- vcf-midatlantic - lists.vcfed.org

How was TCF2016 besides the booth?
by Herb Johnson 22 Mar '16

22 Mar '16

Responding to various comments about the former Trenton Computer Fest (now called "TCF" apparently), please note I'm merely an attendee but I have some clues about it. It's pretty clear that the flea-market and old computer aspects of the event are largely lost. It's become a ham-license event and topics related to personal, professional, and hobby "computing" or rather personal information technology. But the talks cover a lot of you-can-do stuff, and are informative on related matters. The flea market was indeed small, one large room with almost all dealer-class participants, but some amounted to individuals. our colleage Justin brought a TI 990/4 system; there was a C-64 system, otherwise no other vintage computers I saw. But hamfests in the NJ-PA area have mostly lost vintage-computing stuff in the 21st century; and most professional personal-computing stuff. Hamfests are fewer and smaller; although I'm told there's more radio amateur licenses than ever. about "booths": there were only a handful. Few exhibits. I guess exhibits and booths weren't encouraged this year. I have a sense that the administration of the event is changing. I went to a number of talks; quality varied. Mostly speakers overran their hour, they outta work on their presentations. Talks varied from lock-picking to solar-panel technology. But I suggest looking at VCF in another way. Every year, the "old ones" come out, to see each other and catch up or look back. The event is run by people of age, the amazing thing is that it happens at all. Some years it didn't. I have no problem with attending to meet people I've not seen in years, to be met by people who only know me from email. I see TCF as an opportunity to see people and hear from people. I have people stop me in recognition; I arranged to meet someone, we had lunch. and by-the-way: there's now a number of real, actual restaurants on the TCNJ campus. I saw few attendees there, probably because the College ran a food-in-baggies kiosk in the building. Also: the Sarnoff Collection is a short walk from the Engineering building. It's a decent small museum of RCA technology, including some early COSMAC 1802 items and Joseph Weisbecker's computer, a TTL predecessor to the 1802. It's a New Jersey - designed microprocessor. I've done some work for the museum. I appreciate Justin's comments, and his position that he can participate and make a difference. Sounds like a plan. Herb Johnson old one retrotechnology.com -- Herbert R. Johnson, New Jersey USA http://www.retrotechnology.com OR .net

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] How was TCF2016 besides the booth?
by VAXman＠tmesis.org 22 Mar '16

22 Mar '16

Herb Johnson via vcf-midatlantic writes: >I went to a number of talks; quality varied. Mostly speakers overran >their hour, they outta work on their presentations. Talks varied from >lock-picking to solar-panel technology. 'outta work'?

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Fwd: How was TCF2016 besides the booth?
by William Dudley 21 Mar '16

21 Mar '16

I meant for the list to see my reply to Justin. Bill This email is free of malware because I run Linux. ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: William Dudley <wfdudley(a)gmail.com> Date: Mon, Mar 21, 2016 at 11:11 PM Subject: Re: [vcf-midatlantic] How was TCF2016 besides the booth? To: Justin Jernigan <jaj(a)totallyamused.com> Sorry if I was insulting, not meant to be. Your cable prices were AMAZING, but sadly I didn't need any (you may remember I was looking for short-ish ones). "Crap" in this case was just short hand for "undifferentiated stuff that I don't remember well enough to list correctly." Bill Dudley This email is free of malware because I run Linux. On Mon, Mar 21, 2016 at 10:35 PM, Justin Jernigan <jaj(a)totallyamused.com> wrote: > Sorry for top reply, but on iPhone. Cable n crap guy was me, but as I > recall you made your round through pretty late. > > I sold a lot of stuff as I was unpacking, even a nice C128 with 512k RAM > expansion for 80$. And my prices on the crap were hard to walk away > from...19" lcds for $3, cat5e and cat6 @ 25 cents for any length, laptop > power supplies for 1$. 32gb USB drives for 3$...which probably explains why > I was out of almost everything by Noon. I've tried to bring good stuff, > some vintage and some modern, every year, the last 7 years, with the hope I > could improve the flea area just a bit, but this year was as empty as I've > seen it. > > I will bring more next year, maybe get a few extra tables and try and keep > the flea area alive and interesting. > > > > > > One guy selling cable 'n' crap. > > >

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How was TCF2016 besides the booth?
by Christian Liendo 21 Mar '16

21 Mar '16

Do they just have in the inside or is there an outside again? How big was the flea market? Are they selling computers and parts? The last time I went, remote controlled helicopters were a big thing

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FS: 2.43 uF @ 400V poly caps (monitor/tube stuff repair)
by Systems Glitch 21 Mar '16

21 Mar '16

link: http://www.ebay.com/itm/272180918996 Great for those nonpolar/bipolar electrolytic caps in monitors, compact Macs, dumb terminals, and arcade machines. I've got a huge pile of these (like, 1000's or 10's of 1000's) so if they go fast I'll dig more out of the warehouse and list them. I can bring them to VCF East if you want to save on shipping. Thanks, Jonathan

