Zel's Fleet Blog - BX, Jag XJ-S, Sinclair C5, Mercedes 208D & 230TE, AC Model 70.

[Hell Razor5543]

Yay!!!

[CitroJim]

Congrats on the MoT Zel and truly great to see you today and enjoy a good old catch-up

[CitroJim]

Maybe tomorrow Jim, I got called out!

I'm unlikely to be around very much today Mike... No car work today - time for a rest - so will be out on the bike and visiting family... I feel the need to spend some quality time with my little granddaughter

[mickthemaverick]

I don't know if this is of any interest Zel?

https://www.the-saleroom.com/en-gb/auct ... 46012f47cc

[Zelandeth]

Nice boxed example with the dust covers and such, but a duplicate of a machine I already own, so not one I feel the need for really.

I do need to get myself organised with the tech side of things now. A couple of days ago I formally submitted the bid to run a panel at Scotiacon in February based around old tech and computers. Exactly what will be taken will depend somewhat on how much space I have to play with and how long a slot I get in the program. However before then I need to...

[] Create a shortlist of what's definitely going, what I'd like to take, and reserves in case of last minute problems.
[] Make sure I have enough displays and the necessary cables/adaptors etc to go around.
[] Get all of the machines in question fully working and *thoroughly* soak tested to minimise the potential for headaches on the day.
[] Create a decent pallete of software to take along for each machine. Plus ensure I have the ability to create duplicates on the day in case of media issues.
[] Collect the world's largest selection of extension leads as we all know every single plug will be in the wrong place in the room.
[] Give myself a thorough history and technical lesson on everything involved.
[] Put together a presentation which will run on its own in one corner (probably displayed on an early 90s projector, on the earliest version of PowerPoint I can find) giving a brief history of home computing and any interesting bits of trivia I can think of.

Oh, and figure out decently robust and easy to handle means to transport everything. I'll need to get things set up and pulled down in the room pretty quickly and can't guarantee having a helper on hand. Plus I'll need to stash this all in our hotel room (well the machines themselves anyway - boxes of cables and power strips and the like I don't mind leaving in the car so much) when the panel isn't running so that may also play a part in providing a bit of a reality check regarding how much we actually take.

Suddenly February doesn't seem very far away...

[Hell Razor5543]

Zel, might I suggest looking at something like these;

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/385208227201 ... R8j82LyPYQ

I personally have a couple like this (given to me free by Somerfield (now there is a name from the past)), and I have experience of how strong and stackable they are (Sodexo use them for their Prestige Events equipment, and their crates take a PoS unit, printer, CDU, and cables per crate, with something like 24 to a pallet, 6 high. I had to help re-crate them after Royal Ascot, and last time they had around 200 PoS unit to be dealt with!). Provided the lids are properly interlocked they are safe and stable. When they are empty they can be stacked within each other, taking up less space.

[mickthemaverick]

Nice boxed example with the dust covers and such, but a duplicate of a machine I already own, so not one I feel the need for really.

I do need to get myself organised with the tech side of things now. A couple of days ago I formally submitted the bid to run a panel at Scotiacon in February based around old tech and computers. Exactly what will be taken will depend somewhat on how much space I have to play with and how long a slot I get in the program. However before then I need to...

[] Create a shortlist of what's definitely going, what I'd like to take, and reserves in case of last minute problems.
[] Make sure I have enough displays and the necessary cables/adaptors etc to go around.
[] Get all of the machines in question fully working and *thoroughly* soak tested to minimise the potential for headaches on the day.
[] Create a decent pallete of software to take along for each machine. Plus ensure I have the ability to create duplicates on the day in case of media issues.
[] Collect the world's largest selection of extension leads as we all know every single plug will be in the wrong place in the room.
[] Give myself a thorough history and technical lesson on everything involved.
[] Put together a presentation which will run on its own in one corner (probably displayed on an early 90s projector, on the earliest version of PowerPoint I can find) giving a brief history of home computing and any interesting bits of trivia I can think of.

Oh, and figure out decently robust and easy to handle means to transport everything. I'll need to get things set up and pulled down in the room pretty quickly and can't guarantee having a helper on hand. Plus I'll need to stash this all in our hotel room (well the machines themselves anyway - boxes of cables and power strips and the like I don't mind leaving in the car so much) when the panel isn't running so that may also play a part in providing a bit of a reality check regarding how much we actually take.

Suddenly February doesn't seem very far away...

So what are you going to do after Lunch?

If you need any assistance in collecting whatever that is south of Dunstable just shout. Good luck with that Zel!

[Zelandeth]

The shortlist of things likely to make the trip up to Glasgow...off the top of my head.

