Indeed, I wouldn't be surprised if that's why he gave the advice! He was one of the first people to get an Altair 680 prototype board from me, he helped confirm that I had the dimensions and spacing on all the mounting holes correct. I'd joked that he would probably have a RAM board finished on the prototype card before I got the final PCB version done :) Thanks, Jonathan On Sat, Sep 1, 2018 at 2:31 PM Evan Koblentz <evan@vcfed.org> wrote:
If you end up with one of these RAM boards for your Altair 680, you have Dan to thank for it not taking *another* year to get wrapped up :)
That's funny because it is the opposite of my and Jeff's experience working with him. :)
On Sat, Sep 1, 2018, 2:25 PM systems_glitch via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
I never had all that much interaction with Dan; actually I think most of the communications with him was via the Altair Owners' listserv. One of his last conversations with me was regarding a new RAM board that several Altair Owners' members had helped nail down and that I was laying out. Dan pushed for a simpler design, and to ignore some of the features requested as committed to copper in favor of a solid basic RAM board design and lots of prototype area, so that hobbyists could hack together what they wanted! That was ultimately what was decided: fewer base features, more prototype space. I just ran the first PCB prototype about a week and a half ago. It's not 100% ready for prime time yet, but I think Dan would be happy with how it's turned out, and I think the design is *much* better off thanks to his input during the design stage!
If you end up with one of these RAM boards for your Altair 680, you have Dan to thank for it not taking *another* year to get wrapped up :)
Thanks, Jonathan
On Sat, Sep 1, 2018 at 2:10 PM Tony Bogan via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
So let's all do something: please reply to this list message and share your favorite Dan story! I can't wait to hear them.
I only met Dan a handful of times since 2013 when I got involved with
the
group. We had some great discussions at VCF East XII, probably the most time I spent with him spread over a couple of days.
I have to say as good as it was seeing him then, my favorite Dan story is when I saw him last month at his Daughters home. I ended up spending about 4 1/2 hours just shooting the shit with him talking about everything and anything. His passion for computers in general and VCF and our Museum specifically were as strong as ever, and much of our time was spent talking about how things got to where they are today and where he hoped they would go in the future.
Probably the best 4+ hour long conversation I've had with anyone in quite a long time. We laughed, we yelled about things that pissed us off, we joked about Evan whenever possible ;-) (he really loved cracking jokes, not just about Evan!)
I'm also glad that while he didn't get to see them, he got to see pictures of his apple II+ up and running and got the word I had resurrected his original Apple II as well. He was very upset he could not get them for me to bring home and fix when I saw him, but through the efforts of Dave McGuire and Jeff Brace I was able to get them with enough time to at least let him know they were breathing again and would be returned to his daughters in the condition and with the accessories he requested.
It was so little on my part but was at least something I could do.
That conversation will remain with me forever as a fond memory of sitting down hanging out with one of the nicer people I've met in my life.
A tribute to Dan is how much of an impact he could have on people with the smallest amount of contact.
Tony