10 Apr
2001
10 Apr
'01
5:54 p.m.
--- Vintage Computer Festival <vcf(a)siconic.com> wrote:
I've gotten some griping about my selection for the location of the first
VCF East.
I haven't been griping, but I probably won't go, either. My loss.
I received over 150 responses to the VCF East survey.
Here is a summary
of the results:
State Count
----- -----
OH 5
Woohoo! We are number six! We are number six! (Sorry...) I just read in
the paper that as of the latest census, Columbus is the 15th largest city
in the U.S. (city only, metro areas don't count in the census).
There was also a strong desire to keep the event close
to the Rhodes
Island Computer Museum and the Retro-Computing Society of Rhodes Island so
that tours to those facilities could be organized.
That's a sound reason. I've always wanted to see the RCS/RI (ob. nit
pick: Rhode Island is singular. The island of Rhodes is in the Mediterranean)
Worcester is still within only a few hours of where
most of the potential
attendees will be coming from. I don't know how you east coast folks
perceive distance, but I've lived in California all my life and a 6-hour
drive from the San Francisco bay area to the Los Angeles area is no big
deal to me. I made the round-trip in one day a couple weekends ago to
pick up an old computer. Driving a couple to three hundred miles should
not be a major ordeal for most folks.
Most folks around here won't go two hours to Cleveland (jokes about Cleveland
unnecessary here). In six hours, I can almost get to D.C. (it's under seven).
St. Louis is just a little farther than that. Massachusetts is way too far to
drive for a weekend. Flying would be required, as for VCF-West.
As to East Coast distance perception, think of England - it's a country
smaller than most U.S. states. They think 100 miles is the ends of the
Earth. My experience is the smaller the state, the greater the distance
perception. Lotsa small states once you get East of the Mississippi.
Feel free to disagree as you wish.
-ethan
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