- vcf-midatlantic - lists.vcfed.org

Suspected Phishing Attack
by Christian Liendo 17 May '17

17 May '17

So I got this to one of my email addresses ========= Start Message =============== Hello! We have 3 old Russian computers ДВК-3 and we want to sell them. There are photos here: https://drive.google.com/open? <no im not stupid enough to put the whole link> Is it interesting for you? -- With best regards, Michael ========= End Message =============== Did anyone else get something like this?

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Is this thing on?
by Evan Koblentz 16 May '17

16 May '17

Quiet here. Figured I'd see if it is working. ________________________________ Evan Koblentz, director Vintage Computer Federation a 501(c)(3) educational non-profit evan(a)vcfed.org (646) 546-9999 www.vcfed.org facebook.com/vcfederation twitter.com/vcfederation instagram.com/vcfederation

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Intel AboveBoard AT info needed
by Richard Cini 16 May '17

16 May '17

All -- I may have posted about this before but I have an AB/AT (TTL version, not with the large GAL on it) and I'm having problems getting the software configured properly for EMS use. The driver ZIP archives on the Net are incomplete (based on errors produced from the setup program). GlenS has been helpful in piecing together info, but I have not been able to locate a complete disk or manual for the board anywhere. I do have it running as XMS based on switch settings I found and the memory tests good, so at least I've made progress. If anyone has the disk and manual let me know. Thanks! Get Outlook for iOS<https://aka.ms/o0ukef>

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Museum security cameras
by Evan Koblentz 15 May '17

15 May '17

Martin donated four IP security cameras to us. This was a few months ago. We need to prioritize installing them. The building has a permanently installed ladder into the attic where there is a catwalk. (No word on whether there are any cats...) We need volunteers to climb up there and install the cabling. A logical time is at our next repair workshop, but sooner would be better. I'm leaving it to Martin and Dean to coordinate the technical details.

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Museum Report 5/14/17
by Douglas Crawford 15 May '17

15 May '17

Fairly slow day at the museum, likely due to Mother's Day and the weather back and forth from rain to sun. Two families came in. One had two boys in college in technology fields, CE and EE. They were fairly interested and got "the tour". The other family was not particularly tech oriented and they simply strolled through and moved on.

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Possible August 2017 workshop dates
by Jeffrey Brace 15 May '17

15 May '17

Any conflicts with: August 12/13 August 26/27 ? -- Jeff Brace - ark72axow(a)gmail.com Sent from my Commodore 64 ========================================================

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Museum report
by Evan Koblentz 13 May '17

13 May '17

Slow day at the museum due to a huge rainstorm. One visitor found us via a VCF East Youtube video and brought us Newtons + miscellaneous Apple things. Highlight is a boxed eMate. Another group was an older couple who visited last weekend and were so impressed that they returned today with their adult children. Today's the first day that we had a working Amiga on display. Good times. Looking forward to swapping it (the 500) for our 1000 when the keyboard is ready. Dean is retrobriting it. ________________________________ Evan Koblentz, director Vintage Computer Federation a 501(c)(3) educational non-profit evan(a)vcfed.org (646) 546-9999 www.vcfed.org facebook.com/vcfederation twitter.com/vcfederation instagram.com/vcfederation

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Radio Shack
by william degnan 13 May '17

13 May '17

Drove past a Radio Shack that was closing, today. Walked out with "all I could fit in a bag for $50". ... The retail total was ...wait for it ... wait for it. wait for it... $2650 (or thereabouts.) Maybe some of you should see if there are others closing down this weekend. BIll

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July 2017 Workshop Date
by Jeffrey Brace 13 May '17

13 May '17

The July VCF workshop will be July 15 & 16. -- Jeff Brace - ark72axow(a)gmail.com Sent from my Commodore 64 ========================================================

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Test...
by William Sudbrink 13 May '17

13 May '17

Sorry for the test. Working out my email client. Bill S. --- This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. https://www.avast.com/antivirus

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The Amp Hour Podcast
by William Sudbrink 12 May '17

12 May '17

One of the things I did to avoid going into complete withdraw shock over the last year was to listen to The Amp Hour podcast: http://theamphour.com/ I have a half-hour commute each way to work so it's a good thing to listen to. Episode 241 is an interview with Chuck Peddle. Covers a lot of the same turf as the VCF YouTube Video but all in one chunk. Bill S. --- This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. https://www.avast.com/antivirus

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] WTF
by Christian Liendo 12 May '17

12 May '17

So WTF Is Absynthia >From their KickStarter https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1426283174/steampunk-science-fiction-t… "Sick of Hollywood remakes and a lack of original ideas? Well Absynthia is a new original idea with strong female characters, the men who love them (who have secrets of their own), AND a drama to rival all dramas!" They have a Twitter account as well. https://twitter.com/AbsynthiaRyan In short someone allowed them access to the room for filming, because I doubt that much work can go on without anyone noticing.

