- vcf-midatlantic - lists.vcfed.org

Happy Holidays from the VCF Board and an announcement...
by corey cohen 19 Dec '19

19 Dec '19

Greetings, First let me say Happy Holidays to everyone here on the list. Many of you know me as the Apple-1 guy, but I’m actually the Treasurer and a founder of the Vintage Computer Federation along with Evan Koblentz and Jeff Brace. I was the one who personally worked with our attorney and accountant to get our 501c3 charity status which has benefited the hobby tremendously and allowed us to give back more to the community. Over the years a great many changes have taken place at VCFed. We have expanded our activities beyond the mid-atlantic area to directly host shows in Seattle and Silicon Valley. We have brought on new board members and merged with other organizations such as taking over Erik Klein’s vintage-computer.com <http://vintage-computer.com/> website forums, the largest and most active vintage computer forum on the internet. We have though our outreach worked with museums and other vintage computer shows around the world. For those of you who do not visit our governance page at vcfed.org <http://vcfed.org/>, I’d like to briefly reintroduce our board of directors. Erik Klein - Many of you already know Erik, he lives in Silicon Valley and was one of the early founders of our hobby and of the vintage computer community. Erik is also the show runner for VCF West at the Computer History Museum in MountainView California. Mike Brutman - If you are a member of the PCjr community or frequent the VCFed.org <http://vcfed.org/> forums you know Mike. Mike is also the author of the most popular TCP/IP application for DOS (mTCP). Mike lives in the Seattle area and is the show runner for VCF Pacific Northwest at the Living Computer Museum in Seattle. Dag Spicer - For those really interested in the history of vintage computers, you will know Dag from his role as senior curator at the Computer History Museum in MountainView California. Dag’s extensive experience and knowledge have helped us really step up our game. Jeff Brace - If you have been to a workshop, you know Jeff. Jeff lives near Infoage in NJ and basically organizes and runs all our workshops at InfoAge and has been the main project manager for VCF East for the past few years. I am also a member of the board. If you want to learn more about the board members and our experience, please visit http://vcfed.org/wp/about/governance/ <http://vcfed.org/wp/about/governance/> Recently VCFed began the process to make a major change to how the activities at InfoAge are run by instituting a steering committee. This committee comprised of local VCF members will allow us to grow beyond one person making all the decisions about the museum and warehouse. The committee is currently working on their charter and governance rules which will allow the membership to be more involved in the decision making processes. We announced the committee at our Festivus party earlier this month. I do believe it is the intention of the steering committee to begin the migration process to have elections for positions by this time next year. They are currently working on their bylaws and mission statement, but have already taken over many of the day to day activities at the museum and warehouse since they were generally the people who were performing these tasks anyway. I will introduce one member here, Dean Notarnicola who is the chairman of the new Steering Committee. Dean will be sending an introduction email out to everyone explaining the new committee in more details. Thank you and have a very happy holiday… Cheers, Corey corey cohen uǝɥoɔ ʎǝɹoɔ Vintage Computer Federation, a federal 501c3 designated charity corey(a)vcfed.org www.vcfed.org

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Holiday gifts your family will understand
by Herb Johnson 19 Dec '19

19 Dec '19

http://www.sunrise-ev.com/projects.htm#tree This is a gift I've given in years past. It's a simple kit to solder up, and it's a satisfying result. Unlike other "blinky LED" products, this is one you could have built in 1975; so it's vintage. It operates CMOS logic inverters as capacitor/resistor monostables (timers). And, the earliest versions I have from Lee Hart are on PC boards he made in his basement, by *drawing* the circuits with a resist pen. My card dates from 1987, it was his Christmas card for that year. Wow, 32 years ago! and we still fight! That's friendship. ;) Regards and good holidays, 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 retrotechnology DOT info

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Kennet Classic Workshop 1/4/2020
by Bill Degnan 19 Dec '19

