May 2023 - vcf-midatlantic - lists.vcfed.org

Morris Tanenbaum, Inventor of the Silicon Microchip, Dies at 94
by Christian Liendo 13 May '23

13 May '23

https://spectrum.ieee.org/in-memoriam-may-2023 Tanenbaum’s research in the mid-1950s proved that silicon was a better semiconductor material for transistors than germanium, which was commonly used at the time. His discovery paved the way for more efficient transistors critical in technologies that ushered in the Information Age. He began his career in 1952 at Bell Labs, in Murray Hill, N.J., as a researcher in its chemical physics department. Two years later, under the direction of physicist and inventor William Shockley, who at the time worked at Bell Labs, Tanenbaum began investigating whether silicon crystals could be used for transistors. In 1955 he and colleague Ernest Buehler demonstrated the first silicon transistor. Tanenbaum later developed the first gas-diffused silicon transistor, which could amplify and switch signals above 100 megahertz at a switching speed 10 times that of previous silicon transistors. Despite Tanenbaum’s early work on silicon transistors, AT&T did not support further research or advancement of the technology. At the time, Bell Labs was the research arm of AT&T. Although Bell Labs had “a significant technological lead in silicon transistor technology, it stopped doing proper research in the field—partly because it just wasn’t immediately relevant to AT&T’s business—so silicon transistor technology, including the integrated circuit, was done by Intel and Texas Instruments instead,” Tanenbaum said in a 1999 oral history conducted by the IEEE History Center. Tanenbaum instead worked on other new technologies in the decades that followed. In 1962 he was named assistant director of Bell Labs’ metallurgical department. He led the team there that created the first high-field superconducting magnets, which are now used in MRI machines and other medical imaging technologies. Later he helped develop optical fiber and digital telephone switching. Tanenbaum went on to serve as president of AT&T’s New Jersey Bell (now part of Verizon) in the late 1970s and early 1980s. He was appointed president of AT&T Communications in 1984. He retired five years later as AT&T’s vice chairman and chief financial officer. A member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, he also was a Fellow of the American Physical Society and a member of the MIT board of trustees. He received a bachelor’s degree in chemistry in 1949 from Johns Hopkins University, in Baltimore, and earned a Ph.D. in physical chemistry from Princeton.

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What was DESQview like on 80286?
by John Heritage 13 May '23

13 May '23

Hey folks, I used DESQview a lot on 386SX and higher machines 'back in the day', and it was quite useful for running multiple nodes on a BBS, or for 'multitasking' -- running a terminal program in DOS while writing code, etc.. It worked great, and as long as you had 2MB of RAM you could do a lot with it. In my experience, a 486DX became fast enough for 4 BBS nodes at once, etc.. I was curious what DESQview was like on a (faster - 12 MHz or higher) 286? Could you run two 500KB+ DOS programs with enough memory? were there limitations because of the lack of (memory) modes relative to the 386? I remember QEMM386 being essential with Desqview to pull drivers and all sorts of things out of conventional memory.. so I imagine conventional memory in Desqview 'instances' was lower on a 286 than a 386. (A bit of nostalgia here - but late in the time I ran my BBS, I accidentally killed two 286-16 cpu/board combos.. trying to power them on stupidly -- on the outside of a static bag. I was planning to put them through their paces and use them for BBS nodes. From what I remember a 386SX or DX @ 16 MHz wasn't really faster than a 286 @ 16 MHz for 16-bit code). Thanks! John

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VCF East 2023 YouTube videos and articles
by Jeffrey Brace 08 May '23

08 May '23

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Does a Linux 1.0D count yet
by Kelly Leavitt 08 May '23

08 May '23

TAMU Linux 1.0D running X11. Reliving the glory days of 1992. Took me a while to remember all the Mojo needed to get X11 running. https://imgur.com/a/8IKHOoW [https://i.imgur.com/kJrwqLo.png?fb]<https://imgur.com/a/8IKHOoW> imgur.com<https://imgur.com/a/8IKHOoW> Discover the magic of the internet at Imgur, a community powered entertainment destination. Lift your spirits with funny jokes, trending memes, entertaining gifs, inspiring stories, viral videos, and so much more from users. imgur.com Kelly

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New Warehouse Cleanup went great! 2023-05-07
by Jeffrey Brace 07 May '23

