shipped to them -- all data would all fit on a $6 SanDisk 32GB thumb drive :- ). -- ========================================= Jeff Brace Vice President & Board Member, VCF East Showrunner Vintage Computer Federation http://www.vcfed.org/ jeffrey(a)vcfed.org

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] [Galactic] Re: Your critical thinking skills and opinion needed: Stickers!
by Michael Brutman 27 Feb '20

27 Feb '20

The idea that a FORTRAN board game existed is intriguing. The tag line "Input: Reason Output:Pleasure" is borderline horrifying ...

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ANNOUNCE: VCF East 2020 Kit, R6501Q Single Board Computer
by systems_glitch 26 Feb '20

26 Feb '20

All, After much delay due to the coronavirus outbreak in China, I now have prototypes for this year's VCF East kit project! It's a Rockwell R6501Q single-board computer, which fits with the 6502 theme for this year, but isn't "just another 6502 SBC," of which there are many fine examples available. You can read the particulars on the VCFed Forums: http://www.vcfed.org/forum/showthread.php?73828-ANNOUNCE-VCF-East-2020-Kit-… If you're definitely going to be at VCF East 2020 and will definitely be buying/building a kit, please visit that link and fill out the poll. That'll help me in planning for the workshop. Thanks, Jonathan

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WE WANT YOU! To be a volunteer at VCF EAST 2020!
by Jeffrey Brace 24 Feb '20

24 Feb '20

VCF East is an event accomplished entirely through the volunteer work of our wonderful members like you! We have a need for everything from camera operator, to ticket desk, to docent, to information desk to many other positions. *Not sure how you want to help?* We will work with you to find an opportunity for you to volunteer in a way most meaningful to you. We need reliable, committed people with a widely varied set of skills. Volunteers receive a show pass for the weekend and they can also sleep over in the Sandy area for $25 per night. If you are interested, then please sign up here: Volunteer Registration <https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScXwPptOjEr4lkiPDcxzO0EwEcqQgaMg1D…> or e-mail me at jeffrey(a)vcfed.org for questions. -- ========================================= Jeff Brace Vice President & Board Member, VCF East Showrunner Vintage Computer Federation http://www.vcfed.org/ jeffrey(a)vcfed.org

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VCF East 2020 Update
by Dean Notarnicola 24 Feb '20

24 Feb '20

The Steering Committee is thrilled to share that planning for VCF East 2020 is off to a running start! With two months until the event, we already have forty exhibitors confirmed with more pending < http://vcfed.org/wp/festivals/vintage-computer-festival-east/vcf-east-exhib…>. Our speaker slots are almost entirely filled with exactly one open slot remaining < http://vcfed.org/wp/festivals/vintage-computer-festival-east/classes/>. Adding icing to the cake, we are excited to share with you all the wonderful improvements made in the museum. This all combines to make for a packed, exciting and informative VCF East! Ticket pre-sales have started < https://www.eventbrite.com/e/vintage-computer-festival-east-2020-tickets-92…> . Please remember, online pre-purchase gets you in the gate thirty minutes early for priority seating and ticket prices are discounted versus the day of event door price. Online sales end April 20th so don't wait!

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Asus PIII CUSC motherboard drivers needed
by Sentrytv 24 Feb '20

24 Feb '20

Good afternoon to all I'm trying to locate drivers for windows 98SE for an Asus mini PIII motherboard SIS chips on board.(mini/micro tower) I tried their website but no luck with that model. Downloaded a couple others but did not work. Does anybody have a good idea where to get windows/Dos drivers for such a motherboard besides the Asus site? I don't usually come across these old or PC's but I wanted to get this up and running to play some old Star Wars games that I have. That needs windows.(DOS) Everything is on board, sound, video, serial, joystick, parallel, IDE. Please let me know if you have any ideas where to get them, off list is OK. Thank you Mike Sent from: My extremely complicated, hand held electronic device.

