January 2021 - vcf-midatlantic

Re: [vcf-midatlantic] VCF Marketing Director
by Jonathan Sturges 17 Jan '21

17 Jan '21

Congrats Adam! :-)

1 0

Zenith “Easy PC” for sale on craigs
by Sentrytv 17 Jan '21

17 Jan '21

Just in case anybody is interested here is the link, not mine. https://newjersey.craigslist.org/sop/d/wallington-easy-pc/7260229025.html Sent from: My extremely complicated, hand held electronic device.

1 0

VCF Marketing Director
by Jeffrey Brace 16 Jan '21

16 Jan '21

Hello everyone, Please welcome VCF's Marketing Director: Adam Michlin! The national board unanimously voted him into this newly created position. Adam was previously a volunteer, Mid-Atlantic Steering Committee member and the Social Media Director where he did an exemplary job increasing the quality and visibility of our organization through our social media such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. The Marketing Director position has all of the responsibilities of the Social Media Director, but adds national branding to the mixture. I'm excited to see what improvements that he will bring to this position. He has shown great dedication to his previous position and it shows in his understanding, the quality of his work and the results that he has created. And best of all his pay increases to double his previous salary of zero! ;) -- ========================================= 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

1 0

Museum 3b1
by David Gesswein 16 Jan '21

16 Jan '21

I finally remember to create a page describing the image on the 3b1. For people demoing it gives information on what I think was useful for doing demos. If anybody know of more interesting stuff to put on I can. The man page stuff described in the manual isn't yet in the museum image. http://www.pdp8online.com/3b1/demos.shtml

1 0

Re: [vcf-midatlantic] Culpability and Provenance
by Herb Johnson 15 Jan '21

15 Jan '21

Well, while I have a lot I could post on these matters, I won't. I'm not a lawyer and these are legal matters. The rest is discussion not advice. Certain content one might obtain from others accidentally on an abandoned computer, is outright illegal to own and distribute. Delete it - period. Other content is proprietary and still in distribution, thus an actionable issue by the active producers of that content. And of course, most of us with a clue know what is "private information". Nobody here is "researching" people's private information. This is a vintage computing discussion. Private information must be deleted, copies only to owners who want it and are given opportunities to ask. Most people seem to be indifferent; some are not. The rest, is about technical content of old programs out of use, and possibly original programming done (as in sources, binaries). These things are, in my opinion, the business of those of us in vintage computing. What to do about finding that stuff, has been in discussion for decades. There's common practices about that content. While owners could take actions, many owners are disinterested in doing so, or "unavailable", or in some cases have released their published works. Owners have rights, and the right to say "delete". At least they used to, when content resided in their own hands. Another subject. Informing former owners about discovered content beyond impersonal programs and documents, has some merits both to us and to the prior owners. Tony shares his experience, that he's informed some owners about protecting their data. All that said, I'm informed by the posts on this subject, from persons who identify their sources of authority on their decisions (Tony mentioned HIPAA compliance for instance). And by various experiences discussed. Authority and or experience matters to me, when I see advice, certainly when I give it. I don't say I have much authority, other than years of practices; I have no authority on legal matters, little on business. I'm a technologist by training and historian by circumstance. Myself: I preserve the history of development of certain programs and hardware on my Web site. Much of that is published information, descriptions and repairs of hardware, documentation, sources or disassemblies. Some of it is biographical information from public sources and personal correspondence (republished by me with permission). Generally I have permissions, as owners of content have the rights to say "no", and privacy rights. Over the decades: I've been contacted by content-owners or their heirs or their associates and customers. Most thank me for recognizing those known to them, a few for recognizing themselves! Some provide more information. Some people want their privacy, or at least used to when privacy existed. And some, are no longer interested in certain past works. So it seems to me: If the VCF Inc. chooses to, they might gather some informed and authoritative opinions and recommendations and practices, and make that information available, as a service. They may also choose to do so, to inform their officers and volunteers as to "best practices" within the VCF collection. One service might be, to identify kinds of content - such as I and others have identified - and suggest the kinds of practices one might take. That service alone, may help persons in deciding what to do, where to seek advice. But I'm not credentialed in most of these matters. I have certain practices I follow. Mostly I tell people "this is at your own risk. Seek professional, legal or more experienced advice. I'm not responsible for your consequences. Make your own choices." Otherwise I lead by example and effort and results, I hope. 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

