October 2020 - vcf-midatlantic

VCF Mid-Atlantic Committee Scope
by Dean Notarnicola 26 Oct '20

26 Oct '20

We’ve had some questions regarding the scope of responsibilities for the committee position. As per our recently published charter, VCF committee members support the operations and advancement of the affairs of the VCF Mid-Atlantic (VCF-MA) chapter, including the warehouse, museum and associated events (Relevant sections are copied below.) The committee serves at the pleasure of, and reports to, the national board on an advisory level via the current committee chairperson and has no vote there. However, VCF-MA committee members can, and do, offer guidance to the national board for consideration. The VCF national board has ultimate authority over finances, and may interject in VCF affairs in extenuating circumstances. Thank you to everyone who has made nominations thus far. We look forward to seeing even more. Regards, Dean 1. Purpose The Vintage Computer Federation Mid-Atlantic (VCF-MA) committee (henceforth referred to as “the committee”) is a regional member organization of the Vintage Computer Federation whose role is to create and coordinate execution of strategic and operational plans. The committee is charged with identifying opportunities for improving the operations of the VCF-MA chapter, including creation and maintenance of the VCF-MA committee charter. The committee’s efforts will provide the most effective support of the ongoing needs of VCF-MA, considering the care and maintenance of VCF-MA facilities and artifacts, in accordance with VCF’s mission. The committee may advise the VCF governing board and members on how such efforts will proceed. *Mission*: To preserve computing history through education, outreach, conservation, and restoration. We strive to accomplish this through family friendly hands-on activities at our museum, at regional and global events, and by fostering and nurturing the expansion of our on-line and in-person communities. 2. Authority The VCF-MA steering committee is an advisory, coordinating and operations group for VCF-MA. Committee membership will consist of five individuals who will have the authority to bring motions and voting on VCF-MA issues. One of the five members will be named as committee chairperson. If needed, chairperson duties may be temporarily delegated by the chairperson or the committee members to ensure continuity of VCF-MA business. The chairperson or their delegate has the authority to call or delay formal votes and serves as a tiebreaker when necessary. The chairperson serves at the pleasure of the committee. The committee is not directly responsible for VCF national projects, although it may offer advice or guide the efforts of projects that impact VCF. The steering committee and its members serve at the pleasure of the VCF national board. 3. Responsibilities The principal responsibilities and functions of the committee are to define and support VCF-MA goals and objectives, and ensure that VCF-MA initiatives are carried out consistently and successfully in alliance with overall operating guidelines. The responsibilities of the committee also include: • Provide recommendations on strategic priorities for VCF-MA that includes a balance of financial and mission goals • Develop a specific multi-year roadmap that specifies priority of objectives that support the VCF-MA mission • Construct sub-committees and working groups to work towards objectives • Disseminate information to and elicit feedback from the VCF membership and leadership teams • Help in creating specific yearly plans for projects and services that match with the practices and directions established in the roadmap • Provide a focal point and repository for VCF-MA standards, document existing standards and validate/adopt new standards as determined by the committee • Revise by-laws as necessary as determined by a super-majority vote • Other activities as needed to encourage a coherent strategy and efficient operations

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Hollidays
by Duane Craps 26 Oct '20

26 Oct '20

Why do programmers tend to confuse Halloween and Christmas? OCT31 = DEC25 -- DuaneCraps sdɐɹɔ ǝuɐnp

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Workshop report 2020-10-24 & 10-25
by Jeffrey Brace 25 Oct '20

25 Oct '20

A smaller group this weekend. Ian fixed the museum's Macintosh portable. The first machine that he looked at wasn't in good shape, but he tried to repair with limited success. The motherboard had too many issues. The second machine was in much better shape and he was able to get working and now boots to System 6. Much thanks to Ian for spending so much time working on this machine and getting it working. It is now in the museum for display to the public. Connor spent a lot of time organizing the IBM section of the warehouse and it is in great shape now. He also checked some of the 3174 turbo controllers and 3270 terminals. In addition he imaged some hard drives. A pretty good weekend for repairing VCF artifacts. -- ========================================= Jeff Brace Vice President & Board Member Vintage Computer Festival East Show-runner Vintage Computer Federation is a 501c3 charity http://www.vcfed.org/ jeffrey(a)vcfed.org cell: 732-759-1783

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Committee Member Nominations
by Dean Notarnicola 25 Oct '20