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Possible July workshop dates
by Jeffrey Brace 12 May '17

12 May '17

So KansasFest is July 18-23 Would it be better to have our workshop July 15/16 or July 29/30? Any preferences? -- Jeff Brace - ark72axow(a)gmail.com Sent from my Commodore 64 ========================================================

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I'm back...
by William Sudbrink 12 May '17

12 May '17

Hi all, I've been pretty much occupied with rebuilding my house for the last year, but we (my wife and I) now see the light at the end of the tunnel and we're pretty sure it's not ANOTHER train. I can now walk from one end of my basement to the other and I'm beginning to plan the layout for my lab/playroom. Finally, about the time all this started, Verizon (bless their hearts) started rejecting all of the list traffic, so I sort of dropped off the list. I've just finally set up a gmail account and subscribed it to the list. Looks like you all had a lot of fun at VCF East this year. I won't miss next year. Bill S. --- This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. https://www.avast.com/antivirus

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Needed: traditional wall thermometer
by Evan Koblentz 12 May '17

12 May '17

Drew N. pointed out last weekend that our modern history exhibit should include a thermometer. Good point -- I check the weather through my phone all the time! Does anyone have a simple thermometer (it's fine if it also has a barometer, etc.) to donate? ________________________________ Evan Koblentz, director Vintage Computer Federation a 501(c)(3) educational non-profit evan(a)vcfed.org (646) 546-9999 www.vcfed.org facebook.com/vcfederation twitter.com/vcfederation instagram.com/vcfederation

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I'm back...
by William Sudbrink 11 May '17

11 May '17

Hi all, I've been pretty much occupied with rebuilding my house for the last year, but we (my wife and I) now see the light at the end of the tunnel and we're pretty sure it's not ANOTHER train. I can now walk from one end of my basement to the other and I'm beginning to plan the layout for my lab/playroom. Finally, about the time all this started, Verizon (bless their hearts) started rejecting all of the list traffic, so I sort of dropped off the list. I've just finally set up a gmail account and subscribed it to the list. Looks like you all had a lot of fun at VCF East this year. I won't miss next year. Bill S. --- This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. https://www.avast.com/antivirus

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Semi OT 1970 Robert Moog radio interview
by Matt Patoray 11 May '17

11 May '17

Hi all, I have recently come into possession of the master tapes for a radio interview with Dr. Robert A Moog, inventor of the voltage controlled synthesizer that carries his name. I have transferred the interview from the original 2 track 7.5 IPS reel to reel master tape. If anyone is interested in hearing the interview please drop me a line. Only Semi OT because late 60's Minicomputers such as the DEC PDP-8/e where often used in large electronic music studios to control patching of large synthesizers. And of course later on Microprocessors such as the Z80 and 80186 where used to control machines such as the Prophet 5 and the Rhodes Chrome, then there was the Aphpasyntauri that used an Apple II/II+ as its driver. And who could forget the Fairlight CMI, the sampler/synth literally called the Computer Musical instrument, which Bob Moog demoed around the US and sold. -- Matt Patoray Owner, MSP Productions KD8AMG

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Rx01 drives
by william degnan 11 May '17

11 May '17

I have Rx01 drives contact me privately if interested. Pick up preferred but will ship if you cover labor and materials Bill Degnan twitter: billdeg vintagecomputer.net

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WTF!!!!!!!!
by Evan Koblentz 11 May '17

11 May '17

Some kind of film crew posted on the IA page 20 minutes ago that "our awesome location" is in the VCFed museum. They posted a picture of our mainframe aisle with their stuff on top of our MOBIDIC display case, on top of the Prime, and TAPED to the front of George. None of this happened with any permission from us, nor even Fred giving us any heads-up about it. I called Dean. He said he's 8 minutes away. I told him to rush over, go directly to our space, and find out what the hell is going on. ________________________________ Evan Koblentz, director Vintage Computer Federation a 501(c)(3) educational non-profit evan(a)vcfed.org (646) 546-9999 www.vcfed.org facebook.com/vcfederation twitter.com/vcfederation instagram.com/vcfederation

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OT: Something to make us smile
by Evan Koblentz 11 May '17

11 May '17

Here's a little project I did tonight. It was relaxing. https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5thK4McllfJakhXVU1JUFpQS1U/view ________________________________ Evan Koblentz, director Vintage Computer Federation a 501(c)(3) educational non-profit evan(a)vcfed.org (646) 546-9999 www.vcfed.org facebook.com/vcfederation twitter.com/vcfederation instagram.com/vcfederation

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] OT Linux Malware
by VAXman＠tmesis.org 11 May '17

11 May '17

Ethan via vcf-midatlantic writes: >> My signature is "approximately" true. I got tired of seeing "this >email > free of > malware because I run such-and-so anti-virus program". >> Bill Dudley > >Brute force attempts to log into Linux hosts by SSH isn't exactly >malware though? It's not like a graphical or script ad delivered via a >commercial ad network on a web page that exploits vulnerabilities in a >browser. First, the attempts were not on a Linux box but from a Linux box. >You can easily free yourself from the SSH attempts by moving sshd to a >different port if you must leave it open to the entire internet. Also >turning off interactive (password) based logins can help. I have ssh running on a different -- not port 22 -- port.