7 10

the human element [was Culpability and Provenance]
by Jeffrey Jonas 15 Jan '21

15 Jan '21

replying to Dean Notarnicola > I love tech for techs sake. It can be both art and science. I highly agree. - taking apart old electronics and appliances was my first electronics 'classroom'. Reverse engineering ordinary things shows amazing design and cleverness. Before circuit boards, EVERYTHING was hand-wired and hand-made. There was a human element in everything. High end items got more care, such as lacing-cord on the wires to neatly bundle them. Then zip-ties came along and ruined it all. - most machines interact with people in some way: what we now call the User Interface. Old machines were pieces of art and craftsmanship in everything you saw and touched: every knob and wheel and button. Even the labels were calligraphy. There was artistry in every piece, seen or unseen: curved wheel & gear spokes, artfully carved handles and cabinetry. Even office typewriters tried to appeal to "woman's aesthetics" with gold gilding and artsy appliques. There are several books of "the art of the engineer". Even Adam Savage drools over the amazing functionality of the Studley tool cabinet: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_O._Studley Bill Inderrieden and I have enjoyed many conversations about the power stations, factories and industrial facilities he's visited. The buildings and windows all have a wonderful sense of style and function. Even the stair cases and banisters are worthy of the finest hotel. I assert that early CISC machine architecture was very human oriented. The instruction set and options catered to the assembler programmer who required the most direct way to express the problem to the CPU. Instruction set orthogonality is a measure of goodness. And gimme general purpose file registers. LOTSA registers. 16 or more! Every CPU/microprocessor/microcontroller I study shows a unique approach that I admire and respect, thus the incredible variety of microprocessors in the 70s and 80s. Then RISC came along and ruined it all :-( Don't get me wrong, I had the most wonderful RISC course at Concurrent Computer Corp. We were a tough audience. We were all experienced assembler programmers. After programming the IBM 360 in high school, I found the Z80 really weak and tedious to program. But there are many compelling reasons that RISC is the way to go. That course respectfully explained it. That's why I <3 vintage computing: we recreate the FUN and personal satisfaction of the "vintage" computer environment (although they were not vintage when we used 'em!) -- jeff jonas

1 0

Re: [vcf-midatlantic] Atari ad for sale Commodore 64 PC Booklet Circa 1982 - $425 (Wayne NJ)
by Bruce 15 Jan '21

15 Jan '21

We could all post them all on ebay and buy them back and forth to drive the prices up!!! /s Bruce NJ On Thu, Jan 14, 2021 at 8:37 PM Sentrytv via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vcfed.org> wrote: > Yes yes yes!!! > > I’ve got magazines from the 1940s I wonder how much that stuffs going to > be worth! > > Sent from: > My extremely complicated, hand held electronic device. > > > On Jan 14, 2021, at 8:25 PM, Douglas Crawford via vcf-midatlantic < > vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vcfed.org> wrote: > > > > > > Wow the ads from my '77 - 84 byte magazines are going to make me rich! > RICH! > > >

2 1

Re: [vcf-midatlantic] Atari ad for sale Commodore 64 PC Booklet Circa 1982 - $425 (Wayne NJ)
by Douglas Crawford 15 Jan '21

15 Jan '21

3 2

Commodore 64 PC Booklet Circa 1982 - $425 (Wayne NJ)
by Christian Liendo 14 Jan '21

14 Jan '21

I'm curious if anyone knows who this is? https://newjersey.craigslist.org/sys/d/wayne-commodore-64-pc-booklet-circa-…

4 6

Ken Thompson ACM Fellow Announcment
by Andrew Diller 14 Jan '21

14 Jan '21

Ken Thompson, a recent VCF Keynote speaker (2019), and creator of UNIX became a ACM fellow today: https://awards.acm.org/award_winners/thompson_4588371 and https://awards.acm.org/binaries/content/assets/press-releases/2021/january/… Kenneth Lane Thompson Google For contributions to the development of operating systems theory and for the implementation of the UNIX operating system 2020 ACM FELLOWS RECOGNIZED FOR WORK THAT UNDERPINS CONTEMPORARY COMPUTING International Group Composed of Leaders Across All of Computing’s Disciplines New York, NY, January 13, 2021 – ACM, the Association for Computing Machinery, has named 95 members ACM Fellows for wide-ranging and fundamental contributions in areas including artificial intelligence, cloud computing, computer graphics, computational biology, data science, human-computer interaction, software engineering, theoretical computer science, and virtual reality, among other areas. The accomplishments of the 2020 ACM Fellows have driven innovations that ushered in significant improvements across many areas oftechnology, industry, and personal life. -andy

3 2