We attend the Vintage Computer Festival (VCF East 2024)

[@vcv6560]

As a 40 year EE I really enjoyed the tour of Bell Labs, I'd no idea it was such an impressive building. Thanks for adding the side trip.

[@chutipascal]

The 1130 is gorgeous, congratulations to Carl!

[@juanmacias5922]

Wait...! Did Apple's TV show "Severance" use Bell Labs as a backdrop!? The inside of the building, and the water tower look remarkably similar! Just googled it, apparently so! Great show, if anyone hasn't checked it out lol

[@fl0wfr]

That's right :)

[@world_production]

That’s also what I noticed 👍

[@PeterHagelund]

Yep! Seen them film there many times. By the way, the snow in the show is all fake. 😂

[@matthewrichardson2467]

Carl! He is looking good, Florida obviously agrees with him! Good to see the gang back together

[@warup89]

I need to go to that museum, it has vintage electronics, vintage military, and model trains..Just wow!

[@SubTroppo]

13:05 Who wouldn't want a "Cowculator"? All those knobs to twiddle and in a very smart brief case.

[@CuriousMarc]

Just imagine, being able to dial in the exact amount of cow poo. That must have been very satisfying…

[@SubTroppo]

@@CuriousMarc C'est vachement utile.

[@CuriousMarc]

@@SubTroppo haha

[@vincei4252]

Very nice walk down memory lane, especially the visit to your office! My former boss who is in his late 80's now pinged me and asked to come to an old timers get together in New York. As I hadn't seen him in quite a few years I jumped at the chance. It was great to catch up with all the old faces and reminisce. The highlight of the day was being taken around the gigantic site that we occupied in Tarrytown, New York, now owned by Siemens. Walking all the labs and the show rooms was quite nostalgic even though the name of the company changed 20 years ago when I left to other things. The biggest shock for me was being taken to the lab where I worked to find that 20 years later and through the acquisition of the firm by Siemens AND so many new faces, that my name was still on my office door. All of us were shocked by that including my boss. I don't know how that happened but I just had to take a picture of it an share it with my friends who thought it was hilarious. All the people that have had that office just never bothered even though all the old names on other offices were gone. Thanks for the tour!

[@TheGrimStoic]

That's a different level of coincidental - makes you wonder if there really is something to that alternative timelines nonsense, after all...

[@kevincozens6837]

Having seen the AGC prototype I wonder if Marc is going to arrange to get its memory modules read and archived.

[@CuriousMarc]

This one is missing its memory tray, so nothing to read. Mike tells us it's a Block I of the second series, which is why it looks so unusual.

[@bradnelson3595]

Thanks for taking us along on your tour, Marc.

[@ForgottenMachines]

11:38 UNICAC? Is that a variant of the UNIVAC, or is that just a typo? Fascinating!

[@ksbs2036]

Wow, fantastic. That's the first time a museum tour has given me goosebumps! Thanks Marc and Crew. Your antics are pure pleasure for this old tech guy :-)

[@inothome]

That's great you got to go in to the Cape Canaveral Space Force museum. So much awesome stuff there and lots of history with the three pads there. My last time there, about a year ago, they still were not letting in the general public, I was there since I was working at KSC.

[@aWildLupi]

it's been a whole awful thing yeah, the visitors complex decided to stop running the tours right after the cape museum had spent so much on converting hangar c to a museum facility, so the only way you can get there as gen pop is via the lighthouse tours company. they'd put all that money into hangar c with the expectation that KSCVC would continue to honor their operating agreement but they withdrew the tour for the pandemic, made a frail gesture at bringing it back, and then killed it outright

[@inothome]

@@aWildLupi I didn't realize is was the Visitors Center that decided to not resume the tours. I assumed it was the Space Force. Hanger C is set up nice too, lots to see there as well. I stopped by there a few times.

[@darrenerickson1288]

One of the (even) more impressive videos you’ve shared. I so have to go to VCF Midwest. 😅

[@BarryRowlingsonBaz]

And a brief appearance of Usagi Electric!

[@anthonyshiels9273]

Mr. David Lovett gets around. He was interviewed by Dr. Derek Muller from Veritasium.

