September 2017 - vcf-midatlantic

Museum report
by Herb Johnson 20 Sep '17

20 Sep '17

>....excellent condition Ithaca InterSystems DPS-1. I exhibited two of these at VCF-East 2016. They are nice S-100 machines. But the chips get "rusty" in an odd way, the leads turn black. HEre's how I fixed mine: http://www.retrotechnology.com/restore/ith_feb16_repairs.html Herb -- Herbert R. Johnson, New Jersey in the USA http://www.retrotechnology.com OR .net

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Free Serial Logitech Steering Wheel and Pedals
by John Heritage 20 Sep '17

20 Sep '17

Hey I have an old Logitech Wingman Force steering wheel and pedals if anyone wants it. It's a serial port model, and includes a power supply. While I'm selling it on Ebay if anyone on this list wants it, it's free if you would just pay shipping charges. (local pickup would be near King of Prussia, PA). Here's my listing with pictures: http://www.ebay.com/itm/202059824348?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p398… It's been sitting around so long I have no idea if it works, and I don't know how modern software drivers work with this via the serial port anyway. Message me if interested. John

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Tandy Assembly
by Peter Cetinski 20 Sep '17

20 Sep '17

Does everyone here know about Tandy Assembly in October? http://www.tandyassembly.com/ It's going to be the largest gathering of Tandy Radio Shack enthusiasts since the 1980s! Disclaimer: This is not a VCF event so apologies if I'm being improper with the list. Pete

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Let's help Lee Felsenstein
by Evan Koblentz 20 Sep '17

20 Sep '17

Lee Felsenstein -- of Free Speech Movement, Community Memory, Homebrew Computer Club, Pennywhistle Modem, Processor Technology SOL-20, and Osborne fame -- is starting a Patreon. He's also been an avid supporter of the vintage computing hobby (including VCF West and once went out of his way to visit one of our NJ museum workshops!) Everyone should help him if you can. http://www.patreon.com/lfelsenstein ________________________________ 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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semi OT: BBC micro:bit on sale at Microcenter
by Jeffrey Jonas 19 Sep '17

19 Sep '17

I know it's a hard sell compared to the $5 Raspberry Pi zero, but http://microbit.org/ The BBC micro:bit is a pocket-sized codeable computer with motion detection, a built-in compass and Bluetooth technology, which was given free to every child in year 7 or equivalent across the UK in 2016. A collaboration between 29 partners, the BBC micro:bit is the BBC's most ambitious education initiative in 30 years, with an ambition to inspire digital creativity and develop a new generation of tech pioneers. They are on sale at Microcenter. $10 is the bare board. The kit includes battery holder, USB cable. The edge connector seems to be hard to get :-( http://www.microcenter.com/product/480031/MicroBit Element 14 Micro:Bit now $9.99 (was $12.99 SAVE $3.00) 10+ in stock at North Jersey / Paterson Store http://www.microcenter.com/product/480034/MicroBit_Go_Kit Element 14 Micro:Bit Go Kit 10+ in stock at North Jersey / Paterson Store now $11.99 (was $16.49 SAVE $4.50)

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Inventor of Unix Chroot?
by Evan Koblentz 19 Sep '17

19 Sep '17

Help me with a research thingamajig. I want to find out who made Chroot. Wikipedia -- purely as a starting point -- shows a comment in the Chroot talk page stating, "This system call was present [in] AT&T versions of Unix well before 1982. This citation should be changed to point to an AT&T version. Indeed, Research's UNIX V7 sources (usr/sys/sys/sysent.c dated May 7th, 1979) has an entry at position 61 for chroot(2); the fact is even noted under the article about V7..." See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk%3AChroot#Bill_Joy_did_not_invent_chroot I know many of you are old-school Unix users/developers and some of you worked at AT&T. Who can help me find out which specific people (I need names) actually invented Chroot? ________________________________ 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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Museum report
by Evan Koblentz 18 Sep '17

18 Sep '17

Mixed bag today. There were very few visitors but a lot of good things happened! Howard B., of the ACGNJ + TCF old days, brought us a donation of an excellent condition Ithaca InterSystems DPS-1. He said it's perfectly working including the 8" drives and external HDD. He included boot disks, backups, all the cables, manuals, and even spare paddle switches. He's still working on the terminal and will bring us that in due time. This is a very nice donation! Our other DPS is in poor shape. He has other things to donate soon. Steve A. also brought a donation of a nice tape drive. I spent a couple of hours packing things for Maker Faire next weekend.

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] FW: Free Alpha Server 2100 (USA Mid Atlantic)
by VAXman＠tmesis.org 18 Sep '17

18 Sep '17

Paul Birkel via vcf-midatlantic writes: >Contact Fran Smith <fsmith(a)ladylinux.com> > >-----Original Message From CCTALK ----- Sent: Monday, September 18, 2017 >1:06 PM Subject: Free Alpha Server 2100 (USA Mid Atlantic) > >Hiya, > >Free as in Beer come and get it. Its complete including disk drives and >other than dusty is in pretty good shape. I am in the Baltimore City >area and it must be gone by this weekend. Or I will break it down >Saturday and recycle the rest. > >Also I have some other stuff that is related I might throw in. > >I lied about the Free but not the Beer. But I would love it if a six >pack of nice Autumm Craft beer was dropped off. > >Fran FWIW, I have a HUGE stockpile of Alpha systems from AlphaStation 200s to ES40s. If anybody is interested, let me know. I can provide you an itemized list if you ask and I can bring them to the Winter get together.

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FW: Free Alpha Server 2100 (USA Mid Atlantic)
by Paul Birkel 18 Sep '17

18 Sep '17

Contact Fran Smith <fsmith(a)ladylinux.com> -----Original Message From CCTALK ----- Sent: Monday, September 18, 2017 1:06 PM Subject: Free Alpha Server 2100 (USA Mid Atlantic) Hiya, Free as in Beer come and get it. Its complete including disk drives and other than dusty is in pretty good shape. I am in the Baltimore City area and it must be gone by this weekend. Or I will break it down Saturday and recycle the rest. Also I have some other stuff that is related I might throw in. I lied about the Free but not the Beer. But I would love it if a six pack of nice Autumm Craft beer was dropped off. Fran

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Ebay International Shipping Improvement
by william degnan 18 Sep '17

18 Sep '17

If you're like me, you use Ebay to sell vintage computers to make space or for extra cash (so you can buy other vintage computers...). It's a nice efficient way to sell. Given the dollar exchange rate has declined 30% this year prices are cheaper to an international buyer. You maximize profit if you sell internationally and given you are hit with 10% fee you want to maximize the sales price. Problem *was* there are too many variables and taxes to track, custom forms, insurance, etc. International shipping has always been a problem because it's so hard to predict the actual cost, and I have been burned a few times with shipping costs. Slowly Ebay has been working to make this better. Recently Ebay has made available a new shipping option called "Global Shipping Program" that allows a person to ship their internationally-sold items to a hub in the US (Kentucky), and after that I guess the buyer deals with the shipping the rest of the way. A lot of people bust on Ebay, but this is really a nice feature and it really reduces the hassle for the seller. In short, now everything I sell is treated like domestic shipping, no customs no guessing. 25-50% of my sales are international. I don't want to get into a big thing about whether Ebay is good/bad but in this case - Ebay: Well done. Bill

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