April 2019 - vcf-midatlantic

Re: [vcf-midatlantic] Repair Workshop Wrap-up 3/30 & 3/31
by Jeffrey Brace 04 Apr '19

04 Apr '19

Bill and Duane, Thanks for all your work. Please let me know if there is any way to support you further. On Thu, Apr 4, 2019 at 1:01 PM Bill Dromgoole via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vcfed.org> wrote: > Univac Workshop Report > > > Duane and I arrived at the museum on Tuesday afternoon. > After getting settled at the on campus lodging, we started evaluating the > condition of the Univac equipment. > The 1219B computer was working as usual with a small problem in the upper > I/O channels. > The 1540 digital data recorder is in poor shape. Lower handler will not > move at all. > No communication with 1219B computer. The 1532 I/O console appears to be > working fine. > > Duane built a USB to 1219B interface(MIL-STD 1397 type A) device using an > arduino chip which he brought with him to test. > After playing around for a while we were able to upload files from a > laptop computer to the Univac. > We spent most of the next day copying files to the computer and dumping > them to the paper tape punch in the 1532 I/O console. > We also spent time trouble shooting the 1540 DDR concurrently with the > file copying. > > The first problem on the DDR turned out to be a bad logic translator card > in the handler electronics itself. > Fortunately we were able to find one in the spares at the warehouse. > This corrected the signal to the pinch rollers but the tape kept jamming > in the tape head area. > Turned out to be a bad roll of tape with poor oxide retention. > > Over the next couple of days we found a lot of bad cards in the 1540 DDR > with a lot of trips to the warehouse for parts. > Most of the failures were intermittent and took a while to locate. > At one time we were able to copy a program from memory to magnetic tape > and then reload it to memory, although the handshaking was not proper. > Things kid of went downhill from there. > More card failures in the DDR. Not communicating with the 1219B, clocks > not running bits in various registers always set, etc. > We were able to find most of these and get some of the communications back. > Meanwhile after editing some programs on the laptop and trying to punch > new tapes the paper tape punch started to not work properly. > Next, the keyboard on the teletype started jamming and after that the > paper tape reader stopped working. > > Found that the tape reader power supply is failing. Plus and minus 15 > volts slowly drifts down to 8 to 10 volts. > Was unable to repair before the weekend was over. > The keyboard is probably just not lubricated properly. > One of the new programs we copied uses the keyboard a lot. > We hardly used it before this trip. So that highlighted this problem. > The punch problem may be related to the reader power supply? Who knows. > Was able to use the time left after clean up on Sunday to scan another one > of the Univac pubs to a PDF file for bit-savers. > > Final status: > Computer working fine. > Digital data recorder is mostly working. Still needs possible alignments. > I/O console almost completely inop except for printer. > > > > From: Jeffrey Brace via vcf-midatlantic > Sent: Sunday, March 31, 2019 4:08 PM > To: vcf-midatlantic > Cc: Jeffrey Brace > Subject: [vcf-midatlantic] Repair Workshop Wrap-up 3/30 & 3/31 > > We had about a dozen members working on their machines and VCF machines > Saturday and Sunday. Most did two days while some did one day. > Bill Dromgoole and Duana Craps had worked on the Univac 1219B in the museum > for the past week. They can give an update later as to their progress. > David Gesswein worked on the museum's PDP-8. He will send a report later. > There were others working on various projects. > I got there midday and wasn't able to work on anything Saturday. > Sunday I took VCF's turn at the InfoAge front desk. > Evan can fill you in on what he was working on as well as the others. > > This time we went to a new place: MJ's for Saturday dinner. Everyone liked > it. > Afterwards we played Cards Against Humanity which is always a fun time. > Sunday morning we went to a new place: Mariner's Cove for breakfast. Also > great food! > > The next workshop is April 13 & 14. > > -- > ========================================= > Jeff Brace > Vice President > Vintage Computer Federation > > -- ========================================= Jeff Brace Vice President Vintage Computer Federation

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Repair Workshop Wrap-up 3/30 & 3/31
by Jeffrey Brace 04 Apr '19

04 Apr '19

We had about a dozen members working on their machines and VCF machines Saturday and Sunday. Most did two days while some did one day. Bill Dromgoole and Duana Craps had worked on the Univac 1219B in the museum for the past week. They can give an update later as to their progress. David Gesswein worked on the museum's PDP-8. He will send a report later. There were others working on various projects. I got there midday and wasn't able to work on anything Saturday. Sunday I took VCF's turn at the InfoAge front desk. Evan can fill you in on what he was working on as well as the others. This time we went to a new place: MJ's for Saturday dinner. Everyone liked it. Afterwards we played Cards Against Humanity which is always a fun time. Sunday morning we went to a new place: Mariner's Cove for breakfast. Also great food! The next workshop is April 13 & 14. -- ========================================= Jeff Brace Vice President Vintage Computer Federation

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Museum report
by Evan Koblentz 03 Apr '19

03 Apr '19

We had two groups of high school students visit today. Each group was about 15-20 kids. They were smart and well-behaved. I gave them full tours. A new IA volunteer also came for a tour. I used the in-between time to work on VCF East stuff.

