Vintage computer enthusiasts have much in common with hackers, when that word is used in the classic definition. Like the true hacker, MARCH members have a curiosity about how things work and exercise that curiosity when restoring vintage computing equipment to working condition. With this in mind, MARCH has exhibited at HOPE - Hackers On Planet Earth.

• The Last HOPE - July 18-20, 2008
• HOPE Number 6 - July 22, 2006

The Last HOPE - July 18-20, 2008

Here is one member's experience at the event:



I took an Osborne 1b ROM rev 1.4 to the 2600 magazine "The Last HOPE" convention on July 19th, as part of a vintage computer demo.  I originally planned to exhibit an "original" version of the Osborne 1 (with the tan chassis, also model rev v. 1.4), but that one had a bad A drive.  "Insert Disk in drive A and press RETURN" is as far as I could get.



Prior to the event I did attempt to replace the drive.  First I had to see what was going on inside of the machine.  It takes about 10 minutes to completely disassemble an Osborne 1, if you have a longish Phillips-head screwdriver.  There are only three types of screws and clearly this machine was made for field repairs.

Anyway.. once I got the system completely apart so that I could get to the disk drives I learned that the drive gets it's 5v and 12v power from the data cable, and there is no separate power connector like your run-of-the-mill IBM PC drive.  The drive's controller card had special electronics for drawing voltage through certain pins in the dataline, etc.

In short, one cannot simply swap out an Osborne 1 disk drive and replace with the drive from a Kaypro II or IBM PC.  My choices appeared to be either sacrifice a working drive and swap the electronics from the bad Osborne drive, or simply find a replacement drive.

It was 11 PM, I had to be up by 6AM, and so I decided to take the Model 1b instead.

Now here is why all of that trouble was worth it.  At The Last Hope, I ran into a guy who used to be an Osborne service tech.  I got into discussing the system I left at home with the bad A drive.  He told me that a special key combination, when pressed upon boot, would cause the system to boot from the "B" drive.  CP/M needs to boot from A, so A becomes B, B becomes A when this bypass is activated.  He tried for quite a while, but could not find the key combo.  But now I knew it was possible.

After he left I found the answer on the Vintage Computer Forums... The Shift key, when pressed upon boot will cause the system to swap the drives.

The B drive (now "A") DOES boot, and now I can use the system with one drive at least.



This is just one good reason to exhibit at VCF E this year.  If you exhibit you invariably run into someone with a tidbit of knowledge useful to your projects, and visa versa.

HOPE 6 - July 22, 2006

This was a very different than our past experiences at TCF, VCF, or InfoAge. Instead of row after row of organized booths, there was basically just a whole floor of random groups, vendors, and demonstrations. For example, our neighbors included a lock-picking lab, an open-source fashion studio, all kinds of networking vendors, and a big movie area filled with hammocks instead of chairs. (I don't have pictures, does anyone else?)

I arrived at about 7:30 and soon found Sellam and Sridhar. Then a guy named Greg from the conference took us upstairs to the exhibits floor. He let us pick our own area for the booth, so we chose a high-traffic corner. He helped us quickly pull together three 10-foot tables, tablecloths, and electrical power. Bill Sudbrink and Bill Degnan both arrived soon after. The four of us have all done exhibits before so we were ready to go in very little time. The use of PVC pipes as a frame for the MARCH vinyl banner worked very well.

The HOPE attendees loved our exhibit. These people were all serious geeks, much moreso than at TCF. Many of them were also collectors, but in most cases they just weren't aware of VCF and the semi-organized parts of our hobby. Most of them had very kind words for what we're doing as a club, and many expressed interest in helping us. The people traffic was very busy from about 9:30 to lunchtime. Sam Nitzberg, in his panel with Sellam and Jason Scott at 1:00 (on a different floor), directed that audience to our booth so they'd see the subjects in person. Sure enough, at around 2:00, the traffic picked up again, as strong as in the morning. It was super-busy
all the way until about 6:30 when we started packing up and planning for dinner (at the nearby Stage Door Deli), during which time we stashed (LOL, more like "stuffed") our gear into Jason's hotel room.

My only regret is that we weren't able to stay for a second day. That's something we can plan for next year, now that we know it's worthwhile!