December 2020 - vcf-midatlantic

VCF 2020 Live Presentations available on YouTube
by Andrew Diller 15 Dec '20

15 Dec '20

There are two of the Live presentations from VCFe2020 up on YouTube now (if you missed them on the stream). More are coming. AmigaBill "Internet Streaming with Vintage Computers" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2EhPI6xFCQ Jeff Salzman "Vic-20 Fully Loaded" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1r0BnxlifFY Enjoy! -andy

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InfoAge closed Wednesday 12/16/20 due to impending snowstorm.
by Jeffrey Brace 14 Dec '20

14 Dec '20

*Message from Mike Ruane:* *"Due to the impending snow storm due to hit the Monmouth County area this Wednesday afternoon, InfoAge will be closed but will reopen on Saturday for our normal visiting hours.* *The closure is for the safety of our volunteers and docents, many of whom come from western and northern New Jersey, and for the safety of our visitors. Since the snow is scheduled to start around noon or a little later, our volunteers and visitors could possibly arrive at InfoAge in somewhat decent weather conditions but travelling home would be extremely unsafe.* *Stay home, get some hot chocolate or coffee and read a good book!! * *Be safe and don’t travel unless you have to do so. - Mike Ruane"* -- ========================================= 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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Post Virtual Festivus workshop
by Jeffrey Brace 14 Dec '20

14 Dec '20

There were a few people that stayed after our Virtual Festivus to work on VCF stuff. Ian now has rigged a way to keep our Xerox on separate from the monitor so we can keep the computer on separately from the monitor. If we choose to keep the computer on for longer periods, then we don't have to worry about the long boot up and setup process each time. VCF also purchased a high end UPS to protect this equipement. We will be finishing up this process on Wednesday. Jeff Salzman got the Atari 1040ST and Amiga setup with some demos and will be getting more for the museum. He also tried to get a boot disk for the Zorba unsuccessfully, but will take them home to try to get them to boot from floppy. He is working on getting more demos for other museum machines. Jeff Jonas and Bill Inderrieden are working on getting signs for the CPU exhibit and slide rule exhibit. They also organized and searched for missing things in the warehouse. Some employees of Bob Roswell took pictures of their IBM 1130 because they are working on restoring it and wanted to see what ours looked like, etc. CDL donated LED track lighting to the museum which VCF plans on using for a future project in the museum. -- ========================================= 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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Audio problems with Virtual Festivus
by Jeffrey Brace 13 Dec '20

13 Dec '20

Sorry everyone for the audio problems at the Virtual Festivus. Corey and Erik's audio didn't work for some reason. We had tested it before broadcast and it was working fine, but seems to have gone out and then back in at some point. So I'm going to try to get Corey and Erik to re-record what they said and then put it onto YouTube. Otherwise, what did everyone think about everything? -- ========================================= 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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Tales from the lab
by Mike Loewen 13 Dec '20

13 Dec '20

Dave McGuire and I ran into a mysterious problem while working on the LSSM's HP 3000 Series 39 minicomputer last month. We moved the 2645A console over next to the CPU for convenience and turned it on. The display was too wide, and characters were being cut off on the left side. No problem, says I, we'll just pop the top and make a quick video adjustment. We moved the terminal on top of the CPU to make it easier to work on, and adjusted the horizontal width. Moved the terminal back over where it was. The display was too wide again. WTF? Leaving the terminal where it was, we raised the top again to find that as the top was going up, the width was decreasing. As the top was lowered, it increased. It was only then that Dave and I simultaneously realized that the terminal was sitting on top of a 79XX series disc drives, with a large magnet in it. Duh! :-) Mike Loewen mloewen(a)cpumagic.scol.pa.us Old Technology http://q7.neurotica.com/Oldtech/

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History-of article on Heathkit, must-read
by Herb Johnson 12 Dec '20

