Hi Richard and Everyone. First, apologies to everyone to whom I'm currently obligated in some way. Things have been hectic for me for quite some time. The economic collapse has been particularly burdensome on my end, so I'm dealing with several major issues. On top of that I broke my ankle in a fall a few weeks ago. I just had minor surgery yesterday to remove some bone fragments. I'm trying to take advantage of the situation as best I can to use the time to catch up on things I've put off for too long. Regarding the VCF (the main west coast event) it will PROBABLY be back this year, as planned. I say PROBABLY in caps because I'm of the economic school of theory that says we are not coming out of this one as we went in, so I don't know what to expect by the time the VCF usually rolls around. All I can promise is to just wait for the announcement if there's a feasible possibility of pulling off an event. As you all know, there was no VCF (west) in 2008. Perhaps a (brief) explanation is in order. In 2007, at the milestone capping VCF X event, I had made it clear to anyone who asked that I was planning to take a break economic collapse was coming. I also was very worn out from ten years of producing the VCF (not to mention my normal work) and looked forward to a year without the slow build of pressure that occurs in the lead up to each VCF event. Every year it became harder and harder to get going on the event, and so I knew a break was needed. And of course, right on schedule the economy collapsed. The VCF would have been right in the middle of it, so my prescience was vindicated. Do know that the regional events are all still on schedule, including a new South event in Irving, Texas tomorrow: http://www.vintage.org/2009/lite/ This is a "VCF Lite", not a full-blown event, but Gil Carrick (the organizer) will be expanding it to a full VCF event next year. VCF Europa 10.0 is on schedule for May 1-3 (a 3-day event!) in Munich, Germany: http://vcfe.org/ VCF Midwest in its new Chicago location is on track, but no announcement has been made yet. And VCF East has been scheduled for September 12-13 at the usual location in Wall, NJ (InfoAge Science Center). As far as the Microdata Reality, I have no good excuse for not having gotten back to the folks who inquired, other than laziness and a sense of being overwhelmed. I just sent out respones to those who inquiried, so thanks for the nudge. -- Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ International Man of Intrigue and Danger http://www.vintage.org [ Old computing resources for business || Buy/Sell/Trade Vintage Computers ] [ and academia at www.VintageTech.com || at http://marketplace.vintage.org ]