January 2017 - vcf-midatlantic

Office chair needed for the museum
by Evan Koblentz 07 Jan '17

07 Jan '17

Everyone, We need an office chair for the PC in our museum workshop area. I'm going to be very picky about what kind. :) All of our museum furniture is chrome. The stools are black/chrome. Our office chair is a ratty old blue thing. It drives me crazy. OCD on high alert! Does anyone have something matching to donate? It should have good back support, adjustable height, and arm rests.

1 0

HP drive
by Mike Loewen 07 Jan '17

07 Jan '17

Look what showed up in my driveway: http://q7.neurotica.com/Oldtech/HP/7935-1.jpg http://q7.neurotica.com/Oldtech/HP/7935-2.jpg HP 7935 drive, 404MB removable pack, HP-IB interface. I need to clean it up, and replace the old foam and the first stage filter. I'm hoping the pack I have is in good shape. http://q7.neurotica.com/Oldtech/Media/Diskpack2-1L.jpg The 7395 has a built-in microprocessor, which controls a large number of diagnostics and even acts as the display for head alignment. This is a drive that will literally walk across the floor during the random seek test, if the feet aren't screwed down all the way. Mike Loewen mloewen(a)cpumagic.scol.pa.us Old Technology http://q7.neurotica.com/Oldtech/

4 5

Logo for VCF-East XII?
by Joseph Oprysko 06 Jan '17

06 Jan '17

Is there a Logo/Graphic for VCF-East XII yet? -- 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?

2 1

Re: [vcf-midatlantic] Museum library
by VAXman＠tmesis.org 06 Jan '17

06 Jan '17

Evan Koblentz via vcf-midatlantic writes: >Bill Dud.'s post about donating his copy of "The Chip" reminded me that >I've been meaning to share some good news. > >Jeff Galinat and I are going to do some things in the museum tomorrow, >which will probably include putting up wooden bookshelves. > >Most of our library is in boxes in the warehouse. This is non-ideal >because of climate (no HVAC) and difficulty of access. > >The new shelves will only hold a tiny portion of our library. Our plan >is to use the shelves for our most important material. > >"Most important" as I see it means three main categories: historic >books, historic magazines, and product manuals. > >What follows is a good news / bad news situation. As you read it, please >keep in mind that WE'RE DOING THE BEST WE CAN WITH THE AVAILABLE >RESOURCES. Sorry to shout :) but I want everyone to understand that >there are topics beyond our control -- finite space, funds, etc. > >The good news: > >1. Our most-historic books are already mostly sorted because they were >boxed up when we vacated the old museum space. The most effective way to >determine "most historic" is by publishing date. Thus, we previously >sorted these books by 1950s, 1960s, etc., and we'll put the oldest ones >on the new shelves first. We'll put as many as we can there until we run >out of space. Obviously there are plenty of historic books from the >1970s and newer, but reality dictates that we're working with a blunt >object not a scalpel. Two exceptions come to mind: 1., our complete-ish >collection of the 1970s "Cookbook" series, and 2., our collection of DEC >handbooks -- both groups are already sorted from the old museum so we'll >make room for them if at all possible. > >2. The vast majority of our most-important magazines are also already >sorted and already in the museum (on a long shelf under the workbench). >We'll move them to the new bookshelves and use the shelf under the bench >for practical things. This collection includes Vol. 1, issue 1, until >December 1979 of Byte, Creative Computing, DDJ, Interface Age, Kilobaud, >SCCS Interface, and a couple of others I'm forgetting right now. It also >includes the first several years of the ACGNJ newsletter, a full run of >the (insanely rare!) People's Computer Company newsletter, a binder >containing the full run of the Amateur Computer Society newsletter, and >the first six years' anthology books of the West Coast Computer Faire >(or maybe that's all the years? I an not sure how many anthologies they >published). > >3. Various manuals for systems in the museum are already on a shelf >above the workbench. And the Gray Wall? :P

