[vox] Vintage Computer Festival 10.0 (Mtn View, Nov 3-4)

[Bill Kendrick]

----- Forwarded message from Sellam Ismail <sellam at vintagetech.com> -----

Date: Fri, 26 Oct 2007 06:59:49 -0700
From: sellam at vintagetech.com (Sellam Ismail)
Subject: VCF 10.0 Press Release
To: bill at newbreedsoftware.com

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE


    COMPUTER HISTORY PIONEERS CONGREGATE ON NOVEMBER 3-4 AT VINTAGE EVENT
        Vintage Computer Festival Celebrates History of Computing with
     live antique computers and living legends from the computer industry

LIVERMORE, CALIFORNIA (PRWEB) October 26, 2007 -- The Vintage Computer
Festival, a yearly event that celebrates computers and their history, is
being held on November 3-4 at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View,
California.

Anticipation is building for what is expected to be the biggest and most
well-attended event since the Festival's founding ten years ago.  Celebrated
once a year in Silicon Valley, as well as three other locations worldwide,
the Vintage Computer Festival is the largest and most prestigious event of
its kind, featuring a lecture series, an exhibition of working vintage and
antique computers, and a marketplace for traders to buy and sell vintage
computers.  Collectors from around the world attend this event, which was
founded in 1997.  The Festival also recognizes its own history this year as
it marks its tenth anniversary.

This year, attendees will be treated to several historical figures in the
computer industry, including Lee Felsenstein (designer of the classic
Osborne 1, one of the first portable computers, and the SOL-20, one of the
first personal computers), Al Hoagland (designer of the first commercial
disk drive), legendary MIT proto-hackers Bill Gosper Steve Russell (author
of the first videogame, Spacewar!), Wesley Clark (not the general, but the
inventor of the first transistorized computer in the US) and prolific
computer book author Lance Leventhal, who wrote dozens of computer self-help
books throughout the 1970s and 1980s.

One of the keynote sessions at the Festival this year is a panel featuring
the engineers who in the early 1960s designed the LINC (Laboratory
INstrumentation Computer), which was a revolutionar computer design that
some consider to be the first "personal computer".

The Festival also features a marketplace for collectors to buy, sell and
trade vintage computers.  There is also a screening of documentaries and
films on both days of the event that have vintage computing or vintage
technology themes.  Some of the filmmakers will be present to talk about
their work and give introductions to their films.  There will also be an
abstract artist (Christine Finn) on site throughout the event constructing
a collaborative artwork based on discarded technology, culminating at a talk
she will give on the piece at 3:00pm on Sunday.

The Computer History Museum is an ideal location for the Festival as it
allows attendees the opportunity to tour the Museum's collection while also
attending the lectures and exhibits organized by the VCF.  Tours of the
Museum's collection will be given throughout the afternoon on each day of
the Festival.  Special theme tours during the weekend will include "A Brief
History of the Internet" and "The History of Video Games", which are both
guided by Museum docents.  There will also be live demonstrations of ancient
mainframe computers that have been painstakingly restored to working
condition, including an IBM 1401 mainframe circa 1960 and a Digital
Equipment Corporation (DEC) PDP-1 minicomputer circa 1961 running Spacewar!,
the first ever videogame, written in 1962.  The game's author, Steve
Russell, will also be speaking at the Festival.

The Computer History Museum is located at 1401 North Shoreline Blvd. in
Mountain View, California, just off highway 101.  The Vintage Computer
Festival opens at 9:30am each day, with first sessions beginning at 10:00am
and the exhibition and marketplace opening at 2:00pm each day.  The film
festival runs from 11:00am to 6:00pm each day.  The Festival officially ends
at 6:00pm on Sunday.

Complete event information including admission, directions to the venue and
the event schedule can be found on the VCF website:

http://www.vintage.org/2007/main/

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----- End forwarded message -----

-- 
-bill!
bill at newbreedsoftware.com
http://www.newbreedsoftware.com/