March 2019 - vcf-midatlantic

Looking for DEC bulkhead cable kit
by Richard Cini 19 Mar '19

19 Mar '19

I also posted this on the VCF Forum “wanted” list, but I thought I’d mention it here as well. I’m looking for the Ethernet bulkhead cable kit for a DEC M7504 DEQNA board and BA23 enclosure. I built my own cable based on specs on-line but I’m only 99% sure I did it right. Even if I could borrow one for comparison that would be helpful. The cables aren’t hard to build but I would like to compare against the real thing if possible. Thanks. Rich Get Outlook for iOS<https://aka.ms/o0ukef>

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NASA Lecture (was Re: Museum report)
by Dave Sica 19 Mar '19

19 Mar '19

Someone was asking about the date of the upcoming InfoAge NASA Lecture. It's usually on the last Sunday of each month, January through November, but this month (March) it's on the 24th due to a scheduling error. If you see it advertised for the 31st, that's the wrong date. More info: https://isec.space/ Someone else was asking about the recent 'big name' NASA presentation. If you missed it, you can catch Kim Arcand's talk about her spectacular 2D and 3D visualizations of space on InfoAge's YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/a_xrTvBk9E0 -- Dave Sica

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] WTD: PDP-11 tape drive?
by VAXman＠tmesis.org 18 Mar '19

18 Mar '19

Dave McGuire via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vcfed.org> writes: >... > > But congrats on a great score. Sucks about the lack of rack rails, as >they're pretty specific to this drive. But don't worry about the Some "generic" rails and someone with a metal brake could quickly remedy that problem. ;) I don't believe you could support that on too many, if any, "drawers" with that weight. A piece of thinner angle iron could be bolted into your rack to hold the drive in it but it wouldn't provide the ability to slide the drive in-and-out.

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] Tandy 6000HD lives!
by W. Bryan Caudle 18 Mar '19

18 Mar '19

>Has anyone figured out a material which can be used to replace the >original aluminized(?) paper discs from keytronic keyboards? The foam I >know (vaguely) what type it originally was. > >I have four of them here (one kb3270 and three victor 9000 keyboards) >where the foam has turned to goo and corroded away most of the metal on >the discs, so I don't think they can be re-used. > >-- >Jonathan Gevaryahu >jgevaryahu(a)gmail.com >jgevaryahu(a)hotmail.com I used the silver static bags to restore a TRS-80 Model 12 keyboard a little while back. It worked ok, just be sure you get the conductive side facing away from the foam disc. If I had to do it over, I would likely just use the kit from texelec. It would save a lot of cutting...

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Museum report
by Evan Koblentz 18 Mar '19

18 Mar '19

Today we had three or four groups of visitors with mild interest. Martin spent all day continuing his work on the network/cameras project. He ran network wires in the ceiling for all four cameras and other stuff. We'll probably add two more cameras, but not for a while yet, and we ran out of time today. Last time, we put PFsense (software firewall) onto our server. Before it just ran ordinary Ubuntu. Now it runs the firewall 24/7 and supplies DHCP. We had a problem getting the cameras to obtain IP addresses, but we have a plan for fixing that next time. We also rewired basically the whole network. Before, our LTE modem also served public Wifi. Now it is used * exclusively * for getting connecting the firewall to the Internet, and nothing else. Thus our wifi is temporarily down; it'll be back in another week or two when we bring an access point back online (replacing the older Cisco unit with a newer one from another company; I forget which brand Martin said.) All of the network wires from the cables and from elsewhere in the museum now go through a patch panel. I'll get us some matching cords so it looks nice. Right now they are all gray and different lengths ... no good! :) Martin also swapped out our main switch for a different model. The old one only had PoE on half of its ports, and one or two ports seemed dead. The new one has PoE on the whole switch. So it was a productive day, and I learned a few more things about networking.

