Vintage Computer Festival Pacific Northwest 2020: Come join us!

[mbbrutman]

Come join us March 21st and March 22nd in Seattle at VCF PNW 2020! Look forward to:

• 24 Exhibits featuring big-iron, classic 8 bitters, replicas, and even new machines!
• 6 Presentations including Bil Herd and Joe Decuir, IEEE Fellow!
• Take part in our very first Vintage Computer Typing Contest! Win not-so-valuable prizes!
• Buy (or sell) treasure in the consignment area!
• Enjoy our host, the world-renowned Living Computers:Museum+Labs!

This year at VCF PNW we will be celebrating and exploring computing history with twenty-four exhibits and six presentations spread over two days. VCF exhibits are interactive; we want you to experience them, not just gaze upon them. Our host, Living Computers:Museum+Labs, provides an excellent backdrop for the event.

Exhibits are brought to you by enthusiasts from the United States, Canada and Australia. Exhibits include big-iron, homebrew machines, workstations, replicas, modern enhancements, classic machines and even new machines inspired by the classics. Come feel the heat of the VAX cluster, play Doom on a Unix workstation, experience a BBS, learn how to repair a PDP-8, jam on an early software based synthesizer setup, see random numbers generated by LAVA® lamps, and more!

Our speakers and topics this year include Bil Herd (Commodore history), Dr. Zbigniew Stachniak (MCM/70 emulation), Darius Kazemi (Internet RFCs), Jon Philpott (ArcAS: an arcade action programming game), Scott Swazey (PDP-11/45 and the Star Wars Death Star graphics sequences), and Joe Decuir (Amiga history).

The event is free with paid museum admission. For more details head over to http://vcfed.org/vcf-pnw/. We hope to see you there!View attachment 59280

 

[Chuck(G)]

Have you folks thought about postponing or canceling this year's event? King county appears to be the national hotspot for Covid-19 (6 dead as of today). Several professional conferences scheduled for the Seattle area have already announced cancellation.

Sorry for being a wet blanket.

 

[mbbrutman]

We've discussed it - there are no changes planned.

Everybody has to weigh the risks for themselves. If you read the recent news Kirkland, WA (where I work) is actually probably the regional epicenter for the virus and has been for weeks. At-risk people and people who live with them need to be careful but for most people this is just another nasty virus.

We always have hand sanitizer at the events. This year we'll have even more and we'll have cleaning wipes too. Schools are still open, businesses are open, and the museum has not had any problems. People should wash their hands often & thoroughly and avoid touching their faces. People who are showing symptoms of anything should just stay home and spare the rest of us. These have always been good things to do.

 

[falter]

Looks like Living Computer Museum is closing indefinitely over the virus.

 

[mbbrutman]

Yes, I found out today. Email has gone out and the site page (http://vcfed.org/vcf-pnw) has a hastily posted announcement on it. (I'll be making it more formal later.)

 

[Chuck(G)]

Sorry to hear it, but I figured that would be the next step.

I was surprised to see that my optometrist's office has been hit by a raft of cancellations--and we're 280 miles from Seattle. I had my choice of same-day appointment times.

People are scared.