[@VarionJimmy]

Just noticed him at 5:27. Was that..? I had to pause and check the comments. 😁

[@lelabodemichel5162]

I love the electro-mechanical computer at 13:25. Bonne visite Marc!

[@compu85]

Glad you guys had a good time at VCF East! I couldn't make it this year - but I'll hope to bump into you at VCF West this year! :) BTW - David, who had the PDP and Plotter demo, is also the designer of the MFM Emulator!

[@yatapaws]

these videos make me so happy to watch through!! thank you!!

[@wacholder5690]

15:25 "Space Cowboys - Minus One" or what ? Thanks for sharing !

[@tomslaight451]

Wow. I'd have loved to have been there to see VCF. Very impressive displays and restorations, with even more impressive efforts behind them. Great to see the Holmdel building again, too. It looks like Bell Works has been doing a terrific job with their stewardship. I left there in '91. Yeah, it's huge. It used to take me 20 minutes to walk to the cafeteria from my office. I imagine they probably gutted all the desks and furniture out of the offices, but it would be something to see if any of the offices were preserved. I recall someone telling me that the office furniture was all special-built by Steelcase to AT&T/Saarinen specification. The office furnishings were all very egalitarian - except for the furnishings in the executive office suites tucked into the top floor of the northwest corner that were filled with exotic hardwood paneling and 3/4 inch deep cut-pile carpeting.

[@cabbelos]

Did you try to take the elevator to see your old office? I used to work in a 1960's innovative office complex with very interesting quirks, like its own line of furniture, a 10 story atrium, big sports hall, indoor shooting range, a large 'launch control' style room that controls all the building's automation, and all sorts of other nifty stuff. It has been empty for almost ten years and part of the lower buildings are already demolished for new cookie cutter apartment buildings. The main tower was supposed to be redeveloped into something, but it is built so solidly they decided it is not worth it. So now it is just a shell. I find it amazing that I never took any pictures of the offices while working there. Back then it felt just like another workplace, nothing that I would want to think back in the future.

[@CuriousMarc]

Yep I tried to take the elevator to get to my office but the elevators are now blocked with automatic gates that read badges :-( .

[@TheGrimStoic]

@@CuriousMarc I'd have gone even if it meant trespass - its Bell Labs you worked at, for pete's sake. (I'm told I have a slight jail wish so don't let that bug you)

[@Petertronic]

Wow, amazing to see these machines kept operational. Loved the video.

[@sa8die]

nice ,. i saw USAGI Electrics one,. really interesting,. glad they have these and u guys let us all see

[@KeritechElectronics]

Check out the Fran-tastic Three as well! :)

[@KeritechElectronics]

5:26 UsagiElectric on the left! Say "Hellorld"... 7:28 I'll be getting into that newfangled witchcraft. Given enough time, I'll become the 8-bit witch, on top of being the vacuum tube witch. 11:15 it's pretty much the equivalent of the core rope memory, right? 13:00 holy cow! An interesting and lovely machine. 13:25 I was wondering about your thoughts on this air data computer. Definitely not as complicated as the mechanical one, still beautiful and quite interesting. Waiting for that AGC talk!

[@rjones8508]

Can't believe I missed this show (and your visit there)! I too worked at the Holmdel building in the late 90's, 'k' isle (on one end of the building). Super cold in the winter. In the early 90's Bell labs was all over the place - I was in the nearby Middletown building, now part of AT&T labs I think - itself a spin off of Bell Labs after the Lucent split.

[@DownToNerd]

always a delight to see one of your videos

[@ForgottenMachines]

6:39 "Are those LEDs"? "No, No...I went back to incandescent because I couldn't get LEDs to look right". Yea, Carl! We feel the same way in all of our blinkenlight machine restorations, in particular, the Data General Nova 1200 & 800 machines!

[@ReneKnuvers74rk]

13:17 cowculator, from the hay days of computing

[@CuriousMarc]

lol

[@catsupchutney]

I always learn about these great events after the fact!

[@douro20]

The wide-format version of the Calcomp 565 which was the first commercially available pen plotter. I don't know if this one does but the 565 when it was first made had tube based stepper drivers!

[@DaCoder]

Can't wait for the next tours 🙌🙏 Thank you very much for bringing us along!

[@DavePKW]

I look forward to the future videos of your road trip. I really enjoy them. Thank you so much.

