September 2022 - vcf-midatlantic

Tektronix manuals that I can bring to party
by Christian Liendo 06 Sep '22

06 Sep '22

if you are interested please let me know, I can bring them and trade for a doughnut. prefer Krispy Kreme no Dunkin. willing to try artisanal doughnuts. Tektronix 8002a processor lab z80 assembler & emulator users manual Tektronix 8560 Multiuser software development unit system users manual tnix version 1 Tektronix 8560 Multiuser software development unit system users reference tnix version 1 Tektronix 8560 Multiuser software development unit text processing package user manual Tektronix 8560 Multiuser software development unit system installation guide Tektronix 8500 modular mdl series assembler specifics users manual Tektronix 8500 modular mdl series assembler core users manual

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ATTENTION! Steering Committee NEWS!
by Chris Fala 06 Sep '22

06 Sep '22

Dear VCF Members, This e-mail is the premier edition of what we hope becomes a regular and substantive communication from the Steering Committee. We hope to keep everyone informed and better engaged in regular operations. Highlights: - New personnel structure within the Steering Committee - Look for upcoming news about the IBM 1130 Full version: The Mid-Atlantic Steering Committee is pleased to announce an exciting organization change. To provide a little background, for a few years we had been anticipating formalizing an Executive Director position. The person in this role would be the manager of regular operations of our museum, warehouse, local events, etc. After very careful consideration and a unanimous vote, we have instead chosen to institute a distributed set of management roles which together account for all the duties of the theorized Executive Director. The result is five roles which we have added to our updated by-laws, specified in section 7 (complete by-laws can be found here): https://vcfed.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/VCFMA-Charter-Jul2022.pdf One major benefit of this organizational structure is that the various responsibilities are distributed across a team rather than one person. It also enables us to staff these positions from a wide range of volunteers. The team approach also takes advantage of various skillsets from multiple people. The roles have been initially staffed as follows: - InfoAge Liaison: Steering Committee Chair, currently Chris Fala - Warehouse Manager: Doug Crawford - Museum Manager: Doug Crawford - Event Coordinator: Jeff Brace - IT Manager: Alex Jacocks In case you were wondering, not included in these responsibilities is the Vintage Computer Festival East Showrunner position. That responsibility is assigned by the VCF National Board and is occupied by Jeff Brace. Jeff has also been assigned by the VCF National Board the task of managing the move of our artifacts between our old and new warehouse spaces. We hope that you are as excited as we are about the growth and refinement of our Steering Committee, a cohesive team that has accomplished so much in growing our organization. Personally, I have great optimism for the continued improvement of VCF! Please know that the Steering Committee is always open to ideas, thoughts, concerns, suggestions, etc. We are here to serve the membership, and our only goal is to help VCF to thrive. In other news, please “stay tuned” for additional information regarding our IBM 1130 computer and an exciting project! Sincerely, Chris Fala Chairman of the Vintage Computer Federation Mid-Atlantic Steering Committee

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Learning restoration from experts
by Douglas Crawford 05 Sep '22

05 Sep '22

Hello Local Members: If you are new to vintage computers and would like to get started learning -in person- how to properly handle valuable artifacts we have something coming up for you. We are working on setting up a session of training in combination with our quest to have work done on our PDP-8. We have invited Dave Gesswein to come in and work on the PDP-8 and possibly other equipment too. Dave is figuring out his availability. We may do this as a replacement of the Sept 10/11 workshop. Many of our die-hard repairers are going to be away so the workshop was canceled. But I'm willing to bet a lot of hobbyists are not going to mid-west, and they might want this training if we offered it. Comments welcome here in response, but if you are flat out interested in this kind of training, let me know off-list. Thanks very much Douglas Crawford Mid-Atlantic Museum Manager

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OT / ESD Mats
by Martin Flynn 05 Sep '22

05 Sep '22

Need to purchase ESD mats. Considering BERTECH 2059 series (American made), open to suggestions. Martin

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OT/ Addition to the Makerspace test gear inventory
by Martin Flynn 05 Sep '22

05 Sep '22

Addition to the Makerspace test gear inventory: * Hewlett Packard 54620A 16 Channels Scope and Logic Analyzer. * Hewlett Packard 54657A GPIB HPIB + Math + FFT module, reaching out to our friends at NI for a PCIe GBIB card. https://www.keysight.com/us/en/product/54620A/16-channel-logic-analyzer.html

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] There's a word for that!
by Jeff Galinat 03 Sep '22