19 Dec '19

All, Politics aside we have computers to restore, people. This is a reminder about the Kennett Classic workshop on 1/4/20-, mark your calendars. https://www.kennettclassic.com/events/ A lot of you have signed up on the meetup.com site, including new people from the local area (Kennett Square). Some will need help, experts are welcome. Seating preference will go to those who sign up on meetup.com or RSVP to me via the web site contact form. We can host about 20. Here is a blast from the past (workshop) ten years ago at my old office: http://vintagecomputer.net/browse_thread.cfm?id=310 (Dan Roganti and I organized a CP/M-themed workshop) Bill

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] I'm resigning
by Glenn Roberts 19 Dec '19

19 Dec '19

The governance structure of the VCF 501c3 is on the web: http://vcfed.org/wp/about/governance/ I agree it would be great to see more transparency from the board on governance topics for the group - vision, priorities, budgets, investments and other decisions. Before retiring I served for almost 20 years as a research director for a large non-profit (also a 501c3) research and engineering company in Northern VA. I can say from that experience that communication, transparency and input from constituents are critical elements of organizational governance. I also served in a voluntary capacity for a number of organizations (FIRST Lego League, Boy Scouts of America, and our local Homeowners Association) and I found those volunteer efforts to be much more stressful, so I fully sympathize with what I imagine Evan may be going through. Though, by chance, Evan and I still haven't had an opportunity to meet in person, from what I know from these postings and observing a few of the VCF events he has been consistently a strong leader and a passionate proponent of our cause. I certainly hope that the Board fulfills its duties and works to resolve any personal differences within its ranks. We all share a passion for the preservation of computing history. I truly believe that, but for the efforts of groups like VCF, much of this critical history would be lost forever. Our mission is too important to be jeopardized by personal disagreements. * Glenn From: vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic-bounces(a)lists.vcfed.org> On Behalf Of Ben Greenfield via vcf-midatlantic Sent: Thursday, December 19, 2019 6:57 AM To: vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vcfed.org> Cc: Ben Greenfield <ben(a)cogs.com>; Evan Koblentz <evan(a)vcfed.org> Subject: Re: [vcf-midatlantic] I'm resigning

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] I'm resigning
by jaj＠totallyamused.com 19 Dec '19

19 Dec '19

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] I'm resigning
by Evan Koblentz 19 Dec '19

19 Dec '19

Fifteen years of blood, sweat, and digital tears ... totally unappreciated by various people in recent changes to VCF so-called leadership. Ben, you changed my life for the better when you loaned your Lego robotics kit. I thank you for that. Anyone can reach me at evan(a)snarc.net. Anyone who wants to know why I feel driven out could ask the other "leaders" who think they know better than me. Basically there is no point in staying if it stopped being fun and too many other people want to fuck with the vision. Maybe one day I will start a new endeavor. On Wed, Dec 18, 2019, 4:14 PM Ben Greenfield via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vcfed.org> wrote: > Evan, > > This is horrible news and we deserve a better resignation/explanation then > this. > > I have no doubt it was a lot of work… > > Thank you, > > Ben > > > On Dec 18, 2019, at 4:10 PM, Evan Koblentz via vcf-midatlantic < > vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vcfed.org> wrote: > > > > So long and thanks for all the fish. > >

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I'm resigning
by Evan Koblentz 18 Dec '19

18 Dec '19

So long and thanks for all the fish.

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How to best store vintage ICs
by Herb Johnson 18 Dec '19

