December 2019 - vcf-midatlantic

Chuck Peddle has Passed Away
by Todd George 25 Dec '19

25 Dec '19

Saw some really sad news today, Chuck Peddle (inventor of the 6502) passed away on December 15th. https://www.team6502.org/ -Todd

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OT - Retro data transmission AX25 / X.25 protocol suite
by Martin Flynn 25 Dec '19

25 Dec '19

Back in the dawn of the Internet, the AX25 protocol was created for data transmission over amateur radio. AX25 is related to layer 2 of the X.25 protocol suite. One of the CDL Makerspace* projects under consideration for 2020 is building an X.25 / AX25 gateway, and integrating it's 802.11 related cousin, AREDN on 2.4 and 5.0 GHz If you are interested in participating, please reply off list to keep the list clutter down. Martin *the CDL Makerspace is adjacent to the the VCF Museum operated by the /VCF/ Mid-Atlantic chapter on the Camp Evans campus in Wall New Jersey.

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Merry Christmas!
by Jeffrey Brace 25 Dec '19

25 Dec '19

To all my VCF friends who celebrate Christmas. I hope that you all have a wonderful and blessed day with family and friends. Stay safe and enjoy the day! -- ========================================= Jeff Brace Vice President Vintage Computer Federation

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Chris Fala joins VCF East committee
by Dean Notarnicola 24 Dec '19

24 Dec '19

I’m very pleased to announce that Chris Fala is joining the VCF East steering committee, bringing us to a full complement of five members. For those who don't know Chris, here is some background: Chris Fala (chris.fala(a)vcfed.org) is an Information Technology Support Consultant living in Lansdale, PA. His first exposure to computers was as a young teenager when his school received a TRS-80 (Model I) on which he taught himself BASIC. Later, his sister, who worked at Commodore at the time, gave him a VIC-20. In high school, he used a TRS-80 Model III, and in college he learned Pascal and FORTRAN on an Apple IIe, and C on a VAX system. His love of vintage computers and desire to preserve history and hardware was kindled years later when he saw an Altair computer "in person" at a Maker Faire. He loves to teach BASIC to kids (and adults), and strives to foster an appreciation of the technology and history that are often taken for granted today. (He hopes that Adam will teach him 6502 assembly.) We look forward to working with Chris to help bring more improvements to everything we do. Please join us in welcoming him to the committee.

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] School Preparation for Visiting a Computer Museum
by Bob Aviles 24 Dec '19

24 Dec '19

I remember the demo, a great choice! Bobby On Tuesday, December 24, 2019, 11:08:12 AM EST, Ben Greenfield via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vcfed.org> wrote: I would definately show the The mother of all demos. It really puts everything in perspective for me. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJDv-zdhzMY > On Dec 23, 2019, at 3:24 PM, rar via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vcfed.org> wrote: > > Looking for suggestions of Movies/YouTubes/Articles/Books to prepare high school students for a visit to our computer museum(s) > > I'll start with a few of my favorites, and looking for more suggestions > 1) Hidden Figures (book and movie) > 2) Steve Jobs (book and movie) > 3) Triumph of the Nerds > ... > N) War Games > > > Bob Roswell > broswell(a)syssrc.com > 410-771-5544 ext 4336 > > https://museum.syssrc.com > >

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Do we know anyone in Kansas?
by Christian Liendo 23 Dec '19

23 Dec '19

https://www.reddit.com/r/historyofcomputers/comments/eenj1v/help_preserve_t… My parents are moving and my dad is pretty overwhelmed with cleaning out the house. He's ready to toss these in the garbage but I convinced him to let me try to find someone on Reddit to take them. It seems like a real shame to send these to the landfill. If someone is willing to come to Kansas to pick them up, he'll give them away. What is pictured: -2 Compaq 1s luggables, one with a 10 MB hard drive -1 DEC RLO2 drive -1 pdp 11 rack for the drives -Numerous assorted 5 and 10 MB RLO disk packs Not pictured: -1 DEC RLO1 drive -2 DEC Rainbow 100s, working. 1 with a monitor and 10 MB hard drive -1 LA100 printer with pin feed tractors RLO1 and LA100 not pictured because they are currently in the dumpster. They should have had a pretty soft landing but be warned. DEC rainbows should be in perfect working order. Also 3 of the RLO disk packs fell during moving after the photo was taken. My dad insists they are useless after the slightest drop so they are also in the dumpster. Message me if you're interested or at least upvote for visibility. IDGAF about the fake internet points. I just want to preserve history if possible.

