VCF Comments

From: Marvin <marvin_at_rain.org>
Date: Mon Sep 28 17:31:04 1998

As usual, the VCF was a lot of fun and a great chance to put faces with many
of the names that appear on this list. Besides the neat collection of older
working computers on display, it seemed like most of the fun took place in
the swap area.

Couple of things there that *I* thought were worth noting. Kai brought some
disk drives for the Bell & Howell Black Apple, and were the first I had
seen. On Sunday, another vendor appeared with one of the Black Apples he
was selling for $200 (didn't sell.) This same vendor brought quite a few
vintage computers that included a Commodore Teachers Pet w/ the calculator
keyboard, an H8 w/ no boards except the motherboard, a Heathkit H100, SWTP
6800, and a variety of other computers of similar vintage. Another vendor
brought a Micromat robot that sold for somewhere around $200 that included
the robot and computers to interface it to. His comment was that this was
mainly a social occasion, and to some extent I have to agree, a social
occasion well worth attending!!! There were quite a few of the people there
from last year, and from everyone I talked to, sales were good. I wish I
had an extra $1k or so to spend on the stuff I saw there!!! But there is
always next year to look forward to and to plan on attending!

In the display area, The Computer Museum had a number of things including
the Apple I. When I was talking to Carol Welsh of the Computer Museum, she
indicated that someone had brought an Apple I to the VCF and sold it to
someone else for $2000. At the point that I talked with her, the other
person with her was trying to track down the parties involved.

Someone made the comment that there were two varieties of the Osbourne I,
and I gather that the difference was in the case (not talking about the
Executive, only the Osbourne I.) Anyone have any input on this? When I
checked mine, they were both like the one on display which was supposed to
be the older one but I'm not sure I've ever seen a One that looked any
different.

As with Doug, I didn't get a chance to hear the talks (except Gordon Bell)
and I am looking forward to being able to buy the audio tapes when Sam gets
them finished.

The tour of The Computer Museum at Moffet Field was incredible. The
collection was what they called "Visible Storage" and they had about 2% of
their collection where people could take a look. Generally speaking,
photographing the exhibits is prohibited but they relaxed that policy for
this tour with the stipulation that any photos taken were strictly for
private use.

Well, all for now, and I'm sure the others on this list who attended will
have lots to say!
Received on Mon Sep 28 1998 - 17:31:04 BST