25 Oct '20

I'm very happy to report that we already have four nominations! Ian Primus - Nominated by Adam Michlin Bob Roswell - Self nominated Tony Bogan - Nominated by Dean Notarnicola Dave McGuire - Nominated by Chris Fala Nominees should feel free to make statements in support of themselves, if desired. Keep the nominations coming! Regards, Dean

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Museum Report 2020-10-24 & 10-25
by Jeffrey Brace 25 Oct '20

25 Oct '20

Dylan was docent on Saturday 10/24. One high interest person that really enjoyed the museum. On Sunday, I was docent on 10/25 and there was about 3 dozen people with 2 large groups of 8 and 10 and a few smaller groups of 2 or 4 throughout the rest of the day. Tony gave the tour to the first group and I took over subsequent groups. One group member remarked about how they remember when the iMac came out. Another asked if we had anything from the early 90's. I said mostly things we have in our museum are before 1990, but pointed out the iMac and the Cray. Everyone really liked the way we had our museum and we got a lot of positive feedback. About 30 minutes before closing a high interest boy and his father came in and got a 15 to 20 minute tour. I always like asking children to try to figure out how to load MacPaint on the original Mac to demonstrate user friendly design. Children who have never seen or heard of the computer can figure it out with little or no guidance. They had to leave shortly after the mother and daughter came to find them. They had to leave because the museum was closing at 5 and there was 10 minutes left to get to the front desk.. Lots of interest and enjoyed the museum and they will return another day. It was the first chance to show off the newly restored Mac Portable. -- ========================================= Jeff Brace Vice President & Board Member Vintage Computer Festival East Show-runner Vintage Computer Federation is a 501c3 charity http://www.vcfed.org/ jeffrey(a)vcfed.org cell: 732-759-1783 <https://www.avast.com/sig-email?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_campai…> Virus-free. www.avast.com <https://www.avast.com/sig-email?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_campai…> <#DAB4FAD8-2DD7-40BB-A1B8-4E2AA1F9FDF2>

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] Xerox 860 word processor rescued long ago
by Tony Bogan 25 Oct '20

25 Oct '20

Jim, that machine was on display in the museum from the time we moved into the current museum space (a few years ago) until just recently. It was replaced by the (now working) Xerox Star that was demoed during VCF East Virtual a couple weeks ago. The machine, keyboard and monitor were displayed. I cannot say if there is a printer but the 860 from the museum is back in the warehouse along with all the other Xerox machines and components in the VCF collection. We can easily check to see exactly what other components if any are there. We are currently doing a workshop to restore/repair VCF Artifacts. We will be doing at least one or two of these a year (as often as we can) so the 860 would be an excellent candidate for a future VCF artifact workshop! Tony

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Xerox 860 word processor rescued long ago
by Jim Scheef 24 Oct '20

24 Oct '20

Many years ago in the early days of MARCH, I helped rescue a Xerox 860 word processor. The donor was from somewhere in Upstate New York; we met in Danbury and then I drove it the rest of the way to InfoAge. It came with the system unit, several keyboards, and a couple of displays. There may have been a printer as I seen to recall one of those noise shields. This is the Digibarn page so you know of what I speak: http://www.digibarn.com/collections/systems/xerox860/index.html I'm fairly certain this has never been even considered for restoration, but it would make a fabulous exhibit in the museum if it could be made to work again so that people could see the origin of WYSIWYG word processing. So, does VCFed still have this machine? How many pieces can be identified and in what condition? The keyboard with the touch pad will be unmistakable when found. Jim

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Upcoming Election For New Committee Members
by Dean Notarnicola 24 Oct '20

