December 2019 - vcf-midatlantic

Re: [vcf-midatlantic] Museum report - 12/16/18
by Douglas Crawford 04 Jul '20

04 Jul '20

Again? This isn't getting through. On 12/17/2018 12:28 PM, Douglas Crawford wrote: > Great day at the museum. Visitor flow was non stop in the afternoon. > I am grateful for the assistance of Chris and Tony, with their help we > cycled > through the visitors and gave everyone good attention. > Its fun to docent in teams! > > The museum looked sharp and with Tony's help we had most everything > running that is > demo-able.

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several things
by Jeffrey Jonas 01 Jan '20

01 Jan '20

Happy New Year to all 1) My Microsoft Trackball Explorer Mouse 1.0 just shattered. Does anyone have a spare? 2) an interesting looking gadget: I don't want to sound like an advertisement but we all love gadgets and tools. At $16.90, this watchband-o-many-tools looks interesting but I'm unsure how practical it is vs.a multitool or Swiss Army knife: https://nanroucy.com/products/29-in-1-multi-tool-wearable-titanium-steel-br… 3) DVD-R are NOT archival. My spindle of "Playo" DVD-R fail verification immediately after burning. Others have bit-rot. I vaguely recall a file system format with error checking and redundancy to compensate for that, if one had the foresight to record in that format. What are the "best practices" other than making 2-3 copies on different brands? -- Jeff Jonas

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Museum Report 2019-12-29
by Jeffrey Brace 30 Dec '19

30 Dec '19

A few moderate interest people on a cloudy/rainy day. I took the chance to start VCF East planning. John Cervini of the InfoAge electronic warfare museum dropped off a copy of the NY Times article on Chuck Peddle and we will display the article in the VCF Museum. Tony Bogan worked in the warehouse for a few hours and cleared some space. The warehouse is an area of constant work needed and VCF appreciates the work that Tony, Adam, Andy, and others have done in the warehouse to keep things organized. It's a lot of work, and greatly appreciated! -- ========================================= Jeff Brace Vice President Vintage Computer Federation

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Museum Report 2019-12-28 December 28, 2019
by Jeffrey Brace 29 Dec '19

29 Dec '19

About a dozen or two visitors mostly casual interest with some medium and some high interest visitors. Adam, Tony and Andy were working on warehouse and other VCF activities. They can fill you on that part. I got a chance to work on the chasing lights program on the straight 8 and got it working again. Next I will get the Teletype Paper Punch program to work again (with David Gesswein's help). -- ========================================= Jeff Brace Vice President Vintage Computer Federation

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Old AT power supplies - how to test?
by John Heritage 29 Dec '19

29 Dec '19

Hey folks, I have a couple of old DOS/Win98 (OS/2) era systems that I came across, and they both have AT PSUs I want to check out before powering on for the first time. I was thinking before powering on: - Open the PSU - Air spray the PSU - Look for obvious signs of failure - capacitor leakage, burnt PCB, burnt components If all looks OK - do these require a load, or can I at least test basic voltage with no load? I do have heat resistors (used to balance out ATX PSUs for a 3D Printer) that I believe I can plug in on the 5V or 12V rails and test voltage there.. How much testing should I do / what do you recommend? Thanks! John

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TRS-80 Trash Talk - Live Tonight!
by Peter Cetinski 29 Dec '19

29 Dec '19

Hi vintage computer afficianados, Join us tonight on YouTube and Zoom for TRS-80 Trash Talk - Live! We’re all about TRS-80s but Commodore, Apple, TI and Atari enthusiasts are welcome too. Find out the state of the TRS-80 community. Test our Tandy Radio Shack knowledge and try stumping the Trash Talkers! See a preview of a new TRS-80 game being developed by @pski <https://twitter.com/pski> called "RoundUp!” Join on Zoom and show us your TRS-80 collection! Let's make it an interactive fun time talking about TRS-80s! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXk...kpkMDylVQb9gfg <https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXkGugvdCkpkMDylVQb9gfg> https://zoom.us/j/600248788 <https://zoom.us/j/600248788>

