- vcf-midatlantic - lists.vcfed.org

floppy diskette reliability, by brand
by Herb Johnson 31 Dec '15

31 Dec '15

The recent "museum report" discussed in passing, whether to buy brand-new diskettes to avoid deteriorating old floppy diskettes. And a previous thread "Getting Data off old Atari Floppies" in Dec 2015, discussed how some old brands seem better (BASF) and some are outright rotten from age (Wabash). There were suggestions in the thread, about cleaning or baking diskettes. Let's make a list of some brands, see if we can get a consensus. If someone can post links to Web pages which have such lists or brand experiences, please add such links to your post. I'll be glad to host a final list on my Web site at: http://www.retrotechnology.com/herbs_stuff/drive.html Good brands: BASF, 3M, IBM, Verbatum, Dysan Bad brands: Wabash Herb Johnson -- Herbert R. Johnson, New Jersey USA http://www.retrotechnology.com OR .net

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] floppy diskette reliability, by brand
by Mike Loewen 31 Dec '15

31 Dec '15

On Wed, Dec 30, 2015 at 16:03, Joesph Oprysko wrote: >> On Wed, Dec 30, 2015 at 2:41 PM, Herb Johnson wrote: >> >> Let's make a list of some brands, see if we can get a consensus. If >> someone can post links to Web pages which have such lists or brand >> experiences, please add such links to your post. I'll be glad to host a >> final list on my Web site at: >> >> http://www.retrotechnology.com/herbs_stuff/drive.html >> >> Good brands: BASF, 3M, IBM, Verbatum, Dysan >> >> Bad brands: Wabash > Well, I have a sealed box of Bonus disks... let's see where they come > out. :) I've had very good luck with the Bonus brand 5-1/4" diskettes. Bad: TRS-80 8" (brown label) Mike Loewen mloewen(a)cpumagic.scol.pa.us Old Technology http://q7.neurotica.com/Oldtech/

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Museum report
by Herb Johnson 30 Dec '15

30 Dec '15

My responses to comments in this thread are below. 1) Evan requests to stay "on topic" and not discuss an analogy to the care of vintage instruments like violins. Evan: have you noted the topic is no longer a "museum report" but issues of Commodore floppy drive and conditions of floppy diskettes? I'd as soon suggest a change of "subject" line. Another reason a change in subject line: there are and will be many "Museum report" messages, I'd as soon suggest they be dated. The maillist Web software will otherwise connect these all as the same "thread". These are issues of use, which are up to Evan of course. 2) Bill Degnan fights a losing battle to insist on "bottom posting". I respect his opinion but circumstances may encourage top-posting. I'd as soon complain about excessive quoting of prior messages. Again, Evan is the moderator over such things. 3) It's mentioned in passing that diskette media is deteriorating. My experience is that (other than mold) that condition depends on brand, and many old disks are still usable. I may start a new thread on this subject (see comment 1 above). 4) The issue of "too old to operate" is certainly a problem. I don't think there's any simple or general strategies. As a practical matter, the question comes down to brands and models of vintage devices which are known to suffer from specific "faults" of age and use. So policies are likely to be specific and not general. I hope the general consideration is to operate original equipment, but there's already prior policy to make use of modern devices to supplement items on continuous display-in-use; where convenience and reliability are more important than "originality". and as Bill Degnan noted, one can always display the original at the same time. Herb Johnson -- Herbert R. Johnson, New Jersey USA http://www.retrotechnology.com OR .net

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Ouuuuch!
by Herb Johnson 30 Dec '15

30 Dec '15

I never post links to that auction site, but I came across something so awful to see, I had to share it... Vintage Apple Green Phosphor Monitor Model A2M2010 Parts eBay item number: 272010854926 a current auction And when you think it's already cringe-worthy, more details show it's worse. Unbelievable. It's really bad. And...why auction it? Mysteries of the Web. As a point of instruction: long exposure to high-voltage ozone and heat, will degrade plastics. It dissipates the elastomers. Translation: peanut-brittle. The rest is energy = mass X velocity squared. So, how far did this monitor fall, to bust it up so? any guesses? Was it even packed? The mystery deepens....as I said, it boggles the mind. Herb Johnson -- Herbert R. Johnson, New Jersey USA http://www.retrotechnology.com OR .net

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Museum report
by Douglas Crawford 30 Dec '15

30 Dec '15

Good day at the museum today. Four groups of mostly adults came through with good interest in the displays. One guest pointed at the RCA VIP and said he worked on the R&D fabrication for the RCA 1802 and the related memory parts :) I ran the C64, the TRS-80 Model I, Atari, and the PC with some hello world programs to liven up the place, and had the Lisa booted. Showed well and glad those machines are working.

