DigiBarn Computer Museum Newsletters DigiBarn News 021: See LINC & Digibarn @ VCF 10, Nov 3-4th! (Oct 28, 2007) DigiBarn News 020: VCF & LINC event Nov 3-4, open house, news coverage (Oct 8, 2007) DigiBarn News 019: Summer Open Houses, LINC & Other News (Aug 6, 2007) DigiBarn News 018: VCF, Apple@30 Nov 4th! & Other News (Oct 30, 2006) DigiBarn News 017: Open Houses! IBM PC/25, Xerox & other Special Stories (Jul 21, 2006) DigiBarn News 016: DigiBarn on History Channel (with Shatner) & other News (Mar 11, 2006) DigiBarn News 015: Nov 5th event, Homebrew Computer Club@30 & other News (Oct 31, 2005) DigiBarn News 014: Jef Raskin & Other News (Mar 9, 2005) DigiBarn News 013: Maze War @ VCF Nov 6-7th, Mountain View CA (Oct 29, 2004) DigiBarn News 012: Open House 4/24 and more news (Apr 21, 2004) DigiBarn News 011: Bruce Damer on TechTV, Friday Feb 27th & more (Feb 27, 2004) DigiBarn News 010: Macintosh 20th birthday event tomorrow 1/22 (Jan 21, 2004) DigiBarn News 009: The Macintosh Turns 20 (Jan 6, 2003) DigiBarn News 008: Vintage Computer Festival and Alto/30 Birthday Bash (Oct 3, 2003) DigiBarn News 007: Summer 2003 (Aug 25, 2003) DigiBarn News 006: Spring 2003 (Apr 25, 2003) DigiBarn News 005: Winter 2002-2003 & Job opening! (Dec 5, 2002) DigiBarn News 004: Vintage Computer Festival oct 26-27 & DigiBarn Openhouse (Oct 21, 2002) DigiBarn News 003: 7/13 Opening & Museum News (Jun 22, 2002) DigiBarn News 002: Computer Museum News (May 3, 2002) DigiBarn News 001: Our Innaugural Edition! (Mar 17, 2002) DigiBarn News 021: See LINC & Digibarn @ VCF 10, Nov 3-4th! (Oct 28, 2007) Dear DigiBarn News subscribers here is an abbreviated newsletter (#21) reminding you of the fabulous Vintage Computer Festival coming this weekend (Nov 3-4th) at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View. Details of the VCF 10 can be found below in this newsletter and from the VCF site: http://www.vintage.org/2007/main/ Join Allan Lundell and me for a special session on the Digibarn at 11:30am on Saturday November 3rd celebrating 20 years of collecting and the tenth year of the Digibarn Computer Museum. Then, see the LINC in demonstrations all day on Saturday and Sunday November 3-4th and the special panel of the original LINC team at 1pm Sunday November 4th. The LINC is a very important machine in history, having created the paradigm shift that lead directly to the personal computer revolution. More on the LINC and everything else below! ****************** DIGIBARN FALL 2007 NEWS (VCF Supplement) 1. LINC Restoration Project and Project and Special Presentation at VCF 10, Nov 3-4th 2. Full VCF 10 Announcement 3. Open Houses 4. Digibarn on CNET (News.com)! ****************** 1. LINC Restoration Project and Special Presentation at VCF 10, Nov 3-4th (Mountain View, CA) The LINC was a true paradigm shift in computing, which in the early 1960s was dominated by large batch processing and the beginnings of the time-sharing movement. The LINC, developed by a team at MIT's Lincoln Laboratory, was the first step in the direction to dedicating computing resources to interact with a single user, and a machine so versatile with an addressable graphical display, removable tape storage media, and the ability to operate it on a lab bench or desk on a day to day basis and shut it down at night (what a concept!). Join a whole team of original LINC designers and operators who have toiled in the past year to get a LINC up and running (and shipped out to the event) to hear about what industry luminaries like Gordon Bell and Allan Kay describe fondly as "the world's first personal computer". We will have live demos of the working LINC all weekend followed by Sunday's panel where the history, significance and restoration challenges of the LINC will be presented. The LINC event and presenters are described at: http://www.digibarn.com/history/07-11-04-VCF10-LINC/index.html The LINC history and restoration are at: http://www.digibarn.com/stories/linc/index.html The Vintage Computer Festival 10.0: http://www.vintage.org/2007/main/ 2. Full VCF 10 Announcement FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE  COMPUTER HISTORY PIONEERS CONGREGATE ON NOVEMBER 3-4 AT VINTAGE EVENT    Vintage Computer Festival Celebrates History of Computing with     live antique computers and living legends from the computer industry LIVERMORE, CALIFORNIA (PRWEB) October 26, 2007 -- The Vintage Computer Festival, a yearly event that celebrates computers and their history, is being held on November 3-4 at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California. Anticipation is building for what is expected to be the biggest and most well-attended event since the Festival's founding ten years ago.  Celebrated once a year in Silicon Valley, as well as three other locations worldwide, the Vintage Computer Festival is the largest and most prestigious event of its kind, featuring a lecture series, an exhibition of working vintage and antique computers, and a marketplace for traders to buy and sell vintage computers.  Collectors from around the world attend this event, which was founded in 1997.  The Festival also recognizes its own history this year as it marks its tenth anniversary. This year, attendees will be treated to several historical figures in the computer industry, including Lee Felsenstein (designer of the classic Osborne 1, one of the first portable computers, and the SOL-20, one of the first personal computers), Al Hoagland (designer of the first commercial disk drive), legendary MIT proto-hackers Bill Gosper Steve Russell (author of the first videogame, Spacewar!), Wesley Clark (not the general, but the inventor of the first transistorized computer in the US) and prolific computer book author Lance Leventhal, who wrote dozens of computer self-help books throughout the 1970s and 1980s. One of the keynote sessions at the Festival this year is a panel featuring the engineers who in the early 1960s designed the LINC (Laboratory INstrumentation Computer), which was a revolutionary computer design that some consider to be the first "personal computer". The Festival also features a marketplace for collectors to buy, sell and trade vintage computers.  There is also a screening of documentaries and films on both days of the event that have vintage computing or vintage technology themes.  Some of the filmmakers will be present to talk about their work and give introductions to their films.  There will also be an abstract artist (Christine Finn) on site throughout the event constructing a collaborative artwork based on discarded technology, culminating at a talk she will give on the piece at 3:00pm on Sunday. The Computer History Museum is an ideal location for the Festival as it allows attendees the opportunity to tour the Museum's collection while also attending the lectures and exhibits organized by the VCF.  Tours of the Museum's collection will be given throughout the afternoon on each day of the Festival.  Special theme tours during the weekend will include "A Brief History of the Internet" and "The History of Video Games", which are both guided by Museum docents.  There will also be live demonstrations of ancient mainframe computers that have been painstakingly restored to working condition, including an IBM 1401 mainframe circa 1960 and a Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) PDP-1 minicomputer circa 1961 running Spacewar!, the first ever videogame, written in 1962.  The game's author, Steve Russell, will also be speaking at the Festival. The Computer History Museum is located at 1401 North Shoreline Blvd. in Mountain View, California, just off highway 101.  The Vintage Computer Festival opens at 9:30am each day, with first sessions beginning at 10:00am and the exhibition and marketplace opening at 2:00pm each day.  The film festival runs from 11:00am to 6:00pm each day.  The Festival officially ends at 6:00pm on Sunday. Complete event information including admission, directions to the venue and the event schedule can be found on the VCF website: http://www.vintage.org/2007/main/                                      # # # -- Sellam Ismail                                        Vintage Computer Festival 3. Open Houses The Digibarn had some great open houses this year, we concluded with the one this past Saturday October 27th, 2007: http://www.digibarn.com/eventsvisiting/index.html 4. Digibarn on CNET (News.com) "Tales of Silicon Valley"! There have been tons of great stories about the Digibarn in the world news media over the past few months. Some of the best coverage has been provided by CNET (news.com). Tom Merritt and his crew visited us last Friday (Oct 26th) to record several new short story pieces for "Tales of Silicon Valley". Watch for them on CNET TV. We hope you will take a look at both (and the other stories) at: http://www.digibarn.com/links/media.html DigiBarn News 020: VCF & LINC event Nov 3-4, open house, news coverage (Oct 8, 2007) Dear DigiBarn News subscribers (and welcome new subscribers who checked the box on our contact form), Here is your Fall 2007 newsletter (#20). The big news is that on the weekend of November 3rd-4th is the 10th Vintage Computer Festival, to be held at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA. This is the world's premier community event on computing history and we are happy to announce that at 1pm on Sunday November 4th will be a special event featuring the historic LINC (Laboratory INstrument Computer). We will be holding the last open house of the year on the weekend of October 27th. More details on all this and more below... ****************** DIGIBARN FALL 2007 NEWS 1. LINC Restoration Project and Project and Special Presentation at VCF 10, Nov 3-4th 2. West Coast Computer Faires, call for information 3. Fall Open House 4. Digibarn on CNET (News.com)! 5. We finally posted the Apple@30 event video on Google Video! 