August 2020 - vcf-midatlantic

T-shirts for Vintage Computer Festival 2020 for Pickup at VCF Museum
by Jeffrey Brace 19 Aug '20

19 Aug '20

I know that for the past few months anyone can order VCF t-shirts from here: http://vcfed.org/wp/t-shirts. This is expected to continue to the end of the year, but may stop at any time. Cost is $20 + shipping. For anyone interested in saving on shipping, you can pick up your t-shirt from the VCF Museum. I am taking orders for them now. Cost for t-shirts is $20. Then I will send you a PayPal invoice. Fill out this Google Form to order one: https://forms.gle/a8PzyP9xuipgD8bL8 They come in Amber or Green. You can look here for pictures of them: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Si_Otu2kICPbNaEUpcw0kSqoh9gDh-xh?us… Deadline for ordering is September 17, 2020. Expected delivery date will be October 3 (a week before VCF East 2020). -- ========================================= 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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Free to a Good Home: Okidata Microline 84 printer
by William Dudley 19 Aug '20

19 Aug '20

The Okidata Microline 84 is a wide carriage dot matrix printer, with a "near letter quality" mode in addition to the normal "draft mode". It has a "Centronics" parallel input. A google search implies that ribbons can still be purchased. Photos here: https://www.dudley.nu/forsale/#oki84 Printer is located in Jackson, NJ. I can meet you somewhere within about 15 miles of my home, or I can deliver to the VCF museum at the next work session. It's big and heavy, so shipping will be expensive. Bill Dudley Jackson, NJ This email is free of malware because I run Linux.

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Atari XE game system
by David K 19 Aug '20

19 Aug '20

I recently bought an Atari XE game system. When I turn it on it goes right into self test. The result of the self-test is that the ROM 'slot' on the left is green (good) but the ROM 'slot' on the right is bad (red). All of the 48 RAM blocks show up as good. I get this same result every time I turn it on or reset it. I have tried starting the computer while holding 'Select' and the exact same thing happens. I am confident the power supply is good. I am actually using a 5V power supply for an Atari 800XL I have and it works for the XL just fine. I took the motherboard out of the case and can see no obvious damage (I am not an electronics or computer person by training however). I tried numerous games and none worked except one (see next paragraph). I know the games are good because they work on my XL. The one game that does work is Star Raiders. I saw something online about how this has some special testing (?) component but I do not understand the implication of this. I have the keyboard piece and it seems to work as I can use it to do various things when playing Star Raiders. But pressing the 'Help' button on the keyboard during the self test does nothing. I've left the computer on for maybe 15 minutes as it repeatedly goes through the self test and some of the chips get warm but not particularly hot. Can anyone help me get this to boot correctly and play other games? Thanks, David K

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Xerox Wildflowers - Dandelions and Daybreaks
by Andrew Diller 19 Aug '20

19 Aug '20

I know DavidG has done some amazing work (along with other members) on VCF's 8010 (Dandelion)... And strangely enough the same day (yesterday) someone on the SGI Discord I frequent posted this amazing video, which I thought I'd share to interested people here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=10Dlr5rY9SI <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=10Dlr5rY9SI> Of a Daybreak (Xerox 6085) booting up into ViewPoint 2.0 and using the apps. VCF also has a Daybreak which would be great to get fully functional again as well. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xerox_Daybreak <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xerox_Daybreak> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xerox_Star <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xerox_Star> I'm not sure of the dates, but do people know if the Xerox Star would have been the system that Jobs and the Apple team viewed at Xerox back when they had their infamous visits? Or were those Altos? -andy

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] Xerox Wildflowers - Dandelions and Daybreaks
by Herb Johnson 18 Aug '20

