January 2018 - vcf-midatlantic

Apple //e minor surgery
by Dean Notarnicola 22 Jan '18

22 Jan '18

While watching the NFL championships, I finally got around to fixing a non-working rescue ][e. After a power supply connector adjustment, chip reseating, keyswitch replacement, and a good cleaning, she's good as new. Not a big deal, and not my first restore, but I mention it because it occurred to me that, a few years ago, I wouldn't have had the confidence to do this. So, a huge thank you to everyone connected to VCF who have been so helpful, encouraging and generous with thier time and knowledge over the years. You know who you are, and you'll all be modest and say it's nothing, but it means a lot to me.

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parts bags, still on your grocer's shelves
by Jeffrey Jonas 22 Jan '18

22 Jan '18

I found nice zip-lock parts bags in the supermarket: box of 80: 3 1/2" x 5 7/8", double zipper on the top (short-way). They were originally "Hefty basics snack portion pack" in a yellow box. The same bags are now "Presto portion pack snack bags" in a rather generic looking box. Walmart sells teeny ziplock bags in the crafts section, next to the beads.

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OT / Looking for modems
by Martin A Flynn 21 Jan '18

21 Jan '18

I have a home project underway to set up a Citadel BBS on reasonably current hardware (HP DL360 G8 with an 8 port Digi Neo Card) Where I'm stuck is modems. Anyone have Hayes 2400 Baud Smartmodem floating around? The two specific Hays models I am interested in are 217AA and 07-00056. Before anyone asks: Dial tone is from a PBX, BBS calls will be from other analog ports on the BBS. PSTN access is blocked at the moment) Martin

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Microsoft BASIC 1.0 for the Mac 128k
by Jeffrey Brace 21 Jan '18

21 Jan '18

Now at the VCF museum. Courtesy of Corey Little who copied it. I will play with it some more when grad studies are finished. Was there a Pascal for the 128k? -- Jeff Brace

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Museum Report 2018-01-21 January 21, 2018
by Jeffrey Brace 21 Jan '18

21 Jan '18

I was at the InfoAge front desk since it was VCF's turn. Steve Anderson filled in at the VCF museum. Much thanks to him to fill in at the last minute! About 20 visitors to Infoage, 10 made their way to VCF. Maybe Steve can report on their interest level. == Jeff Brace

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Modem Error Correction - when/what baud/bps?
by John Heritage 21 Jan '18

21 Jan '18

Techie questions -- IIRC -- Part of the reason modem error correction was a big deal was because in addition to improving transfer accuracy (i.e. less loss), error correction typically reduced the number of transmitted bits per byte from 10 to 8. i.e. An early 300 or 1200 baud "client and BBS" (or server) would typically send the 8 bits for an ASCII byte* and an additional 2 bits -- a start and stop bit, or similar, but later error correcting modems (i.e. 9600bps or higher) would only need 8 bits. In practice, a 2400bps modem without error correction would be limited to ~ 240 characters per second, while the same modem with error correction would be ~ 300 characters per second raw throughput. My questions are -- is this a correct recollection? and when did error correction become pretty standard -- was it the 2400 "baud" era or was it more like 9600 bps and above? I was lucky enough to go from 1200 bps to 9600 bps in one jump, though later someone gifted me a 2400 baud modem that also had error correction, and I used that for a second machine in the house.. Thanks, John *Yes, ASCII wasn't always a standard :)

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Museum Report 2018-01-20 January 20, 2018
by Jeffrey Brace 20 Jan '18

20 Jan '18

About a dozen or so visitors today in batches of 2's and 3's. Some were passers by. Some with moderate interest. One lady stayed for 30 to 40 minutes because she remembered a lot of the micros, especially the Commodore 64, which I was glad to show off ;) Another guy said that he worked with a Data General machine and wondered if we had any more of them. I keep telling everyone about the upcoming VCF East. Many seemed interested. A nice day even though a bit nippy.

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eBay alert -- PETs nearby
by Evan Koblentz 20 Jan '18

20 Jan '18

https://www.ebay.com/itm/142630770116 ________________________________ 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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Has anyone read Introduction to the History of Computing: A Computing History Primer
by Christian Liendo 20 Jan '18

20 Jan '18

Has anyone read Introduction to the History of Computing: A Computing History Primer Gerard O'Regan. Looking for opinions before I try to get this to read. https://books.google.com/books?id=6u16DAAAQBAJ

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Please read
by Evan Koblentz 19 Jan '18

19 Jan '18

Everyone, This is very important. We need help. We've got a problem at the museum: there is a severe lack of tour guides. Jeff B. and I wind up doing almost all of the docent duty by ourselves. We almost never get a weekend off. There are 183 people on this list. We shouldn't have this problem. Dean, Corey, Doug, Todd, Bill Drom., and Steve A. all take some days -- we're grateful for their help -- but we desperately need more people. PLEASE, if you have any interest in being a tour guide at our computer museum, then email Jeff B. and I off-list. The requirements are simple: be enthusiastic about computer history, be good at interacting with families, be reliable, and represent VCF professionally. You don't have to be an expert on every aspect of computer history -- we will teach you everything you need to know. It is distressing when the only responses we get are "Wish I could, but" or crickets. In addition, every month or two, it is VCF's turn to have a front desk volunteer for Infoage itself. So we need people for that role too.

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