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School Preparation for Visiting a Computer Museum
by Herb Johnson 28 Dec '19

28 Dec '19

> Movies/YouTubes/Articles/Books to prepare high school students for a visit to our computer museum(s) "Our" being the System Source Computer Museum https://museum.syssrc.com I'm playing this straight, it's a real question. If I were making choices, I'd look at that museum's collection, decide what themes are present in the collection, and then look for materials that represent them 1) in a reasonably accurate way 2) present any considerations about how to "represent" them 3) are not overly long in time or overly technically challenging and 4) are geared for a pre-adult audience. Teachers have other criteria but I'll leave those to them. The collection in question, is of course about vintage computing - pre 2000 era - and seems to include printing and mobile devices and toy/instructional computers. One kind of choice might be, presentations about each or some of those subjects. A Web search of "documentaries about computers" finds all kinds of lists of *documentaries* about computers and computing. Why those and not "movies"? Documentaries are typically one or a series which often last about an hour (each), a convenient time interval. Movies are driven to be dramatic, entertaining, and sometimes non-factual; of course they last well over an hour. Some documentaries may have related course materials. Movies have been covered. I'm surprised documentaries haven't. Maybe someone has suggestions? There's plenty of them, and they are of course described on their own Web pages. One other thing. There's many ways to present vintage computing. My experience as a technical person FROM the 1970's era (and so an old person now), is that younger people today have a different view of "vintage" computing. One divide is an emphasis (or not) on video-game-enabled computing. Another divide, is between persons or objects "in the computing profession" and those not. There's others. So, a collection presents things and information, which supports one or more of these and other views. (shrug) Whoever runs a museum, makes some choices along these lines, deliberately or not. Of course instructors have their own views, as do producers of documentaries and movies. So do discerning viewers, if they are able and willing. "Does this present a point of view that serves my purposes? or doesn't? or someone else's?". It's a larger consideration in modern life. It's worth a thought for this particular matter and this particular museum. Regards, Herb Johnson old techie by profession -- 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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Museum closing during the month of January
by Dean Notarnicola 27 Dec '19

27 Dec '19

FYI: The VCF museum will be closed for floor renovations during the month of January, starting Monday, December 30th and re-opening Saturday,February 1st. The January 25tth and 26th workshop will still take place.

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Interesting article about Silas Warner
by Andrew Diller 27 Dec '19

27 Dec '19

https://www.polygon.com/features/2019/12/24/21029936/castle-wolfenstein-sil… <https://www.polygon.com/features/2019/12/24/21029936/castle-wolfenstein-sil…> I always loved (and was horrible at) Castle Wolfenstein on the Atari. A very nice article just released about him (he died back in 2004) on Polygon. Seems like he was involved with the PLATO system as well as making the games. I was also always intrigued why Id's Wolfenstein 3D had the same name as that 8bit title. Now I know they just bought it from what remained of MUSE. -andy

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Need help in the museum doing prep work for the new floor
by corey cohen 26 Dec '19

26 Dec '19

Hi Everyone, I’m looking for a volunteer to help out on Thursday Dec 26th in the morning (around 10:00am) till the late afternoon preparing the museum for our new epoxy floor. While my son and I grind and clean up the flaking paint on the floor. I need someone to help clear out the workshop area floor and move items to the warehouse staging area. There may also be some light vacuuming and cleaning as we make sure the museum can still be open on this coming weekend. This is dirty work “shlepping” stuff back and forth to the warehouse so if you can come, please dress appropriately. Lunch will be provided for volunteers. If you can help with this project, please email me at corey(a)vcfed.org Thank you in advance for your help, Cheers, Corey corey cohen uǝɥoɔ ʎǝɹoɔ Vintage Computer Federation, a federal 501c3 designated charity 917-747-1408 mobile corey(a)vcfed.org www.vcfed.org

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