August 2018 - vcf-midatlantic

Introduction
by Herb Johnson 14 Aug '18

14 Aug '18

Adding my welcome to Nicholas Fiore, who makes a point about his age (18) and his Apple/Mac collection and future interest in "vintage PC and Commodore stuff". I know little about Commodores and there's many members already encouraging you about those; so I'll say nothing about that. I'm considerably older than you, so "vintage" means something different to me, I'd guess. I was going to elaborate, but that ended up being a lecture on the history of personal computing. That's too long and wasn't called for. It might start a fight on "what is vintage" or "what is a PC". So I'll make it simple - a short lecture, he he. Nicholas, I see your list is mostly computers after the late 1980's; your oldest machines are the Apple Mac SE and 512K, from the mid-1980's. And you have some 90's or later Windows-class computers. That's fine - in fact I think it's good that people are starting to collect and preserve those. I say "those", because as an older person, 1) I think of "vintage" as 1980 or earlier, often MUCH earlier and 2) I myself don't associate "PCs" with "personal computing" in general. Age kind-of speaks for itself. If you are 60 today, you'd be your age in 1980. So computers before 1980 would be kind of "normal"; now they'd be vintage, like *me*. That's simple. To many of us old people, personal computing began in the 1970's, with either experiences on minicomputers from an earlier time, or with the CP/M, S-100 and Apple II and other computers available before (and after) the IBM PC of 1981. Also: many of us have industrial or academic computing history. In 1980, those institutions were using mini-computers, from DEC or IBM or HP or a host of other brands nobody even remembers now. Those are refrigerator-sized computers; still, some people own them today. Fewer of us, even have some "mainframes" around. The 80's and 90's also had some industrial desktop computers; SUN, SGI and other brands. Those became desirable "vintage" computers in the 2000's for their graphics; then IBM-type PC's became faster and cheaper with better graphics and those lost favor. I think interest is coming back now, just because they are old. There's a lot of kinds of vintage computers; this is just a taste. But not all "PC's", were Windows or MS-DOS (or Mac OS); vintage goes pretty far back in computing. The points I'm making, Nicholas, are two. 1) don't worry much about "being allowed to join" because you are younger that most in this list. That's fine with me; you will have more interest in stuff *I'm* not interested in, it's "too new" - that's good! You will preserve it while I work on something else. 2) Give some consideration to even more "vintage" stuff than what's in your experiences, and on your list. That old stuff, led to the stuff of interest to you. So we both have good reasons, to support each other. Welcome aboard. Herb Johnson -- Herbert R. Johnson, New Jersey in the USA http://www.retrotechnology.com OR .net preserve, recover, restore 1970's computing email: hjohnson AT retrotechnology DOT com or try later herbjohnson AT retrotechnology DOT info

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Recommendation wanted: Books on the birth of UNIX
by Jeffrey Brace 13 Aug '18

13 Aug '18

Before I start an Amazon search, can anyone recommend a good book on the creation and development of UNIX? -- ========================================= Jeff Brace Vice President Vintage Computer Federation

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VCF West XIII - My experience
by Jeffrey Brace 13 Aug '18

13 Aug '18

In no particular order: Got to meet Jeri Elseworth. Haven't seen her for almost 6 years since she went to a World Maker Faire in 2012. Got to see the usual suspects: Jason Scott, Brian from Hackaday, Sellam, etc. Got to meet Steve Russell who created Space War and have him sign a Space War t-shirt. Didn't even know the guy was a docent there or what he looked like. I saw him in the bathroom and held the door open for him as he uses a walker, then later sat down for lunch and found out who he was. You never know who you run into there. I watched the PDP-1 demo and got to play Space War on it. I beat my "young" opponent. Watched the movie on General Magic which I knew nothing about. It was a great movie and good for me to know this computing history. I worked in consignment and it was a hopping place. Lots of sellers and buyers. A packed room. Also worked the front desk and nice to interact with the people coming in. I was glad to have new volunteers to help out so that I could take breaks and see the museum a little. Lots of great exhibits. I didn't get a lot of time to go through them one by one, but took many pictures. I didn't get to attend any talks, but a lot of people seemed to like them. We recorded all of the, so I will be glad to see them later. Lots of new Pokémon in that area that I never saw before. So it was great to add to my Pokédex. Loved the dryness there as it is unbearably humid here in New Jersey. Fun driving around looking at all the business signs in Silicon Valley. Good to see Alexander Pierson from our east coast branch as well as two other frequent exhibitors Monster 6502 and Michael Hill. I will post my pictures later. -- ========================================= Jeff Brace Vice President Vintage Computer Federation

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] Introduction
by Dean Notarnicola 13 Aug '18

