Jeff B. and I worked in the warehouse from about 11:30 to 6:30 today. Corey
joined us for a couple of hours in the afternoon (and brought pizza!)

We organized Apple II parts, DG Novas (Novii?), Epson QX-10 stuff, Tandy 3/4
systems, books/magazines, and miscellaneous things.

There is slightly more floor space now vs. before.

Trenton Computer Fest is early this year -- Saturday, March 16.

Bill Deg. had a great idea: MARCH should have a large presence there, like we
did in 2005, because we're not doing VCF this year. That gives club members a
chance to show off a little bit.

But it's only a month away. So I have a few ideas.

My fallback idea, if there isn't enough member participation, is I could
basically just bring our museum's homebrew exhibit and set it up at Trenton.
Instant awesomeness, just add nerds. Maybe I'll rent a truck and also bring our
home micros exhibit.

However I'd rather have a bunch of MARCHins there exhibiting your own stuff, and
then a group dinner somewhere.

Degnan? Andy? Corey? Sudbrink? Gesswein? Chapman? Kelly? Herb? Dromgoole? Ian?
Sridhar? Etc. ....

Let the discussion begin.

evan@... wrote:

>Trenton Computer Fest is early this year -- Saturday, March 16.
>
>Bill Deg. had a great idea: MARCH should have a large presence there,
>like we did in 2005, because we're not doing VCF this year. That gives
>club members a chance to show off a little bit.
>
>But it's only a month away. So I have a few ideas.
>
>My fallback idea, if there isn't enough member participation, is I
>could basically just bring our museum's homebrew exhibit and set it up
>at Trenton. Instant awesomeness, just add nerds. Maybe I'll rent a
>truck and also bring our home micros exhibit.
>
>However I'd rather have a bunch of MARCHins there exhibiting your own
>stuff, and then a group dinner somewhere.
>
>Degnan? Andy? Corey? Sudbrink? Gesswein? Chapman? Kelly? Herb?
>Dromgoole? Ian? Sridhar? Etc. ....
>
>Let the discussion begin.
>
>
>
>------------------------------------
>
>Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
I am in.  Taking requests
--
Sent from my PDP 8/e.

I went on a (small) rescue mission today.

Stephen Gray, as some of you may know, published the "Amateur Computer Society"
which was a snail-mailed newsletter from 1966 to 1976. The newsletters are
already online:

http://www.computerhistory.org/collections/accession/102654910

In the 1990s, Stephen donated 95% of his archive to the Charles Babbage
Institute.

Today I met with his adult daughter Elizabeth. She gave MARCH the rest. It
includes:

- Copies of his correspondence to/from various companies and granting
organization, in search of funding to form ACS (including an original IBM letter
hand-signed by Thomas J. Watson Jr.)

- Copies of Stephen's correspondence to/from various technical magazines, in
preparation for advertising ACS

- An audio cassette of his lecture from the 1976 National Computer Conference

- Printouts of every article he wrote for Creative Computing

- Misc. articles and notes, etc.

- A shrink-wrapped (new in box) Psion Series 5 plus another Series 5 by itself

- Some kind of portable music synthesizer

I have Elizabeth's permission to use these artifacts as we see fit. Most of it
will go into our library. We'll make an MP3 of the lecture cassette.

I will see how much the sealed Psion Series 5 is worth. We might sell that if it
could buy us another shelving unit, etc.

Elizabeth also said that she has her father's detailed diaries at her home in
Massachusetts. I will have a chance to look through them.

> I have Elizabeth's permission to use these artifacts as we see fit. Most
> of it will go into our library. We'll make an MP3 of the lecture cassette.

And, of course, all of this will be on bitsavers as well, if Al sees fit.

--
Will

>My fallback idea, if there isn't enough member participation, is I
>could basically just bring our museum's homebrew exhibit and set it up
>at Trenton. Instant awesomeness, just add nerds.

I may have my 8-bit homebrew project up and going by then, at least the
prototype phase. Don't want to get too many people excited in case it doesn't
happen so I'll hold off on details. If I don't have that put together, there's
plenty of other stuff kicking around that I could bring.

Thanks,
Jonathan

We can open soon!!!

Dan Lieb, who runs the shipwreck group and represents all of the member groups
to the InfoAge board of directors, announced the following tonight:

Here is the current status with InfoAge and our power situation:

------

Short-term:  Wall is going to loan us a 400kw generator for up to 90 days. The
hookup is expected in 7 to 10 days. This should be enough to power up most of
InfoAge. (Evan's note: that means we can open the museum. Woohoo!)

Mid-term: While this is going on, Fred is going to continue to pursue the
Princeton transformer. Wall is probably going to help us with transportation and
installation. (Evan's note: This refers to Princeton U. which is giving InfoAge
a transformer. Fred previously told me that transformer is too big; seems he
and/or the town changed their minds.)
 
