I never had all that much interaction with Dan; actually I think most of
the communications with him was via the Altair Owners' listserv. One of his
last conversations with me was regarding a new RAM board that several
Altair Owners' members had helped nail down and that I was laying out. Dan
pushed for a simpler design, and to ignore some of the features requested
as committed to copper in favor of a solid basic RAM board design and lots
of prototype area, so that hobbyists could hack together what they wanted!
That was ultimately what was decided: fewer base features, more prototype
space. I just ran the first PCB prototype about a week and a half ago. It's
not 100% ready for prime time yet, but I think Dan would be happy with how
it's turned out, and I think the design is *much* better off thanks to his
input during the design stage!
If you end up with one of these RAM boards for your Altair 680, you have
Dan to thank for it not taking *another* year to get wrapped up :)
Thanks,
Jonathan
On Sat, Sep 1, 2018 at 2:10 PM Tony Bogan via vcf-midatlantic <
vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
>
> > So let's all do something: please reply to this list message and share
> your
> > favorite Dan story! I can't wait to hear them.
>
> I only met Dan a handful of times since 2013 when I got involved with the
> group. We had some great discussions at VCF East XII, probably the most
> time I spent with him spread over a couple of days.
>
> I have to say as good as it was seeing him then, my favorite Dan story is
> when I saw him last month at his Daughters home. I ended up spending about
> 4 1/2 hours just shooting the shit with him talking about everything and
> anything. His passion for computers in general and VCF and our Museum
> specifically were as strong as ever, and much of our time was spent talking
> about how things got to where they are today and where he hoped they would
> go in the future.
>
> Probably the best 4+ hour long conversation I've had with anyone in quite
> a long time. We laughed, we yelled about things that pissed us off, we
> joked about Evan whenever possible ;-) (he really loved cracking jokes, not
> just about Evan!)
>
> I'm also glad that while he didn't get to see them, he got to see pictures
> of his apple II+ up and running and got the word I had resurrected his
> original Apple II as well. He was very upset he could not get them for me
> to bring home and fix when I saw him, but through the efforts of Dave
> McGuire and Jeff Brace I was able to get them with enough time to at least
> let him know they were breathing again and would be returned to his
> daughters in the condition and with the accessories he requested.
>
> It was so little on my part but was at least something I could do.
>
> That conversation will remain with me forever as a fond memory of sitting
> down hanging out with one of the nicer people I've met in my life.
>
> A tribute to Dan is how much of an impact he could have on people with the
> smallest amount of contact.
>
> Tony
