A few photos: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1q0I28I6tmRJ2bYzQCQdt2AVaDaOygZuv?usp... On 7/25/2024 2:27 PM, Ken via vcf-midatlantic wrote:
I also spent the majority of my 3 HOPE days at the VCF tables, helping and demo'ing and chatting and directing a lot of folks to the 2025 VCF East event. (I was first introduced to VCF - and saw my latent vintage computing fetish initially activated - at HOPE 2000!)
It was a fantastic display, and I really appreciated the representation this time of those trainers and circuit demos. It added so much more than just having the familiar late 70's/early 80's home computers. Thanks to Doug (new to the hacker conference!) who I think was behind that addition.
Some brilliant and varied people stopped by with all sorts of expertise and stories to share, and I hope some will wind up exhibiting at InfoAge next year!
Also of note was Jeff Brace winning the HOPE talent show via some karaoke prowess?
Thank you Doug, Dean, Jeff and Jeff!
- Ken
At 7/25/2024 02:07 AM, Jeffrey Jonas via vcf-midatlantic wrote:
I had a blast staffing VCF's exhibit at the HOPE conference on Friday & Saturday. Many thanks to Doug, Dean, Jeff Brace for carpooling and making such an engaging exhibit. It was perfectly on-target for the audience, limited by what fits in one car. I was in my element, meeting folks I know from Unigroup (NYC Unix/Linux professional society), NJ Linux group and other circles of friends.
The exhibit started with the Discrete Transistor 555 and a breadboarded 555, showing how the first chips were only dozens of transistors. The Bell & Howell chip trainer's flip-flops were wired as a binary counter next to a single chip counter doing essentially the same thing. That got a LOT of attention since it vividly illustrated how the building-blocks of logic gates makes for larger useful elements.
Then the microprocessor trainers: 6502, 8080, 8085. Folks adored running the ROM demos via the hex keypads and 7 segment displays.
The Apple 1 replica got a lot of attention, particularly with the SD-card cassette emulator instantly loading games and such. Some folks really enjoyed using the WOZ monitor and peeking/poking into RAM.
The PET, GRID and others got a lot of love too, particularly the GRID's plasma display. Some folks were into display tech, thus the geeking out over Doug's VFD and LED demo. A really great outreach opportunity.
-- Jeff Jonas
-- Douglas Crawford VCF Mid-Atlantic Museum Mgr InfoAge Science & History Museums 2201 Marconi Road Wall, NJ 07719