December 2019 - vcf-midatlantic

Dessicant (was Warehouse Process)
by William Dudley 22 Dec '19

22 Dec '19

Dollar Tree sells small tubs of desiccant. They are approximately 3.5 x 3.5 x 6 inches. $1 each, obviously. Bill Dudley This email is free of malware because I run Linux. On Sun, Dec 22, 2019 at 7:12 PM Adam Michlin via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vcfed.org> wrote: > Hi Gordon, > > We are experimenting with two different types of containers. . . . We also place a desiccant in each container for moisture and expect to replace these on a regular basis. > > > >

1 0

Re: [vcf-midatlantic] Warehouse Process
by gsteemso 22 Dec '19

22 Dec '19

Hi all, Although I'm not expecting to be able to visit in person any time soon, I've been avidly following the evolution of your bricks-&-mortar museum. (There are always things only learnable by someone actually doing them, and in that respect your collective efforts may be even more important to our field than any of you expected.) Achieving closed storage for every individual system (artefact?) is a great objective for all of us, museum curators or otherwise. (Besides the usual tendency many of us share to acquire long-neglected, dusty and/or wildlife-befouled hardware, I work in fire & flood restoration. I can say with 100% certainty that if anything gets _on_ an object, particularly an older one, it's normally a serious challenge to get that thing entirely _off_ again in a fully non-destructive manner.) With that in mind, I'm very interested in the details of your planned program of storage in plastic cases. Identifying and sourcing appropriate containers is in no way a trivial project! Making plastic involves chemical softening agents called plasticizers. As some of us have learned the hard way, in the long term plasticizers will migrate out of the finished material -- escaping as gasses or, in especially problematic cases, forming greasy beads on the surface. The most well-known and graphic example of the havoc which can be wrought upon historical artefacts by decomposed plastic was discovered by antique-doll collectors, when very old self-blinking specimens appeared to gradually start crying blood. It was eventually found to be a reaction of the escaping plasticizers with the metal pivots in the eyes, which invariably terminates with the horrifying spectacle of the doll's head rotting in on itself entirely. I personally have found that well-sealed containers of computer stuff -- such as, most memorably, a big jar of surplus ADB Macintosh mice and random smaller items that I'd stashed away -- tend to develop a distinctive plasticky odour after only a few years. In the case of that jar of mice, the stored items had also undergone a slight but noticeable change of _texture_. It was difficult to characterize, but all of the synthetic materials felt less smooth-surfaced -- less "finished," somehow -- and the flexible parts such as cables seemed a bit stiffer, and made extremely faint crunchy noises when manipulated. Because of how problematically plastics can behave over the longer term, I'm very interested in what specific material(s) you plan to use. It's a complex balance between the cost of a given variety of plastic, its long-term stability in general, and the probability that any outgassed plasticizers will react chemically with whatever items are actually stored in the container. I am also curious as to whether and how the artefacts will be padded within the containers. Under normal circumstances, a storage box remains motionless until accessed -- but over a span measured in years, some sort of disruption is more likely than not. Anything from a minor rearrangement of furniture, to relocating the entire storage area, to an actual landslide can cause the box to be dropped, and finding out after the fact that the contents had merely been _placed_ within rather than securely _packed_ is not a pleasant experience. Sincerely, Gordon S.

3 2

Re: [vcf-midatlantic] Warehouse Process
by W2HX 22 Dec '19

22 Dec '19

Let me also suggest that for big items (or even huge ones) to go out and buy a crap-load of large, dirt cheap bedsheets (not fitted). Throw them over the equipment. Much of the dirt/grime/dust that gathers on this stuff settles from out of the air onto the top of the equipment. A simple gesture of covering with a bedsheet will keep them much cleaner. And you can always run a wash at the local laundromat when the sheets get too filthy. But I suggest this gets done otherwise the big stuff will need to be cleaned more frequently (and the cleaning has some risk too). Just a suggestion 73 Eugene W2HX From: vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic-bounces(a)lists.vcfed.org> On Behalf Of Adam Michlin via vcf-midatlantic Sent: Sunday, December 22, 2019 7:12 PM To: vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vcfed.org> Cc: Adam Michlin <amichlin(a)swerlin.com>; gsteemso <48bitsorbust(a)gmail.com> Subject: Re: [vcf-midatlantic] Warehouse Process

1 0

Museum Report 2019-12-22 December 22, 2019
by Jeffrey Brace 22 Dec '19

22 Dec '19

A steady stream of visitors due to the last day of the Holiday Model Train show. Some high interested visitors mixed in with the many casual visitors. A good day overall. -- ========================================= Jeff Brace Vice President Vintage Computer Federation