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Museum update
by Adam Michlin 23 Feb '20

23 Feb '20

Hi Everyone, The elves have been hard at work and, as many of you may have seen on the various social media feeds, we have all sorts of new things going on in the museum. New exhibits include: A now working (thanks to member Ian Primus!) Soviet Union era Spectrum ZX clone called the Orel (not "Eagle" as I incorrectly reported recently) donated by member Bill Lange. Working, as long as long as you can figure out the unlabeled Spectrum keyboard commands on the roman/cyrillic keyboard! Insert your own "In Soviet Russia..." joke here. Anyone have a Spectrum ZX Tetris cart they want to donate? A Timex Sinclair 1000 to match up with the aforementioned Spectrum clone. Still don't have the real English ZX working, but one day! A new office display with a pristine DEC Rainbow 100 and *all* the neat toys (beautiful color monitor!) associated with it that boots into MS-DOS and runs a DEC branded word processor. A TI Professional Portable (luggable) running MS-DOS and 123. One of the last CRT based portables with an absolutely amazing color screen A pristine PCJr including a monitor that was in a sealed box (literally brand new). A Panasonic MSX on loan from member Dean Notarnicola adding Japan to our growing list in the international exhibit area of the museum. Speaking of international, a Bulgarian Apple II clone called "Pravetz" was also added to the international exhibit area on loan from member Tony Bogan. A very cool and very rare officially branded Osborne monitor for our Osborne luggable/portable A Zorba CP/M luggable that is filling in for the Superbrain QD (which was just added, as well) while we get quad density disks (TIL!) up and running.. Best of all, all the above are for museum goers to *actively* use. The modem exhibit is almost complete with several USR and Hayes modems. A Telebit modem, an acoustic coupler modem, and an S100 PMMI modem card round out as many facets of the modem world that we can fit in one display case. The video game exhibit has been changed for East to feature only the 6502 (and 65816). Atari 2600 (same one), NES, SNES, and Atari XE with carts in the machines and representative retail boxes. Post East we might put back the archived "Atari 2600 and earlier exhibit", maybe keep this around, or do something entirely different! Suggestions are most enthusiastically welcome! The "All these things on the wall.." exhibit has been archived for return at another date and we have begun the CPU exhibit in large part due to previous work done by member Jeff Jonas. This Is still very much a work in progress and an email will be sent out shortly with what we have, what we expect to be getting, and what we need. Our goal is to bake the lesson of Moore's Law into the entire museum (supremely important to our mission!) to give more flexibility to the exhibit spaces. Member Bill Inderrieden has generously taken the lead on restoring the Wang 4000. We have high hopes it will be running some time very soon but these things, of course, require a methodical approach and patience. There's an ongoing project to get some DEC equipment running some form of VMS for musuem goers spearheaded by member Connor Krukosky. We're also working on getting the CoCo 3 runnings OS/9 with a solid state solution, but would love a donation of a non-working CoCo floppy drive so people can see what it should look like. The Xerox Star still doens't work, but several members are stepping up to come up with solutions. Any leads on a mouse would be golden. A museum by the people, for the people. And reminder of all our social media feeds: https://www.facebook.com/vcfederation/ <https://www.facebook.com/vcfederation/> https://twitter.com/vcfederation <https://twitter.com/vcfederation> https://www.instagram.com/vcfederation/ <https://www.instagram.com/vcfederation/> Best wishes, -Adam --- Adam Michlin Vintage Computer Federation VCF Mid Atlantic Steering Committee Member

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Cisco 2100 series WLAN controller (and rack kit) up for grabs
by Martin Flynn 23 Feb '20

23 Feb '20

Title says it all - there is a Cisco 2100 series WLAN controller (and rack kit) up for grabs. It's sitting on the rear bench in the makerspace, so it you grab it, reply all.

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Some personal updates
by Evan Koblentz 21 Feb '20

21 Feb '20

Some folks asked what is going on with me. They want to know if I am still in the hobby. The answer is yes. I'm as much of an Apple II fan as ever, and I am definitely going back to Kfest this summer -- can't wait! But I am staying away from VCF events for now, because there are three specific people whom I really don't want to be around. I feel deeply hurt and betrayed by these individuals. One person in particular -- for the record, it's not Jeff Brace -- is someone who, quite frankly, I don't trust * myself * to be in the same room with at this point. I'm a pacifist, but this one person deserves a large bucket of my aggression. Corey, whose friendship I value very much, urged me to do a Lego/computer display at VCF East. I am torn between obliging (because it would be insanely fun) and declining (because of aforementioned certain people.) I'm leaning toward saying no, because it would hurt too much to see people take credit for my work, and to see all the changes of which I do not approve. EK

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Kickstarter: Injection Molded Clear Case for Apple IIe and IIgs
by Adam Michlin 21 Feb '20

21 Feb '20

As I understand it, from the same people who made the SE/30 clear case and attempted to Kickstart the II/II+ case. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/maceffects/injection-molded-clear-case…

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CPU exhibit, reborn
by Jeffrey Jonas 21 Feb '20

