- vcf-midatlantic - lists.vcfed.org

Museum Report Sunday
by Tony Bogan 27 May '18

27 May '18

The complete opposite of yesterday, the weather stunk with wind and rain all day. The museum was dead until around 2:30/3 when visitors started coming in. It was then a steady flow until about 4:30/4:45. I ended up having 20ish visitors come through, in mostly groups of three today. Most were very interested and all were one or two adults with either one or two children with them. Bill I. stopped by in the afternoon (good thing he did!) and ended up giving a couple tours as several of the trios that came into the museum were only a few minutes behind each other. One couple related to their grandson how they used punch cards in college, one gentleman remembered the Univac from his Navy days. It also worked out well that the first visitors showed up AFTER Roddy from next door and I finished our pizza lunch :-) This will likely be my last time as docent until the late fall/early winter season sees my business slow down. Looking forward to quieter times at work in a 4 or 5 months and some enjoyable time at the museum! Enjoy the summer everyone, I'll see you in November!! Tony Sent from my iPhone

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Do we have a Wiki?
by Neil Cherry 27 May '18

27 May '18

Not sure this is a good idea or not but do we have a Wiki? The folks in this goup have a huge amount of experience that covers a long period of time. It might be nice to take the bits and pieces and pull them togther into a wiki of computing 'his story'. History doesn't always equal all the facts. Hence 'his story'. And this is not excluding the ladies, but rather focusing a little less on facts, some story telling. Because what I know could fill books, what I don't know could fill the rest of the universe. -- Linux Home Automation Neil Cherry ncherry(a)linuxha.com http://www.linuxha.com/ Main site http://linuxha.blogspot.com/ My HA Blog Author of: Linux Smart Homes For Dummies

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Idea for an Exhibit - Novell
by Herb Johnson 27 May '18

27 May '18

> Another network protocol I wanted to exhibit someday was > IBM's Token Ring. - Bill Degnan A few S-100 companies supported ARCnet. Boards were available from Compupro and a few others companies. I've collected a few ARCnet devices and S-100 cards. But this stuff is outside my digital EE experience. And if I got one of these cards running, what would it talk to? Other than my showing interest, my point is that there may be interest from INexperienced persons who own vintage computers which MIGHT operate on these networks, for purposes of an exhibit or a repair workshop. Those persons (me) would need some handholding and known-good network traffic. So a consideration for a VCF-East exhibit, would be to string cabling behind several exhibit-tables; rather than one table with these puppies sitting next to each other. I think a "grand exhibit" is a lot of work and coordination; whereas just connecting adjacent exhibits requires less planning. Similar thoughts for any VCF or other-site workshop. Another consideration, as I mentioned is "whom do I talk to?" That MIGHT suggest, construction of some modern device (Arduino or RaspPi based) to act as a peer. NOthing fancy, just enough to validate a *real* networking device. While some of us have several node-computers to toy with, many individuals may only have one computer or one kind or one network interface. Of course Arduinos and RAspPis are common. So I think, if a handful of people say they are prepared to support a particularly obscure networking protocol, and are willing to show up a few times to help others become "nodes", and they can point to some resources like I suggested - some kind of workshops or exhibits could be done. A year out from VCF is *reasonable* to gather such interest, as it may take time to gather or buy resources and make them work, and then make them work *together*. I've just provided a strategy - who has the interest and hardware? For instance Bill Degnan has found several people are interested and have supported by trade, Novell Netware. Even I have a few Lantastic network cards for IBM-PC (saved because of the Z180 chip on them). Are they ARCnet? I dunno....? But I think Bill Degnan may have a deal, if those who responded wanna work together. Herb "no net" Johnson -- Herbert R. Johnson, New Jersey in the USA http://www.retrotechnology.com OR .net

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Museum report
by Evan Koblentz 27 May '18

