VCF 9.0

I would like to write about the show, it can also serve as a good prep for my next podcast where I will be talking about it. So, you asked for it! This was my first time at the original VCF, and I have only been to one other, the VCFe 1.0 in 2001. This was also my first time to the Computer History Museum. My wife was able to go with me, which made the whole thing so much more enjoyable. She not only supports my hobby, but actually really enjoyed herself in the participation. Living in Florida, the flights / layovers were a bit on the extended side - not so bad getting there, but coming back. We left at 7pm Friday the 3rd, got to Dallas about 9:20pm with a 30-minute layover, then arrived in San Francisco at 2:30am (our time, 11:30pm PST). Not too bad, but as our original flight was delayed an hour and a half, we had to fly into San Francisco instead of San Jose. We were able to stick to the same schedule times pretty much, but the cab ride to the hotel turned into $100 for 25 miles. 150% of the meter because of going outside the 15 miles of that airport! But we made it and the Marriott was a nice little hotel with excellent rooms. And an excellent free breakfast buffet! Kudos to Continental for getting us there on American Airlines too. On the first day, Saturday the 4th, my wife and I were in the Replica 1 workshop at 10am and that was a lot of fun. Vince Briel was great, very helpful and good company; a funny guy too. Some guys in there were done in like 40 minutes I think! By noon, we hadn?t finished, but Vince said that we could come by his exhibit and / or he would be back at the room Sunday at 10am. At Noon, Bob Armstrong began his workshop building the VCF COSMAC Elf 2000 kit. Both of these kits are very well made and just were so fun to work on. It was so much like stepping back in time 30 years and being a hobbyist computer kit builder. Unfortunately, the Apple @ 30 / The Garage Years panel with Steve Wozniak and three other early Apple employees started at 1pm (Randy Wigginton, Daniel Kottke and Chris Espinosa), so we had to leave the Elf workshop early. I really didn?t want to seem rude to Bob and hoped we could be back in there after an hour at most. That would not happen, I think the entire panel discussion was about an hour and a half. My wife went back to work on the Elf after about an hour. The discussion was very lively and good. The stories were fun and I heard about a few things that I?d never heard before. Jef Raskin?s Apple 1 was there in a case, as well as at least two other Apple 1?s. Sellam was part host, but Bruce Draper of DigiBarn headed it up. Also ?Captain Crunch? was in one of the front rows (John Draper). He spoke a little too. Sellam gave away a Replica 1 (per Vince) based on a puzzle at the end. It was Steve Wozniak?s name with the letters jumbled (I forget what this type of puzzle is called, it was stated). I learned why at the bottom of e-mails I have received from Steve Wozniak, it says, ?TV is wake zone.? He likes these sort of puzzles. An aside, before I knew I would be able to go, I wrote Steve and asked if I could send my copy of ?iWoz? in a return postage paid package for him to sign, and he agreed. He?s a nice guy. Instead of course, I was able to get him to sign it in person, as well as the Replica 1 (I got Vince to sign it too) and I got a picture with him. I?m not a touchy-feely person, but he would stand up, and put his arm around you for the picture. This was pretty cool. Also in attendance was Andy Hertzfield, one of the members of the original Macintosh team (see folklore.org). Being a big Mac fan as well, that was pretty cool, but what struck me was that he was also sitting in one of the front rows and listening intently to the stories, especially to Steve. He was just having such a great time and you could see the admiration he had. No big surprise, but this was one of his heroes! Even though he has worked with him at times, probably even heard this stuff before, he was a big fan too. Anyway, what really struck me was that Steve Wozniak also greatly influenced the Mac! He didn?t work on it directly a lot perhaps, but his earlier examples of engineering and his methods and standards were embraced by these later guys. Steve Jobs absolutely pushed his own will on the aesthetics of the box and much of the user experience, but Steve Wozniak deserves more credit than perhaps I had given him before. He didn?t just design the Apple 1, Apple ][ and Disk ][, but influenced so much more. That insight just sparked in me during the discussion anyway. I was able to catch Andy at the door before he left and get a picture with him and tell him what a fan I was. By about 3pm, Steve began signing stuff, probably for almost an hour. I finally made it back to the workshop room where my wife was still working on the Elf. Most had left or finished, but Bob was still there and had helped Tamara quite a bit. She really enjoyed the workshops and soldering, etc. We didn?t finish the Elf until we got back home. We were able to check out the VCF exhibit and market place floor for an hour or so, then left with a friend we had met for dinner. We had a nice dinner and discussion with him into the evening. On Sunday, we met Vince back in the room at 10am and stayed there until about noon. Andre' LaMothe started his workshop building the XGameStation Pico Edition (didn?t have enough money to build all three!). We had lunch at the Museum where Sellam?s wife was selling snacks and wraps and sandwiches. At 1pm started the discussion group featuring Lee Felsenstein about the Processor Technology Sol-20 30th celebration. The panel also included Processor Technology employees Aram Attarian, Diane Ascher and Drew Rogge. Again, this was a lively and interesting discussion of story telling and Q & A. A Sol-20 provided by Stan Sieler of Allegro Consulting. was given away with a drawing at the end. This meeting was perhaps a third of the size of the Apple one. Sunday all around was much slower than Saturday. A few exhibitors and sellers had left after Saturday too. My wife and I didn?t get to go to the DigiBarn, but we spent a good hour or so checking out the visible storage. It was especially neat for me to see some classics ?big iron? up close like the IBM 360, Sage, CDC super computers and Cray?s. Let?s see, as far as exhibits go, pictures are better of course. I will have mine soon. The sellers had some good deals with better than eBay prices for a Z-100, a couple of Lisa?s with profiles, and common Atari?s and Commodores. There was much more to see and do than we did, but we had a great time. With three kids, just time alone with my wife for a weekend was nice, so we weren?t sweatin? it. Sorry for the little book, I hope this conveys a little bit more to some about the show. Best, David David Greelish classiccomputing.com The Classic Computing Podcast Home of Computer History Nostalgia Stan Veit's History of the Personal Computer Audio Book Podcast