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] OT Linux Malware
by William Dudley 11 May '17

11 May '17

My signature is "approximately" true. I got tired of seeing "this email free of malware because I run such-and-so anti-virus program". Bill Dudley This email is free of malware because I run Linux. On Thu, May 11, 2017 at 9:04 AM, Systems Glitch via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> wrote: > > > I wouldn't bet on that. I've intercepted five or six Windows botnet > > >viruses that implement just enough of SSH to get the job done and > > >masquerade as Linux machines. > > > > > > Telnets back to ports 22, 25 and 80 all report Linux. > > Both immitators and actual Linux malware is out there. It's not hard to > lie about a service when you contol the service, though. > > Assuming malware-freeness due to running Linux is probably not correct > nowadays, in the same way that "Macs don't get viruses" is incorrect -- > yeah, way less of a target than Windows, but it's out there. > > Thanks, > Jonathan (also a Linux user) >

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] WTF!!!!!!!!
by VAXman＠tmesis.org 11 May '17

11 May '17

Dave McGuire via vcf-midatlantic writes: >On 05/10/2017 08:53 PM, Brian Schenkenberger via vcf-midatlantic wrote: >> William Dudley via vcf-midatlantic writes: > >> This email is free of >malware because I run Linux. > > ROTFLMFAO! Give me a break! I've been >getting ssh break-in attempts > on ssh all day from a Linux box on >Verizon's net. No malware my ass! > > I wouldn't bet on that. I've intercepted five or six Windows botnet >viruses that implement just enough of SSH to get the job done and >masquerade as Linux machines. Telnets back to ports 22, 25 and 80 all report Linux.

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] WTF!!!!!!!!
by Dan Roganti 10 May '17

10 May '17

well, time to put a lock on the door this amount of carelessness and stupidity warrants such measures

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Zenith luggable available
by William Dudley 10 May '17

10 May '17

Zenith ZWL-183-93 laptop. A very early luggable, with (I think) a plasma monochrome display, 3 1/2 " floppy, and hard disk. Runs MSDOS. The museum gets first crack at this. See attached photos. This belongs to a friend, who asked me to find a home for it. Bill Dudley This email is free of malware because I run Linux.

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And the June 2017 workshop is ...
by Jeffrey Brace 10 May '17

10 May '17

June 10 & 11. Sign up here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/13qn9xUYyZum3ZD8HV0HtYJ2NHfDsY8Tmdw8… I hope to see many of you there! :-D -- Jeff Brace - ark72axow(a)gmail.com Sent from my Commodore 64 ========================================================

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] WTF!!!!!!!!
by VAXman＠tmesis.org 10 May '17

10 May '17

William Dudley via vcf-midatlantic writes: >This email is free of malware because I run Linux. ROTFLMFAO! Give me a break! I've been getting ssh break-in attempts on ssh all day from a Linux box on Verizon's net. No malware my ass!

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Video: Writing C++ '17 for C64
by Douglas Crawford 10 May '17

10 May '17

At our VCFE C++ keynote lecture, Bjarne Stroustrup elaborated many of the goals of C++, one of which is "zero overhead abstraction". All doubts on the practicality of that goal has now been dispelled from my mind with this fascinating video on demonstrating zero overhead in writing a C64 game in C++, cross compiled to '386 then translated to 6502. You have to be careful, but a high degree of this zero overhead is proven to be possible. If you, like me, have been ignoring the evolving constructs of C++, this will give you an appreciation of what has been developed and in my case is pointing me into directions to what to catch up on. https://youtu.be/zBkNBP00wJE

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OT: electric motor question
by Evan Koblentz 10 May '17

10 May '17

I wanted to test one of the Lego motors without setting up the whole kit. The motor is designed for 4V DC. Dug through my bin of random wall warts. Closest I could find is 5V DC (and 0.5A but I'm not sure if that matters). Snipped off the wart's barrel connector, spliced a mini-banana lead to each wire, and the motor happily spun away. When I tested the Lego computer interface port voltage it showed around 3.7x on my multimeter whereas the wart produces 5 true. Will I cause any long-term damage to the 30-year-old Lego motor by running it at 25% higher voltage than intended?