18 Aug '20

> in reality it was a business deal that in essence traded Apple stock for use of Xerox IP https://zurb.com/blog/steve-jobs-and-xerox-the-truth-about-inno Web search for "apple Xerox business deal" found this link pretty quickly. It links to a New York Times article from 2011. As Tony Bogan says, there's probably more such reportage. However, there's also reportage that's just crap - based on speculation and opinion and hype for various purposes. I myself, didn't know one way or another if there was a business deal between Apple/Jobs and Xerox. It was not hard to find out, presuming these are legitimate sources. The chatter after the linked article is informative, because it includes first-hand testimony, plus informed opinions from actual experienced technical persons. Other commentary is fun to see. People not part of the events or items in question, split hairs about things like "innovate" versus "copy", "real genius", and who the heroes and villains "really" were. I'm commenting, because I run across this stuff all the time, and I maintain my own Web site on vintage computing. I have to explain more and more history, because most of my site-readers now have no experience with my items from my era. I could say more about history and evidence, and why people speak or write about something for one purpose or another. But I decided, it's enough to say the following. People write or speak for some purpose. There may or may not be, evidence behind their words. Know the purposes and know the evidence, and then you can (if you wish) decide how to consider what's said and written. It's useful advice, I think. 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 retrotechnology DOT info

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Museum Report: 15 August 2020
by svcatitc＠aol.com 18 Aug '20

18 Aug '20

Very "mixed" busy day. I was adjunct docent with Dylan during the workshop over this past weekend. I got 2 family groups in. I did one full tour and a half of one up "iron row", whereby Dylan finished the other half down "8 bit row". Dylan had one other couple come in and he did the tour solo. We had Amy Jacocks (Alex's wife) join us for the Saturday, performing pro bono work, teaching us museum science and the care and maintenance of museum collections. She does this for a living. She took a tour of our warehouse and then the museum, whereby she then gave us a wrap up of her findings and evaluations. What a consummate professional. To see what we are doing right and where we need improvement was very illuminating. We got a lot of work to do!!!! Thank You Amy !!!! Thank You Alex for sharing your wife's expertise with us !!!! Bill Inderrieden

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Fwd: Join Us | Wi-Fi for Billions: Andrea Goldsmith, Innovation, and Inclusion
by Jeffrey Brace 17 Aug '20

17 Aug '20

Free Webinar sponsored by CHM. Moderated by Bob Metcalf. ---------- Forwarded message --------- From: CHM <marcom(a)computerhistory.org> Date: Mon, Aug 17, 2020 at 4:00 PM Subject: Join Us | Wi-Fi for Billions: Andrea Goldsmith, Innovation, and Inclusion To: <jeffrey(a)vcfed.org> Entrepreneur and Engineering Professor Andrea Goldsmith in Conversation with... <https://computerhistory.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=20bc634cf3d929f8…> <https://computerhistory.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=20bc634cf3d929f8…> <https://computerhistory.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=20bc634cf3d929f8…> <https://computerhistory.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=20bc634cf3d929f8…> CHM Live | Virtual Event WiFi for Billions: Andrea Goldsmith, Innovation, and Inclusion In Conversation with Internet pioneer and entrepreneur Bob Metcalfe, Venture Capitalist Angela Tran, and CHM Teen Alumna Ramya Chitturi It’s not every day that someone gives away $100,000, but that’s what Andrea Goldsmith did when she became the first woman to win the Marconi Prize, the top honor in information and communications research. The Stanford engineering professor’s work has enabled billions of people around the world to enjoy fast, reliable cell phone and WiFi networks, as well as applications for video streaming and autonomous vehicles that require stable network performance. But Goldsmith wants to spread the benefits of technology even further by making engineering more inclusive and diverse. Her prize money went to start an endowment to do just that. Join us for an innovative event format as Goldsmith fields questions from three different moderators: a high school student, a young professional, and a peer. They’ll explore her pioneering technology research, her journey as a serial entrepreneur, her commitment to educating the next generation of engineers, and her passion for ensuring that diverse people will be full participants in building tomorrow’s technologies. *This virtual event will begin at 11:00 a.m. and conclude at 12:30 p.m. PT. Registered guests will receive a link to join the virtual event 24 hours prior to the event date. * Learn More <https://computerhistory.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=20bc634cf3d929f8…> *When* Wednesday, August 19, 2020 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. PT Livestream *Speaker* Andrea Goldsmith <https://computerhistory.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=20bc634cf3d929f8…> *Moderators* Ramya Chitturi <https://computerhistory.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=20bc634cf3d929f8…> Bob Metcalfe <https://computerhistory.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=20bc634cf3d929f8…> Angela Tran <https://computerhistory.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=20bc634cf3d929f8…> *Register Here* <https://computerhistory.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=20bc634cf3d929f8…> CHM <https://computerhistory.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=20bc634cf3d929f8…> CALENDAR <https://computerhistory.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=20bc634cf3d929f8…> VISIT <https://computerhistory.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=20bc634cf3d929f8…> MEMBERSHIP <https://computerhistory.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=20bc634cf3d929f8…> SUBSCRIBE <https://computerhistory.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=20bc634cf3d929f8…> Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences <https://computerhistory.us13.list-manage.com/profile?u=20bc634cf3d929f8435a…> or unsubscribe from this list <https://computerhistory.us13.list-manage.com/unsubscribe?u=20bc634cf3d929f8…> -- ========================================= 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 East 2020 - Call for Classroom Instructors and Presenters
by Jeffrey Brace 17 Aug '20

