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MakerFaire 2018 Bus Trip from Allentown, PA
by Chris Fala 04 Sep '18

04 Sep '18

Make Lehigh Valley, my makerspace in Allentown, PA is again organizing a one-day bus trip to the New York World Maker Faire on Saturday, September 22. This is a stress-free trip on a comfortable, air conditioned bus. If you can get to Allentown, PA, we will get you to New York. I hope to see you! Chris ———————— It’s official, we’re running the bus trip to Maker Faire NYC again this year! The drive to Queens is no fun at all. The bus trip with Make Lehigh Valley? Lots of fun. Get your tickets now! https://mlvwmf2018.eventbrite.com/ —

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A video for Dan
by Evan Koblentz 04 Sep '18

04 Sep '18

Dan asked me to share this after he passed. He said his sister took him to see Stayin' Alive in 1977 and then his brother took him to see Star Wars. He thought this mash-up was hysterical (via Jimmy Fallon show). Per his request, here's a longer version thanks to editing from Amiga Bill Winters. https://tinyurl.com/y74rbfet

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Memorial for Dan - Sep. 8
by Evan Koblentz 03 Sep '18

03 Sep '18

There's going to be a memorial for Dan, Saturday Sep. 8 from 2-4pm in the Pittsburgh area. Details TBD. Unfortunately I cannot go. My dad is moving to Florida and there's a going-away dinner that night.

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WTB: Altair 680, Any Condition, Any Configuration
by systems_glitch 03 Sep '18

03 Sep '18

All, I'm looking for an Altair 680. I've been working with Jeff Albrecht's A680 during the RAM board design process, and would like to continue working on a few things for the 680, but I'd also like to send Jeff's machine back to him! Configuration is not particularly important to me. I'd like something with a non-rev 0 motherboard in it if possible -- the easiest way to tell is that there will be a slot for the expansion riser. Front panel vs. turnkey, branding, etc. are not important to me. I'd potentially be interested in even an empty case! Thanks, Jonathan

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Dan Roganti has logged off :(
by Evan Koblentz 02 Sep '18

02 Sep '18

Hey guys. I'm very sorry to announce that my good friend Ragooman took his last breath this morning. Dan was among the first wave of 10-15 people to join MARCH back in 2004-2005. AFAIK, in the many years since then, we never lost any core members until now. Dan was one of those people who everyone liked being around. He was friendly to all, wickedly funny, and sharp as a knife. He was a US Air Force veteran, an electronics technician, a proud native of Long Island, and become a proud resident of Pittsburgh -- he even switched allegiances from the Jets to the Steelers. He lost his wife several years ago and took great care of his daughters Mindy and Katie. He put them both through college, and they both share his technical aptitude. He had a shirt that says, "Every great father teaches his children the ways of the Force." Here's a picture: http://snarc.net/dan_kids.jpg Dan loved all aspects of vintage computing. He was equally passionate about Apple IIs and Commodore 64s as he was about Star Trek and Star Wars. He loved his IMSAI and was a perpetual tinkerer. He drew most of the VCF East t-shirt designs especially in the MARCH era. He often suffered from feature creep .... he was so obsessed with making things better than he rarely got anything actually done. :) He also individually mentored Jeff Brace and I with a lot of programming subjects. Dan got sick a year or two ago and fought the dreaded "C"-word bravely, but unfortunately there was only so much the doctors could do for him. I miss him already. Mindy will let me (and/or Dave McGuire) know soon about the arrangements. At the very least, VCF will follow Dan's (private) wishes regarding his collection. I hope we can do far more to honor him. He knew about our 2018 t-shirt design and loved it. In the past I've found it helpful to focus on happy memories of lost relatives/friends, rather than the sadness of their death. So let's all do something: please reply to this list message and share your favorite Dan story! I can't wait to hear them. I'll go first. The last group event Dan was able to attend, due to his health, was VCF East XII (2017). He arrived a day early to help set up. I didn't want to give him any real labor due to his condition. So I gave him busy work. I told him to go to the party store and get some helium balloons. We'd put them on the doors of the buildings being used for the show. He did as asked, but I was so busy that I forgot to put up the balloons. Dan wasn't amused, but he understood, so as pretend "revenge" he put the balloons on my car! At first he denied it because he thought I was mad. Then I said, "No, it's funny." While never formally confessing, he replied, "Other people helped." (Looking at you, Brace!) Here is a picture: http://snarc.net/dan_balloons.jpg

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Giving a talk at BSidesDC
by David Riley 02 Sep '18

