October 2016 - vcf-midatlantic

Re: [vcf-midatlantic] Dialup Modems
by Christopher Gioconda 26 Oct '16

26 Oct '16

Hi David, I've been thinking of picking up a 14.4-38.4 kbps external serial modem off of ebay. If you happen to see one I'd gladly compensate you for it. Christopher Gioconda cgioconda(a)gmail.com On Oct 26, 2016 9:14 AM, "David Hoelzer via vcf-midatlantic" < vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> wrote: In fact, if there are others in the group interested in older modems, it is not uncommon for me to come across modems ranging from 1200 to 19200 at the local “goody pile” at the dump. If you send me a note I’ll be glad to keep my eye out. > On Oct 26, 2016, at 9:02 AM, David Riley via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> wrote: > > On Oct 25, 2016, at 17:24, Joseph Oprysko via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> wrote: >> >> Does anyone in the Philadelphia area have an external modem or three to >> lend me for testing? > > I'm in SW center city and have a 28.8 modem you're welcome to keep; I don't have the time I thought I did to do anything with it. > > > - Dave

2 1

Hey, YOU! (re: Festivus)
by Evan Koblentz 26 Oct '16

26 Oct '16

There are a ton of people who we know will attend Festivus, BUT, we need you all to put your info on the list: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1flOzpjh4Wdd3Gn6B3DqWHpQmxYSQGrtFo20… Otherwise we have no idea how many tables to set up, how much food to buy, etc. .... please do not procrastinate. Thank you.

3 4

TVs installed!
by Evan Koblentz 26 Oct '16

26 Oct '16

Anthony B. drove down to the museum from Westchester County NY yesterday. We spent all day installing the TVs and wire conduit to hide the cords because we weren't about to dig into the walls. It turned out great! Anthony had the idea to paint the tops of the mounting hardware white so it blends into the ceiling color. Here are some pictures. The TVs are lightweight so the hardware just screws into studs, no lag bolts needed: www.vcfed.org/evan/before.jpg Before and after painting the posts: www.vcfed.org/evan/after.jpg and www.vcfed.org/evan/drill.jpg Anthony tried escaping into the attic, but I caught him: www.vcfed.org/evan/attic.jpg The results: www.vcfed.org/evan/room.jpg and www.vcfed.org/evan/hall.jpg Next project: content!