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Workshop day 2
by Evan Koblentz 09 May '17

09 May '17

Today's workshop attendees were me, Jeff B., Bill Dromgoole, Bill I., Dean/Drew, Adam, and Tony. Bill and Bill continued working on Univac + EAI TR-20 projects respectively. Dean/Drew worked on a TRS-80. Adam tested one of his Amigas. Several of us (me, Dean, Drew, Adam) worked on museum-owned Amigas. We got a 500 working and then a 1000 working, both with workbench disks previously provided by Anthony/Bill of Guru Meditation renown. The 500 is in our museum temporarily. The 1000 will replace it when we get a suitably new-yellowed keyboard. Dean took home one of our keyboards and will try to retrobrite it. We along with Tony (and Google!) tested the museum's NeXT Station. It works pretty well. We'll display it soon as the next "artifact of the month".

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Lisa 1 for sale
by Adam Michlin 08 May '17

08 May '17

Hi Everyone, You know you want to donate this to the museum: http://www.ebay.com/itm/WORKING-APPLE-LISA-1-COMPUTER-WITH-TWIGGY-DRIVES-AN… Best wishes, -Adam

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Pics from Dave's LSSM museum
by Dan Roganti 08 May '17

08 May '17

uploaded some pics from Dave's LSSM museum Lots of new exhibits and the new expansion with Corey's exhibits on the 2nd floor I still have to add the captions on these Some the pics need to be redone, I didn't notice the lighting was changing too much. And because some of the shots were done while still in macro-focus http://www.rogtronics.net/blog/?page_id=1065 Dan -- _ ____ / \__/ Scotty, We Need More Power !! \_/ _\__ Aye, Cap'n, but we've only got 80 col's !!

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FS: HP 98630A Breadboard Interface Protoboard for HP 9000 Series 300/200
by Systems Glitch 08 May '17

08 May '17

link: http://www.ebay.com/itm/272663229522 Looks NOS, definitely never had anything soldered in the prototype area. Thanks, Jonathan

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ISO: Solid State Music IO-8 S-100 Serial Board Manual
by Systems Glitch 08 May '17

08 May '17

Just purchased a Solid State Music IO-8, apparently the manual is not available online, and isn't listed in Herb's documentation collection. Anyone have it? Looks like it's eight Intel 8251A serial ports. Thanks, Jonathan

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2513 Character ROM - ReActiveMicro
by Support 08 May '17

08 May '17

I met someone at VCF East a few weeks ago and they asked about a 2513 Character ROM for a system. I can't find my note so wanted to make the announcement here and in case anyone else needed one too. Also used in the Rev 4 and earlier Apple II/+. http://store.reactivemicro.com/product/apple-ii-2513-character-rom-apple-pn… Thanks! </shameless plug> Henry S. Courbis Office Toll Free: (800) REACTIVE (732-2848) Office/Mobile Direct: (856) 779-1900 www.ReActiveMicro.com <http://www.ReactiveMicro.com> - Sales, Support, and News, Our Headquarters on the Internet ReActiveMicro.com/wiki - Support, Software, Manuals, and History. Create your own page today! Facebook.com/reactivemicrousa - Our Social Media Outlet and Support

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FS: IBM 5160 PC/XT 64-256K Motherboard, Upgraded to 640K
by Systems Glitch 07 May '17

07 May '17

link: http://www.ebay.com/itm/272662031085 This board had a dead 8088 CPU, which was replaced with a similar ceramic AMD D8088 CPU. It has, at some point in the past, been modified to support 640K RAM (a common mod for 256K boards) -- this can be reversed by removing an IC and a jumper. Fully tested as stated in the listing Fully assembled and tested XT-IDE rev 3 boards are available for bundled purchase with this board -- your XT-IDE will be tested in this exact board. Thanks, Jonathan

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VCF-SE 5.0 Videos Uploaded
by Alan Hightower 07 May '17

