- vcf-midatlantic - lists.vcfed.org

EP385
by Mike Loewen 15 Mar '17

15 Mar '17

Although not as famous as the R.E.S.I.S.T.O.R.S. group in NJ, Explorer Post 385 in State College, PA was an early enabler of computer programming education to a large group of high school students from 1968 onwards. That is where I learned FORTRAN on an IBM 360/67, along with PL/1 and IBM 360 Basic Assembler Language. Here's a Town & Gown article from November, 1970 that talks about us: http://q7.neurotica.com/Town+Gown.pdf If you like, you can skip the cheesy science fiction short story and go directly to page 7. :-) Mike Loewen mloewen(a)cpumagic.scol.pa.us Old Technology http://q7.neurotica.com/Oldtech/

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check out the VCFed brochure
by Evan Koblentz 15 Mar '17

15 Mar '17

Drew N. designed a trifold brochure for us. We ordered a few zillion of 'em printed on glossy paper. Here are some pictures: http://vcfed.org/evan/brochure/front.jpg http://vcfed.org/evan/brochure/flap.jpg http://vcfed.org/evan/brochure/inside.jpg http://vcfed.org/evan/brochure/back.jpg We will distribute these everywhere the Federation goes: the museum, Festival(s), off-site demos, etc. .... thus we'll have some at Trenton this weekend. These brochures are Federation-wide, not just for our chapter. We'll send a big stack to our people our west and such. ________________________________ Evan Koblentz, 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

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] this is CRAZY
by Jason Perkins 15 Mar '17

15 Mar '17

Lisa stuff has just gone up and up in value. If you want another shock, look up how much Lisa mice sell for. I've never seen a complete one go for less than $300. It took me over 10 years to find mine because I can't justify those prices. On a similar vein, the IR remote for the radio in my Mercedes gets an asking price of $200+ whenever one comes up. I know it's uncommon... but geeze! It's just a remote.... -J On Wed, Mar 15, 2017 at 5:20 AM Ben Greenfield via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> wrote: > I think the important thing is how to identify a twiggy drive from other > drives? > > > > On Mar 15, 2017, at 5:16 AM, Joseph Oprysko via vcf-midatlantic < > vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> wrote: > > > > OMG. That really is frigging ridiculous. > > On Wed, Mar 15, 2017 at 1:05 AM Evan Koblentz via vcf-midatlantic < > > vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> wrote: > > > >> The drives sold for $32,000. > >> > > -- > > 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? > > -- Jason Perkins 313 355 0085 Sent from my iPhone

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I guess another Apple 1 is up for Sale
by Christian Liendo 15 Mar '17

15 Mar '17

The Article mentions Mike Willegal http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-4311980/Working-Apple-1-auct…

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Off the Hook
by Evan Koblentz 15 Mar '17

15 Mar '17

I'll be on 2600's Off the Hook radio show on Wednesday, March 29 to talk about VCF East. The station is WBAI (Long Island). You can stream it at www.wbai.org. ________________________________ Evan Koblentz, 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

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8-Bit Generation - Jay Miner (and friends) devices
by John Heritage 14 Mar '17

14 Mar '17

I just watched the 8-bit generation video finally, narrated by the excellent Bil Herd :). Whoever here had a hand in putting that together, thank you so much! .. One take-away I have from this video I haven't seen/read elsewhere is that it seems like the only "Jay Miner engineered device" that was ever properly marketed by parent company was the Atari 2600? i.e. - Original Atari/Bushnell wanted to kill the 2600 kinda early - Warner Atari did a big marketing push in 1980-1981 and that made the 2600 super successful. - Neither Bushnell nor Warner seemed to know what to do with the Atari 400/800. You can see this in the initial high price, and also in locking out the system to developers early on (which imo is why it lost to the Apple II). - We all know the story of how Commodore didn't know what to do with the Amiga 1000.. And if you count the 3DO with RJ Mical and others as a descendant device, that too could have been handled better... Am I off the rocker here? There is some irony that the only Jay Miner device that was properly marketed was handled by "New York Blue Shirts"... I know the Amiga was a mis-managed device but I often feel like the Atari 400/800 deserves that award just as much as it was the first home computer to show the real benefit of custom chips, and at launch in 1979-1980 was way more powerful and capable than contemporaries.. John

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museum report
by Evan Koblentz 13 Mar '17

13 Mar '17

I started around 10 today. Dean couldn't make it, so I called Bill Dudley (he lives nearby). Fortunately he was able to come over for a few hours and help. Android itself and the kiosk app both had oddities which took us a while to understand. After emailing the app developer we finally got useful explanations. Now, all the tablets are running the kiosk app using a volume license key and they're all configured exactly the same (but I'll double-check that next weekend). Bill is going to come back one day this week and do some prep work on the steel mounting plates to prevent rusting. Next weekend, post-Trenton (Saturday afternoon), I'll bolt the plates to the shelf posts. Then we'll run the power cords, connect to the magic web page, and things will be golden. We kept busy with the tablet software all day; meanwhile there were some visitors. Two men in their 50-60s stopped by around 4pm and stayed until closing. They both did punch card processing in their college days. ________________________________ Evan Koblentz, 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

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Trenton update
by Evan Koblentz 12 Mar '17

12 Mar '17

Trenton Computer Fest is this Saturday at The College of New Jersey from 9am-5pm. Jeff B. and I are planning to arrive at 8am to set up the group table (or two) with our robot demos. Looking forward to seeing many of you there as we do every year. ________________________________ Evan Koblentz, 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

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Univac 1 memory
by Mike Loewen 12 Mar '17

12 Mar '17

We need this for the museum: www.ebay.com/itm/Univac-vintage-large-computer-Parts-only-AS-IS-/1624287669… Mercury delay memory from a Univac 1. Mike Loewen mloewen(a)cpumagic.scol.pa.us Old Technology http://q7.neurotica.com/Oldtech/

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Museum report
by Evan Koblentz 11 Mar '17

11 Mar '17

I arrived at the museum around 11 today. Tony stopped by to loan us his Laser 128 as a backup in case ours acts grumpy at Trenton next weekend. Martin also visited to give us the CNC'd mounting plates for our tablets. Jeff B. came over at noon. We made a plan for the outdoor VCF East signs. We also did recon around campus for tables/chairs to use at the show. Jeff brought over our new full-color trifold brochures. First time we ever had these. They look incredible. Huge thanks to Drew for designing them. Jeff then spent a few hours checking out some Commodore inventory in the warehouse. I stayed in the museum to clean the workbench area and play tour guide. There were three groups of visitors today: a couple with five or six kids, an older couple, and a father/son. The kids in the first group stopped to read every sign: I told them the signs will being replaced by tablets and they seemed excited about it. The husband in the second group said he was a Tektronox field technician for 20 years and that he'd met the founder Howard Vollum (who got his start at Camp Evans; for newer list members that's the Army base which now is the InfoAge Science Center, where our museum resides!). Father of the third group was a guy like many of us, mid-40s, who grew up on 8 bits and whose son learned Scratch. Naturally we showed him BASIC on the same computer his father hadn't seen in 30 years (C-64). Jeff and I went to Home Depot for sign materials and then to dinner. I spent another hour or two in the museum and began assembling the tablet mounting brackets. Each plate has two sets of brackets. Turns out a single set would have been plenty. Now we know. I'm staying over here at InfoAge tonight. Dean and Drew will be here tomorrow to help with tablet setup and stuff. ------------------------- Evan Koblentz, 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

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