- vcf-midatlantic - lists.vcfed.org

Sussex ARC hamfest this Sunday, July 18th.
by Kelly Leavitt 19 Jul '21

19 Jul '21

Sussex County Farm & Horse Show Fairgrounds 37 Plains Road, Augusta, NJ 07822 Lat. / Long: 41o 08’ 10.2” x 74o 43’ 01.9” (decimal 41.136200 x -74.717233) Acres of outdoor tailgate space and 10,000 sq. ft. of indoor space. Food, Door Prizes and Ample Parking too! Gates open at 6:00 AM for sellers and 8:00 AM for buyers VE Session will start at 10AM at the Fairgrounds Administration Building Talk-In is 147.30 (+) PL 151.4 • Admission $8 • Indoor Tables $25 • Tailgate Space $25 includes One Admission ($8) • Each Additional person $8 • No electricity outdoors. • Bring your own table and chair. • Saturday Setup after 6PM • Overnight camping fees: RV $35 / Others $10

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Free televisions in Maryland Suburbs
by Jeffrey Brace 18 Jul '21

18 Jul '21

Someone is looking to give away two televisions. The first is a Panasonic, made in 1999; the second is a Samsung, made in 1998. Both have 17" x 12" screens. They work. If there is any interest, then I will get you in touch with the donor. ========================================= 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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VCF East 2021 Update
by Jeffrey Brace 16 Jul '21

16 Jul '21

First of all I want to be clear to everyone that we are doing a live show only this year. We are doing a live show or bust. The website is being updated regularly, but here is a brief update: So far we have 7 classes signed up for VCF University. We have 13 exhibits that take up 21 tables so far. We have 3 vendors: Drakware, Jim Brain, Jeff Galinet Consignment will have a huge amount of space this year taking up almost an entire section of the 9010 building. Glitch will be doing his single board workshop with something new planned. Tony has worked hard to get a food truck for the show. No luck so far, but he is still working on it. We have a Plan B which is to sell sandwiches like we did in 2019. We have 7 speakers lined up for Saturday and Sunday so far with room for one more. We will have 4 speakers each day spread out over the day. Tickets are on sale now. We are still looking for volunteers for all areas. This is shaping up to be a really exciting show! It looks like it will be the biggest show ever! ========================================= 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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[vcf_midatlantic] Monitor schematic diagram
by Herb Johnson 16 Jul '21

16 Jul '21

> Would you have a diagram for: > > QC-1418 monitor > HGC/MDA/Hercules > > Mike Rosen I don't know who "you" is addressing but my post preceded this post. Docs for IBM PC era monitors may be part of PhotoFact or other TV-type service documentation. Specify the BRAND of monitor also. But MDA compatible monitors are all similar in general operation and "TV" service information may be informative. It's all about what's wrong if anything with the monitor in question. A Web search suggests "BTC" may be a brand associated with the monitor. Web search confuses that brand name with "bitcoin" and isn't all that productive. regards, Herb -- 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 comcast DOT net

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Monitor schematic diagram
by Sentrytv 15 Jul '21

15 Jul '21

Would you have a diagram for: QC-1418 monitor HGC/MDA/Hercules Mike Rosen Sent from: My extremely complicated, hand held electronic device.

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Sussex ARC hamfest this Sunday, July 18th.
by Herb Johnson 15 Jul '21

15 Jul '21

> Hi Kelly so what is the weather supposed to be like for the day Well, News12 New Jersey cable-channel weather says Saturday and Sunday are rainy days, with thunderstorms overnight Friday and Saturday. Check with any reliable weather service. But the atmosphere is full of heat and humidity - energy sources for rain, simple physics. The simple hamfest rule is: expect rain, lose half the dealers and half the crowd. That, plus the heat-n-humidity and air-quality alerts and distance, decides for me I'm not going to Sussex NJ on Sunday, or Valley Forge PA on Saturday for their hamfest. Old-person considerations. For those who can deal with these issues, there will be some dealers there and there's some inside sales too. I look forward to the fall. regards, Herb retrotechnology.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 comcast DOT net

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] Next set of tools being upgraded
by Bruce 14 Jul '21

