- Food poisoning. We went to the "canteen" in the main room for a quick snack. We only picked up a pack of peanut M&Ms to hold us until dinner. Even though the date on the packs were 2025, it was obvious that they weren't stored correctly and the one M&M that we ate was certainly off.
- Loud neighboring party. There was a big wedding going on in the ballroom next to VCF and sometimes their "music" system intruded into the VCF panel room. More of an annoyance, but someone should have told them to turn it down a bit.
- The wedding also blocked certain hallways for a while. This was a minor annoyance, though, as there were other (but less direct) routes from the con to the rooms.
- The traffic! It took me 1 day (each way), to physically recover from the drive. Chicago area traffic is horrible.
Ron's Apartment
My rants, raves and adventures.
Monday, September 09, 2024
VCF MW Post Mortum
Sunday, May 05, 2024
Sperry HT
- Clock battery was dead. But it didn't leak.
- Hard drive was dead.
- The foam in the foam-and-foil keyboard was disintegrating.
Saturday, May 04, 2024
Misc. Updates
I haven't posted an update for a while.
Kaypro 1 - It was giving me fits, so I sort of turned it into a "parts" machine and got a Kaypro 4/84 working very nicely.
I was finally able to acquire a Sperry HT. The first computer I ever owned.
As expected, the hard drive is long toast, so I took the IDE-XT-CF card from the Sperry Portable and put it there. Then fixed the DOS on it. Explanation: The Sperry HT was one of the first to have a real time clock, but it requires a special version of DOS 2.11 to work. So I installed that version.
Cleaned it up. Lubed up the floppy drive and cleaned it. Now working on fixing the foam-and-foil keyboard. It's looking nice.
So some of the items that I was going to bring to VCFMW won't be going now (or will be on the free table), but I still have a good amount of stuff to bring and donate.
And I'm looking at downsizing a few other systems that I simply don't have table space for. Goal: I have all computers available for use at any time and try to rotate through them to play with them every couple of weeks. Also, to get rid of systems that I simply am no longer interested in anymore.
Monday, October 02, 2023
The "Con Vibe" - A little more explanation
Sunday, October 01, 2023
Tandy Assembly
Thursday, September 07, 2023
Tech Week Grand Rapids
So one of my co-workers alerted me to this event, so I went to check it out on their web site.
Wow! What a load of useless "panels" and Woke trash. Let's unpack this.
Monday 9/18 - Kickoff with Malcolm Gladwell
- This guy is just an author. He has no technical knowledge, yet has a 3 hour speech. On what?
Tuesday 9/19
- Tech Showcase for students - Pretty much just local companies displaying information about their companies.
- SURGE AI Talk: Unleashing the Power of ChatGPT and AI in Your Business! - ChatGPT is 99% marketing right now. Its usefulness is very questionable.
- Supercharge Your Applications with Artificial Intelligence - Continuing the AI hype.
- Creative Solutions that Change Lives: The Engineering & Computing Mindset - Just fluff.
- Diversity & Inclusion in Tech - Woke trash
- Student Pitch Competition - Practice pitching your idea! Wow. An ounce of image is certainly worth a pound of performance.
And no mention of pirates (9/19 is International Talk Like a Pirate Day)
Wed. 9/20
- Code, Culture, and Coffee - "Conversations about the Tech Industry", with people who know nothing about the tech industry.
- Tech Trends Reshaping Business - "Sessions on generative AI, cyber, & AI in the workplace" continuing the AI hype.
- Bridge 96: Building a Statewide Startup Ecosystem - No details, but smells like more Woke trash.
- GVSU Tech Talks - "Tech expert presentations". No list of who these tech "experts" are, though.
- Freshwater Digital Technology Showcase - Just demonstrations of tech.
- Twisthink x Failure Lab - "Presentations and happy hour". Translation: People who know nothing speaking jibberish.
- AI in Communications: Understanding Impact & Unlocking Potential - And still more pushing of the AI hype.
- VC Happy Hour - i.e. a bunch of stupid lushes pretending to speak on topics of which they know nothing about.
