[DigiBarn-News] 020: VCF & LINC event Nov 3-4, open house, news coverage

Mon Oct 8 09:49:55 UTC 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...

Find this newsletter in HTML format at:
http://www.digibarn.com/history/newsletters/index.html#020
Text format follows...

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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 at 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!
10. Thanks donors! Still looking for...
11. Archive of this and past Newsletters
12. Contacting us or Unsubscribing

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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/

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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)

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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 at 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 last 
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

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5. We finally posted the Apple at 30 event video on Google Video!

Al Lundell and I finally got the three edits of the wonderful 
Apple at 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 at 30 event, with some never before seen artifacts, is at:
http://www.digibarn.com/history/06-11-4-VCF9-Apple30/index.html

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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

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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

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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!).

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9. Digibarn TV new features!

See several new video features on Digibarn TV, including Steve 
Wozniak at the Apple at 30 event last November, at:
http://www.digibarn.com/collections/movies/index.html

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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

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12. 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!

If you want to be unsubscribed please let us know through the form 
above and provide the email address you are receiving this newsletter 
on and it will be taken care of promptly. Digibarn News only comes 
out 1-3 times per year so it shouldn't clog your inbox! 
Alternatively, simply reply to this email with "unsubscribe" in the subject.

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Thats it for this newsletter, see you in the next one!
Bruce Damer, Curator

end digibarn news

DigitalSpace
343 Soquel Avenue, # 70
Santa Cruz CA 95062-2305 USA

http://www.digitalspace.com
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