21 Feb '20

Several years ago, I made a CPU exhibit for MARCH mostly demonstrating how the pin count went from 40 (Z80, 8086, 6502 ...) to 64 (wide-body 68000) to hundreds (Pentium, Pentium-Pro, AT&T 32000) to a thousand. It's the "tyranny of numbers" all over again: too many pins to casually prototype (particularly the dreaded ball-grid-array). I never completed the accompanying chart with other stats: year it was introduced, word size, number of transistors, line width, die size, clock speed, CMOS/NMOS/PMOS). I was hoping to correlate it to the systems that used the chip and how so many mfgrs were in the game, particularly with the homebrew & demonstrators (RCA, Motorola, MOS, Zilog, Intel ...) Adam found it in the warehouse, so the exhibit is jump-started! -- jeff jonas

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Parasitic Engineering Altair Clock Fix Kit...
by William Sudbrink 20 Feb '20

20 Feb '20

Hi, Does anyone happen to have the instructions for this kit? I would really appreciate a scan if you do. Also looking for a 1975ish GE Porta-Color television (borrow, rent or buy) for VCF East. Thanks, Bill Sudbrink

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Impromptu Altair 8800 Demo/workshop Tomorrow 10-1 @kennett classic
by Bill Degnan 20 Feb '20

20 Feb '20

This will be a local event, by request, but if anyone from VCFed is in the area tomorrow morning come join us, bring your Altair...We'll have three or four on site, how-to load BASIC, how to test the system. https://www.meetup.com/Kennett-Classic/events/268856923/ WE WILL BE CLOSED THIS SATURDAY 2/22 New Exhibit: Salute to the User Group Featuring the Timex Sinclair https://www.kennettclassic.com/the-special-interest-group-sig/ Bill

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Repair workshop in Albany?
by Jeffrey Brace 20 Feb '20

20 Feb '20

So with the success of repair workshops at Kennett Classic and System Source which are west and south of InfoAge, I was thinking "Could someone do one further north? Like Albany?" Just a thought to try to plant workshops in different areas that are more convenient for members from different areas. What would be needed is a host location and person to set this up. I could help with a signup list and advertising on the website calendar and VCF list. Any thoughts? Comments? Questions? Ideas? -- ========================================= Jeff Brace Vice President & Board Member, VCF East Showrunner Vintage Computer Federation http://www.vcfed.org/ jeffrey(a)vcfed.org

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System Source February Repair workshop
by Jeffrey Brace 20 Feb '20

20 Feb '20

The repair workshop at Bob Roswell's System Source in Hunt Valley, MD was a spectacular success! About 25 people the first day and 15 the second (Bob correct my numbers if they seem off). I saw lots of familiar and some new faces there. I loved the museum that Bob has setup there, I encourage everyone to visit the museum because it has rare and interesting exhibits. Lots of good repairing going on and lots of conversations with people about VCF East prep. Sometimes things work better to converse in person. Bob is hoping to do another workshop there next January or February. We will update everyone when we set a date. Anyone else want to chime in on their experience during the past weekend? -- ========================================= Jeff Brace Vice President & Board Member, VCF East Showrunner Vintage Computer Federation http://www.vcfed.org/ jeffrey(a)vcfed.org

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] System Source February Repair workshop
by Bill Degnan 20 Feb '20

20 Feb '20

I got help from Ryan to make an OS/8 disk on the System Source DECMATE, for my DECMATE. Unfortunately I learned I don't have the right cable so I still need one to complete this system. But one step closer! My favorite item at System Source is the Wang LOCI-2. Bill On Wed, Feb 19, 2020 at 7:43 PM Alexander Pierson via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vcfed.org> wrote: > System Source was great! I'm glad I got a chance to go both days (looked > like Sunday was off the table initially), and to see so many people I only > cross paths with once or twice a year. The contents of that museum are > different from other ones I've seen thus far, and sure, they had a lot of > the common big name machines, but they also had quite a few that I hadn't > ever seen before in person. Related note, they have a Westinghouse 1600 > terminal, which I had never seen before, much less heard of. Have any of > y'all crossed paths with them? > I rewired the rats nest in my OSI Challenger 4P, and added in an A15 I/O > connector board. Fired it up when I got back home and could reassemble the > hardware bits, which you can see here. I was able to compare against the > configuration of Bill Dromgoole's Challenger (which has an A15). I've > never seen so many OSI machines in one place before, and no two were the > same. More pictures on twitter. > Jonathan Sturges and Jeff Salzman were debugging their VIC-20's, and I > hope my input was helpful in their respective repair processes. Had I > thought about it, I would have dragged in some spare VIC parts, tools, and > appropriate documentation. > All in all, it was a blast. I'm glad it was close enough for me to attend > without much hassle. > -Alexander 'Z' Pierson > On Wednesday, February 19, 2020, 02:53:00 PM EST, Ethan O'Toole via > vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vcfed.org> wrote: > > > I have a pretty good writeup and info about loading BASIC onto an > Altair, > > and if the cards are the *same port* it will work on the IMSAI as well. > > Assuming a MITS SIO2 or the equivalent settings such as with the > Processor > > Tech SIO card. I don't know all of the details but I have done this many > > different ways on a number of S100 systems, happy to help if I can. > > http://vintagecomputer.net/browse_thread.cfm?id=318 > > http://vintagecomputer.net/browse_thread.cfm?id=531 > > Bill > > Hello Bill, > > I have the 88-2SIO board which is supposed to be 100% ALTAIR > compatibile. Off the top of my head the 1st Serial port is at 10H > > Also, I didn't use any kind of loader. I ascii upload it thru the rom > monitor on the 88-2SIO starting at address 0000. Then execute at 0000. > > - Ethan > >

