December 2017 - vcf-midatlantic

Philly HP Handheld Club:their archive/library?
by Jeffrey Jonas 23 Dec '17

23 Dec '17

The Philadelphia Area HP Handheld Group were regularly at the TCF (Trenton Computer Fest) in the 80s. I have a few of their newsletters and a videotape about the HP 28C. Does anyone else have any? I found their web site http://www.pahhc.org/pahhc.htm I guess I ought to buy the PPC DVD!

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semi OT: looking for English manual for slide rule: A.W.Faber-Castell 152/81 Novo-Mentor
by Jeffrey Jonas 23 Dec '17

23 Dec '17

My A.W.Faber-Castell 152/81 Novo-Mentor slide rule came with a Swedish manual. (I bought it at a thrift shop) I'd love an English manual. Google keeps pointing me to a pay-site with no preview, so I'm unsure they really have the manual at all. Does anyone have one or know of a better source?

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] D-I-Y slide rule display case
by Jeffrey Jonas 23 Dec '17

23 Dec '17

Todd George noted > Cheap white LED strips in large quantities available via eBay! But there are several variables 1) how many emitters per inch. The more the merrier 2) what color? 2700K cool white is the most popular LED but perhaps a warm-white around 3500K would be better for those with the yellow slide rules. alternate sources: Ikea has clever LED lighting but not as many emitters per inch. Staples sometimes sells locker LED strips. Battery powered!

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Glitchwrks.com is down?
by Henry S. Courbis 23 Dec '17

23 Dec '17

Jonathan! Sites down I believe. http://www.glitchwrks.com PS - I have some proto card for you. :-) Henry S. Courbis Office Toll Free: (800) REACTIVE (732-2848) Office/Mobile Direct: (856) 779-1900 www.ReActiveMicro.com <http://www.ReactiveMicro.com> - Sales, Support, and News, Our Headquarters on the Internet ReActiveMicro.com/wiki - Support, Software, Manuals, and History. Create your own page today! Facebook.com/reactivemicrousa - Our Social Media Outlet and Support

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Need someone for InfoAge front desk
by Jeffrey Brace 22 Dec '17

22 Dec '17

All InfoAge groups are now required to cover the InfoAge front desk each Sunday in a rotation. It is VCF's turn. I need to be docent at VCF. I can't do both at the same time. It's a pretty simple job. I've tried for weeks to get someone to take this, but have been so far fruitless. If you are interested and available, then please e-mail me privately.

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VCF East -- May 18-20
by Evan Koblentz 22 Dec '17

22 Dec '17

VCF East will be May 18-20. Three reasons: Better weather, not too close calendar-wise to VCF SE, more planning time for us after VCF PNW. Off-campus lodging rates will likely be higher because of tourist season which official begins the following weekend, but I'd book now if I were you. Just like last year, on-campus lodging (barracks style) will be available for $25/night/person EXCLUSIVELY for exhibitors, authorized volunteers, speakers, etc. We considered adding a second day of classes (Thursday) but Infoage management said no. No other details available at this time. ________________________________ 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 instagram.com/vcfederation

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Byt-8
by Evan Koblentz 22 Dec '17

22 Dec '17

I know a few people on our list have Byte Shop Byt-8 computers. I happened to be emailing with store owner Paul Terrell recently. I asked him who did the system design, and thought some of you would be interested in his response: "My next door neighbor in San Jose was a design engineer for IBM at their Los Gatos Labs and he did the design work for the Byte 8 CPU card and front panel board with the led lights and switches and one uped the Altair front panel with some extra debug features. He transferred to their Tuscon office and I heard he had passed away." ________________________________ 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 instagram.com/vcfederation

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] D-I-Y slide rule display case
by VAXman＠tmesis.org 22 Dec '17

22 Dec '17

Jeffrey Jonas via vcf-midatlantic writes: >How to show off slide rules in style! > >http://www.stefanv.com/calculators/a-display-case-for-my-slide-rule-collect… FYI, those of you without wordworking tools or skills as described in Jeff's link, big chain hobby stores like Hobby Lobby do sell large shadow box frames should you wish to display your slide rules or any other 3D items in similar fashion.

