February 2020 - vcf-midatlantic

Some personal updates
by Evan Koblentz 20 Feb '20

20 Feb '20

Some folks asked what is going on with me. They want to know if I am still in the hobby. The answer is yes. I'm as much of an Apple II fan as ever, and I am definitely going back to Kfest this summer -- can't wait! But I am staying away from VCF events for now, because there are three specific people whom I really don't want to be around. I feel deeply hurt and betrayed by these individuals. One person in particular -- for the record, it's not Jeff Brace -- is someone who, quite frankly, I don't trust * myself * to be in the same room with at this point. I'm a pacifist, but this one person deserves a large bucket of my aggression. Corey, whose friendship I value very much, urged me to do a Lego/computer display at VCF East. I am torn between obliging (because it would be insanely fun) and declining (because of aforementioned certain people.) I'm leaning toward saying no, because it would hurt too much to see people take credit for my work, and to see all the changes of which I do not approve. EK

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Kickstarter: Injection Molded Clear Case for Apple IIe and IIgs
by Adam Michlin 20 Feb '20

20 Feb '20

As I understand it, from the same people who made the SE/30 clear case and attempted to Kickstart the II/II+ case. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/maceffects/injection-molded-clear-case…

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CPU exhibit, reborn
by Jeffrey Jonas 20 Feb '20

20 Feb '20

Several years ago, I made a CPU exhibit for MARCH mostly demonstrating how the pin count went from 40 (Z80, 8086, 6502 ...) to 64 (wide-body 68000) to hundreds (Pentium, Pentium-Pro, AT&T 32000) to a thousand. It's the "tyranny of numbers" all over again: too many pins to casually prototype (particularly the dreaded ball-grid-array). I never completed the accompanying chart with other stats: year it was introduced, word size, number of transistors, line width, die size, clock speed, CMOS/NMOS/PMOS). I was hoping to correlate it to the systems that used the chip and how so many mfgrs were in the game, particularly with the homebrew & demonstrators (RCA, Motorola, MOS, Zilog, Intel ...) Adam found it in the warehouse, so the exhibit is jump-started! -- jeff jonas

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Parasitic Engineering Altair Clock Fix Kit...
by William Sudbrink 20 Feb '20

20 Feb '20

Hi, Does anyone happen to have the instructions for this kit? I would really appreciate a scan if you do. Also looking for a 1975ish GE Porta-Color television (borrow, rent or buy) for VCF East. Thanks, Bill Sudbrink

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Impromptu Altair 8800 Demo/workshop Tomorrow 10-1 @kennett classic
by Bill Degnan 20 Feb '20

20 Feb '20

This will be a local event, by request, but if anyone from VCFed is in the area tomorrow morning come join us, bring your Altair...We'll have three or four on site, how-to load BASIC, how to test the system. https://www.meetup.com/Kennett-Classic/events/268856923/ WE WILL BE CLOSED THIS SATURDAY 2/22 New Exhibit: Salute to the User Group Featuring the Timex Sinclair https://www.kennettclassic.com/the-special-interest-group-sig/ Bill

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Repair workshop in Albany?
by Jeffrey Brace 20 Feb '20

20 Feb '20

So with the success of repair workshops at Kennett Classic and System Source which are west and south of InfoAge, I was thinking "Could someone do one further north? Like Albany?" Just a thought to try to plant workshops in different areas that are more convenient for members from different areas. What would be needed is a host location and person to set this up. I could help with a signup list and advertising on the website calendar and VCF list. Any thoughts? Comments? Questions? Ideas? -- ========================================= Jeff Brace Vice President & Board Member, VCF East Showrunner Vintage Computer Federation http://www.vcfed.org/ jeffrey(a)vcfed.org

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System Source February Repair workshop
by Jeffrey Brace 19 Feb '20

19 Feb '20

The repair workshop at Bob Roswell's System Source in Hunt Valley, MD was a spectacular success! About 25 people the first day and 15 the second (Bob correct my numbers if they seem off). I saw lots of familiar and some new faces there. I loved the museum that Bob has setup there, I encourage everyone to visit the museum because it has rare and interesting exhibits. Lots of good repairing going on and lots of conversations with people about VCF East prep. Sometimes things work better to converse in person. Bob is hoping to do another workshop there next January or February. We will update everyone when we set a date. Anyone else want to chime in on their experience during the past weekend? -- ========================================= Jeff Brace Vice President & Board Member, VCF East Showrunner Vintage Computer Federation http://www.vcfed.org/ jeffrey(a)vcfed.org

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] System Source February Repair workshop
by Bill Degnan 19 Feb '20

