- vcf-midatlantic - lists.vcfed.org

Museum move
by Evan Koblentz 07 Feb '16

07 Feb '16

We closed our museum (for the next couple of months) and began moving during the workshop this weekend. So far, we moved 26 boxes of books, with several more to go. We also bought our own trash can so we don't have to keep borrowing an InfoAge one, and we bought a box of contractor-grade trash bags. Jeff J. brought in the wide printer, which printer guru Ian thinks will work. We will get new cartridges to test it. Corey C. brought in a desoldering station. We'll need to get a regular soldering station, tools, etc. (we probably already have a decent scope: I don't know much about those, but I do know IA has a few and we might too; I'm honestly not sure if there if there is one in our warehouse.) This week I'll order the shelving. Fred and the InfoAge board chairmam both asked us to show our layout plan to InfoAge's design consultant (he's a volunteer). We did that, and he gave it the okay. Several of our own members saw the design during the workshop and everyone seems to like it. A few people made very helpful suggestions that we will use. There will be several "please help us move" emails from me during the next few weeks/months.

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So, we're going to need an office computer.
by Evan Koblentz 06 Feb '16

06 Feb '16

We're going to need a computer for the new museum's office/workbench area. Requirements: 1. It must have a very small footprint. A full tower, anything rack-mounted, servers, etc. are not suitable for our current situation. Ideally a "mini" case (ha! a minicomputer...) would serve us well. 2. We don't need a laptop and would rather have a desktop anyhow, so we can more easily upgrade it and avoid proprietary stuff. 3. Its motherboard should have a sufficient CPU and enough RAM capacity to run a modern operating system. 4. Serial port. :) 5. We'll need this in the next few weeks. That's about it. I figure we can buy a cheap SSD, install Windows 7 SP1 -- which is the least-worst version of Windows -- and make it dual-boot into Linux. I can do all of that myself, but it would certainly save time if the system gets to us already configured this way. I have a spare USB keyboard/mouse to donate. VCF owns a few small-ish square LCDs, but we could definitely use a donation of a modern wide-screen LCD -- perhaps a 22-inch or around that size.

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1992
by william degnan 06 Feb '16

06 Feb '16

Marketshare of US Micros, 1991 to 1992 (during period when Win 3.1 was launched) The two charts are slanted because one is US and one is "the world" but the impact of clones is still obvious. *TABLE 1. 1991 U.S. market share (source: Fortune Sept. 21, 1992)* Company Market share (%) ------- ---------------- IBM 18.6 Apple 14.0 Packard Bell 5.7 Tandy/Grid 4.1 Gateway 2000 3.6 Compaq 3.5 Everex 3.0 AST 2.5 Epson 2.2 Dell 2.1 NEC 2.1 *TABLE 2. Worldwide PC-market share, 1992.(source: The Economist, January 30, 1993)* Company Market share (%) ------- ---------------- IBM 12.4 Apple 11.9 Compaq 6.6 NEC 5.1 Dell 3.5 Others 60.5 <---- Clone makers

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Pick some minicomputers
by Evan Koblentz 06 Feb '16

06 Feb '16

We don't yet know how many minicomputers will fit in the new museum space. Here are some candidates, based entirely on what we own: - PDP-8 w/ teletype (and sign about RESISTORS) - VAXen (many from which to choose) - IBM System/3 - IBM System/38 - Burroughs B-80 - Prime 6550 - TI 8(00?) - DG Eclipse - Perkin-Elmer 3210 + other models - AT&T 3B2 (because we previously debated it here and agreed most of the multi-user machines should be considered with the minis, not with the micros) Am I forgetting anything in our collection? (IBM 1130 will go with the mainframes.)

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] anti-static carpet (Joseph Oprysko
by Mike Willegal 06 Feb '16

06 Feb '16

It greatly reduces sound levels, but it will also require more upkeep. I loved it when I worked in a lab that had it, and lot of minis, but I didn't have to maintain it. Regards, Mike Willegal

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VCF West: Aug. 6-7 @ CHM - it's official!
by Evan Koblentz 05 Feb '16

05 Feb '16

VCF West is baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack. Thanks to the Vintage Computer Federation :) and to Sellam for giving us the right and to Erik Klein for doing the legwork. Details will be posted at http://www.vcfed.org/festivals/vintage-computer-festival-west-xi/ as they're determined.

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OT: Disable Windows 10 "upgrade"....
by Evan Koblentz 05 Feb '16

05 Feb '16

From what I can tell, just turn off automatic updates, then Windows 7/8.x won't call home for Windows 10. Currently we don't have Internet access in the new museum space anyhow (InfoAge's wifi does not reach.) We will look into getting some kind of bridge. Even without the Microsoft patches, running a decent free A/V program (Avast, AVG) and Spybot once a month keeps just about everything safe. We should be fine for as little as we're going to actually use this computer. Also pretty safe to say that anyone in this group knows what not to click when online.

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Heath H11 manuals?
by Richard Cini 05 Feb '16

05 Feb '16

All — Does anyone know of an archive of Heath H11 (PDP-11) assembly manuals? I need to check out something about the included boards/configuration. Thanks. Rich -- Rich Cini Collector of Classic Computers Build Master and lead engineer, Altair32 Emulator http://www.classiccmp.org/cini http://www.classiccmp.org/altair32

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A Living Museum?
by Glenn Roberts 05 Feb '16

05 Feb '16

I love what the Living Computer Museum has done: "...we believe that the best way for people to fully understand computing systems is by experiencing them. Hardware alone cannot illustrate what it was like to use these machines. Software, information, and human interaction complete the experience... Our goal is to breathe life back into our machines so the public can experience what it was like to see them, hear them, and interact with them. We make our systems accessible by allowing people to come and interact with them, and by making them available over the Internet." I realize the tremendous challenge of demonstrating and maintaining old computer hardware (and vintage computer federation doesn't have Paul Allen's deep pockets), but has there been any discussion of possibly including at least some operational displays in the museum? Perhaps on a rotating basis?

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Mystery system
by Mike Loewen 05 Feb '16

05 Feb '16

I'm trying to identify a system which appeared in "The Killer Elite" (1975), with a room full of tape drives and a couple of terminals: http://q7.neurotica.com/killer-1.png http://q7.neurotica.com/killer-2.png http://q7.neurotica.com/killer-6.png http://q7.neurotica.com/killer-9.png The drives appear to be IBM 3420s, but with an additional box on top, labeled "SMS". The system itself doesn't appear in any of the shots. Some sort of IBM 370, perhaps? Mike Loewen mloewen(a)cpumagic.scol.pa.us Old Technology http://q7.neurotica.com/Oldtech/

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