07 May '17

[cross posted] I was able to find time to edit and post speaker videos from this year's Vintage Computer Festival Southeast held last weekend in Atlanta. Amazingly I did it within one week and not a year or more! Here is the speaker summary and bios from the VCFed website: http://vcfed.org/wp/festivals/otherevents/vintage-computer-festival-southea… [1] And you can find the videos on the AHCS Vimeo channel: https://vimeo.com/user50868990 [2] Don French discusses the genesis of the TRS-80 Model I at Tandy/Radio Shack: https://vimeo.com/216109117 [3] Andy Hertzfeld from Apple talks Apple II and his journey to Cupertino: https://vimeo.com/216104204 [4] Zach Weddington hosts a special screening of his Viva Amiga documentary film followed by a panel discussion moderated by Adam Spring: https://vimeo.com/216081365 [5] Chuck Peddle via Skype discusses the history of the personal computer and his current projects: https://vimeo.com/216072422 [6] I've also continued to work on the 4.0 backlog. I've added David Larsen's discussion on the Bug Book series and his computer museum here: https://vimeo.com/216398748 [7] And as-posted from last year, Bil Herd discusses his early Commodore days: https://vimeo.com/161861581 [8] I still have Ray Holt, Jerry Mannock, Mary Hopper, and podcast videos from 4.0 in my work queue. 3.0, 2.0 and 1.0 to come (Jason Scott, Robert Uiterwyk, Jonathan Zufi, Carl Helmers, Robert Tinney, Dick Huston, Dan Kottke, and others). But no ETA on finishing as of yet, sorry. There are some flaws in video (Andy's lectern mic - doh!) and audio (damn kids!), but they turned out ok. They are all open to free download. But please give proper attribution when sharing. On behalf of the entire Atlanta Historical Computing Society who work hard every year to make this happen, thanks and enjoy! We do this stuff for you guys! Alan Hightower - President Links: ------ [1] http://vcfed.org/wp/festivals/otherevents/vintage-computer-festival-southea… [2] https://vimeo.com/user50868990 [3] https://vimeo.com/216109117 [4] https://vimeo.com/216104204 [5] https://vimeo.com/216081365 [6] https://vimeo.com/216072422 [7] https://vimeo.com/216398748 [8] https://vimeo.com/161861581

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DRAM memory testing - AboveBoard AT
by Richard Cini 07 May '17

07 May '17

All – I have an Intel AboveBoard/AT that looks like it works (it backfills RAM to 640k), so I bought a bunch of extra 256kbit (41256-120) chips from Jameco and boost the memory a bit. My plan is to use this AT for diskette imaging – I bought an Adaptec Floppy-SCSI controller (AHA-1522) which is the most flexible for use with ImageDisk. I know that these boards are somewhat finicky with the address settings, but when I try to set the board memory limits and run the diagnostics it complains about at least one bad chip but doesn’t identify the row or column. Arrrgh. Too many chips to swap one at a time, then reboot and retest. Does anyone have a DRAM tester that they can loan me so I can test all of the chips at once? Also, if anyone has experience configuring this board, I’d appreciate hearing from you. The instructions I found seem simple, but I’m trying to knock off possible problems one-by-one. Thanks! Rich -- Rich Cini http://www.classiccmp.org/cini http://www.classiccmp.org/altair32

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NJ pickup
by Mike Loewen 07 May '17

07 May '17

Is there anyone near Dunellen, NJ would be willing to pick up and hold a machine for me, if I should win? Ebay 292108393231 I've wanted to add an Eagle to my collection, but this one is listed as "pickup only". Thanks. Mike Loewen mloewen(a)cpumagic.scol.pa.us Old Technology http://q7.neurotica.com/Oldtech/

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Museum report
by Evan Koblentz 07 May '17

07 May '17

Infoage is part of the "Weekend in Old Monmouth" event, so they asked all the groups to be open extra hours today. We opened the VCF museum from 10am-5pm. It was busy all day long. Tons of visitors of all types. Workshop-wise, today's group was me, Jeff B., Bill Dromgoole, Todd, Bob F., and Bill I. ... me/Brace/Drom/Bill I. will be here tomorrow too, and we're expecting several others such as Dean/Drew, Anthony B., etc. (I don't have the full list handy). Cool project of the day: Drom is working on an RS-232 interface to connect a laptop to the Univac.

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OT: Nasa runs competition to help make old Fortran code faster
by Herb Johnson 06 May '17