14 47

Donations requested
by Herb Johnson 25 Oct '16

25 Oct '16

> A bridge mac system... something running System 7 or 8 with working > superdrive, ethernet and a cdrom. Transferring files to our 800KB floppy > based Mac IIcx, Mac SE, and Apple IIc+ is next to impossible otherwise. I would not call it "next to impossible" to provide these capabilities. I'd simply state that supporting these capabilities on System 7 Macs is limited compared to 21st century computing standards. Why? because in those days, support was very specific to brands and models of devices; and because networking was "siloed" to either Apple/Mac or IBM; and of course pre-Internet. System 8 was "better" but had many of the same problems, and is too big for some of the oldest Macs. and, some of these Macs came out before CD-ROMs, or Ethernet, were in common use. I'll grant, this may be too much work for your school's interest in vintage computers. Copying floppies is the most straightforward way. These constraints have been forgotten in the "plug it in and it works" world of the 21st century. (shrug) there's hobbyist work-arounds and products that provide "Internet connections" to most any vintage computer - I'm not referring to 21st C products in my remarks below. (And please don't pick nits - I'm trying to provide some directions here, answer questions.) In your photo, the Mac between the IIc and the iMac with the Dell-brand LCD, is an old 68K Mac of some sort - I'm guessing that is your IIcx. It should have a 1.4M floppy drive, and should be running System 6 or 7. Later System 7 on that machine can create 1.4M Mac-format disks as well as 800K Mac format disks; it should be able to format "PC" S-DOS 800K and 1.4M too, and transfer files. OS 7.5.3 was released by Apple decades ago as a complete set of installable disk images. a later version of (I think) Disk Copy would be needed to mount disk images. Or they may be as a self-expanding set of files. Ask around for such a set of images or a CD disk. YOu may need Apple CD-ROM extensions too. Earlier Macs which did not have 1.4M drives could not of course read or write 1.4M Mac or PC disks. The SE "superdrive" model had different ROMs and IWM chip from the SE model and 1.4M drives were supported by those chips. There's other compact Macs with 1.4M drives. I think the Apple II 3.5" disks are "ProDOS" format, and of course 800K. Ask someone in the Apple II community about transfers with 68K Macs, and appropriate 800K drives for Apple II models. As for Ethernet: older Macs with NuBus slots can accommodate NuBus Ethernet cards. But "Ethernet" doesn't give you magic "transfer" capabilities, especially between Macs and Windows/MS-DOS systems; or "to the Internet". It's complicated, and beyond me too. CD-ROMs: older SCSI based Macs may be able to accommodate some external SCSI CD-ROM drives. However, System 7 as Apple supplied only supported Apple CD-ROM products with specific brand/model of CD-ROM drives. One needed specific "extensions" to support CD-ROMs at all, and also to support other specific brand/models of CD-ROM drives. And...that's "read only". Writable CD-ROM drives were supported in OS 8, but again specific brand/models only. My suggestion? Use Iomega ZIP-disk technology, in Mac or PC formats. Many Macs can operate external SCSI ZIP 100 drives, from Mac Plus and up. Even more recent Windows systems can use IDE or USB ZIP drives. And older Macs with IDE (PATA) supported ZIP drives. Those provide 100 megabytes of space, plenty for 1980's and 90's computing. I don't know of an Apple II ZIP drive solution with 20th century technology. Serial file transfer is tedious, but it works when nothing else will. But of course, the popular solution for mass-file storage, is modern use of flash-drive technology. Typically SD-card reader/writers made for various vintage systems. Likewise, for "internet access", there are 21st century Ethernet or WiFi adapters that hobbyists offer for specific vintage computers. I do not keep track of these, so that's all I can say about them. I'm busy enough (obviously) with the old stuff. Herb Johnson http://www.retrotechnology.com/herbs_stuff/mac.html -- Herbert R. Johnson, New Jersey USA http://www.retrotechnology.com OR .net

8 8

Re: [vcf-midatlantic] TVs installed!
by VAXman＠tmesis.org 24 Oct '16

24 Oct '16

Tony Bogan via vcf-midatlantic writes: > >On Oct 24, 2016, at 3:37 PM, Evan Koblentz via vcf-midatlantic ><vcf-midatlan= tic(a)lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> wrote: > >>>> Out of curiosity, do the monitors/Tvs hanging have a vga port on >them? >=20 > Yes, but our plan is to use them only for information to >help visitors. > >Understood. Just thought it would be cool to display that info from a >classi= c machine.=20 Thanks, the pictures look good, thanks to you and >Anthony for doing all that= work! Tony= How about displaying some of the binaries from alt.sex.fetish.dec-hardware?

1 0

Ghost in the Machine
by Douglas Crawford 24 Oct '16

24 Oct '16

1 0

Re: [vcf-midatlantic] Last star fighter graphics production computer picture
by Douglas Crawford 24 Oct '16

24 Oct '16

2 1

Museum report
by Evan Koblentz 23 Oct '16

23 Oct '16

Today's visitors included three that really stood out. A guy my age (40s) with his 10-year-old son; the guy showed his kid who programs in Scratch how we used to do it in BASIC. Next there was a woman who said she's got a pristine //e signed by Woz. Then an older man stopped by who worked as a programmer in the aeospace field and spent an hour asking all about our exhibits.

