January 2017 - vcf-midatlantic

Festival archives being posted
by Evan Koblentz 26 Jan '17

26 Jan '17

Several people asked me about archive pages for past Vintage Computer Festival events. Much of the information was lost during a rebuild of the former Festival owner's web site, however, much of the same information was also available at Archive.org. Tonight we posted about 50% of the basic date from past Festivals -- when, where, who -- at http://vcfed.org/wp/festivals/archives-show-summaries/. (It would be a HUGE amount of work to post the exact web sites from past Festivals, and there's not much point to saving the logistical information about what time of day people will speak, etc., so what we are posting seems like a good balance.) We hope to get the remaining 50% onto the page soon. PS. You'll notice that the page is being populated from the bottom-up. No particular reason why. ________________________________ Evan Koblentz, director Vintage Computer Federation a 501(c)3 educational non-profit evan(a)vcfed.org (646) 546-9999 www.vcfed.org facebook.com/vcfederation twitter.com/vcfederation

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Introduction from Newark, DE
by Paul Rickards 26 Jan '17

26 Jan '17

Hi all, I've recently joined the VCF Mid-Atlantic list and thought I would introduce myself (hope that's OK). I'm from the Newark, DE. My interests started with collecting 8-bit home computers, printers, accessories-- usually the ones that I couldn't have when I was younger. But my interests stretch well beyond those now. I'm a computer programmer by trade during the day but work on collecting, repairing and restoring vintage computers any time I can. I'm also currently into vintage pen plotters ever since I had a Commodore 1520 when I was younger. (I recently designed a 3D printable X/Y replacement gear (the old ones split) that can be found on Shapeways.) I'm also an avid photographer. I've missed the VCF East in NJ several years in a row but am committing to it this year. I'm also enjoying the conversations on the list. I'm on Twitter @paulrickards if folks care to chat there. I sometimes blog projects I've worked on (converting a SX-64 to a DX-64 dual drive for example) here: http://biosrhythm.com/ Anyone else in the Northern DE area? Cheers, Paul Rickards

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Huge collection F/S out west
by Evan Koblentz 25 Jan '17

25 Jan '17

Our good friend Sellam Ismail -- founder of the original Vintage Computer Festival -- is selling his whole collection: http://www.vcfed.org/forum/showthread.php?55964-Selling-Off-the-Collection For anyone wondering: VCFed does not purchase artifacts, and Sellam is not in position to donate to us. There are two things on his list that our collection is conspicuously missing: the Sphere 1 and the Poly 88. Quite serious: would anyone consider purchasing either/both of those from his collection and donating them to us? It would be tax-deductible. ________________________________ Evan Koblentz, director Vintage Computer Federation a 501(c)3 educational non-profit evan(a)vcfed.org (646) 546-9999 www.vcfed.org facebook.com/vcfederation twitter.com/vcfederation

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Service a scope and solder/desolder station setting recommendations
by Neil Cherry 25 Jan '17

25 Jan '17

I was working on my Atari 600xl the other day and was using the scope to see if it was working. I get a nice clean color TV signal (sorry no working NTSC TV) until I bumped the scope and it went out of sync. No amount of fiddling with the buttons and dials helped get back that pretty signal but I could see it was still there. So now I want to service the Tektronics scope but I'm not sure where to start. Next up on the top 10 list is: does anyone have pointers for solder types and temperature setting for solder and desoldering stations? I have a 30 year old Weller station that heats perfectly for older 60/40. I have a newer Hakko (?) with 2 tips (I think 700 and 800F). And I have the cheap (but working) Aoyue which is adjustable. Obviously leaving it turned up to 11 (480) is not a good idea as that will just burn it out and damage the work. Any pointers, recommendations, links ... etc? Thanks -- Linux Home Automation Neil Cherry ncherry(a)linuxha.com http://www.linuxha.com/ Main site http://linuxha.blogspot.com/ My HA Blog Author of: Linux Smart Homes For Dummies

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OT: repurposing Palm PDA, Sony PSP, Nintendo DS, Mattel Juicebox
by Jeffrey Jonas 25 Jan '17

25 Jan '17

Definitely off topic for being "too new" I'd love to keep my "old" stuff running in new ways. Does anyone have archives of apps, hacks or development tools for - Palm PDAs, including Handspring Visor I'd love to recreate the development tools I had at a previous job: CodeWarrior compiler with plenty of libraries for cross platform development. That was before Freescale destroyed CodeWarrior to sell only their chips :-( - Sony PSP, particularly network apps such as VPN and terminal emulation - Nintendo DS: I think there was a cartridge specifically for making it hackable - The Mattel Juicebox was the darling of the Linux world for a week or 2 but then quickly abandoned. Same story for the iOpener network appliance. - Network appliances: 3com Audrey, Netpliance iOpener Were any of you into that scene? -- jeff jonas

