VCF Gazette Volume 1, Issue 3 A Newsletter for the Vintage Computer Festival October 1, 2002 Hello Vintage Computer Fans! The VCF Gazette is back again with more news about the Vintage Computer Festival. In this issue: VCF 5.0 Venue Change VCF 5.0 General Information VCF 5.0 Special Events VCF Open House Update Latest Additions to the VCF Archives VCF 5.0 Venue Change -------------------- The VCF is pleased to announce that this year's Vintage Computer Festival is being sponsored by the Computer History Museum. This sponsorship has enabled the VCF to be held at the Moffett Training & Conference Center at the Moffett Federal Airfield in Mountain View, California. The move has several advantages, including tighter integration with the tours to the Computer History Museum's Visible Storage exhibit area. Tours of the Air & Space Museum will also be available. The Computer History Museum has always shown support for the VCF in the past by exhibiting terrific artifacts from their collection in the VCF Exhibit. We greatly appreciate this new level of commitment to and support of the Vintage Computer Festival! VCF 5.0 General Information --------------------------- Vintage Computer Festival 5.0 is scheduled for October 26th and 27th. Doors open at 9:00AM each day, with talks beginning at 10:00AM and running until 2:00PM. The Exhibit and Marketplace is open from 2:00PM until 6:00PM each day. The admission to VCF 5.0 is $10 per person per day for full access to Speakers, the Exhibition and the Marketplace, or $4 per person per day for Exhibition and Marketplace access only. Kids 17 and under are admitted free of charge, and parking is free. VCF 5.0 is being held at the Moffett Training & Conference Center at Moffett Federal Airfield in Mountain View, California. Check the VCF 5.0 website for more details and directions. LODGING The VCF has reserved a room block at the County Inn in Mountain View, California, which is a short drive or walk to Moffett Field. The room rate is $69 per night for single or double occupany. Reservation information as well as information on other area hotels can be found on the VCF 5.0 Lodging page: http://www.vintage.org/2002/main/lodging.php EXHIBITORS If you wanted to an exhibit a computer from your collection, there is still time to register. To register as an exhibitor, please go to: http://www.vintage.org/2002/main/exhibit.php VENDORS The VCF still has vendor booths available. The VCF Marketplace is the best place to sell your old computer items to a targeted market. You may also sell items on consignment and leave the hassle to us. For more information on the VCF Marketplace and consignment sales, please visit: http://www.vintage.org/2002/main/vendor.php VCF 5.0 BBS The VCF has just launched a bulletin board system on the VCF 5.0 website to enable attendees to communicate with each other before the event to arrange trades, form carpools, and discuss the VCF in general. The BBS can be accessed here: http://www.vintage.org/2002/main/bbs.php FOREIGN NATIONALS Foreign nationals can disregard previous announcements about the requirement to register in advance in order to be allowed access to Moffett Federal Airfield. The confusion with the entry procedures was caused by a miscommunication. Foreign nationals will be allowed onto the base just as any United States citizen, but as is required for all persons entering the base, valid identification must be presented at the main gate. We sincerely apologize for the confusion. SPONSORS The Vintage Computer Festival gratefully thanks its sponsors, the Computer History Museum and the Alameda County Computer Resource Center. Computer History Museum http://www.computerhistory.org Alameda County Computer Resource Center http://www.accrc.org VCF 5.0 Special Events ---------------------- We are adding new features to the VCF this year to increase attendee participation. Along with the Nerd Trivia Challenge, the popular quiz game that tests your computer history knowledge, the VCF will feature the Retro-Code vintage computer coding challenge in which attendees will write games on old home computers within a limited time period at the VCF. Information on the Nerd Trivia Challenge can be found here: http://www.vintage.org/2002/main/ntc.php Information about the Retro-Code challenge is here: http://www.vintage.org/2002/main/retrocode.php COMPUTER HISTORY MUSEUM TOURS Tours of the Computer History Museum will be running throughout the exhibition hours of the VCF. Those that have not yet had the opportunity to visit the Computer History Museum's Visible Storage exhibits will certainly want to take advantage of this. For more information about the Computer History Museum, please visit their website at: http://www.computerhistory.org/ DIGIBARN EXCURSION The DigiBarn is a computer museum in a country setting (literally housed in a barn in the Santa Cruz Mountains). Bruce Damer, the curator of the DigiBarn, will be heading the excursion. A caravan will leave the VCF at approximately 2:30pm on Sunday and return before the close of VCF 5.0. More information about the DigiBarn can be found on their website: http://www.digibarn.com/ APL BAY AREA USERS' GROUP MEETING The VCF is hosting a meeting of the APL Bay Area Users' Group (The Northern California SIGAPL of the ACM) at VCF 5.0 in conjunction with the lecture that will be given by Zbigniew Stachniak. Zbigniew will be discussing an early portable personal computer, the MCM/70, which ran APL. The meeting will take place at 3:00pm on Saturday, October 26, in the speaker hall. For more information on the APL BAUG, visit their website: http://www.acm.org/sigapl Stay tuned for more VCF event updates! VCF Open House Update --------------------- The first VCF Open House is still in the works. We had promised to have the VCF Archives ready for display by now but progress has been slower than hoped. Still, progress is being made. Most of the material needed to build out the floor has been acquired. Construction on the floor will begin in October. Once it's complete, artifacts will be selected and exhibits will be assembled throughout the Fall, with an anticipated museum opening sometime in late November or early December. Again, the VCF would like to thank the Alameda County Computer Resource Center for generously providing space for the VCF to store our archives. The Alameda County Computer Resource Center is the largest non-profit computer recycling operation on the west coast of the United States. You may visit them on the web at: http://www.accrc.org/ Better yet, visit them in person and volunteer your time to help put computers into the hands of deserving kids, schools and organizations world-wide. Volunteering details can be found the ACCRC website. Latest Additions to the VCF Archives ------------------------------------ The VCF has continued to acquire new (or rather "old") artifacts since our last update. One of the most exciting is our acquisition of a Digital Computer Controls D-116 minicomputer. The DCC D-116 is roughly a clone of the Data General Nova 830. We have also acquired a Linus WriteTop. The Linus WriteTop was the first pen-based computer, manufactured in 1986. The computer did not meet with much success, mainly because the hand-writing recognition was not perfect (but then, it still isn't 16 years later ;) That wraps it up for this issue of the VCF Gazette! Until next time... Best regards, Sellam Ismail Producer Vintage Computer Festival http://www.vintage.org/ The Vintage Computer Festival is a celebration of computers and their history. The VCF Gazette goes out to anyone who subscribed to the VCF mailing list, and is intended to keep those interested in the VCF informed of the latest VCF events and happenings. The VCF Gazette is guaranteed to be published in a somewhat irregular manner, though we will try to maintain a quarterly schedule. If you would like to be removed from the VCF mailing list, and therefore not receive any more issues of the VCF Gazette, visit the following web page: http://www.vintage.org/remove.php ;) -- Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ International Man of Intrigue and Danger http://www.vintage.org * Old computing resources for business and academia at www.VintageTech.com *