October 2021 - vcf-midatlantic

Commodore 1702 door
by svcatitc＠aol.com 21 Apr '23

21 Apr '23

Jeffrey Brace jeffrey at vcfed.org Writes:Wed Sep 2 13:48:24 EDT 2020 Sounds like an Outer Limits episode where the world was taken apart and remade every moment and sometimes they made mistakes which is why when you lose your keys you find time in a place that you already searched. I thought this was a Spielberg "Amazing Stories" episode, obviously not. The episode is: "A Matter of Minutes" is the third segment of the fifteenth episode from the first season (1985–86) of the television series The Twilight Zone. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Matter_of_Minutes I remember that scene where the couple is in the "Void of White Space" and the "Supervisor of the Maintenance of Time" says: (paraphrasing) "Ya know how you go back to look for something you know is supposed to be there multiple times and then it finally is where you thoughtit should be? That's us. We forgot something. We are now working on moving Christmas!" I personally call them the "Minute-Ahead" men and you may hear me at a workshop cursing at them!!!! I DOOO BELIEVE! Bill Inderrieden

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VCF Annual Committee Member Election
by Dean Notarnicola 10 Nov '21

10 Nov '21

Dear VCF membership, It is time once again for the VCF-MA annual committee member election! There are two seats becoming vacant and nominations are now open. The election will be held according to section 4 and 5 of our published bylaws (copied below.) Anyone who directly received this message is eligible to vote. Nominations for committee members can be made by current list members in good standing simply by communicating the nomination via email to a committee member ( alexander(a)vcfed.org, andrew.diller(a)vcfed.org, tony.bogan(a)vcfed.org, chris. fala(a)vcfed.org, dean.notarnicola(a)vcfed.org.) Members may also self-nominate. To be eligible for the election, the prospective nominee must then accept the nomination by replying in the affirmative to the nomination email. One nomination per member can be made. Nominations close November 25th. An updated list of eligible nominees will be published weekly. Voting will commence on November 27th and close at 11:59 pm on December 8th. Winners will be announced on December 11th during the Town hall event at our annual VCF Festivus celebration. *This is your chance to help steer the direction of VCF Mid-Atlantic! Nominate someone and vote in the upcoming election!* Regards, Dean Notarnicola VCF Committee Chairperson *4. COMMITTEE ELECTIONS* Steering committee membership includes representation of VCF membership, as determined by the VCF governing board and VCF-MA sponsored elections. • The committee membership will be determined by elections to be held on a yearly basis (currently December.) • Committee membership is ideally composed of five people but may vary due to various circumstances. • Two seats will be up for election in every cycle, unless additional vacancies create the need for seats to be filled, in which case all vacant seats will be up for election in that cycle. • Nominations for committee members can be made by current members in good standing simply by communicating the nomination to a committee member. One nomination per member can be made. Members may also self-nominate. • In the case of off-cycle vacancies, the committee may move to, without an election, appoint new committee members to fill the seats until the next scheduled election. • A committee chairperson will be appointed by the committee members within 30 days of any completed election cycle. • Prospective committee members should be knowledgeable in some aspect of computing, preferably vintage computers, and show a demonstrated interest in vintage computing, computing history, and museum management and governance. • In order to be sufficiently aware and have proper perspective of museum and warehouse issues, prospective committee members should be able to physically attend VCF events at least quarterly. *5. MEMBERSHIP* VCF general membership is open and granted to anyone who joins the mailing list. Voting rights will be granted to members who register for the mailing list no less than 30 days before an election begins.

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Wanted for VCF East: IBM/Lexmark 1040150 ribbon
by Jameel Akari 05 Nov '21

05 Nov '21

If anyone has a spare good IBM/Lexmark/compatible 1040150 printer ribbon and is coming to VCF East, I could use it. I’m planning on bringing a Proprinter XL24 for the World Of IBM exhibit, but my ribbon is a little dodgy and the last-minute purchase options will all be too late. Alternately, if somebody sees that they can get one (or six) _definitely_ delivered to them Friday or Saturday AM and you’re coming to the show, let me know and I’ll buy them from you. Since we’re driving down Thursday night, I’d miss a delivery at home. Shoulda done this sooner, I know. — Jameel Akari

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Mystery 1702A(?) EPROM Programmer
by Jonathan Chapman 02 Nov '21

02 Nov '21

Does anyone recognize this EPROM programmer: https://imgur.com/a/GcmefTl It appears to be for 1702A EPROMs. Working on cleaning it up and figuring it out! Thanks, Jonathan

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Repair workshops January 2022
by Jeffrey Brace 01 Nov '21

01 Nov '21

Two repair workshops for January: 1) @InfoAge: Jan 8 & 9 2) @System Source: Jan. 29 & 30 More info to follow!

