Museum Report - Sunday 2/18/2018
We had two sets of interested visitors that both enjoyed the exhibits. Chris Fala was co-docent for the day. We car pooled on the way. Its way more fun to docent in pairs, folks! Also- a bonus for us- Tony Bogan dropped by in the afternoon for continuing MAC restoration work and stayed with us till closing, and also helped docent while our two sets of guests had a period of overlap. Tony also told us about the changes that had been made to the Apple II and showed us how to start the disk slide show from the integer ROM prompt. He also showed us how to get the NeXT started and properly shut it down without logging out. (So no login is needed on the next power up, which is nicer) The first visitors were a couple that had been in the industry and had operated punched card equipment. They didn't stay really long but were very appreciative of what we had to offer. They mentioned they might have a photograph of the two of them back in the day, at their job with the computer equipment, that they may share with us. The second visitors were a father/son who spent a long time The boy was about 12 years old and was captivated by the 80s micros. It was clear he had been exposed to a lot of vintage tech on the web and knew that the C= 1541 was an intelligent device that could (his words) "handle the work of the drive management itself compared to the 'UNintellegent' Apple drive that tied up the computer while disk reading and writing" :O I think Tony was out of earshot for that unfortunately :) Impressive. In all fairness though, I told him how Commodore had botched the communication to and from the drive making the accesses still slow. And HE asked a great question- if there was a fix- and told him there were products from other companies that replaced the ROM code and greatly sped up the transfers. He got to write a little bit of BASIC on the C64. The day went smoothly and we had a nice time working together. Docenting is rewarding. You never know who will walk through the door and what they have done. Its not unusual for folks in the industry drop in and tell you interesting things they have done. If you live within a few hours of Wall Township consider doing it once a quarter. And keep in mind, if you don't docent, its really nice to have club members drop by and visit. Its yet another opportunity to meet face to face with your vintage computer colleagues.
We had two sets of interested visitors that both enjoyed the exhibits. Chris Fala was co-docent for the day.
Thanks!
Tony also told us about the changes that had been made to the Apple II and showed us how to start the disk slide show from the integer ROM prompt. He also showed us how to get the NeXT started and properly shut it down without logging out. (So no login is needed on the next power up, which is nicer)
Adam set a SU password so we don't have some kid go into the console and type an rm command.
If you live within a few hours of Wall Township consider doing it once a quarter. And keep in mind, if you don't docent, its really nice to have club members drop by and visit.
Definitely!
On Mon, Feb 19, 2018 at 1:04 PM, Douglas Crawford via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> wrote:
We had two sets of interested visitors that both enjoyed the exhibits. Chris Fala was co-docent for the day. We car pooled on the way. Its way more fun to docent in pairs, folks!
Definitely! The problem is that we are so short on docents that I'm happy just to have *one* docent there.
Also- a bonus for us- Tony Bogan dropped by in the afternoon for continuing MAC restoration work and stayed with us till closing, and also helped docent while our two sets of guests had a period of overlap.
Yeah Tony is great working on the Macs and being docent in an emergency (which we have had a lot of).
Tony also told us about the changes that had been made to the Apple II and showed us how to start the disk slide show from the integer ROM prompt. He also showed us how to get the NeXT started and properly shut it down without logging out. (So no login is needed on the next power up, which is nicer)
I'm hoping that Adam will put back some more software on there. I don't know much C programming, but I remember doing it in college and love to make the "Hello World" program from the Unix prompt just for fun.
The second visitors were a father/son who spent a long time The boy was about 12 years old and was captivated by the 80s micros. It was clear he had been exposed to a lot of vintage tech on the web and knew that the C= 1541 was an intelligent device that could (his words) "handle the work of the drive management itself compared to the 'UNintellegent' Apple drive that tied up the computer while disk reading and writing" :O I think Tony was out of earshot for that unfortunately :) Impressive.
Smart kid! I have to meet him! ;)
In all fairness though, I told him how Commodore had botched the communication to and from the drive making the accesses still slow. And HE asked a great question- if there was a fix- and told him there were products from other companies that replaced the ROM code and greatly sped up the transfers. He got to write a little bit of BASIC on the C64.
I wish I was there to show him the uIEC and JiffyDOS.
The day went smoothly and we had a nice time working together. Docenting is rewarding. You never know who will walk through the door and what they have done. Its not unusual for folks in the industry drop in and tell you interesting things they have done.
Yes, Evan and I can tell you stories about random people that show up that worked in the industry. It's fun for me to learn from those with mainframe or mini backgrounds to see how they were actually used.
If you live within a few hours of Wall Township consider doing it once a quarter. And keep in mind, if you don't docent, its really nice to have club members drop by and visit. Its yet another opportunity to meet face to face with your vintage computer colleagues.
Yeah! Everyone is always welcome to visit. And yes we need more docents. Evan and I are working on a more thorough docent manual as well as training new docents.
Doug, I forgot to thank you for being docent on Sunday. It is much appreciated! If you or another docent want to bring a friend to pass the time and "have fun", then all the more better. I appreciate you making the two hour drive to come! Pete is a new docent who also makes a two hour drive to come as well. He brings his son to make it fun. I know that it isn't easy for some to make a long drive to come and be docent. Rest assured that it is appreciated so that Evan and myself can have a day off. Jeff
On 2/19/2018 5:02 PM, Jeffrey Brace via vcf-midatlantic wrote:
Doug,
I forgot to thank you for being docent on Sunday. It is much appreciated! If you or another docent want to bring a friend to pass the time and "have fun", then all the more better. I appreciate you making the two hour drive to come!