06 May '17

Responding: Thanks for the responses. In general, if someone sees some way THEY could do such an exhibit, based on their interests in hardware, software, and to represent some use or users - that's great! More than one person can do such things, as far as I'm concerned. I'll respond with what I'd do, what I had in mind, for my interests. - Herb ---------------- [Jim Scheef:] For this to interest more than just a few people the physical system that is modeled must be something familiar to most people...like Lunar Lander... Is that the type of thing you had in mind? That's not a bad question. No, Jim, I do NOT have in mind something that's "familiar to most people". It's helpful but not a goal. That's because, of 40+ years of personal computing history, "most people" by sheer numbers are familiar with personal computers used as ordinary devices on the ordinary Internet, social media, gaming, Twitter; or previously, to replace paper-tasks of job or business or hobby. Computers used to be extraordinary, and unfamiliar. Those people outnumber the scientists and engineers and other technical-trained people (and their fans) that I'm talking about. I described a very specific set of circumstances. But I'd not do such an exhibit, if there was zero interest. I'm seeing some interest today. Now - for say a continuing exhibit at the VCF Museum, you may well want something that's at least known-of - say, the half-century event of landing humans on the moon. And "lunar lander" programs are about as old as BASIC, if not FORTRAN. And, the landing problem IS a problem in physics; it's not hard to visualize. Of course it's been a game available on many platforms, so it's true history. And the physics and programming may be approachable to the unfamiliar (more on that shortly). also: Lunar Lander may be reasonable for an *analog* computer - I mentioned that hardware. A challenge would be the inputs and outputs, how to make them more than dials and graphs. For instance, the analog outputs could drive a modern visualization on a modern computer. I think this was discussed when analog computer restoration was discussed. -------------------- [John Heritage:] there's actually two pieces to the NASA competition. modify source code to improve performance....and an overall software / hardware solution...[discussion of modern hardware follows] A strong coder and a math guru are part of what's needed.. experienced computer architects, and people good at logic... Of course, I know little about the NASA competition, and little about modern parallel-computing hardware. But, as a digital BSEE engineer with some master's work in computer science, and as someone who hangs out at the Princeton Plasma Physics Lab; I do have a clue about issues of numeric calculation of complex physical phenomena. I know there's some personal-computing hardware around that supports parallel computation. I humbly suggest you add "physicist" and "numeric computational experience" to your list of needed skills. The changes NASA wants, have to produce better results, not just faster ones. But further discussion here, would be outside "vintage computing". I'll end by saying, that limits of hardware and software were also challenges in the era of vintage computing. Something can be learned today, by reviewing solutions of the era. In fact, that's a principle thesis of my vintage computing activities. -------------------- [Tony Bogan:] Herb, I would love to see something like what you describe at VCF next year! I have zero background in fortran...the first thing I thought of was accelerators [for Apple II? Mac? computers]. someone else would need to do the coding.. If using my hardware is feasible, I would be very interested in helping any way I can. Tony, thanks for your encouragement. I have no shortage of vintage computing hardware, thank you. And Apple II's are not my area of primary interest in vintage computing. So I'd not use them in my own exhibit. And, I'd not likely use modern accelerators, those too are not a part of my interests. But there are people today, who ARE interested in those very things. So, you might consider such an exhibit yourself, and find an Apple II programmer who'd support that effort. Or of course, learn some coding and some physics - there were books on Apple II programming for physics and engineering! - and see where that goes. "Lunar lander" isn't the worst place to start. -------------- [Kelly Leavitt:] I have my senior project from [Rutgers?] (1993) . It was a simulation of random particulate transport in groundwater written in FORTRAN. I moved this chunk of FORTRAN IV from the mainframe/mini era to the PC....It ran on my Tandy 1000A with an 8087. The vector mathematics that FORTRAN could do was amazing. ...I had offered to port the FORTRAN code to C++ at the time. The professor just laughed... He had me port this to MS FORTRAN 77 and put a C++ front end on for graphing the results. Aha! Proof! Such things WERE done, even after the 1970's and 80's. And with personal computers. Thanks, Kelly! I'd say a Tandy 1000 with 8087 8088 is "vintage" enough. And the code was even older. Kelly, see if you can resurrect your work and show how it was done to these young'uns! A decent all-in-one machine from the era I'd consider using, is a Heath/Zenith Z-120 series system - 8088 plus an 8085, same MS-DOS (or CP/M), probably similar performance. I have FORTRAN for that, a Zenith/ Microsoft product. I use a Z-120 about once a week, and on many vintage projects. The Z-120's were also bought by the US military for their classrooms, and by many universities; some sold one to EVERY student. Many people over 50 remember them; that's helpful. I could probably add an 8087...768K of memory ought to be enough....vroom vroom!..he he Herb -- Herbert R. Johnson, New Jersey in the USA http://www.retrotechnology.com OR .net

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FS: VIP TXM/10-IV 10 MHz Super XT Motherboard Repaired/Tested/Working
by Systems Glitch 06 May '17

06 May '17

link: http://www.ebay.com/itm/272660815175 This board had a few broken traces on the bottom -- looks like it was stacked up with some other boards and got scraped at some point. After fixing the traces, the board still wouldn't come up, and the POST card showed a bad DMA controller. Replaced the DMA controller with a 40-pin machine pin socket and NOS Siemens 8237A. Fully tested as described in the listing. This board has 1 MB (640K usable) of 256K x 4 DRAM installed, plus parity chips. Interestingly, it supports 16 and 20 pin DIP RAM, as well as ZIP RAM. Fully assembled and tested XT-IDE rev 3 boards are available for bundled purchase with this board -- your XT-IDE will be tested in this exact board. Thanks, Jonathan

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Workshop Breakfast Tomorrow 5/6
by Jeffrey Brace 06 May '17