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] vcf-midatlantic Digest, Vol 10, Issue 15
by Evan Koblentz 16 Mar '19

16 Mar '19

> What about my idea of having a panel session where people could ask questions on any computer repair topic and a panel of peeps would answer? Pondering it. Not as high on the idea as I was before, for various logistical reasons. > Also, any possibility of Bill Herd doing his soldering class again? Doubtful we'd repeat the same narrow-ish topic two years in a row.

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Museum report 2019/03/16
by Jeffrey Brace 16 Mar '19

16 Mar '19

Today we had two to three dozen visitors because of a STEAM event at Infoage: https://njstempathways.org/event/steam-tank-regional-competition-at-camp-ev… Lots of medium to high interest adults and children. Some could identify different computers. I let some of them try some BASIC programming on the C64 as well as paint on PC, Amiga, Mac. Also some games on C64, PC, Next. Telling all of them about VCF East. I hope to get some of them coming. -- ========================================= Jeff Brace Vice President Vintage Computer Federation

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Ticket desk volunteers needed, too...
by Evan Koblentz 15 Mar '19

15 Mar '19

Everyone, Amy can't be at the ticket desk this year, and Ann will only be available Friday/Sunday (if I understood Kelly correctly), so we need people for the front desk. Just like in my previous email about consignment volunteers: this is super important!! We need people who have their shit together for this job. Apply off-list to me...

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Volunteers needed for VCF East consignment
by Evan Koblentz 15 Mar '19

15 Mar '19

Everyone, Jim S. is leading the consignment booth on Saturday and Kelly is leading it on Sunday. We need a few volunteers to help them both days. This is a very important job. We need people who are ultra-reliable and on-the-ball in a retail environment. You've got to learn fast, work fast, and be there exactly when we need you. Apply off-list to me...

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] Speaking of BBSes...
by Todd George 15 Mar '19

15 Mar '19

\,,/ Sabbath!!! \,,/ Based on METAL, Tony is referring to Neon Knights. -Todd On Fri, Mar 15, 2019 at 1:44 PM Tony Bogan via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vcfed.org> wrote: > Wow, blast from the past! Funny thing is, sitting on the boat eating lunch > I looked up the cDc to see what names would be listed (handles of course) > on any Wikipedia or other entries online and what names is > remember/recognize. There were members (or supposed members....people liked > to pretend they were more connected than they actually were sometimes) I > had dealt with through my our group, especially when we were dealing with > MoD and LoD. > > The funny part is in the Wikipedia list of cDc “affiliations” are not only > groups I know and don’t know, but the group I was part of!!! Was two kids > from Jersey (me being one of them) and one from Oregon and one from > California when we started it when I was 12 years old (1980, just before my > 13th birthday in November) > > Todd George could probably look at the list and know which group it was > based on the name!! > > Tony > > Sent from my iPhone > > > On Mar 15, 2019, at 1:31 PM, Christian Liendo via vcf-midatlantic < > vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vcfed.org> wrote: > > > > > https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-politics-beto-orourke-special-rep/sp… > > > > On Fri, Mar 15, 2019 at 1:21 PM Ethan O'Toole via vcf-midatlantic > > <vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vcfed.org> wrote: > >> > >> > >> Not trying to get into politics but from the histoical "okay that is > >> crazy..." > >> > >> It just hit the naws that one of the guys running for president who has > >> been a politician for a while (Beto O'Rourke) was actually a member of > >> cDc, Cult of the Dead Cow. This was a legendary "hacking" group that > used > >> to release a lot of t-files. He ran a BBS apparently. cDc held back this > >> knowledge for a while so as to not interfere with his career but he went > >> public with it. A book about cDc is supposed to come out. > >> > >> A whole lot of people that are not familiar with the old school hacking > >> social groups and BBSes and all of that could potentially start to hear > >> about it depending on how far the guy gets in politics. Could bring a > lot > >> of attention to 80s/90s computing and the community around it all. > >> > >> - Ethan > >> > >> > >> > >

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