December 2015 - vcf-midatlantic

Does anyone have a Jaguar controller?
by Ian Primus 06 Jan '16

06 Jan '16

I've spent about two hours trying to track down my Jaguar controller. Somehow it escaped from the rest of the system. If you have one, bring it to Festivus - I'll have the console and some games, just... no controller. Doh. -Ian

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Is it wrong to get excited??
by Joseph Oprysko 04 Jan '16

04 Jan '16

I just setup a Mac LocalTalk network, and I'm so thrilled and excited about it. Yes, it's only a Mac SE and an SE/30, each with 4mb of ram (the SE/30 originally had 8 and the SE had 1, but I played the great equalizer!). Last year at VCFeX I picked up a couple of LocalTalk adapters, even though at that time, I had no use for them. In '09 at a flea market I had picked up the 25' sealed LocalTalk cable, but finally, it all came together. Would anyone happen to have an ImageWriter ribbon re-inker? I've bought 2 different ones from online and both turned out to be "vintage" aka dry as a bone. I have 2 ribbons and could cheaply pick up some ink. I know Office Depot sells them, they are the last place I can try, but I'd like to have the option of reinking rather than wasting all of that plastic and ribbon -- Normal Person: Hey, it seems that you know a lot. Geek: To be honest, it's due to all the surfing I do. Normal Person: So you go surfing? Normal Person: But I don't think that has anything to do with knowing a lot... Geek: I think that's wrong on a fundamental level. Normal Person: Huh? Huh? What?

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Workshops for 2016
by Jeffrey Brace 02 Jan '16

02 Jan '16

Now that events have settled down with InfoAge and I have time to sit down and think and plan I want to schedule workshops for the coming new year. So unless there are any objections, I want to do the following: January 23/24 February 20/21 March 19/20 May 14/15 June 11/12 July 16/17 August 20/21 Jeff Brace

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Have a Happy New Year Fellas
by Christian Liendo 01 Jan '16

01 Jan '16

I'm crazy busy for Dec 31 so I doubt I will be able to say this afterward. I hope you all have a great New Years. I hope to go to more events like VCFMW & VCFSE I hope that VCFE is bigger and better than previous I hope that the new space looks awesome. And I hope to see all of you guys again.. Take care bros and I will see ya next year.

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Workday report
by Evan Koblentz 31 Dec '15

31 Dec '15

Dean, his son Drew, Jeff B., and I had an workday at the museum warehouse today. We were there from about 10:15am until 6:00pm. We got a huge amount of warehouse organizing done! We built and filled six or seven shelving carts. These included units devoted to printers, Epson, Heathkit, and a bunch of other stuff. Now, what we used to call "the messy side" of the warehouse is mostly clean and orderly. We still need another few workdays before the warehouse is fully clutter-free, and then we'll bring up all the stuff neglected in the basement storage room of the main InfoAge "hotel" building. We also stopped at the bank for Brace and I to handle some business stuff, and Tony stopped by to pick up the last of the tables that he loaned to us at Festivus. So it was an extremely productive day. We even took out a big amount of trash. Thanks to those who helped.

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floppy diskette reliability, by brand
by Herb Johnson 31 Dec '15

31 Dec '15

The recent "museum report" discussed in passing, whether to buy brand-new diskettes to avoid deteriorating old floppy diskettes. And a previous thread "Getting Data off old Atari Floppies" in Dec 2015, discussed how some old brands seem better (BASF) and some are outright rotten from age (Wabash). There were suggestions in the thread, about cleaning or baking diskettes. Let's make a list of some brands, see if we can get a consensus. If someone can post links to Web pages which have such lists or brand experiences, please add such links to your post. I'll be glad to host a final list on my Web site at: http://www.retrotechnology.com/herbs_stuff/drive.html Good brands: BASF, 3M, IBM, Verbatum, Dysan Bad brands: Wabash Herb Johnson -- Herbert R. Johnson, New Jersey USA http://www.retrotechnology.com OR .net