14 Jul '21

You'd better check the country of manufacture of those name brand tools you prefer. Many are now from China, despite being long-time American brands. My experience is different from yours. HF wrenches, including Allen keys, perform just fine, even the ratchet ones. I have screwdrivers, driver bits, a bench vise, and many other non-powered tools I've never had a problem with. Drill bits are a bit less reliable. HF bits are fine for wood and soft metals, even mild steel, but will not necessarily stand up to (normalized - not hardened) medium-carbon steel (in my limited experience). That is no surprise and no particular disappointment. I had one saber saw on which the blade-mounting lever broke. I returned it (90 day return window) and bought the next higher priced one. I had a double blade (opposite spin) circular saw fail in some manner that I forget, and they replaced it without argument. The funniest problem item was an anvil: I cut off a corner of the mounting slot in the base to make a quick-release anvil mount -- and out spilled a bunch of steel beads! The casting had a hollow I could fit my pinkie into! BTW, those anvils have very soft faces. They're useful, but not up to snuff for serious work. But grinders, welders, auto-darkening welding helmets, miscellaneous cabinets and racks, etc., etc., just end up costing half what I'd pay elsewhere and perform just fine. The cheapest HF bench grinder works, but takes a while to come up to speed as it's underpowered. The big caveat: Those battery-powered hand tools, typically 18V rechargeable drills and so forth. Either the HD batteries or the HD chargers are crap. They never last. I won't buy those anymore. Overall, however, HF is my first stop for tools. OTOH, I *never* recommend a professional buy his critical tools there. If your income depends upon the reliability of your tools, you don't want one crapping out on you in the middle of a job. Pros should buy professional-quality tools (and not just name brands because some of those are crap too). Bruce NJ On Wed, Jul 14, 2021 at 9:56 AM Sentrytv via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vcfed.org> wrote: > I have gone to Harbor freight to buy many things and aside from the free > flashlights and batteries most of their tools are pretty poor quality, or > at least the items that I have purchased. > I ended up returning most of the items that were poor quality. > > I have to admit the scan tool I bought from them, to scan codes on my > car, was reasonably priced and worked well. > > There is no doubt that their prices are reasonable, but I really hate > buying stuff from China. > > That may be my opinion but I think a lot of us feel that way. > > Mike R. > > > > > Sent from: > My extremely complicated, hand held electronic device. > > > On Jul 14, 2021, at 8:59 AM, Martin Flynn via vcf-midatlantic < > vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vcfed.org> wrote: > > > > Bruce, > > I’m a harbor freight regular, however when working (or conserving) > historic kit, I don’t want to screw it up worse than it is with a hand tool > that tears up the fasteners. > > > > Right tool at the right time was my dad’s signature line… > > > > Martin > > > > Sent from my iPhone > > > >> Of course, this is none of my business (as a lurker on this list) but I > >> must point out that the hand tools at Harbor Freight are mostly of quite > >> good quality. I use these in my shop and have little complaint. Their > >> main claim to fame is price -- quite low, generally. It is no longer a > >> situation like in the '60's when you'd buy a set of Allen wrenches from > the > >> $1 bin at the auto parts store and the damned thing would twist into a > >> hexagonal screw the first time you applied any torque to it. > > > >

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Sperry Univac Core - Which computer and Capacity?
by Herb Johnson 14 Jul '21

14 Jul '21

> Douglas Crawford > Sat Jul 10 02:49:34 UTC 2021 > > So, right. Here's the whole post mortem on this. > That's a recap of the entire successful conversation. > Links to the board pics, and the UNIVAC manuals > and such are in the conversation. > Hence, "I'm good". > > Thanks! It seems polite to respond to your detailed response to my "where's the core" message. Your responses were informative, thank you. As you responded, your Web pages on WordPress are for other purposes than for showing items for further discussion or to solicit inquiries. Your response explains itself and needs no elaborations on my part. Otherwise: you posted in this list to get some info: you got some info and assistance: job done. But at some point you literally posted "Any recommendations on where else to look?" and that is what I responded to. If I posted after your request was satisfied, that was simply a circumstance. My post also explained itself and needs no elaboration. You and I, simply put content on the Web in different ways for different purposes. I'll be thoughtful about your use, you suggested you'll be thoughtful about my suggested use. Those are considerations outside the immediate topic which you have already concluded. Doug, you asked me if I liked your site, if I would read a few of your pages on WordPress. Well, I did. They are good presentations about how you've designed various microprocessor-based projects, small and large. There's a general display of your vintage collection. These are all well-crafted pages with visual and textual content. WordPress sites have a commonality to them that makes them hard for me to compare to other Web sites. The "adventures in ROV" page, is a pretty detailed presentation of the methodology of students and mentors to create a toy-class small ROV from Arduino technology and various toy-class parts. I only say "toy" because you've also done commercial class development work. As an engineer myself, I'm informed by your presentations of design process. Doug, you are welcome to wander around my Web domain retrotechnology.com, for any information and considerations of use or result you can glean from them. There's an open question from Doug, about whether Web search "finds" the discussions here in this email list. I don't know, I search a lot and don't recall "finds" from this list. But technical content in this somewhat-private email list is limited. So I speculate there aren't often enough keyboards to trigger a high-value "search hit". It's also possible, that the hosting site "tells" search engines not to search the email archives. Those are administrative matters I have no knowledge about. But as Doug suggests: the email list is for specific purposes, if it doesn't do other things there are other venues which do. Thanks and regards, Herb Johnson -- 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 comcast DOT net

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] Next set of tools being upgraded
by Christian Liendo 14 Jul '21

14 Jul '21

On Wed, Jul 14, 2021 at 9:57 AM Sentrytv via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vcfed.org> wrote: > There is no doubt that their prices are reasonable, but I really hate buying stuff from China. > > That may be my opinion but I think a lot of us feel that way. > > Mike R. > +1 I don't want to get "political" but I see people who like to complain about jobs and workers not getting paid enough in the states. Well if consumers are not willing to pay the extra money so that a fellow american can still have a job, then I don't want to hear about it. The difference in cost is not much in my opinion and I am willing to pay the extra money. I like to support good companies like Chapman tools, their customer service was very nice and willing to put in the effort to make a nice tool kit for me. So I have no qualms about giving them my money.