- Demo Day - Maybe interesting, but probably not.
Thurs. 9/21
- Black & Brown Founders Brunch - Woke trash
- Attracting & Retaining Talent in the Work-From-Home Era - Wow! Something potentially useful, but seeing the amount of Woke trash already here, I doubt it.
- Latinx in Tech - More Woke trash. Let me check my BINGO card. I think I might have won.
- Building the Workforce You Need - Another something that's potentially useful, but I doubt it.
- Drinks on the Deck - Even more lushes pretending to speak on topics of which they know nothing about.
- Innovation at Scale: A Playbook for Building High-Growth Ventures - Did we learn nothing from the .COM bust?
- GR in XR on the Blue Bridge - "Extended reality experience". Potentially interesting, but 1 out of how many? isn't very good.
Fri. 9/22
- Twisthink Breakfast + Panel - I have no idea what Twisthink is, so why would I think this is interesting?
- It Started at State! - Propaganda that tech ideas started at MSU.
- Confluence Music Summit - And more non-tech fluff.
Sat. 9/23
- Confluence Festival - "Free festival with art, music, science, and tech". Seriously? That's like saying "I have a smart watch, so I'm tech."
I'll be going to Tandy Assembly later this month and there will be more tech talking in 1 hour there than a whole week of "Tech Week Grand Rapids".
Kaypro "1" update
TRS-80 Model I update
- Dirty key switches. So off go the key tops. Dusted them out. DeOxyIt all of them.
- They still weren't 100%, though. So I replaced the cable that connected the keyboard to the motherboard - a common problem.
- Better, but still not 100%. I reflowed all the solder for the key switches and we are now at 100%.
Cleaning house - C128, Tandy 1100FD, etc.
Reunion aftermath
- The number of people who actually matured and improved. But I guess the other who didn't wouldn't have shown up.
- The number of people I didn't remember.
- The number of people who wanted to talk to us (my wife and me).
- The number of people who wanted to avoid us (who I had always been on good terms with).
Sunday, April 30, 2023
Why I Am Going to My 40th High School Reunion
This is in response to an article I came across today called Why I'm Not Going to My 50th High School Reunion.
I completely understand the author of the article. I've only gone to my 10th (at pressure from my parents), 30th (because I was going to be in town) and now, I'm going to my 40th.
But, like the article's author, I really don't care about these people anymore. I don't say that with any negative feelings, though. Simply put, I haven't see some of these people in at least 10 years and most of them in 30 or more years. There's no one I've "kept in touch" with or I really want to see again.
The reunion "committee" (I applaud them for taking this work on) sent out a list of classmates that they couldn't find. Going through the list, I can see several that I understand why they would not want to be found (sorry, not naming names here). They also have a list (sadly, too long) of classmates who have passed. Some I knew passed and some I didn't.
Going through the list, there was no one that I thought I really need to catch up with this person.
So why am I going?
Well, first, we can easily work it in to our schedule. We already have to to 1/3 of the way there that Saturday anyway. We can stop in and say "hi" to mom, which she'll like. Spend no more than a couple of hours at the reunion and then go home.
But the main reason is that some of these people I have literally known all my life. The first school picture that I have, from nursery school - that's pre-kindergarten - shows some of these people. And I'm curious (yes, that would be the word) as to how these people turned out after 40 years.
Addendum:
At my 10 year reunion, there were a large number of people. But none that I was really friends with in High School. I knew most of them, but they weren't what I considered "friends". The dynamic here was still very much like High School, even though (most of us) had grown up.
At the 30 year reunion, things were... interesting. By this time I had lost most of the weight that I had put on and was actually thinner than I was in High School. I was also more outgoing and had a girlfriend (who is now my wife). Some people were very friendly to us - especially the few that I knew from Nursery School. Some were cold to us - but they were enemies in High School. I guess some people just can't let go. But there were others who were friendly to me in High School but were now more than a little cool to me for some unknown reason.
I have no expectations for my 40th. It is what it is. But it will also be interesting no matter what.