February 2020 - vcf-midatlantic

Bert Sutherland and Larry Tesler died this week
by Jeffrey Brace 19 Feb '20

19 Feb '20

It has been reported that these two people who were involved with some important vintage computing history have died. Burt Sutherland was a manager at Bolt, Baranek and Newman which helped develop ARPANET, at Xerox PARC and later at Sun Microsystems. He participated in the creation of Smalltalk, Java and Internet. Larry Tesler had worked at Xerox PARC, Apple, Amazon and Yahoo!He was a proponent of human-computer action and modeless software. -- ========================================= Jeff Brace Vice President & Board Member, VCF East Showrunner Vintage Computer Federation http://www.vcfed.org/ jeffrey(a)vcfed.org

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Ram testing / surface mount soldering at SS?
by Jason Perkins 18 Feb '20

18 Feb '20

I've got a laptop ram card with some bad ram on it I'd like to fix up next weeked. I got some standard 30 pin SIMMs with the same type of chip. I don't have any systems which use 30 pin SIMMs, so no way to test them. Does someone have a way to test these rams, and / or help me do the surface mount soldering to move them onto the laptop's card? Thanks! -- Jason Perkins 313 355 0085

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] Your critical thinking skills and opinion needed: Stickers!
by Michael Brutman 17 Feb '20

17 Feb '20

Sure! About $70 per roll, and we have 20+ candidates there. ;-0 MIke On Mon, Feb 17, 2020 at 1:26 PM Adam Michlin <adam.michlin(a)vcfed.org> wrote: > Umm.. can we do them all? Pretty please? Too much awesomeness to choose > from! > > On Mon, Feb 17, 2020 at 1:05 PM Michael Brutman <michael(a)vcfed.org> wrote: > >> I'm trying to break the impasse on stickers ... I know, it's very >> critical that we solve this problem. >> >> Here is a link to a quick survey that I'd like you to take. The idea is >> simple; if you like an idea click on the corresponding check box. If you >> don't like it, leave it alone. >> >> https://forms.gle/oS6Jv6Wvi78j4Fst8 >> >> Vote just once please; we're not enforcing it. We'll leave voting open >> for two or three days. The most popular sticker candidates might be turned >> into stickers. >> >> >> Thanks, >> Mike >> >

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Repair Workshops March 2020
by Jeffrey Brace 17 Feb '20

17 Feb '20

March 7 & 8, 2020: Wall, NJ (InfoAge) - CDL Hackerspace building 9059: < https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1DySkGulduRUxJuPwK2RUEdP_yKD8YiDEn7K… > March 28: Kennett Square, PA. at Bill Degnan's Kennett Classic Let him know that you are coming: Website: <https://www.kennettclassic.com/> -- ========================================= Jeff Brace Vice President Vintage Computer Federation

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Your critical thinking skills and opinion needed: Stickers!
by Michael Brutman 17 Feb '20

17 Feb '20

I'm trying to break the impasse on stickers ... I know, it's very critical that we solve this problem. Here is a link to a quick survey that I'd like you to take. The idea is simple; if you like an idea click on the corresponding check box. If you don't like it, leave it alone. https://forms.gle/oS6Jv6Wvi78j4Fst8 Vote just once please; we're not enforcing it. We'll leave voting open for two or three days. The most popular sticker candidates might be turned into stickers. Thanks, Mike

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] Retro technology at CDL
by VAXman＠tmesis.org 16 Feb '20

16 Feb '20

Neil Cherry via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vcfed.org> writes: > >On 2/15/20 9:47 PM, Martin Flynn via vcf-midatlantic wrote: > The CDL >PBX thinks it's 1981 again as it allows calls between our M43 (4320AAA) >> Teletype in the CDL and other ASCII machines on site using the >historically correct > area codes of 510, 610, and 910. > >??? - Wasn't NJ just 201 and 609? I recall Great Adventure having a 201 >number despite being in Jackson. The jamesburg exchange office was in >609 which meant Monroe Twp was split into 609 and 201. Jackson had been 201. Then, 908 was created and Jackson was put in that area code. Soon thereafter, 732 was created and Jackson was again move into that new code. I stopped having business cards printed as it seemed that every time I had new cards printed, the area code was changed. ;) 609 was, as you're probably aware, split too. 609 and 856. There are serveral other area code now for NJ but I believe those are set aside mostly for mobile assignment.