27 May '18

Adam and I went to the museum today. Visitorship was low due to the nice weather and holiday weekend. I'm pretty sure everyone was outdoors today! Gini Mauchly (daughter of John) and her husband visited. They brought us a working/boxed Mac SE which used to belong to her older brother Bill. Adam spent most of the day doing warehouse things. I joined him for that work after museum hours. Bill I. stopped by. He brought a replacement meter for the EAI TR-20 and helped with some lingering VCF East clean-up. Tony will be docent tomorrow. ________________________________ 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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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] Hello!
by Thomas Fuchs 26 May '18

26 May '18

(I had digest mode on, so I couldn’t answer to the replies directly.) I collect most 80s 8bit/16bit stuff (mostly things I remember from growing up in the 80s, or more likely things I wanted but couldn’t get!). I’m a recent immigrant from Austria (moved to the US in 2012) so it’s super interesting to see all the machines here that never made it to Europe and then see machines that I think of as a dime a dozen and they’re “exotic” here. :) I hope to expand my collection, right now working on an attic renovation to get some more space. I like to have all computers in running order, so I can mess around. There’s a professional interest for me as well, as I’m running a (business) software business and there’s a lot to learn about user interfaces and approaches from early machines, when people still seriously researched human-computer interaction. In recent years it seems that this field has fallen through the cracks. My favorite at VCF East was the demonstration of the Apple Lisa user interface, which is so particular but also so far ahead of its time (wake from sleep, document centric etc.). Thanks again for demonstrating and answering our questions! Oh, I’ve heard of VCF simply via googling for conventions in my area (I live in Bucks County, PA). Best, Thomas F.

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Hello!
by Thomas Fuchs 26 May '18

26 May '18

Hi there! I’m Thomas and I’m new here. Was visiting VCF East and had a blast! :) I’m working in web programming mostly and I miss the “old-school nerd” vibe there! Everybody is so friendly! Thanks for a great show! Best, Thomas

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VCFE 13 pictures
by Mike Loewen 25 May '18

25 May '18

Here are my pictures from the weekend: http://q7.neurotica.com/Oldtech/VCF-East2018/ Mike Loewen mloewen(a)cpumagic.scol.pa.us Old Technology http://q7.neurotica.com/Oldtech/

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VCFE 13 pictures
by Herb Johnson 25 May '18

25 May '18

Those posting recently to this thread: focus. Focus. http://www.retrotechnology.com/vcfe18/vcfe_may18.html I have more photos than those edited onto this Web page. If someone wants a better photo or is looking for a specific photo of their exhibit, ask me and maybe I have one. I'll ask some individuals who have displayed their photos online, for permission for reuse of some, and I'll link accordingly. Translation: I'm showing interest and courtesy and inviting a link back to my page. There's tremendous information represented in these exhibits and talks. My thanks for displaying your efforts. I'd be glad to include a Web link on my page, to those exhibitors and speakers who send me a relevant link. Herb "here's how it works" Johnson -- Herbert R. Johnson, New Jersey in the USA http://www.retrotechnology.com OR .net

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When shopping on Amazon...
by Evan Koblentz 25 May '18

25 May '18

Friendly reminder: please set your Amazon bookmarks to /http://smile.amazon.com/ch/47-4133714 <https://smile.amazon.com/gp/f.html?C=3FIV09C29RIRQ&K=ONBFISUFZZPK&M=urn:rtn…> /... if you use that link instead of the main Amazon.com then VCF gets a tiny little portion of the purchase. For example, we made $25 in the January 1 - March 31 quarter. Hey that's something! It would cover lunch for one of our museum work days.

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VCF Repair Workshops Signup Lists for June, August, 2018
by Jeffrey Brace 25 May '18

25 May '18

June 9 / June10: < https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1FFHVS4PkImaj7jHk8_7BTcf-nTEAuOQacnO… > June 30 / July 1: < https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1n8M9h5ZVbcA4VixgDy3GHyN2HTWzSsS3fAg… > August 11 / 12: < https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1n8M9h5ZVbcA4VixgDy3GHyN2HTWzSsS3fAg… > -- ========================================= Jeff Brace Vice President Vintage Computer Federation

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