6. New Pictorial Tour of the Digibarn 7. Virtual Worlds Timeline project, by Digibarn Curator Bruce Damer 8. New Digibarn Radio Podcasts 9. Digibarn TV new features! ****************** 1. LINC Restoration Project and Special Presentation at VCF 10, Nov 3-4th The LINC was a true paradigm shift in computing, which in the early 1960s was dominated by large batch processing and the beginnings of the time-sharing movement. The LINC, developed by a team at MIT's Lincoln Laboratory, was the first step in the direction to dedicating computing resources to interact with a single user, and a machine so versatile with an addressable graphical display, removable tape storage media, and the ability to operate it on a lab bench or desk on a day to day basis and shut it down at night (what a concept!). Join a whole team of original LINC designers and operators who have toiled in the past year to get a LINC up and running (and shipped out to the event) to hear about what industry luminaries like Gordon Bell and Allan Kay describe fondly as "the world's first personal computer". We will have live demos of the working LINC all weekend followed by Sunday's panel where the history, significance and restoration challenges of the LINC will be presented. The LINC event is described at: http://www.digibarn.com/history/07-11-04-VCF10-LINC/index.html The LINC history and restoration are at: http://www.digibarn.com/stories/linc/index.html The Vintage Computer Festival 10.0: http://www.vintage.org/2007/main/ 2. West Coast Computer Faires, call for information If anyone out there has artifacts from the West Coast Computer Faires (1977 and later) please get in touch with us at: http://www.digibarn.com/forms/comment.html (we are hoping to document this most important event in the history of personal computing) 3. Fall Open House The Digibarn will have one more Open House on Saturday October 27th with rotating tours at about 1pm and you could show up any time up until about 4pm. For those who wish to we will do dinner in the local brewery pub/restaurant at about 630-7pm. If you want to come please RSVP to me at bdamer@digitalspace.com and I will send you the directions. Let me know the time you would like to come. If you plan to bring artifacts to donate please let me know in advance (in case I can or can't take them). See scenes from this Summer's Open Houses at: http://www.digibarn.com/eventsvisiting/index.html Lots of new stuff to show you! Should be fun! See you here! 4. Digibarn on CNET (News.com)! There have been tons of great stories about the Digibarn in the world news media over the past few months. Some of the best coverage has been provided by CNET (news.com) including a superb story by Daniel Terdiman and excellent video visit by Tom Merritt. We hope you will take a look at both (and the other stories) at: http://www.digibarn.com/links/media.html 5. We finally posted the Apple@30 event video on Google Video! Al Lundell and I finally got the three edits of the wonderful Apple@30 event we held at last November's VCF all up, this time on Google Video, see Woz, Daniel Kottke and the "garage gang" from Apple in 1976, as well as my detailed yet fun introduction at: http://www.digibarn.com/history/06-11-4-VCF9-Apple30/panel/movies.html The full Apple@30 event, with some never before seen artifacts, is at: http://www.digibarn.com/history/06-11-4-VCF9-Apple30/index.html 6. New Pictorial Tour of the Digibarn We shot a whole series of photos just before the Digibarn open house season in Summer 2007 to give you all an idea of the whole new setup (in case you can't make it in person). The new "virtual tour" is at: http://www.digibarn.com/history/07-08-11-DigibarnTour/page_01.htm 7. Virtual Worlds Timeline project, by Digibarn Curator Bruce Damer Bruce Damer, curator of the Digibarn, has another life as CEO of DigitalSpace ( http://www.digitalspace.com ), a leading company creating open source 3D software that is used by NASA and others to create realistic 3D virtual worlds for mission design and simulation. Bruce also co-founded the Contact Consortium back in 1995 to help pioneer the novel concept of shared graphical Cyberspaces with "avatars" representing users. Now that the avatar/virtual world medium (through gaming and social virtual worlds) is becoming a big business, Bruce is embarking on "The Virtual Worlds Timeline", a project to tell the story of the birth of the virtual world, from its earliest beginnings in the first shared graphical spaces (Spacewar! 1961) to its first incarnation as a 3D multi player game (Maze War, 1974) and on up through the 80s and 90s and 2000s. The Digibarn and many other institutions and people will be supporting this project in the coming year. If you are interested in the Virtual Worlds Timeline, take a look at: http://www.vwtimeline.org 8. New Digibarn Radio Podcasts Digibarn radio has gone podcast! Thanks to Tommy Cuellar, a Digibarn fan living in Japan and a budding radio voice talent, we have several more of the newest Digibarn radio pieces available in podcast format. Subscribe through the iTunes store at Apple for free, just enter the term Digibarn Radio. You can also sign up directly at the Digibarn Radio page at: http://www.digibarn.com/collections/audio/index.html or listen to these and our other pieces using regular MP3 audio download players. Hear Lee Felsenstein describing the Osborne-1 schematic (with embedded pictures!). 9. Digibarn TV new features! See several new video features on Digibarn TV, including Steve Wozniak at the Apple@30 event last November, at: http://www.digibarn.com/collections/movies/index.html DigiBarn News 019: Summer Open Houses, LINC & Other News (Aug 6, 2007) Dear DigiBarn News subscribers (and welcome new subscribers who checked the box on our contact form), Here is your Summer 2007 newsletter (#19). The big news is that this Saturday August 11th and next Saturday August 18th are open house days at the Digibarn, see details below. Our other big effort is working with a team of folks who are doing a restoration of a historic LINC (Laboratory INstrument Computer) which will be part of this Novembers Vintage Computer Festival. All this great stuff and more below... DIGIBARN SUMMER 2007 NEWS 1. Summer Open Houses 2. LINC Restoration Project and Project and Special Presentation at VCF 10, Nov 3-4th 3. Virtual Worlds Timeline project, by Digibarn Curator Bruce Damer 4. Dwight Elvey tours the ASR 33 Teletype and Jef Raskin's Canon Cat (FORTH) 5. Digibarn acquires large calculator/PDA collection 6. Washington Apple Pi Offers New Apple /// Legacy DVD 7. In Search of the Valley DVD Movie on computing history available now! 8. Digibarn Radio goes Podcast! 9. Digibarn TV new features! 10. Thanks donors! Still looking for... 11. Archive of this and past Newsletters 1. Summer Open Houses The Digibarn will have two Summer Open House days on Saturday August 11th and Saturday August 18th. I will start rotating tours at about 1pm each day and you could show up any time up until about 4pm. For those who wish to we will do dinner in the local brewery pub/restaurant at about 630-7pm. If you want to come please RSVP to me and I will send you the directions. Let me know the day and time you would like to come. If you plan to bring artifacts to donate please let me know in advance (in case I can or can't take them). See scenes from last year's Open Houses at: http://www.digibarn.com/eventsvisiting/index.html Lots of new stuff to show you! Should be fun! See you here! PS: we will be having some Open Houses in the fall and during the Vintage Computer Festival (Nov 4th). 2. LINC Restoration Project and Special Presentation at VCF 10, Nov 3-4th Bay Area resident and Xerox PARC veteran Severo Ornstein and a St. Louis based crew of folks are restoring one (or two?) original LINCs (Laboratory INstrument Computer). The LINC Is arguably the first personal (portable, for a single user, could sit on a bench) computer, developed at Lincoln Labs in the early 1960s by a team that included Severo and LINC designer Wes Clark. A group of locals has assembled around the effort, including myself, Severo Ornstein and Gordon Bell. The great news is that the St. Louis team has gotten one LINC to "see the light of day" and you can see it working and other great background on this historic machine at our special LINC project site at: http://www.digibarn.com/stories/linc/index.html The plan is to truck one or more LINCs this fall to the Bay Area and host a special presentation (with some of the team members) at the November 3-4th Vintage Computer Festival. After that the LINC will come to a great retirement home... the Digibarn! If you want to be involved in this project in any way, please contact us at: http://www.digibarn.com/forms/comment.html 3. Virtual Worlds Timeline project, by Digibarn Curator Bruce Damer Bruce Damer, curator of the Digibarn, has another life as CEO of DigitalSpace ( http://www.digitalspace.com ), a leading company creating open source 3D software that is used by NASA and others to create realistic 3D virtual worlds for mission design and simulation. Bruce also co-founded the Contact Consortium back in 1995 to help pioneer the novel concept of shared graphical Cyberspaces with "avatars" representing users. Now that the avatar/virtual world medium (through gaming and social virtual worlds) is becoming a big business, Bruce is embarking on "The Virtual Worlds Timeline", a project to tell the story of the birth of the virtual world, from its earliest beginnings in the first shared graphical spaces (Spacewar! 1961) to its first incarnation as a 3D multi player game (Maze War, 1974) and on up through the 80s and 90s and 2000s. The Digibarn and many other institutions and people will be supporting this project in the coming year. If you are interested in the Virtual Worlds Timeline, take a look at: http://www.vwtimeline.org 4. Dwight Elvey tours the ASR 33 Teletype and Jef Raskin's Canon Cat (FORTH) Local computer history maven and hardware restorer Dwight Elvey helped bring some computing history alive at the Digibarn earlier this year by giving us a video tour of the ASR-33 teletype, a beloved and widely used I/O device for all sorts of computer systems 30+ years ago, including many homebrew projects. See the tour at: http://www.digibarn.com/collections/printers/asr-33-teletype/index.html where we take the covers off the ASR-33. Thanks Inman Gallogly for the donation of the ASR-33! Dwight also has a specialty in FORTH and FORTH machines. One of those machines is the Digibarn's Canon Cat, donated by its designer, Jef Raskin. This is a machine with an innovative user interface rarely seen today. You can see a video of Dwight's tour at: http://www.digibarn.com/collections/systems/canon-cat/index.html and take a look at his "guide to enabling Forth on the Canon Cat" here: http://www.digibarn.com/collections/systems/canon-cat/forthinside.html 5. Digibarn acquires large calculator/PDA collection In late 2006 the Digibarn acquired a single large calculator and PDA collection from one donor in the Los Angeles area. We have since built a special display and included some of our other units there. So finally the Digibarn has launched a significant effort in "smaller artifacts" of the computing age! See the display at: http://www.digibarn.com/collections/calculators/all/index.html 6. Washington Apple Pi Offers New Apple /// Legacy DVD David Ottalini   apple3info@verizon.net          03/18/07 For Immediate Release ROCKVILLE, Md. It literally took decades to produce, but a new DVD containing 4+ gigabytes of information and previously unavailable material about the Apple /// computer is now available through the Washington Apple Pi User Group (WAP). Much of this disk contains invaluable articles from WAP, Apple Three Users of Northern California, Third Apple Users and other historic Apple and online users groups, said Dave Ottalini, WAPs /// SIG Chair who compiled the DVD with contributions from his own library and other /// users. The disk includes every article Ottalini has ever written for WAP and other publications. It also includes WAPs entire Apple /// public domain library of 250 disks in ADT (Apple Disk Transfer) format, along with videos, audio files, graphics and much, much more. The DVD is available through Washington Apple Pis online store at http://www.prestostore.com/cgi-bin/storefront.pl?ref=WAPiStore. The cost is $35.00 (plus postage) which goes to help Washington Apple Pi. "This DVD is a must for anyone interested in Apples early history and especially about the Apple ///, says Ottalini. The machine was the first business computer produced by Apple as a company and was manufactured for only a few years in the early 1980s. It suffered from a