- vcf-midatlantic - lists.vcfed.org

Re: [vcf-midatlantic] train service to VCF-East
by VAXman＠tmesis.org 01 Apr '16

01 Apr '16

Jeffrey Brace via vcf-midatlantic writes: >No William! Not all the way to NYC! From Philly I have taken the train >when I attended Drexel University in Philadelphia and took this route >for years. You have to take three trains. The SEPTA - R6 from 30th >street station to Trenton, then switch trains to the NJ Transit - >Northeast Corridor line to Rahway. Then take the NJ Transit - North >Jersey Coast Line to Belmar. The whole trip is about 3 to 3 and 1/2 >hours. Maybe more depending on schedule. The problem is that there isn't >good east to west trains as seen by this map: >https://www.njtransit.com/sf/sf_servlet.srv?hdnPageAction=TrainSchedulesMap…. >From PHL, best bet is to hire a car. Then take I-95 north and pick up I-195 east to Rt-18. There NO TOLL on any of that route. It's, essentially, how I go to and from Philly and PHL, and Jackson. Why spent countless hours riding a train to nowhere and standing on sidings awaiting another? Trains are fine in the UK and .EU -- I have ridden them often when on the eastern side of the Atlantic swamp -- but there's just no comparable equivalent when here in the states. I-95 to I-195 is about as direct as one can get and it'll keep folks from getting lost on the roadways. The added benefit, no forced donation to Uncle Sam via tolls!

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Ooooooh lookie
by Evan Koblentz 31 Mar '16

31 Mar '16

Rumor has it there will be some very exotic microcomputer stuff on display in our group's official booth during VCF East April 15-17. As in, early/mid-1970s uber-rare coveted stuff. Yes I am being cryptic. :)

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May 14 -- New museum open house
by Herb Johnson 31 Mar '16

31 Mar '16

> InfoAge is hosting an open house / grand opening event on Saturday, May > 14 from 1pm-5pm. that houses our museum....I hear there's going > to be a party atmosphere -- food, drink, etc. > > ... I propose that we have > our next repair workshop coinciding with this event. It > would be very good of us InfoAge-citizen-wise if lots > of us show up that Saturday... You put this as a proposal, so it's a request for comments. I recommend against this proposal, to link a repair workshop with the grand opening event. The point of a repair workshop is to work, on repair. This Saturday event would eat up almost all of Saturday, in preparation and the event itself. But I may attend the grand opening, as you said that's supportive of InfoAge. You might consider some other specific VCFed museum activity that would coincide with and support the opening event. A demonstration of repair for instance - like straightforward repair of common vintage computers, that's something you'd not demonstrate during regular museum operation. As it's a month after the VCF-E re-opening of the museum, it's not reasonable to make a special exhibit. But it's possible there's some "crossover" items you could show, related to other InfoAge groups. For instance, radio amateur's early use of microcomputers for networking, repeaters, Morse code. I have some artifacts of that sort I could lend. Also you might make a poster showing "before" and "after" to make the point about VCFed use of the new building. So I've made positive counter-proposals, about your proposal to support the InfoAge open house. Herb Johnson -- Herbert R. Johnson, New Jersey USA http://www.retrotechnology.com OR .net

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museum opening
by william degnan 31 Mar '16

31 Mar '16

Thought - might not be good to have a formal workshop, but it does make sense that our club show up in force to help out, show our colors regardless of what we do, and if that means some make on the spot repairs in response to a specific issue that comes up, it's good that we come prepared just in case. Bill -- @ BillDeg: Web: vintagecomputer.net Twitter: @billdeg <https://twitter.com/billdeg> Youtube: @billdeg <https://www.youtube.com/user/billdeg> Unauthorized Bio <http://www.vintagecomputer.net/readme.cfm>

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Needed: Amstrad PPC 640 system disk
by Evan Koblentz 31 Mar '16

31 Mar '16

Can someone find the disk image online and make us a 3.5 floppy version?

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] train service to VCF-East
by Devin Heitmueller 31 Mar '16

31 Mar '16

On Thu, Mar 31, 2016 at 11:40 AM, Ken via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> wrote: > At 3/30/2016 02:21 PM, William Dudley via vcf-midatlantic wrote: >>> In theory, one could take one's bicycle on the train, and bicycle the 3 or 4 >>> miles from the station to VCF. > At 3/30/2016 02:22 PM, Christian Liendo via vcf-midatlantic wrote: >>I walked it once, seriously take a cab.. > > I've walked it two or three times, after the NJ Transit train from NYC, and it was a really nice walk, along the water and then through nice neighborhoods. Walked it back from InfoAge at night once, too. Rolling a suitcase behind me the whole time. If you're used to walking, it's great. Just look up the distance ahead of time so you know what you're getting into. > > I always wanted to try taking a bike on the train, but never made it happen. I remember it being a "bike allowed" route, but can't speak from experience on that. Regarding bringing bikes onto NJ transit: It's technically only allowed if you are stopping at a station that has a dedicated platform level with the train. For Belmar you are expected to go down steps, and hence you're not allowed to exit with a bike at that stop. The closest station that exits at a platform is Asbury Park. I would have assumed this would be the sort of thing conductors would turn a blind eye to (after all, what's the real harm of bringing a bike down three steps?), but I actually witnessed a physical altercation between the conductor and a rider trying to get off at Belmar with a bike, so at least in some cases they take it *very* seriously. Devin -- Devin J. Heitmueller http://www.devinheitmueller.com