13 Aug '18

Right on, Tony! Tandy / TRS-80 is cool, but when you come to your senses as video game fan, we'll also be glad to help you delve into the magical world of Atari, especially with the 40th anniversary of the 400/800 coming up next year ;-) Dean On Mon, Aug 13, 2018 at 6:53 AM Tony Bogan via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vcfed.org> wrote: > Welcome! Since you've already found enlightenment with your apple II and > Macintosh collection, it's only natural that you'd want to see how the > "other half" lives. > > There's always an attraction to the seedier side of things, so don't feel > bad about looking into those commodore and pc machines. Everyone goes > slumming once in awhile! ;-) > > Seriously though, Chris and Doug are two great people to put you on the > commodore path for sure, and if you ever have any questions or needs from > the apple side, feel free to reach out to me at any time. I believe we > spoke when you were at VCF, I had the apple II display in the center isle > at the event. > > Kelly and Dean would even tell you about the TRS/Tandy machines, although > I'm not sure why you'd want to know :p > > So much knowledge and experience here in this list about so many different > things, you will find most every question you can think of answered and > answered beyond your satisfaction! > > Video game consoles are my second passion so I'm right there with you! > > Tony Bogan

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Introduction
by Nicholas Fiore 13 Aug '18

13 Aug '18

Hello! CJ and Lou suggested for me to introduce myself since I’m new to the VCF community… I’m Nicholas Fiore. I had wanted to go to VCF East for the past couple years ever since I found out about it, and finally this year I was able to and had an absolute blast. I met a couple people whom I knew from online at the event as well, being Lou, Ian, CJ, and Z. I also realize that I'm younger than more than half of you, only being 18, but I’ve been into vintage and retro tech since I was pretty young. In late 2014, I started collecting computers and since then have amassed 74 computers in my collection :D . I mainly collect Apple/Macintosh-related items, with 52 of my machines being Apple/Macintosh computers. As of lately, however, I’d like to focus on getting more and learning more about vintage PC and Commodore stuff. Besides computers, I also collect and enjoy video games consoles. I currently own every Nintendo console except for the Virtual Boy and GameBoy Color, an Atari 2600, and as of lately I’ve been focusing on acquiring Sega consoles. Thank you for allowing me to join the group. Its awesome to be around others that share similar interests. I had an absolutely fantastic time at VCF East this year and plan to attend next year as well, and other evens as my schedule permits. - Nicholas P.S. For anyone who is interested, here is my complete inventory list of my collection: https://pastebin.com/QCywc4QM

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Museum / workshop report
by Evan Koblentz 12 Aug '18

12 Aug '18

Today was an ordinary one at the museum, ordinary amount of visitors ... but yesterday was great! We had about 40-50 people come through, mostly due to the poor beach weather. It was the most people we ever had on a day without any special events happening on campus. Workshop-wise, we had good attendance this time around. VCFed things: Drom worked on the UNIVAC, Alex B. inventoried our Heathkit items, Adam did more warehouse sorting, Ian fixed minor issues with the PET/Amiga, and I disassembled the Lego forklift robot / started building a new R2-style droid.

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Looking for S100 video board
by Richard Cini 11 Aug '18

11 Aug '18

I’m trying to line up projects for the fall, so I’m looking for a CompuPro PC-Video or Lomas Color Magic for my Gazelle replica. Versions of DOS for the Gazelle didn’t natively support a video board so I thought it would be a good project. Let me know off-list if you have one of these you’d be willing to part with. Thanks! Rich Get Outlook for iOS<https://aka.ms/o0ukef>

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Important workshop reminder: parking
by Evan Koblentz 11 Aug '18

11 Aug '18

Remember NOT to park on the grass field this weekend. Rain + Halloween construction! Park on the street leading up to it. I'll be there around 10am to open up. Bring your umbrella....

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] Leftover VCF event shirts
by VAXman＠tmesis.org 10 Aug '18

10 Aug '18

Evan Koblentz via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vcfed.org> writes: > >We have some leftover t-shirts from this year's VCF East (orange) and >VCF West (gray). They're the same design. Sorry, we don't have any >leftovers from Pacific-Northwest (green). > >We'll sell these for $10 each between now and Festivus. > >The sizes are limited/assorted. > >No, we can't make an inventory or check if your size is available, and >no we won't ship these .... first-come, first-served, cash/PayPal >accepted. I'll take an XL if there is one. Send me PayPal info and I'll pick up the shirt one weekend or at the party gathering.

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] Leftover VCF event shirts
by VAXman＠tmesis.org 10 Aug '18

10 Aug '18

Jeffrey Brace via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vcfed.org> writes: > >The orange shirts don't have any L, or XL. There is S, M, 2XL, 3XL, 4XL, >5XL, but I can't guarantee quantities. Picture of orange short: front: ><https://drive.google.com/open?id=12374_36CI6OY2YJSdsvK4yDvRzmRPvPA> >back: ><https://drive.google.com/open?id=1qsWto40-GtTpvXtTRanfpSSdRfhKs9uh> I'm kind partial to the orange color. A 2XL will do if that's the only size in orange. Let me know where to PayPal.

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