07 May '23

Today (5/7), 7 of us came to clean out what will be our new warehouse section. I got there about 10AM with Gregg Levine who took the train from manhattan to help us. Ian Litchfield and Thomas Gilinsky came over a few minutes later. Then a few minutes afterwards Ken Gober came. An hour later Bill Inderrieden joined us and Doug came about 1:30PM after driving an hour and a half from his home. We cleared out a section and filled up a quarter of the dumpster. Unfortunately it was already 3/4 full of other groups' trash, so we could only remove part of the trash. The rest will have to wait until the dumpster is emptied and returned. We did sweep a lot, staging most of the remaining trash for removal in the future. We also move items out that we wanted to save for future purposes. Ray Brown helped move some heavy items with the forklift like metal radiators and a huge pallet of shelving parts. Some items need to go to e-recycling or hazardous waste (paint, etc.) at a later time. I will be scheduling a new date for the remaining cleanup when the dumpster is emptied. Thanks to all who helped! Here are some pictures and video: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1-h7yP_xknMw0SvDpKyr8xM70uP39yYi-?us… Take care, Jeff Brace VCF National Board Member Chairman & Vice President Vintage Computer Festival East Showrunner Vintage Computer Federation is a 501c3 charity https://vcfed.org/ <http://www.vcfed.org/> jeffrey(a)vcfed.org

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VCF East 2023 Survey results
by Jeffrey Brace 06 May '23

06 May '23

No need to look at the results. Everything was 100% perfect! ;) https://bit.ly/vcfe2023post_results Take care, Jeff Brace VCF National Board Member Chairman & Vice President Vintage Computer Festival East Showrunner Vintage Computer Federation is a 501c3 charity https://vcfed.org/ <http://www.vcfed.org/> jeffrey(a)vcfed.org

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Cleanup tomorrow 5/7 at 10AM of VCF's new warehouse area
by Jeffrey Brace 06 May '23

06 May '23

If you are coming tomorrow to help cleanup and haven't let me know, then let me know now. If you have already let me know, then contact me when you arrive so that I can direct you to where we are. Thanks! Jeff Brace VCF National Board Member Chairman & Vice President Vintage Computer Festival East Showrunner Vintage Computer Federation is a 501c3 charity https://vcfed.org/ <http://www.vcfed.org/> jeffrey(a)vcfed.org

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OT: Monmouth County Museums Free this weekend May 6 & 7
by Jeffrey Brace 06 May '23

06 May '23

A Weekend in Old Monmouth (Includes InfoAge) https://www.co.monmouth.nj.us/page.aspx?ID=3464 Take care, Jeff Brace VCF National Board Member Chairman & Vice President Vintage Computer Festival East Showrunner Vintage Computer Federation is a 501c3 charity https://vcfed.org/ <http://www.vcfed.org/> jeffrey(a)vcfed.org

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OT - Fiber to 9010
by Martin Flynn 01 May '23

01 May '23

CDL is installing single-mode fiber to Building 9010 (The building with the current VCF Museum space) the weekend of June 17th and 18th, replacing the problematic MOCA network gear at Camp Evans. To save time while we have the rented boom lift on site, We plan to route the cable through the vault and up to the pole the prior Saturday (June 10th) Plan is to divide into two teams on the 17th: * The first group will install the steel messenger cable, and begin lacing the fiber to the messenger * The second group will pull the fiber through the 9010 attic to the new rack above the future VCF museum space Link: http://compdecon.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/IMG_1383.jpeg So far, just the usual suspects from CDL are signed up, however extra hands from VCF would be appreciated greatly! Please reply off list to reduce list clutter. Martin Flynn

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VCF West 2023 is happening! August 4 & 5 @ CHM
by Jeffrey Brace 01 May '23

01 May '23

Erik Klein, showrunner for VCF West has just declared: *"It has been a long time coming, but we’ve finally made arrangements to have a 2023 VCF West.* *I’ll share some of the boring details later, but, for now, I want to encourage everyone interested in this year’s show to get ready for a great event, but one with a very short runway. So get those exhibits prepared and registered, get those talks planned and free up your time for FRIDAY AUGUST 4th and SATURDAY August 5th.Yes, you read that right. One of the big hang-ups with getting 2023 off of the ground was that our traditional, and preferred, venue, the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California, is not available for Sunday on our normal show weekend.So this year’s event will be Friday and Saturday with setup on Thursday.While this scheduling issue was the main holdup to getting the show off of the ground - It took a while to come to terms with the CHM for the rental, dates, etc. - the good news is that the CHM are very excited to have us back and they will help us promote the show, hopefully increasing our attendance even with the awkward days.That said I do apologize profusely for the delays and inconvenience this will cause. I also apologize for “ignoring” most of the emails from folks asking about our progress. I really wasn’t sure until just today that the show would even go on and I didn’t want to spur a rumor mill in advance of an announcement.Thankfully the announcement is a positive one!Exhibitor registration is now open. Because of the short timelines I’m encouraging everyone to sign up ASAP.The same goes for speakers. If you’d like to speak at the show please let me know soon.Thank you all for the encouragement and support. This show can’t happen without you all. Once again I apologize for compressing all of the planning. This won’t happen again."* Facebook post: https://www.facebook.com/100064572070138/posts/pfbid02Yxz3xMtN7FCymg5f9CCQn… Website: https://vcfed.org/events/vintage-computer-festival-west/ Please spread the word!

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