March 2016 - vcf-midatlantic

TI Silent 700
by Dean Notarnicola 05 Mar '16

05 Mar '16

Might as well join in: anyone have a working Silent 700 for sale?

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VCF East / ENIAC
by Evan Koblentz 05 Mar '16

05 Mar '16

During the Friday sessions, Brian Stuart and I are planning a joint talk on ENIAC. Brian will focus on how the computer worked and I'll talk about myths vs. reality of its history. We may also show the same abridged version of Mauchly's 1977 Trenton keynote that I showed at Trenton last year.

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Anyone have a working and cosmetically good condition NeXT station for sale
by Corey Cohen 04 Mar '16

04 Mar '16

Thanks, Corey corey cohen uǝɥoɔ ʎǝɹoɔ

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Diablo 630 tractor
by Mike Loewen 04 Mar '16

04 Mar '16

Does anyone have a spare tractor feed mechanism for a Diablo 630? Even if it's only a loaner; I could use one for my VCF exhibit. Mike Loewen mloewen(a)cpumagic.scol.pa.us Old Technology http://q7.neurotica.com/Oldtech/

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VCF East exhibits update -- more than halfway full
by Evan Koblentz 04 Mar '16

04 Mar '16

Everyone, There are 23 exhibits so far, plus a club chapter table. We have space for 40-ish exhibits. Register soon! Don't get shut out.

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Windows 3.11 Networking
by Herb Johnson 04 Mar '16

04 Mar '16

Bill Degnan, you've done a great job on of presenting your installs of Win 3.11 aka Windows for Workgroups and video drivers on your 486 system, and providing access to your resources. I'm no Microsoft fan, but the history of public Internet access is worth preserving, and is reasonably "vintage" by year 2015-16. One resource your site links to, is a site at Yale University, with (what I presume is a forgotten) set of year 1995 instructions for establishing Internet access. They suggest several possible means including "old" Win 3.1 and WFW, but also "Winsock". I recall using a Winsock product as they describe, in the era probably under Win 85/98, to make a SLIP (serial TCP/IP) connection via dial-up modem, to a Linux commercial system which had Internet access. My first Web site was on that system, probably over my client side was a 16-bit Win98 set of installs. I don't recall the freeware product name, something-slip, seaslip, ??? Bill, Winsock was supported in various ways, by either shareware/freeware products, or commercial products. Do you have any interests in checking out Winsock type networking? Digging up some still-available product? As I've described it, it would be period-appropriate for PC's with no hard-network support but certainly serial line support. At the time of course that would be dial-up; but a direct serial connection to a local hosting system would be (incrementally) faster. I have a 486/Win 3.1 system I use to operate old-school hardware. I don't think I'd install Ethernet cards and WFW on it - it might break it. But installing a Winsock and some serial stuff is no risk. I'll add, you discussed some kind of networking of vintage systems as your VCF-East exhibit, as I recall. Related: five years ago, I worked the issue of TCP/IP support on 8-bit CP/M class systems. The radio amateurs (hams) developed packet radio in the 1980's which used X.25 protocols,and hardware "TNCs" (terminal network controllers) to do most of the networking, and software like KA9Q and KC85. But interest in reviving old 8-bit networking died out, once you could buy "TCP/IP on a chip" products for under $50. And now those products are under $10! But my notes include some SLIP discussion and cover some path to 8-bit computers "on the Internet". Herb Johnson -- Herbert R. Johnson, New Jersey USA http://www.retrotechnology.com OR .net preservation of 1970's computing email: hjohnson AAT retrotechnology DOTT com alternate: herbjohnson ATT retrotechnology DOTT info

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Heathkit paint
by Richard Cini 04 Mar '16

04 Mar '16

All — I’m in the process of restoring a Heathkit H-11 and I think I found a suitable paint match. Available at Home Depot, there is a Rust-Oleum spray paint/primer combo called “Matte Ice Gray” which is a nearly perfect match. I need to give it a quick sanding tomorrow and another coat of paint and then a clear coat and I think I’ll be in good shape. 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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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] Should the new museum have a name?
by Jeffrey Jonas 04 Mar '16

04 Mar '16

The ferret side of me adores SHINY: Storage, Help, insight (in to history) Near You MODEM (Museum Of Digital Electronic Machines) excludes the analog computers. Don't hurt George's feelings! For parity with the AOC (Association of Old Crows) I'm trying for OLD FART. All I've gotten so far is Fraternal Association for Retro Technology (or technologists) Until then, there's the old IBM manual standard TPILB: "this page intentionally left blank" -- jeffj

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] Should the new museum have a name?
by VAXman＠tmesis.org 03 Mar '16

03 Mar '16

Tony Bogan via vcf-midatlantic writes: > >> On Mar 1, 2016, at 5:42 AM, Tom H via vcf-midatlantic ><vcf-midatlantic@lis= ts.vintagecomputerfederation.org> wrote: >=20 > >Museum of Awesome Really Cool History ;)=20 > >Fancily Arranged Retro Technology= That stinks!

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Should the new museum have a name?
by Evan Koblentz 03 Mar '16

03 Mar '16

I was thinking... should our new museum have a formal name, as in, "The XYZ Place, sponsored by the Vintage Computer Federation"...? Or if anyone asks, do we just call it VCF Headquarters? If we do think it should have some name, then what should that name be? I like how Paul Allen's group calls their place a "living" museum. Of course, that word is taken, so we'd need some other word. Maybe "museum" also isn't the right word. Our home at InfoAge is more of a hub and community center for vintage computing in the region. Perhaps, if we give it a name, we should think of a word that reflects this. It would be awesome if the perfect word also started with F to continue our theme of the Vintage Computer Federation owning the Vintage Computer Festival (East/West), Vintage Computer Forum, and Vintage Computer... Funhouse? Fraternity? No, those don't work. Let's hear some suggestions (real ones please; let's not clog the thread with the smart-assery.) I'm thinking that unless we come up with something GREAT, then we should just stick with Vintage Computer Federation as the name for the physical space.

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