[@nakfan]

Fascinating to have look inside the Bell Labs premises...Thanks for this part and the rest of the video too, of course 😊

[@pianoman4Jesus]

haha!!! @10:35 Give it up for S Gauge model trains! Perfect combination... old computers + best gauge of model train! 🚂🖥

[@pfaelzerbiker]

Awesome tour! Thanks for sharing! 🎉

[@johanlaurasia]

I heard you were at VCF Midwest a few years back... hope you find your way out that way this September !!

[@emptyjay488]

I'll second that! I went a couple of years ago and loved just wandering around. I'm likely going to make it again this year in the new location.

[@riverchampeimont]

This seems amazing! Thank you for showing us this amazing exhibition.

[@peteroneill404]

Congrats to Carl for keeping an 1130 alive. Part of the second year of my Physics degree (1976!) was learning APL on an 1130.

[@AllenKll]

Bell labs was an impressive place to visit. I can't believed they turned it into a mall!

[@y2kkmac]

I want to visit the Holmdel horn in celebration of the town saving it, looks like there's plenty of other interesting things in town to check out too!

[@CuriousMarc]

We tried to go visit the horn antenna (the one that discovered the big bang) at Crawford Hill, but the entry road was blocked by a locked gate :-(

[@georgestephens2593]

My son and I met you and Ken at VCF East. It was a real treat to see you there! Keep up the great videos! You may remember my son as he had you and Ken autograph a punch card.

[@scose]

Wow great building, timeless architecture!

[@hellocollegejason198]

Absolutely amazing to see people keeping these alive

[@tbp-channel8870]

Very impressive! You got nice museums there. I am looking forward to the ksc-video. Have been there in 2000, maybe see some changes.

[@videojones59]

I loved the time I spent as a summer student at Bell Labs in Murray Hill in 1976 and 1977. I visited the Holmdel building once during the summer of 1976. It was and is indeed impressive!

[@orionfl79]

Fascinating! Growing up, my neighbor worked at Bell Labs in Holmdel maybe circa 1989? At one point they were having some sort of a Christmas event and she brought us along and gave us a tour of her work space (something to do with large printers and maybe phone books I think). I seem to remember the atrium almost resembling a jungle with all of the plants and I think it also doubled as an aviary where they had live birds living in there.

[@richardhoff5255]

I used to attend vcf east every year before I moved to Florida last year. Had I known you and ken were attending I would have flown up to meet you guys and listened to your lecture. Hope you enjoyed the site, that univac was once on a battle ship and was used for targeting systems if my memory serves correctly. One of the inputs was a pair of binoculars which could be used as some sort of targeting scope... So many fond memories at vcf including meeting ken Thompson and every year I always got a great Irish breakfast at the bar down the road.

[@ReinaldoRauch]

Yay, traveling Marc is a good one too

[@MeppyMan]

Wow, so cool! Thanks for sharing this! One small thing, you might want to look at how you are encoding the video, as the motion jitter was hard to watch when you moved the camera. But that's a small thing, the content was awesome.

[@marcusdamberger]

That's because it was shot at 24fps. 30 or 60fps would mostly solve the judder from the camera panning.

[@MeppyMan]

@@marcusdamberger doesn’t escape me that I’m looking at some incredible tech from the early day of computing. On my handheld computer. And worried about frame rates. 🤣

[@RetroJack]

Excellent - can't wait to see more!

[@TheFleetz]

Love when Marc says “I have one that needs repair” yet move videos to come complete with elevator music!👍👍👍

[@TheDeadStyx]

6:55. *takes a deep satisfactory breath* That cablemanagement

[@PaulLoveless-Cincinnati]

Both the museum and the festival proper were very cool!

[@ptonpc]

That would be an amazing visit. I wonder sometimes if, in the future, people will be looking at our modern kit with the same fascination and joy as we look at these devices.

[@v12alpine]

Doubtful... modern day stuff is bleh compared to those behemoths.

[@joegee2815]

I was hired by Bellcore in 1984 and had an office in the Holmdel building. I still live nearby. Apparently they almost tore that building down. I'm glad they didn't.

[@Derpy1969]

Those computers are WHISPER QUIET!!!

