Seven Days, the Vermont’s independent voice has a great article with Jerry Manock.
Jerry Manock is regarded as the father of the Apple Industrial Design Group.
He worked in the design team that designed the Apple II, Apple III and the original Macintosh line of computers.
This is a great article and you must go to the website to read it.
Here is a link to the article again
http://www.7dvt.com/2012jerry-manock-mac-designer
I have no idea who Paul Dunning is but this person has made an incredibly cool looking ZX-81 in Lego.
This thing is amazingly cool
He even has a little Clive Sinclair
You really need to check out all his pictures at Paul’s flickr gallery.
Oh, if you would like to own a kit like this, please vote for it here.
lego.cuusoo.com/ideas/view/8479
What is the Vintage Computer Festival East and why do you want to go?
VCF brings computer enthusiasts from all over to display, teach and talk about vintage and classic computing. For those of you who enjoy classic car shows, this is like that and then some.
Why do you really want to go?
First of all a lot of really cool people come to VCF to show off their computers:
Jack Rubin’s KIM-1
David Gesswein’s, DEC PDP 8e
Mike Lee’s Apple Lisa and NeXt Cube
Alex Pierson’s Heathkit Hero
Guitar Hero on the Commodore 64
You can also go for workshops
Here I am building the PocketTerm over at Vince Briel’s Workshop
Here is Dan Rongati at the Teletype workshop
Yes, you go for the computers. You go for the workshops, but what you REALLY go for is to meet really good people.
I myself am a member of MARCH and the reason I am is because of Vintage Computer Festival East. It is where I met the MARCH crew and I saw the museum and I said I had to join.
I have also met a lot of other great people in the vintage computer community, too many to list. I have also met people that I never ever expected to meet.
Last year Bil Herd from Commodore fame showed up. He wasn’t a speaker, he just showed up and he brought a Commodore 128 Prototype to show everyone. We were all floored.
One year I got to meet David Ahl, from Creative Computing. He was nice enough to sign my book Basic Computer Games
You never know who is going to show up and that’s what makes it great.
If you want to meet great like minded people who share your love for vintage technology, then you really should come to VCF East. You won’t be disappointed.
For more pictures and videos of previous Vintage Computer Events please check out any of the links below.
Here is a great video of Vintage Computer Festival 6.0 from Dan Rongati
Here is MARCH’s Video of VCF East 5.0
MARCH, The Mid Atlantic Retro Computing Hobbyists is having their annual Vintage Computer Fair over at the Infoage Science, Learning Center and Museum in Wall NJ..
VCFE 8.0 has a number of great speakers this year
There is more great classes this year
All of this on top of all the great machines that will be displayed for you to enjoy.
Again this year there will be a marketplace for people to buy vintage computers, books, magazines and other items.
The lectures and classes start at 9:30am and continue to 2pm
The exhibit hall and marketplace runs from 2:00pm until 7pm on Sat and from 2pm until 5:30pm Sunday.
Tickets are $10 for one day, $15 for both days, and FREE for ages 17 and younger. Parking is free.
If you wish to display your computer or wish to sell anything in the marketplace I suggest you contact the MARCH members on their yahoo group : groups.yahoo.com/group/midatlanticretro/
For more information check out the VCFE 8.0 Website here : vintage.org/2012/east/
Or you can find it on Facebook : www.facebook.com/vcfeast8
Yes, 30 years ago Commodore International unveiled the Commodore 64 at the 1982 Winter Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
(I was waiting till CES to post this, but I saw everyone else posting their articles ..Oh well Eh..)
What they didn’t know was the icon that they created.. The Commodore 64 wasn’t just another 8bit computer in the 80s.. It was the Volkswagen Beetle of home computers.
See, they look alike
The Commodore 64 is listed as the best-selling computer of all time in the Guinness Book of World Records and for good reason. The C64 retailed for $595.00 and it had:
In 1982 this was a lot for $595.00. Compared to it’s competition it was much cheaper and still quite a capable computer. Remember you had to spend roughly $900 for an Atari 800 back and at least $1000 for the price of an Apple II. The C64 brought a lot of people who wouldn’t have normally bought a computer into the world of computing because the price was good given what it could do.
I had friends with Apple IIs who would come over to play games on my machine. Given the graphics and sound capabilities and the large numbers of users, many software companies produced games for the C64.
Also like the Volkswagen Beetle the Commodore 64 has a large and dedicated following that still creates new hardware & software for their beloved systems.
To give you in idea of the popularity of the C64. In 2004 the C64 Direct to TV was 
released. It wasn’t just one of those 10 games in one joystick that connects to a TV.. It was a complete Commodore 64 on a chip. It was designed by Jeri Ellsworth. It was so popular it sold 70,000 on the first day. Now the joysticks are collectors items commanding prices that exceed what they sold for originally. Many of them were taken apart by hackers and made into C64 clones or other projects.