number of highly publicized problems, major and trivial, and could not compete with the original Apple II or with the original IBM PC and Macintosh computers, yet those who owned and used the machines found them far more flexible and innovative than anything else available." WHATS IN THE APPLE /// DVD? Categories include: WAP, A3 Info, A3 Tech Library, A3 Archives, Emulation, ///s Company BBS, Mac Software, Vendors, Fliptrack, A3 Media, MAUG, Source Code, A3 Manuals, DataBases, and Videos. See the disk for a full listing or goto http://www.wap.org/a3/. APPLE /// IN 10 EZ LESSONS AND MORE The Pi Store also plans to offer a two set DVD that is a TV-quality video tutorial about the Apple ///. MP4 versions for the video iPod are included with the Apple /// legacy DVD. As for future projects, the /// community is talking about transferring as many software titles as possible onto DVD(s) using the ADT format to preserve the legacy of the Apple ///. ABOUT WASHINGTON APPLE PI Washington Apple Pi is one of the oldest and largest Apple/Macintosh User Groups in the U.S. Since 1979, WAP has worked to help its members take advantage of their computers. From special interest groups to monthly meetings, Tuesday repair clinics to Internet service, the Pi offers a host of services to members of all ages for just $49.00 per year. For more information about the club and how to join, point your browser to http://www.wap.org. Washington Apple Pi, Ltd. 12022 Parklawn Drive Rockville, MD USA 20852 301-984-0300 7. In Search of the Valley DVD Movie on computing history available now! A wonderful documentary about the birth of the age and place we live in (ie: Silicon Valley) is available on DVD and through online streaming outlets. See more about the project at: http://www.insearchofthevalley.com/ Also see their YouTube channel at: http://www.youtube.com/isotv This film was shot in 2004 and screened at last year's VCF to great appeal. For more information contact Steve O'Hear, its director, at: steve@ohear.net 8. Digibarn Radio goes Podcast! Digibarn radio has gone podcast! Thanks to Tommy Cuellar, a Digibarn fan living in Japan and a budding radio voice talent, we have several more of the newest Digibarn radio pieces available in podcast format. Subscribe through the iTunes store at Apple for free, just enter the term Digibarn Radio. You can also sign up directly at the Digibarn Radio page at: http://www.digibarn.com/collections/audio/index.html or listen to these and our other pieces using regular MP3 audio download players. 9. Digibarn TV new features! See several new video features on Digibarn TV, including Steve Wozniak at the Apple@30 event last November, at: http://www.digibarn.com/collections/movies/index.html 10. Thanks donors! Still looking for... A lot of great donations came in since the springtime and we would like to thank all the many Friends of the Digibarn who contributed: http://www.digibarn.com/friends/index.html See the ever expanding collection at: http://www.digibarn.com/collections/index.html We are still looking for a bunch of good stuff and have updated our "wish list" at: http://www.digibarn.com/help/index.html so check it out and see if you have anything there we are desperately seeking (weird prototypes or front bezel for a Lisa 1 anyone?). 11. Archive of this and past Newsletters You can find the archive of this and all past Digibarn Newsletters at: http://www.digibarn.com/history/newsletters/index.html ****************** DigiBarn News 018: VCF, Apple@30 Nov 4th! & Other News (Oct 30, 2006) Dear DigiBarn News subscribers, Here is your Fall 2006 newsletter (#18). The BIG news is this coming weekend's Vintage Computer Festival 9.0 in Mountain View, CA (see top story below). At the VCF we are presenting another of our "30th birthdays", this year honoring Apple Computer with an all-star panel, presentation of vintage Apple-1 hardware and our traditional cake cutting. This year sees a return of Steve Wozniak, who was such a hit as last year's Homebrew Computer Club @ 30 event. Joining him will be other very early Apple employees, some of whom worked along side Woz and Steve Jobs in the actual garage era in the Spring and Summer of 1976. We recommend you get to the VCF well before the 1pm Saturday November 4th start time if you are to get a seat at this event. If you bring a copy of iWoz, Woz' new biography, you can get it signed. The VCF will have a limited quantity of copies for sale. Media inquiries about this event should be directed to the DigiBarn comment form. All this great stuff and more below... ****************** MAIN DIGIBARN FALL 2006 NEWS 1. Apple@30, 1976 - Apple Computer in the Garage, a special event to be held at the VCF 9.0 on Saturday Nov 4th, 2006. 2. Virtual Worlds Timeline project, by Digibarn Curator Bruce Damer 3. LINC Restoration Project 4. New Microcomputer Gallery Opening in Albuquerque 5. Our successful Summer Open Houses! 6. The World of Xerox at the Digibarn (how Xerox changed the world but nobody knows it!) 7. Special coverage of the 25th Anniversary of the launch of the IBM Personal Computer 8. Digibarn Radio goes Podcast! 9. Digibarn TV new features! 10. Thanks donors! Still looking for... 11. Archive of this and past Newsletters 12. Full Announcement of the Vintage Computer Festival 9.0 ****************** 1. Apple@30, 1976 - Apple Computer in the Garage, a special event to be held at the VCF 9.0 on Saturday Nov 4th, 2006 @ 1pm Its time again for our annual 30th birthday event and what better company and product to honor than Apple and the Apple-1 computer?! Join us at 1pm this Saturday November 4th, 2006 (come early to get a seat, last year overflowed) at the Vintage Computer Festival 9.0 which is being held at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA. Details about this event can be found on our page at: http://www.digibarn.com/history/06-11-4-VCF9-Apple30/index.html and the Vintage Computer Festival 9.0 and Computer History Museum location at: http://www.vintage.org/2006/main/ (please note that an admission fee is required for this event). We will start with introductions by Sellam Ismail of the VCF, then DigiBarn Curator Bruce Damer will introduce the topic and a stellar set of panelists. The panelists will then have at it, bringing us back to the days of Apple in the Garage, the Home Brew Club meetings, Apple at its first conference and from there to its first office. On display for the panelist to comment on and for the audience to appreciate will be an original Apple 1, fully loaded with cassette interface and its own custom wooden box, courtesy of the Raskin family. The Raskins will also bring Apple II serial number two, which was given to the late Jef Raskin by Steve Wozniak, and shows the bridge apple made between the Apple 1 and II. The all-star panel includes:  *Steve Wozniak, who with Steve Jobs co-founded Apple and created much of the early Apple hardware  *Daniel Kottke, who was hired by Steve & Steve on June 30, 1976 to work in the garage assembling Apple 1s and then went on to do many more things at Apple  *Randy Wigginton, Apple employee #6 who had an illustrious career at Apple after meeting Woz at the Home Brew Club  *Chris Espinosa, who at age 15 joined Apple, working in the garage and is still there today (at Apple that is)! Special request: if anyone out there has stories, photos or artifacts about Apple in 1976, we need them for the site and possibly for showing at the event itself. The reason the Digibarn does these events is so that we build up our cyber-collection of the histories that sometimes don't make it into the books. If you bring a copy of iWoz, Steve Wozniak's new biography, you can get it signed by Woz himself after the panel. The VCF will have a limited quantity of copies for sale. Media inquiries about this event should be directed to the DigiBarn comment form. The full announcement of the VCF 9.0 is given it item 13 at the end of this current newsletter, check it out! There are fabulous events this  year including a Sol-20 special 30th birthday presentation (original Sol prototype) on Sunday Nov 5th, a Vintage Computer Film Festival, Build It Yourself workshops, the regular fabulous exhibits and marketplace and more. Oh, and dont forget there will be a tour of the Digibarn which will leave the VCF at around 3pm Sunday Nov 5th for the 45 minute drive up to the 'Barn and then after the tour dinner will be had by all who want to join us at the local brewery. ****************** 2. Virtual Worlds Timeline project, by Digibarn Curator Bruce Damer Bruce Damer, curator of the Digibarn, has another life as CEO of DigitalSpace ( http://www.digitalspace.com ), a leading company creating open source 3D software that is used by NASA and others to create realistic 3D virtual worlds for mission design and simulation. Bruce also co-founded the Contact Consortium back in 1995 to help pioneer the novel concept of shared graphical Cyberspaces with "avatars" representing users. Now that the avatar/virtual world medium (through gaming and social virtual worlds) is becoming a big business, Bruce is embarking on a project to tell the story of the birth of the virtual world, from its earliest beginnings in the first shared graphical spaces (Space War, 1961) to its first incarnation as a 3D multi player game (Maze War, 1974) and on up through the 80s and 90s and 2000s. The Digibarn and many other institutions and people will be supporting this project in the coming year. If you want to be involved please contact us at: http://www.digibarn.com/forms/comment.html ****************** 3. LINC Restoration Project Bay Area resident and Xerox PARC veteran Severo Ornstein and a St. Louis based crew of folks are restoring a couple of original LINCs that will find their way to the Digibarn. The LINC Is arguably the first personal computer, developed at Lincoln Labs in the early 1960s by a team that included Severo. We are trying to arrange for shipping and local support of these machines when they arrive (date not yet set). A group of locals is assembling around the effort. If you want to help us with financial support to aid us getting these historic machines to the SF Bay Area or want to be involved with them after they arrive, please contact us at: http://www.digibarn.com/forms/comment.html ****************** 4. New Microcomputer Gallery Opening in Albuquerque The New Mexico Museum of Natural History & Science will be opening its new Microcomputer Gallery on November 18, 2006. The Digibarn has supported this project over the past several years with numerous image artifacts and other assistance. We wish the team at Weatherhead and Vulcan all the team members the best on this momentous occasion. The gallery will be called STARTUP: Albuquerque and the Personal Computer Revolution and you can see the announcement at: http://www.nmmnh-abq.mus.nm.us/nmmnh/exh_computer.html ****************** 5. Our Successful Summer Open Houses! We held several successful open houses over the summer. If you want to see what happened and if you came, photos of yourself and other visitors, its all at: http://www.digibarn.com/eventsvisiting/index.html Please note that we will be having open houses right after the VCF on the afternoon of Sunday Nov 5th, and again on Monday Nov 13th (our last open house for the year). If you