voidstar (void*)
A C programming term that means a pointer to anything.
Collection of experiences from an Earth passenger born in the late 1970s.
Adventures
- 2002: Hot Import Nights (Dallas)
- 2006: Italy, Greece, Turkey
- 2008: Hawaii
- 2009: Cozumel / Del Rio
- 2014: Las Vegas (Hoover Dam)
- 2015: Itchnutukee, Lettuce Park
- 2015: Fort Griffin Texas
- 2016: Palo Duro Texas
- Chicago
- FW Stockyards
- 2019: New York
- 2021: Getty (Los Angeles)
- 2021: San Francisco (Yosemite and Oakhurst Sierra HQ)
- 2021: CHM VCF 2021
- 2023: VCF East 2023 (at InfoAge Science and History Center, New Jersey)
- 2023: VCF SW 2023 (near Dallas, TX)
- 2023: VCF MW 2023 (Chicago, IL)
- 2023: Miami
- 2024: VCF SoCal (Orange, CA near LA)
- 2024: VCF MW 2024 (Dallas/Richardson, TX)
- 2025: VCF SoCal (Orange, CA)
Astronomy
- Galaxies
- Nebula
- ASTROBIN Gallery HERE
Vintage Computing
I’m relocating this section to its own page.
SEE HERE
Interesting Systems and Projects
- Agon light (see here)
- Commander X16
- NComputing RS420 (or similar)
- SyncTERM download | SourceForge.net
Software Development
- Another Network (Performance) Tester ANT (github) [C++ w/ boost]
- DestinyHunter (github) [C, for 6502/Z80/x86] (see here)
- voidstar utility collection (github) [1991 MS-DOS EXE’s, ColorDIR]
- SolarSystemCalculator (github) [C and BASIC, exploring floating point]
- UnrealYahtzee [Java, rebuilt .jar in the test folder]
- Blockmania [C++, Tetris-clone with “exotic” pieces]
- CC65 and X16
Miscellaneous
- Drones
- 3D Printing
- Honda del Sol
- Life in the Early 1980s
- Cottage Piano Project (1886)
- About the Author
Thanks for sharing your experiences at VCF East! I’ll be sharing some of your photos even I do my video on VCF East on my channel YouTube.com/@jdmcs…
Look forward to it! Note that David Gesswein (PDP-8 ASCII art) hasn’t yet posted his ASCII arts yet (got a message from him yesterday, he’s at another conference this weekend and wont get to posting until next week). And if mention Wizard and the Princess stuff, be sure to tag/note about Marcus Mera (and we’d be interested to find anyone who still had a working VersaWriter and software for the Apple2, I think that’d really complete his collection!).
Hi there! Just stopping by to say thanks for speaking at VCF SW again for 2023 and 2024! I appreciated your coverage of computer history, and I hope that you (and many others) will continue to chronicle the story of how our industry got to where it currently stands. Thank you!
Thank you, I appreciate taking your time for the feedback, it means a lot! And it helps that there are more regional VCF’s to make these talks possible. This particular talk is now available at the VCF SW site here:
There was a lot more I wanted to cover (including aspects of the MinuteMen equipment getting decommissioned in the early 1970s, and how that availability of hardware also motivated the homebrew movement). At the VCF video description, I’ll request them to add a link to my actual PDF notes, which had another 50 slides of notes – really it was supposed to be 45min, I was pushing it taking the full hour.
It was a joy listening to you and also speaking with you. Thank you for sharing your story! I’m pleased to see that much of what you had shared in-person about your trash-picked Commodore PET — along with you and your daughter’s computer history timeline — is already on this website. These (personal, and incredibly human!) stories are my favorite.
I hope that you continue to share these (and other) stories so that everyone can learn about how we arrived at where we are today. If you intend to return for VCFSW 2025, I would love to hear you talk about the other topics you weren’t able to fit into the presentation for VCFSW 2024.