After a little bit of to-ing and fro-ing, I'm very chuffed to announce an ABUG South meet up for August 2016!
Phil M and I have recently been in touch with the Centre for Computing History in Cambridge. The great news is that they're very happy to host us from Friday evening of August 26th until Sunday August 28th.
Their website is here: http://www.computinghistory.org.uk/
The intention is the format of this meetup should be much the same as the ABUGs up north.. and so..
Itinerary
This ABUG is to have an Atom focus - not least because we'll be having Kees visiting us from the Netherlands! That said, it is by no means exclusive - whatever projects on whatever Acorn hardware or software you wish to work on - ABUGs are pretty loose affairs
Friday 26th from 4pm
- for those that want to stay over two nights, come down and set your kit up. Around 7-8ish head off to pub or restaurant for a bite to eat.
Saturday 27th from 10am til late
- Set up and work on projects, be it hardware or software and doubtless some games playing here and there
- head off for a meal and drink or two around 6-7 ish and then back to the museum for more Acorn hackery till late
Sunday 28th - 10am til 5pm
..more of the same and then pack up!
What is the cost?
The museum will charge just £8 for entry to the entire event. This would be payable on the day you arrive at the museum. This is a bargain, and so if anyone is inclined to donate a little more, I'm sure it will be welcomed.
What is the address?
Centre for Computing History
Rene Court
Coldhams Road
Cambridge
CB1 3EW
Are there hotels nearby?
Yes but many seem to be quite expensive. That said, cheaper ones about 4-5 miles away from the venue can be found.
Bonus bits
Meantime, of course there will be the chance to go take a look around the museum. As a bonus, Jason F has said that after the museum closes, we'll all be invited to take a look at their storage area. They have tonnes of kit and software that isn't yet on display to the public - including lotsof Acorn kit. This is like an aladdin's cave for retro computing fans - I know cos I was invited to take a look when I went last year
Request for help
This is by no means mandatory, but the museum would be very grateful if any of us could take a look at their Acorn Atoms which aren't working. Additionally, there is a never ending inventory, and so they'd love it if any of us would be happy to catalogue a few items for their website.
Details about the room
..of course, things are a little different than the Halifax meetups. The area that the museum have kindly let us use is actually their "classroom of the 80s" room. Pictures here: http://www.computinghistory.org.uk/pages/40584/Outreach-Visiting-Your-School-Basic-Programming/
They will be happy to move Beebs from the tables so that we can place our own kit on the tables and work on projects. NOTE, this area will be open to the public during the day 9-5. It is actually a walkthrough area in to the main part of the museum. If people are interested in what we're up to, I'm sure we'd be happy to show them our myriad projects and retro kit. I've raised the matter of perhaps needing to keep soldering irons out of the way. Soldering irons,scopes etc will be fine to bring along - the museum has frequently hosted events similar to this before. I've not got details on how we should set that up given public access, but I expect something sensible like setting up soldering "stations" with scopes etc at the back of the room well away from the main walkway to the main room.
Whew! More words than I meant to write, but I guess there was a fair bit to say. I'll put a Confirmed and Tentative list below as usual. I'll post a couple of links to hotels too.
Confirmed [People bringing kit] - 22 max FULL! <*though we have 1 /possibly 2 spaces Sunday only>
1. jbnbeeb (Jason). Arriving Friday afternoon, leaving Sunday afternoon, YES FOR RESTAURANT
2. lazarusr (Robert). Arriving Friday afternoon, leaving Sunday afternoon, YES FOR RESTAURANT
3. daveejhitchens (Dave). Arriving Friday afternoon, leaving Sunday afternoon, YES FOR RESTAURANT (+other half)
4. oss003 (Kees). Arriving Friday afternoon, leaving Sunday afternoon, YES FOR RESTAURANT
5. flaxcottage (Jon). Attending on Saturday
6. BigEd. (Ed). Arriving Friday afternoon, leaving Sunday afternoon, YES FOR RESTAURANT
7. Prime (Phill). Arriving Friday afternoon, leaving Sunday afternoon, YES FOR RESTAURANT (+other half)
8. Multiwizard (Wim). Arriving Friday afternoon, leaving Sunday afternoon, YES FOR RESTAURANT
9. sydney (Simon). Arriving Friday afternoon(?), leaving Sunday afternoon, YES FOR RESTAURANT
10. kieranhj (Kieran). Saturday. Possibly Sunday.YES FOR RESTAURANT
11. sPhilMainwaring (Phil). Arriving Friday afternoon, leaving Sunday afternoon, YES FOR RESTAURANT
12. sixxdog_uk (Alex). Arriving Friday afternoon, leaving Sunday afternoon, YES FOR RESTAURANT
13. hoglet (Dave). Arriving Friday afternoon, leaving Sunday afternoon, YES FOR RESTAURANT
14. flynnjs (Jason). Arriving Friday afternoon, leaving Sunday afternoon, YES FOR RESTAURANT
15. flibble (Peter). Arriving Friday afternoon, leaving Sunday afternoon, YES FOR RESTAURANT
16. tricky (Richard). Arriving Saturday leaving Sunday afternoon, YES FOR RESTAURANT
17. IanS (Ian). Arriving Friday afternoon, leaving Sunday afternoon, YES FOR RESTAURANT
18. mattyj (Matthew). Arriving Friday afternoon, leaving Sunday afternoon, YES FOR RESTAURANT
19. JimRussell (Jim). Arriving Friday afternoon, leaving Sunday afternoon, , YES FOR RESTAURANT
20. Arcadian (Dave). Arriving Friday afternoon, leaving Sunday afternoon, YES FOR RESTAURANT
21. Bagpuss (Andy). Arriving Friday afternoon, leaving Sunday afternoon. (kit/no kit to be confirmed)
22. jgharston (Jonathan). Arriving Friday afternoon, leaving Sunday afternoon
Confirmed [People NOT bringing kit] - 5 max FULL!
1. SarahWalker (Sarah).Arriving Saturday, leaving Sunday afternoon, YES FOR RESTAURANT
2. helpful (Bryan). Arriving Friday afternoon, leaving Sunday afternoon, YES FOR RESTAURANT
3. oswrch (Mark). Arriving Sunday
4. nudelooney (Kris). Arriving/leaving Saturday
5. paul1ie (?). Arriving/leaving Saturday
6. sirmorris (Charlie). Full weekend, YES FOR RESTAURANT
.. squeezed in a 6th as two people are Saturday only and one is Sunday only
List of requests for the CCfCH
- Request to search the attic for "Missing in Action (MIA)" software titles for Acorn machines - and to archive and catalogue these items. Archiving meaning taking a dump of files on tape or disk for storing on the bbcmicro.co.uk website as well as cataloguing for the Centre.
- A request to take a number of software titles offsite (borrow) for archiving and return them by post by an acceptable time thereafter.
- A request to take a dump of a ROM in one of the Centre BBC Micros (an MIA version of Opus DOS)
- Several people have offered to catalogue items for the Centre
Cheers everyone
Jason