03 Sep '22

Yup. Been there done that. Trying to “undo” it via VCF East & VCF Midwest. Jeff On Sat, Sep 3, 2022 at 9:47 AM Sentrytv via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vcfed.org> wrote: > Yes it’s called hoarding! > Became a real issue During the beginning of the pandemic! > > Sent from: > My extremely complicated, hand held electronic device. > > > On Sep 3, 2022, at 12:37 PM, Jeffrey Brace via vcf-midatlantic < > vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vcfed.org> wrote: > > > > On Fri, Sep 2, 2022 at 1:14 PM Jeffrey Jonas via vcf-midatlantic < > > vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vcfed.org> wrote: > > > >> citing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsundoku > >>> Tsundoku is acquiring reading materials > >>> but letting them pile up in one's home without reading them. > >> > > > > I'm glad I'm not the only one who does this! > > > > Now is there a word for ordering things and never opening them up and > > piling them up? > >

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There's a word for that!
by Jeffrey Jonas 03 Sep '22

03 Sep '22

citing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsundoku > Tsundoku is acquiring reading materials > but letting them pile up in one's home without reading them. We need a version for vintage computers / computer parts / peripherals :-/ Kinda like "shelfware". (yes, I still have things that were "free after rebate" from CompUSA) Going one step further: > https://languagehat.com/a-quote-on-bibliomania/ > A QUOTE ON BIBLIOMANIA. > Even when reading is impossible, the presence of books acquired produces such an ecstasy > that the buying of more books than one can read is nothing less than the soul reaching towards infinity ... > we cherish books even if unread, their mere presence exudes comfort, their ready access, reassurance. I feel the same when buying electronic parts and kits. That inventory gives me the potential to do wonderful things. Yea, sure :-( -- jeff jonas

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some computer items are tax free
by Jeffrey Jonas 02 Sep '22

02 Sep '22

A quick brain-dump 1) this is useful for anyone buying or selling computers & peripherals: https://nj.gov/treasury/taxation/businesses/salestax/salestaxholiday2022.sh… Sales Tax Holiday for Certain Retail Sales August 27, 2022 - September 5, 2022 P.L. 2022, c.21, establishes a Sales Tax Holiday for certain retail sales of computers, school supplies, and sport or recreational equipment when sold to an individual purchaser for non-business use. The Sales Tax Holiday takes place between August 27 through September 5 of 2022. Sellers should not charge Sales Tax on eligible items when purchased during the Sales Tax Holiday. 2) Raspberry Pi Zero and such are still unavailable but the Raspberry Pi Pico is available once again from Microcenter. I just ordered Raspberry Pis and Micro:Bit accessories from https://chicagodist.com/ 10% discount code: FIRSTORDER My order arrived in about a week. Looks fine so far. 3) panix is my main ISP. It started as Big Electric Cat, which is mentioned here: http://www.bbsdocumentary.com/ which mentions: > In 2010, after working a few years on the project, > I released a documentary on text adventure games and the people who write them, called GET LAMP. > Similar to BBS in the way it covers its technical subject from a storied perspective, > GET LAMP brings you in contact with everyone from the minds of Infocom to modern Interactive Fiction authors. > Please visit GETLAMP.COM to learn more and order that documentary. 4) Yet another reason to <3 vintage tech: it's easy to repair, unlike recent devices, thus the recent "right to repair": https://techxplore.com/news/2022-08-liberate-tractors-movement-regaining-de… The software that runs John Deere tractors was successfully "jailbroken" at this year's DEF CON hacker convention, enabling farmers to repair or retune their equipment without engaging with the company that sold them their vehicles. -- Jeff Jonas I'm happy that the telephone was invented by Alexander Graham Bell instead of Alexander Siren or Alex Klaxon. The sound of the phone ringing would've been deafening.

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OT / Project Work at Camp Evans
by Martin Flynn 02 Sep '22

02 Sep '22

Hi Folks, CDL will be on site on September 10th, 2022 doing project work. If you are available and would like to assist, please contact me off list! Projects in no particular order: * Installing fiber on the rear of 9059 as prep for the fiber feed to the hotel * Moving rack cabinets from 9036C to 9006 for storage * Putting plywood down in the 9010 attic for the new IT rack Start time is around 10:00 AM, expect to wrap up by 2:00 PM. Martin

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Computer Cart in NYC
by Douglas Crawford 01 Sep '22

01 Sep '22

Could a member in NYC please pick this up for the museum/warehouse? Make a deal, we'll reimburse you. https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/591414525902564?ref=search&referr… Thanks DC

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