June 2017 - vcf-midatlantic

RadioShack last stores closing?
by Jonathan Gevaryahu 13 Jun '17

13 Jun '17

The local radioshack here was one of the 72 stores (out of ~1500) which was not closing in May, but on Monday this week they announced they are closing as well. This is one of the combined sprint-radioshack stores, the sprint part is remaining open. I suspect all of the remaining 72 stores are closing; last day for the local store is the 28th. It was already pretty picked over when I checked today. -- Jonathan Gevaryahu jgevaryahu(a)gmail.com jgevaryahu(a)hotmail.com

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OT: T-Mobile Tuesdays
by Joseph Oprysko 13 Jun '17

13 Jun '17

This is very off topic. Today on the T-Mobile Tuesdays app, they're giving away a one month Xbox One game pass codes. If anyone has a T-Mobile phone and doesn't have an Xbox One, could you please send me the code in a private email. My son plays on the Xbox One a lot, and the game pass will let him play quite a few more games. Since it's summer break from school, it's something that will help him pass the time when we're at home. Thanks, Joe -- 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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Museum pictures
by Mike Loewen 12 Jun '17

12 Jun '17

I wanted to point someone to a site which has pictures from our Infoage museum, but have come to the conclusion that there is no official site like that. Is anyone working on a museum page? I suspect there are lots of pictures floating around in personal collections, but it would be nice to have an official (virtual) museum page. Mike Loewen mloewen(a)cpumagic.scol.pa.us Old Technology http://q7.neurotica.com/Oldtech/

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Stan Veit's History of the Personal Computer
by Glenn Roberts 12 Jun '17

12 Jun '17

I was cleaning out a closet and came across my copy of "Stan Veit's History of the Personal Computer". I realized it's almost 25 years ago this was published and perhaps some on this list haven't read it? I've been enjoying re-reading my copy. One thing that I realized in reading his bio is that it was rather late in life that he became part of the personal computer movement - he was 56 when he opened the Computer Mart in NYC. It's a great read. takes you back. In scanning Amazon I realize this book is now somewhat of a collectible - they seem to go for as much as $200! It looks like there's a podcast on line for those of you who might want to listen http://www.classiccomputing.com/CCPodcasts/Stan_Veit/Entries/2016/1/12_Stan_ Veit_7.html - Glenn

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Weekend workshop report
by Mike Loewen 11 Jun '17

11 Jun '17

I worked on two projects at the museum, this weekend: my recently acquired Eagle IIE micro and the museum's HP 2117F display system. The Eagle is a 4MHZ Z80 system (CP/M) with 64KB RAM and SS 5-1/4" drives. The display was out of adjustment, with a "doubled" presentation. A quick tweak by Ian on one of the video pots fixed that, and I resoldered the leads to the reset switch which had been inexplicably cut by a former owner. Nice bright and clear display (green CRT), passes internal diags. The HP 2117F is a circa 1983 mini, with a hardware floating point processor module. I pulled the power supply and checked the inside of the top cover for the infamous black form: yep. It hadn't quite started to disintegrate, but it was just a matter of time. I removed the foam and glued a plastic shield in its place. The power supply voltages were close, but I adjusted them to spec. The system wasn't completing its self-test, and didn't seem to be recognizing its RAM. It turned out to be a missing ribbon cable which is supposed to connect the RAM boards (3 boards of 256KW each) to the controller board. I pulled a donor cable from our ugly 2113E hangar queen and the memory tests now pass. I also replaced 3 broken plastic toggles on the front panel with parts from the 2113E. I showed Evan how to toggle in a short program from the front panel to make the lights dance, Cylon style. To paraphrase a line from the movie, "Firefox": you MUST think in octal. :-) The 2117F is missing a couple of crucial controller cards to connect to the peripherals in the cabinet: the HP-IB interface for the hard disc, the 7970B tape drive interface, and the interface for the 13037C disc controller. Fortunately, the 2113E has the requisite HP-IB card (12821A) so it may be possible to check out the HP-IB drive in the future. Mike Loewen mloewen(a)cpumagic.scol.pa.us Old Technology http://q7.neurotica.com/Oldtech/

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] Found: VMS Hobbyist CDs
by VAXman＠tmesis.org 11 Jun '17

11 Jun '17

Neil Cherry via vcf-midatlantic writes: >On 06/03/2017 11:21 PM, Jim Scheef wrote: > Neil, > Could you pull ISOs >of a couple of the CDs before you take them to IA? > Jim > >I'm using my Linux box to see if I can copy the entire CD to an image. I >don't know how well this will work but it won't take much space. http://tmesis.net/OpenVMS_Hobbyist/

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Diner for Sunday AM
by Evan Koblentz 11 Jun '17

11 Jun '17

We're meeting at the Blue Swan Diner (I think it's in Ocean Township) at 9am tomorrow and will be back at the museum around 10:30ish. All are welcome. ------------------------- 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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OT: Rasperry Pi Linux Malware
by Tony Bogan 09 Jun '17

09 Jun '17

http://www.zdnet.com/article/linux-malware-enslaves-raspberry-pi-to-mine-cr… Sent from my iPhone

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PowerPC upgrade card?
by David Hoelzer 09 Jun '17

09 Jun '17

I’ve recently come into possession of a Macintosh Quadra 610AV. I’ve replaced all of the SMD capacitors and the PRAM and it’s running beautifully… but it could really use a PPC upgrade card since it only has a 68040 in it. Does anyone have anything lying around, perchance, that they would be willing to part with? Thanks!

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June 10-11 workshop sign-up
by Evan Koblentz 09 Jun '17

09 Jun '17

Everyone, Here is the sign-up sheet for the next workshop. https://tinyurl.com/y76ns8my ________________________________ 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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