02 Sep '18

Hi all, I don’t mean to take up space around the news about Dan, which is very sad indeed, but this is somewhat time sensitive: if anyone’s interested, I’m giving a more security-oriented version of my Reverse Engineering for Vintage Computers talk at the BSidesDC security conference in Washington, DC toward the end of October. If anyone’s interested in coming to see (it’s a great show if you’re into security in general), tickets are limited but can currently still be acquired here: https://bsidesdc2018.busyconf.com/bookings/new I don’t know what day I’ll be presenting yet, but let me know if you’re coming and I’ll be glad to try to meet up! If you’re unable to acquire a ticket but really want to go, let me know and I may be able to scare something up for you. - Dave

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] Dan Roganti has logged off :(
by Bill Degnan 02 Sep '18

02 Sep '18

On Sat, Sep 1, 2018, 4:30 PM Bill Dromgoole via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vcfed.org> wrote: > Its funny , the things you remember. > I remember Dan testing my SD Sales Z80 card in his Imsaii for me at a > workshop held at Bill Degnans house. > He wasn’t afraid to plug it into his working computer. > Although he did use a meter to make sure it had no shorts first. > He was working on an Altair, I think a 680, putting wire jumpers on the > front panel with little pins so the panel could be removed. > He had also brought four or five large multi-drawer cabinets of parts to > help fix other peoples computers. > There were actual wheelbarrows full of TRS-80s there for some reason. > I gave him those trs80II's but they ended up at MARCH. There's a photo of me loading them into his minivan on my website from a wheelbarrow Also, that was my altair8800 that he added the white jumpers. I lent him my altair for a few years, he was working on a few projects with it. Maybe I'll exhibit that one again next year. We should all exhibit machines dan touched as a tribute, eh? B >

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Museum report
by Evan Koblentz 02 Sep '18

02 Sep '18

I was docent today. A moderate amount of visitors due to Labor Day weekend. Steve A. is docent tomorrow. It may have been sunny outside, but obviously our day was cloudy because of the news about Dan. A lone bright spot: Anthony S. dropped off those mysterious AT&T "Counterpoint" Unix workstations that I mentioned here a week or two ago. You'll recall that the person who donated them was a Bell Labs engineer. He said AT&T commissioned the design, about 1,000 were made, and most were bulldozed when the project got canceled. As far as he knows, the units donated to VCF today are probably the * last * ones around.

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] Dan Roganti has logged off :(
by systems_glitch 01 Sep '18

01 Sep '18

I never had all that much interaction with Dan; actually I think most of the communications with him was via the Altair Owners' listserv. One of his last conversations with me was regarding a new RAM board that several Altair Owners' members had helped nail down and that I was laying out. Dan pushed for a simpler design, and to ignore some of the features requested as committed to copper in favor of a solid basic RAM board design and lots of prototype area, so that hobbyists could hack together what they wanted! That was ultimately what was decided: fewer base features, more prototype space. I just ran the first PCB prototype about a week and a half ago. It's not 100% ready for prime time yet, but I think Dan would be happy with how it's turned out, and I think the design is *much* better off thanks to his input during the design stage! If you end up with one of these RAM boards for your Altair 680, you have Dan to thank for it not taking *another* year to get wrapped up :) Thanks, Jonathan On Sat, Sep 1, 2018 at 2:10 PM Tony Bogan via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vcfed.org> wrote: > > > So let's all do something: please reply to this list message and share > your > > favorite Dan story! I can't wait to hear them. > > I only met Dan a handful of times since 2013 when I got involved with the > group. We had some great discussions at VCF East XII, probably the most > time I spent with him spread over a couple of days. > > I have to say as good as it was seeing him then, my favorite Dan story is > when I saw him last month at his Daughters home. I ended up spending about > 4 1/2 hours just shooting the shit with him talking about everything and > anything. His passion for computers in general and VCF and our Museum > specifically were as strong as ever, and much of our time was spent talking > about how things got to where they are today and where he hoped they would > go in the future. > > Probably the best 4+ hour long conversation I've had with anyone in quite > a long time. We laughed, we yelled about things that pissed us off, we > joked about Evan whenever possible ;-) (he really loved cracking jokes, not > just about Evan!) > > I'm also glad that while he didn't get to see them, he got to see pictures > of his apple II+ up and running and got the word I had resurrected his > original Apple II as well. He was very upset he could not get them for me > to bring home and fix when I saw him, but through the efforts of Dave > McGuire and Jeff Brace I was able to get them with enough time to at least > let him know they were breathing again and would be returned to his > daughters in the condition and with the accessories he requested. > > It was so little on my part but was at least something I could do. > > That conversation will remain with me forever as a fond memory of sitting > down hanging out with one of the nicer people I've met in my life. > > A tribute to Dan is how much of an impact he could have on people with the > smallest amount of contact. > > Tony

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] Dan Roganti has logged off :(
by VAXman＠tmesis.org 01 Sep '18

01 Sep '18

Evan Koblentz via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vcfed.org> writes: > >Hey guys. > >I'm very sorry to announce that my good friend Ragooman took his last >breath this morning. :( EOT Dan. RIP.

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