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Next set of tools being upgraded
by Herb Johnson 14 Jul '21

14 Jul '21

> Looking at replacing the Allen wrench at CDL with sets > Anyone have suggestions on other manufacturers / options? > > Martin Flynn Related are Torx drivers. I don't recall what CDL has in these. A 6-inch shaft T15 is necessary to service Apple Macintoshes of all sorts particularly the earliest models. Later Apple models use other Torx sizes. These screws find themselves in all kinds of equipment. I'll leave choice of tool brand to persons with more experience than mine. regards, Herb -- 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 comcast DOT net

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[OT?] For Offer: NewTek Lightwave for Windows XP + PC & Peripherals
by Alexander Jacocks 13 Jul '21

13 Jul '21

Here’s what I got, in another email: “ It was suggested I reach out to this group so here I am. I just pulled out of storage a Windows XP PC with the last version of Video Toaster and Lightwave installed on it, 1TB of storage, and various peripherals/extras. Anyone know what the market or value might be for it? If so, please feel free to reply directly and off list. ” Let me know if you’re interested, and I’ll put you in touch. - Alex

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Repair Workshop 2021-07-10
by Jeffrey Brace 12 Jul '21

12 Jul '21

Enjoy pictures from this weekend’s repair workshop at System Source: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1-LdMKjLa34aJrAL_xyOhNBBiHsgbcuSl Lots of people here fixing lots of stuff! -- ========================================= 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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Next set of tools being upgraded
by Martin Flynn 12 Jul '21

12 Jul '21

Looking at replacing the Allen wrench at CDL with sets For the inch sizes: * https://www.wihatools.com/hex-tools/precision-hex-inch-screwdrivers-8-piece… * https://www.wihatools.com/soft-grip-dual-drive-ball-end-hex-t-handle-inch-b… For the metric sizes: * https://www.wihatools.com/soft-grip-dual-drive-ball-end-hex-t-handle-metric… * https://www.wihatools.com/hex-tools/precision-hex-metric-screwdrivers-7-pie… Anyone have suggestions on other manufacturers / options? Martin Flynn

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Woz Supports Right to Repair
by Chris Fala 10 Jul '21

10 Jul '21

https://youtu.be/CN1djPMooVY

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Sperry Univac Core - Which computer and Capacity?
by Herb Johnson 09 Jul '21

09 Jul '21

Doug Crawford and his Univac Core stack: > I'm not finding anything thing relevant on web searches, internet > archive, or any recent sales on ebay. > Any recommendations on where else to look? Doug, here's my recommendation, and it's posted in public for purpose. I suggest you photograph and describe whatever core thingy you have, as best you can; and either create a Web page about it or find someone to create a Web page for you (but creating a page isn't too awful). Then host it on a vintage computing relevant Web site. And, please, update it as you find more information. I myself run a Web domain for vintage computing with traditional Web pages. So I eat what I recommend. But Univac is too old and the wrong brand for my site, sorry. I imagine there's other Web sites where Univac content exists; maybe, core-memory content. Ask at those sites. The reason for creating a Web page with images and content, is to draw attention and interest. At some point, someone with interest or knowledge will FIND your content, and contact you accordingly. Also: with a Web page available, your "requests for help" need only be a brief statement and a Web link. The Web page does the work; not a thread of posts in some email archive. Over time, those posts and your page, will build a trail that Web search will find, leading "eyeballs" (persons searching for your interest) to your Web page and request. Those people will feed your interests; your interest feeds them. But Doug, nothing personal. If your interest is brief and limited, if this seems like a lot of effort, you need do nothing further. While I think you are missing an opportunity, it's entirely your call. You persisted and you asked "any recommendations?"; this is a recommendation. OK? End of response to Doug. Now, explanation to others. So: I posted this in public list, rather than a private email to Doug, for many reasons. 0) if someone knows a plausibly relevant Web site which will host Doug's "find", let Doug know. 1) To make a point about how to use the Web, in a 20th century sort of way; 2) to inform people who have forgotten or didn't know: this is how the Web used to be, before walled-gardens like twitter and facebook and other regulated Web domains; and before everything was a matter of chats that only last days or hours or minutes. There's another whole discussion about how the Internet used to be, versus how a lot of it operates now. I'm not gonna join that discussion, it's in my opinion a little off-topic for Vintage Computing discussions. It's a little hard-assed too, and I get tired of contentious discussions. These are, after all, opinions and analysis, not facts or Acts of God. And we in this group, are focused about vintage computing. Modern computing or critiques of it are not on-topic. But I saw a case in Doug's thread, where a brief lesson in 20th century Internet use *was* relevant and on-point. There's all kinds of activities on the Internet, including the kind I just described and suggested to Doug. One can create Web pages with VERY ordinary tools, and use sites focused on specific content, and not insistent on specific Web-development tools, just to make a simple Web page. Sometimes, in some places, "content is king" still works on the Web. The Web is not just one thing. regards, Herb Johnson retrotechnology.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 comcast DOT net

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Sundog
by John Heritage 09 Jul '21

09 Jul '21

Hey any VCFers out there who played / became fans of the Apple II / Atari ST game "Sundog : Frozen Legacy"? One of my favorite games of all time, especially coming across it as a child of the 80s.