19 Feb '20

I got help from Ryan to make an OS/8 disk on the System Source DECMATE, for my DECMATE. Unfortunately I learned I don't have the right cable so I still need one to complete this system. But one step closer! My favorite item at System Source is the Wang LOCI-2. Bill On Wed, Feb 19, 2020 at 7:43 PM Alexander Pierson via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vcfed.org> wrote: > System Source was great! I'm glad I got a chance to go both days (looked > like Sunday was off the table initially), and to see so many people I only > cross paths with once or twice a year. The contents of that museum are > different from other ones I've seen thus far, and sure, they had a lot of > the common big name machines, but they also had quite a few that I hadn't > ever seen before in person. Related note, they have a Westinghouse 1600 > terminal, which I had never seen before, much less heard of. Have any of > y'all crossed paths with them? > I rewired the rats nest in my OSI Challenger 4P, and added in an A15 I/O > connector board. Fired it up when I got back home and could reassemble the > hardware bits, which you can see here. I was able to compare against the > configuration of Bill Dromgoole's Challenger (which has an A15). I've > never seen so many OSI machines in one place before, and no two were the > same. More pictures on twitter. > Jonathan Sturges and Jeff Salzman were debugging their VIC-20's, and I > hope my input was helpful in their respective repair processes. Had I > thought about it, I would have dragged in some spare VIC parts, tools, and > appropriate documentation. > All in all, it was a blast. I'm glad it was close enough for me to attend > without much hassle. > -Alexander 'Z' Pierson > On Wednesday, February 19, 2020, 02:53:00 PM EST, Ethan O'Toole via > vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vcfed.org> wrote: > > > I have a pretty good writeup and info about loading BASIC onto an > Altair, > > and if the cards are the *same port* it will work on the IMSAI as well. > > Assuming a MITS SIO2 or the equivalent settings such as with the > Processor > > Tech SIO card. I don't know all of the details but I have done this many > > different ways on a number of S100 systems, happy to help if I can. > > http://vintagecomputer.net/browse_thread.cfm?id=318 > > http://vintagecomputer.net/browse_thread.cfm?id=531 > > Bill > > Hello Bill, > > I have the 88-2SIO board which is supposed to be 100% ALTAIR > compatibile. Off the top of my head the 1st Serial port is at 10H > > Also, I didn't use any kind of loader. I ascii upload it thru the rom > monitor on the 88-2SIO starting at address 0000. Then execute at 0000. > > - Ethan > >

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] [Galactic] Re: Your critical thinking skills and opinion needed: Stickers!
by Michael Brutman 19 Feb '20

19 Feb '20

Some late responses just came in, so voting continues ... but please vote honestly, and not in response to the early results. This is very critical you know and we don't want to compromise the results of the survey. Mike

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Paul Vixie speaking at NYC BSD User Group
by Christian Liendo 19 Feb '20

19 Feb '20

Paul is a person who I would consider important to computer history but from a more recent time. https://www.nycbug.org/index?action=view&id=10677 Operating Systems as Dumb Pipes, Dr. Paul Vixie 2020-03-03 @ 18:45 - NYU Tandon Engineering Building (new), 370 Jay St, Room 1013, 10th Floor, Brooklyn (directly across Jay St from National Grid office) Notice: You should RSVP for this meeting at rsvp AT lists.nycbug.org. You should receive an autoresponse email. Your email address is sufficient verification for entry. Abstract This meeting is cosponsored with NYU's Center for Cybersecurity. Apps and servers, especially on the Web, have an agenda which does not include or welcome any interference by any on-path actors such as ISPs, national security or regulation, or third parties from the supply chain or from the Internet core. The way the ideal role of on-path actors is often described by end users or application developers or online service providers is to say, "I just want you to be a dumb pipe". As of 2019, operating system developers and network and edge system administrators are also described this way. DNS over HTTPS (DoH) and HTTP over QUIC(HTTP/3) now bypass the operating system's implementation and configuration of DNS, and bypasses the kernel's implementation of TCP. At the March 2020 NYC*Bug meeting, Dr. Paul Vixie, CEO of Farsight Security, will tell the story of how we got here, and what this trend means for endpoint and network security. FreeBSD and "ipfw" will be used for demonstration. Media Speaker Biography Dr. Paul Vixie is Chairman, CEO and Cofounder of Farsight Security. Dr. Vixie is an internet pioneer. Currently, he is the Chairman, CEO and cofounder of award-winning Farsight Security, Inc. Dr. Vixie was inducted into the internet Hall of Fame in 2014 for work related to DNS and anti-spam technologies. He is the author of open source internet software including BIND 8, and of many internet standards documents concerning DNS and DNSSEC. In addition, he founded the first anti-spam company (MAPS, 1996), the first non-profit internet infrastructure company (ISC, 1994), and the first neutral and commercial internet exchange (PAIX, 1991). In 2018, he cofounded SIE Europe UG, a European data sharing collective to fight cybercrime. Dr. Vixie earned his Ph.D. from Keio University for work related to DNS and DNSSEC in 2010. https://www.farsightsecurity.com/about-farsight-security/team/vixie/

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