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VCF East 2021 wrap-up
by Jeffrey Brace 31 Oct '21

31 Oct '21

Now that I have finished the cleanup and post mortem meetings for East and am mostly rested up and decompressing from the show. I want to thank all of the exhibitors for their great displays. The World of IBM was out of this world. Thanks to Adam and Dean for organizing it! And to all of the co-exhibitors that made a truly unique exhibit space when they took over all of 9032-A. I want to thank all the speakers (most of them not in this list) who were a fantastic lineup and hard to beat in subsequent years. All of the volunteers, especially the Sea Cadets who really filled in all the gaps for support. Every year I lack enough volunteers and end up doing a lot of the setup work and breakdown by myself along with a handful of volunteers. There were more volunteers at the setup and breakdown. I want to especially thank Bill Inderrieden, my right hand man who is there with me starting setup on Tuesday through Thursday during the show for immediate needs and the day after the show for breakdown and cleanup. Also Tony Bogan who helped find an electrician to install new quad boxes and helped where he could before, during and after the show even though he was busy with his boating business and could only be there sporadically. Dean and others who stayed afterwards with the cleanup. Everyone gave their best effort until their bodies said "no more!". The A/V was brought up to a whole new level with Ethan O’Toole, Andy Diller and crew. Such a fantastic upgrade from the amateurish and crude days where we had setup our personal cameras and just left them to record. These guys truly look like professionals with the lighting, OBS setup with multiple camera angles, slide view, etc. They even setup an overflow room in case we got full in the main room. Alex Jacocks did an awesome job in consignment which is a very tough job. We had expanded space there and sales were very heavy. Thanks so much for doing a great job there. You came days early to setup and really made consignment a great experience for everyone. Corey ran the front desk and did a great job of training all the new people volunteering there. Lots of changes and improvements there this time. Everyone seemed to notice how efficient and better the front desk was. I thank Drew for the awesome new program book design. It is a superior upgrade to previous years and people noticed. I want to thank Jeff Jonas for making the signs and all the last minute signs that I needed. I love all the stories that I heard and plan to tell them for years to come, especially how I somehow solved multiple emergencies in the days before the show to avoid disaster. I also love the story of how Thomas Cherryholmes solved his #Fujinet for Adam problem. That is a fun story! There are vintage computer angels looking out for us! And thank all those people who helped out in many ways behind the scenes and in every corner of the show where the volunteers couldn't be. Together we make this a festival where the vintage community comes together in fellowship and fun to make us all the better! Here's looking forward to VCF East 2022 which will be on April 22, 23, 24!

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First speaker for VCF East 2022!
by Jeffrey Brace 30 Oct '21

30 Oct '21

We have our first speaker! Margaret Morabito who recently wrote a book with Bil Herd called “Back Into the Storm”. She also published a book on using the Commodore 128 called “Vintage Commodore 128 Personal Computer Handbook: 2019 Survival Edition”. Years ago she was editor of RUN magazine, and she also designed and ran the Tutoring Center and the Q-Link Community College, as well as the Parent-Teacher Information Exchange. She later also ran the school on GEnie, Delphi, CompuServe, AppleLink, AOL, PCLink. -- ========================================= 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

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] Heathkit trainer for M6800 at the consignment space
by Crawford Griffith 30 Oct '21

30 Oct '21

Gregg, Connor K. brought two m6800 trainers that I saw. I bought one of Connor’s, so the Heathkit trainer in the ‘sold/hold’ area of the consignment space may have been mine, or another one from Connor K. I do not recall who bought the other one, but someone sure did. The other one had some chips and wires neatly plugged into the breadboard - probably a class exercise. So, with Jeff S’s, there were at least 3 Heathkit trainers there. Now I wish I had a 6501 chip, then I could put it in my trainer, write a new monitor and have a frankentrainer. You know, for the kids. -Crawford

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Label Printer / Coder / Consignment?
by Ethan O'Toole 30 Oct '21

30 Oct '21

Heya, A fellow VCFer hooked me up with a ballin' thermal label printer. I was thinking... If someone could make an app that: 1. Consignment seller could plug in Item name, description, price - Could be done pre-event or on-site - Could be text based like a mainframe for that retro feel or webapp 2. Pile of thermal labels are printed with this info on site when attendee shows up. I think the 3" core direct thermal label rolls aren't terribly expensive - Could kick out a "seller" id card with a code as well for end tally Checkout: 1. Barcode read, item tally done, money tendered, etc 2. Maybe a dot matrix printer involved cause it sounds cool. Either for a receipt or sales transaction log. 3. Can print out end tally page Barcode readers act as keyboards usually with a tab or enter or whatever (configurable) so that part is easy. Could drive that side of it with a python/php/whatever script on a Pi. Text interface is probably easier. Thoughts?

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Heathkit trainer for M6800 at the consignment space
by Gregg Levine 29 Oct '21

29 Oct '21

Hello! Would anyone remember seeing that critter at the consignment space those three days? And who was selling it of course. It wasn't until I made my train to come back on the Sunday, that I remembered that I was interested in it.. What brought this up is an article on Hack-A-Day on the Heathkit revival space at the show. ----- Gregg C Levine gregg.drwho8(a)gmail.com "This signature fought the Time Wars, time and again."

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