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OT: selling (unopened) Galaxy S10 earbuds
by Evan Koblentz 02 Apr '19

02 Apr '19

Recently upgraded to a Samsung Galaxy S10. They sent me wireless earbuds. I don't need those. Posted for $120 on eBay (they usually go for $130-$160), but I will take $100 from any friends. Need payment quickly. Here are a couple of pictures. I'm not opening the box; presumably the earbuds are inside and not rocks. :) https://photos.app.goo.gl/PEbFBGXMrzC2DkfP6

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] Slightly OT - Favorite computer movie
by Christian Liendo 02 Apr '19

02 Apr '19

On Mon, Apr 1, 2019 at 12:07 AM Jeffrey Golas via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vcfed.org> wrote: > > Whats your favorite “computer” movie? Can be current or ancient, modern or mainframe. A one liner about why you chose it would be cool too. TRON

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] Slightly OT - Favorite computer movie
by Chris Fala 01 Apr '19

01 Apr '19

Good ones. Sandra Bullock, The Net On Apr 1, 2019, at 11:11 AM, Sentrytv <sentrytv(a)yahoo.com> wrote: Antitrust Ryan Phillip Tim Robbins (as Bill Gates type leader) Hackers Who can't resist Angelina Jolie Weird science Always gets a laugh Sent from: My extremely complicated, hand held electronic device. > On Apr 1, 2019, at 12:07 AM, Jeffrey Golas via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vcfed.org> wrote: > > <mime-attachment>

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PDP "straight" 8 Progress
by Bill Degnan 01 Apr '19

01 Apr '19

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQn7TpgnVrw So far so good, working on PDP 8 picked up from Mexico. Bill

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] Slightly OT - Favorite computer movie
by Sentrytv 01 Apr '19

01 Apr '19

Antitrust Ryan Phillip Tim Robbins (as Bill Gates type leader) Hackers Who can't resist Angelina Jolie Weird science Always gets a laugh Sent from: My extremely complicated, hand held electronic device. > On Apr 1, 2019, at 12:07 AM, Jeffrey Golas via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vcfed.org> wrote: > > <mime-attachment>

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] Slightly OT - Favorite computer movie
by David Riley 01 Apr '19

01 Apr '19

On Apr 1, 2019, at 12:07 AM, Jeffrey Golas via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vcfed.org> wrote: > > > From: Jeffrey Golas <jeffg(a)junknet.net> > Subject: Slightly OT - Favorite computer movie > Date: April 1, 2019 at 12:07:14 AM EDT > To: vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vcfed.org > > > I was poking around my Apple TV tonight and spotted a movie I never got to see called “the computer wears tennis shoes” - a 1969 Disney movie with Kurt Russel about a mainframe. I put it on my short list to watch on a rainy day. > > It got me thinking...we all know the staple computer movies like Wargames and Weird Science, Lawnmower man, Matrix etc. > > Whats your favorite “computer” movie? Can be current or ancient, modern or mainframe. A one liner about why you chose it would be cool too. Mine is probably still WarGames. It actually still has a lot of real life applicability: the mad rush to automation and workforce reduction with insufficiently-proven technology resulting in near disaster, poorly-secured network connections and OSINT leading to breaches by bored teenagers, etc. It's all still quite relevant. It's also a great reminder of how mind-bogglingly insane the late Cold War was on all sides. Sneakers is also still pretty good. Hackers is amusing, if maybe a bit overly campy, but it has strong accolades from folks who were actually in the scene back in the day, so I have some respect for it (and the soundtrack is pretty great). - Dave

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] Slightly OT - Favorite computer movie
by Ethan O'Toole 01 Apr '19

01 Apr '19

> [NON-Text Body part not included] Mine used to be War Games. I also liked Sneakers. Hackers is fun and had a great soundtrack. I think a lot of it had to do with just seeing it and it being computer related, although the idea is a bit far fetched looking back. When I was young there were some other run-ups. Disney's B.R.A.T. Patrol had modified TRS-80 model 100s, that was a fun movie. If you haven't seen it, check out Whiz Kids. It was a TV series that was good but unfortunately all of the copies in the wild are bad. Of course there are other hacker movies. Laughted at The Net because it seemed silly, but it had the true heartthrob in it.. <3 The US Robotics Courier HST Dual Standard! Of course we laughed at Emojis but now that Slack has taken over many a workplace ... it's full of emjois. Guess it predicted the future. Jumping Jack Flash is another often left out hacker movie. Dumb terminal/mainframe even! Of course Real Genius is awesome, but I don't think of it as a computer movie. It involves another hobby of mine, laser show systems. But I think I'm sticking with War Games. - Ethan

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