Next weekend, the InfoAge Science Center of Wall Township, New Jersey, will host the fifth annual Vintage Computer Festival East. Admission for either day (Saturday, September 13th, and Sunday the 14th) is $10, or $15 for both.

VCF is an opportunity to participate in a variety of workshops, sit in on various educational sessions, enter your classic computer into an exhibition contest, and trade and swap at the vintage marketplace. Among this year’s schedule is a replica-building workshop sponsored by Briel Computers. You can build a replica of the historic Apple-1 or KIM-1 single-board computers.

VCF East 5.0 is sponsored by MARCH and VintageTech.

Bill Martens wrote in to announce the Summer 2008 issue of Call-A.P.P.L.E. Magazine dedicated to Val Golding has been released. The magazine is available as a free download from the A.P.P.L.E. web site at http://www.callapple.org

Denis Molony has put out a new version of Disk Browser, a Java app that reads and graphically displays the file and structural contents of 5.25 disk images. Denis is looking for testers to help him find any unusual disk structures out there (and there are many) so he can improve DB’s capabilities.

While you’re there, check out Molony’s Wizardry Scenario Browser. It’s pretty nice too.

Ryan Suenaga presents A2Unplugged, show #0029. This episode is entitled “Sweet 16 2.0 Public Beta”. Ryan discusses the recent beta of Sweet 16, the Apple IIGS emulator for Mac OS X.

A2Unplugged can be freely downloaded from the podcast’s web site, or subscribed to from the Apple iTunes store.

I’m heading out to visit James Littlejohn next Saturday (09/06). He lives south of me in Chelsea, Oklahoma; approximately 175 miles away, or around two and half hours drive time. I’m delivering some Apple II and robotic gear to him plus we’re going to do a little hardware hacking. It should be a lot of fun and I’m really looking forward to it.

James is going to help me overclock a couple of my IIc Plus motherboards. He’s confident we can achieve 10MHz but I’ll be happy if they make it to 8MHz. He may also give me a sneak-peek at the internal battery pack and LCD panel he’s working with to make his IIc Plus TRULY portable.

I’m hoping Glenn Jones can pull off the //cmxp project, and then we can combine it with all the nifty upgrades Littlejohn is working on. Just imagine what an awesome Apple IIc Plus that would make. A fast 10MHz CPU, 1MB RAM, ProDOS clock, compact flash storage, color LCD, battery (maybe even a network adapter)… it would be 8-bit Apple II nerdvana.

We’re also installing the new Little Expander Plus (LEP) into my workhorse Apple //e. I’m planning to evaluate it and post a review on A2Central. Of course, I’ll take pictures of the whole process.

The LEP is something I’ve personally been looking forward to for a long time. One of the reasons why I love the Apple II so much is due in no small part to it’s legendary expansion slots. Occasionally, that love turns to frustration because I have several cards I like to use frequently, but never enough slots to install them in at the same time.

Anyone else in this predicament probably does one of the following; swap-out cards as needed (causing wear and tear on slots and card connectors) or keep specialized machines (which take up a lot of space) that are optimized for certain functions. I do the latter — I have separate machines that have peripheral cards installed for gaming, music, productivity and utility work.

Take slot 4 for example. In some of my Apple II machines, that slot is either allocated to a 1MB “slinky” RAM card, a mouse card, Mockingboard or a WildCard II. It’s seldom that I need to use more than one of those cards at the same time, so the logical answer is some kind of switch that I can use to select the appropriate card just prior to bootup. I figure I’ll be able to downsize and put two or three machines into storage, saving room in my office.

I’m pleased to say I had a small (very small) part in making the LEP a reality; I came up with the idea of integrating the LittlePower ATX adapter into a clone of the SCRG Switch-a-Slot for an all internal four slot expansion device. Littlejohn did all the hard work (design and testing), and was nice enough to have my name silk-screened on the LEP. Finally, my name immortalized somewhere… but in a good way. ;)

When I get back, I’ll post pictures and an update about the trip.