November 2020 - vcf-midatlantic

Festivus and Covid-19
by Jeffrey Brace 16 Nov '20

16 Nov '20

So I'm currently monitoring the spike in cases in NJ and in the region as well as the guidelines. As of today Festivus is still on. The current guidelines are: ******** General indoor gatherings must be limited to 25 people or 25% of a room's capacity -- whichever number is lower. All attendees at indoor gatherings must wear face coverings and stay six feet apart. ******** The plan that I have will follow these guidelines. If the guidelines change to something less (i.e. no more than 10), then I will have to cancel. I will make a call by December 7. Festivus is scheduled for December 12 & 13. Even if I cancel it, there is no reason why I can't reschedule it to July or any other month. It might even work out better for some people. -- ========================================= 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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Museum Report 2020-11-14
by Jeffrey Brace 15 Nov '20

15 Nov '20

About a dozen visitors came today with Dylan as the docent. Andy and Dennis were there working on SGI stuff. I was working on installing the new color laser printer for the museum office area. Bill Indereiden stopped by to work with Andy on a museum project. I will be at the museum tomorrow. -- ========================================= 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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Micromint MPX-16 technical manual
by Richard Cini 15 Nov '20

15 Nov '20

All – I found a Micromint MPX-16 motherboard in my attic yesterday. I know back in 2002, I traded away one in the enclosure and it had the technical manual, but strangely I didn’t scan it for some reason. Now, I’d like to see if this board I have works. The magazine article gets most of the way there, but what’s missing is the DIP switch settings. I’ve made some guesses based on the source code for the ROM, but the actual manual would help. Bitsavers doesn’t have it, unfortunately. Thanks! Rich -- Rich Cini http://www.classiccmp.org/cini http://www.classiccmp.org/altair32

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Fwd: VCF-MA Steering Committee Election Update
by Dean Notarnicola 14 Nov '20

14 Nov '20

Update! The following is the list of current nominees: Ian Primus - Nominated by Adam Michlin Alex Jacocks - Nominated by Jeff Brace Tony Bogan - Nominated by Dean Notarnicola Dave McGuire - Nominated by Chris Fala Jason Perkins - Nominated by Evan Koblentz Nominees should feel free to make statements in support of themselves, if desired. Please keep the nominations coming! Regards, Dean

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Let's Keep Personal Differences Off the List
by Alexander Jacocks 13 Nov '20

13 Nov '20

All, I'm not in any position of authority, but here is my $0.02 worth, on any situation ariging from internal conflict in a group. Please do NOT discuss this on the mailing list. Context is lost and feelings are very easily hurt, since emotions do not convey well in an online discussion. Also, this sort of discussion has no place on a list visited by many folks who know none of us personally. I strongly suggest that the parties involved discuss this directly, off-list. Thank you. Alex

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World of Commodore is going virtual!
by Jeffrey Brace 12 Nov '20

12 Nov '20

Reposting a message from Leif Bloomquist: ******************************* Hi all, We've decided to do a slimmed-down, Virtual-Only World of Commodore this year on December 5, 2020, through Zoom and YouTube. The page with the preliminary info is here: https://www.tpug.ca/world-of-commodore/world-of-commodore-2020/ Will be updated as we go along. Soon we'll be looking for volunteers to help out with various things (i.e. Breakout Room moderators, stuff like that). Please email me if you're willing/able to help! We also have a dedicated #woc channel on our Discord server: https://discord.gg/6UTY2aAE6p The Toronto PET User's Group is pleased to announce the World of Commodore 2020! This year it will be a Virtual event with livestreamed presentations and demos, breakout discussion rooms and more. ************************************************ -- ========================================= 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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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] Craigslist post
by Jeffrey Brace 12 Nov '20

12 Nov '20

On Tue, Nov 3, 2020 at 6:02 PM Sentrytv via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vcfed.org> wrote: > If it’s not objectionable to anybody it was I. > Not objectionable and most welcome. It helps you by showing everyone what you are bringing and gives attention to our event. By the way I did a general post for the event, so hopefully it brings lots of buyers! > Mike Rosen > > Sent from: > My extremely complicated, hand held electronic device. > > > On Nov 3, 2020, at 5:40 PM, Christian Liendo via vcf-midatlantic < > vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vcfed.org> wrote: > > > > I don't know who did this but it's a good idea > > > > > https://jerseyshore.craigslist.org/ele/d/belmar-vcf-swapmeet-am-stuff-have-… > > -- ========================================= 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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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] Can't make event
by Dean Notarnicola 12 Nov '20

12 Nov '20

Glad all is well! On Thu, Nov 12, 2020 at 8:58 AM Tony Bogan via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vcfed.org> wrote: > > > End of quarantine and no symptoms. Negative test. Good to go. Person > that I was exposed to is still sick. She's my assistant so I've had to take > care of both my job and hers. > > > > Seems like the swap meet was a success. Congratulations to all. > > > > Kelly > > Awesome news!! > > Tony

