March 2016 - vcf-midatlantic

today's museum report
by Evan Koblentz 22 Mar '16

22 Mar '16

Tony, Jeff G., and I all played hookie from real life to work in the new museum today. We did lots more work on the double doors which should be ready for their first coat of paint by tomorrow afternoon, strengthened the front three posts of the workbench so they don't move around the floor, rearranged some of the microcomputers to make a little more space, and brought in some minicomputers from the warehouse (we'll move more of them next time). A picture: http://vcfed.org/evan/minis3-22.jpg ... some of these need cleaning, of course. Back at it this Saturday.

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] Sunday museum setup report
by Anthony Becker 22 Mar '16

22 Mar '16

Was a lot of fun. Hard work to be sure. Was glad I was able to make the trip and help out. Also surprised at how much I could fit in my car for those warehouse trips. Original Message From:vcf-midatlantic@lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org Sent:March 13, 2016 5:52 PM To:Vcf-midatlantic@lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org Reply-to:vcf-midatlantic@lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org Cc:evan@snarc.net Subject:[vcf-midatlantic] Sunday museum setup report Adam M. and Anthony (not to be confused with Tony) helped me at the museum today. We finished putting (most of) the microcomputers onto shelves, put (most of) the leftover stuff from the old museum that made its way to the new space back into the warehouse, and purchased (most of) the stuff needed to build our workbench. In summary, we got tons of stuff done without actually getting anything "done". :) Back at it next Sunday.

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How was TCF2016 besides the booth?
by Herb Johnson 22 Mar '16

22 Mar '16

Responding to various comments about the former Trenton Computer Fest (now called "TCF" apparently), please note I'm merely an attendee but I have some clues about it. It's pretty clear that the flea-market and old computer aspects of the event are largely lost. It's become a ham-license event and topics related to personal, professional, and hobby "computing" or rather personal information technology. But the talks cover a lot of you-can-do stuff, and are informative on related matters. The flea market was indeed small, one large room with almost all dealer-class participants, but some amounted to individuals. our colleage Justin brought a TI 990/4 system; there was a C-64 system, otherwise no other vintage computers I saw. But hamfests in the NJ-PA area have mostly lost vintage-computing stuff in the 21st century; and most professional personal-computing stuff. Hamfests are fewer and smaller; although I'm told there's more radio amateur licenses than ever. about "booths": there were only a handful. Few exhibits. I guess exhibits and booths weren't encouraged this year. I have a sense that the administration of the event is changing. I went to a number of talks; quality varied. Mostly speakers overran their hour, they outta work on their presentations. Talks varied from lock-picking to solar-panel technology. But I suggest looking at VCF in another way. Every year, the "old ones" come out, to see each other and catch up or look back. The event is run by people of age, the amazing thing is that it happens at all. Some years it didn't. I have no problem with attending to meet people I've not seen in years, to be met by people who only know me from email. I see TCF as an opportunity to see people and hear from people. I have people stop me in recognition; I arranged to meet someone, we had lunch. and by-the-way: there's now a number of real, actual restaurants on the TCNJ campus. I saw few attendees there, probably because the College ran a food-in-baggies kiosk in the building. Also: the Sarnoff Collection is a short walk from the Engineering building. It's a decent small museum of RCA technology, including some early COSMAC 1802 items and Joseph Weisbecker's computer, a TTL predecessor to the 1802. It's a New Jersey - designed microprocessor. I've done some work for the museum. I appreciate Justin's comments, and his position that he can participate and make a difference. Sounds like a plan. Herb Johnson old one retrotechnology.com -- Herbert R. Johnson, New Jersey USA http://www.retrotechnology.com OR .net

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] How was TCF2016 besides the booth?
by VAXman＠tmesis.org 22 Mar '16

22 Mar '16

Herb Johnson via vcf-midatlantic writes: >I went to a number of talks; quality varied. Mostly speakers overran >their hour, they outta work on their presentations. Talks varied from >lock-picking to solar-panel technology. 'outta work'?

