- vcf-midatlantic - lists.vcfed.org

Museum report
by Evan Koblentz 29 Dec '18

29 Dec '18

Jeff B. was our docent today. I was at the InfoAge front desk (it was VCF's turn). About 25-30 visitors today with varied levels of interest.

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] Straight 8
by Jeffrey Brace 28 Dec '18

28 Dec '18

Evan knows how to do it and will be including it in his forthcoming docent manual which will also have a video. @David Let us know what to look for as we run it. On Fri, Dec 28, 2018 at 9:17 AM Tony Bogan via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vcfed.org> wrote: > > > On Dec 28, 2018, at 8:07 AM, David Gesswein via vcf-midatlantic < > vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vcfed.org> wrote: > > > > In the various report of whats working and whats not I haven't heard > > any report on the Staight 8. Has anybody been running it? > > David, when I’ve been at the museum I have not run it as I am unfamiliar > with it. Perhaps if you’re at one of the upcoming workshops you could give > me a crash course (pun intended) so I could run a demo for visitors. > > When Bill Dromgoole was there he both wrote down and walked me through the > diagnostic we use to show the machine running. It’s not sexy but for 99% of > the people it’s enough blinking lights and whirring to get the “wow it > actually works!” Response from them. I also have a video of Bill running > the program that I can refer back to. > > I would never attempt to mess with a machine I am not familiar with, but I > should have asked a long time ago for you to show me the basics. I’d love > to have yet another machine to demo for visitors. > > Tony > -- ========================================= Jeff Brace Vice President Vintage Computer Federation

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PDP 8 documents (ephemera) available
by William Dudley 28 Dec '18

28 Dec '18

Back in the late 70's, when the PDP 8 was already getting long in the tooth, a friend and I built PDP-8 clones using the Intersil 6100 chip. (The museum has my PDP-8 clone in their collection.} We also copied every bit of PDP-8 documentation we could. Because I never throw anything out, but want to make it so my son doesn't have to get the extra large dumpster when I go, I recently discoved a book box full of PDP-8 documentation. Most of it is 8 1/2 x 11, except for the first two items. Some of this stuff is original Digital Equipment Corp publications, some is photocopies; that is noted for each item below. There are multiple copies of a few of the documents, also noted below. Also, there is one (1) pdp-12 document in the collection (a photocopy). All these documents are in excellent shape, especially since they've been in a box in my basement for 30 years, and in the same box in a different basement for 5 years prior to that. The museum (a.k.a, Evan) gets first dibs. After that -- I dunno, depends on how much interest there is. os/8 handbook first printing 1974/4 - 2 copies (official DEC paperback book) ALL of the following are 8 1/2 x 11: os/8 software support manual (version 3 1974/6) - 3 photocopies os/8 software support manual (version 3 1974/6) - 1 original decus program library: Focal photocopy DEC-S8-CFTNA-A-D fortran IV users manual first printing 1973/6 2 photocopies DEC-S8-LFSSA-A-D fortran IV software support manual 1973 photocopy pdp/8 floating point system programming manual photocopy Digital-8-2-U Binary loader (original listing) 1966/3/23 (to be toggled in) DEC-08-PMPA-D Readin-Mode (RIM) Punch (original listing) 1966/11/22 8 DEC-08-COAA-D (L) ODT (mimeograph ? listing) 1967/5/12 DEC-08-COCO-D ODT-8 1968/10/10 photocopy DEC-08-NGCA-D PDP-8 Console Manual 1966 original Maindec 802 Memory Checkerboard Test 1965/9/1 (original listing) Maindec 803 Memory Address Test 1965/5/11 (original listing) Digital-8-6-U-Sym Octal Memory Dump 1965/3/17 (mimeograph ? listing) Digital-8-5-U-Sym Binary Punch 1965/3/1 (original listing) DEC-08-ESAA-D PDP-8 Symbolic Editor Programming Editor 1965 original DEC-08-BA1A-D PDP-8 Program Abstracts 1966/10/11 (original) DEC-08-CMAA-D PDP-8 Macro-8 Programming Manual 1965 (original) DEC-08-ASAA-D PDP-8 PAL III Symbolic Assembler Programming Manual 1965 (original) DIGITAL-8-4-S PDP-8 DDT Programming Manual 1965 (original) DEC-S8-UPTHA-B-D EPIC User's Manual (photocopy) DEC-S8-OSRNA-A-D OS/8 System Release Notes (V03C) (2 photocopies) DEC-S8-OSHBA-A-DN1 OS/8 Handbook Addendum - New Handlers (photocopy) AD-0877G-B1 Digital Software News PDP-8 1977/4 (photocopy) miscellaneous pages of Digital Software News (1976) (photocopy) miscellaneous photocopied DEC errata and correction pages (title unknown) Chapter 4 RX8E Interfacing Programming Information (2 photocopies) DEC-12-UFPAA-A-D pdp12 FPP Assembler User's Guide 1973/7 - (photocopy) Bill Dudley This email is free of malware because I run Linux.