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] VCF East 2021 Update
by Mike Loewen 07 Jul '21

07 Jul '21

> We have 13 exhibits that take up 21 tables so far. Could we have a web site update? There are only 5 exhibitors currently listed. Mike Loewen mloewen(a)cpumagic.scol.pa.us Old Technology http://q7.neurotica.com/Oldtech/

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New Mailing List Address
by Jonathan Chapman 07 Jul '21

07 Jul '21

All, This is the new address for mailing list use! Thanks, Jonathan

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] VCF East 2021 Update
by Brian L. Stuart 07 Jul '21

07 Jul '21

DOH. Sorry, that was intended to be a direct message and not to the whole list. *walks away in embarassment....* BLS On Wednesday, July 7, 2021, 5:41:37 PM EDT, Brian L. Stuart via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vcfed.org> wrote: Jeff, You mentioned that there's a speaker slot available. If you're interested in having a talk about the ENIAC for it's 75th anniversary, I'd be glad to give a talk on that. Full disclosure, I've made the same offer to VCFse. So depending on what each show decides, it could end up being the same talk at both. BLS On Tuesday, July 6, 2021, 9:36:30 PM EDT, Jeffrey Brace via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vcfed.org> wrote: First of all I want to be clear to everyone that we are doing a live show only this year. We are doing a live show or bust. The website is being updated regularly, but here is a brief update: So far we have 7 classes signed up for VCF University. We have 13 exhibits that take up 21 tables so far. We have 3 vendors: Drakware, Jim Brain, Jeff Galinet Consignment will have a huge amount of space this year taking up almost an entire section of the 9010 building. Glitch will be doing his single board workshop with something new planned. Tony has worked hard to get a food truck for the show. No luck so far, but he is still working on it. We have a Plan B which is to sell sandwiches like we did in 2019. We have 7 speakers lined up for Saturday and Sunday so far with room for one more. We will have 4 speakers each day spread out over the day. Tickets are on sale now. We are still looking for volunteers for all areas. This is shaping up to be a really exciting show! It looks like it will be the biggest show ever! ========================================= 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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Migrating Accounts
by systems_glitch 07 Jul '21

07 Jul '21

All, I'm changing my email system around for glitchwrks.com and will be migrating away from this address for listserv stuff. This account is totally swamped with nearly two decades of "gmail has good spam filtering, use it for spammy stuff!" buildup. Do not send emails to this address and expect a prompt reply! Sorry if anyone's emails have gotten missed! Thanks, Jonathan

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Museum Report 2021-07-07
by Jeffrey Brace 07 Jul '21

07 Jul '21

A very busy summer day! 31 people total visited today. A range of ages from 3 to 75. A range of interest from low to high. Got some people interested in our VCF East show and lots of people were happy that we were a hands-on museum. Lots of questions and answers about the history of computers. What was the first this? What was the first that? What's this one? What's the most unique, etc. It's nice to see the museum back to a normal flow of visitors. ========================================= 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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Free equipment available at System Source workshop
by Jason Perkins 07 Jul '21

07 Jul '21

Sorry about the short notice... If anyone is looking for rackmount gig switches, or ~5 year old rackmount servers, let me know asap. We're doing a recycle purge at work tomorrow, and I can nab some stuff if people are interested. Thanks, -- Jason Perkins 313 355 0085

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] past, present and future
by Eric Rangell 07 Jul '21

07 Jul '21

> > Hi all, > I plan to bring the exhibit I intended to show last year about Ted Nelson to VCF as well as my current exhibit of the PC Transporter for the Apple //e. I will also be able to show demos of Ted Nelson's JOT and Jef Raskin's SWYFT systems for anyone interested. Ted and Jef had great ideas that were ahead of their time. The potential uses for them I see in the decentralized internet space (which is already being crowded out by corporate interests). After corresponding with others who have done more extensive research I do not see them practically seeing the light of day in any product, other than specialized applications, like molecular biology which uses ZigZag. If you have different opinions, or stories about Ted to share, please contact me off-list at erangell(a)gmail.com. Thanks, Eric

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Volunteers for East Filming / AV
by Andrew Diller 06 Jul '21

06 Jul '21

Hello- If you are interested in helping film the upcoming VCF East event - classes and keynotes- please let me know via email off list (or on if that is your thing). I'm looking for a few people to help record, edit and produce some nice videos for VCF East 2021 "Live or Bust" At InfoAge Learning Center in Wall NJ. I can do editing so don't worry, that won't get dumped on you. I really need camera operators to cover the classes, keynotes and maybe some live interviews... This year we'll try to document the event with smartphones and wireless mics in order to keep things simple and agile. -andy

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Volunteers for Consignment Staffing - VCF East 2021
by Alexander Jacocks 06 Jul '21

06 Jul '21

All, I'm looking for volunteers to staff the consignment area, during VCF East, 2021. We have three times the space for consignment that we had in 2019, which should be great. But, to avoid the long lines that we have had in the past, we'd like to have 3 volunteers working the room, during Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, at all times. I'm looking for folks to sign up for one or more of the following 2.5 hour shifts, for each day: 8:30 11:00 11:00 13:30 13:30 16:00 16:00 18:30 Please send me questions, or let me know what shifts you'd like to work. If you can, please give me a first and second choice for shifts, in case we're already full for that slot. Responsibilities will include sales, answering questions, and crowd control, should that be an issue. I hope that everyone else is as excited about VCF East as I am! Thanks! - Alex

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Fwd: Sperry Univac Core - Which computer and Capacity?
by Duane Craps 06 Jul '21