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Fwd: How was TCF2016 besides the booth?
by William Dudley 22 Mar '16

22 Mar '16

I meant for the list to see my reply to Justin. Bill This email is free of malware because I run Linux. ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: William Dudley <wfdudley(a)gmail.com> Date: Mon, Mar 21, 2016 at 11:11 PM Subject: Re: [vcf-midatlantic] How was TCF2016 besides the booth? To: Justin Jernigan <jaj(a)totallyamused.com> Sorry if I was insulting, not meant to be. Your cable prices were AMAZING, but sadly I didn't need any (you may remember I was looking for short-ish ones). "Crap" in this case was just short hand for "undifferentiated stuff that I don't remember well enough to list correctly." Bill Dudley This email is free of malware because I run Linux. On Mon, Mar 21, 2016 at 10:35 PM, Justin Jernigan <jaj(a)totallyamused.com> wrote: > Sorry for top reply, but on iPhone. Cable n crap guy was me, but as I > recall you made your round through pretty late. > > I sold a lot of stuff as I was unpacking, even a nice C128 with 512k RAM > expansion for 80$. And my prices on the crap were hard to walk away > from...19" lcds for $3, cat5e and cat6 @ 25 cents for any length, laptop > power supplies for 1$. 32gb USB drives for 3$...which probably explains why > I was out of almost everything by Noon. I've tried to bring good stuff, > some vintage and some modern, every year, the last 7 years, with the hope I > could improve the flea area just a bit, but this year was as empty as I've > seen it. > > I will bring more next year, maybe get a few extra tables and try and keep > the flea area alive and interesting. > > > > > > One guy selling cable 'n' crap. > > >

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How was TCF2016 besides the booth?
by Christian Liendo 21 Mar '16

21 Mar '16

Do they just have in the inside or is there an outside again? How big was the flea market? Are they selling computers and parts? The last time I went, remote controlled helicopters were a big thing

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FS: 2.43 uF @ 400V poly caps (monitor/tube stuff repair)
by Systems Glitch 21 Mar '16

21 Mar '16

link: http://www.ebay.com/itm/272180918996 Great for those nonpolar/bipolar electrolytic caps in monitors, compact Macs, dumb terminals, and arcade machines. I've got a huge pile of these (like, 1000's or 10's of 1000's) so if they go fast I'll dig more out of the warehouse and list them. I can bring them to VCF East if you want to save on shipping. Thanks, Jonathan

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VCFed's Booth at TCF2016
by Todd George 21 Mar '16

21 Mar '16

Here's a quick album with a few pictures of our booth from the Trenton Computer Festival 2016 this past Saturday, the 19th. http://imgur.com/a/jWwEC I know, I know... Evan wouldn't let me forget that I had a Commodore monitor attached to an Atari 800XL. I have my reasons though! Primarily, I don't have an Atari monitor, I've restored the Commodore monitor so I knew it would be bulletproof for the show, it has a great picture, I've done the Chroma mod to the XL so I knew it would look nearly perfect and I've got the appropriate cabling made to hook it up. So :-p The Epson PX-8 made it to just over 265,000 counting by one for the duration of the show. I think it wound up being up and running for about 6 hours or so. The idea for this program was stolen from Doug. :-) The Tandy Model 102 was running a number guessing program I threw together in the morning. Next show I'm thinking I'll add a high score (or more accurately lowest score) routine that tracks the fewest attempts to guess the number. See ya! -Todd

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Wanted: Tandy TRS-80 Model 4P
by Todd George 21 Mar '16

21 Mar '16

Hi there. I'm looking for a TRS-80 Model 4P in generally decent shape. I'd like one that exists locally, I'm near the Philadelphia area. I will pick up to avoid potential shipping damage. Some criteria I'm looking for: - No broken plastics (maybe I have some tolerance depending on price) - Little to no yellowing of plastics - Slight preference for the white version of the screen over the green - Need not be working but must be complete - Dirty is fine, I've got elbow grease I've been trolling eBay, and have seen all of the recent auctions. As I mentioned, ideally I'd prefer to deal locally and would really like to support a fellow collector. I'm sure a bunch of you have these things hiding in your closets/basement just waiting to pounce when you least expect it. Why take the risk? Sell it to me before it goes sentient/rogue. These things have a bad attitude that they've been harboring for 33 years now, just letting it stew. I'm telling you, cut your losses and get rid of it. :-D You have one kicking around you'd like to get rid of? Contact me off-list. :) Thanks. -Todd

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ISA Sound Card is going for $1500
by Christian Liendo 21 Mar '16

21 Mar '16

So we talked about how when all the younger PC guys were going to get older and get into the hobby. They're here. I just saw this and was interested in what you all thought. http://www.ebay.com/itm/Ad-Lib-Gold-1000-ISA-Sound-Card-/272163544820?

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