30 Oct
2002
30 Oct
'02
8:10 p.m.
"Dwight K. Elvey" wrote:
Hi
Actually, I was bummed. I gave away about 1/2 lbs of candy
corn and hardly got any votes. Many walked by and looked
at my monitor and said " Ah, a Apple III." I finally had
to put a piece of paper over the label so people would
look a little closer. The monitor was just the first thing
I could find at the top of the pile that lit up.
I had a Poly-88 setup but I think only one in 10 noticed
and even then, I think only 2 in those ten knew what it was.
Of course, my display was all about tape recovery and not
the Poly-88. I don't think, maybe, 5 people all together
realized that.
Wish I had been there.
Sounds like one of them "bag o' tricks" sorts of operations
you learn to do by solving lots of puzzles.
Unless I'm mistaken, a lot of the early tape formats
didn't include much if any error correction data.
So you could filter, equalize levels, and play DSP games
till the vampires come home and still if the data's
missing there (dropout, tape splice, overwritten burst),
you're going to have to sleuth out what the context
around the missing data is and make educated guesses
about what should have been there.
Which is a job for a clever human. Sounds like we humans
may be useful (aside from being a blood supply for
Dracul or breeding stock for werewolves...)
for a while longer, if only for recovering old data. :)
-- Ross
It was partly my fault. My title was a little small
and
I spent most of my time fighting with Larry over table space
instead of talking to people ( Larry was cheating with Tootsie
Pops! ). I had no cool graphics either.
Next year I'll have better candy and a bigger title!
Still, I had a great time. Thanks Sellam!!!
Dwight
>From: "Sellam Ismail" <foo(a)siconic.com>
>
>On Mon, 28 Oct 2002, Bill Sudbrink wrote:
>
>> Anyone out there want to enlighten us poor slobs stuck on the wrong side
>> of the continent? Anyone putting any pictures on the web?
>
>It was a wholly awesome event. The most well-run VCF in the history of
>the VCF (all talks on time and recorded and video taped). Nearly a
>perfect exhibit (one problem with a circuit breaker on Sunday that was
>promptly fixed) with Kraftwerk playing in the background, not to mention
>the excellent exhibits themselves. We had broadband Internet access
>in the Exhibit Hall plus a WAP. Plenty of good stuff in the vendor
>area (much stuff for which I had to quell my impulse to buy, though I
>did get a lot of keen donations). Lots of great literature at the
>Propaganda Zone. Tours to the Computer History Museum, the California Air
>and Space Center (which were only a short walk away) and an excursion to
>the DigiBarn (http://www.digibarn.com). And the attendance was way
>higher than expected (right up around 300).
>
>In my opinion it was one of the best VCF's yet. Next year it will be even
>bigger and better.
>
>I will now turn my sights to VCF East 2.0.
>
>Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival
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