06 Jul '21

I sent this from the wrong email -------- Forwarded Message -------- Subject: Re: [vcf-midatlantic] Sperry Univac Core - Which computer and Capacity? Date: Mon, 5 Jul 2021 20:59:46 -0400 From: Duane Craps <duaneb.craps(a)cox.net> To: Douglas Crawford via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vcfed.org> Douglass, Not much help but looks like it is still in the federal supply system https://www.dropbox.com/s/6ztq716e7053r80/2021-07-05.png?dl=0 Maybe TI has an online search tool. Duane On 7/5/2021 4:54 PM, Douglas Crawford via vcf-midatlantic wrote: > The board has bottom row (nearest connectors) of TI ICs label SN97674J. > Two of these have an extra designation "SN J55325J". > There are two smashed ICs in this row that would need replacing which > I presume are the same ICs as the rest of the row. > I'm not finding anything thing relevant on web searches, internet > archive, or any recent sales on ebay. > Any recommendations on where else to look? > > On 6/24/2021 9:17 AM, Duane Craps via vcf-midatlantic wrote: >> Here s a link to a manual on bitsavers: >> >> bitsavers.trailing-edge.com/pdf/univac/military/an_uyk-20/N00039-73-C-0431_… >> <http://bitsavers.trailing-edge.com/pdf/univac/military/an_uyk-20/N00039-73-…> >> >> >> >> looks to be preliminary information; it has a lot of hand drawn figures >> >> Memory description starts on page 3/49. paragraph 3-78 >> >> There was a control board and a data board for each group of 4 memory >> cards. >> >> On 6/22/2021 12:15 PM, Douglas Crawford via vcf-midatlantic wrote: >>> Board is identified as 90536-7128081-00 G >>> Web hits on this are thin. >>> Anyone know what Univac machine this is from and its capacity? >>> I suppose count of the wires H x L = # of bits of storage, and one >>> side is the word size of the computer? >>> Confirmation? >>> https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/kw4AAOSwwlBgujxR/s-l1600.jpg >>> Thanks, >>> DC >>> -- Duane Craps sdɐɹɔ ǝuɐnp

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Sperry Univac Core - Which computer and Capacity?
by Douglas Crawford 06 Jul '21

06 Jul '21

Board is identified as 90536-7128081-00 G Web hits on this are thin. Anyone know what Univac machine this is from and its capacity? I suppose count of the wires H x L = # of bits of storage, and one side is the word size of the computer? Confirmation? https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/kw4AAOSwwlBgujxR/s-l1600.jpg Thanks, DC

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Mo' stickas (2" inch circle stickers of vintage computers)
by Jeffrey Brace 04 Jul '21

04 Jul '21

There was a sticker sale, I got 3 more: Atari 800, TRS-80, Altar 8800: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1-Cl8ZPsxcT3d05krNtuam684_o6QdYAk?us… They are available for sale now at the museum and at VCF East and VCF West. ========================================= 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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why all my email is plain text
by Jeffrey Jonas 03 Jul '21

03 Jul '21

I have been a rather effective email user since the 80s. It's the MESSAGE that counts. The CONTENT. Not the glitz, cute fonts, colors, icons, logos, stickers, emojis or other decorations. panix is my main ISP (Internet Service Provider). I usually ssh into their NetBSD server and use the PINE email program. It's fast, responsive, and allows me to manage my email effectively. It also means that it's nearly impossible for malware, spyware, tracking cookies and other HTML atrocities to run. [admittedly, PINE has a LYNX ability to text-display HTML]. I archive emails by person or topic. Those are plain text files, so I can GREP them and easily use any editor to manipulate the content. HTML emails are usually 3x the file size of plain text. That counts against my disk quota. I don't appreciate folks filling my files with fluff. I prefer the digest so I get complete conversations albeit delayed up to a day. -- jeff jonas

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] why all my email is plain text
by VAXman＠tmesis.org 02 Jul '21

02 Jul '21

Jeffrey Jonas via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vcfed.org> writes: > >I have been a rather effective email user since the 80s. It's the >MESSAGE that counts. The CONTENT. Not the glitz, cute fonts, colors, >icons, logos, stickers, emojis or other decorations. > >panix is my main ISP (Internet Service Provider). I usually ssh into >their NetBSD server and use the PINE email program. It's fast, >responsive, and allows me to manage my email effectively. It also means >that it's nearly impossible for malware, spyware, tracking cookies and >other HTML atrocities to run. [admittedly, PINE has a LYNX ability to >text-display HTML]. > >I archive emails by person or topic. Those are plain text files, so I >can GREP them and easily use any editor to manipulate the content. > >HTML emails are usually 3x the file size of plain text. That counts >against my disk quota. I don't appreciate folks filling my files with >fluff. > >I prefer the digest so I get complete conversations albeit delayed up to >a day. Kudos!

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Topics for Bil Herd at VCF East 2021
by Jeffrey Brace 02 Jul '21

02 Jul '21

Bil Herd has come to VCF East many times and is always a great speaker. He is out of ideas of what to talk about. So do any of you have any ideas to suggest for him to talk about? Reply here or send me a message privately. ========================================= 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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Off Topic: Confirmed fix for your messages being in an attachment
by Herb Johnson 01 Jul '21