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School Preparation for Visiting a Computer Museum
by rar 23 Dec '19

23 Dec '19

Looking for suggestions of Movies/YouTubes/Articles/Books to prepare high school students for a visit to our computer museum(s) I'll start with a few of my favorites, and looking for more suggestions 1) Hidden Figures (book and movie) 2) Steve Jobs (book and movie) 3) Triumph of the Nerds ... N) War Games Bob Roswell broswell(a)syssrc.com 410-771-5544 ext 4336 https://museum.syssrc.com

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I got problems with you people...
by Bill Degnan 23 Dec '19

23 Dec '19

Happy Festivus. (I assume you get the joke and based on the past few days the irony that you all did not wait until today to have a flame war, eh?) Bill Degnan Co-founder of MARCH, Friend of Dan Roganti, Former V.P. of VCFed, and Presently proprietor of Kennett Classic. "don't complain if you're not willing to do something about it" vintagecomputer.net kennettclassic.com P.S. Karen and I are looking forward to our workshop January 4th. The response has been tremendous we're going to have to use the *entire bottom floor* ! There are a lot of new hobbyists from the area who have signed up and I am glad a lot of you all are coming to support this new project too..Stand by for more info. I am probably going to extend the hours.

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Slightly OT: Intel Chart on 80s PCs/90s Data Centers
by John Heritage 23 Dec '19

23 Dec '19

Found this interesting chart from Intel showing market share in the 80s for PCs, 90s for Data Centers: https://www.extremetech.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Intel-Business.jpg Definitely shows Atari, Inc. blew their early lead with the 400/800 by not opening the hardware for developers, or investing in getting the hardware costs down earlier. (Also no thanks to FCC noise requirements that made for a costly computer). There's enough in the 80s section for other conclusions on Apple, Commodore, etc too! The 90s are interesting for a variety of reasons, especially seeing separate graphs for IBM RISC and CISC based server products..

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Warehouse Process
by Adam Michlin 23 Dec '19

23 Dec '19

Hi Everyone, As many of you know, I do a lot of work in maintaining the VCF Warehouse at InfoAge in Wall, NJ. I want to address some changes in process in the Warehouse. 1. As you know, we are more frequently varying the "Featured Artifact" in the museum. These changes are by Steering Committee decision (and you, please make suggestions!), not just me, but I store the unused featured artifacts in the Warehouse. We had a Canon Cat on display, we now have a BeBox on display and I am pleased to share that the Canon Cat is now safely stored in a double sealed plastic container in the Warehouse and the BeBox also has an equivalent plastic container. All featured artifacts will be stored in this manner for safety, cleanliness, and ease of more frequent rotation. 2. Going forward, if you donate an item that can fit in a reasonably sized plastic container, we will provide one. If you donate an IBM/360 (please!), we make no promises about plastic containers but are looking at other solutions. 3. There will be a new policy for checking out items from the Warehouse to work on them. Please understand, we are not able to just hand out anything to anyone, but there will be a process in place to request items and the decision will be made by the Steering Committee (again, not just me). Related to point 2, if you clean one of VCF's computers, it will be put back in the warehouse in a *sealed* container (big iron not necessarily included). The inaugural item for this new policy is our Atari MEGA STe which has been checked out for repair by member Bill Lange. Speaking of which, does anyone have a keyboard for said Atari they want to donate to us? We hope it will be a very near future Featured Artifact when we get it working! 4. Remember that Canon Cat? It will shortly be going on loan for display by mutual agreement at Bill Degnan’s Kennett Classic Vintage Computer Gallery <https://www.kennettclassic.com/> in Kennett Square, PA. Any organization will now be able to request a loan of an artifact for display and all loans will be assessed and approved by Steering Committee vote. It is our goal to get the amazing artifacts in the Warehouse out for public viewing in both our museum and other locations. 5. We are working on plastic bins in the Warehouse to both organize and protect artifacts and will be shortly asking for assistance in various sections to make this a reality. The Apple section is almost complete thanks in large part to the assistance of Tony Bogan. We will also be assessing all artifacts including removing any previously missed dreaded batteries as necessary as part of this process. Any and all suggestions about the Warehouse can be sent to me and/or the entire Steering Committee. Best wishes, -Adam adam.michlin(a)vcfed.org amichlin(a)swerlin.com amichlin(a)gmail.com

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