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Let's add value to the club, and have fun doing it!!!
by Joseph Oprysko 30 Dec '15

30 Dec '15

Here is a list of things that I feel the Vintage Computer Federation can do to add value to their name, and to add value for their members. Add Value to their name: Offer grading services to their members for their vintage equipment. As well as grading our own equipment in the library and coming up with standards for grading for vintage systems. Have members in various areas do membership drives at various events (Hamfests/Electronic Shows/Other computer club meetings/Etc.) While as far as I know, we don’t charge a membership fee, maybe we should look into other ways to fund club activities, or to be able to purchase parts we need to repair machines, so they can be kept as close to original as possible. Since we’re doing educational activities, if anyone has experience in applying for grants, that’s one route we could explore. Find additional organizations to solicit donations from either in the form of funds or equipment or services. I would recommend contacting companies that have been in business for many years, from Verizon, ATT, Lockheed, Sperry, IBM, as well as school districts, etc. Have a “portable” museum. Lets be honest, besides a few people who live close to central NJ or the shore, most of our members travel at least an hour. But this isn’t about us, it’s about our NAME and getting it out there. If we took a small trailer/mobile home, either attached to decent generators, or to connect to a couple power lines at the site when we would get where we’re going. No, we likely wouldn’t be hauling big-iron around in it, but if we brought around a trailer of the PC’s of the 80’s to various schools, scout meetings, etc. We would be educating the young, spreading our name, and having a hell of a time doing it. Add Value for their members: Offer FREE (not Ad supported) webpages to members to show off their vintage collections Offer online social network (or member’s only/private group on Facebook) Offer online/web based emulation of many vintage systems with demos and programs to help introduce millennials to vintage computing. Replace/update the mail-list to one with a web-based interface. I feel like we took a HUGE step backwards Have an members only auction/sales site I’m sure other there are plenty of other things that people would come up with, and likely these are things that would come up in more of a board/key-business type meeting. But I felt it’s important to bring up now that we’re a legal NPO as opposed to just a “club” of hobbyists.

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Here's an absolutely newbie/idiotic question.
by Joseph Oprysko 29 Dec '15

29 Dec '15

How do you actually tell Mac OS (Like 6.0.8) to format a disk (one that’s already been formatted Mac OS that is? Anonymous (HEH, I know that’s not gonna work, but worth a shot)

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VCF East 9.1 videos
by Evan Koblentz 29 Dec '15

29 Dec '15

Here's another batch! https://t.co/Q1WXafon7D

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OS X Leopard DVD Needed
by Joseph Oprysko 29 Dec '15

29 Dec '15

I picked up an iMac G4 15” for a song… Err, well for $25, so close enough, I had one years ago that I traded away, but ended up forgetting to give the new owner the discs that go with it, poor new owner… boo hoo… lucky for me, as this G4 I got had a broken linux install that the owner didn’t know the root password to, so, luckily, I had my fully OS X recovery set, and made it a happy mac again.. well, to a point, it’s running Mac OS X 10.1.2…. I’d like to at least get it up to 10.5.8, the last one capable of running the Classic OS apps, as well as being modern enough to run most current type programs. Joe.

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] Wanted: NEC PC-8001A Mini-Disk Module PC-8031A
by Todd George 29 Dec '15

29 Dec '15

> > Date: Sat, 19 Dec 2015 17:44:33 -0500 > From: william degnan <billdegnan(a)gmail.com> > > I checked as I thought, maybe??...Turns out I have a 8201A and a > 6001A...but no 8001A. I have a NEC cassette model 6082. > Sorry for my delay in reply. I get the digest version of the list, but do most of my reading on a mobile. Replying to the list via digest mode on a mobile device is not at all convenient. Seriously considering re-subscribing under a different e-mail address just to make life easier that way. Back to the NEC... Thanks for looking, I finally decided to snag the one I had been seeing on eBay. Picked it up a week or so ago, Not sure if I have buyers' remorse or not. I'm guessing not, as I don't think I'm likely to see another one of these pop up anytime soon. :) > I am looking for the NEC PC6011A Expansion Unit, which I presume is the > 6000-level version of what you're looking for. I have passively been > looking for the expansion for years. > I have to say, this comment was part of what convinced me to jump on the eBay one. I don't have any of the PC6xxxA series stuff. I did bump into one of the computers themselves recently, but it was quite a bit of a drive and I opted out of picking it up as I was still in "Acquire PC8xxxA stuff" mode. > Do you have software? > Sadly, no. I have found a few things scattered around the internet. Most of the decent sites I've found are in Japanese. Google translate does a respectable job of allowing me to understand what's being communicated. That said, I've not really located a software repository yet. I'm sure I can find more if I dedicate more time to digging. Been obsessing about the hardware first. :) I did find BASIC and the firmware here: https://archive.org/download/NEC_PC_8001_TOSEC_2012_04_23 I will also say, I'm enamored by the keyboard on this thing. It has to be one of the nicest of any keyboard I've typed on. Just sheer perfection in key switch technology. And I've used some crazy mechanical keyboards in my time. I am missing the ribbon cable that goes from the PC to the expansion chassis. I do have the one that goes between the expansion unit and the floppy. I'm planning on investigating this further. I found some references to it being a "straight through" cable, but I have my doubts based on the construction of the cable that I have. A few pictures I found online do seem to use a straight through ribbon cable though. > Here is my NEC stuff just because NEC stuff is seldom mentioned anywhere: > http://vintagecomputer.net/nec/ > (the Spinwriter I donated to FKA MARCH) > That's awesome, thanks for sharing the pictures. :) Thanks again, -Todd

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