01 Jul '21

Two points: one about "lost in history", one in opposition to embedded content. On "lost in history", from Douglas Crawford: > Worse I just learned today (and this was the LAST STRAW) > that every message that everyone has sent in HTML *mode*, where the > text body became an attachment, has been lost in history because the > mailman digest strip these attachments off. Its all gone. > Years and years of messages. > All due to misunderstanding of this facility. Doug, the operation of the VCFed midatlantic email list is outside my skills set. But I don't understand your "lost in history" statement as a factual matter, within my incomplete knowledge which I'll spell out. I read the list *exclusively* with a Web browser, accessing the list at the link below and then for the month as the messages are accumulated monthly. https://lists.vcfed.org/mailman/listinfo/vcf-midatlantic I am one of very few posting-members who do this, apparently. Never mind why few do or why I do. That being the case, I'll describe what I know if others don't know it. So as I look with my Web browser, on the mailist Web site, at the June 2021 list; and then look at your June emails - which have the "scrubbed attachment" feature - I was obliged to do as you noted, to click another link, to read your message text. To my point now. Your attached text is not "lost to history". The attached file is also archived, just as the messages are archived. For instance one such attached/detached email content is linked as: > https://lists.vcfed.org/pipermail/vcf-midatlantic/attachments/20210615/eae4… To read it, you follow the link. The link and content is "preserved". So I don't understand your "lost" statement. Now your statement focuses on "digest" mode, which I don't use, and if I recall sends a daily? email packaging several emails of the day. I do not know, if these links are part of the digested messages. If the links are, apparently you can recover the attachments as I've described. If not, recover them from the maillist Web page interface. Also: the maillist on the online Web interface, provides an accumulative monthly gzip package of emails. That also excludes the attached texts BUT it includes Web links per message (like the link above for a June message, I just checked). Doug, it's possible you mean other attachments such as photos or documents, which may not be processed as I just described. Simply put: it's outside my skills and time available to make a determination about that. I leave that to the email list administrators and/or yourself. All that, addresses the "lost in history" comment. ------------------------- About embedded content: Dave McGuire makes quite a case for not supporting HTML and not providing various attachments. Others have also. To me they appears to be a "traditional" view of email, one I happen to agree with. But others may not be interested in traditional views of email, and so not persuaded. I observe that in other email list schemes (such as groups.io) which support embedded content and various schemes, I don't care for the result. Which is, to embed important information among a bunch of other emails that can only be found by tedious keyword search. By "important", I mean content an email list member would like to find later; or content that someone doing Web search, might like to find for its value. In my vintage computing work, I've done such searching many many times. It's tedious enough, just to treat emails as a text file. It's more tedious, to be obliged to read the emails with whatever email-reading tools are available. I don't care for email systems to be used for hobby collaborative environments, for many reasons not the least being the inability to *edit and supersede old content*. While not "lost", that content is obscured. But as I noted earlier in this email: others may not be persuaded by what amount to "traditionalist" views in modern use of the Internet. To old people it should not be a surprise that young people may not be interested in prior practices. ----------------------- These are all matters for the email list administrators to consider. Who they are, what they know, and how they take actions, are all mysterious to me. (shrug) They did not address Doug's comment (so far) so I chose to address it. Others provided their opinions on the matter, so did I. regards, Herb Johnson -- 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 comcast DOT net

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OT: On the merits of plain text email
by Douglas Crawford 01 Jul '21

01 Jul '21

Here you go, have at it. > I guess that's the problem with HTML for ya'll? It encourages too > much formatting? Or is it bulky? I don't need it, certainly we > don't need it functionally, but I don't understand what the huge > prob is with it, educate me. There are philosophical issues with sending frequently tens or hundreds of kilobytes when a few hundred bytes will do. That doesn't matter as much as it used to, but it still matters to some people for real (i.e. financial) reasons. There ARE still metered network connections. I myself am not on one, but I know a great many people who are, and smartphones nearly always are. Next, HTML is for web pages. Email is not web pages, it is a textual communications medium. The fact that uneducated developers who don't know any better added HTML capability in some email clients does not automatically mean it's a good idea. At least in Thunderbird (which I use) that drivel can be turned off. All of this crap started when the floodgates of nontechnical people opened up onto the Internet, and they seemed to think that anything is really just fine as long as they found it in a drop-down menu. Otherwise, why would it be there, right? That fallacious logic assumes that the developers of the email program knew what they were doing. But most importantly for me, *I* choose the text size, text color, background color, etc that works best FOR ME to read email on all of the devices on which I do that. People are not welcome to attempt to override that. What they send is really their business...and whether or not I bit-bucket their flowery purple fonts is mine. That crap is distracting and it's a waste of time, and I'm not a person with a lot of time to waste. Next, honestly, who has so much free time as to think playing around with "stylizing" their textual communications is a reasonable use of their time? On 7/1/21 11:33 AM, Herb Johnson via vcf-midatlantic wrote: > Dave McGuire makes quite a case for not supporting HTML and not > providing various attachments. Others have also. To me they appears to > be a "traditional" view of email, one I happen to agree with. But others > may not be interested in traditional views of email, and so not persuaded. Speaking of "a traditional view of email" suggests that there are other views, and it further suggests that this is a matter of "views" in the first place. The RFCs have not changed. The protocols have not changed. The reasoning behind the design decisions made during the creation of both have not changed. The drawbacks to abusing the protocols and the problems that this causes have not changed. And (for me) above all, my desire to not allow J. Random Mouthbreather who wants to use complex tools without learning anything about them first to override how MY computer systems display textual content intended for me to read has most definitely not changed. > But as I noted earlier in this email: others may not be persuaded by > what amount to "traditionalist" views in modern use of the Internet. To > old people it should not be a surprise that young people may not be > interested in prior practices. It's not a perfect analogy, but it's close: If I'm standing before a judge in a courtroom, I probably would not have a very good day if I were to explain to the judge that I, as a person with my own "view", was not interested in prior practices regarding speed limits and was not "persuaded" by others who were trying to keep me out of jail. A person can use a crescent wrench to pound in a nail. It will probably eventually get the nail in, but the person is still an idiot. -Dave -- Dave McGuire, AK4HZ New Kensington, PA

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Off Topic: Confirmed fix for your messages being in an attachment
by Douglas Crawford 01 Jul '21

01 Jul '21

In your address book for entry VCF-Midatlantic(a)lists.vcfed.org, set the drop down: "Prefers to receive messages formatted as: Plain Text" If Mailman ever allows HTML, we can switch back.

