| Saturday, September 12, 2009 |
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 | | | VCF Keynote: RCA Computers of the 1950s | | | Theodore Hurewitz will discuss his time at RCA (Camden, N.J.) in the 1950s. He worked in the engineering group for the Bizmac vacuum tube computer and was on the design team for the 501 solid-state computer. |
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 | | | 8static Invades VCF! | | 8static is a monthly Philadelphia chip music event sponsored by The Hacktory. Each month 8static features live music and visuals provided by artists from around the world. These artists used repurposed classic computers and video game consoles to create their music and visual art. VCF will feature a live performance by four local artists in the chip music scene. Animal Style and Cheap Dinosaurs will provide the music while NO CARRIER and VBLANK provide the visuals. MARCH's Bill Degnan will contribute music from his home-built TTL theremin. The event will begin with a warm-up performance of an Altair 8800 playing The Beatles' "Fool on the Hill" in honor of the same performance at the Homebrew Computer Club in 1975. After the concert, check out The Hacktory and 8static's exhibit booth to learn their tricks!"
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| Sunday, September 13, 2009 |
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 | | | Computer Development and the U.S. Army Evans Signal Laboratory | | | The InfoAge Science Center, venue to the VCF East, was a secret U.S. Army Signal Corps laboratory from 1941 until the late 1990s. Its history in radar and satellite communications is thoroughly documented -- but "Camp Evans" as it was known also has a rich and unique history in computer development. In this talk you'll learn the story from the 1940s and 1950s. (Click photo for speaker biography.) |
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| | | New Products for Vintage Computers | | | This will be a presentation of several modern products available for vintage computers. There will be many hands-on demonstrations. Details to come ...... |
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 | | | Blunders in Personal Computing | | | David Ahl, the editor of Creative Computing magazine, returns to VCF East this year to discuss blunders in the history of personal computing. Subjects will include DEC's declining to produce a PC until it was too late, Gary Kildall's ignoring IBM, Ziff-Davis proclaiming the home market had peaked out in 1985, Atari's death because of unwillingness to pay Apple a license fee, and much more. |
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