[vcf-midatlantic] Trip to VCF PNW

Glenn Roberts glenn.f.roberts at gmail.com
Thu Mar 28 06:49:12 EDT 2019


Sounds fantastic! Thanks for sharing.

Are there any pictures on line of VCF PNW for those of us who couldn’t go?

-Glenn



Sent from my iPad

> On Mar 27, 2019, at 8:53 PM, Garrett Nievin via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic at lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
> 
> I haven't been very active on the mailing list in a long time, and I
> need to get a bit more so.
> 
> My wife and I had a fantastic trip from home in Virginia to the VCF in
> Seattle this past weekend.  We combined the event with another trip
> we've been wanting to make, and it could not have been better.
> 
> AMTRAK ran a sale late last year, and we picked up a "roomette" on the
> Coast Starlight for a buy-one-get-one rate, and spent two days riding
> the scenic rail from LA to Seattle.  A small private room with two
> seats and bunks and windows, pretty solid meals included, and
> amazing views and delightful train-mates and it cost us <$400 for the
> two of us, total. As soon as they announced the sale, I booked it to
> get us to Seattle for the VCF.
> 
> Getting around Seattle was fantastic.  We planned to have a rental car,
> which fell through for reasons, and we ended up just walking and doing
> a little bit of Uber-ing and saved a bunch of money and hassle.  We
> parted ways on Saturday - I went to the VCF, and she went to do some
> things with glassblowing and wine (in sequence, not concurrently).
> Anyway, I grabbed one of the ubiquitous rental electric bikes and
> scooted down to the fest, and it was terrific.  It's quite a
> bike-friendly place.  
> 
> We split Friday between the Museum of Flight and the Living Computer
> Museum + Labs, which was a day very well spent.  There's a good bit of
> nostalgia in the LCM+L for people of my age, and it brought back
> memories to sit down at an IBM 029 card punch and a TTY ASR-33 again as
> I did throughout high school, and to be in a computer room again with
> big systems and reel tapes with write-rings and impact printers.
> 
> The VCF was a most excellent event.  It was terrific putting some faces
> to email addresses, talking with Oscar Vermeulen again and comparing
> some notes on the Kim-Uno and PiDP-8 and -11, and meeting a bunch of
> remarkable people doing really cool stuff.
> 
> Anyway, I highly recommend a similar excursion to anyone with the
> interest.
> 
> 
> My current projects on the bench are finishing touches on an IBM 5155
> restoration, and a Sperry (rebadged Corona/Cordata) Portable PC which I'm
> trying to work out the power supply.  Started in to just pull batteries
> out of all the old boxes that needed it done, and it turned into a
> burst of energetic vintage computing.
> 
> Cheers,
> Garrett
> 
> 
> 


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