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] train service to VCF-East
by Ken 31 Mar '16

31 Mar '16

At 3/30/2016 02:21 PM, William Dudley via vcf-midatlantic wrote: >> In theory, one could take one's bicycle on the train, and bicycle the 3 or 4 >> miles from the station to VCF. At 3/30/2016 02:22 PM, Christian Liendo via vcf-midatlantic wrote: >I walked it once, seriously take a cab.. I've walked it two or three times, after the NJ Transit train from NYC, and it was a really nice walk, along the water and then through nice neighborhoods. Walked it back from InfoAge at night once, too. Rolling a suitcase behind me the whole time. If you're used to walking, it's great. Just look up the distance ahead of time so you know what you're getting into. I always wanted to try taking a bike on the train, but never made it happen. I remember it being a "bike allowed" route, but can't speak from experience on that. - Ken

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museum report
by Evan Koblentz 31 Mar '16

31 Mar '16

Jeff G. and I worked in the museum today from 8am-3pm. Jeff B. joined me for more work from 5pm-9pm. In the daytime slot, we installed the large monitor donated by David G. last year. It is 50" (horizontally) and works great. We put a shelf under it (great place for a videogame console to keep us entertained between museum visitors!) along with two shelves on the opposite side of the bench (with room for more shelves later if needed). We also did some set-up with the Prime 6550, added a handle (kind of silly-looking, but it works!) to the PDP-11/785, set up most of the office PC, and finished cabling the microcomputers. We also did some clean-up work. In the evening, we did a bunch more cleanup, rebuilt some of the outdoor signs for VCF East, and tested the Amstrad PPC 640 (it works but we need a system disk). Also, we got two more industrial-strength long power strips from Steve A., so now there are two on each side of the microcomputer aisle. That means nothing is daisy-chained, unlike in our old rooms. We just need one more for the workbench. Corey's picking that up in the next few days. Here are some pictures: http://vcfed.org/evan/screen.jpg (pipe on the right side is in front of a speaker, not the screen itself) http://vcfed.org/evan/powerpole.jpg (this is the new power pole on its own own 20A circuit for the center aisle of microcomputers, it has four outlets on the side, and next time we'll paint the wooden block underneath it to match the floor) http://vcfed.org/evan/handle.jpg (new handle -- also a new lock) http://vcfed.org/evan/galinat.jpg (kudos to Jeff G. for making a lot of long trips to the museum and doing tons of manual labor for us lately) http://vcfed.org/evan/protect.jpg (step away from the blue box...) http://vcfed.org/evan/allbench.jpg (new shelves on left, new shelf under TV too) http://vcfed.org/evan/twoshelves.jpg (room for expansion) http://vcfed.org/evan/oneshelf.jpg (let the Pong commence) Back at it this weekend! Need to set up another computer or two, put the decorative backings on all the microcomputer shelving units, start making the signs, do more cleaning, and who knows what else.

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May 14 -- New museum open house
by Evan Koblentz 30 Mar '16

30 Mar '16

InfoAge is hosting an open house / grand opening event on Saturday, May 14 from 1pm-5pm. This is for building 9010-A which houses our museum, the model trains group, an event room, the surfer group, some radio club stuff, and possibly a wireless operators' group of some kind. From what I hear there's going to be a party atmosphere -- food, drink, etc. Depending on other stuff in the InfoAge calendar, I propose that we have our next repair workshop coinciding with this event. It would be very good of us InfoAge-citizen-wise if lots of us show up that Saturday, so let's stay that night and Sunday to work on stuff.

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train service to VCF-East
by Herb Johnson 30 Mar '16

30 Mar '16

A European colleague of mine, wants to attend VCF-East from New York City. Their obvious question is, "what trains do I catch?" as trains are normal means for European travel. Also, frankly, the cost of car rental and tolls makes train travel a better deal for travelers. I'm aware the nearest train station is several miles from InfoAge. I don't expect VCF to provide pickup/dropoff. But this is an old question and should have a stock answer now. Please describe the nearest train station to the event, and what likely trains from NYC (optional Phila) would be reasonable to take, and a Web link to schedules. Again, I assume this is old information and not that hard to verify; and would be useful to other VCF-East attendees. I don't use the trains, so I don't know. Herb Johnson -- Herbert R. Johnson, New Jersey USA http://www.retrotechnology.com OR .net

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