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Straight 8
by David Gesswein 28 Dec '18

28 Dec '18

In the various report of whats working and whats not I haven't heard any report on the Staight 8. Has anybody been running it?

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Thank you - end-of-year donations - still time! :)
by Evan Koblentz 28 Dec '18

28 Dec '18

Thank you to everyone who made year-end contributions to VCF this month. I know there are lots of procrastinators here. :) Good news, it's only December 28 and you have three more days to make calendar year 2018 donations to your favorite cause! We need your help for things such as putting on awesome events, rescuing exotic computers, purchasing insurance, getting the warehouse organized, buying all kinds of museum/event supplies, and improving the museum displays, to name just a few of our expenses. Remember, every dollar counts and is appreciated equally. Whether you can donate $1, $10, $100, or any other amount, it all helps! Please go to http://vcfed.org/wp/contribute/ for details. Thanks very much, -Evan ________________________________ Evan Koblentz, executive 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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WTD: PDP-11 tape drive?
by Herb Johnson 28 Dec '18

28 Dec '18

On 12/26/18 9:04 PM, W2HX via vcf-midatlantic wrote: > I am building my first PDP-11. It is a 11/23+ I would really like to get a real-to-real 9-track tape drive, the manual loading kind. > > https://www.ebay.com/itm/192745726868 > and > https://www.ebay.com/itm/264099860161 > > I am in NY, willing to drive a few hours or pay for shipping. > > 73 Eugene W2HX Note those eBay drives are in California, about as far to ship to NY as anything you've find in the USA. Dave McGuire, could you comment on the challenge of some 3rd party shipping these cross-country? They are suggesting $300/$400 shipping, probably a CYA price I'm guessing. As an aside, seems to me there's likely some east-coast tape drives at lower shipping cost, if one is patient. This comes to my attention because I have a few of those less-desired auto-load or tabletop "real" tapedrives. Likely they won't run 6250 as these two eBay'ed drives will. (shrug) 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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Looking for Info discs(drivers) and software for Microchannel boards
by Matt Patoray 27 Dec '18

27 Dec '18

Hi all, I am looking for the info discs (drivers and reference disc files for setup) as well as the software for the IBM Microchannel 3270 communications card. The software can be the DOS version, but I would prefer the OS/2 version. Thank you, Sent from my iPhone

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Jeri Ellsworth's C64 keytar!
by Jeffrey Jonas 27 Dec '18

27 Dec '18

https://youtu.be/_kDhpFaf4EY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_kDhpFaf4EY Jeri Ellsworth Published on Jul 8, 2012 Jeri shows a bass guitar she build from an old C64. It uses the original sound chip (SID 6581) for keytar and string sounds.

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who has the Cauzon reader?
by Jeffrey Jonas 27 Dec '18

27 Dec '18

Someone had a Cauzon reader at Festivus. Here's a relatively recent request for one comp.sys.apple2.marketplace NNTP-Posting-Date: Tue, 13 Nov 2018 11:22:22 -0600 From: coderipper <coderipper(a)gmail.com> [1] Re: WTB: Cauzin Sofstrip System Reader for Apple II Date: Tue Nov 13 12:22:23 EST 2018 Bump. On Mon, 03 Sep 2018 22:22:02 -0400, coderipper wrote: > I am looking for a Cauzin Softstrip System Reader for Apple II. This > was a system for encoding and decoding software in a barcode format for > storage on paper. > > Please contact me with a price if you have one that you are willing to > sell.

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Museum report
by Evan Koblentz 26 Dec '18

26 Dec '18

Busy today! Lots of families visited. We accepted a donation of a rare DEC (Memorex) RP-04A drive.

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