- vcf-midatlantic - lists.vcfed.org

hypertext tools from the 80s
by Herb Johnson 22 Oct '21

22 Oct '21

> > https://fibery.io/blog/hypertext-tools-from-the-80s/ > > An Interesting Follow up from to the Sunday VCF East 2021 'Ted' Talk. The author of the linked document, actually wrote it in April 2021, it's not strictly a follow up. The author makes a claim, that Xanadu was too ambitious, too hard, took the wrong ideas in the wrong direction. It picks a known winner, and sets that as the target. Unfortunately, that's a typical mistake to make in retrospective history. That's blaming the past, for not being the future yet. Then asking "why didn't those losers look forward and be like what won?" Hindsight is easy. Maybe - because the resources available in the future, *weren't available in the past*? Maybe - the vision that won, simply matched what was possible and available at the time? I could spell out, what was available in 1991 (the Netscape/WWW/HTML era). And what was / was not available in the 1980's when Project Xanadu was working in Ann Arbor MI. But it's just too long to detail. I'll just have to say - Xanadu in the 80's didn't have the PC hardware or software or graphics of 1991 PC's. (Even Windows became productive by 1991.) Or high speed dialup modems. Or a just-released private access to "DARPAnet". Or millions of PC users who already were doing desktop publishing, graphic documents, business data processing and content (spreadsheets). Or who were calling up BBS's at night to exchange PC programs, or calling COmpuserve to post in discussion groups. Universities, their content, their servers and networking, that was also a resource for early Internet-ing. So: Netscape glued that all together, into a browser on a PC under Windows, onto a network, with graphics. The networking, connected all that content (initially from university computers), by fast dialup, under graphical-mouse control. Netscape needed ALL of that, to work on 1991 technology. And: most of that was "free" (or already paid for, or newly available like that Arpanet, or part of your monthly phone bill). That's how a "killer app" works. It glues things together, to make a new service or product, that sells like crazy. But it can't happen, until it's about to happen, until everything else is ready. As for Xanadu? almost NONE of that technology I just described - hardware or software or networking or graphics or storage or memory - was commonly available in the 1980's. What was available, was expensive. Most people reading this list, can look at their own shelves, or memories, for what was available then. So: The world wasn't ready, and then it was ready. --------------------------------- As for the argument that "Xanadu was too ambitious". The interesting thing I got from Ted Nelson's VCFed talk, was that Netscape and its kin, some "wysiwyg" systems prior to it, actually watered down what a "hypertext" version of *traditional* paper publishing could have been. They reduced it to something that looked simple: a single column of text, a static page. ".. what you get *when you print a page on paper*", Ted pointed out. Ted envisioned interactive screens, on his first view of a *terminal in the 1960's*. It wasn't what he wanted; it was his vision of what could be. So the counter argument to "Xanadu was too ambitious" is, "Netscape wasn't ambitious enough; but it was implementable on the available technology". The bad news, says Ted Nelson, is that the 1991 implementation became the standard; and now we are stuck with it, and it's become normalized. It's an interesting observation. It suggests to me: What can we learn from computing *before* Netscape? Or even about information, before computers? The past, as a learning opportunity today. 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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VCF East 2022 Dates
by Jeffrey Brace 21 Oct '21

21 Oct '21

We're thinking about moving the date for VCF East 2022 one week earlier to April 22,23,24. Here is our reasoning why these are better dates: 1) Our teachers, including Jeff and Adam, don’t need to take extra days off work (unpaid) for setup because it is spring break and many schools are closed. 2) Children can come to classes on Friday because most schools are closed for spring break. Tony and Adam will be setting up the Apple 2 classroom and many schools have spring break so we hope more kids will attend. 3) InfoAge has another event the same weekend and we don't want to interfere. 4) It does not conflict with Easter and most who celebrate Passover. 5) Hotel rates are lower than the Shore Season. -- ========================================= 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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hypertext tools from the 80s
by Andrew Diller 21 Oct '21

21 Oct '21

Link: https://fibery.io/blog/hypertext-tools-from-the-80s/ An Interesting Follow up from to the Sunday VCF East 2021 'Ted' Talk. Interesting read about Hypertext systems and how much we still don't have today in terms of functionality. Contrained systems led to more focused software IMHO. Also how some of these must have informed the generation of the modern web. -andy

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Large format scanner
by Mike Loewen 20 Oct '21

20 Oct '21

I have a pile of schematics and logic diagrams to be scanned, measuring 17" by up to 36" long, double-sided. Does anyone around PA, MD, VA, OH, NY, NJ have a scanner that could handle it? I'm willing to do the manual labor part, just need access to the scanner. These are training materials from the SAGE Air Defense system, and are the only ones known to exist in the wild. Mike Loewen mloewen(a)cpumagic.scol.pa.us Old Technology http://q7.neurotica.com/Oldtech/

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Now that VCF East is on our back of list of events, what is next?
by Gregg Levine 19 Oct '21

19 Oct '21

Hello! So now we've done VCF East and it was amazing. (And yes good to see even new people.) What is happening next? The people on Hack A Day are urgently looking forward to the next Swap Meet. And even though I am still space starved, so am I. ----- Gregg C Levine gregg.drwho8(a)gmail.com "This signature fought the Time Wars, time and again."