Long-term: Wall is going to get with JCP&L to get our buildings metered starting
with the buildings we are now using. The rest of the buildings will be metered
as we spread out to occupy them. (Evan's note: This means town officials had
enough sense to understand that spending some money now means cost savings
later. For example, right now, InfoAge pays whatever the transformer sucks in.
But if the buildings are metered, then InfoAge only pays what we actually use,
which at least for the next few years will be much less than the transformer
approach.)

"evan@..." <evan@...> writes:

>Trenton Computer Fest is early this year -- Saturday, March 16.

Grrr.  If it's not VCF, it's TCF, that is always scheduled when I have some
other function to attend.  VCF was finally scheduled at a good time for me
but cancelled due to the transformer issues at InfoAge.  I'll be presenting
a this <http://www.connect-community.org/?2013VMSBootCamp> which coincides
with TCF.  Maybe next year... :(

--
VAXman- A Bored Certified VMS Kernel Mode Hacker    VAXman(at)TMESIS(dot)ORG

Well I speak to machines with the voice of humanity.

On 2/18/2013 11:31 PM, evan@... wrote:
> We can open soon!!!
>
> Dan Lieb, who runs the shipwreck group and represents all of the member groups
to the InfoAge board of directors, announced the following tonight:
>
> Here is the current status with InfoAge and our power situation:
>

sweet !
does this mean the micro-mini-VCFish-east is still a go ?

Dan

evan@... wrote:
> Degnan? Andy? Corey? Sudbrink? Gesswein? Chapman? Kelly? Herb?
> Dromgoole? Ian? Sridhar? Etc. ....

The timing's no good for me.  Sorry.

Bill S.

>> does this mean the micro-mini-VCFish-east is still a go ?

VCF East is still taking the year off for two reasons.: lack of time and
potential for risk. The power plan is just that -- a plan -- until it happens.

I think we should host a swap meet on May 14 and a tech day on May 15.

On 2/19/2013 7:41 AM, evan@... wrote:
>>> does this mean the micro-mini-VCFish-east is still a go ?
> VCF East is still taking the year off for two reasons.: lack of time and
potential for risk. The power plan is just that -- a plan -- until it happens.
>
> I think we should host a swap meet on May 14 and a tech day on May 15.

yea, thats what I was referring to,
I just used an alternative terminology :)

On Mon, Feb 18, 2013 at 02:44:17PM +0000, evan@... wrote:
>
> Degnan? Andy? Corey? Sudbrink? Gesswein? Chapman? Kelly? Herb?
> Dromgoole? Ian? Sridhar? Etc. ....
>
I may be able to bring something for a single 6' table. Wouldn't really
want to do it if sufficient power isn't available. I can bring less hungry
stuff but won't work sharing with too many tables. When would you know
how much space etc they wish to give us this year?

On Mon, Feb 18, 2013 at 02:44:17PM +0000, evan@... wrote:
>
> Degnan? Andy? Corey? Sudbrink? Gesswein? Chapman? Kelly? Herb?
> Dromgoole? Ian? Sridhar? Etc. ....
>
I may be able to bring something for a single 6' table. Wouldn't really want
to do it if sufficient power isn't available. I can bring less hungry stuff
but won't work sharing with too many tables. When would you know how much
space etc they wish to give us this year?


------------------------------------

Evan?
In a way it might make more sense to get a good room for a proper exhibit
that for it to be in a great spot, we can always flood the event with signs
- with arrows "See Antique Computers This Way! --->

Wall is probably going to help us with transportation and installation. (Evan's
note: This refers to Princeton U. which is giving InfoAge a transformer. Fred
previously told me that transformer is too big; seems he and/or the town changed
their minds.)

What's it weigh? I do own a flatbed dumptruck. If it's under 5-6 tons and Wall
has a hard time making transportation work, I can move it.

Thanks,
Jonathan

I requested either a small classroom or at least 20 feet by 20 feet square.

Highly doubtful that we'll get any special power available.

My plan is to have the mother of all homebrew exhibits. One of nearly
everything, with as many as possible up and running for demos.

What I'd like MARCHins to do is everyone can call dibs on bringing one or two
particular machine(s). We shouldn't overlap. Altair, IMSAI, SWTPC, SOL, Poly,
OSI, TDL, Northstar, various SBCs, one or two modern kits, etc. .... I will
bring MARCH's Apple 1 repro, and hopefully we'll have the real Mark-8 by then*,
unless someone can bring a working replica.

Again, the goal is to have as many homebrew-era systems on display as possible,
with as many working as possible.

I will also bring a display of period-appropriate computer magazines -- this
might be a large wall-sized display. Also, our repro posters from the first TCF
and PC'76 shows, etc.

Note: our own Frank O'Brien is giving the keynote this year! He will talk about
Mars rovers.