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] [Galactic] Re: Your critical thinking skills and opinion needed: Stickers!
by Michael Brutman 19 Feb '20

19 Feb '20

Some late responses just came in, so voting continues ... but please vote honestly, and not in response to the early results. This is very critical you know and we don't want to compromise the results of the survey. Mike

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Paul Vixie speaking at NYC BSD User Group
by Christian Liendo 19 Feb '20

19 Feb '20

Paul is a person who I would consider important to computer history but from a more recent time. https://www.nycbug.org/index?action=view&id=10677 Operating Systems as Dumb Pipes, Dr. Paul Vixie 2020-03-03 @ 18:45 - NYU Tandon Engineering Building (new), 370 Jay St, Room 1013, 10th Floor, Brooklyn (directly across Jay St from National Grid office) Notice: You should RSVP for this meeting at rsvp AT lists.nycbug.org. You should receive an autoresponse email. Your email address is sufficient verification for entry. Abstract This meeting is cosponsored with NYU's Center for Cybersecurity. Apps and servers, especially on the Web, have an agenda which does not include or welcome any interference by any on-path actors such as ISPs, national security or regulation, or third parties from the supply chain or from the Internet core. The way the ideal role of on-path actors is often described by end users or application developers or online service providers is to say, "I just want you to be a dumb pipe". As of 2019, operating system developers and network and edge system administrators are also described this way. DNS over HTTPS (DoH) and HTTP over QUIC(HTTP/3) now bypass the operating system's implementation and configuration of DNS, and bypasses the kernel's implementation of TCP. At the March 2020 NYC*Bug meeting, Dr. Paul Vixie, CEO of Farsight Security, will tell the story of how we got here, and what this trend means for endpoint and network security. FreeBSD and "ipfw" will be used for demonstration. Media Speaker Biography Dr. Paul Vixie is Chairman, CEO and Cofounder of Farsight Security. Dr. Vixie is an internet pioneer. Currently, he is the Chairman, CEO and cofounder of award-winning Farsight Security, Inc. Dr. Vixie was inducted into the internet Hall of Fame in 2014 for work related to DNS and anti-spam technologies. He is the author of open source internet software including BIND 8, and of many internet standards documents concerning DNS and DNSSEC. In addition, he founded the first anti-spam company (MAPS, 1996), the first non-profit internet infrastructure company (ISC, 1994), and the first neutral and commercial internet exchange (PAIX, 1991). In 2018, he cofounded SIE Europe UG, a European data sharing collective to fight cybercrime. Dr. Vixie earned his Ph.D. from Keio University for work related to DNS and DNSSEC in 2010. https://www.farsightsecurity.com/about-farsight-security/team/vixie/

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Bert Sutherland and Larry Tesler died this week
by Jeffrey Brace 19 Feb '20

19 Feb '20

It has been reported that these two people who were involved with some important vintage computing history have died. Burt Sutherland was a manager at Bolt, Baranek and Newman which helped develop ARPANET, at Xerox PARC and later at Sun Microsystems. He participated in the creation of Smalltalk, Java and Internet. Larry Tesler had worked at Xerox PARC, Apple, Amazon and Yahoo!He was a proponent of human-computer action and modeless software. -- ========================================= Jeff Brace Vice President & Board Member, VCF East Showrunner Vintage Computer Federation http://www.vcfed.org/ jeffrey(a)vcfed.org

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Ram testing / surface mount soldering at SS?
by Jason Perkins 18 Feb '20