1 0

Donations requested
by Adam Michlin 22 Oct '16

22 Oct '16

Hi Everyone, As many of you know, I teach Computer Science at Pope John XXII Regional High School in Sparta, NJ. Our program has grown quite a bit in the last few years so we have a new, larger room and, as part of the curriculum, we have a hands on vintage computer exhibit in our classroom (NOT A MUSEUM, Hi Evan!). We have a bit of over balance of Apple products. Part of this is intentional because the students have the option in their third year of taking a Computer Security class where the first quarter is half Apple 6502 Assembly (using Apple IIgs emulators - Merlin 16 - on modern Mac OS X machines - the other half is MIPS assembly). Part of this is due to Apple's historic dominance in schools over the years and schools just about never throwing anything away. Here is a picture of the classroom exhibit: http://ceos.io/retro/lanpanorama.jpg So we're trying to diversify and are hoping people might have equipment they would be interested in donating (tax write off!). Existing computers that need parts: Commodore Amiga 3000 - Needs keyboard, compatible monitor (LCD or CRT... as you can see in the picture we don't worry so much about being authentic) Atari 130XE - Needs an external floppy disk drive (we have the 6502 Assembly cartridge.. but we can't save files without a floppy disk drive) Systems we wish we had: An IBM/clone PC/AT/286.. Essentially something that could run MS-DOS of some sort (3.3 still has a special place in my heart). A 386 capable of running Windows 3.x Just about anything Commodore (we have the Amiga, but would love a 64, for example), or any other 8 bit brands with the exception of Apple (which we wont turn down, but we have a IIe, IIc, IIc+ and IIgs all being actively used - yes, we have a permanent Oregon Trail system (the IIe) and yes the students love it!). A bridge mac system... something running System 7 or 8 with working superdrive, ethernet and a cdrom. Transferring files to our 800KB floppy based Mac IIcx, Mac SE, and Apple IIc+ is next to impossible otherwise. Older UNIX boxes of just about any type (AT&T, Sun, SGI, etc). We also have an optional third year video game programming classes (C#/XNA), so the students have access to a retro video game station for "research": http://ceos.io/retro/lab-vg.jpg I'll list what we have: Nintendo NES (RetroDuo.. the SNES half is useless, though), Sega Genesis (modern throwback), Atari 130XE, Atari 7800 (which covers the 2600), Colecovision (modern throwback). We would certainly love cartridges for any of these system (all but the Colecovision are capable of playing cartridges, throwback or not). We would love a SNES, Gamecube, Nintendo 64, Intellivision, Sega Dreamcast, Sega Master System. If it plays games, we'll take it. :) Oh, and a real old school home pong game would be mind blowing! As we are a non-profit, all donations can be taken as a tax write off, and we try to find a way to have all equipment actively used by students. We can also take a limited amount of equipment needing repair, but do have only limited storage space. Thanks for reading! -Adam

4 3

[OT?] Google Map with Electronic stores
by Dan Roganti 22 Oct '16

22 Oct '16

Don't know if someone had started one already, but I couldn't find one online yet. After reminiscing about electronics stores in the other thread, I collected what was posted on there recently, together with some others that I had already bookmarked, to make a Google Map with Electronic stores in the Mid-Atlantic region from PA to the Mid-Atlantic coast. Had to limit the boundaries, PA is long enough as it is. Any others then it's venturing into the mid-west or southeast. But then New England is represented here since it's local. These are only the retail stores only[eg, walk-in] except for one so far. Because it's a really good supplier of vintage components and that's Unicorn Electronics on my side of PA[online only]. There's probably some online suppliers which have retail storefronts too but I'm not sure. I'm sure there's more out there that we could add to this. If anyone has some more to include, I will gladly add them to the map. This is not a list to judge the quality or extensiveness of their inventory. If they sell parts that's good enough to add to the list. You may notice that I haven't added Radio Shack, even with the dwindling locations and supply, those are pretty obvious to locate. This is setup for public viewing, so more people should be able to find it https://drive.google.com/open?id=1QHBtxc2A8zw9FemLEpYcMIlsvY8&usp=sharing enjoy Dan

2 2