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9000/300 available (fwd)
by Herb Johnson 22 Dec '17

22 Dec '17

J. Alexander Jacocks (Alex) did acquire those HP 9000's and brought a few to Festivus. I want to acknowledge and thank him for his efforts. I was one who acquired a 9000/300 and a hard/floppy drive. VCFed Museum got a set also, as did others. Not a big priority for me, but I used HP computing equipment in the era, I have a number of HP test equipment items, and so on. Alex particularly worked hard at my request, to try to generate a boot floppy during the event. I literally had to pry his fingers from his laptop, as he tried to get 21st century technology to generate 1980's 3.5" floppies. My "cave man" needs were simply to see the floppy drive acknowledged during boot-up. Since the event, I got the hard drive - old MFM 5.25 inch drive - to operate; the system comes up in BASIC. I have two 800K floppy drives working (a third has a broken head). I'm hampered in looking it over, by the lack of a proper monochrome monitor. It's a composite video, my guess 30Khz horizontal rate. I'd like to obtain a monitor, or futz with some other monitor. So I'd like to know the scan rate and other video-format data. Again, my thanks to Alex Jacocks. Herb Johnson Herbert R. Johnson, New Jersey in the USA http://www.retrotechnology.com OR .net

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BlockChain Filing / Akin to Bitsavers
by Herb Johnson 22 Dec '17

22 Dec '17

Bill Inderrieden's post was subject'ed by "digest" - he answered a digest email, not an individual email. So I chose to reply with a proper subject-line. HIs post was: Thu Dec 21 13:51:11 EST 2017 To The Guys: Degan, Jonas, Johnson and Oprysko. And all others listening and interested. In a non related search of other stuff, I came across this, which I had not seen originally on the [PBS] News Hour. https://www.pbs.org/video/an-archive-preserving-the-fragile-history-of-the-… It shows what is being done out in CA, concerning constructing a complete digital library archive of the human knowledge, formidable task to be sure, and addresses (not yet completely solved) how to access the knowledge base in "50 let alone 500 years". The technology we all play in is so fragile! Both hardware and software!!! Runs 10min with a intro advert for a Broadway production of Shakespeare's Farinelli and the King, that you have to sit through. Bill Inderrieden --------------------------------- The interview was aired 01/02/17, an interview including Brewster Kahle of the Internet Archive, Jeffrey Brown reporter. The video of Kahle shows a stack of servers in some former San Fransisco church. It's worth viewing to see the facility. One row of four hard drives, says Kahle, represents "all the words in the Library of Congress". The Web is fragile, says the narrator Brown, because links break, documents are edited or removed, owners shut down their sites. Others interviewed say, computers & storage break and become obsolete. Mr Peabody is cited as the inventor of "the Wayback Machine" (look it up, millennials). "what the archive saves, is based on popularity" (narrator). (sigh) A million flies...."why aren't all the books digitized?" (Kahle). (sigh, because we are capitalists). And by the way: in looking up Kahle, I came across the Internet Archive Blog, and his remarks of Feb 2 2017 on "micropayments". https://blog.archive.org/2017/02/02/micropayments-to-archive-org-by-using-t… which 1) goes to recovering costs by a mechanism of micropayments from certain Internet Archive readers and 2) goes to a reference to my old mentor, and former New Jersey resident, Project Xanadu's Ted Nelson. He's widely credited for associating micropayments with hypertext (he coined the term). also 3) it mentioned bitcoin which is akin to blockchain, a technology in discussion. Please note: this is what curation looks like. Herb Johnson -- Herbert R. Johnson, New Jersey in the USA http://www.retrotechnology.com OR .net

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