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] Ken Thompson video
by Tony Bogan 11 Nov '20

11 Nov '20

> On Nov 10, 2020, at 11:52 AM, Evan Koblentz <evan(a)snarc.net> wrote: > > Last year I got Ken Thompson to come to VCF East and arranged for Brian to be there too. > > The video reached 100,000 views today: https://youtu.be/EY6q5dv_B-o ... no other VCF video is even close. That’s very cool! I had not looked recently to see how much it had jumped since VCF East Virtual happened (a number of older videos were boosted as a result of the event, which would make sense) One can only hope that as subsequent videos are online for as long that they can also see views rise and help increase VCFs visibility! This is certainly a huge boost in that department. It’s awesome when a series of events come together to make an even more awesome event! The original idea of Ken Thompson being suggested to you, the fact that Ken Thompson was in the state, that Brian was also available, that was a once in a lifetime congruence that everyone benefited from. Kudos for being in the right place at the right time and being able to bring it all together! With that many views of the existing video, one can only imagine how many views the video would have at this point had they been able to continue talking! Fortunately we’ve got the conversation they did have on video for posterity’s sake and can relish in this once in a lifetime keynote event. Very cool the video has hit the 100k view mark! Tony

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Moving forward
by Tony Bogan 11 Nov '20

11 Nov '20

Recent discussions have really been liberating, with details many people were unaware of finally being brought to light and pent up feelings and opinions finally being aired. It’s been long overdue. As such, I personally am really psyched moving forward. Speaking as someone who may not even be on the Steering Committee in another month, I couldn’t be more excited for the future of VCF. Some thoughts and extra details I’d like to share. Adam has said from the start of the SC that he wanted his seat to be one of the first up for election. Now that he’s moved to South Carolina, he isn’t running for election (he’s already explained his feelings previously) Knowing what some people were told about me from former management and what others thought (and one expressed recently in comments about the state of the vcf “business”) I insisted mine be the other of the first two. While I’ve enjoyed this first year of the SC, regardless of the outcome of the upcoming elections I’m both excited for the future and to see what the SC does next, with or without me on it, secure in the knowledge that I will continue to do everything I can to help VCF grow as I did before I was on the SC and while I’ve been on it. Doesn’t hurt I have the utmost respect for the other people nominated for the two seats and am often in awe of their knowledge and expertise every time I speak with them or see them at workshops. Win, lose or draw for me retaining my seat on the SC, the future looks awesome indeed. We’ve set up a dedicated fund for warehouse improvements, have a working yearly budget with the ability to request additional allocations from the Board for the museum, have cultivated a working relationship and repaired burned bridges with no less than three other vintage computer museums (two on the east coast and a new relationship with one overseas) started the process of getting estimates for repairing and redoing the warehouse, appointed a liaison to Infoage and the township of Wall, and a whole slew of other things that just weren’t possible or feasible in the past. One of the benefits of having a group of people working towards a common goal with the ability to make decisions and act upon them. We don’t always all agree of course, but with a system in place and a framework (now published for all to see) within which to work, it’s a pleasure to be a part of. The difficulties faced by Infoage, along with museums around the world, and the financial and political aspects were touched upon by Mike Brutman in another thread. Those things are always on our minds along with a dozen other things on any given day! We also have a great working relationship with the other groups at infoage, in particular CDL and The Military Technology Museum of NJ. We have a full time social media coordinator (our social media accounts have never been so alive!) But we need more. We need help at the museum and working in the warehouse. We need help getting the artifacts in the museum and warehouse up and running (never in the 6+ years I’ve been here have we ever had literally almost every machine in the museum running) and just did our first “VCF Artifact” workshop to help achieve that goal. We need ideas for new exhibits (we now change some things up regularly in the museum to give visitors a reason to come back again and again and not see the same exact things every time) We need ideas for improving our current events and adding new ones (like the first swap meet we just did. The first of many that is!) The up front, honest, no holds barred discussion of late was a true breath of fresh air. People don’t need to feel stifled or belittled for having an idea, even a hair brained one! It’s not about letting the inmates run the asylum, it’s about having somewhere to go and know you’ll be listened to And your thoughts, ideas, concerns, whatever won’t just be dismissed out of hand. Members now have five people they can reach out to, and know the person they reach out to will bring their comments to the SC for consideration. Sometimes the answer will still be “no,” but it will be a consensus decision that was given consideration and discussion by a group of people, not dismissed without a second thought. THAT’S what the Steering Committee is there for, and THAT is one of the reasons the Steering Committee was created (only one reason, but an important one!) Tony Sent from my iPhone

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