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Successful workshop! : Jan 13 & 14, 2018
by Jeffrey Brace 16 Jan '18

16 Jan '18

We had 21 people show up and work on various equipment. Some things got fixed completely, some things need more work. It is always nice to meet with and learn from such a smart group of guys. Always a fun time with you guys! Special Thanks: Bill Dromgoole for working on the Univac Dave Gesswein for working on the PDP 8 Adam and John S for working on testing of joysticks and VCF Commodores Ian for helping everyone with everything. Tony for letting us use his van to transport and heavy lifting Jeff G for sweeping up And all others for overall helping with various things. The next workshop will be March 3 & 4. You can sign up here: < https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/123vqgOH6iteYwHwLiANXmdSUvZOTEMTArZR… > Here are some pictures that I took: < https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B9SJLfGXYiG5LTVDNnFYZ0RuamM?usp=sha… >

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Next Workshop March 3, 2018, April ?
by Jeffrey Brace 15 Jan '18

15 Jan '18

Thinking ahead. We have the next workshop scheduled for March 3 & 4. Which date for the April workshop? April 7 April 14 Vote now.

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Thank you to all for a great VCF Weekend!
by C.J. Slade 15 Jan '18

15 Jan '18

We wanted to thank Evan, Jeff, Ian, Eric & the many, many others at VCF who were so welcoming to Connor (age 10) this weekend at the Jan. VCF workshop. He had a great time learning from everyone and is already asking when the next VCF event will be that he can attend. Special thanks to Evan for the invitation & introductions, Eric for time teaching programming BASIC graphics, to Ian for resourcefulness to fix the ImageWriter II print head, and to person who brought Apple IIGS games. Since the workshop, Connor has spent all Sat night and all day Sunday programming in BASIC, including his new print program and playing Kings Quest on the Apple IIgs! He also enjoyed seeing the other computers and has been researching Tandy & Commodore computers as well. Thank you again for being so welcoming & inspiring interest in vintage computers! - Connor S. & Family

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Applesauce - .WOZ File Spec Released
by Henry S. Courbis 15 Jan '18

15 Jan '18

I'm happy to announce a major step in the Applesauce project: Preliminary release of the .WOZ file spec. File spec can be found here: http://evolutioninteractive.com/applesauce/woz_reference.pdf Applesauce info can be found here along with the file spec, detailed project info, and pics of the UI: https://wiki.reactivemicro.com/Applesauce More info about the different file formats of Applesauce can be found here: https://wiki.reactivemicro.com/Applesauce#Applesauce_Image_File_Format_.28.… Background: Applesauce is currently an Apple II targeted disk imaging solution which allows preservation of protected floppies. Other platforms are also supported like Atari. This goes WAY beyond what Catweasel or KryoFlux has been able to achieve. The creation of the .WOZ file format allows programmers to create their own software to use protected and unprotected images alike. Those who wrote emulators are now able to add support for example, and several of them are working on it as you read this. Applesauce allow original disks to be fully preserved. The ENTIRE flux state of the medium is read and preserved unlike other copy solutions like EDD. This means originals disks could be reproduced and the "art" which is copy protection is also preserved as a disk no longer needs to be cracked in order to be preserved due to the imitations of other file formats. Question: Why aren't other platforms supported? Answer: In short - they are. Other disk formats are very simple in comparison to Apple II. Once Apple II support is perfected then adding support for other platforms is trivial, and will happen later in the year. Congrats to John Morris for this milestone! And I and others look forward to working with him to help bing Applesauce to the Retro Community. In related news... Be sure to subscribe to the ReActiveMicro.com Newsletter to know instantly about project release updates (such as Applesauce preorder information): https://www.reactivemicro.com/news/email-newsletter/ Henry S. Courbis Office Toll Free: (800) REACTIVE (732-2848) Office/Mobile Direct: (856) 779-1900 www.ReActiveMicro.com <http://www.ReactiveMicro.com> - Sales, Support, and News, Our Headquarters on the Internet ReActiveMicro.com/wiki - Support, Software, Manuals, and History. Create your own page today! Facebook.com/reactivemicrousa - Our Social Media Outlet and Support

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Lisa auction ending in 40 minutes
by Evan Koblentz 15 Jan '18

15 Jan '18

My guess is it'll sell for 60-70. http://tinyurl.com/y9vcxfaq

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DAT tapes
by Kelly Leavitt 15 Jan '18

15 Jan '18

I have a couple of NIB DAT tapes. Some DDS-4, some DAT 24 some DAT 72. I figured someone might still be running stuff that could use these. If so, send me your address. I'll drop them in a fixed rate box. There's some cleaning tapes too. First one gets them. Kelly

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Favorite quote at workshop dinner
by Jeffrey Brace 15 Jan '18

15 Jan '18

So 10 of us went to the Main Street Grill for dinner last night and the waitress remembered our group from last time. Evan said: “We’re geeks.” The waitress said: “Whatever you guys are into I don’t judge.”

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Osborne 1 boot disk?
by Herb Johnson 14 Jan '18

14 Jan '18

Someone local to me, who has been helpful to some of us in the vintage community, has asked me about a boot diskette "for an Osborne 1". I told him to determine if he needs single or double density. I can't make such a disk for him, I suggested Dunfield's "imagedisk". Meanwhile, if someone has means to make and mail single or double density Osborne 1 boot diskettes, please email me privately [not in this email list!], discuss your terms to do so. I'll forward his request to you, you can reply to him accordingly. My email address can be found on my Web site, or you have it from this VCFed email discussion. Herb Johnson -- Herbert R. Johnson, New Jersey in the USA http://www.retrotechnology.com OR .net

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Vintage CPUs doing OK with Meltdown/Spectre
by John Heritage 14 Jan '18

14 Jan '18

I just wanted to report my 68020 powered Amiga 1200 is surfing the web securely despite the new vulnerabilities.. My 68000 based Mega STE with NIC also seemed unaffected. I haven't dialed any BBSes lately on my Atari 800XL, but I'm pretty confident that machine is safe too. I felt these were pretty risky as they are "modern" machines with complex custom chips, but they seem to be doing OK. So far I haven't heard of any floppy virus variants of Meltdown/Spectre. I hope everyone else has vintage machines available to survive the security apocalypse this year :)

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Semi-OT: Meltdown-Spectre Confusion..
by Joseph Oprysko 14 Jan '18

14 Jan '18

It’s been said that the Meltdown/Spectre flaws affect CPU’s as far back as 1995. Which in some opinions possibly could put some of the affected processors into the ‘vintage’ range. But I’ve yet to see a comprehensive list of all processors affected. Intel released a list, but that only goes back to around 2011 or so with the branding change to “Core” and others released in the time since. I’m curious about exactly what CPU devices, regardless of manufacturer, other than those listed, that are also affected. So including ARM processors, AMD, PowerPC?, G3/4/5? that may vulnerable to those flaws. And where they got the 1995 date from, because there’s a fair number of disused processors in that timeframe as well. Anyone have any insights on this? -- Normal Person: Hey, it seems that you know a lot. Geek: To be honest, it's due to all the surfing I do. Normal Person: So you go surfing? Normal Person: But I don't think that has anything to do with knowing a lot... Geek: I think that's wrong on a fundamental level. Normal Person: Huh? Huh? What?

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