24 Oct '20

Dear VCF membership, The new VCF committee structure is nearly one year old, which means that it is time for our first annual committee member election! The election will be held according to section 4 and 5 of our published bylaws (copied below): http://vcfed.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/VCFMA-By-laws.pdf There are two seats becoming vacant and nominations are now open. Nominations for committee members can be made by current members in good standing simply by communicating the nomination via email to a committee member (adam .michlin(a)vcfed.org, andrew.diller(a)vcfed.org, tony.bogan(a)vcfed.org, chris. fala(a)vcfed.org, dean.notarnicola(a)vcfed.org) To be eligible for the election, the prospective nominee must then accept the nomination by replying in the affirmative to the nomination email. One nomination per member can be made. Members may also self-nominate. Nominations close November 26th. An updated list of eligible nominees will be published weekly. Voting will commence on November 28th and close at 11:59 pm on December 6th. Winners will be announced December 12th at the annual VCF Festivus celebration. *This is your chance to help steer the direction of VCF Mid-Atlantic! Nominate someone and vote in the upcoming election!* Regards, Dean Notarnicola VCF Committee Chairperson *4. COMMITTEE ELECTIONS* Steering committee membership includes representation of VCF membership, as determined by the VCF governing board and VCF-MA sponsored elections. • The committee membership will be determined by elections to be held on a yearly basis (currently December.) • Committee membership is ideally comprised of five people but may vary due to various circumstances. • Two seats will be up for election in every cycle, unless additional vacancies create the need for seats to be filled, in which case all vacant seats will be up for election in that cycle. • Nominations for committee members can be made by current members in good standing simply by communicating the nomination to a committee member. One nomination per member can be made. Said members may also self-nominate. • In the case of off-cycle vacancies, the committee may move to, without an election, appoint new committee members to fill the seats until the next scheduled election. • A committee chairperson will be appointed by the committee members within 30 days of each completed election cycle. • Prospective committee members should be knowledgeable in some aspect of computing, preferably vintage computers, and show a demonstrated interest in vintage computing, computing history, and museum management and governance. • In order to be sufficiently aware and have proper perspective of museum and warehouse issues, prospective committee members should be able to physically attend VCF events at least quarterly. *5. MEMBERSHIP* VCF general membership is open and granted to anyone who joins the mailing list. Voting rights will be granted to active members who register for the mailing list no less than 30 days before the election.

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Repair Workshop for VCF owned artifacts Oct 24 & 25, 2020
by Jeffrey Brace 23 Oct '20

23 Oct '20

VCF has a list of artifacts that need repair in the museum and the warehouse. We are looking for volunteers to come and help us repair them. Anything is fair game to repair *with permission*. These are artifacts either in the museum or warehouse. We want to get the ones in the museum working first as we like to have as much hands on working computers in the museum as possible. We are also looking for good or better demos for the computers in the museum. Any volunteers working on VCF stuff are *not* charged a fee this repair day and stay for free in the Sandy bunkroom. VCF will likely even pay for a simple breakfast (Dunkin Donuts) and lunch (Pizza). Date: October 24 & 25, 2020 Time: 10AM to midnight (24th), 10AM to 6PM (25th) Building: CDL, 9032A Signup here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1PC9h_XgDNuKPhEVFC6_PMjt9SlKeLMhZgfq… NEEDS REPAIRING: Mac Portable (needs good power supply and machine testing) TI Portable SWTPC HeathKit H89 Zorba (monitor) NEEDS DEMOS: Mac Portable TRS-80 Color 2 Challenger 2P Atari Mega STE? OREL Sinclair SX 80 clone SX 81 SWTPC TRS-80 Model I Osbourne 1 HeathKit H89 Zorba Commodore PET Atari 1040ST Amiga 1000 Commodore PET Zorba -- ========================================= Jeff Brace Vice President & Board Member Vintage Computer Festival East Show-runner Vintage Computer Federation is a 501c3 charity http://www.vcfed.org/ jeffrey(a)vcfed.org cell: 732-759-1783

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VCF Swap Meet 2020 Reservation Form
by Jeffrey Brace 21 Oct '20

21 Oct '20

Hello everyone, Sorry for the delay, but we were working on some logistics and wanted to make sure things would work for our event. Without further ado here is the reservation form: https://forms.gle/mMwtVXmEcHKPEpYAA Here is the same info that is on the form: The Vintage Computer Federation is having its first Swap Meet event. This swap meet is for vintage computers, radios, TVs, ham radios and related items. DATE: November 7, 2020 (RAIN DATE: November 8, 2020) TIME: 9AM to 6PM ADDRESS: InfoAge Science and History Museums 2201 Marconi Road Wall, NJ WEBSITE: http://vcfed.org/wp/vcf-swap-meet EMAIL: swapmeet(a)vcfed.org PHONE: 732-222-5015 Cost is per space. First space is $20, each additional space is $10. You can park in your space and sell out of your vehicle. Fill out the form to reserve your space(s): https://forms.gle/mMwtVXmEcHKPEpYAA * Reservation doesn't guarantee sales. * The Vintage Computer Federation is only providing a space, vendors must bring their own tables. * In case of inclement weather, money will be refunded. * All items that you bring must be taken with you. No items are to be left behind. We don't have a flyer yet, but if anyone wants to volunteer to make one, then let me know and I will approve it. Any questions? -- ========================================= Jeff Brace Vice President & Board Member Vintage Computer Festival East Show-runner Vintage Computer Federation is a 501c3 charity http://www.vcfed.org/ jeffrey(a)vcfed.org cell: 732-759-1783

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