want to come along, please get in touch through our contact form at: http://www.digibarn.com/forms/comment.html ****************** 6. The World of Xerox at the Digibarn (or how Xerox changed the world but nobody knows about it!) The Digibarn got started back in 1998 because of curator Bruce Damer's experience and passion for the little known Xerox story in the history of computing and his drive to save Xerox artifacts and history before they were lost. In honor of our Xerox beginnings we have gathered together all our Xerox artifacts and stories in one place. Take a look at our new "The World of Xerox at the Digibarn" site at: http://www.digibarn.com/collections/xerox-all.html Just added is a page by Norm Cox on the creation of the icons for the Xerox 8010 Star! Want to see the first "trash bin" and "new mail" icons? Its all at: http://www.digibarn.com/collections/software/xerox-star/xerox-world-according-to-norm.html All year we are collecting Xerox artifacts and accepting stories, documents, images and any other artifact we can feature on the site, please let us know if you have something: http://www.digibarn.com/forms/comment.html ****************** 7. Special coverage of the 25th Anniversary of the launch of the IBM Personal Computer Hey! The IBM PC, the little machine that changed the world, was 25 years old on August 12th, 2006! How the IBM PC came to be and how it grew to take over an entire industry is arguably the most important story in personal computing. So we are pulling together materials on the IBM PC all during 2006. Our online exhibit for this world-changing anniversary can be found at: http://www.digibarn.com/stories/ibm-pc-25/index.html Were you involved in or was your life changed by the orignal IBM PC? Please contact us! http://www.digibarn.com/forms/comment.html ****************** 8. Digibarn Radio goes Podcast! Digibarn radio has gone podcast! Thanks to Tommy Cuellar, a Digibarn fan living in Japan and a budding radio voice talent, we have six of the newest Digibarn radio pieces available in podcast format. Subscribe through the iTunes store at Apple for free, just enter the term Digibarn Radio. You can also sign up directly at the Digibarn Radio page at: http://www.digibarn.com/collections/audio/index.html or listen to these and our other pieces using regular MP3 audio download players. ****************** 9. Digibarn TV new features! See several new video features on Digibarn TV, including Xerox Monks 1977 Superbowl ad "it's a miracle!" (thanks Allen Kay, contributed July 2006) http://www.digibarn.com/collections/movies/digibarn-tv/xerox-monks/index.html and see all of Digibarn TV's latest and greatest at: http://www.digibarn.com/collections/movies/index.html ****************** 10. Thanks donors! Still looking for... A lot of great donations came in since the springtime and we would like to thank all the many Friends of the Digibarn who contributed: http://www.digibarn.com/friends/index.html See the ever expanding collection at: http://www.digibarn.com/collections/index.html We are still looking for a bunch of good stuff and have updated our "wish list" at: http://www.digibarn.com/help/index.html so check it out and see if you have anything there we are desperately seeking (weird prototypes or front bezel for a Lisa 1 anyone?). ****************** 11. Archive of this and past Newsletters You can find the archive of this and all past Digibarn Newsletters at: http://www.digibarn.com/history/newsletters/index.html ****************** 12. Full Announcement of the Vintage Computer Festival 9.0 Vintage Computer Festival 9.0 Saturday, November 4 through Sunday, November 5        Computer History Museum        Mountain View, California        http://www.vintage.org/2006/main/ Oops, we did it again.  Another fantabulous Vintage Computer Festival awaits you this November 4-5.  We've been working hard over the past few weeks putting all the pieces together and tying the loose ends. Now that we've got it mostly together, it's time to let you know what we've got in store for you this year. As always, we've put together a fantastic event with another wonderful program of presentations; the new Build-It-Yourself workshops; a top notch exhibit roster, featuring numerous award winning exhibitors from previous events; and our debut of the Vintage Computer Film Festival, which will treat you to innovate new films with a vintage computing or retro-technology theme. And we've got two (count'em, two!) special anniversary events this year.  On Saturday, November 4, we toast the 30th year anniversary of the founding of Apple Computer.  Joining us will be several Apple founders and early employees, including the Wizard of Silicon Valley, Steve Wozniak.  On Sunday, November 5, we celebrate also the 30th anniversary of the Processor Technology Sol-20 featuring ex-employees of Processor Technology, including Lee Felsenstein, designer of the Sol-20.  Lee will be bringing along the orginal Sol-20 prototype, last seen in public nine years ago at VCF 1.0[*]. And get this: to make the celebration even more festive, we're giving away a Sol-20.  You read that right, no need to get your glasses.  We are giving away a Processor Technology Sol-20.  Now, some of you may be thinking, "whatever".  But those who are fans of this venerable grandfather of personal computers are probably salivating.  As well you should be!  We're not quite sure HOW we'll go about giving it to one lucky winner, but we know it'll happen during the Processor Technology anniversary celebration, so you don't want to miss out. Check out the full session schedule here:    http://www.vintage.org/2006/main/session.php [*] See the historic unveiling of the Sol-20 prototype at VCF 1.0 here:    http://www.vintage.org/vcf98/vcfpics3.htm /// Build-It-Yourself Workshops ... This year we've added something totally new: the Build-It-Yourself workshops, featuring contemporary retro-computing kits that you build yourself under instruction of the people who created the kits!  This is an excellent opportunity to build your own videogame system, your own COSMAC Elf, and your own Apple 1!  Check out the workshops here:    http://www.vintage.org/2006/main/workshop.php There are still open slots in each workshop but don't delay, seats are quickly being filled. /// The Vintage Computer Film Festival ... Also debuting this year is the Vintage Computer Film Festival, which screens films and shorts with a vintage computing or retro-technology theme, or documentary technology topics.  The films we're screening this year include Jason Scott's "Get Lamp" (a history of interactive fiction), "Birdlings Two" (computer graphics history), the oddly named "Taubman Sucks" (Internet history), "Once Upon Atari" (you guessed it: Atari history), "Great Moments in Semiconductor History" (you get the idea), and "24 Hours on Craigslist", a one day account of the popular online community service Craigslist (circa 2003).  We're also once again screening past favorites: Jason Scott's "BBS Documentary", Greg Maletic's "The Future of Pinball", and Markley Morris' commemorative film "Walking Rainbow", the story of Homebrew Computer Club co-founder Fred Moore. The full Film Festival schedule will be posted next week.  In the meantime, the Film Festival information page is here:    http://www.vintage.org/2006/main/film.php /// The Vintage Computer Festival Exhibition ... Once again, our collecting community has come together to present a fun and educational exhibition of vintage computers and technology from all eras of computing. One of the best ways to enjoy the VCF is by participating directly. Be an exhibitor!  As an exhibitor, you get to be a part of all the behind-the-scenes action.  Plus you get a chance to show off your favorite computer and perhaps even win an award for an outstanding exhibit.  The deadline for registering an exhibit is coming on quick, so don't delay, sign up today!    http://www.vintage.org/2006/main/exhibit.php /// Lodging Options ... For our out of town guests, we've arranged a couple hotel room blocks at local hotels.  Full lodging information is here:    http://www.vintage.org/2006/main/lodging.php /// Computer History Museum Tours and DigiBarn Excursion ... As always, the Computer History Museum's terrific staff will be giving VCF attendees tours of the Museum's fantastic collection.  Tours are held in the afternoon and run every half hour. Bruce Damer of the DigiBarn will be leading another excursion to the DigiBarn Computer Museum, located in a serene and quiet setting in the beautiful Santa Cruz Mountains. Tour and excursion information is available here:    http://www.vintage.org/2006/main/tours.php /// Buy, Sell and Trade at the VCF Marketplace ... Every year, collectors look forward to finding the best deals at the VCF Marketplace, a place to buy, sell and trade vintage computers, hardware, software, manuals, etc.  For vendors, booths are still available, and we even feature a consignment area for those who have a few items to sell but don't want to be tied down to a seller's booth all weekend.  For more information on selling at VCF 9.0, please visit:    http://www.vintage.org/2006/main/vendor.php /// Check Out the VCF 9.0 BBS ... Use the VCF 9.0 BBS to make arrangments with fellow VCF attendees, like setting up trades in advance, or planning car pools.  There are already carpool and hotel room sharing requests posted, so check it out:    http://www.vintage.org/2006/main/bbs.php /// We Thank Our Sponsors! ... We are once again very grateful to the Computer History Museum for hosting our event.    http://www.computerhistory.org/ We thank Vince Briel for donating his replica 1 SE, a second edition version of his popular Apple 1 replica computer.    http://www.brielcomputers.com/ We send wet sloppy kisses to Tim Walker at Minds-On Toys for his contribution of his Digi-Comp 1 recreation.  This is really cool: a paper re-construction of the original computer which was comprised of molded plastic that one snapped together.  Original models go for anywhere from a few dollars at garage sales to hundreds on the online auction sites.  The paper version sold by Minds-On Toys is functionally equivalent to the original plastic version, and you still get to put it together yourself.  