1 0

Re: [vcf-midatlantic] Regarding Evan Koblentz and VCFed
by John Heritage 22 Dec '19

22 Dec '19

I would donate for an in-museum plaque or something acknowledging the founder of VCF.. I also like the idea Ben has below. On Sun, Dec 22, 2019 at 7:12 AM Ben Greenfield via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vcfed.org> wrote: > > I would like to see the Board acknowledge Evans foundational work by some > sort of substantial naming, such as naming the archive to this date after > him. > > > Ben > >

1 0

Hanukkah Sameach!
by Jeffrey Brace 22 Dec '19

22 Dec '19

To all my vintage computer friends who are Jewish: Happy Hanukkah! *Chag Urim Sameach!* I wish you all a happy time with family and friends. -- ========================================= Jeff Brace Vice President Vintage Computer Federation

1 0

Museum Report 2019-12-21 December 21, 2019
by Jeffrey Brace 22 Dec '19

22 Dec '19

Got to the museum at 12:30pm. I was a little late because I had to teach Taekwondo today and there were no other docents available. A visitor came about a minute later with high interest, so I gave him an extended tour. The day was filled with a steady stream of visitors due to the Model Train Holiday show at InfoAge. Most were casual visitors with children who were mostly interested in games, etc. Mouse came to help Martin to string network wire in the 9010-A section (where the museum is). They worked for about 5 hours to wire the 9010-B and 9010-A sections. Thanks Mouse and Martin! The physical wiring is done with some networking hardware and software configuration needing to be done next. VCF will soon have hard wire access to the internet and not have to rely on Mobile Citizen for internet access. I also tried out new bottoms for the stools in the museum. We have caster wheels which we felt were dangerous to child visitors because they could easily fall when the stools moved suddenly. The new casters are flat instead of wheels. We are trying it with one stool to see how it goes. -- ========================================= Jeff Brace Vice President Vintage Computer Federation

5 7

Dialup, was Museum Report
by David Gesswein 22 Dec '19

22 Dec '19

On Sun, Dec 22, 2019 at 08:08:23AM -0500, Tony Bogan via vcf-midatlantic wrote: > > As to other work, Evan and others have been planning a dialup bbs setup in the museum with multiple machines able to ???dial in??? to it, but it never seemed to get beyond the planning stages for a variety of reasons. We plan to build from that foundation and get those system up in the near future as well. > As to networking other machines, as Martin pointed out there is some capability already in place with one of the routers but Andy and others have already talked about other networking possibilities. > I was going to ask about what the plans for dialup were. For the museum 3b1 I was going to bring the "final" disk image to the next workshop. One of its somewhat unusual features was a built in modem. May have had something do do with AT&T selling it. Dialup was common for early unix networking. The 3b1 could demonstrate some of that. Could show uucp file transfer, its The Store! where you could download and install software, email, Usenet etc. It can also call into BBS or into other computers. I assumed dialup won't be done in a short time frame so wasn't planning to configure this now. I can update the image when dialup is supported and its capabilites are known or if planning gets far enough add support to the image I'm setting up.

2 1

Regarding Evan Koblentz and VCFed
by corey cohen 22 Dec '19

22 Dec '19

In my earlier email I mentioned the creation of a new VCFed steering committee managing the museum and the collection at InfoAge. Some of you have asked about Evan’s role in this transition. Evan has chosen to leave his official role at the Vintage Computer Federation. As a founder of our group we had hoped that Evan would continue in his role as Executive Director of the VCFed organization and as a member of the steering committee. Evan has chosen to not be a part of this new organization. We all recognize that, without Evan, there would likely not have been a VCF East. He was also responsible for so many of the artifacts in our collection that might have gone to the scrapper instead of being saved for future generations to appreciate and understand. Evan has been critical in getting out the word on our community and has been the “social media” face of VCFed. Evan has contributed so much more to our group and our hobby that it would be impossible to list it all. It is my hope that Evan will finally be able to enjoy attending VCF East instead of running it and that he will be able to exhibit his Lego robots there for us all to enjoy. We will miss Evan as we move VCFed to this new management structure and thank him for his years of service. We also would like to thank you, the members, as well for your understanding as we move forward with our commitment to being the world’s best grass roots forum for computer collectors and enthusiasts from around the world. Thank you, 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

8 8

Re: [vcf-midatlantic] Regarding Evan Koblentz and VCFed
by Michael Brutman 21 Dec '19

21 Dec '19

In the interest of keeping things from escalating further please refrain from further replies to this thread. People have a right to speak and a right to defend themselves. But I think everybody will agree that doing it by email while emotions are still raw is not a good way to do it. Let's at least have a cooling off period ... it's just too easy to yell past each other and do further damage. Mike

1 0