1 0

Museum library
by Evan Koblentz 06 Jan '17

06 Jan '17

Bill Dud.'s post about donating his copy of "The Chip" reminded me that I've been meaning to share some good news. Jeff Galinat and I are going to do some things in the museum tomorrow, which will probably include putting up wooden bookshelves. Most of our library is in boxes in the warehouse. This is non-ideal because of climate (no HVAC) and difficulty of access. The new shelves will only hold a tiny portion of our library. Our plan is to use the shelves for our most important material. "Most important" as I see it means three main categories: historic books, historic magazines, and product manuals. What follows is a good news / bad news situation. As you read it, please keep in mind that WE'RE DOING THE BEST WE CAN WITH THE AVAILABLE RESOURCES. Sorry to shout :) but I want everyone to understand that there are topics beyond our control -- finite space, funds, etc. The good news: 1. Our most-historic books are already mostly sorted because they were boxed up when we vacated the old museum space. The most effective way to determine "most historic" is by publishing date. Thus, we previously sorted these books by 1950s, 1960s, etc., and we'll put the oldest ones on the new shelves first. We'll put as many as we can there until we run out of space. Obviously there are plenty of historic books from the 1970s and newer, but reality dictates that we're working with a blunt object not a scalpel. Two exceptions come to mind: 1., our complete-ish collection of the 1970s "Cookbook" series, and 2., our collection of DEC handbooks -- both groups are already sorted from the old museum so we'll make room for them if at all possible. 2. The vast majority of our most-important magazines are also already sorted and already in the museum (on a long shelf under the workbench). We'll move them to the new bookshelves and use the shelf under the bench for practical things. This collection includes Vol. 1, issue 1, until December 1979 of Byte, Creative Computing, DDJ, Interface Age, Kilobaud, SCCS Interface, and a couple of others I'm forgetting right now. It also includes the first several years of the ACGNJ newsletter, a full run of the (insanely rare!) People's Computer Company newsletter, a binder containing the full run of the Amateur Computer Society newsletter, and the first six years' anthology books of the West Coast Computer Faire (or maybe that's all the years? I an not sure how many anthologies they published). 3. Various manuals for systems in the museum are already on a shelf above the workbench. The bad news: The overwhelming majority of our technical books and product manuals will remain boxed up in the warehouse. We simply don't have the people, time, space, or money to change that right now.

1 0

Re: [vcf-midatlantic] Processors exhibit
by Jeffrey Jonas 06 Jan '17

06 Jan '17

There are several story lines for the microcontroller/processor exhibit 1) The Tyrrany Of Numbers: as computers got more complex, there were incredible problems with how to handle so many components. Thousands of tubes for ENIAC and such would not scale up. SAGE required constant maintanance, thus the dual system to keep running. see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyranny_of_numbers That's happening again in a new way: pin count on the package. The 4004 was only 16 pins. 40 pins was common from the 70s to 80s with the 8008, 8080, 8086, 8088, Z80, 6502, 6800 and such. Easy for hobbyists to breadboard or hand-wire. The 68000 was 64 pins. CPUs expanded to 100. Now 1,000 or more with pin-grid array. 2) Moore's Law We're accustomed to speed and capacity doubling and redoubling and prices plummeting, thus the $5 Raspberry Pi Zero, dual/quad/octo-core processors in just about everything (desktop, laptop, even cellphones). 3) wider playing field Despite the "Intel Inside" campaign, the ARM core is in many more devices. Before the Intel/AMD duopoly, there was a wider playing field as demonstrated by all the hobbyist and pre-PC microsystems: Motorola's 6800, MOS's 6502, Zilog's Z80, RCA's 1802. There was quite the shake-out when the PC architecture "won". In a way, the maker/hacker community is aware of this thanks to the Arduio (most are Atmel AVR based), Raspberry Pi (cheap embedded Linux on the ARM core). That's another way to show how it's history repeating itself with the diversity of competing products. And how more innovation comes from people's basements & garages than large companies. The IoT (Internet of Things) is just a new face to microcontroller hackers. -- jeff jonas

