LSSM event announcement

[Dave McGuire]

  [I'm sending this around to several mailing lists]

  Most of you have heard of the Large Scale Systems Museum, a public
museum in the Pittsburgh area that is focused on minicomputers,
mainframes, and supercomputers.  LSSM opened its doors to the public
for the first time in October of 2015, coinciding with a city-wide
festival.  We have been doing tours by appointment since then,
averaging 3-4 tours per month.

  On April 30th, there will be another such festival here in town,
called "New Kensington Better Block".  It's a large block party that
will encompass much of the downtown area.  There will be more than
sixty street vendors offering food, handmade crafts from local
artists, and just about everything else you can think of.  There will
be two stages' worth of live music, games, a beer garden featuring
great brews from the historic Penn Brewery, lots of kids' activities
like face-painting and caricature artists, drawings and raffles, the
grand openings of three new businesses, and lots of other great stuff.

  Another star of the show, Pittsburgh-based C/PMuseum, as a guest of
LSSM, will also be returning to Better Block with a special exhibit
this time covering the history of the world's largest technology
company, Apple Computer.  From the humble beginnings of two friends
named Steve, through today, Apple's 40th anniversary.  See running
examples of the actual machines that launched Apple in the 1970s and
1980s.  In addition, the gaming wing of C/PMuseum will feature a
display with running examples of game consoles from the earliest
generations through the most modern 3D immersive virtual reality.
Where else can you start out playing on a Magnavox Odyssey, and end up
inside the VR world of an HTC Vive?  The C/PMuseum pop-up at New
Kensington Better Block, that's where!

  The LSSM will be participating in that event just as we did last
October, by being open to the public all day.  (I'm aware that this is
very short notice; for that I apologize) Many of the Very Large
Computers here will be running and demonstrated on a rotation
throughout the day.

  Come and hack on DEC PDP-8, PDP-11, and VAX systems, IBM System/36s,
and everything in between.  See Cray supercomputers, DECsystem-20s,
IBM System/370 and System/390 mainframes, and real rarities such as a
Symbolics Lisp Machine, and minicomputers from the 1960s such as an HP
2116B (one of their first!) and a Varian 620-L.  See a Heath H-1, a
tube-based analog computer from 1956.  See nearly all of the IBM
"midrange" line.  See how SSP, the operating system from the IBM
System/36, can run in a virtual environment on an AS/400.  See what an
800-pound hard drive looks like.

  All are invited!  The LSSM is located at 924 4th Avenue, New
Kensington, PA 15068, right in the middle of the block party area.
New Kensington is about ten minutes' drive from the Allegheny Valley
exit of the Pennsylvania Turnpike, Exit 48.  It's a very easy area to
reach, and there are a number of decent and inexpensive hotels nearby.

  I hope you can make it.  Once again I apologize for the short
notice.  And of course if you cannot make it, feel free to contact the
LSSM via email to info at lssmuseum.org or on Facebook (search for "Large
Scale Systems Museum") to set up a visit at your leisure.  You can
also see some photos of our first big public opening on that page.

  Please feel free to forward this message to anyone whom you think
might be interested.

		Thanks,
		-Dave McGuire
                 President/Curator, LSSM

-- 
Dave McGuire, AK4HZ
New Kensington, PA