May 2024 - vcf-midatlantic - lists.vcfed.org

Repair Workshop at System Source in June
by Ryan Burke 26 May '24

26 May '24

System Source is hosting another repair workshop on June 15th and 16th. You will be able to bring and work on vintage computers and electronics, and we have tables with power available for everyone. Find more information and register at this link: https://ca.syssrc.com/wp/?page_id=85&civiwp=CiviCRM&q=civicrm%2Fevent%2Finf…

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VCF Southwest Preview #2 Livestream 5/25/2024 6:30PM EDT
by Jeffrey Brace 24 May '24

24 May '24

https://youtube.com/live/i63kN7eeS70?feature=share Take care! Jeff Brace VCF National Board Member Chairman & Vice President Vintage Computer Festival East Showrunner VCF Mid-Atlantic Event Manager Vintage Computer Federation is a 501c3 charity https://vcfed.org/ <http://www.vcfed.org/> jeffrey(a)vcfed.org

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Gordon Bell, an architect of our digital age, dies at age 89
by Herbert Johnson 22 May '24

22 May '24

> Time is a cruel foe that none of us can escape. I suggest a focus on the departed, and their legacy and the people still here who benefited from Gordon Bell's legacy and lament his loss. It's that legacy that survives through time. If we preserve the association with Bell, his legacy continues. That's a means to deal with the passage of time. As an old person myself, I consider my legacy and otherwise manage the time I have left. Bell did considerable work in establishing a surviving legacy of the work of DEC which he founded with others; and preserving his own works. His efforts and DEC led to our world today of information technology which ironically preserves his own legacy: if his successors keep it available. Regards Herb Johnson -- Herbert R. Johnson, New Jersey USA https://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

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Gordon Bell, an architect of our digital age, dies at age 89
by Christian Liendo 22 May '24

22 May '24

Computer pioneer Gordon Bell, who as an early employee of Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) played a key role in the development of several influential minicomputer systems and also co-founded the first major computer museum, passed away on Friday, according to Bell Labs veteran John Mashey. Mashey announced Bell's passing in a social media post on Tuesday morning. https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/05/gordon-bell-an-architect-of-our-dig…

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Re: vcf-midatlantic Digest, Vol 72, Issue 21
by Marcus Mera 21 May '24

21 May '24

Hi, I’m looking to acquire a versawriter anybody have any leads on one? Sent from my iPhone > On May 21, 2024, at 8:01 AM, vcf-midatlantic-request(a)lists.vcfed.org wrote: > > Send vcf-midatlantic mailing list submissions to > vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vcfed.org > > To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit > https://lists.vcfed.org/mailman/listinfo/vcf-midatlantic > or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to > vcf-midatlantic-request(a)lists.vcfed.org > > You can reach the person managing the list at > vcf-midatlantic-owner(a)lists.vcfed.org > > When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific > than "Re: Contents of vcf-midatlantic digest..." > > > Today's Topics: > > 1. 4 Kaypros for Sale Near Me - Anyone Want Them? > (Alexander Jacocks) > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Message: 1 > Date: Mon, 20 May 2024 12:04:01 -0700 > From: Alexander Jacocks <jjacocks(a)gmail.com> > To: vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vcfed.org> > Subject: [vcf-midatlantic] 4 Kaypros for Sale Near Me - Anyone Want > Them? > Message-ID: > <CAF-r0Y2dFs33VfjDs-mOjMo8n1kgnMrwuxizK_B0rRU4D6sgvw(a)mail.gmail.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" > > Folks, > > I got a hit on a local search, and someone is selling 4 Kaypros, very near > me: > > KAYPRO 1 $130 KAYPRO 1 $130 KAYPRO 2 $150 KAYPRO 2X $175 MY FATHER USED > THESE YEARS AGO. > > This is from FB marketplace, and I?m happy to make offers or pick them up, > if anyone wants me to. > > - Alex > > > End of vcf-midatlantic Digest, Vol 72, Issue 21 > ***********************************************

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4 Kaypros for Sale Near Me - Anyone Want Them?
by Alexander Jacocks 20 May '24

20 May '24

Folks, I got a hit on a local search, and someone is selling 4 Kaypros, very near me: KAYPRO 1 $130 KAYPRO 1 $130 KAYPRO 2 $150 KAYPRO 2X $175 MY FATHER USED THESE YEARS AGO. This is from FB marketplace, and I’m happy to make offers or pick them up, if anyone wants me to. - Alex

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Recovering Macintosh floppies
by Jeffrey Brace 19 May '24

19 May '24

Is there someone coming to the repair workshop that can help someone recover Macintosh files from 3.5" disks? Likely they are word processing files from a Quadra. Please let me know. Thanks! Jeff Brace

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OT / Proposed Earth-Venus-Earth attempt at ISEC
by Martin A. Flynn 19 May '24