Rad!    http://mindsontoys.com/kits.htm /// And Yet There's More! ... Complete information about VCF 9.0, including the speaker schedule, exhibit roster, end everything else can be found on the VCF 9.0 web pages:    http://www.vintage.org/2006/main/ See you there! Best regards, Sellam Ismail Producer, Vintage Computer Festival Thats it for this newsletter, see you in the next one! Bruce Damer, Curator ******************* end digibarn news DigiBarn News 017: Open Houses! IBM PC/25, Xerox & other Special Stories (Jul 21, 2006) Dear DigiBarn News subscribers, Here is your Summer 2006 newsletter (#17). There is a LOT to report but the big news is that we are having a couple of weekend open houses over the summer. If you will be in the Bay Area of Northern California and would like to come for a whizbang guided tour and more, you must respond to the weekend date that works best for you. See item #1 below for details. So many artifacts have been coming in all spring, both for the physical collection and the cyber collection. These are all on our collections page which has grown by over 50 items! We are developing a number of special stories and anniversaries this year including the upcoming 25th birthday of the IBM PC (August 12, 2006), a newly organized special section "The World of Xerox at the Digibarn", the story of Felt & Tarrant Comptometers (computing a century ago), and the history of the Southwest Technical Products Corp. Thanks to the Discovery Channel, the History Channel and William Shatner for featuring us in a program being seen around the world. And lastly we would like to thank Larry Lessig for making the DigiBarn a "featured commoner" at the Creative Commons this month. All this great stuff and more below... ############## NEW INITIATIVES Each year the Digibarn produces an event celebrating the 30th birthday of something. We figure that after 30 years 1) most people will find the topic to be truly vintage (largely forgotten) and interesting and 2) the guys who were around making that happen are getting on in years and probably would enjoy reliving some moments of "them times". So folks, what do we do for this year? What is your vote? Hey, how about the 30th birthday of Apple? The 30th anniversary of the founding of Apple Computer back on April 1st, 1976 came and went without much fanfare so we are considering sponsoring a special event for the Fall Vintage Computer Festival 9.0. We would like to feature working Apple 1 hardware and the story of the very birth of Apple could be told by some of our friends who were there during the "garage" and even the "living room" period of Apple! If you have a suggestion for this or other possible 30th birthdays, contact us (see link at bottom of this email). ############## MAIN DIGIBARN SUMMER 2006 NEWS 1. Summer Open Houses! 2. The World of Xerox at the Digibarn (how Xerox changed the world but nobody knows it!) 3. Special coverage of the 25th Anniversary of the launch of the IBM Personal Computer 4. Bruce Damer of the DigiBarn on TV in "How William Shatner Change the World" 5. Digibarn is this month's "Featured Commoner" at the Creative Commons 6. The story of the Felt & Tarrant Comptometers 7. The computers and history of Southwest Technical Products Corp 8. Digibarn TV new features! 9. Digibarn Radio new stories! 10. "Macintosh Folklore Radio" Now Broadcasting 11. Still looking for... 12. Archive of this and past Newsletters 13. Contacting Us or Unsubscribing ****************** 1. Summer Open Houses! We are having open houses during two weekends this summer. The first is planned for the weekend of July 29th. The second will be on the Weekend of August 12th. Depending on interest we will have open houses one or both days of those weekends. So if you would like to come either Saturday or Sunday of either of those weekends, let us know by contacting us through the web form at: http://www.digibarn.com/forms/comment.html If we get enough signups (and we have several already) we will schedule you for the day and send you directions and other instructions. Looking forward to seeing you! ****************** 2. The World of Xerox at the Digibarn (or how Xerox changed the world but nobody knows about it!) The Digibarn got started back in 1998 because of curator Bruce Damer's experience and passion for the little known Xerox story in the history of computing and his drive to save Xerox artifacts and history before they were lost. In honor of our Xerox beginnings we have gathered together all our Xerox artifacts and stories in one place and written a compelling introduction that contrasts two streams happening in the first five days of the momentous month of March, 1975: the week that Xerox PARC cut the ribbon on its new building and the Homebrew Computer Club first met. Take a look at our special site and see where it all went from there: http://www.digibarn.com/collections/xerox-all.html ****************** 3. Special coverage of the 25th Anniversary of the launch of the IBM Personal Computer Hey! The IBM PC, the little machine that changed the world, is 25 years old on August 12th! Big Blue's launch of the PC is not nearly as sexy an event, say, as the January 1984 launch of the Macintosh. However, how the IBM PC came to be and how it grew to take over an entire industry is arguably the most important story in personal computing (even the MacOS of today runs on just another "IBM PC Clone"!). So we are pulling together materials on the IBM PC for August 12th (a Digibarn open house day) and should have a running system on display. Our online exhibit for this world-changing anniversary can be found at: http://www.digibarn.com/stories/ibm-pc-25/index.html Were you involved in or somehow affected by the IBM PC (model 5150 for the insiders), please contact us! http://www.digibarn.com/forms/comment.html ****************** 4. Bruce Damer of the DigiBarn on TV worldwide in "How William Shatner Change the World" We would like to thank the Discovery Channel and History Channel and William Shatner for producing such a sweet piece on the Digibarn and Bruce Damer in the show "How William Shatner Changed the World" which is airing virtually every month and all over the world. The show is "Bill at his best", incredibly funny and very informative. Even if you are not a trekkie you wont want to miss this one. And to top it all off, the show is up for an Emmy! View our segment (excerpt) and see how the shoot was done here at: http://www.digibarn.com/collections/movies/05-11-DiscoveryCA-Shatner/index.html ****************** 5. Curator Bruce Damer and the Digibarn project are this month's "Featured Commoner" at the Creative Commons Thanks to Stanford Professor Larry Lessig and Eric Steuer for turning the spotlight on the Digibarn as this month's "Featured Commoner" for our work in forwarding the cause of the Creative Commons license. A great interview with curator Bruce Damer is at: http://creativecommons.org/education/digibarn ****************** 6. The story of the Felt & Tarrant Comptometers The very first artifact in the Digibarn collection was a Felt & Tarrant comptometer (J Model) acquired by curator Bruce Damer at a yard sale in Los Angeles in 1987. Bruce picked it up for 10$ because it had a silver plaque bearing the earliest patent date of 1887 and he thought "cool, a personal computer of the Victorian era, 100 years ago!". Around that comptometer grew a vast collection and website spanning all aspects of computing and the lives involved. Brooke Boering, perhaps one of the greatest experts on the Felt & Tarrant comptometer, contacted Bruce several years back and helped him understand what he had. In May of this year, Brooke was donating most of his collection to the Felt Estate Museum and gave four wonderful "compts" to the digibarn. For the first time we can turn that crank and show how a comptometer works! Brooke has given us a video and audio demonstration of the comptometer and the history of the Felt & Tarrant company and its all at: http://www.digibarn.com/collections/calculators/comptometer/index.html Check it out! ****************** 7. The computers and history of Southwest Technical Products Corp With thanks to Dick Murphy, Roy Murphy (not related) and Michael Holley we have put together some great resources on the Southwest Technical Products Corporation, maker of the "SWTPC" systems in the mid to late 1970s. These were machines with real character and capability and you can see it all at: http://www.digibarn.com/collections/systems/swtpc-6800/index.html and yes... "altairs suck!" ****************** 8. Digibarn TV new features! In the past months a flurry of "UI Movies" have come in. We now have great features showing user interfaces from a number of historic systems, including the first, first-person shooter, Maze War, and early footage of the Apple Lisa, Xerox Star and the Apple Newton introductory video. See these and much more at Digibarn TV: http://www.digibarn.com/collections/movies/index.html Or go right to the features below... The Apple Lisa in action, http://www.digibarn.com/collections/movies/digibarn-tv/gui-movies/apple/index.html Welcome to Newton, 1994 introductory video produced by Apple Computer (posted May 2006). http://www.digibarn.com/collections/movies/digibarn-tv/gui-movies/apple/newton.html Videos of the Xerox Star 8010 professional workstation http://www.digibarn.com/collections/movies/digibarn-tv/gui-movies/xerox/index.html Maze War running on several different computers http://www.digibarn.com/collections/games/xerox-maze-war/alll-movies.html (all soon to be put into podcast format! How do you do that exactly?!) ****************** 9. Digibarn Radio new stories! Soon all Digibarn Radio pieces will be made available in various podcast formats (help, someone know how to do this, Derek?!). In the mean time you can listen in old fashioned MP3 format to some great new pieces: Brooke Boering and the story of Felt & Tarrant and the comptometer http://www.digibarn.com/collections/audio/index.html Bill Jackson on Xerox, Xerox PARC, Xerox hardware and the end of Mesa: http://www.digibarn.com/collections/audio/digibarn-radio/bill-jackson-xerox/index.html Bruce Damer gives a full tour of the Digibarn collection, listen on Digibarn Radio! http://www.digibarn.com/collections/audio/digibarn-radio/06-06-11-bruce-damer-digibarn-tour/index.html Or check out all of Digibarn Radio at: http://www.digibarn.com/collections/audio/index.html ****************** 10. "Macintosh Folklore Radio" Now Broadcasting Some more great audio has also been put together by Derek Warren working with Andy Herzfeld and his "Folklore" site to produce "Macintosh Folklore Radio". We are including Derek's announcement here for the Digibarn community! "Macintosh Folklore Radio" Now Broadcasting Some very rich early Macintosh development history is being recorded and posted/podcasted for your listening enjoyment. Just under 120 stories written by Hertzfeld and other original members of the Mac team are slated to be recorded with the first set available now. Pay a visit, download the stories, syndicate the show via RSS or subscribe via iTunes or the iTMS at http://folklore.trideja.com/ This is a project that grew from my own desire to have Andy's http://www.folklore.org in audio book format.  I tried it with Macintalk but it drove me nuts!  Listening to my own voice is even worse, but I hope someone else will get some enjoyment out of it. I'll be posting new stories every week. Contact: derek at trideja dot com ****************** 11. Still looking for... We are still looking for a bunch of good stuff. A big push right now is converting old media (video and audio) for the site as we start to prepare to make the entire archive pod-castable. If you or someone you know is willing to convert VHS tapes, audio or even record new work and get it to us in a digital format, we would love to hear from you! If we can create a "grid" of people willing to do some of the digitizing it will prevent us from building up a huge backlog, which we currently are working through. Please contact us at: http://www.digibarn.com/forms/comment.html As to artifacts, we have updated our "wish list" at: http://www.digibarn.com/help/index.html so check it out and see if you have anything there we are desperately seeking (weird prototypes or front bezel for a Lisa 1 anyone?). A lot of great donations came in since the winter and we would like to thank all the many Friends of the Digibarn who contributed: http://www.digibarn.com/friends/index.html ****************** 12. Archive of this and past Newsletters You can find the archive of this and all past Digibarn Newsletters at: http://www.digibarn.com/history/newsletters/index.html ****************** 13. Contacting Us or Unsubscribing The best way to contact us is by our web form at: http://www.digibarn.com/forms/comment.html the form has a new security feature so you have to enter that automatically generated nonsense word, it prevents spambots from finding us! Thats it for this newsletter, see you in the next one! DigiBarn News 016: DigiBarn on History Channel (with Shatner) & other News (Mar 11, 2006) Dear DigiBarn News subscribers, Here is your brief Winter 2006 newsletter (#16). 