Link: Gallery: Ancient Marvels Abound at Vintage Computer Festival .
(((I dunno which is more touching, these ancient reel-to-reels or the white-haired geeks who still remember how to twiddle their knobs.)))
Equal parts flea market, film festival, conference and workshop, the 10th iteration of the Vintage Computer Festival attracted the usual mix of die-hard computer enthusiasts, collectors and Silicon Valley luminaries to Mountain View, California, over the weekend.
Topics at the Vintage Computer Festival ranged from a discussion of the RAMAC – the first spinning disk drive – to a brief history of "phone phreaking" to the role of the TRS-80 in the PC revolution. But amid all the blinking lights, buttons and knobs, the main attraction came Sunday in the form of a working LINC, or Laboratory Instrument Computer. Developed in 1962 and considered one of the first personal computers (meaning it was small enough to actually fit in your home), the LINC was on hand with its designers at the Computer History Museum to give attendees an overview of its birth as well as a little demonstration....
