Subj : Re: VCF East this week (in Wall NJ)
To   : Bucko
From : poindexter FORTRAN
Date : Tue Apr 11 2023 07:03:00

-=> Bucko wrote to massiverobot <=-

 Bu> Cool.. I will check them out.. Thanks for the tip.. I used to go to the
 Bu> original VCFed it was in Trenton at a college it was unbelievable!! A
 Bu> football sized area of old stuff in a flea market setting, inside there
 Bu> was vendors everywhere!!


VCF West last year was a little disappointing compared to other years,
and much more expensive than I remember. I did like seeing a PiDP-11 up
close, but the sales area was pretty slim. If you wanted a part from a
broken midrange computer, you might get lucky, or a yellowed IBM PC
compatible for a couple of hundred dollars.

The Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA that hosts it is worth
the trip. They have a PDP-1 that plays spacewar and a working IBM 1401
that they IPL (initial program load, IBM-speak for "Power On") and teach
kids about. Lots of little iron, too, including an Apple 1 signed by
Woz.

They ask for volunteers, to get a generation of kids familiar with
maintaining a lost generation of Big Iron. If I was a kid living in the
area, I'd be all over that.

I went to the gift shop to get a refill for my Thinkpad.

https://www.acontinuouslean.com/2009/10/01/the-original-ibm-thinkpad/


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