2005 was a wonderful year, finishing off with our Homebrew Computer Club 30th birthday event at the Vintage Computer Festival in November. We now have some cool audio, video and pictures of the event below (including Woz telling some great stories, and Altair expert Erik Klein playing "fool on the hill" on an original 8800). Read all about this wonderful and inspiring event at: http://www.digibarn.com/history/05-VCF8-HomeBrew30/index.html (for movies, audio, pics, Altair, Woz and more!) ############## Breaking News: HOW WILLIAM SHATNER CHANGED THE WORLD (the DigiBarn is featured on this show!) Sunday March 12th (5 and 8pm) and again all week including Friday March 17th (8/7 central US time) and Saturday. Check Local Listings for your region/country or the schedule at: http://www.historychannel.com/ Starting tomorrow the DigiBarn and curator (yours truly) Bruce Damer will appear on the History Channel on a cool segment (in the first hour) of a show called "How William Shatner Changed the World". This is a 2 hour special on how Star Trek (well, Gene Roddenberry and his writers) came up with many gadgets and ways of working back in the 1960s which have become reality today. This show is Captain Kirk at his best, with Bill Shatner in an off-the-wall performance you won't forget. Details of the show including the DigiBarn excerpt are at: http://www.digibarn.com/collections/movies/05-11-DiscoveryCA-Shatner/index.html (originally produced by Discovery Channel Canada, video excerpted with credit). See the History Channel pages on this show at: http://www.historychannel.com/ and direct to the show: http://www.historychannel.com/space/verizon/ ############## NEW INITIATIVES In other news, 2006 has started off with a bang with several new initiatives: The Little OSes That Could, an all-year virtual exhibit about CP/M, SCPDOS, TRSDOS, PRODOS, DOS and the other tiny OSes that powered our industry but are now largely forgotten (contribute!). Its all coming together at: http://www.digibarn.com/stories/little-oses/index.html (we need your contributions to this project, tell us about your experiences with Little OSes That Could!) IBM Early Corporate Advertising, with thanks to John Pratt we have a lovely collection (original paintings) from IBM Corporate Ads from 1948 onwards: http://www.digibarn.com/collections/ads/ibm-50s/index.html ****************** OTHER DIGIBARN WINTER 2006 NEWS 1. Google Adsense (why are there ads?) 2. DigiBarn being reorganized (physically), next open house 3. Mark Goldstein's amazing donation of magazines 4. Thanks to Lawrence Lessig for contribution of Macintosh systems associated with the field of Cyberlaw 5. Still looking for... 6. Call for DigiBarn Radio & TV contributions for Podcasting! 7. Archive of this and past Newsletters 8. Reaching us ****************** 1. Google Adsense So Why are there ads on the DigiBarn site now? For years I thought ads would lessen the pure informational value, spirit and intent of the DigiBarn project. However when Google came out with adsense I felt that, finally, someone had created an advanced yet subtle way of presenting sponsored links that I could accept as a part of this project. I have to tell you that this project (website and physical museum) is made possible through a lot of personal keyboard time and physical lifting and that none of this is paid for by anyone or any organization (its all out of the pocket of you-know-who). Occasionally a kind soul writes a check on a personal level or buys me breakfast or volunteers their skills and time (and for this I am eternally grateful) but there is no other means of support of this effort. I am hoping that our many readers and contributors won't mind the ads (I have tried to make them subtle) and will support the overall concept. I am looking forward to seeing how Google manages to figure out what ads to run on a site which has a reference and content to just about every computer, software, company and such in the entire history of personal and interactive/networked computing! So your visits to the DigiBarn pages (and an occasional click-through) now supports the DigiBarn directly! ****************** 2. DigiBarn being reorganized (physically), next open house We have been engaged in "The Great ReOrg of Winter 2006" as systems got cleaned, moved to safe "winter over" rooms, new shelving built for incoming dontations and more. You can see what is involved in such a physical labor of love at: http://www.digibarn.com/history/06-01-27-Great-Reorg/index.html If there is anyone out there keen to help us continue the re-org and setup for the season, let us know by contacting us at: http://www.digibarn.com/forms/comment.html We wont be reopening for any open houses (private visitors ok with appointment given availability) until all this is done, which could be May or June. It is also important (for moisture levels) for the downstairs room floors to be completely dry before we set up so this is somewhat rain dependent. One day we will be able to have the financing to put in *raised floors* in some of our rooms and so wont have such weather/environmental problems. If you have some spare cash or skills you could donate to help building raised floors and installing doors please let us know! ****************** 3. Mark Goldstein's amazing donation of magazines On January 27, 2006 we had a wonderful visit from Mark Goldstein of International Research Center in Phoenix who brought a tremendous collection of magazines (such as almost every Byte ever printed!) on behalf of the Arizona Technology Council. He also left us with a great interview about his early history in personal computing at MicroAge, building computer music (analogue) systems and much more. Feel free to follow along to the slides below as you listen to his DigiBarn Radio interview segments. See and hear Mark Goldstein's story at: http://www.digibarn.com/collections/audio/digibarn-radio/mark-goldstein/index.html and look at his key IMSAI Corporate Documents: http://www.digibarn.com/collections/business-docs/imsai-corporate/index.html and key West Coast Computer Faire Documents: http://www.digibarn.com/collections/brochures/wcc-faire/index.html ****************** 4. Thanks to Lawrence Lessig for contribution of Macintosh systems associated with the field of Cyberlaw We would like to thank Stanford Law Professor Lawrence Lessig for his contribution (loan) of his personal G4 Cube, Powerbook and other artifacts which have close association with famous court cases and his many writings including books such as Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace. Watch for a special online exhibit of these systems this year. ****************** 5. Still looking for...   a. Any stories about anything (audio, video, text) especially in support of our Little OSes That Could campaign.   b. Front bezel (faceplate) for our development system Lisa 1 (fits with twiggy floppies)   c. Popular Electronics Jan 1975 issue featuring Altair for our homebrew efforts.   d. Any prototype units of any sort Other artifacts we are seeking can be found at: http://www.digibarn.com/help/index.html and a good shortlist is excerpted below... # Stories, writing, personal histories, photos, videos, audio, scans of articles, ads etc etc etc. # Apple 1 (single board computer, cassette interface) # Apple Macintosh 20th anniversary edition # Apple Newton (old one, a message pad 100) # Apple Macintosh Clones or Tempest systems or prototypes/aftermarket OEM modifications # BASIC on paper tape # Compaq Portable (early, low serial number) # Connection Machine CM-2 or CM-1 (all we have is one chip!) # DEC VT100 or VT101 terminals # Dutch computers including the Tulip # GEOS software for various platforms (we have only the Apple IIe version) # GRiD systems (various models, GRiDCase for example) # IBM Portable Computer, model 5100 or 5110, from 1975-6 and software # IMS (Industrial Micro Systems) S-100 with dual 8 inch drives from 1978-82 time frame (Curator worked on this one!) # Japanese models # Lasers and various other Apple II clones (excluding the Franklin Ace which we already have) # Mice, pens, trackballs: early ones from 60s-70s. # Microsoft MSX or other specialized game system # Momenta Pentop or any Momenta device # NeXT Cube (working with MO drive) # Ohio Scientific Challengers except original 1, 2P and 4 which we have # Osborne I (early, dark brown case) and Osborne II # PERQ (Three RIvers or ICL) working # PONG originals (1972 and later consoles) # Renderman board # Seattle Computer Products (SCP) DOS # Sinclairs of all types except ZX-81 # Software running under Microsoft Windows 1.x or 286 # Soviet/Russian/Ukranian computers # Sun-1 board # SWTP (South West Technical Products) Systems # TV Typewriter by Don Lancaster # UK computers including the Oric and Amstrad and Torch # Valdocs for the Epson QX-10 # Videotext systems including the Canadian Teledon system and UK Prestel # VisiOn and VisiCalc from VisiCorp # Wyse PC, Wyse/50 Monitor ****************** 6. Call for DigiBarn Radio & TV contributions for Podcasting!    