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Off Topic: Confirmed fix for your messages being in an attachment
by Herb Johnson 30 Jun '21

30 Jun '21

>> Uh, no, please don't. HTML mail sucks. Leave HTML in web pages where >> it belongs. > > I second the motion. Email doesn't need HTML. I concur. One other off-topic matter. Didja happen to notice, that the monthly accumulation of emails on the pipermail server, opened the "July" folder, with the first message that was dated "Thu Jul 1 01.41.00 UTC"? That is, sometime after 6PM Eastern Time. It's mildly annoying to be on Greenwich Mean Time from here from New Jersey. But it's a small matter. Regards, Herb -- 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 comcast DOT net

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Off Topic - Possible fix of email body inside an attachment - Test
by Douglas Crawford 30 Jun '21

30 Jun '21

I use thunderbird email client, and apparently all my message bodies are attached instead of in-line. I have just switched for this recipient to be text only. Would one person please respond if this message is in the body rather than included as an attachment?

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Oregon Trail
by Duane Craps 28 Jun '21

28 Jun '21

Back during the Oregon Trail anniversary. People were talking about running DOS to run it. I assembled a source I found with QB64 (a hobbyist Quick Basic clone). Seems to run OK. I'm not into text games so I have not thoroughly checked it out. Here is a link to the file in my dropbox : https://www.dropbox.com/s/y3qi21j5j266sx3/oregon.exe?dl=0 -- DuaneCraps sdɐɹɔ ǝuɐnp

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estate sale in RI
by W2HX 28 Jun '21

28 Jun '21

Mostly ham stuff but some vintage micros here and there: https://www.estatesales.net/RI/Providence/02904/2942061 73 Eugene W2HX

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First Request for Consignment Submissions for VCF East 2021
by Alexander Jacocks 27 Jun '21

27 Jun '21

All, If you're considering doing consignment at VCF East, please start filling out the consignment forms, located here: https://vcfed.org/wp/festivals/vintage-computer-festival-east/vcf-east-cons… Please fill out the form and email it to vcfeast(a)vcfed.org, or if that's not possible, bring it with you to the event. Please do not do all your form filling at the event, as that will cause a lot of confusion for the consignment staff. It would help us greatly if you get those back to us as early as possible. Thanks! - Alex

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DisplayWriters from Kemners?
by Douglas Crawford 27 Jun '21

27 Jun '21

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Laserdisk transfer to digital?
by Jeffrey Brace 26 Jun '21

26 Jun '21

Does anyone know if it is possible to transfer laserdisks to a modern digital format? There are 16 laserdisks recently donated that have C programming training from 1984, which was part of a UNIX and C training program. The reason for the transfer is that we don't know how rare these disks are nor how long laserdisk will last. There are 16 laserdisks as well as supplemental floppy disks and some paper manuals. ========================================= 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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Original Macintosh Architecture Questions
by John Heritage 25 Jun '21

25 Jun '21

Hey folks -- Two items I'm curious about on the classic (and very original) Apple Macs.. 1. Mac (128kb ,512kb, etc) audio -- was there a custom or off the shelf sound chip for the audio on the original Mac? and was it 1 channel / and was it a custom chip by Apple? (how did it achieve speech synthesis in 1984) 2. The Macintosh Classic released in 1990 "was about 25% faster than the original Macs". This is in line with the Atari ST often being quoted as faster than a Mac when emulating a Mac via Magic Sac or similar. What changed in the architecture to make the Mac Classic (or an ST in emulation) faster than the original Mac? Was it faster memory that gave more availability for CPU usage? were only certain instructions sped up or was everything faster? Thanks!

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free stuff update
by Bill Degnan 25 Jun '21

25 Jun '21

https://www.kennettclassic.com/freestuff/ A few changes to the free stuff pile. Bill

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IEEE Spectrum: A PDP-8 makes a stylish addition to any home.
by Jeffrey Jonas 25 Jun '21

25 Jun '21

old news to us: https://spectrum.ieee.org/geek-life/hands-on/put-the-classic-pdp8-minicompu… Put the Classic PDP-8 Minicomputer on Your Shelf This Raspberry Pi–powered replica runs all the original PDP-8 software with enough cycles left to double as a media server. A PDP-8 makes a stylish addition to any home.