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Perhaps I asked the wrong question... FORTH
by Herb Johnson 24 Jan '17

24 Jan '17

On my Web site: stuff about FORTH. FORTH was one of many computing languages used in early microcomputing. It was implemented in a few thousands of bytes, and as an interpreter it could be extended. Memory was expensive so these were good attributes. It was also a monitor program; a number of 1980's commercial computers had a FORTH boot monitor. COSMAC 1802 ----------- www.retrotechnology.com/memship/figforth_1802.html FIG produced a series of 8-bit FORTHs in the late 1970's. www.retrotechnology.com/memship/hhc_forth.html Hand-Held Computer (HHC) he constructed in the late 1970's from a COSMAC 1802 processor and supported with a FORTH-79 based monitor and calculator program he created. I and others disassembled his FORTH and binary, without the Windows development system he abandoned later. www.retrotechnology.com/memship/8th.html A reduced FORTH for the 1802, which he called "8th". http://www.retrotechnology.com/memship/amsat.html IPS is a threaded language and develoment enviroment, similar to Forth. It was used to develop the programming on the Oscar Phase 3 satellites which used 1802's and later other processors. These were early amateur-radio satellites. IPS was in use for other satellite development. http://www.retrotechnology.com/memship/mem_basys.html A simple 1802 wheeled robot which ran on BASIC or 8th. Intel 8080 ----------- http://www.retrotechnology.com/restore/prob_solv.html I resurrected a S-100 Problem Solver System. I noted the boot diskette had the STOIC operating environment. I recalled STOIC as one of many packages distributed with CP/M programs; Both the recent and prior owners had worked with the STOIC language. Rich explained the FORTH roots of STOIC and we discussed our histories with FORTH. [Links about STOIC are at the end of the Web page.] http://www.retrotechnology.com/dri/kildall_interview_atwork.htm Gary Kildall has an opinion about FORTH and its adherents. Kildall's academic work was in computing languages; of course PL/M was his creation. He developed CP/M and founded Digital Research. HErb Johnson

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VCF East exhibitors, start signing up
by Evan Koblentz 24 Jan '17

24 Jan '17

http://vcfed.org/wp/festivals/vintage-computer-festival-east/vcf-east-exhib… The three teams equal about 10-15 regular exhibits. There are six regular exhibits so far. There is room for plenty more!!! Please start signing up your exhibits.

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Museum report
by Evan Koblentz 22 Jan '17

22 Jan '17

Busy day. There was an InfoAge group leader's meeting at 9am (IA management didn't say anything new), we had a pre-scheduled visitor arrive at 11:00. for a tour, and another visitor (Henry from ReactiveMicro.com who hadn't seen us since the old museum) at 2:00. There were also several regular visitors today.

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] Perhaps I asked the wrong question... FORTH
by Brian L. Stuart 22 Jan '17

22 Jan '17

On Fri, 1/20/17, Dave McGuire via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> wrote: > Schweet. > Have you ever seen CamelForth? I've only taken a cursory look at it, but never actually run it. I've generally heard good things about it though. > Brian, speaking of PDP-11 Forths, have you seen SOL-11? I had not. But it turns out that I'm planning to show something similar running on a little LSI-11 in a BA11-VA box. I'm going to try to dust off something I wrote *mumble* years ago back in college. For several years, the August issue of Byte was dedicated to a particular language. The year I graduated from high school it was Forth. So I arrive at college with the latest issue of Byte in hand and am thinking this looks like kind of a cool language. Of course, I ask if we've got a Forth implementation on the school's 11/70 to play with. When the answer was no, the natural response was, "ok, I'll write one." That was the genesis of a college nickname, Sir Forth. Senior year comes along and I decide to write a small OS for my CS senior project. That Forth implementation becomes the shell/application language for the OS. So it's long overdue to be returned to a running state. BLS

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HP rack door hinges needed
by Evan Koblentz 21 Jan '17

21 Jan '17

VCFed got this during the workshop weekend: http://vcfed.org/evan/hpmini.jpg We have the left/right cabinet doors, but the cabinets are missing all of the hinges where the door pins sit. Does anybody have spares?

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