August 2016 - vcf-midatlantic

VCF West (if anyone was wondering)
by Evan Koblentz 14 Aug '16

14 Aug '16

More than 1,000 people attended VCF West and that's NOT including all the exhibitors, staff, etc.

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OT: In need of "retired" Sprint cellphones
by Joseph Oprysko 14 Aug '16

14 Aug '16

I'm doing some work with a not for profit organization that is providing some local low income families with free cellphones and free service. Unlike the federal "lifeline" service which does not provide a smartphone option, without charging that is. The organization has an agreement with a Sprint MVNO which provides 100 Minutes/100 SMS/100 MMS/100 MB of data at absolutely no cost to the consumer. Also, lifeline limits the service to one phone per household. We're trying to provide a way to keep families with kids connected. Right now we've had to limit the number of phones per family to 2, mainly because of a lack of phones. I believe they need to be Sprint branded phones. I do not know if the other Sprint MVNO's like Boost or Virgin Mobile will be able to port correctly, as I believe the settings that need to be changed are locked out. The one Virgin Mobile phone I did try to activate, the MSID activated, but I was unable to complete the configuration, even manually. But it could just have been that it was a very old version of Android on it. 2.4 If I recall correctly, so some slightly newer ones *may* work and allow for the OTA provisioning. While retired smartphones are preferred, I've also configured several flip phones. Better for use with older people who are confused by the idea of smartphones. If you have anything lying around that you'd like to donate to the cause, email me off the list. I'm looking for functional devices, not the phone you left on top of the car and took the asphalt dive, or the ones dropped into the tub/pool. If you can include the IMEI/MEID/ESN numbers, I can verify that they can be activated. Also if you could let me know the make and model of them. If they are the older flip phones that need non-standard chargers, those accessories would be greatly appreciated. Thanks everyone! Joseph Oprysko. -- 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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Tomorrow @ museum
by Evan Koblentz 13 Aug '16

13 Aug '16

Everyone -- I'll be at the museum tomorrow (Saturday... technically later today) for the first time since my surgery in mid-June. Visitors welcome! Todd will be there Sunday.

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] Workshop Aug 20/21 who's going?
by Todd George 11 Aug '16

11 Aug '16

Date: Thu, 11 Aug 2016 01:06:09 -0400 From: Jeffrey Brace <ark72axow(a)gmail.com> Subject: Re: [vcf-midatlantic] Workshop Aug 20/21 who's going? 1) Jeff Brace - Capsela Robot for World Maker Faire 2) Evan Koblentz - ? 3) Bill Dromgoole--Inventory Univac spare parts. 4) Ian Primus - Helping everyone 5) Todd George - Who knows, I'll bring stuff and help others (Likely Sunday Only :sad panda: ) Updated the Google Doc thing as well. You know, because reasons.

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Workshop Aug 20/21 who's going?
by Jeffrey Brace 11 Aug '16

11 Aug '16

I need to decide if there are enough going to keep the bigger space 9032-A or go with the smaller classroom space in 9010-A. I would like to know who's going by Aug. 14 or so. If we don't need the space we can free it up for another group. 1) Jeff Brace 2) Evan Koblentz 3) ? 4) ? 5) ? 6) ? 7) ? 8) ? 9) ? 10) ? -- Jeff Brace - ark72axow(a)gmail.com

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Documation card reader fix
by Herb Johnson 11 Aug '16

11 Aug '16

> Those of you who own/have used the Documation [M1000-L] tabletop card readers For years, I've had cards available for these readers. Other than I think Mike, NOBODY has asked me about them. http://www.retrotechnology.com/herbs_stuff/documation.html I show the card Mike Loewen references, on the web page above, as card number 1242972A. Contact me if you want to buy any of these cards, before I scrap them. Yes, I *did* save them. Herb -- 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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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] Off topic - Another item that I forgot about
by David Hoelzer 11 Aug '16

11 Aug '16

Sorry, I had posted that everything is spoken for.. Made a deal with a list member within an hour of posting. ———————————————————————————— David Hoelzer Principal Analyst, Chief Research Officer Enclave Forensics / Cyber Defense On August 10, 2016 at 11:44:00 PM, Bob Aviles via vcf-midatlantic (vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org <mailto:vcf-midatlantic@lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> ) wrote: Hi David, How much for the Amiga 2000? Bobby On Monday, August 8, 2016 10:54 AM, David Hoelzer via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> wrote: I forgot that I also have an Amiga 2000HD with keyboard and mouse here that needs a new home. I’m also open to reasonable offers on that before it heads to eBay. 1 floppy, HD with 2091 card and a 115kbps serial card installed. Thanks! ———————————————————————————— David Hoelzer Principal Analyst, Chief Research Officer Enclave Forensics / Cyber Defense

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Off topic - Another item that I forgot about
by David Hoelzer 10 Aug '16

10 Aug '16

I forgot that I also have an Amiga 2000HD with keyboard and mouse here that needs a new home. I’m also open to reasonable offers on that before it heads to eBay. 1 floppy, HD with 2091 card and a 115kbps serial card installed. Thanks! ———————————————————————————— David Hoelzer Principal Analyst, Chief Research Officer Enclave Forensics / Cyber Defense

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Documation card reader fix
by Mike Loewen 10 Aug '16

10 Aug '16

Those of you who own/have used the Documation tabletop card readers know that they have a problem reading cards that have a diagonal cut on the upper right-hand corner. On many (but not all) of those cards, enough light spills over to the 12-row photocell that it thinks there is a punch in column 81, and the unit throws a READ CHECK. Carl Claunch has come up with a hack for the Control Card to work around the problem. I modified my M1000-L yesterday, and it now handles the problematic cards without error. As I mentioned on Facebook, "It ain't pretty, but it works." http://q7.neurotica.com/Oldtech/Documation/0809162259.jpg Al Kossow has made the modification documents available on Bitsavers: http://bitsavers.trailing-edge.com/pdf/documation/documation_fix/ I used Carl's daughterboard circuit, but replaced the 7433 quad-NOR (open-collector) and pullup resistor with a 7402 quad-NOR. I had initially tried Stan's simpler version, but didn't realize there was a trace underneath D8 connecting pins 2 and 13 and the mod didn't work. Mike Loewen mloewen(a)cpumagic.scol.pa.us Old Technology http://q7.neurotica.com/Oldtech/

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Leftover VCF West shirts
by Evan Koblentz 10 Aug '16

10 Aug '16

Several of you asked about buying VCF West shirts. There are plenty available. We shipped them back to NJ and they should get here next week. We'll bring them to the next workshop.

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