[] Apple II Plus.
[] Apple Macintosh SE.
[] BBC Micro Model B.
[] Acorn Electron.
[] Acorn Archimedes A7000. (A5000 and A3000 if they're repaired in time - would love to take the RiscPC but I've drawn a blank on spares for it so far at sane money).
[] Compaq DeskPro 386S - this will probably be running the presentation slideshow.
[] Compaq DeskPro 5100 (Newest mainstream machine with a Pentium 100).
[] Atari 800XL.
[] Atari 520STe.
[] Sinclair ZX81.
[] Sinclair ZX Spectrum 48K (X2).
[] Sinclair QL - which has had by far the biggest "Oooohhh" response from those I've mentioned this to so far. Thinking I need to dig out some good demos for that.
[] Psion Series 5 (So ahead of its time).
[] Commodore 64.
[] Commodore Amiga 1200 (my original one from 1995!).
[] Amstrad CPC-464.
[] Amstrad PPC-512.
[] Amstrad NC-100.
[] Toshiba luggables - T1000 (currently non working), T1200 (in daily use), T1600 (work in progress), T3100e, T3200, T3200SXC, T5200/100. No, I don't have a problem... really...
[] IBM ThinkPad 755Ci (I think - it's an early 90s 60MHz 486DX2).

Additionally we'll have...

[] Sharp EL-805 - first pocket calculator to use an LCD display.
[] Compucorp Scientist (Sadly currently inoperable due to a dead display, though still technologically fascinating).
[] Casio PF-3000 - a PDA 25 years before the term became commonly known.
[] Prinztronic Mini-7.
[] Kovac K80D.

Plus whatever else I decide to grab on the day!

Suggestions for good software to demo the capabilities of any of the hardware there (especially the Apple and Amstrad machines) are definitely welcome...

[CitroJim]

Gosh! That's quite a collection Zel

That's worthy of a museum!

[Zelandeth]

Gosh! That's quite a collection Zel

That's worthy of a museum!

Probably a few others buried in corners of the loft that I've forgotten about. I reckon I'd likely aim for 8-10 main machines for the trip based on the size of room that I'm expecting to be given. Plus I think even at that point I'm probably going to be stretched pretty thin keeping an eye on the fact that everything is behaving, showing folks where necessary how to load things etc and actually engaging with people who want to talk or have more than ten second questions. A helper would be really useful, but I simply can't guarantee I'll have one available. Hoping I can at least rope the rest of the family into helping me drag everything into the room in the first place, but no idea what availability will be like as I've no idea what else will be on the program which they might be wanting to get to.

Just need to decide which ones to take and what software to line up.

[Dormouse]

What kind of helper would you need?

[Zelandeth]

What kind of helper would you need?

I suspect that "anyone with a pulse" would be a good starting point! Though at least some idea what they're doing around old tech would be a bonus. Me not having to be the one who deletes the nonsense that someone has left scrolling endlessly on the BBC Micro for the seventeenth time will likely be helpful.

Problem is that as it's a panel within a wider paid event I can't just invite anyone random in to assist (at least that would be my assumption). Plus it's all the way up in Glasgow, so likely a fair ways away.

A lot I think will depend on what time slot I'm given. If it's just an hour or hour and a half I'll probably keep things pretty simple. If I get a bigger block I might be a bit more adventurous.

Not actually expecting staffing to be a huge issue so long as I can rope someone in to helping me physically get everything into/out of the room.

Fact is that a huge chunk of the folks likely to be dropping in will be interested enough most likely that I reckon things will wind up being self regulating and supporting to a large extent. Especially as we're talking about an event in an event rather than just dealing with random people walking in off the street.

At least that's my hope! If it turns out to be a somewhat painful learning experience it's still knowledge gained for the future.

[Dormouse]

If you want a herding sheep dog to whistle commands at then I may be able to give a bit of help. We both like Glasgow and, if it ties in with family, I could give a bit of help over two days if we stayed overnight and made a mini break of it.
When I did computer stuff at University the main frame used punched cards and the Faculty one used punched tape both of which I had to do myself (and correct). There is at least one Spectrum ZX still in the loft and our daughter found her future hubby in a chat room using a TeleWest set top box. One of my emails is still Blueyonder to this day. I have dabbled with programming but not to any real extent. So, if an amenable, mildly educated sheep dog could help a bit, let me know in a PM.
You never know, if a handful of sheep dogs could spare a wee bit of time each, you might get time to spend on the important stuff.

[Dormouse]

I know the event is not an open one so the sheep dogs would probably have to be approved by the organisers in advance. But, until you have more info yourself, you don't know what you might need.
Anyway, just a thought to keep in reserve.

[mickthemaverick]

These may be useful for your display Zel:
https://www.the-saleroom.com/en-gb/auct ... 5700bd697b