18 Feb '20

I've got a laptop ram card with some bad ram on it I'd like to fix up next weeked. I got some standard 30 pin SIMMs with the same type of chip. I don't have any systems which use 30 pin SIMMs, so no way to test them. Does someone have a way to test these rams, and / or help me do the surface mount soldering to move them onto the laptop's card? Thanks! -- Jason Perkins 313 355 0085

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] Your critical thinking skills and opinion needed: Stickers!
by Michael Brutman 17 Feb '20

17 Feb '20

Sure! About $70 per roll, and we have 20+ candidates there. ;-0 MIke On Mon, Feb 17, 2020 at 1:26 PM Adam Michlin <adam.michlin(a)vcfed.org> wrote: > Umm.. can we do them all? Pretty please? Too much awesomeness to choose > from! > > On Mon, Feb 17, 2020 at 1:05 PM Michael Brutman <michael(a)vcfed.org> wrote: > >> I'm trying to break the impasse on stickers ... I know, it's very >> critical that we solve this problem. >> >> Here is a link to a quick survey that I'd like you to take. The idea is >> simple; if you like an idea click on the corresponding check box. If you >> don't like it, leave it alone. >> >> https://forms.gle/oS6Jv6Wvi78j4Fst8 >> >> Vote just once please; we're not enforcing it. We'll leave voting open >> for two or three days. The most popular sticker candidates might be turned >> into stickers. >> >> >> Thanks, >> Mike >> >

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Repair Workshops March 2020
by Jeffrey Brace 17 Feb '20

17 Feb '20

March 7 & 8, 2020: Wall, NJ (InfoAge) - CDL Hackerspace building 9059: < https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1DySkGulduRUxJuPwK2RUEdP_yKD8YiDEn7K… > March 28: Kennett Square, PA. at Bill Degnan's Kennett Classic Let him know that you are coming: Website: <https://www.kennettclassic.com/> -- ========================================= Jeff Brace Vice President Vintage Computer Federation

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Your critical thinking skills and opinion needed: Stickers!
by Michael Brutman 17 Feb '20

17 Feb '20

I'm trying to break the impasse on stickers ... I know, it's very critical that we solve this problem. Here is a link to a quick survey that I'd like you to take. The idea is simple; if you like an idea click on the corresponding check box. If you don't like it, leave it alone. https://forms.gle/oS6Jv6Wvi78j4Fst8 Vote just once please; we're not enforcing it. We'll leave voting open for two or three days. The most popular sticker candidates might be turned into stickers. Thanks, Mike

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] Retro technology at CDL
by VAXman＠tmesis.org 16 Feb '20

16 Feb '20

Neil Cherry via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vcfed.org> writes: > >On 2/15/20 9:47 PM, Martin Flynn via vcf-midatlantic wrote: > The CDL >PBX thinks it's 1981 again as it allows calls between our M43 (4320AAA) >> Teletype in the CDL and other ASCII machines on site using the >historically correct > area codes of 510, 610, and 910. > >??? - Wasn't NJ just 201 and 609? I recall Great Adventure having a 201 >number despite being in Jackson. The jamesburg exchange office was in >609 which meant Monroe Twp was split into 609 and 201. Jackson had been 201. Then, 908 was created and Jackson was put in that area code. Soon thereafter, 732 was created and Jackson was again move into that new code. I stopped having business cards printed as it seemed that every time I had new cards printed, the area code was changed. ;) 609 was, as you're probably aware, split too. 609 and 856. There are serveral other area code now for NJ but I believe those are set aside mostly for mobile assignment.

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Retro technology at CDL
by Martin Flynn 16 Feb '20

16 Feb '20

The CDL PBX thinks it's 1981 again as it allows calls between our M43 (4320AAA) Teletype in the CDL and other ASCII machines on site using the historically correct area codes of 510, 610, and 910. Martin

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Happy 74th Birthday ENIAC
by Brian L. Stuart 15 Feb '20

15 Feb '20

On this, the 74th anniversary of the unveiling of the ENIAC, I've decided to post a couple of things I've been working on. The first is the 3D model of the ENIAC mentioned before. It's designed using brlcad, from the Ballistics Research Lab. It just seemed too appropriate to model it using the tool devleoped where it lived. The thingiverse link is: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4164825 The second thing is a draft of a chapter from a book I'm in the very early stages of. It describes the basic circuit designs used in the ENIAC with SPICE simulations of them. The layout and formatting are based on the old Army Technical Manuals of the time. http://cs.drexel.edu/~bls96/eniac/ch1.pdf Enjoy, BLS

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