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Retro technology at CDL
by Martin Flynn 15 Feb '20

15 Feb '20

The CDL PBX thinks it's 1981 again as it allows calls between our M43 (4320AAA) Teletype in the CDL and other ASCII machines on site using the historically correct area codes of 510, 610, and 910. Martin

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Happy 74th Birthday ENIAC
by Brian L. Stuart 15 Feb '20

15 Feb '20

On this, the 74th anniversary of the unveiling of the ENIAC, I've decided to post a couple of things I've been working on. The first is the 3D model of the ENIAC mentioned before. It's designed using brlcad, from the Ballistics Research Lab. It just seemed too appropriate to model it using the tool devleoped where it lived. The thingiverse link is: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4164825 The second thing is a draft of a chapter from a book I'm in the very early stages of. It describes the basic circuit designs used in the ENIAC with SPICE simulations of them. The layout and formatting are based on the old Army Technical Manuals of the time. http://cs.drexel.edu/~bls96/eniac/ch1.pdf Enjoy, BLS

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Repair Workshops February 2020
by Jeffrey Brace 14 Feb '20

14 Feb '20

February 15 & 16, 2020: Hunt Valley, MD at Bob Roswell's System Source: < https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1cVBh27hzT1P53BCorZXcK3cZQVwPtwWLLX6… > The Vintage Computer Federation and the System Source Computer Museum are hosting a vintage computer workshop on Saturday February 15th and Sunday February 16th 2020 at: System Source Computer Museum 338 Clubhouse Road, Hunt Valley, MD 21031 Plenty of free parking, short walk from Baltimore’s light rail (Gilroy Road Stop) We will open at 10AM on Saturday February 15th, 2020 and will lock up by midnight. We will open at 10AM on Sunday February 16h and lock up at 6:00PM Accommodations: Try https://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotels-g41196-Hunt_Valley_Maryland-Hotels.html Feel free to talk with others about sharing a room. Food: There are plenty of restaurants within a short drive. We will have catered Indian buffet on Saturday at cost ($12.00?) and catered Barbecue ($12.00?) on Sunday for those who sign up. We will feature tours of the museum throughout both days and several mini-workshops: - Retrobright workshop (bring your yellowed plastics) - Pre-industrial computing class - Learn to use a slide rule, and various types of Abaci - Hot Metal Typesetting (3500 lb word processor) If you need a machine to work on, please let me know. We have lots of computers awaiting restoration! If you have unusual needs, (220 Volts, fork lift, etc please email Bob Roswell at museum(a)syssrc.com Bob Roswell broswell(a)syssrc.com https://museum.syssrc.com 410-771-5544 x 4336 Here is the signup sheet: < https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1cVBh27hzT1P53BCorZXcK3cZQVwPtwWLLX6… > ========================================= Jeff Brace Vice President Vintage Computer Federation

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Scans of David Ahl's DEC EDU newsletter
by Jeffrey Brace 13 Feb '20

13 Feb '20

Someone asked me if we have any copies of DEC's EDU Newsletter which came before Creative Computing. She only found one copy on bitsavers: https://archive.org/details/bitsavers_deceducatiigitalEDU7Newsletter1973_11… Does anyone know if copies of this newsletter exist as scans or hardcopies? Do you think that asking on CCtalk would be helpful? -- ========================================= Jeff Brace Vice President & Board Member, VCF East Showrunner Vintage Computer Federation http://www.vcfed.org/ jeffrey(a)vcfed.org

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