- vcf-midatlantic - lists.vcfed.org

Workshop 8/20 & 8/21 location change
by Jeffrey Brace 15 Aug '16

15 Aug '16

So it looks like about 10 or so will be coming to the workshop on Aug. 20 & 21. So I'm moving the location to the classroom again in 9010-A. -- Jeff Brace - ark72axow(a)gmail.com

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Museum Report - 14-Aug-2016
by Todd George 15 Aug '16

15 Aug '16

Pretty decent traffic at the museum today, we had about 16 visitors. Surprising for a 95+ degree day. I started off the afternoon by noticing that the Macintosh was still down. I cracked it open and fixed what ailed it (these have a common issue with yoke connector solder failure, that's exactly what it was). I also ran thorough all the caps with an ESR meter just to be sure. Up and running, and just in time... Keep reading. :-D Three of the groups of visitors had high interest. One was a couple that were probably 18 or 20 years old. We also had a group that was two older couples, the gentlemen both had mainframe experience, one of them showed a lot of interest in the StorageTek as he had experience implementing them. The last group of-note was a family with two younger children, one boy and one girl. The boy ran into the space so excited yelling "here it is, here it is"... He walked straight toward the Macintosh and yelled back to his father "The Macintosh M0001, here it is!!!". Yes, this 8 year old (?) kid knew EVERYTHING about this Macintosh. Glad I had fixed it! I had just finished buttoning it up about 10 minutes prior to this. His father mentioned that he's obsessed with YouTube videos of vintage computers and has been begging them for a while to either buy him an old Macintosh or find one he could try. His mother said she "was sure there had to be a computer museum of some sort", and found us. Collectively (they stopped by a few times), they must have spent about 2 1/2 or 3 hours in our space. The father was very knowledgeable about computers, and was being very supportive of his budding vintage computer aficionado. The boy's sister was less supportive, rolling her eyes about the whole situation and explaining to me how "he won't stop talking about this thing". The rest of the visitors were of low to moderate interest and I think were just wandering the facility to check out the other groups and just happened to stop by our space. Also, Valente's makes a great Pork BBQ sandwich for those who haven't tried it!! Thanks! -Todd

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] TI-99/4a to good home in Red Bank NJ
by Dave McGuire 15 Aug '16

15 Aug '16

C'mon man, it hurts to type. I said "aren't rare". -Dave On 08/15/2016 07:43 PM, Christopher Blackmon via vcf-midatlantic wrote: > 4a rare? I thought those were pretty common... it's the 4's that > were kinda rare (I thought). > Christopher. > >On 08/15/2016 05:04 PM, Evan Koblentz via vcf-midatlantic wrote: >> TI-99/4a needs a good home. That's all I know. Reply to the owner >> (Benedict) at benforest(a)me.com. Says his wife wants him to recycle >> it. >> >> Recycle the wife! >> >> Someone please grab that machine...TI-99/4a machines aren't rare, >> but recycling them is how they get that way. >> >> -Dave >> >> -- >> Dave McGuire, AK4HZ >> New Kensington, PA -- Dave McGuire, AK4HZ New Kensington, PA

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] TI-99/4a to good home in Red Bank NJ
by Evan Koblentz 15 Aug '16

15 Aug '16

>> 4a rare? I thought those were pretty common... it's the 4's that were kinda rare (I thought). Christopher. Correct, which is why I declined it for the museum. We have plenty of /4a systems and it is easy to get more. But I told the owner NOT to recycle it so someone here could adopt it... which happened 10 minutes after I posted the message. :) On Aug 15, 2016, Christopher Blackmon via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> wrote: >From: Christopher Blackmon <ckblackm(a)yahoo.com> >To: vcf-midatlantic ><vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> >Sent: Mon Aug 15 19:43:28 EDT 2016 >Subject: Re: [vcf-midatlantic] TI-99/4a to good home in Red Bank NJ > >4a rare? I thought those were pretty common... it's the 4's that were >kinda rare (I thought). >Christopher. > >From: Dave McGuire via vcf-midatlantic ><vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> >To: vcf-midatlantic ><vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> >Cc: Dave McGuire <mcguire(a)neurotica.com> > Sent: Monday, August 15, 2016 7:36 PM > Subject: Re: [vcf-midatlantic] TI-99/4a to good home in Red Bank NJ > >On 08/15/2016 05:04 PM, Evan Koblentz via vcf-midatlantic wrote: >> TI-99/4a needs a good home. That's all I know. Reply to the owner >> (Benedict) at benforest(a)me.com. Says his wife wants him to recycle >it. > > Recycle the wife! > > Someone please grab that machine...TI-99/4a machines aren't rare, but >recycling them is how they get that way. > > -Dave