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Homebrew Computer Systems from Bob the donor
by Herb Johnson 24 Jun '21

24 Jun '21

Thanks for the back story about "Bernie S paid a visit" and the computer brought to the repair workshop "for Dmitry". So now that Dmitry has the back story, what's his/her plan for the remains? It would be nice from my view, if the computer remains could at least be physically reassembled to preserve some kind of history of that kind of construction. I don't think they can be made to work again, nor need they be in my opinion. (The Apple II clone is in another, later category but of the same kind.) But if Dmitry plans to just use the parts - which is of course up to them - then it's good to have preserved the narrative and technical history at least. I have a Web site for the stories and tech I preserve. For those who think this looks awful, well, this is how we built microprocessor computers at home. In the earliest days, there just weren't' any "computers" to build, just micro processors or at best $1000 development systems or $300 development boards. In the mid-1970's, you could buy a *new car* for a few thousand dollars; $300 was an apartment's monthly rent. And, there weren't many single-chip functions - like "a floppy controller chip". So one board equaled one function. And floppy drives were expensive too. Most early computers used either paper-tape, or cassettes. And that worked fine for the small programs in use. These weren't built for looks, they were built for function. Many of the builders were learning as they went. Some were designing as they went, and as new chips became available. Getting them to work was an achievement. So, in my experience from the era: the 6502 computer when built, was an example of the time, early and certainly not common. The Apple II add-ons, was a thing that some people did, building on an available computer board. Using an 8-track drive for data is kinda scary, but it's a plausible extension of cassette data drives. But, once microcomputers got relatively affordable or were "cloned" cheaply, these hand-wired computers got shelved. When the technology advanced, these became less and less "functionally useful". So most were parted out or dumped. Since they were all unique, and didn't have that mass-produced designer look; they became cryptic, unfamiliar. That's why you don't see them much today, 40 years later. And time passed, is why work like this needs an explanation. Regards, Herb -- 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 comcast DOT net

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Old Heathkits Never Die, They Just Get Restored
by Herb Johnson 24 Jun '21

24 Jun '21

This isn't just "a Heathkit". This is a Heatkit analog computer, one of a number of analog computer models produced by Heath. And it is a nicely done article, describing a restoration and now-unfamiliar components; vacuum tubes not the least of them. The subject functionality itself is unfamiliar. Now 21st century persons have been introduced to this 1960's tech and mid-century analog computers. There's a companion brief article on earlier large scale analog computers and their role in engineering and science. So persons interested in these subjects should review this article. Regards, Herb -- 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 comcast DOT net

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Old Heathkits Never Die, They Just Get Restored
by Christian Liendo 24 Jun '21

24 Jun '21

I enjoyed the article, i figured others might enjoy as well. https://www.nutsvolts.com/magazine/article/May2016_Heathkit_Restoration

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Original Macintosh Architecture Questions
by Herb Johnson 24 Jun '21

24 Jun '21

> Mike Willegal > I agree that the original Macintosh (128K) is very painful to use, especially if you try to use it with only the single floppy drive that came with it. Saying it has a poor system design without understanding the design constraints that the developers were faced with, is doing them a disservice. > Once more memory and a SCSI hard drive were added with the release of the Macintosh Plus, the user experience with the same basic hardware and software system was transformed into a very positive one proving the basic system design was good. I'm not sure if I disagree with Mike or not. He makes a point about early technology being a performance dog, which got fixed with later tech. He makes a point about "quality of system design" that's some mix of hardware performance and usability of software. And points about a company's development situation among a mix of products available and technology behind and ahead. I think he's overly critical of the 128K at its point in time. In my view, the 128K Mac and its operating environment, gave a class of potential (not actual yet) computer users an entirely different way to run programs, and to run all programs in a consistent *graphical* fashion. The physical package itself was attractive and portable (by standards of the time). And it came from a computer company with a good reputation and history. I think the audience that 1984 computer found, weren't worried about "performance" and did not find the 128K Mac "painful to use". They could not look ahead to change their expectations; they were not users of command-line computers with multiple drives (floppy or hard). Myself, I was working near a doctor's office at a time. They were using 128K and 512K Macs, and getting office work DONE. I'm pretty sure they weren't reading technical manuals, or had run CP/M systems beforehand. Those Macs enabled their productivity. Sounds like a home run to me. But I'm not sure what Mike was responding to, because the discussion thread shifted to SGI equipment for a long stretch. So pardon me if I'm a bit confused. Regards, Herb Johnson -- 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 comcast DOT net

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Original Macintosh Architecture Questions
by Herb Johnson 24 Jun '21

24 Jun '21

Will the next person to post about SGI equipment, *please* consider changing the subject line to something appropriate? It's a simple courtesy to not "hijack a thread" with a new subject. Thank you. Regards, Herb

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Re: Original Macintosh Architecture Questions
by MikeWillegal 24 Jun '21

24 Jun '21

I agree that the original Macintosh (128K) is very painful to use, especially if you try to use it with only the single floppy drive that came with it. Saying it has a poor system design without understanding the design constraints that the developers were faced with, is doing them a disservice. 1) Hardware cost was critical. Apple already had the Lisa. The Macintosh was intended to get the Lisa GUI to an affordable price point that would encourage mass market adoption. The cost goal... a) Limited the system to 128K of DRAM and 64K of ROM. b) Floppy drive only for mass storage. 2) The designers were challenged with implementing a fairly complex GUI a) To make the feature set fit within the available memory, the designers had to implement a paging system to pull system features off of floppy as needed. This degraded performance a great deal, but the only other design choice they had was to reduce the feature set. Once more memory and a SCSI hard drive were added with the release of the Macintosh Plus, the user experience with the same basic hardware and software system was transformed into a very positive one proving the basic system design was good. My opinion is that marketing pressures required that the system to be released before the technology for a high performance system of this type was really affordable. Though significantly enhanced over the years, the same basic architecture lived on until the release of OS/X in 2001, which is not a bad run for a system which was originally designed to work on hardware with such significant limitations. regards, Mike Willegal

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