Atlanta Historical Computing Society | A user group for computer history / computer collecting enthusiasts

AHCS Monthly Meeting is This Weekend

Published on Monday, 06 May 2019 11:14

Written by Mark Little

The May meeting of The Atlanta Historical Computing Society will be held this Saturday, May 11, 2019. We will meet at the usual time (1pm-5pm) and meeting place (Christ the Lord Lutheran Church in Lawrenceville, GA). All current and prospective Atlanta Historical Computing Society members are encouraged to attend this first meeting after the big Vintage Computer Festival SouthEast 7.0 show on April 27-28.

Thank you.

Photos from Vintage Computer Festival Southeast 7.0

Published on Tuesday, 30 April 2019 12:55

Written by Mark Little

Photos courtesy of Jon Guidry and Mark Little

Spread the Word: Vintage Computer Festival Southeast 7.0!

Published on Wednesday, 10 April 2019 15:12

Written by Mark Little

The seventh iteration of the Vintage Computer Festival Southeast, commonly known as VCFSE 7.0, will be here on April 27-28, 2019. All members of The Atlanta Historical Computing Society are encouraged to spread the word far and wide, on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Nextdoor.com, everywhere. Tell your friends, neighbors, family, schools, fellow students, co-workers, everyone. The graphic above, from the Computer Museum of America’s Facebook page, is shareable across many platforms, so please feel free to use it to get the word out; just include the following URL in your promotions:

https://www.facebook.com/search/top/?q=atlanta%20historical%20computing%20society&epa=SEARCH_BOX

Also, please don’t forget that we still need volunteers to cover the concessions and consignments areas.

We want this festival to be the best VCFSE ever!

Particulars:

When: Saturday, April 27, 2019 (10am to 7pm) and Sunday, April 28, 2019 (12noon to 5pm).
Where: At the new Computer Museum of America, 5000 Commerce Parkway, Roswell, GA 30076, in the rear of Roswell Town Center Mall.
Who: EVERYONE IS INVITED…computer geeks, families/children, STEM students, students, collectors, IT professionals, curious onlookers, etc.
How Much: Admission prices to both the festival and museum together is: $15/day or $22/both days for Adults 18-64, $10/day or $15/both days for Children 4-17, $40/day or $60/both days for a Family of Four, $12/day or $18/both days for Seniors 65+ and for College Students, and FREE for accompanied children 3 and under.
What: Douglas McIlroy, one of the original developers of UNIX at AT&T Labs in 1969, is set to be the keynote speaker for the event on Saturday, April 27, 2019, from 11am to 12noon. In addition, there will be over 20 working, hands-on exhibits on display spanning the history of computers from the earliest days of mainframe and mini-computers right up to the micro-computers (and, yes, gaming consoles) of the 1980s and 1990s. Also included are hands-on activities (including a supervised soldering station), a consignment area, a vendor area, and concessions for attendees. Finally, all attendees to the festival will be allowed to tour the Computer Museum of America, due to open in July of 2019.
Why: Because…you know…computers.

Next AHCS Meeting Has Been Moved One Week Ahead

Published on Monday, 11 March 2019 11:15

Written by Mark Little

Because the Atlanta Historical Computing Society will not have access to the usual venue on the usual second-Saturday-of-the-month meeting day, the April meeting has been moved ahead one week to Saturday, April 6, 2019. The time (1pm-5pm) and meeting place (Christ the Lord Lutheran Church in Lawrenceville, GA) of the April meeting will otherwise remain the same. This earlier date will also allow the club to address any last minute VCFSE 7.0 concerns or issues in a timely fashion. Please make a note of the earlier date.

All current and prospective Atlanta Historical Computing Society members are encouraged to attend this final meeting before the big Vintage Computer Festival SouthEast 7.0 show on April 27-28.

Thank you.

First Meeting of the New Year!

Published on Wednesday, 09 January 2019 17:23

Written by Mark Little

This Saturday, January 12, The Atlanta Historical Computing Society will hold it’s regular monthly meeting from 1pm-5pm; this will be the first club meeting of 2019. Any and all members, along with anyone who holds a keen interest in historical computing, are encouraged to attend. And if you have any computers, consoles, etc. that you need help fixing, or if you have anything you’d like to show off to the club, bring them along, too.

Among the topics to be discussed in this meeting will be fleshing out further details about Vintage Computer Festival SouthEast 7.0, which is scheduled for April 27-28, 2019. Please don’t miss this meeting, which will be held at our normal meeting place: Christ the Lord Lutheran Church, 1001 Duluth Highway, Lawrenceville, GA 30043.

November’18 meeting this Saturday!

Published on Monday, 05 November 2018 16:42

Written by Alan Hightower

It’s that time of year again… gobble, gobble! While there will be no free Punch n’ Pie at this November meeting – I know, more people will come if you say there will be free Punch n’ Pie – there will be plenty at the December Holiday Party next month. But never fear… there will be plenty of festivities at this Saturday’s meeting on November 10th. Check out the calendar links for information about the meeting location and times and the North Atlanta HamJam 2018 happening in the morning.

I’m sure there will be many treasures hauled in from both the morning’s HamJam and last weekend’s Stone Mountain HamFest. I (Alan) will be giving an overview presentation on this website’s Word Press system and how to use it. Hopefully we can get more folks contributing content to the site. And there will be the usual free pile, socializing, and David’s insane project of the month.

Looking forward to seeing everyone there!

Five things you can do with old computer equipment

Published on Wednesday, 31 October 2018 06:00

Written by Eric Lyons

Happy Halloween all! So – you have the vintage computer equipment, which seems to stretch as far forward as a circa 2003 PC. What can you do with that equipment? Several things, a few of which are listed below:

Run older software on the machine it was designed for
1. WordStar – several authors including George R. R. Martin and Andy Breckman still use it today
2. Borland TurboPascal, Microsoft Visual Basic 6, FoxPro/Visual FoxPro are all still in use today, and that is not even mentioning the mainframe computers still almost literally powering our civilization
Repurpose it to run some self-hosted tooling
1. This one only applies to machines that are only ‘vintage enough’, like workstations produced after ~1995
2. A good list for ideas would be this link
Teach your juniors about the wonders of (retro) technology
1. This one is a bit of a ‘preach to the choir’ moment, but it bears repeating. Many young people today only know smartphone apps, nothing of the electronic circuits, motherboards, cartridges and DIP switches of computing past that we used to create those smartphones
2. Before all of our computers got super slow from all of our software bloat, they were quite snappy at times. Text-based interfaces can be faster to operate for expert users as well
3. How many of the vintage equipment can access non World-Wide Web internet resources? Gopher, Usenet, & BBSes may not be mainstream any more, but they sure do impress!
Play some games
1. If the success of http://GOG.com is anything to go by, those retro video games are still quite fun even in their golden years, though most likely, you have the original discs/cartridges/tapes rather than requiring a download from the internet
“Max out” the equipment
1. Take whatever RAM and upgrades that the machine could handle in its prime and apply them. Sure, your Apple ][ may not be in its prime any more, but feed it an accelerator card like a Zip Chip II and you might see up to 8 MHz out of that puppy!