A fun selection of New DigiBarn Media Features are now up: NEW: How William Shatner Changed the World segment and recently added in 2005:   a. TV: Apple Lisa (1 - Twiggy) ads by Kevin Costner and Apple   b. TV: Xerox Star 8010 Professional Workstation       (various 1982-82 by Xerox including the June 1998        Final Public Demonstration of the Star at Xerox PARC, thanks Dave Curbow)   c. TV: Intran Metaform System (Intran video Bringing Information to Life)   d. TV: Elixir training videos (shot by Xerox, 1989-90)   e. TV: CBS Evening Magazine program on the DigiBarn   f. Radio: JJ Web on the first virus scanner and poetry in Cyberspace   g. Radio: Brad Blasing on the Cray Q2 and Cray 1 Supercomputers   h. Radio: Bob Glass on the birth of Apple System 7 and more   i. Others. Find DigiBarn TV features at: http://www.digibarn.com/collections/movies/index.html And DigiBarn Radio features at: http://www.digibarn.com/collections/audio/index.html If you would like to contribute a feature, contact us at: http://www.digibarn.com/forms/comment.html Note: We are going to convert these features into Podcasts and Videopodcasts. If there is anyone out there who knows how to do this please let us know! ****************** 7. Archive of this and past Newsletters You can find the archive of this and all past DigiBarn Newsletters at: http://www.digibarn.com/history/newsletters/index.html ****************** 8. Reaching us Got something to tell us or contribute? Its easy to reach us through our web form at: http://www.digibarn.com/forms/comment.html Thats it for this newsletter, see you in the next one! ******************* end digibarn news DigiBarn News 015: Nov 5th event, Homebrew Computer Club@30 & other News (Oct 31, 2005) Subject: 015: Nov 5th event, Homebrew Computer Club@30 & other News Dear DigiBarn News subscribers, BOOOO! happy Halloween and here is your Fall 2005 newsletter (#15). Its been a huge year for us since our last report back in March (sorry its been so long, everyone). We hope some of you can make it to the Vintage Computer Festival 8.0 on this coming weekend (Nov 5-6, 2005) for the special Homebrew Computer Club @ 30 event including a very special panel Saturday the 5th at 1pm. The VCF goes all weekend with a lot of great talks and exhibits. See details of this once in a lifetime (well, at least every 30 years) event below. If you want to be unsubscribed from this newsletter simply reply to this email with "unsubscribe" in the subject. ****************** DIGIBARN FALL 2005 NEWS CONTENTS 1. DigiBarn and VCF present: Homebrew@30, Nov 5-6th, 2005, 30th anniversary of the Homebrew Computer Club 2. Amazing Apple prototype systems 3. DigiBarn's Cray Supercomputer collection upgraded 4. Google sends Jef Raskin's DigiBarn memorial around the world 5. JJ Web on the first virus scanner and poetry in Cyberspace 6. Woz's Apple IIgs comes alive at the DigiBarn 7. DigiBarn supports Internet Archives' Orphan Works brief to the Copyright Office 8. Discovery Channel shoots Star Trek & Tech special segment at the DigiBarn 9. In Search of the Valley in Search of Assistance 10. DigiBarn and New Ancient History: 11. DigiBarn confirms it has the only bootable Macintosh PowerExpress 12. Mystery systems... solved! 13. Story of the Access Actrix DS given! 14. Many other weird, rare and significant systems were contributed 15. Still looking for... 16. Call for DigiBarn Radio & TV contributions for Podcasting! A fun selection of New DigiBarn Media Features 17. Archive of this and past Newsletters 18. Reaching us ****************** 1. DigiBarn and VCF present: Homebrew@30, Nov 5-6th, 2005, 30th anniversary of the Homebrew Computer Club Event page: http://www.digibarn.com/history/05-VCF8-HomeBrew30/index.html On March 5, 1975 a very special meeting took place at Gordon French's garage in the then freshly named "Silicon Valley". This was the first gathering of the "Homebrew" Computer Club (also called the Amateur Computer User's Group). Now this was no amateur group of folks but the very acorn of the great tree of the personal computing revolution to come. So what happened at the Club? In just one example, Steve Wozniak demonstrated the Apple I, and the response from members probably was responsible for Steve Jobs deciding to make it a product (and a company). The hand-soldered microcomputer grew up to become the personal computer through the guiding hands of Homebrew Club members and the many other clubs and enterprises that popped up like mushrooms in the late 1970s. What a time and what a Club it was, so we are coming together on November 5th, 2005, to cut a cake, toggle in a boot loader or two and hear from some of the members of that core kernel team that compiled us the nerd world in which we are all seemingly permanently uploaded. The Homebrew@30 is a special event produced by the DigiBarn Computer Museum (a kind of giant Homebrewer's garage in the Santa Cruz Mountains right next to Silicon Valley) and hosted by the Vintage Computer Festival 8.0. to be held in Mountain View, California at the Computer History Museum. You are all welcome to come, sign up for the festival and be sure not to miss the special panel at 1pm on Saturday November 5th. There will be plenty of exhibits of Homebrew-era gear all weekend (das blinkenlights of the Altair 8800) and a special tour of the DigiBarn that will happen late Sunday afternoon (a 35 minute drive from the event). To get yourself ready for the Homebrew@30 event or if you want to find out more about the Club please dont forget to see our super duper online exhibit of several years of Homebrew Club newsletters and other memorabilia. See it all at: http://www.digibarn.com/history/05-VCF8-HomeBrew30/index.html Know any more about the Homebrew Computer Club or have any pictures, movies, stories or artifacts to contribute to this effort? Contact us at: http://www.digibarn.com/forms/comment.html ****************** 2. Amazing Apple prototype systems (thanks Ed Goodwin) Ed Goodwin, formerly of Apple service engineering (where all good pack rats come from) provided us donations of some really rare and historic Apple systems, including prototype (pre production development) machines for the Apple Lisa 1, the Apple IIc and the Macintosh Portable. You can see these and all our other Apple systems at: http://www.digibarn.com/collections/systems/apple-all/index.html ****************** 3. DigiBarn's Cray Supercomputer collection upgraded Tony Cole has worked with us for years to help us acquire a small but special collection of Cray Supercomputers and parts. We have Cray-1 serial number 38 (from Lawrence Livermore Labs), rare Cray Q2 (prototype, one of two made) from the Minnesota Supercomputer Center, and various parts and documentation from the Cray X/MP, Y/MP and rare Cray 3. In honor of the new beefed up exhibit of Cray memorabilia at the DigiBarn we have produced the all new site at: http://www.digibarn.com/collections/systems/crays/index.html ****************** 4. Google sends Jef Raskin's DigiBarn memorial around the world Following Jef Raskin's sadly premature passing on Feb 26th, 2005, we went into high gear to convert his DigiBarn Friends page to his Memorial Site (with his blessing and the support of his family). We had already done a huge amount of work on this (thanks Dick Karpinski for scanning over 8,500 of Jef's slides) but on the evening of Feb 28th, 2005 we were amazed to find our page linked off the home page of Google worldwide (and continuing for three days). Hundreds more form postings later we had an even better recounting of Jef's life (and me with quite a sleep deficit!). We would like to thank the anonymous soul at Google who made this happen. This was a poignant way to honor a great man's passing, echoing his thought and craft around Cyberspace for all to reflect on and contribute to. See how it all came out at: http://www.digibarn.com/friends/jef-raskin/index.html ****************** 5. JJ Webb on the first virus scanner and poetry in Cyberspace JJ Webb, a neighbor here in the Santa Cruz Mountains for these past ten years, has told his story about being the creator of the first virus scanner (with John MacAfee) and quite probably the first person to bring the creative medium of poetry and the community of poets to cyberspace back in the 80s. Learn a lot more what it was like to be in on the pioneering days (and attempting to be a telecommuter in the era of glacially slow modems) at: http://www.digibarn.com/collections/audio/digibarn-radio/jjwebb/index.html ****************** 6. Woz's Apple IIgs comes alive at the DigiBarn Cindi Manning of Chicago provided us (with some of the most careful shipping packaging I have ever seen) with a pristine condition Apple IIgs (Woz edition) with all the peripherals and additions you could want. This beauty now graces the new Mac-Apple room (Cult of Mac) and it booted up for many visitors. See it at: http://www.digibarn.com/collections/systems/appleIIgs-wozedition/index.html ****************** 7. DigiBarn supports Internet Archives' Orphan Works brief to the Copyright Office The Center for the Study of the Public Domain at Duke University Law School and the DigiBarn Computer Museum have endorsed the Internet Archive’s proposal for a safe harbor for archives and libraries that engage in digital preservation and access subject to appropriate procedures designed to protect copyright holders’ interests. The Orphan Works project pages are at: http://www.orphanworks.org/ The excerpt from our brief is as follows: The DigiBarn Computer Museum, an online museum dedicated to the history of the personal computer, notes that with respect to over 100,000 artifacts over several years, not one copyright owner has invoked DigiBarn’s “escape clause” permitting the owner of the copyright in any work to request that DigiBarn remove his or her work from its site. See generally DigiBarn Computer Museum OW0049, Comment on Orphan Works Notice of Inquiry, March 25, 2005, at: http://www.copyright.gov/orphan/comments/index.html ****************** 8. Discovery Channel shoots Star Trek & Tech special segment at the DigiBarn Early in the year the Discovery Channel (Canada) arrived to shoot Al Lundell and myself for an upcoming 2 part special on the "Science of Star Trek" narrated by William Shatner. They used our hippie bus "NoFurthur" for part of the shoot as it suggested a kind of weird 60s space ship. The main focus was our Cray-1 which is a piece of Trek if there ever was one (Seymour Cray was a Trekkie and made the Cray look like the warp core surrounded by the Naugahyde seats of the Enterprise bridge). See this fun shoot at: http://www.digibarn.com/history/05-03-01-discoveryshoot/index.html ****************** 9. In Search of the Valley in Search of Assistance To complete their innovative film "In Search of the Valley" Producer Steve O'Hear is looking for the following shots and images. 1. Any images of homebrew club or first West Coast computer show 2. Steve Jobs being charismatic 3. Early Apple Mac pics / UI / GUI shots 4. Original Mac launch Note from Steve: Most important is that people own the copyright and are willing to sign a release saying we can use it. Unfortunately we can't offer payment but will give full credit etc. Contact Steve at: steve@ohear.net See more about the project at: http://www.insearchofthevalley.com/ ****************** 10. DigiBarn and New Ancient History a. IBM mainframe ads from the 50s (back to the future thanks to John Pratt) http://www.digibarn.com/collections/ads/ibm-50s/index.html b. A visit to the Harvard Mark I exhibit at Harvard University (thanks Chuck Piotrowski) http://www.digibarn.com/collections/locations/harvard-mark-I/index.html ****************** 11. DigiBarn confirms it has the only bootable Macintosh PowerExpress (prototype) A group of European collectors identified that the DigiBarn's Macintosh PowerExpress (part of a limited run set of prototypes) is the online one that is bootable. We thought you would like to see this rare system with its prototype "Goleta" PowerPC from Motorola at: http://www.digibarn.com/collections/systems/mac-powerexpress/ ****************** 12. Mystery systems... solved! Our two "mystery systems" were identified by a number of DigiBarn virtual visitors, you can now see the real story behind these formerly unknown boxes at: Intell Intellec MDS 80 dual drive unit: http://www.digibarn.com/collections/systems/intel-MDS-blue-box/index.html Still somewhat of a mystery, dual diskette system: http://www.digibarn.com/collections/systems/mystery-systems/two-disk-box/index.html ****************** 13. Story of the Access Actrix DS given! (Nancy Noe contributed the machine) This unique and innovative portable (even in its own