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] floppy diskette reliability, by brand
by Mike Loewen 31 Dec '15

31 Dec '15

On Wed, Dec 30, 2015 at 16:03, Joesph Oprysko wrote: >> On Wed, Dec 30, 2015 at 2:41 PM, Herb Johnson wrote: >> >> Let's make a list of some brands, see if we can get a consensus. If >> someone can post links to Web pages which have such lists or brand >> experiences, please add such links to your post. I'll be glad to host a >> final list on my Web site at: >> >> http://www.retrotechnology.com/herbs_stuff/drive.html >> >> Good brands: BASF, 3M, IBM, Verbatum, Dysan >> >> Bad brands: Wabash > Well, I have a sealed box of Bonus disks... let's see where they come > out. :) I've had very good luck with the Bonus brand 5-1/4" diskettes. Bad: TRS-80 8" (brown label) Mike Loewen mloewen(a)cpumagic.scol.pa.us Old Technology http://q7.neurotica.com/Oldtech/

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Museum report
by Herb Johnson 31 Dec '15

31 Dec '15

My responses to comments in this thread are below. 1) Evan requests to stay "on topic" and not discuss an analogy to the care of vintage instruments like violins. Evan: have you noted the topic is no longer a "museum report" but issues of Commodore floppy drive and conditions of floppy diskettes? I'd as soon suggest a change of "subject" line. Another reason a change in subject line: there are and will be many "Museum report" messages, I'd as soon suggest they be dated. The maillist Web software will otherwise connect these all as the same "thread". These are issues of use, which are up to Evan of course. 2) Bill Degnan fights a losing battle to insist on "bottom posting". I respect his opinion but circumstances may encourage top-posting. I'd as soon complain about excessive quoting of prior messages. Again, Evan is the moderator over such things. 3) It's mentioned in passing that diskette media is deteriorating. My experience is that (other than mold) that condition depends on brand, and many old disks are still usable. I may start a new thread on this subject (see comment 1 above). 4) The issue of "too old to operate" is certainly a problem. I don't think there's any simple or general strategies. As a practical matter, the question comes down to brands and models of vintage devices which are known to suffer from specific "faults" of age and use. So policies are likely to be specific and not general. I hope the general consideration is to operate original equipment, but there's already prior policy to make use of modern devices to supplement items on continuous display-in-use; where convenience and reliability are more important than "originality". and as Bill Degnan noted, one can always display the original at the same time. Herb Johnson -- Herbert R. Johnson, New Jersey USA http://www.retrotechnology.com OR .net

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Ouuuuch!
by Herb Johnson 31 Dec '15

31 Dec '15

I never post links to that auction site, but I came across something so awful to see, I had to share it... Vintage Apple Green Phosphor Monitor Model A2M2010 Parts eBay item number: 272010854926 a current auction And when you think it's already cringe-worthy, more details show it's worse. Unbelievable. It's really bad. And...why auction it? Mysteries of the Web. As a point of instruction: long exposure to high-voltage ozone and heat, will degrade plastics. It dissipates the elastomers. Translation: peanut-brittle. The rest is energy = mass X velocity squared. So, how far did this monitor fall, to bust it up so? any guesses? Was it even packed? The mystery deepens....as I said, it boggles the mind. Herb Johnson -- Herbert R. Johnson, New Jersey USA http://www.retrotechnology.com OR .net

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Museum report
by Douglas Crawford 31 Dec '15

31 Dec '15

Good day at the museum today. Four groups of mostly adults came through with good interest in the displays. One guest pointed at the RCA VIP and said he worked on the R&D fabrication for the RCA 1802 and the related memory parts :) I ran the C64, the TRS-80 Model I, Atari, and the PC with some hello world programs to liven up the place, and had the Lisa booted. Showed well and glad those machines are working.

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