- vcf-midatlantic - lists.vcfed.org

TRS-80 PC-1 - New manufacture replacement LCDs
by Mark Whittington 03 Jun '19

03 Jun '19

Pretty awesome -- a YouTuber that I follow (Robert Baruch) designed replacement LCD modules for the TRS-80 PC-1 (aka Sharp PC-1211 Pocket Computer) and had them manufactured. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8Vagc0FJK8 He's received the samples and they work great, and so he's ordering 200 more and will have them for sale sometime soon. Seemed like something that might be of interest to this crowd :) Best, -Mark

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Breakfast tomorrow
by Jeffrey Brace 01 Jun '19

01 Jun '19

Us workshop people will meet tomorrow at 9am at The Blue Swan diner for breakfast. -- ========================================= Jeff Brace Vice President Vintage Computer Federation <https://www.avast.com/sig-email?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_campai…> Virus-free. www.avast.com <https://www.avast.com/sig-email?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_campai…> <#DAB4FAD8-2DD7-40BB-A1B8-4E2AA1F9FDF2>

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Assembler inside Cobol
by Jeffrey Jonas 01 Jun '19

01 Jun '19

The MOBIDIC COBOL status report section 4.3.5 mentions the ENTER declarative for inserting assembler code for the PERFORM verb to execute. That's similar to ASM in C/C++. Everything old is new again! My dad and other early mainframe programmers often knew the machine's architecture and assembler to do things that were not part of the standard COBOL language, libraries or environment. They didn't call them "hacks", it was just part of getting their job done.

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New museum artifacts -- great stuff!!
by Evan Koblentz 30 May '19

30 May '19

There was a place in Wilmington, Delaware called the Museum of Business History and Technology. They closed and offered VCF most of their computer collection. We selected certain items. Today was trip number one. We'll take trip number two later this summer. I rented a box truck and drove down there. Bill Degnan (and his GF and the MBHT guy) helped me load up. Steve Anderson helped me unload back at InfoAge in a massive thunderstorm! Today's trip included: - Two Xerox Star 8010: these are massively historic! http://www.digibarn.com/collections/systems/xerox-8010/index.html ... Our oldest Xerox system until now was the 860. There's only one keyboard and monitor. MBHT has the mouse and they promised to dig it out and send it to us ASAP. I don't know if any other mouse can be used for testing in the meantime. - Xerox Daybreak (next version after the Star) - DEC Industiral-8 (not sure how complete it is) - Mac 20th anniversary edition - IMSAI 8080 - SWTP CT-64 terminal - PET 2001 with the black faceplate - About a half-dozen unusual analog desktop computers/trainers, including the "cowculator". - EAI TR-20. Bill I. is restoring our existing one, so this will help a lot for parts. - NeXT Cube. It's funny after the lengths we went through to get one last year! - IBM 5110 + drives. - Intersil computer ... Degnan knows about this; I don't. The next trip will be for rack-mount stuff. Stay tuned later this summer. :)

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] New museum artifacts -- great stuff!!
by Evan Koblentz 30 May '19

30 May '19

Oops, I didn't actually answer your questions! > Nice haul! We have two of the Xerox 'Dandelion' systems as well, including a load of software and several keyboards. Unfortunately, we have no monitors. Would love to collaborate on any restoration work and maybe learn more about the video interface in hopes that we can get ours running as well. Awesome! The best way to collaborate is to bring your systems to one of our repair workshops. > Also, VCM may be interested in any items from MBHT that VCF was not interested in. Feel free to connect me if you feel it would be appropriate. Unfortunately I can't do that. IRS rules state that when a 501(c)(3) closes, it can only give its assets to another 501(c)(3).

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] New museum artifacts -- great stuff!!
by Evan Koblentz 30 May '19

30 May '19

> Also, VCM may be interested What is VCM?

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] New museum artifacts -- great stuff!!
by W. Bryan Caudle 30 May '19

30 May '19

Nice haul! We have two of the Xerox 'Dandelion' systems as well, including a load of software and several keyboards. Unfortunately, we have no monitors. Would love to collaborate on any restoration work and maybe learn more about the video interface in hopes that we can get ours running as well. Also, VCM may be interested in any items from MBHT that VCF was not interested in. Feel free to connect me if you feel it would be appropriate. Thanks!

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June Repair workshop signup
by Jeffrey Brace 30 May '19

30 May '19

If you are interested in the June VCF repair workshop, then signup here: < https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1cdRaUOarYmLe0c7Veddzl4HhOqB1BXTgTCQ… > We still have space available. I am planning on cooking burgers for dinner Saturday night on the grill. -- ========================================= Jeff Brace Vice President Vintage Computer Federation

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Forgot to mention: great tour group today
by Evan Koblentz 29 May '19

29 May '19

I forget to mention in the "new artifacts" email that I made it back to IA around 3:45, just in time for a tour group from the Princeton University IT department. About a dozen people were in their group. They took a thorough tour lasting almost an hour. It went very well. They invited me to tour their data center.

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Warehouse on Saturday
by Evan Koblentz 29 May '19

29 May '19

For everyone attending this weekend's workshop: After today's haul from Delaware, Steve and I were not able to unload the truck until about 5:30, which was precisely the time when a MASSIVE THUNDERSTORM arrived in Wall Township. We emptied the truck as fast as humanly (nerdily?) possible for our own safety and that of the computers. It was not confidence-inspiring standing inside a big metal box while my phone blared out the "emergency storm warning" tone. We put everything immediately inside the warehouse doors and then got out of Dodge. I won't be there until Saturday mid/late-afternoon, so if you go in the warehouse before that, you will find an incredible mess of incredible stuff! Feel free to move things to the side as needed, but PLEASE DO NOT start putting things away, because there are specific places that I need to put it all. It'll get done by the end of the weekend. Thanks for understanding -- usually the messes are because I procrastinate; this time it was about personal safety.

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