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Tomczyk Interview
by Andrew Diller 19 Oct '21

19 Oct '21

Michael Tomczyk: Commodore VIC-20 Developer, Computer Pioneer - a nice article apparently resulting from an interview of Mr. Tomczyk at VCF East 2021. His keynote was a hit with a packed room. Look for it soon up on the VCF YouTube channel... Meanwhile: https://talesfromthecollection.com/2021/10/19/michael-tomczyk-commodore/ <https://talesfromthecollection.com/2021/10/19/michael-tomczyk-commodore/> -andy

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Hackaday Article on VCFE 2021
by Andrew Diller 19 Oct '21

19 Oct '21

https://hackaday.com/2021/10/19/vcf-east-roars-back-to-life/ <https://hackaday.com/2021/10/19/vcf-east-roars-back-to-life/> VCF East Roars Back To Life

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Compaq LTE 5280 5300 - Requesting assistance
by Russell LeChard 19 Oct '21

19 Oct '21

Good Evening VCF East, I'm new to this group(but not to IT in general [30 years experience ]) I love vintage computers. I'm also in the process of restoring several vintage notebooks. Two in particular are Compaq LTE 5280 and 5300 models. Both have moderate problems. The 5280 is the better model. I'm trying to salvage parts from both to make one good system. I need to replace the Multifunction bay(Floppy/CD-ROM), hard drive bay, and battery bay from the 5280 with the floppy, hard drive, and battery from the 5300. Here is my problem, I'm unable to eject these components from the bays in the 5280. The release buttons seem to be locked and won't slide all the way forward. There are supposedly locking screw holes on the bottom of the unit, but there are no screws in them( they were already missing when I obtained them second hand.) I'm very much stuck! LOL I also have Cerebral Palsy with mobility and dexterity issues (I have one good arm/hand to work with. This makes the disassembly of this notebook even more problematic. This system will be for myself for early/mid 90's DOS games BTW. I spoke to another VCF East member and they suggested I send a message out to the group with this request. I'm in the Toms River, NJ area and I'd even be willing to discuss reasonable compensation(or a trade for other vintage systems( I have others and vintage spare parts)) for someone with the expertise in the Compaq LTE 5000 series for their time and effort. Let me know. Thank you in advance. Take Care, Russell LeChard

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Hackaday article hitting the site tomorrow
by Jeffrey Brace 18 Oct '21

18 Oct '21

Tom Nardi of Hackaday said that his article on VCF East will be hitting the site tomorrow. He seemed pretty impressed with the changes that we made with the show this time. ========================================= 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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Large format scanner
by Herb Johnson 18 Oct '21

18 Oct '21

> scanning 17 X 34 inch schematics and documents > 1) take them to a copy shop ask if they have any copyright restrictions. I've had occasions where a copy shop said "we can't copy materials that have a copyright". They won't tell you that, if they provide a self-serve copier. But I've seen notices on the copiers that "prohibit" copying copyrighted materials. And generally large-format scanners aren't available for public use. Please don't give me a hard time about this. I am reporting a experience, not asking for a lecture on the subject of copyright, nor giving one. And it may be, this experience doesn't occur anymore, or only at national-brand copy services. > 1a) copy-service costs rather high Ask for donations from people who will benefit. Some people reject this idea outright, it seems like begging or pleading poverty, or some kind of evil capitalism. No, no, and no. People who benefit, sometimes like to show their support and gratitude. If this is wrong, why is gofundme "right"? > 2) take a photo It's hard to illuminate a document evenly. Keep in mind: a scanner moves the same light across the entire document. It even self-adjusts for uniformity. Scanners are very smart. A digital camera will *highlight* any change in illumination. and it needs to know the "color" (kind) of illumination (sun, cloud, incandescent, etc.) If you use a single-source (a light bulb), it won't work, parts of the document are different distances away. *Try it with a newspaper.* You might wait for a lightly cloudy day - then the sunlight is diffused uniformly. And set your camera for "cloudy" to get the color right. You might have to use a longer exposure; that means you have to physically mount the camera so it doesn't shake in your hands. And set your camera for the largest-sized images. again, try it with a newspaper to see if you can get away with this. People today are so used to smart-phone cameras, many don't have the old digital-camera experiences I'm talking about, like using natural light, worrying about light-source color/temperature, etc. People who take lots of photos, set up light-boxes and diffusers and all that stuff. All that said: maybe some high-end smartphones & cameras can do some "auto-stitch" thing or "panorama" thing, and get a big image, AND do so at 300 DPI or better detail that documents need. > 3) scan pieces and stitch together with software This works reasonably well, if you are familiar with a image application. I use an ancient version of Paint Shop Pro. I won't describe the details (read the documentation) but it amounts to pasting the cuts into same-pixel-size cutouts, and then moving the current paste to overlap exactly the previous-cut's edge features. With practice it works pretty well. 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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