[@mornax]

I haven't seen an HP7550A running since the 1990s at my first engineering job! Great workhorse, except for when it tried to draw toroid transformer symbols, with lines radiating from a single point - the center would get soaked with ink and start tearing the page 😆

[@SiggyPony]

That Bell labs looks like such a cool place :) I've never worked somewhere as big but I did work briefly somewhere where you could walk basically the length of a city block all in the same building just to get to the cafeteria hahaha. I miss the building but not the job :)

[@markgreco1962]

Thank you

[@MrPeabodyPA2]

Love, love, love that IBM 1130! I almost fell out of my chair when I saw it in the background and I was hoping you'd stop for visit. I spent over a decade programming one of those for my company and it's still my absolute favorite computer. I added 8" floppy disk and digital tape to ours and made many modifications to the disk monitor system during that time, making it do things it wasn't supposed to be able to do. I still have bit and pieces of it, including all of the ALDs, a complete load source deck, and several 2315 disks. Is that 1130 on permanent display somewhere? I'd love to attempt to convert my disks to images that I can use with the 1130 simulator. I recognize those Heathkit terminals, too; I built several of them.

[@CuriousMarc]

This IBM 1130 is now at the System Source Museum (next episode!)

[@widescreennavel]

I remember when Roland got into the plotter business. I was expecting sequencers and synthesizers!

[@rsmrsm2000]

By looking at the past we can understand today's technologies. Thanks.

[@supercompooper]

I had an office there in the early 2000's too!

[@lucianchauvin8587]

Just realised this is the office that represents Lumon in severance! So cool.

[@Captain_Char]

the IBM 1130 reminds me of a computer interface on the original series Enterprise, bunch of switches and bank lights

[@talesmaschio]

About the IBM 1130: it’s the first time I see a computer with a big red emergency stop button. Very cool!

[@roscozone8092]

Anyone else hear Fran around 12:10?

[@ntsecrets]

Saw her for a second too in front of the univac, she has a great video on it.

[@PeterHagelund]

@CuriousMarc: too bad I didn't know you'd be in town. I work in the Bell Works building and could have shown you around. As far as I can tell from the video, your office was more or less right across the atrium from mine.

[@ruawhitepaw]

At 4:05 I spot a glimpse of the HomeComputerMuseum all the way from the Netherlands!

[@ForgottenMachines]

7:50 is this David Gesswein???

[@jimbronie]

I was there Sunday and I saw you walking around 2 times. Both times I was on my way to check something out. Told myself I was going to go up to you when I saw you again but never saw you again. Grrrr. Maybe next time. 😊

[@ForgottenMachines]

4:53 what is the "oddball" Heatkit terminal in this scene?

[@adrianobueno6984]

Maybe you could show and tell more about Bell Labs in the future!

[@johncloar1692]

Good to see Carl it like seeing a long lost friend.

[@wizzo183]

So this is where severance was filmed, i thoight I reconized it but became confodent after I saw the transistor

[@steubens7]

ken's cowculator post when???

[@Digital-Dan]

Interviewed at Holmdel in 1966. Wasn't willing to commit to work for them in order to get a college education, but impressive place.

[@50shadesofbeige88]

Sorry I missed you. Glad you had fun.

[@bigsarge2085]

So cool!

[@s90210h]

11:23 BANG FACE HARD CREW !!!

[@gmespia]

Nice tour, and another addition to my bucket list. I have a quest for you sage people. Jason showed an unknown Collins circuit in his channel 'STS Telecom' five days ago. Does anyone know what it is? I'm really curious about it, thanks. PS The video is called ' Viewer Mail - Is this a 4-bit Processor?! '

[@vinylcabasse]

bell holmdel was designed by THE eero saarinen. i can't believe anyone would want to tear that masterpiece down!

[@TheRidders]

what a Geek Fest! Awesome 😎😎😎

[@astratheus]

Very cool!

[@Dlehnerswe]

Very interesting to see the Bell building. I have one, maybe odd question. I don't know if you worked there at the same time. But, you didn't happen to work with Lanny Smoot by any chance? I know he worked on fibre optic stuff aswell. He is one astonishing human beeing to say the least. As I said, odd question. But I'm curious ^^

[@TheGrimStoic]

Wow - it hits you

[@gewehr98-f5l]

I wonder if you could data dump those prototype AGC modules?