Pete is a new docent who also makes a two hour drive to come as well. He brings his son to make it fun. I know that it isn't easy for some to make a long drive to come and be docent. Rest assured that it is appreciated so that Evan and myself can have a day off.
Jeff
Oh you're welcome for course. I've done it solo a handful of times, and Chris came along two times. Bringing a friend is definitely better. Its not just fun, its productive. We are able to share what we know about the machines on display face to face. It can be a time for transfer of information too: We had been trying to get together for the last two years for me help Chris get into assembly language programming. We did that in earnest at the museum on Sunday. Awesome. And having two people adds to the experience for the visitors, as there is a wider base of experience to drawl from to speak with them. Teams might really be an all round better way to docent. I hadn't really thought of it that way until now. Another thought: Sharing docent's expertise. If the docents have a particular expertise, which is the case with say Pete, TRS-80, Xenix, etc, and and like yourself Commodore, and Tony, Apple, etc, it might be an opportunity for other members to meet with that docent at the Museum for to learn some things. That makes the trip for the docent even further productive and interesting, and would be an additional service to the club. We'd just have to broadcast who is docenting when. Folks can then decide if they might want to make the trip to spend some time with the docent.
Oh you're welcome for course. I've done it solo a handful of times, and Chris came along two times. Bringing a friend is definitely better. Its not just fun, its productive. We are able to share what we know about the machines on display face to face. It can be a time for transfer of information too: We had been trying to get together for the last two years for me help Chris get into assembly language programming. We did
Which machine? I want to get into 6502 assembly language for the C64 for 7 years now. Never seem to have enough time, but if I learn from someone more experience *and* have the right tools and book to follow, then I'm golden. Another thought: Sharing docent's expertise.
If the docents have a particular expertise, which is the
case with say Pete, TRS-80, Xenix, etc, and and like yourself Commodore, and
Tony, Apple, etc, it might be an opportunity for other members to meet with that docent at the Museum for to learn some things.
Good idea!
That makes the trip for the docent even further productive and interesting, and would be an additional service to the club. We'd just have to broadcast who is docenting when. Folks can then decide if they might want to make the trip to spend some time with the docent.
That's a great idea!
On 2/19/2018 5:02 PM, Jeffrey Brace via vcf-midatlantic wrote:
Doug,
I forgot to thank you for being docent on Sunday. It is much appreciated! If you or another docent want to bring a friend to pass the time and "have fun", then all the more better. I appreciate you making the two hour drive to come!
Pete is a new docent who also makes a two hour drive to come as well. He brings his son to make it fun. I know that it isn't easy for some to make a long drive to come and be docent. Rest assured that it is appreciated so that Evan and myself can have a day off.
Jeff
PS: To clarify: I'm advocating, in general, not just bringing a friend, but bringing a buddy member as a full co-docent, which is what Chris Fala was on Sunday; we shared the duties of opening, closing, and visitor presentation. Yeah, I was the one who signed up for the day, and it was fortunate that Chris happened to be free too! Its a big help.
Good stuff - did you write this down somewhere? It'll certainly be useful for other docents. On Mon, Feb 19, 2018 at 1:04 PM, Douglas Crawford via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> wrote:
Tony also told us about the changes that had been made to the Apple II and showed us how to start the disk slide show from the integer ROM prompt. He also showed us how to get the NeXT started and properly shut it down without logging out. (So no login is needed on the next power up, which is nicer)
On Tue, Feb 20, 2018 at 11:49 AM Drew Notarnicola via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> wrote:
Good stuff - did you write this down somewhere? It'll certainly be useful for other docents.
Evan wrote it down and is including it in the new and improved docent manual.
On Mon, Feb 19, 2018 at 1:04 PM, Douglas Crawford via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> wrote:
Tony also told us about the changes that had been made to the Apple II and showed us how to start the disk slide show from the integer ROM
prompt.
He also showed us how to get the NeXT started and properly shut it down without logging out. (So no login is needed on the next power up, which is nicer)
On 2/20/2018 11:50 AM, Jeffrey Brace via vcf-midatlantic wrote:
On Tue, Feb 20, 2018 at 11:49 AM Drew Notarnicola via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> wrote:
Good stuff - did you write this down somewhere? It'll certainly be useful for other docents.
Evan wrote it down and is including it in the new and improved docent manual. Oh ok sweet. I don't have to then.
On Mon, Feb 19, 2018 at 1:04 PM, Douglas Crawford via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> wrote:
Tony also told us about the changes that had been made to the Apple II and showed us how to start the disk slide show from the integer ROM prompt. He also showed us how to get the NeXT started and properly shut it down without logging out. (So no login is needed on the next power up, which is nicer)
On 2/20/2018 11:48 AM, Drew Notarnicola via vcf-midatlantic wrote:
Good stuff - did you write this down somewhere? It'll certainly be useful for other docents.
On Mon, Feb 19, 2018 at 1:04 PM, Douglas Crawford via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> wrote:
Tony also told us about the changes that had been made to the Apple II and showed us how to start the disk slide show from the integer ROM prompt. He also showed us how to get the NeXT started and properly shut it down without logging out. (So no login is needed on the next power up, which is nicer)
I'll make sure it gets into the online docent notes.
participants (4)
-
Douglas Crawford -
Drew Notarnicola -
Evan Koblentz -
Jeffrey Brace