18 Dec '19

Henry S. Courbis (and others) suggest "antistatic foam is better than nothing" and suggests sealed antistatic bags to store the antistat'ed ICs. Also suggested are antistatic IC tubes, which Bill Degnan correctly states are superior. But many people (including Henry, myself) end up, piling chips in black anti-stat foam "in a shoebox", as he posts. I'm not ragging on Henry; everyone has these problems and uses the solutions reasonably available. Or we inherit collections of chips stored this way. Due to my age it's clear to me, these are serious problems over a few decades. Since many vintage computers and components are 40, 50 or more years old, it's a more serious problem for those things. Some science and engineering of materials comes into play when dealing with old IC's and their storage. If such discussions are not of interest, stop reading here. http://www.retrotechnology.com/restore/res_ithaca.html I don't have a specific Web page, about problems with "black rust" AKA "silver oxide". But many have observed that certain TI (Texas Instrument) IC's from the 1980's 90's have had IC pins turn black and become brittle. In sockets these IC's must be replaced; soldered in they seem to mostly perform OK (until they don't). Other ICs in general may suffer similar brittle-rust-pin problems. I don't have a factual scientific finding on the chemistry of the problem But there's no doubt problems occur for certain runs, brands, and eras of IC's. Solutions to the old chips that rust-out? one simply avoids them. They now stand out with their black and sometimes brittle "legs". My expedient (described on the Web page cited) was to use De-Oxit per pin and socket and pray. Antistatic-plastic tubes are available and not overly expensive in bulk. One accumulates these or just buys them. Replacement every few decades is simply a fact, because they *break up* otherwise. Other than the tube's decay, I'm not aware they cause other problems. I and others have seen chips, stored for decades in antistatic foam, fall apart when pulled out. We have all seen such foam become dust or mud. So, it's a problem. I'll detail what I know. I did some research several years ago about the nature of black antistatic foam. I had to recover chips stored since the 1970's in black foam in a cardboard box; others were packaged in individual little hard-plastic containers, also with black foam. The classic conductive material in these foams, appears to be carbon-black. Some carbon-black is produced by burning (with acids I believe) *sugar*. Consequently, some resulting carbon black contains sugar and acid. Over time and in the presence of oxygen and moisture, these contribute to *corrosion*. And over decades, the base material of anti-static "foam" degrades, as does almost any plastic. When these anti-static foams are cheaply produced, these problems seem to occur sooner. Antistatic foam is intended to be a temporary storage, generally, for transport. I'm sure someone with more industrial knowledge, can inform me about long-term storage methods. I'm generally aware, those involve sealed plastic and antistatic or conductive baggies. There's likely other and better (or worse) materials used in storage in recent years. Among the decades-old ICS, I observed there was much less damage among the individual containers than in the "black foam in a box" items. I hypothesize that the somewhat sealed containers reduced oxygen and moisture exposure. I left those items alone. The chips stored in sheets of crumbling black foam? As an expedient, I repackaged them in "aluminum wool" sheets and sealed anti-stat bags. "aluminum wool" is like steel wool, only made from aluminum. It was awful, cheaply made, crumbly stuff. But it wont' rust or induce rust in other metals, and it provides conductive protection. Instead of 'cardboard boxes" I used acid-free archival boxes. Most cardboard is full of acids, from the paper-making process. Again - these choices were an expedient of time and cost. I didn't and don't have cheap solutions to these "black-foam" problems; but I've not looked lately. I'm glad the subject came up for discussion (if anyone has read this far). I don't know of a better and relatively cheap material to use as an antistatic embedded "pad", than the black (and pink) foamed plastics in current use. It seems prudent to replace the foam every several years, and to sealed-bag such things: yet I don't follow my own advice out of convenience. Conductive tubes are reasonable for batches of like chips; inconvenient for individual chips. IF somone has factual/engineering data about some modern material alternatives, I'd love to hear about it. Don't forget the material facts. 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 retrotechnology DOT info

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] How to best store vintage ICs
by Jeffrey Jonas 18 Dec '19

18 Dec '19

I'd say tin boxes are best. Naturally conductive. I use AOL tins but they're no longer free in your mailbox :-/ Altoid/mint tins are fine, after cleaning. After that, consider chip rails. That's what the manufacturers use. Never any residue or chip fouling. JUST SAY NO TO FOAM! Bad foam damaged my vintage chips by corroding the pins so much that some fell off :-( -- jeff jonas

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How to best store vintage ICs
by John Heritage 18 Dec '19

18 Dec '19

Hey folks, I'm looking for some advice. I have a number of old CPUs -- 8088s, a few 286's, some 486s and early Pentiums sitting in a box stuck in some packing foam from years ago. I'd like to store these a little better as some now have bent pins and they're a little haphazardly in the box. I kept most of these because these (at least pre-Pentium) CPUs were keepsakes from my BBS that didn't go to Microsoft and Novell when they raided my BBS :). What's a better way to store these? I assume just get some anti static foam of some kind from Amazon or another source (Mouser?). I see some plastic boxes with anti static foam in them that seem like a decent idea for keeping them protected.. Thanks.. John

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