[@flippert0]

The IBM 1130 (lowest-prized IBM offering in the mid 60s) was for many the first encounter with a computer at all at that time.

[@douro20]

A company close to where I live still rents out those old Sperry carbon-arc searchlights, with the original GE genset.

[@marcusdamberger]

Is the generator run by a Jeep motor? Our local amateur radio club affiliated with the local university would pull out once a year a WWII generator to power all the stations for field day to get extra contact points because they were on generator power. The generator had a Jeep motor running it. It basically used an entire 55gal drum of gas for that field day weekend. It just hummed away all weekend. It included a power distribution fuse panel with thick cables distributing power to the various stations operating on different frequencies and modes, i.e. voice, or CW or digital. The CW guys were furthest away from the generator to cut down on noise.

[@douro20]

@@marcusdamberger Don't know, unfortunately.

[@MrHellfinger]

5:27 Usagi Electric makes a cameo appearance

[@jlwilliams]

Great tour, but seeing the Bell Labs building made me a little sad. Today are we content to lead the world only in executive compensation and tax-avoidance schemes?

[@TheGrimStoic]

I know precisely how you mean that - it struck me so, too - and I'm not even from the continent

[@Gkuljian]

My dad's first job was at Bell labs. Then North American. Then Beckman. Then Ampex. Then Applied Materials. Quite a life.

[@ricksampson6780]

I have heard many conflicting stories regarding the transistor inception and subsequent IC development. Is there any truth to the rumor that recovered extraterrestrial material seeded the semiconductor industry?

[@inothome]

Yes, it's true. They found the materials while exploring the edge of the Earth and going through the tunnels in the ice wall that they call Antarctica. lol (sarcasm, for those who fall for dumb crap like that)

[@TheGrimStoic]

Well - you're technically right - all elements used in the development are recovered extraterrestrial material, strictly speaking

[@rasitsimsek9400]

The building looks like an airport terminal

[@minty_Joe]

I think I spotted Sean of Action Retro in the video. Obviously doing moar seananigans!

[@paladinstar]

Hype!

[@ernestgalvan9037]

@ 05:20 wow! That IBM 1130. What sweet sweet memories. I was 15 in 1969 when I saw My First Computer. Second floor of the Instituto Tecnológico. Sealed behind a huge glass window. Kept cold cold cold. Fascinating blinking lights, cards zipping through some machine, another rolling out wide sheets of green-lined paper with typing on it… I was hooked forever. My Father was a Mathematics Teacher there, so I had access. Many a week-end were spent there as I DEVOURED those systems tech manuals, repair manuals, programming guides, FORTRAN, RPG, COBOL, SPICE, assembler. I taught my self HOW things worked, their operation, how to clean them (paper, cardboard, ink ribbons, oil, grease result in cleaning chores 😊) That system was never as clean as when I was there (ain’t brag if it’s true) Main system had 8k word core memory . One single-platter diskpack drive 500k word capacity. One card reader/punch. One impact chain printer. Adjacent data entry had four card punch, one card sorter. A student area had two card punch. One time we had an IBM rep arrive to install some fancy software update of sorts. he updated all the OS and programing software. We got an update to our FORTRAN-IV, but still was not up to the (at that time) latest ISO-standard. Budgetary concerns. One thing I have never forgotten was when he explained to my farther the SPOOL update. He explained that is was a subroutine to enable ‘Simultaneous Peripheral Out-Put OverLap’. That it would maximize I/O. I did notice that the line printer and card read didn’t pause as often, and the disk-drive sounded different. BTW, the disk-drive had a whopping 1,500 ks stroke. Smokin’ fast 🤠 I taught my self so much. And how I miss the sights and sounds.

[@anthonyshiels9273]

The nearest to a Nobel Peace Prize Winner that I got was the fact that Mr. John Hume is an alumnus of Maynooth University. B. A. (Hons) in French and History 1958 M. A. 1964.

[@yce1234]

Damn! I missed it-- I'm not too far away and I wanted to go, but I didn't put it on my calendar. And I missed my opportunity to meet the Famous CuriousMarc (did you wear your fancy pants?). Well- maybe next time!

[@Tesserae]

240V twist-lock power plugs.

[@dhardingham]

Wow!