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VCFed's Booth at TCF2016
by Todd George 21 Mar '16

21 Mar '16

Here's a quick album with a few pictures of our booth from the Trenton Computer Festival 2016 this past Saturday, the 19th. http://imgur.com/a/jWwEC I know, I know... Evan wouldn't let me forget that I had a Commodore monitor attached to an Atari 800XL. I have my reasons though! Primarily, I don't have an Atari monitor, I've restored the Commodore monitor so I knew it would be bulletproof for the show, it has a great picture, I've done the Chroma mod to the XL so I knew it would look nearly perfect and I've got the appropriate cabling made to hook it up. So :-p The Epson PX-8 made it to just over 265,000 counting by one for the duration of the show. I think it wound up being up and running for about 6 hours or so. The idea for this program was stolen from Doug. :-) The Tandy Model 102 was running a number guessing program I threw together in the morning. Next show I'm thinking I'll add a high score (or more accurately lowest score) routine that tracks the fewest attempts to guess the number. See ya! -Todd

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Wanted: Tandy TRS-80 Model 4P
by Todd George 21 Mar '16

21 Mar '16

Hi there. I'm looking for a TRS-80 Model 4P in generally decent shape. I'd like one that exists locally, I'm near the Philadelphia area. I will pick up to avoid potential shipping damage. Some criteria I'm looking for: - No broken plastics (maybe I have some tolerance depending on price) - Little to no yellowing of plastics - Slight preference for the white version of the screen over the green - Need not be working but must be complete - Dirty is fine, I've got elbow grease I've been trolling eBay, and have seen all of the recent auctions. As I mentioned, ideally I'd prefer to deal locally and would really like to support a fellow collector. I'm sure a bunch of you have these things hiding in your closets/basement just waiting to pounce when you least expect it. Why take the risk? Sell it to me before it goes sentient/rogue. These things have a bad attitude that they've been harboring for 33 years now, just letting it stew. I'm telling you, cut your losses and get rid of it. :-D You have one kicking around you'd like to get rid of? Contact me off-list. :) Thanks. -Todd

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ISA Sound Card is going for $1500
by Christian Liendo 21 Mar '16

21 Mar '16

So we talked about how when all the younger PC guys were going to get older and get into the hobby. They're here. I just saw this and was interested in what you all thought. http://www.ebay.com/itm/Ad-Lib-Gold-1000-ISA-Sound-Card-/272163544820?

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Trenton / museum report
by Evan Koblentz 20 Mar '16

20 Mar '16

It was a VCF-ful weekend! Saturday -- Todd and I worked the VCF table at the Trenton show. Lots of our members stopped by (I miss saying "MARCHins"). My talk about "the present and future of computer history" was well attended. Jeff G., Herb, and Justin all reported doing well in the sales room. Dean, Drew, and I went to the banquet. Sunday -- Tony, Jeff G., Dean, Drew, and I all worked in the new museum space. We focused on two projects: preparing the double doorway for paint and building a workbench. A lot of times, InfoAge volunteers (and people in the Army before us) would add layer after layer after layer of paint. We decided to do it right -- we're stripping the old paint almost down to the wood. We also built most of the workbench. There were a few mistakes along the way (thanks to incompetent leadership... me!) but it turned out fine. Jeff G., Tony, and I are all going back Tuesday to finish the door and improve the workbench. The picture at http://vcfed.org/evan/benchbottom.jpg shows a storage shelf that we built to go under the workbench. It's 16" tall and 12" deep. Yes, I know it's strange to have the shelf hanging by the brackets instead of sitting on top of them. There was a good reason why we did this :) and we'll be able to put them back the regular way on Tuesday. The picture at http://vcfed.org/evan/benchmain.jpg shows the main bench over the lower shelf. It's 33" tall, 24" deep, and almost level! :) We are making two improvements on Tuesday: stabilizing the bottoms of the three front posts so they don't wiggle around, and extending the right side another 20" to the wall. Original plan was to put a file cabinet between the right side and the wall, but it won't fit because of old pipes and a radiator. In theory we could move the whole bench to the right and put a file cabinet on the left side... but we like it where it is, and we have another file cabinet elsewhere on-site anyhow. Jeff G. observed that the bench looks "rustic" (he was being nice!)... perhaps we'll paint it. Unfortunately I don't have a picture of the doors.

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May need to borrow for VCF: working C64s, working 1702s
by Jeffrey Brace 20 Mar '16

20 Mar '16

Who has working C64s and 1702s that I can borrow for my VCF exhibit? I will be testing out my C64s and 1702s next week. I will need nine of each. Once I see how many are working I can determine how many I need.

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