* I signed a loan agreement last week. We're getting a five-year loan of a real
Mark 8 and we have permission to restore it! Details to come...

>> What's it weigh?

Beats me, but I will share your generous offer with Fred.

On 02/19/2013 10:29 PM, evan@... wrote:
> I requested either a small classroom or at least 20 feet by 20 feet
> square.
>
> Highly doubtful that we'll get any special power available.
>
> My plan is to have the mother of all homebrew exhibits. One of nearly
> everything, with as many as possible up and running for demos.
>
> What I'd like MARCHins to do is everyone can call dibs on bringing
> one or two particular machine(s). We shouldn't overlap. Altair,
> IMSAI, SWTPC, SOL, Poly, OSI, TDL, Northstar, various SBCs, one or
> two modern kits, etc. .... I will bring MARCH's Apple 1 repro, and
> hopefully we'll have the real Mark-8 by then*, unless someone can
> bring a working replica.
>
> Again, the goal is to have as many homebrew-era systems on display as
> possible, with as many working as possible.

   Very cool, but..."homebrew", "homebrew-era", or "kits"?  Or all of the
above?  I (for one) consider the three to be very different things.

              -Dave

--
Dave McGuire, AK4HZ
New Kensington, PA

I can bring an RCA COSMAC VIP-711 single board computer and/or a KIM-1 and/or an
Ohio Scientific OSI-300.
All fully operational. Not much in the way of software though.
And they don't need much power.

Bill

----- Original Message -----
From: <evan@...>
To: "MARCH Yahoo Midatlanticretro" <midatlanticretro@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Tuesday, February 19, 2013 10:29 PM
Subject: [midatlanticretro] Trenton update


>I requested either a small classroom or at least 20 feet by 20 feet square.
>
> Highly doubtful that we'll get any special power available.
>
> My plan is to have the mother of all homebrew exhibits. One of nearly
> everything, with as many as possible up and running for demos.
>
> What I'd like MARCHins to do is everyone can call dibs on bringing one or two
> particular machine(s). We shouldn't overlap. Altair, IMSAI, SWTPC, SOL, Poly,
> OSI, TDL, Northstar, various SBCs, one or two modern kits, etc. .... I will
> bring MARCH's Apple 1 repro, and hopefully we'll have the real Mark-8 by
> then*, unless someone can bring a working replica.
>
> Again, the goal is to have as many homebrew-era systems on display as
> possible, with as many working as possible.
>
> I will also bring a display of period-appropriate computer magazines -- this
> might be a large wall-sized display. Also, our repro posters from the first
> TCF and PC'76 shows, etc.
>
> Note: our own Frank O'Brien is giving the keynote this year! He will talk
> about Mars rovers.
>
> * I signed a loan agreement last week. We're getting a five-year loan of a
> real Mark 8 and we have permission to restore it! Details to come...

What I'd like MARCHins to do is everyone can call dibs on bringing one or two particular machine(s). We shouldn't overlap. Altair, IMSAI, SWTPC, SOL, Poly, OSI, TDL, Northstar, various SBCs, one or two modern kits, etc. .... I will bring MARCH's Apple 1 repro, and hopefully we'll have the real Mark-8 by then*, unless someone can bring a working replica.

Count me in also.   I should be able to do Saturday.

Cheers,
Corey
--- In midatlanticretro@yahoogroups.com, "Evan Koblentz" <evan@...> wrote:
>
> We are officially registered for two tables, with electricity, adjacent to
> the ACGNJ booth.
>
> The people at MarketPro (company managing TCF business on ACGNJ's behalf)
> is demanding a list of who from our group will attend, in order for us to
> have volunteer badges.  I tried telling them (nicely) something along the
> lines of "Badges? We don't need no stinking badges!" ... but still they
> insist.
>
> Somewhere at home I have the list of everyone who said they're coming,
> thus far, so I'll check tonight (at work now) ... if you did NOT add your
> name, or if you're * thinking about * going, then speak up now or don't
> complain when they want to charge you $15 for admission to your own club's
> booth.
>
> I have to send them the list by next week.
>
> To those who asked which day they should go, if not both -- I'll try to
> figure that out in the next day or two.
>

On Wed, 20 Feb 2013, J. Alexander Jacocks wrote:

> So, who's coming, for sure?  I'll be there @ 9am.

     I'll be there, probably between 9:30 and 10:00.


Mike Loewen 		 mloewen@...
Old Technology       http://sturgeon.css.psu.edu/~mloewen/Oldtech/

>> So, who's coming, for sure?

I haven't heard back from Jeff J. ... but I don't really want to wake up at
4:30am anyhow.  :)

On Tue, Feb 19, 2013 at 12:41:16PM +0000, evan@... wrote:
>
> I think we should host a swap meet on May 14 and a tech day on May 15.
>
My calendar says thats a tuesday and wednesday.