Panelists: Paul Hagstrom (hosting), Earl Evans, Ken Gagne, Jack Nutting, and Steven Weyhrich

Host's Topic: The Retropocalypse

What might drive computing to go back "off-line"---massive infrastructure or privacy/secturity disaster? What kind of advantages are there to the limited/isolated machines of the olden-days? Is there a difference between obsolete and just retro? Might data/privacy disasters (even if not structural) lead to new uses of older tech?

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Vintage Computer Commercial

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Intro / Closing Song: Back to Oz by John X - link

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Panelists: Jack Nutting (hosting), Earl Evans, and Paul Hagstrom

Host's Topic: eBay and retrocomputing

“Atari 800 - RARE - $1,000 - L@@K!!1!”. Why do such listings exist? They are becoming more and more common. Does anyone ever accidentally buy from these outrageous listings? Memorabilia - especially recent-ish (90s, 2000s). Sometimes the vintage section of eBay is absolutely cram-packed with this stuff. Does anyone buy it? Is there value to having these items listed, or is it just yard sale stuff cluttering up the category? (Super common with Apple stuff.) “Not tested” - why not? Some items may indeed be difficult to test, but in other cases, it would be simply “hook it to the TV”. Do we assume that the alleged “cannot test it...” items are broken? Books - often overpriced on eBay. Should always check to see if the used Internet bookstores (including Amazon) have a lower price. Total junk - 4X internal CD-ROM units. Why? Among all the noise, decrease of actual interesting stuff that isn’t selling for 5x the price it should go for.

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Intro / Closing Song: Back to Oz by John X - link

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This is the annual group "megapodcast" recorded at KansasFest, from July 2017. The event draws quite a few podcasters, so we all sit in a room and talk for an hour.

This year's podcast involves the obligatory discussion of the KansasFest event itself (which is an annual gathering of Apple II enthusiasts, along with some others, for almost a week of "retrocomputing camp"). It is held at Rockhurst University in Kansas City, Missouri, where everyone lives in a dorm room, socializes in common areas, goes to presentations held in the basement, participates in various events, works on projects of their own or observes projects others are doing.

We discuss the event itself, play a version of "Celebrity" with figures from geek culture or computing history, and generally have a grand time.

This was one microphone in the middle of a room, so the audio quality is what you would expect from one microphone in the middle of a room. Also, this same audio appeared on the Open Apple podcast feed, so if you heard it there already, you are excused from listening to it again (unless you want to).

The participants were (clockwise from Quinn):

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Intro / Closing Song: Back to Oz by John X - link

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Panelists: Earl Evans (hosting), Paul Hagstrom, Michael Mulhern, Jack Nutting, and Carrington Vanston

Host's Topic: Getting done

Projects - so easy to start, so difficult to complete! What techniques have you found to cross the finish line? What stands in your way? Should we adopt a more businesslike approach to our hobby endeavors - would that take the fun out of it, or add to the fun when the final result appears?

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Vintage Computer Commercial

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Intro / Closing Song: Back to Oz by John X - link

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Host's Topic: News news news

So much news since the previous episode, the topic is: more news.

Panelists: Paul Hagstrom (hosting), Michael Mulhern, and Earl Evans

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Vintage Computer Commercial

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Intro / Closing Song: Back to Oz by John X - link

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Host's Topic: Random Access Memories

RAM limitations. Early on in home/personal computing, we were faced with very real RAM constraints. Not like today’s RAM measured in GBs and added in freely, only really affecting disk reliance. What do you remember about bumping into RAM limits, planning programs around them, finding failures, expanding, etc.

Panelists: Paul Hagstrom (hosting), Michael Mulhern, Kevin Savetz, and Carrington Vanston

Feedback notes

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Vintage Computer Commercial

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Intro / Closing Song: Back to Oz by John X - link

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Host's Topic: Future nostalgists

We're nostalgic for our formative computing years now, but lots of that old cool stuff got discarded or broken or traded along the way. D'oh! If only we'd been thinking of now then. But the kids of today will be our age at some point. Are we doing any better for their generation? What will they want back? Or, maybe easier: What do we wish our parents or former selves had hung onto?

Panelists: Paul Hagstrom (hosting), Michael Mulhern, and Jack Nutting

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Vintage Computer Commercial

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Intro / Closing Song: Back to Oz by John X - link

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Panelists: Jack Nutting (hosting), Earl Evans, Paul Hagstrom, and Michael Mulhern

Host's Topic: Is this important?

Is this old stuff objectively important, or is it just nostalgia?

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Vintage Computer Commercial

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Intro / Closing Song: Back to Oz by John X - link

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Panelists: Earl Evans (hosting), Paul Hagstrom, Michael Mulhern, and Jack Nutting

Host's Topic: Spring cleaning

Do you remove the accumulated goop? How do you remove the accumulated goop?

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Intro / Closing Song: Back to Oz by John X - link

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Panelists: Michael Mulhern (hosting), Earl Evans, Paul Hagstrom, and Jack Nutting

Host's Topic: Still Going Strong

Adobe Illustrator recently turned 30 years old. AutoCAD is 34, Microsoft Word and Excel are both over 30, and Mathematica is 28. Even the IBM PC emulator DOSBox is itself now almost 15 years old. What new versions of old applications do you still regularly use today?

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Intro / Closing Song: Back to Oz by John X - link

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