February 2019 - vcf-midatlantic

one less $JOB (JCL joke)
by Jeffrey Jonas 03 Feb '19

03 Feb '19

My dad's funeral is on Sunday Feb 3, in Boca Raton Florida. I brought ipods to record conversations with him about all the hacks, insights and details of the vintage hardware and systems he used, but the stage 4 lung cancer and chemo stole his voice only a week after I arrived :-( At 90, dad could not tolerate the chemo required to fight the lung cancer. James T Kirk might not believe in the "no win scenario" but I could not cheat like he did with the Kobayashi Maru :-( Carl Claunch summarized it best: He was a great person, someone I was fortunate to have known and worked with. A master of the mainframe who just quietly did his job.

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Minor little East keynote ;)
by Evan Koblentz 02 Feb '19

02 Feb '19

KEN THOMPSON!!! Who shall be interviewed on stage by another dude some of you may know, a Mister Brian Kernighan. Aaaaaaaand, I am working on arranging a couple of other minor little surprises. But they're not yet ready to be announced.

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] Friday classes @ VCF East
by Evan Koblentz 02 Feb '19

02 Feb '19

"Ask the expert" panel is a great idea! Definitely will do that. Having people bring in their own systems is a no-go. Insurance liability. On Sat, Jan 19, 2019, 4:23 PM Jeffrey Golas via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vcfed.org wrote: > Rather than a restoration class on a particular model or brand, how about > an “ask the expert” panel with a panel of peeps who specialize in a > particular brand/era of machine? Perhaps even two, one for 8-biters and > another for different era machines or big iron. > > My other idea is along the same line, but almost like a mini workshop with > tables set up with experts on various machines, people can bring in their > machines to ask questions, etc. Not a full blown soldering/repair thing, > but perhaps basic troubleshooting and cosmetic stuff. > > Jeff (aka Bags)

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More facets of hard disk recovery (SA1000, RD53) and emulation
by David Gesswein 01 Feb '19

01 Feb '19

I have made a SA1000 adapter board for my MFM reader emulator. I did a small run which seems to work so if you are interested email me to get in on the next order. Prices may get a little better if I get enough orders. http://www.pdp8online.com/mfm/ http://www.pdp8online.com/mfm/sa1000/sa1000_usage.shtml I have used it for reading Shugart SA1004 and Quantum Q2040 drives. Another has used it to replace drive in a TRS-80 Model II 8 Meg drive unit. Some other items that may be of interest: Dealing with stuck head problem with Quantum Q2040 drives http://www.pdp8online.com/q2040/q2040.shtml Using a DAC to pull the head servo to recover otherwise unreadable data from DEC RD53 drive. Also procedure tried for Q2040 but data had been erased so not successful. http://www.pdp8online.com/mfm/head_servo/

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Broken PET free to good home
by Evan Koblentz 01 Feb '19

01 Feb '19

Says our friend BernieS of 2600 fame: >> Hi Evan, Does VCF or anyone you know want a reportedly unused Commodore CBM 8032? It was dropped and the CRT broke (see photo) and it reportedly sat unused for 38 years. Someone just gave it to my friend Bob who designed those Apple II I/O cards I brought to Festivus and gave to Dimitry and Ian. Let me know if you really want it. I can pick it up next time I visit my mother 200 miles north of Philly, and bring it to VCF East. Or not, if you don't want it. << I declined: we have enough. Anyone who wants it should contact him directly at bernies(a)panix.com.

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] Broken PET free to good home
by Evan Koblentz 31 Jan '19

31 Jan '19

All I know is what's in the message. Bernie is not on this list. Email him directly. On Thu, Jan 31, 2019, 9:29 PM Brian Marstella via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vcfed.org wrote: > I'd be interested, depending on location... Brian > > On Thu, Jan 31, 2019 at 9:27 PM Evan Koblentz via vcf-midatlantic < > vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vcfed.org> wrote: > > > Says our friend BernieS of 2600 fame: > > > > >> Hi Evan, Does VCF or anyone you know want a reportedly unused > Commodore > > CBM 8032? It was dropped and the CRT broke (see photo) and it reportedly > > sat unused for 38 years. Someone just gave it to my friend Bob who > > designed those Apple II I/O cards I brought to Festivus and gave to > Dimitry > > and Ian. Let me know if you really want it. I can pick it up next time > I > > visit my mother 200 miles north of Philly, and bring it to VCF East. Or > > not, if you don't want it. << > > > > I declined: we have enough. Anyone who wants it should contact him > directly > > at bernies(a)panix.com. > > >

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AppleSauce
by Evan Koblentz 31 Jan '19

31 Jan '19

John Morris donated the deluxe version of his new-ish "AppleSauce" disk imaging hardware to us (it should arrive in a week or so.) We (Ian, Alex J., etc.) can build it at the next workshop. It requires a Mac with OS version 10.11 or newer. John said that's pretty much any Mac from mid-2009 or newer. So everyone is welcome to bring uncracked Apple II disks to the next workshop, and this thing should be able to make exact working copies. Wish I had that in 7th grade! Got in trouble for trying to copy Newsroom. :) Copy II+ wasn't up to the task.

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