briefcase) system from the 80s now has a home on the web at: http://www.digibarn.com/collections/systems/actrix/index.html ****************** 14. Many other weird, rare and significant systems were contributed this year including: a. Jef Raskin signed over several significant artifacts to the DigiBarn before his passing b. Original Ohio Scientific Challenger (Jim Whelan) c. Complete TyRego Tyform system (thanks) d. Intran MetaForm system on Sun IPX (thanks Mike Jacovitch) e. Apple II serial number 495 (thanks Mike Olson) which would have been assembled by our friend Daniel Kottke f. Amiga 500 in the box (thanks Tom Wilson) g. Kaypro 10 (thanks to a professor at UCSC) h. Homebrew 8080 Multibus system (thanks Richard Straka) i. Complete network of NeXT cubes (thanks Frank Jas & Ralph Abraham) j. Texas Instruments Tymshare 100 (Silent 700) (thanks Robert Munoz) k. Chip from a Connection Machine 1 or 2 (thanks Brewster Kahle) See all of these new items on our Collections page at: http://www.digibarn.com/collections/index.html ****************** 15. Still looking for... a. Front bezel (faceplate) for our prototype Lisa 1 (with twiggy floppies) b. Popular Electronics Jan 1975 issue featuring Altair (or even a good scan of this) for our homebrew efforts. Other artifacts we are seeking can be found at: http://www.digibarn.com/help/index.html ****************** 16. Call for DigiBarn Radio & TV contributions for Podcasting! A fun selection of New DigiBarn Media Features are now up: a. TV: Apple Lisa (1 - Twiggy) ads by Kevin Costner and Apple b. TV: Xerox Star 8010 Professional Workstation (various 1982-82 by Xerox including the June 1998 Final Public Demonstration of the Star at Xerox PARC, thanks Dave Curbow) c. TV: Intran Metaform System (Intran video Bringing Information to Life) d. TV: Elixir training videos (shot by Xerox, 1989-90) e. TV: CBS Evening Magazine program on the DigiBarn f. Radio: JJ Web on the first virus scanner and poetry in Cyberspace g. Radio: Brad Blasing on the Cray Q2 and Cray 1 Supercomputers h. Radio: Bob Glass on the birth of Apple System 7 and more i. Others. Find DigiBarn TV features at: http://www.digibarn.com/collections/movies/index.html And DigiBarn Radio features at: http://www.digibarn.com/collections/audio/index.html If you would like to contribute a feature, contact us at: http://www.digibarn.com/forms/comment.html ****************** 17. Archive of this and past Newsletters You can find the archive of this and all past DigiBarn Newsletters at: http://www.digibarn.com/history/newsletters/index.html ****************** 18. Reaching us Got something to tell us or contribute? Its easy to reach us through our web form at: http://www.digibarn.com/forms/comment.html Thats it for this newsletter, see you in the next one! ******************* end digibarn news DigiBarn News 014: Jef Raskin & other News (March 9, 2005) Dear DigiBarn News subscribers, here is your Spring 2005 newsletter (#14) and there is a lot to report. DIGIBARN SPRING 2005 NEWS CONTENTS 1. Jef Raskin memorial site and service 2. Maze War event archives now up! 3. The Woz Wonderbook is Here! 4. Mike Riddle and the history of AutoCAD and CAD on Microcomputers 5. Allan Reiter and documenting the Univac 1: music software 6. The story of the Xerox 9700 7. Call for DigiBarn Radio contributions for Podcasting! & DigiBarn TV stories 8. Open house planned for April Fools weekend 9. Donations keep coming in! 10. Archive of past Newsletters 1. Jef Raskin memorial site and service As many of you know by now, Jef Raskin, the creator of the Macintosh project at Apple, and an artist, writer, model plane builder, musician, father and friend to many in the community, passed away on February 26th. The DigiBarn has been working on and off with Jef for years to document some of his amazing life's work and upon hearing about his illness and passing, we redoubled our efforts. His page at the DigiBarn is now a memorial site and we are seeking stories, images, video/audio from anyone who knew Jef to continue to tell his story well into the future. Please visit our page on Jef at: http://www.digibarn.com/friends/jef-raskin/index.html and contact us directly at: http://www.digibarn.com/forms/comment.html if you have something you would like to submit to Jef's pages. Jef's memorial service will be held this Sunday March 13th. If you knew Jef well and would like to attend, Linda Blum, Jef's wife of 23 years, has provided the following details on when/where: From Linda Blum: Dear friends, There will be a memorial serivce for Jef on Sunday March 13th at 9:30 am at the Bayside Performing Arts center on East Kehoe Avenue in San Mateo, California. The exact coordinates can be googled from the above information.  The children and I are working hard to coordinate a service worthy of Jef and his values.  We will be requesting that contributions be sent( in lieu of flowers) to either the ACLU or to Odyssey School, 201 Polhemus Rd, San Mateo, CA attn Jef Raskin Memorial Fund. There will be no public announcement of the service; we are relying you to spread the word to the appropriate people.  I have been reminded of Jef's article called "Computers by the Millions" written in the late 70's where he foresaw the power of networked computers and the possibilities of DARPAnet.  It is fitting, I think, that word of Jef's memorial be disseminated this way. He would have enjoyed that. In peace, Linda 2. Maze War 30 Year Retrospective event archives now up! The Maze War 30 Year Retrospective held by the DigiBarn at the Vintage Computer Festival 7.0 in November was a tremendous success. We have put up movies, audio, photos, powerpoint and other recollections of this look back at the "first first person shooter" (first multi user networked 3D game) that was the tap root of a huge industry today. Find everything on Maze and this a-Maze-ing event at: http://www.digibarn.com/history/04-VCF7-MazeWar/index.html 3. The Woz Wonderbook is Here! A couple of years ago Bill Goldberg donated the only known copy of the "Woz Wonderbook", the collection of Steve Wozniak's notes that was pulled together in 1977 and became the basis for the famous Red Book of January 1978. Hear Bill talk about the Wonderbook and view David Craig's superb scan and presentation of the Wonderbook in PDF format at: http://www.digibarn.com/collections/books/woz-wonderbook/index.html 4. Mike Riddle and the history of AutoCAD and CAD on Microcomputers In January 2005 I had the pleasure of visiting with Mike Riddle, the father of AutoCAD and indeed much of the use of microcomputers for CAD applications. You can see some great shots of Mike and hear his recounting of the whole story at: http://www.digibarn.com/stories/mike-riddle/index.html 5. Allan Reiter and documenting the Univac 1: music software Allan Reiter is a gentleman who has created a superb site on the Univac 1 and is seeking help from the community. Please see his request below... I have a Univac 1 page, which is shown below. I am trying to get a hard-code listing of the Univac 1 program that played music. This program was sent to all installations and was a very popular item. Any help you can provide me in achieving this request would be most welcome. This request is also displayed in the blue part of the web page and explains what we are doing with this code. The Univac 1 page is at: http://mywebpage.netscape.com/reitery2k/univac1.htm Contact Al directly at: reitery2k@netscape.net 6. The story of the Xerox 9700 The Xerox 9700 Electronic (Laser) Printing system hit the world of computer output like a bombshell in 1977 with is 120 impressions per minute all-points-addressable capacity. The 9700 revolutionized the creation of documents for high volume, data-driven applications. Innovative firms and organizations including COPI, Intran, Elixir, TyRego, the Xplor industry association, and hundreds more emerged around the 9700. For thousands of medium to large companies, governments, utilities, universities and service bureaus, the 9700 became a life's focus and passion. The 9700 stood the test of time, some running a million or more impressions a month (virtually operating continuously) to generate a good proportion of what the citizenry of the world received in the mail in the form of timely personalized documents. You can see our emerging history of the 9700 at: http://www.digibarn.com/collections/printers/xerox-9700/ Many people associated with the early history and use of the Xerox 9700 are stepping forward to help document its story. We invite anyone on this list to contact us through: http://www.digibarn.com/forms/comment.html to contribute. 7. Call for DigiBarn Radio contributions for Podcasting! & DigiBarn TV stories As you know, the DigiBarn has both its own TV and Radio stations! Well not really, but we have hours of great viewing and listening on the DigiBarn TV and Radio sites. The big news is that DigiBarn co-founders Allan Lundell and Bruce Damer, the "click and clack" of DigiBarn radio, are starting to produce radio shorts, the first few of which can be listened to at: http://www.digibarn.com/collections/audio/index.html We hope to be PodCasting these shorts to your local music player soon! We would love to hear from you (your own oral histories, send us your MP3s!) so please email or even phone us. All the details are at: http://www.digibarn.com/forms/comment.html The DigiBarn has been on the tube a lot in the last year and will be in 2005 (with a recent taping for Discovery Channel). You can learn about these programs (even watch a few) including at: http://www.digibarn.com/collections/movies/index.html CBS San Francicso - Evening Magazine did a wonderful short tour of the museum. 8. Open house planned for April Fools weekend We are planning a small open house for the "DigiBarn Fools" weekend of April 2-3rd (still no firm day or time yet). If you would like to be included in that open house invitation list please contact us at: http://www.digibarn.com/forms/comment.html 9. Donations keep coming in! We would like to thank many people for making superb donations to the museum in the past months. We received some excellent donations almost too numerous to list but here are a few: Entire network of NeXT cubes Wonderful original OSI Challenger Exidy Sorcerer Zenith laptops and original Zenith desktop A complete Apple IIgs A Sun Sparc Station IPX and Sparc running Intran Metaform (in color!) A DEC Robin A Tymshare Silent 700 An Amstrad A pair of Kaypro-10s Numerous books/magazines (copy of Ted Nelsons original editon Computer Lib) A zillion online contributions of stories, images, links and stuff that is slowly getting added to the site New DigiBarn Radio and TV media (see story 7 above) Gosh am I missing something? See our whole collection at: http://www.digibarn.com/collections/index.html We are always looking for more odd and unique systems, see our currently active "seeking" list at: http://www.digibarn.com/help/index.html (anyone out there have an original "Twiggy" Lisa-1?) Our Friends list (and many of you are on it) is our way to "thank you" and you can find that at: http://www.digibarn.com/friends/index.html 10. Archive of past Newsletters You can find the archive of this and all past DigiBarn Newsletters at: http://www.digibarn.com/history/newsletters/index.html *******************