12 Dec '20

https://www.electronicdesign.com/communiqu/article/21148923/electronic-desi… A senior executive of Heathkit, Chas Gilmore, is interviewed by Lou Frenzel of Electronics Design (a trade magazine). Lou himself is a former Heathkit executive. They both came up through engineering so this article is about technology development and sales. The article describes now-vintage computing history at Heath. This is familiar to those of us over 60; thus it's a must-read for our younger colleagues. For those who question why those "ugly boxes full of cards" were every popular, or why people built ever computers instead of just buying them, here's the answers. It also underscores the impact of the MITS Altair article and product in Jan 1975 - that broke the ice-jam at every company that previously said "nobody will buy a personal computer; there's no software; there's no use for it". It follows the history of why companies like Heath declined as computing became an industrial product and then a consumer product. And, it describes the process for the famous Heathkit manuals. A "manual" is a like a papery-bloggy kind of thing, that described how to build a kit and how it worked, before the Internet and email. People of the era, actually wanted to learn all that stuff. They had plenty of time to read manuals, because they didn't have smartphones or NetFlix. Components back then were large, simpler, and designed for hand-assembly, because robots hadn't taken over yet. And as electronics then were expensive, they were designed for long-life and human repair (and not just discarded when boring). So the manuals helped with diagnostics, the art of figuring out WHY something didn't work. Repair was a real industry and career, in that era. Many tech schools and universities used Heath products for both value and cost, and as part of their curriculum. In short, it's a window back in time, to answer those puzzling questions 21st century people have, about the era of now-vintage computers through one major company. It concurs with my experiences around Heath products in the 1980's. regards, Herb Johnson -- Herbert R. Johnson, New Jersey in the USA http://www.retrotechnology.com OR .net preserve, recover, restore 1970's computing email: hjohnson AT retrotechnology DOT com or try later herbjohnson AT comcast DOT net

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Virtual Festivus Google Meet
by Jeffrey Brace 12 Dec '20

12 Dec '20

meet.google.com/gte-noys-jwn -- ========================================= 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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Virtual Festivus 2020 Agenda
by Dean Notarnicola 12 Dec '20

12 Dec '20

Starting at 1:00 PM on Saturday, December 12th we will have a *Virtual Festivus* presentation Google Meet, streamed to YouTube. *The proposed agenda*: Steering Committee Annual Review - *DEAN NOTARNICOLA* Steering Committee Plans for the Future - *DEAN NOTARNICOLA* VCF National Board Update - *JEFF BRACE* VCF Financial Update - *COREY COHEN* Questions, concerns and comments from the membership - *DEAN NOTARNICOLA* Steering Committee Election Results - *DEAN NOTARNICOLA* Chat with the new VCF-MA Steering Committee members - *DEAN NOTARNICOLA* Annual Festivus Toast - *DEAN NOTARNICOLA* *Google Meet Link*: meet.google.com/gte-noys-jwn (*Do not share*) - Breakout rooms TBA *RULES FOR THE MEETING*: 1) Please mute yourself and raise your virtual hand to ask a question. 2) As this is an interactive event, *please do not share this meeting code* with anyone not on the VCF mailing list. 3) Feel free to share the YouTube streaming channel below! *Shareable link to the YouTube stream*: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDaSvAbhC-0 *OR look in our YouTube Channel*: http://www.youtube.com/c/VintageComputerFederation501c3 Thank you to everyone who participated in the Committee member election. We look forward to speaking to you on Saturday!

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Happy Hanukkah!
by Jeffrey Brace 11 Dec '20

11 Dec '20

To all VCF members who celebrate it I wish you Chag Urim Sameach! May this be a happy time with your family. -- ========================================= 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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TRS-80 Model 4 (working) $150 - Craigslist
by Alexander Jacocks 10 Dec '20

10 Dec '20

All, I saw this TRS-80 Model 4 on Craigslist, near me: https://washingtondc.craigslist.org/mld/sys/d/bethesda-trs-80-model/7244872… If anyone would like it, I'd be happy to pick it up and bring it to InfoAge. Let me know, Alex

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