July 2018 - vcf-midatlantic

August 11-12 workshop signup
by Evan Koblentz 08 Aug '18

08 Aug '18

The next workshop (probably the last one at the museum for a few months) is August 11-12. Here is the signup link: https://tinyurl.com/y7mm872f Jeff B. and I decided to have this workshop in the event room down the hallway from the museum, not in the usual large room. Summer workshop attendance seems to be low, so it's kind of a waste to reserve the large room. Also it is convenient to be right near the museum, and the new/smaller room has better air conditioning. The room can fit about a dozen tables. PS. I'm leading this workshop because Jeff is busy with his grad school stuff.

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OT: Anyone interested in a short duration WordPress gig?
by Kelly Leavitt 31 Jul '18

31 Jul '18

Contact me off list and I'll get you in touch with the client. I just don't have time to devote to yet another project. This is a FOR PAY job, but I don't know the details. Kelly

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12th HOPE - Impressions?
by Ethan O'Toole 30 Jul '18

30 Jul '18

What was everyone else's impressions of HOPE this year? For me, I was pretty exhausted. Guy I roomed with snored a bunch and I drank too much caffeene making it hard to sleep. I took the DC Metro and Amtrak up which was a new experience (though I have used both before, not both in this manner.) That was neat, and NYC is usually fun. Event wise, I thought the variety of talks was pretty awesome. I only saw some talks (Will watch videos later of others I was interested in) and it's always hit or miss but no complaints. And the schedule was packed! The hotel... yea check in was horrible, the room was horrible. HOPE has a cool DIY feel in it's space but the rest of the venue is bad. I like a few aspects of the space but hate other aspects of the space. Having one track 19 floors away from the other track generates lots of cross traffic and elevator needs. I couldn't get a feeling how well attendance went. It felt like it was down from 2016. But Manning talk filled all the rooms I think? 2nd floor seemed pretty dead. Segway thing is 10 years old or more now. There was the soldering area, which is cool but the floor was so bright -- if some of the lighting done in the talk rooms was done on the 2nd floor it would have been a bit better. Having seen so many neat things on 2nd floor in the past there just wasn't much new stuff this year. I'm not knocking VCF or ToooL or Tommy's Holograms. But I dunno. Zero new. And the hammocks... eeeek. Price point got a bit high this year, I understand it's the big city and inflation and all that. At the end of the day, I realize it's the hotel that makes most of the money not the event. I tell myself I go to see friends, and always that is the best aspect of it. But I dunno it seems like something was missing. Maybe it's the elaborate logos and designs of years past weren't present? Dunno, just curious other's opinions. Maybe I was just really tired :-)

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Busy weekend
by Evan Koblentz 30 Jul '18

30 Jul '18

I was at the museum both days this weekend (stayed overnight). Lots of visitors all weekend, and last night I represented VCF at InfoAge's annual "Wall of Honor" dinner. Our own Nick Lordi was there too. ________________________________ Evan Koblentz, executive 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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WTB: Data I/O 351A-070, 071, 072 Socket Adapters
by systems_glitch 28 Jul '18

28 Jul '18

All, I'm looking for any or all of the following Data I/O Socket Adapters: 351A-070 (8741, 8748, etc) 351A-071 (8751) 351A-072 (8755A) Thanks, Jonathan

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AOL 4.0 on Ebay
by Herb Johnson 24 Jul '18

24 Jul '18

The AOL 4.0 CD ebay auction referenced, has a starting bid of $575, and one bidder. That bidder has ZERO rating and bidding history only 6 days old. I smell a RAT!. An ebay search for AOL CD's sold recently (months) shows most selling for several dollars to under $20, or in sets at those prices. There's stories years old on the Web, about this or that AOL CD or floppy selling for thousands; but not much since 2015. Now, that's just a modest and incomplete survey, looks over about an hour of time. But I'm not seeing any comprehensive collector's discussions and marketplaces. For items worth thousands, I'd expect to see more. In any event, there's no clear and obvious venue to determine likely value. That makes it hard to sustain interest in high prices, when you can't validate what you have (or are about to) spend. I imagine someone might tell me "blah blah blah, put it on eBay and take what you can get, what someone pays is what it's worth". I don't find that a satisfactory explanation, that's called "the greater fool". If there's any persistant value to AOL disks or CD's, I'd expect to find something - or have someone tell me "go *here* and see for your self". Herb Johnson lesser fool -- Herbert R. Johnson, New Jersey in the USA http://www.retrotechnology.com OR .net

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AOL 4.0 on Ebay
by Bill Degnan 24 Jul '18

24 Jul '18

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Original-America-online-disc-for-internet-4-0-WITH… The last one sold for $10,000+. I think an AOL 2.5 diskette in original package with the Thompson Twins on the package went for $75,000 Bill

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] AOL 4.0 on Ebay
by Jeffrey Golas 24 Jul '18

24 Jul '18

I think I would wet myself if Prodigy came back in any iteration! Jeff

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HOPE
by Evan Koblentz 24 Jul '18

24 Jul '18

HOPE was great! Chris F., Mouse, Dmitry (a newish member), and I all worked the VCFed booth -- huge thanks to them!! Many other members were at the show. Jim, Rolf, Jason P., Kenzo, Brian Stuart, Jason Scott, Connor, Jonathan, Amy .... sorry to anyone I forget to mention. Chris L. didn't make it but he joined some of us for Saturday night dinner. My talk this morning went pretty well. Unfortunately it started 10 minutes late due to elevator problems (for everyone, all weekend long!) and so I had to stop before the audience Q&A. But the robot performed well and I was happy with all the recent code improvements. Next stop, Maker Faire! I'll start a thread about it this week. (Please don't fork this thread.)

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F/S ALTAIR Complete starter kit
by johnp＠exhilaronics.com 23 Jul '18

23 Jul '18

F/S Original Altair, many MITS boards, more than 50 (fifty) other s-100 boards, OEM 8"disk drives, Lab equipment, large selection of chips and other parts, selection of Cromemco Cyclops parts including S100 interface pair and original camera boards and cases. Cleaning out all my stock because of illness. MUST BE PICKED UP IN SOUTHERN NH AND CANNOT BE BROKEN UP OR SHIPPED! Will sell to best reasonable offer. For complete inventory email jparsonsnh at gmail dot com

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