06 May '17

A few of us from the workshop are going to Blue Swan diner in Ocean Township tomorrow morning at 9am. Anyone is free to join us, just let me know. -- Jeff Brace - ark72axow(a)gmail.com Sent from my Commodore 64 ========================================================

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Re: vcf-midatlantic Digest, Vol 19, Issue 5
by SVCatITC＠aol.com 05 May '17

05 May '17

BRAVO Herb; You are another scholar who again brought back memories for me. When EAI got too big for their britches, they got involved in full scope power plant simulators using SEL 32 mainframes and CDC Winchester drives. FORTRAN was the OS of the day on these mainframes modeling nuclear reactor vessels, and processes. I have a very good PHD friend living out in Hightstown, NJ who still uses FORTRAN from time to time in his modeling work. We worked together on the ANPP project out in AZ for AZ Public Service (back in the late 80's). I can drop him a line if he might be interested in helping in such a project. I helped him in showing him real life SCADA instrumentation dynamics so as he could get the software objects to respond and drive the instrumentation as fast as the real life analog processes did. ..... Not such an easy task. Count me as one who would want to see something similar run on big iron. I might be able to help with the peripheral instrumentation as well. If you are coming this weekend, we might talk further. Many Thanks for your continued "long view" insight for the mission statement. Bill Inderrieden In a message dated 5/5/2017 12:00:07 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time, Herb Johnson writes: The question is: is there any interest in this kind of exhibit at a VCF? The exhibit would be, a vintage computer running a FORTRAN program, which modeled some physical system - a chemical plant, an automobile engine, a nuclear power plant, whatever - and used some other computer or means (a reduced size model, etc.) to visually demonstrate what was being "computed"? An example of sorts, is David Gesswein's display at VCF-East 2017. He displayed graphical results (not the actual computations or the thing modeled) on graphical terminals and on paper with a plotter. It was a physically interesting exhibit, of these graphical instruments - that was the point, I understood that, I liked the exhibit. In short - is anyone interested in actual, useful *computations* from a vintage computer? And in seeing those results displayed in some simulation of a physical system? Or would such an exhibit, be lost among graphical games and videos? Or irrelevant among displaying the computers as various brands and models with this feature or that? Those are important considerations among vintage computer owners and visitors; so is what I'm talking about. Herb Johnson retro*technology*.com

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FS: Varisystems/Teledyne P16 Core Memory System Lot
by Systems Glitch 05 May '17

05 May '17

link: http://www.ebay.com/itm/272659428903 Picked this up in a lot of industrial control surplus. No idea what it's intended to interface with. I would guess it is a generic core memory system provided to OEMs. The lot includes one good condition control board, one subpar condition control board, and a core plane of unknown size. It looks like it's probably a 4K or 8K core plane, similar in density to a DEC H217 but of course much smaller. Thanks, Jonathan

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OT: Nasa runs competition to help make old Fortran code faster
by Herb Johnson 05 May '17

05 May '17

Thanks for the post about the NASA challenge to improve a FORTRAN program. This interests me, as an engineer of the FORTRAN era. It's actually a pretty complicated body of code. But it brings to my mind, a question about displaying vintage computers. See if what I have to say is of interest to you - I'll literally ask that question in this post. https://www.nasa.gov/aero/nasa-issues-a-challenge-to-speed-up-its-supercomp… is a link to NASA's site with more details of the challenge. While classic FORTRAN of the 70's and 80's is not overly complex, it is different from BASIC and PASCAL of the era. But NASA's FORTRAN is much more complex. Scientists have continued to use FORTRAN for decades, and subsequent versions of FORTRAN support parallel execution, structured coding, etc. . Specific applications require libraries of complex mathematical operations; in this case, support for "CFD" or computational fluid dynamics - extremely complex physics of motions of air or liquids. The challenge points out that results must retain accurate calculations; modern FORTRANs have long representations for values. So this is no 24-hour hacker's challenge. You'd need a background in complicated physics and in numeric computation, to have a shot at this. And I'm not sure any of this code even runs on a desktop computer, or if so it would run very slowly. ------ It's relevant to vintage computing, because FORTRAN did run on vintage personal computers; and because it ran on vintage mainframes and minicomputers. It was pretty common in the 1970's; I learned FORTRAN in my technical public high school back then. I've thought about some kind of VCF exhibit, where old FORTRAN code would be run on a 70's or 80's microcomputer, to demonstrate calculations and show some graphical results. It would simulate some physical system. I've come across this sort of code from time to time, in old textbooks and reports. Likewise: there's been posted discussions here, about how to display *analog* computers. After all, those computers represented physical systems, that was their purpose. They were used to model the differential equations of, say, a bouncing ball or ballistics or chemical reactions; and display some graph of results given some variables. The analog computers themselves, WERE literal models (if you understood differential equations). But in discussion, it was suggested that a modern computer, or Web access, could display a visual model of the thing being modeled, and use the analog computer's outputs to "drive the model". OK - If these descriptions have already put you to sleep, or suggested some kind of one-liner punch line in your head, then that answers my question before I ask. The question is: is there any interest in this kind of exhibit at a VCF? The exhibit would be, a vintage computer running a FORTRAN program, which modeled some physical system - a chemical plant, an automobile engine, a nuclear power plant, whatever - and used some other computer or means (a reduced size model, etc.) to visually demonstrate what was being "computed"? An example of sorts, is David Gesswein's display at VCF-East 2017. He displayed graphical results (not the actual computations or the thing modeled) on graphical terminals and on paper with a plotter. It was a physically interesting exhibit, of these graphical instruments - that was the point, I understood that, I liked the exhibit. In short - is anyone interested in actual, useful *computations* from a vintage computer? And in seeing those results displayed in some simulation of a physical system? Or would such an exhibit, be lost among graphical games and videos? Or irrelevant among displaying the computers as various brands and models with this feature or that? Those are important considerations among vintage computer owners and visitors; so is what I'm talking about. Herb Johnson retro*technology*.com -- 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 retrotechnology DOT info