17 Aug '20

This e-mail is for those interested in doing: 1) A class (maximum of 30 minutes) or 2) A presentation (maximum of 40 minutes). We are going to be doing a virtual hybrid show on October 10 & 11. *CLASSES* Classroom instructors will teach something like "How to repair a CRT", or "Commodore 64 assembly programming". Here is an example class for "Advanced 6502 Assembly Programming for the Apple II": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXElw_3t-rM&t=21s If you are interested in being a classroom instructor, then please fill out this form: < https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfaLdF8TOlIicNw9Qwi7Bkfz8OjCZm4YWl… > Availability is limited. You have the choice of: 1) A prerecorded video with a maximum 30 minutes. Submitted video of your class by September 19. This will be shown via YouTube live and then there will be live Q & A for 10 minutes. 2) An in-person presentation of 30 minutes on site at InfoAge with 10 minutes live Q & A. I will send more details if you are interested. *PRESENTERS* Presenters will talk about some topic and is usually historical like "The Genesis of the 6502 Microprocessor: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEhvfJaPTlI&t=34s or "Whirlwind Computer": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OljoexCEgiY If you are interested in being a presenter, then please fill out this form: < https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSf8WQOwn_skfJcnc6hzg55LZK30kDqHk2u… > Please keep in mind that there is limited availability for presenters. You have the choice of: 1) A prerecorded video that is a maximum of 40 minutes. Submitted by September 19. This will be shown via YouTube live and followed by live Q & A for 10 to 15 minutes. 2) An in-person presentation of 40 minutes on site at InfoAge with 20 minutes live Q & A. I will send more details if you are interested. -- ========================================= 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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FTGH: Sun Ultra 5 complete & Sun E250
by Ethan O'Toole 17 Aug '20

17 Aug '20

I'm in Northern Virginia and looking for a geek that collects and dabbles with Sun Microsystems hardware. I have a Ultra 5 workstation w/ Type 6 keyboard, mouse and CRT (VGA connector.) Also I have a Sun E250 server (lots of ram dual CPU, 6 scsi disks) that belonged to a friend that passed away years ago. Looking to give them to someone who likes to mess with them. Figure maybe there are younger collectors that can't afford whatever the market price would be or whatever. Anyone know anyone that would want them? - Ethan O'Toole

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VCF East 2020 Call for exhibitors
by Jeffrey Brace 17 Aug '20

17 Aug '20

We are looking for exhibitors for our virtual hybrid show. The format that we propose is that exhibitors create a short video about 5 to 10 minutes showing off your exhibit and send to us a month before the show. Details to follow if you are interested. During the event we would show your video which will stream to YouTube followed by 5 to 10 minutes of questions and answers live. The other option would be for you to show off your exhibit on InfoAge’s campus live on site and in person followed by live questions and answers. We would also like to give exhibitors the opportunity to show off their exhibit live, in-person and on site to InfoAge. Please fill out this Google Form if you are interested: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfSyp3A7yzPJw77Sc_gl0erV4a7QTN8x7W… -- ========================================= Jeff Brace Vice President & Board Member, VCF East Showrunner Vintage Computer Federation http://www.vcfed.org/ jeffrey(a)vcfed.org cell: 732-759-1783

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