February 2017 - vcf-midatlantic

Museum Report 2017-02-18 February 18, 2017
by Jeffrey Brace 18 Feb '17

18 Feb '17

So I volunteered to be docent at the museum despite being up until 5am and this will be the fourth weekend in a row that I have been here. I suppose I should expect to be here every weekend as VCF draws near. There were few visitors to InfoAge, and a few of them made their way to our museum. The Model Train guys were working on their stuff down the hall. The Antique Radio guys had their repair workshop today in 9032-A. I worked on VCF East planning, volunteer coordination, e-mails etc. Don Caselli stopped by to say hello. He has been busy taken care of his wife who broke her shoulder recently. Bill Inderiden stopped by to say hello. He was at the Radio repair workshop and updating me on the TR-20 repair status.His test machine broke and told me the long term plans of putting castors on the bottom of the rack where the TR-20 now resides. -- Jeff Brace - ark72axow(a)gmail.com

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Osborne 1 Spotted on CL
by Jason Perkins 18 Feb '17

18 Feb '17

This is actually just down the street. No affiliation: https://washingtondc.craigslist.org/nva/sys/6007642031.html -- Jason Perkins 313 355 0085

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Off-topic my company just bought a large German CNC
by Ben Greenfield 18 Feb '17

18 Feb '17

Hey All, I don’t want to sound too spammy but my company just purchased a 2000mm by 30000mm CNC with all sorts of great features that includes an Optical AI system to recognize patterns on materials and machine appropriately based on those markings. It also has a lathe. I bring this up because I thought people on this list might need simple access to a machine like this and I expect it too be under utilized for the first year. During this time if a Federation member wanted to try something, create vacuum form molds, PCB production, faceplate machining, …. I’m willing to do it for the sake of learning if you supply the material. The machine will be delivered in juneish and I will go through training on the machine at that time. To prepare for the training I’m gathering materials to experiment on and I’m shopping for milling tools. If anybody thinks they are interested contact me off-list and let me know your interest. I will be ordering the milling tools mid-aprilish. I hope someone takes me up on this, Ben

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FS: MITS Altair 8800B Turnkey Tested/Working, All MITS Boards
by Systems Glitch 18 Feb '17

18 Feb '17

link: http://www.ebay.com/itm/272560398074 Board Set as follows: * MITS 8080 CPU board * MITS 16K Static RAM board * MITS Turnkey board with TURMON ROM monitor Fully tested, it loads MITS Extended BASIC and runs. See the listing for repair details. This machine came to me as a parts bucket. Happy to deliver it in person to VCF East for no shipping cost -- payment will be required at the close of the listing, though. Thanks, Jonathan

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Three history talks at Trenton
by Herb Johnson 18 Feb '17

18 Feb '17

Evan announced these events at the Trenton Computer Festival: > 12:25-1:20 - Brian Stuart, "ENIAC Then and Now" > > 1:30-2:25 - Frank O'Brien, "Flying to the Moon / The Apollo Guidance > Computer" > > 2:35-3:30 - Jeff B. & [Evan Koblentz], 8-Bit 'Bots (Capsella, Lego) ..and Neil Cherry posted in reference to his talk: "Do It Yourself: Home Automation & More"; also scheduled at 12:25-1:20 Last night, I had the pleasure of seeing Brian's talk on the ENIAC, on the Princeton University campus. His talk was sponsored by the IEEE Computer Society chapter, and the ACM chapter, hosted at Princeton. They meet together each month for public presentations like Brian's. Brian gave a fine presentation, about the construction of the ENIAC and about its general operation. He demonstrated a visual and operational model of the ENIAC, which runs on modern computers. He described both its physical architecture, and its computing methods. ENIAC design and operation were a key part of computing development in the 1940's and 50's. I believe a video of this talk, may be on YouTube in due course. In attendance was my good friend and colleague, Frank O'Brien - an active member of the sponsoring organizations, and of course he's part of InfoAge. We took time to chat and I caught up with his recent activities. He's given his AGC talk a number of times recently. He tells me he's added some props to give descriptions about the fundamental issues of spaceflight guidance: "where you are, where you are going, which way is up?". So I look forward to seeing his presentation again. I've heard Neil's talks on Home Automation at TCF; they are informative and not "too technical for mere mortals". He's published, and well-versed, on the software and hardware of commercial products; and has championed open-source approaches. The subject is of interest to the vintage computing community, for those who develop or use access from their computers to modern devices and the Web. Another friend of mine, but one not active in VCF discussions, is Jonathan Allen. "Practical Electronics Tricks of the Trade" will be presented by him at 1:30-2:25. Jonathan has repaired and restored TV's and radios for decades. He's very familiar with 20th century test equipment and tools. His talk's content may be of interest to those beginning to restore their vintage computers. There are many other talks at the Trenton Computer Festival. There will be exhibits by computer clubs, including VCF Inc.; and by The Sarnoff Collection which is on the TCNJ campus, and which has vintage computers from RCA. Herb -- Herbert R. Johnson, New Jersey in the USA http://www.retrotechnology.com OR .net

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Available in NJ: Tandy 1000 RL
by Andy Meyer 17 Feb '17

17 Feb '17

Tandy 1000 RL Worked when put in storage Available in Summit, NJ This is my friend's machine Email me directly for his contact info. Andy

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Person in Queens needs ride to VCF East
by Evan Koblentz 17 Feb '17

17 Feb '17

See the thread here: http://www.vcfed.org/forum/showthread.php?56291-Looking-for-VCF-East-ride-s…

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Left your flashlight at the workshop?
by Evan Koblentz 17 Feb '17

17 Feb '17

Someone left a good-quality flashlight at the workshop. If it's yours then email me off-list, describe the flashlight, and I'll get it back to you.

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VCF West is August 5-6
by Evan Koblentz 17 Feb '17

17 Feb '17

Go make your travel plans. :) http://vcfed.org/wp/festivals/vintage-computer-festival-west-xi/ ________________________________ 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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Late-night BASIC support
by Evan Koblentz 16 Feb '17

16 Feb '17

Anyone up? I am fighting with Applesoft BASIC (and losing). Looking for late-night phone support... ________________________________ 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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