19 May '24

Re-sending with clarifying edits at the suggestion of multiple VCF members. Please excuse the repeat bandwidth. ------------------------------------------ A team compromised of CDL Members is providing technology support for a proposed Earth-Venus-Earth communications attempt at ISEC, The InfoAge Space Exploration Center. Link: http://www.isec.space For those not familiar with ISEC, this is the site with the 60 foot dish antenna at 2300 Marconi Road in Wall Township, NJ. ISEC is adjacent to the VCF museum at InfoAge. * * *WHAT IS THE EVE25 PROJECT PROPOSAL?* * Earth – Venus – Earth (EVE) a radio communication attempt via a signal reflected from the planet Venus. * WHEN WILL THE ATTEMPT BE MADE? * * The Weekend of March 23, 2025. This is when Venus will be at closest distance to the Earth * GOALS OF THE EVE25 PROJECT * * Create excitement and awareness around ISEC and promote the ISEC Mission. * Build interest in new members joining InfoAge / ISEC and existing members to participate in science experiments. * Help solicit new donations to ISEC. * OBJECTIVES OF THE EVE25 PROJECT * * Test the ability to send and receive using digital algorithms (i.e Q65 mode) signals via reflection off other of another planet (Venus). * Establish and complete digital QSO with another station. * Use the EVE25 project to teach STEM classes with first hand example and build interest in Astronomy and Science. * Establish connections to other astronomy groups with similar capabilities. * LOCATIONS PARTICIPATING * * The InfoAge Space Exploration Center, ISEC https://isec.space/ * Deep Space Exploration Society, DSES, https://dses.science/ * The Bochum Observatory https://www.sternwarte-bochum.de/ This is an initial query to gauge the interest level of the various member groups (or their individual members ) at InfoAge before posting information about the attempt in the public arena. Please reply off-list if interested to reduce list clutter! Martin Flynn Trustee, W2CDL

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is this cabinet computer related?
by Jeffrey Jonas 18 May '24

18 May '24

A friend has this cabinet. Do you recognize the rails: drawers? computer rack? Thanks -- jeff jonas

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Media Operation- was "Recovering Macintosh floppies"
by Douglas Crawford 17 May '24

17 May '24

Hey folks- I'm sorry I dumped on the group about my frustrations with media recovery/imaging. I also inadvertently hi-jacked Jeff's original post though it was related, I realize now I was trumping his simple request with the general case of media. But if we had what I'm asking for here, he would not have had the need to ask for this specific solution. Its been a year and a half that I wanted the museum to be able to create and recreate the diskette media we use in the museum at will. Jeff has wanted this for years longer! This would support the ongoing operation of the computers on display and the games and applications that we demonstrate on them, and let us add to the complement at will. Lots of different machines. By now I thought things had developed that one system would be able to make any media we wanted, and would surely have a simple GUI interface that museum volunteers without a degree in magnetics. I'm not talking about fancy data recovery- just make disks from images from the web and capture working diskettes we already have. But it has been not forthcoming. I used IMD in the past quite a bit, we now have grease weazel, and an original Applesause. IMD and greaseweazle can't do Apple, neither can do TRS-80. IMD only for DEC robin? Not sure. C= 1541? I found no web use of GW & 1541. So can it? Does it work? Don't know! I have ways to hook up and use a real 1541 drive But its yet another system of software. We need to be able to select an image and put it to a drive. Simple as that. A month ago I tried Applesause to simply capture an Apple II disk image and replicate it to a new floppy. It worked with an Apple IIgs disk so I thought I was good to go. Then I did the same thing for an older Apple DOS disk and after writing the image out, the disk produced wouldn't read in the Apple II. I have to go back over this, it could have been operator error but whatever it was, it was subtle and frustrating. And embarrassing because this was for a project and the "clients" were present waiting to use this copy that I had made from their original only existing copy. I ended up copying the disk on our museum Apple II dual disk system. Right now the only way I know I can make a TRS-80 disk today is on a DOS machine running the TRS emulator which can mount real drives under the emulator. Yet another system to set up and support in the museum? I thought these new imaging systems would be a dream, but I had a lot more success with the old IMD system. They are all great developments, I'm not taking anything away from them, but they weren't really conceived with our use case. It seems they solve specific areas of media problems that were of interest to their creators. And then there are the larger needs of VCF is to provide for mass archiving and restoring of media data. Well in this operation, we can at least expect to have more expertise by the people doing this work. It all is quite complicated and I have a museum to run and grow and I don't have time to work out all the kinks and solve the science problem of the minimum set of tools to cover at least what we work with let alone cover all that we might encounter as we restore warehouse items. So that's the long story why I tire of just having ideas tossed out on what we COULD do. Or "just do this" responses from the sideline. Hence my plea for help by those who like this sort of thing. We really need a media team to set up, document, and maintain a media operation arm of the mid-atlantic operation. If I was doing nothing else I'd love to set it up. -- Douglas Crawford VCF Mid-Atlantic Museum Mgr InfoAge Science & History Museums 2201 Marconi Road Wall, NJ 07719

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