January 2018 - vcf-midatlantic

Head align Tape
by Duane Craps 15 Jul '18

15 Jul '18

>>> 7 track or 9 track? The Univacs are pretty old even for "vintage". Head alignment tapes are not track specific. They have one track the width of the tape and are used to adjust time delays to time align the bits coming off the read head when reading the alignment tape. Then a "scratch tape" is used while writing all ones to adjust the write delays while looking at the read amps. We used the same alignment tape for 7 and 9 track units. Duane On 6/17/2017 11:40 AM, Dave McGuire via vcf-midatlantic wrote: > 7 track or 9 track? The Univacs are pretty old even for "vintage". On 6/17/2017 11:40 AM, Dave McGuire via vcf-midatlantic wrote: > On 06/17/2017 11:37 AM, Herb Johnson via vcf-midatlantic wrote: >>> UNIVAC 1540 Magnetic Tape Unit...I wonder if anyone has a 800 BPI, >>> NRZ Master Head Alignment Tape (skew tape) to donate to VCF. >> 7 track or 9 track? The Univacs are pretty old even for "vintage". >> >> Also, as Dave McGuire noted, a lightly-used tape from a known-good drive >> will be useful. In the floppy-disk world, I use several diskettes each >> from a known good drive to validate "alignment". > That wasn't me. But yes, that can be useful for rough validation. > >> Seems to me, there's likely several boxes of mag-tapes in the inventory. > Yes, I brought a few boxes several years ago. > > -Dave > v

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] Thinking ahead to VCF East Friday classes
by william degnan 10 Apr '18

10 Apr '18

On Jan 3, 2018 3:07 PM, "Dan Roganti via vcf-midatlantic" < vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> wrote: > > On Wed, Jan 3, 2018 at 2:17 PM, Evan Koblentz via vcf-midatlantic < > vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> wrote: > > > > > > >> Are any of our VCF-MW brethren confirmed > >>> to sell The 6502 40th Anniversary Computer Badge > >>> at VCF-east 2018? > >>> > >>> I'd love to see > >>> AM: build the badge > >>> PM: assembler programming the badge > >>> > >> > >> There are too few session slots already. We're not going to devote any of > >> them to badges. > >> > > > > This gives me an idea though ... a few years ago we had a single assembly > > session, which wasn't enough. > > > > We could have a whole track of assembly classes for different processors. > > Bring your laptop (and favorite emulator), follow along with the > > instructors. > > > > > just some constructive suggestions > try to allot more than 1hr, maybe 2hr > so the class has time to get situated, practice the example code, and ask > questions > Because this is most likely a beginners class, > because if it's any higher level of instruction, > well, there still won't be enough time alloted for the experienced users > if you expect to squeeze 4 or 5 different assembly classes into a single > track on one day > Als4o the instructor should have some method to make the example code > available, > eg, a wiki page, which they can download prior to the class, or handout a > usb thumbdrive to share the example code [again time needed to get situated] > Dan When I used to run the workshops we had targeted objectives for the assembly class I may still have the worksheet Dan created for the cp/m gen class that involved z80 assembly. That was at least 10 years ago.

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Interest Check: Belden Thicknet 10base5 Ethernet Coax
by systems_glitch 09 Feb '18

09 Feb '18

All, Per the recent cctalk discussion on thicknet/early Ethernet, I figured I'd see if there's any interest in cut-to-length Belden thicknet/10base5 Ethernet cable. I've got a local surplus guy who's got at least one 1100 foot roll. It's the real Ethernet spec stuff, sez so on the cable, and it has the bands to locate your vampire taps. If there's enough interest, I'll buy the spool off of him and cut it to length for whoever's interested in buying some. I can crimp N terminations on as well. Thanks, Jonathan

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Sneak preview of this year's VCF shirt design
by Evan Koblentz 05 Feb '18

05 Feb '18

Here's a sneak preview of the shirt design for all of our 2018 events. As usual, each event will be a different shirt color. Any similarity to a certain VCF/MA member in Pittsburgh is purely coincidental. :) https://vcfed.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/pnw-shirt-front-1.png

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Hey Apple People! New Movie
by Chris Fala 31 Jan '18

31 Jan '18

New Steve Jobs movie on Indiegogo by the same people who made the Commodore movie which featured Bil Herd as narrator. Despite the fact that there are several other Steve Jobs movies, this one looks worth backing. https://igg.me/at/4FCnq4eiWlE/x/18092503

