December 2016 - vcf-midatlantic

Call for VCF East speakers (Friday 3/31)
by Evan Koblentz 26 Dec '16

26 Dec '16

Subject line says it all. We people to speak on technical subjects for Friday, March 31 @ VCF East next year. Topics should appeal to a wide-ish audience.

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Hey! January workshop. Who's going?
by Chris Fala 26 Dec '16

26 Dec '16

1. Jeff B. 2. Evan K. 3. Ian P. 4. David G. 5. Chris F. 6. ? 7. ? 8. ? 9. ? 10. ?

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] Semi-OT: what tech gifts did you get/give?
by william degnan 25 Dec '16

25 Dec '16

On Dec 25, 2016 5:23 PM, "Dean Notarnicola via vcf-midatlantic" < vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> wrote: > > Got an Amazon Echo. Gave my son a TP-10 printer and a Vectrex32 programming > cart. > > On Sun, Dec 25, 2016 at 4:36 PM Ethan via vcf-midatlantic < > vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> wrote: > > > > Happy holidays for systems of any word length and our analog friends too! > > > > > What tech gifts did you get/give this year? > > > > > > > > Gave parents an Ultra HD bluray player and some movies. Sounds like the > > > > discs average 60GB to 100GB in storage size. They bought a new TV but it > > > > has yet to arrive (replacing a 3-gun CRT rear projection.) > > > > > > > > Way more bleeding edge than any of my hardware :-) > > > > > > > > Got another CHIP and a Rasp Pi for Pi8P8 B

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Semi-OT: what tech gifts did you get/give?
by Evan Koblentz 25 Dec '16

25 Dec '16

Happy holidays for systems of any word length and our analog friends too! What tech gifts did you get/give this year?

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DIY Mark 8 computer
by William Dudley 25 Dec '16

25 Dec '16

https://www.zapptronics.com/mark-8-mini-computer-replica/ pointed to from hackaday.com Bill Dudley This email is free of malware because I run Linux.

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] Has anyone checked out this place in Pottstown PA?
by Duane 24 Dec '16

24 Dec '16

Doug >>He is a Navy veteran and work on shipboard UNIVAC computers. Do you know what ones? He could be someone who could help with VCF’s UNIVAC equipment. He might be interested in my Yahoo! group : https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/UnivacComputers/info Duane From: Douglas Crawford via vcf-midatlantic Sent: Friday, December 23, 2016 10:02 AM To: vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org Cc: Douglas Crawford Subject: Re: [vcf-midatlantic] Has anyone checked out this place in Pottstown PA? Doug here, I'm the Pottstonian of the group so I'll do the dump. The owner, Bill Kemner, used to operate a store at the famous Gilbertsville Zern's farmers market. For decades he and his family bought up auctions and offered the items for sale in his store and at ham fests. He is a Navy veteran and work on shipboard UNIVAC computers. A number of years ago he moved out of Zerns into this warehouse. Bill has quite a bit of old electronic components, two isles, perhaps 30 feet long, full with small bins of misc parts. He also has LOT of tubes- a large closet full of them ("The tube room"). He has several rooms of old A/V media, equipment, and tube radios. Other stuff runs the gamut of typical yard sale household items to scientific gear, including at this time, an electron microscope... and an IBM System 30. And yes he has a lot of vintage microcomputer gear, including software, cables, accessories. Here's the sad part for us: Much of the pre- IBM PC computers he has were stored in outdoor semi trailers and much have sustained either fairly extreme temperature, moisture and in many cases outright water damage. That being said for some purposes the computers are useful. He tends to be "optimistic" about what things are worth, but you can always make offers. Last summer he brought out a lot of additional stored computer equipment. There is currently a lot of Apple II+s and IIe's out on pallets. The Apples and TRS-80s computers usually came from schools and have school brandings on them in some cases. There is a also room of that is a 90s computer store time capsule. A few of us locals have used trips to Kemners as a good reason to get together out here and that's been great. I'd love to have that happen with the further away folks sometime. Its entirely possible to burn half a day lost in there. If you need to bring the family on the loop, there are some not-too-far-away places of interest: Check out Saint Peter's Village and the Hopewell Furnace Rev war iron works. On 12/23/2016 3:22 AM, Jeffrey Jonas via vcf-midatlantic wrote: Is anyone familiar with this? http://philadelphia.craigslist.org/for/5918505303.html surplus and vintage electronics (POTTSTOWN PA) 114 S. WASHINGTON ST

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Has anyone checked out this place in Pottstown PA?
by Jeffrey Jonas 23 Dec '16

23 Dec '16

Is anyone familiar with this? http://philadelphia.craigslist.org/for/5918505303.html surplus and vintage electronics (POTTSTOWN PA) 114 S. WASHINGTON ST

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InfoAge closed next two weekends
by Evan Koblentz 22 Dec '16

22 Dec '16

InfoAge is closed this weekend, open Wednesday, and closed next weekend. Happy holidays everyone!

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Funny
by Evan Koblentz 22 Dec '16

22 Dec '16

I ran into a snag with the Logo code on the Apple Lego robot kit, so Dean is coming over tomorrow to help. Which means at age 42 I'm having a friend over to (ahem) play with Legos and 8-bit computers. Last time I did that was around age 12. :) Vintage computing: it's the hobby that keeps you young!

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Museum report
by Evan Koblentz 22 Dec '16

22 Dec '16

I went to the museum today at 12:30 to give a tour to an out-of-town visitor who arranged it a while back. He's an EE who brought his son (home from college on winter break) who is studying to also be an EE. They spent a couple of hours with us. They brought us an EPROM burner for the workbench. I went to lunch at 3pm, came back, and the radio club guys flagged me down. They had a group of three visitors from California who wanted to see us. That group of people was also very knowledgeable and said they may have some S-100 donations for us. So, five visitors today, all extremely knowledgeable, EPROM burner for the museum, more possible donations later, and one good lunch. Glad to be there today. Oh and I had an InfoAge marketing committee meeting at 5pm which was fairly boring. :) I did learn that the sidewalk to our museum building is being converted to an ADA-compliant ramp (the law, not the language!) next spring. The IA board chairman promised me construction won't conflict with VCF East. I will stay on top of that just in case.

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