---
title: "From the Chairman’s Disk"
type: "article"
slug: "from-the-chairmans-disk-17"
url: "http://localhost/article/from-the-chairmans-disk-17/"
markdown_url: "http://localhost/article/from-the-chairmans-disk-17.md"
published_at: "2020-10-27T17:15:55+00:00"
modified_at: "2026-10-22T23:43:52+00:00"
featured_image:
  url: "http://localhost/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/20230809-041332.jpg"
excerpt: "Dayton ComputerFest 1996 is now history. As far as the TS'ers go there were fewer of us there than last year. This time I did not have a huge want list to take with me. I did leave home with a warning \"DON'T BRING ANYTHING BACK!\" Well I did bring a few things back but…"
indiv:
  - name: "Donald Lambert"
    slug: "donald-lambert"
    taxonomy: "indiv"
    url: "http://localhost/indiv/donald-lambert/"
publication: "ZXir QLive Alive"
publication_r:
  id: 10286
  title: "ZXir QLive Alive!"
  type: "periodical"
  url: "http://localhost/periodical/zxir-qlive-alive/"
authors: "Donald Lambert"
volume: "6"
issue: "3"
issues_articles:
  - id: 26823
    title: "ZXir QLive Alive! v6 n3"
    type: "issue"
    url: "http://localhost/issue/zxir-qlive-alive-v6-n3/"
pages: "9"
pubdate: "Autumn 1996"
archive_link: false
volumeissue: "v6n3"
---

# From the Chairman’s Disk

Dayton ComputerFest 1996 is now history. As far as the TS’ers go there were fewer of us there than last year. This time I did not have a huge want list to take with me. I did leave home with a warning “DON’T BRING ANYTHING BACK!” Well I did bring a few things back but they were very small and did not raise the ire of my wife. I brought back a book, 100 used 3.5 disks and an IBM power supply. My wife only saw the book.

This is the first time that setting up was easier to do since we were closer to the door. Always before we had to go in through the first room to the room we had tables in. I met Paul Holmgren and Frank and Carol Davis at Red Roof and then we went over to Hara Arena to set up before we went out for dinner. And since I helped them, I had an Exhibitor Pass that allowed me to enter before the doors were open.

The weather was milder but it still got hot and sticky inside. But not as bad as last year. This is the first year that they had two ComputerFest in one year and I think that the attendance was less this year than it was last year at this time. But I did notice that very few walked around with empty hands. Seems I saw more wheelchairs and strollers this year. And they paged a name and said “You are wanted at home right now!” That does make one wonder why?

I learned of still more software for the T/S 2068. One is for the Oliger disk interface, it to loads IBM snapshots into the T/S 2068 and the other is a way to LOAD the Oliger, LarKen disks, into the AERCO disk system. There is a lot of stuff out there if someone learns that it is there. Now if there were a program to allow one to LOAD any of the three 2068 DOS into the IBM PC using the 2068 Emulator, then that conversion would be so much easier.

***

I am entertaining offers to buy out all of my TS inventory. If you are interested, please get in touch. I’m also looking to sell all of the new/used IBM clone hardware/software that I have in stock.

Thank you for your continued support.

Rod Gowen

***

Rod Gowen of RMG ENTERPRISES may go out of business since his wife passed away in July. She has been in poor health for years so it was not completely unexpected but not expected at this time. Since Rod has a vision problem that slowly gets worse and worse and he reads by using a closed circuit TV that magnifies the images, that makes it hard to do business without help. He will do whatever he can do but, he no longer has his wife to help him in his business as in the past.

Tim Swenson is leaving the Ohio area and is now interviewing for a place to go to. He was not satisfied with the future at the Air Force. He will still be with the same computers but in a new location.

Paul Holmgren and family are still not into their house since the fire, right after Christmas 1995. Maybe, hopefully by November they will be back into their house. Cause of fire was not fully determined except that it points to a two year old furnace.

Frank Davis reported that there are as many people that he has learned of through the Internet than he knew of before who are TS’ers. Almost everyday he gets orders from someone that he has not heard of before by way of the Internet. And at $20 a month, that is the cheapest rate for advertising he has paid for the business it had generated.

I have started to learn and relearn electronics to better understand these computers that we use. I will never be able to fully understand how they work but will know more. With the HeathKit ET3200 and the ET3600 training modules, I am able to do experiment easily in either digital or analog circuits. I had picked up those two units at HamFest for about a thirtieth of the original price but with no documentation, but I have recently gotten that. As soon as I get some household projects completed, I will get back to learning more about electronics. At the Dayton ComputeFest I did pick up a Heathkit book on “Semiconductor Devices” which is a book heavy on theory and very little hands-on experience. But it will explain what the other text material that is very much hands-on material does not explain fully.

With the summer getting close to the end, I will be getting back to typing the tutorials again and also to getting all of my T/S 2068 software (cassette based) onto disk. And I will be experimenting with transferring programs directly from computer to computer. I will have plenty to do if I get the chance to do it without a new household project getting put on a priority basis. 0/0