6 6

Re: [vcf-midatlantic] Tyranny of Numbers
by Jack Rubin 06 Jan '17

06 Jan '17

Nice summary and history, thank you, and too easy to forget that many people today aren't aware of it. I view it from a slightly different perspective, as a history of engineering progress - solving problems, advancing to the next plateau, chasing bottlenecks and moving on. There's a cyclical nature to the process but line of development in terms of overall ability to solve problems generally moves in a forward direction. At any given moment, the next challenge may be hardware, software or analytical approach. The last piece - the science part of computer science - is something that is often underexplored in popular presentations. While a multi-million transistor CPU is mind boggling, the mathematical complexity of the great ideas that drive us forward - from Babbage through Shannon and Turing to database structure, image analysis, compiler development, Big Data, etc. is even more daunting. Jack *************************************** There are several story lines for the microcontroller/processor exhibit 1) The Tyrrany Of Numbers: as computers got more complex, there were incredible problems with how to handle so many components. Thousands of tubes for ENIAC and such would not scale up. SAGE required constant maintanance, thus the dual system to keep running. see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyranny_of_numbers That's happening again in a new way: pin count on the package. The 4004 was only 16 pins. 40 pins was common from the 70s to 80s with the 8008, 8080, 8086, 8088, Z80, 6502, 6800 and such. Easy for hobbyists to breadboard or hand-wire. The 68000 was 64 pins. CPUs expanded to 100. Now 1,000 or more with pin-grid array. 2) Moore's Law We're accustomed to speed and capacity doubling and redoubling and prices plummeting, thus the $5 Raspberry Pi Zero, dual/quad/octo-core processors in just about everything (desktop, laptop, even cellphones). 3) wider playing field Despite the "Intel Inside" campaign, the ARM core is in many more devices. Before the Intel/AMD duopoly, there was a wider playing field as demonstrated by all the hobbyist and pre-PC microsystems: Motorola's 6800, MOS's 6502, Zilog's Z80, RCA's 1802. There was quite the shake-out when the PC architecture "won". In a way, the maker/hacker community is aware of this thanks to the Arduio (most are Atmel AVR based), Raspberry Pi (cheap embedded Linux on the ARM core). That's another way to show how it's history repeating itself with the diversity of competing products. And how more innovation comes from people's basements & garages than large companies. The IoT (Internet of Things) is just a new face to microcontroller hackers. -- jeff jonas

2 1

Interesting find on Craigslist
by Christian Liendo 06 Jan '17

06 Jan '17

So I saw this. Someone is selling cabinets from an older Concurrent 3280 MPS http://jerseyshore.craigslist.org/sys/5925368016.html Reading the ad I figured this is a person we may want to reach out to. Not to buy the cabinets, but as a person who may be good to know and to introduce to our group.

3 2

IBM 34 in Pottstown, Apple, Tandy, IBM
by william degnan 05 Jan '17

05 Jan '17

The Pottstown electroics place has some interesting new items, apparently "just in" http://reading.craigslist.org/sys/5917062970.html Bill

5 6

Re: [vcf-midatlantic] Briel Computers, Still a going concern?
by Systems Glitch 05 Jan '17

05 Jan '17

I've heard from a few other hobbyists that he's gone radio-silent. I believe someone on this list was working to try and get his kits going again. Thanks, Jonathan On Thu, 5 Jan 2017 18:19:23 +0000 (UTC) Stephen via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> wrote: > Hi there, > > Does anyone know if this kit maker is still trading? > > http://www.brielcomputers.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=39&t=1746 > > Kindest regards > > > Stephen Walters > Professional Celebrity Photographer / G7VFY > www.facebook.com/mister35mm > Tel 07956-544202

2 1