June 2019 - vcf-midatlantic

OT: Bob Applegate is not well
by Neil Cherry 28 Jun '19

28 Jun '19

His web site is down again but I did manage to catch a glimpse (cached) of this: Posted in Uncategorized Posted on May 29, 2019 by Bob Long term suspension of business Over the last few weeks I have been feeling weaker and eventually starting losing my breath while taking short walks. My doctor sent me to the emergency room where I was diagnosed with Leukemia. The treatment will require another 6 to 8 weeks in the hospital, so there is no way I can fill orders. I have email, but won’t be checking very often. It is unlikely any development work will take place, although my wife and kids have offered to bring things in for me to work on. Any orders placed will be cancelled until further notice and monies refunded. Bob -- Linux Home Automation Neil Cherry ncherry(a)linuxha.com http://www.linuxha.com/ Main site http://linuxha.blogspot.com/ My HA Blog Author of: Linux Smart Homes For Dummies

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Big news!!! (from me, not VCFed)
by Evan Koblentz 28 Jun '19

28 Jun '19

Hello! I have a major announcement. :) It's time for version 2.0 of my book, "Abacus to smartphone: The evolution of mobile and portable computers," which I published on dead trees four years ago. This time, it's going to be a (free!) interactive website: the era of printed books is behind us. Please help me raise funds to make this happen. Funders will get exclusive access for the first month that the website is live (approximately the whole of August 2019). All of the details (such what's new/different) are here: https://fundrazr.com/b1WZ91?ref=ab_74VRia ... please check it out. Thanks!! -Evan

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Princeton data center visit
by Evan Koblentz 27 Jun '19

27 Jun '19

Only two or three people expressed interest in seeing the Princeton U. data center, and I had a different reason to be on their campus today, so I asked for a last-minute tour and my contact their obliged. They have multiple data centers. Most of them are production IT. The one they showed me has some IT but mostly it's science: https://facilities.princeton.edu/projects/high-performance-computing-resear… I was blown away by how clean it is inside! :) It's almost mostly lights-out -- I only saw two employees during the 60-minute tour, and the lights went on/off automatically as we traversed the hallways. Pictures (personal use only): http://tinyurl.com/y2n2g4se The files called electric.jpg, standby.jpg, pipes.jpg, and overview.jpg are self-explanatory. Financial.jpg is a cage with special security for one rack that's used with credit card transactions. Super_hp.jpg is "TIGER" -- their HPE-designed supercomputer. IBM_9.jpg is their newest machine under construction. I spotted some interesting older equipment (can't say what yet) which might fit into VCF-land :), so hopefully we can make that happen. -- Evan Koblentz, executive director Vintage Computer Federation www.vcfed.org evan(a)vcfed.org (646) 546-9999 VCF is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization

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Commodore 1541 Diagnostic Cartridge
by Jeffrey Brace 27 Jun '19

27 Jun '19

At the last workshop I had a 1541 diagnostic cartridge which a few members used. I originally heard about this from Chris Fala. If anyone wants to buy it, the this website sells it: < https://www.protovision.games/shop/product_info.php?products_id=193&languag… > -- ========================================= Jeff Brace Vice President Vintage Computer Federation

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Museum report
by Evan Koblentz 26 Jun '19

26 Jun '19

Only a few visitors today, but they were good ones, including two engineers -- one ex-HP, one ex-Bell Labs. Our museum internet access is via a hotspot (Mobile Citizen, which is $10/month exclusively for non-profits). We recently ordered a newer version of the hotspot, which arrives next Monday. But they made a mistake and deactivated our old one yesterday .... GRRRR ... so we didn't have any internet access today nor will we have it this weekend. There's a change they will reactivate the old one in the next day or two. I am skeptical but I have no way of knowing if it works until I get there and try it Saturday. I spent some time working on version 2 of our touchscreen information kiosk. This time the work is focusing on better layout/writing for the kiosk content. In version 1 I focused on getting all the right tech bits, tying up loose ends with the CSS, getting the web server running, and making sure the whole setup is rock-solid reliable.

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C64 remake?
by W2HX 26 Jun '19

26 Jun '19

? Came across this, thought it might interest some. https://youtu.be/4yOch48SScs Commodore 64

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Museum report
by Evan Koblentz 22 Jun '19

22 Jun '19

Very busy today, lots of visitors. I had three projects to work on but didn't have time for any of them -- a nice problem to have.

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Maker Faire this year
by Evan Koblentz 21 Jun '19

21 Jun '19

Everyone, This year's idea for our World (NYC) Maker Faire exhibit is replicas/workalikes. The registration opens next month, so for now this is conceptual. Me/Dean/Jeff/Corey are planning it behind-the-scenes. We will bring: - Replica 1 (Not a Mimeo, because the former is hobbyist-friendly; latter is for true aficionados) - Altair Mini - PiDP - Kim Uno - Commodore Mini - Glitchworks 8085 - Atari Flashback (maybe) Two questions: - Does anyone have Oscar's PDP-11/70, and if so are you willing to loan it to us or (better yet) exhibit it personally at the event? - What other replica hardware should we consider for this exhibit?

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FS: Various S-100 Static RAM Boards
by systems_glitch 21 Jun '19

21 Jun '19

All, I'm going through some of the extra S-100 RAM boards I've got, fixing them up, testing them, and selling them off. I started a thread on the VC Forums to corral them all together in one place, so I don't have to post multiple threads there or on the listserv. You can find them here: http://www.vcfed.org/forum/showthread.php?70379 "Tested, working" means they spent at least an hour running the Rasmussen memory test with no errors reported. Thanks, Jonathan

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FS: Alspa ACI-2 CP/M Computer with 8" Drives
by systems_glitch 20 Jun '19

20 Jun '19

All, I've decided to sell my Alspa ACI-2, here's the post on the VC Forums with full information: http://www.vcfed.org/forum/showthread.php?70364 Neat little machine, same concept as the Ampro LittleBoard Series 100 (drive box with Z80 SBC) but it uses 8" disks instead of 5.25". The CP/M CBIOS is set up to be able to read/write SSSD IBM 3740 format disks in addition to Alspa's double density format. Thanks, Jonathan

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