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June Workshop Dates - June 24 & 25
by Jeffrey Brace 04 May '17

04 May '17

If there are no objections, I will put in a request for the next workshop to be June 24 & 25. Do you guys prefer: 9032-A (The big room where we often have the workshop) or 9010-C (The cafeteria where we had Festivus) ? -- Jeff Brace - ark72axow(a)gmail.com Sent from my Commodore 64 ========================================================

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Workshop dates for July, August, September
by Jeffrey Brace 04 May '17

04 May '17

Any conflicts with these dates? July 22/23 August 12/13 September 16/17 -- Jeff Brace - ark72axow(a)gmail.com Sent from my Commodore 64 ========================================================

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IMPORTANT ChAnGes to Workshop 5/6 & 5/7, 2017 & Volunteer Day
by Jeffrey Brace 04 May '17

04 May '17

DATE: May 6 & 7, 2017 LOCATION: InfoAge Building 9010A - the common room down the hall from the VCF museum, address: 2201 Marconi Road, Wall Township, NJ) TIME: Volunteer work start at 10AM near the warehouse. Bring appropriate clothing and gloves. If it rains, then we will work inside the warehouse. Workshop Starts about 1:00 P.M. on Saturday and ends whenever we go to sleep. On Sunday it will end about 5 P.M. (Starts around 10 A.M. Sunday morning) SIGNUP here ==> : https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1waEqeNHZeYM9t7OprYWH bwBrIVS9EzGNGl7yJm_7yr0/edit?usp=sharing COST: - $10 for all members attending the workshop, which VCF donates to InfoAge as thanks for providing the space for us. - $25 for those wanting to stay overnight. Please pay me when you get there so that I don't forget. OVERNIGHT: Bring your own pillow, blankets, soap etc. We provide a bed frame and an uncovered mattress. There are showers and a kitchen for your use. - We will have PayPal credit card swipes available. EQUIPMENT: - VCF will provide a table and you can use any available electrical outlet. - Bring your own tools, power strips, power cords, and supplies etc. - Please bring an extra one or two power cords as these are often forgotten by people. DRINKS: You should bring your own. I would recommend bringing a cooler of some type. FOOD: You provide your own. We usually order pizza, subs or go out to a dinner and everyone pays their own way. Usually, we make a decision when everyone gets hungry. GATE: During the hours from 1 pm to 5 pm close the front gate behind you. We want museum visitors to go to the front lobby and not wander through the middle of the campus. Outside of those times, you can feel free to leave the gate open. PARKING: Park on the blacktop and not the grass. QUESTIONS? Please ask me (Jeff Brace) or Evan. My cell is 732-759-1783 and Evan’s is 646-546-9999 in case you need to contact us. See everyone there! And have fun! -- Jeff Brace - ark72axow(a)gmail.com Sent from my Commodore 64 ========================================================

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Semi-OT: PureData Token Ring EISA adapters
by Jim Scheef 04 May '17

04 May '17

Hello all, I have seven PDE9025-4/16 token ring adapters that are free to a good home. A long-time (nameless) MARCHian gave me these about 7-8 years ago. These cards have never been used, the bus connectors are totally pristine. There is only one set of original documentation (3/8" thick book) with driver and diagnostic disks, so one person gets them all. They are free for local pickup or the cost of shipping. With these, plus that MAU in the back of your closet, you can build the Token RingT network of your dreams! Jim

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