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Museum report
by Evan Koblentz 15 Aug '16

15 Aug '16

Good day. There were a bunch of visitors. Many families and a guy who worked for DEC in the 1970s. Also our old friend Jeff Frady visited from Texas. Who brought in the picture of a terminal-using monkey covered in paper tape? I like it! :) Someone put the framed ENIAC poster on top of the Cray: don't do that. It was in the workshop for a reason (frame is too ugly to be on display). Jeff B. brought over the leftover shirts that we shipped in from VCF West. They'll be available next weekend.

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IBM 3174 (older version)
by william degnan 15 Aug '16

15 Aug '16

For $88, it's prob close to a handful of people here who could pick up, someone I am sure could make use of this for their IBM 80's 90's mainframe stuff...I know Dave McGuire has an IBM S/370 system that use two of these as part of it at the museum in Pittsb. The're used to connect printers and terminals. http://www.ebay.com/itm/IBM-3174-11R-CONTROLLER-DATA-PROCESSOR-/14207313401… -- Bill Degnan

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Real time video software for SGI computers
by Matt Patoray 15 Aug '16

15 Aug '16

Hello all, I know that SGI machines are well know for high end 3D graphics that are not real time (Jurassic Park, Forrest Gump and the like. But was there ever any real time 2D/3D graphics programs for title generation to replace a stand alone Chyron unit for making opening/closing titles and lower 1/3 graphics? If so what system would be the best to use, I was thinking an O2 since it is small and has a low power consumption along with standard composite video output. Thanks, -- Matt Patoray Owner, MSP Productions KD8AMG

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VCF West (if anyone was wondering)
by Evan Koblentz 14 Aug '16

14 Aug '16

More than 1,000 people attended VCF West and that's NOT including all the exhibitors, staff, etc.

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OT: In need of "retired" Sprint cellphones
by Joseph Oprysko 14 Aug '16

14 Aug '16

I'm doing some work with a not for profit organization that is providing some local low income families with free cellphones and free service. Unlike the federal "lifeline" service which does not provide a smartphone option, without charging that is. The organization has an agreement with a Sprint MVNO which provides 100 Minutes/100 SMS/100 MMS/100 MB of data at absolutely no cost to the consumer. Also, lifeline limits the service to one phone per household. We're trying to provide a way to keep families with kids connected. Right now we've had to limit the number of phones per family to 2, mainly because of a lack of phones. I believe they need to be Sprint branded phones. I do not know if the other Sprint MVNO's like Boost or Virgin Mobile will be able to port correctly, as I believe the settings that need to be changed are locked out. The one Virgin Mobile phone I did try to activate, the MSID activated, but I was unable to complete the configuration, even manually. But it could just have been that it was a very old version of Android on it. 2.4 If I recall correctly, so some slightly newer ones *may* work and allow for the OTA provisioning. While retired smartphones are preferred, I've also configured several flip phones. Better for use with older people who are confused by the idea of smartphones. If you have anything lying around that you'd like to donate to the cause, email me off the list. I'm looking for functional devices, not the phone you left on top of the car and took the asphalt dive, or the ones dropped into the tub/pool. If you can include the IMEI/MEID/ESN numbers, I can verify that they can be activated. Also if you could let me know the make and model of them. If they are the older flip phones that need non-standard chargers, those accessories would be greatly appreciated. Thanks everyone! Joseph Oprysko. -- 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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Tomorrow @ museum
by Evan Koblentz 13 Aug '16

13 Aug '16

Everyone -- I'll be at the museum tomorrow (Saturday... technically later today) for the first time since my surgery in mid-June. Visitors welcome! Todd will be there Sunday.

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