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Interesting Game Show Tidbit
by jsalzman＠gmail.com 30 Jan '18

30 Jan '18

I was not aware of this fact... as described on the Tic Tac Dough Wikipedia page. "The gameboard on the original 1950s series used rolling drums (each containing the same nine categories) to display subject categories, with light displays beneath them to indicate X's and O's. When *Tic-Tac-Dough* was revived in 1978, the gameboard was made up of nine Apple II <https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_II> monitors linked to a central Altair 8800 <https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altair_8800> computer, which displayed the categories, X's and O's. The 1990 series used a completely computer generated setup." https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tic-Tac-Dough Jeff Salzman

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OT: (sort of...it is vintage) looking for an ADM-3A
by Tony Bogan 30 Jan '18

30 Jan '18

All, I have a friend in Georgia that is a fellow collector/enthusiast (exhibited at VCF SE recently) that is looking for an ADM-3A to use with her Altair. Not having any real knowledge of the early terminals I told her I'd see if anyone here perhaps had one they'd be interested in selling. If so just response to me in this thread or off list and I will gladly put you in touch with her. Very nice lady by the name of Jen. Evan you'll likely remember her, she Loaned a iic monitor to you for the robotics exhibit at VCF SE last year. Thanks in advance, she's helped me with items in the past and I'd love to be able to return the favor. Tony Sent from my iPhone

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Needed: Keyboard drawer for a rack
by Evan Koblentz 29 Jan '18

29 Jan '18

Anybody have one to donate? We could use this in the museum rack.

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Museum Report - 1/28/18
by Tony Bogan 28 Jan '18

28 Jan '18

Went to the museum today to work on removing batteries and evaluating some of the compact Macs in the warehouse, and had a couple hours off of work to be docent for awhile at the museum and do some cleaning. Didn’t end up getting much done with computers (only got through one!) because the museum was quite busy today. Ended up being able to stay till 5pm. Info age proper had about 60 visitors total today. About half of them came to the VCF museum. When the rain was on people stayed in the main Hotel building…when it let up we got some visitors down our way! Had three generations of family as my first visitors of the day…a Grandfather, son and grandson. They were very interested and spent a good 30 minutes taking the tour and asking questions. I had two very large families (6 and 9 people respectively) that came in. One early and one late in the day. Both stayed for a good 20+ minutes. The first had grandfather, son and grandson as well…the grandfather was excited to see the IBM and the Digital VAX as he worked on those machines. He stayed 10 minutes after the rest of the family went outside :-) In between I had several couples come in with mild to high interest and a mother and son who stayed for almost 40 minutes. The son was very interested (about 9 years old) and the mother was thrilled to see the machines of her youth (micros) I had a few other couples come through that started off browsing, not wanting the guided tour, and then came and asked for more information and took the whole ,02 tour anyway! I honestly did not have any low interest groups/individuals today. Everyone asked lots of questions, stopped at the machines they either owned, used in school or worked on at some point in their careers. I did not have a single set of drive by tourists today! I started in the Signal Corp room sweeping up and made my way down the hall to the front door when my first visitors came. I next planned to sweep up the museum but never made it through with the broom as each time I’d start I got another group of visitors. I have the first of three macs to remove the batteries and log serial #s etc. Over the next few months I hope to have all the macs and Apple IIs done (obviously only the macs have batteries to remove except the IIgs, and the last of those has had it removed) Great day for my first (unofficial) day as Docent! Tony Bogan

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Busy museum day!
by Evan Koblentz 27 Jan '18

27 Jan '18

Lots to report today. Adam and I got there at 11. Peter C. (of VCF East Tandy team fame) was also arrived at that time. Tony and Mouse arrived soon after. So for a while we had five people there. Adam focused on warehouse organization all day, Tony helped Mouse with fixing a Mac and a IIGS, while Pete and I rearranged some things in our rack. Then after lunch I gave Mouse/Pete docent training. There were tons of visitors today. It was non-stop, one family and another all day long. Most of them were very interested. The last group (a father and 12-year-old son) arrived just before closing, stayed until 5:45, and geeked out with us. Adam and I stayed to do more warehouse work from 6-9pm. Many things were overflowing into aisles or were left in the wrong spots. We moved all of that stuff to the proper locations. Now the warehouse is more presentable because the aisles are all clear/safe. We also moved some things to "the sell pile" for the next workshop and/or VCF East.

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