Here is a tiny palmtop that was made using the C64 Direct to TV device, The Picodore 64
The Picodore 64
Now you may say, why is this computer so popular and so well remembered?
The Commodore 64 given it’s low price made it possible for many people like myself to have a real home computer. It’s graphics and sound capabilities made it a killer game machine and because of that it swayed a lot of people who would have bought a console like
the Atari or even a NES to come to the world of computers.
The Commodore 64 was not my first computer. I had a Timex Sinclair 1000. Later on I got my C64. While I did learn a lot on it, I spent a lot more time on the Commodore playing game after game after game. While other people were buying the Nintendo NES, I still had my C64. When the Sega Master System came out, I still had my C64. I had my C64. Why have a console, when you could have a full computer?
For many people, the 64 was the first computer and it introduced them into the wonderful world of computing. It was the system they played games on, or the system they used to communicate over modems, or programmed their HAM Radio or balanced their check book or did their homework on. I mean there are many stories and memories. Like a first car or a first love, it will be remembered fondly.
Funny story, I was at a Hackers on Planet Earth conference and the speaker was John Lee, from the group Masters of Deception and he was talking about the old days of breaking into the phone company’s computer systems using his Commodore 64.
There are hundreds of stories like this out there, feel free to share your own in the comments area.
For collectors and hobbyists, this is a great computer to have.. They are still inexpensive because they are far from rare. They are built well and you can probably find a working one easily and there are many people who still have them so you can find someone to help you. Do a simple google search for Commodore User Group and you will see many pop up. It shouldn’t be too hard to find one near you.
Below are some great videos and some great sites to explore
Here are a number of great sites about the Commodore 64 and about Commodore in general
Commodore 64 Computer System Review – Lazy Game Reviews
Commodore 64 Commercials
Ask a Computer
More than Apple
What a way to start the new year!!
David Greelish is at it again with his Classic Computing show podcast.
You may know David from his Retro Computing Roundtable podcast
This time he interviews John Scully, CEO of Apple Computers from 1983 to 1993.
Prior to Apple, John Scully was President of PepsiCo where he was known for turning around their money losing food division.
The interview is in two parts
David Greelish, Computer Historian
Some of David’s work.
I want to thank David for his hard work in setting up and getting all these interviews and for his contribution to the vintage computing scene.
I know I haven’t posted anything in a few months…
The problem being is that I was busy, hopefully I am going to get someone to help me and make it better.
With luck 2012 will be much better.
Thanks to everyone of my readers
-Chris
Today is a sad day.. Apple Co-Founder Steve Jobs is dead..
All I can say right now is may he rest in peace…
I thank him and Steve Wozniak for starting Apple Computer and for all the wonderful technologies that came from that company.
You will truly be missed
The BBC has an article about the death of Tony Sale.
He is well known in our community for being the lead on the construction of a replica of the Colossus computer in the UK.
Wikipedia has a great entry about him:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Sale
He will be missed by many on this side of the pond.
Fair Weather and Following Seas Mr. Sale
Here is a link to the obituary
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-14720180
Here is a video of Mr Sale talking about the Colossus rebuild
Here is a video of Mr Sale talking about Encryption during WWII
The Wall Street Journal has a good article about Paul Allen’s Living Computer Museum.
Link to the Article “What’s 6 Feet Tall and Weighs 1,500 Pounds? A Minicomputer, Microsoft Co-Founder’s Museum Forages Far and Wide for Digital Behemoths of Yore”
They also have a good article on his love for old computers.
Link to the article “Paul Allen on His Love for Old Computers”
The site has a great pic of Ian King. I remember him from the MARCH mailing list.
I remember posting an e-mail to the the MARCH list on May 16, 2008 about a job opening at the museum titled “Anyone want a job?”. The e-mail contained this link:
“http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/columnists/article3867363.ece”
With this quote:
“- JOB DESCRIPTIONS: just how descriptive should they be? Microsoft’s co-founder, Paul Allen, is advertising for an engineer to take care of his vintage computer collection at his company, Vulcan. An odd job, we concede, but what’s really odd is the job spec.
“While performing the duties of this job the employee is regularly required to stand; reach with hands and arms; talk or hear and smell.” So far, very, er, descriptive but there’s more . . .
“The employee is frequently required to walk and stoop, kneel, crouch or crawl. Occasionally, the employee is required to sit and climb, or balance.” Frequent crouching? And occasional balancing? Regular smelling? It all sounds like child’s play to me — literally. ”
Needless to say Ian got the job.. In fact I think he still owes me a beer.
I’m happy for him. He looks like he is really enjoying it. I’m Happy for him and for Mr. Allen. I’m glad that they put together a great museum and website.
You Tube has a nice video of the Living Computer Museum
