LSSM

Hi folks! It's been awhile; we've all been focused on surviving the COVID19 situation. We're fine here, and are cautiously forming plans for reopening. ANNOUNCEMENT: Our museum is now a 501(c)(3) registered federal nonprofit organization! Reaching this point was a lot more painful than it should've been, but we made it. We can now issue receipts for cash donations for use at tax time. Big thanks to Autumn Walker and Penn State Law for pushing that process and making it h...appen. And of course a post isn't complete without a great vintage computer photo...Pictured here is a new arrival, IBM model 129 keypunch station! We'll be getting it cleaned up soon. Thanks to Bob Hoffman and Matt Patoray for making that happen. Thanks, -Dave McGuire President/Curator, LSSM/MACT

Hi folks! Just a quick update from here. We are all ok, and the museum is secure, but we had a tornado blow through here (actually two in one night!) earlier this week. It caused some damage to some of our facilities, but repairs are underway. The photos in this post show some hideous yellow aluminum latticework (it was all the rage in the 1960s) on the front of the LSSM building's second floor, wrapping around the side. That stuff has needed to come down since we bought... the building, and we've had neither the budget nor the manpower to make that happen. But the tornado had other plans, and it broke several of the supports that anchor this crap to the building. Luckily, Steve and Jonathan Taylor, both engineers who are also those "masters of the physical universe" type of people, came to the rescue. Late this afternoon, the most precarious of the panels came down in a controlled manner, which certainly beats one of them beaning an unsuspecting passer-by on the head. Steve and Jon will be back next weekend to remove the rest of it. After some pressure-washing, which may be able to happen this summer (anyone up for helping with that?) I think the building underneath all of that yellow latticework will be quite pretty. So, big thanks to Steve and Jon! And while we're on the topic of thanks, our request for funding several weeks ago met with great success. Though we did have to spend a few of those dollars on tornado cleanup, we have enough cash on hand to keep our bills paid for the next couple of months. A big THANK YOU to all who contributed. This will be an ongoing issue, of course, so if you're inclined to help us out with funding again, or were unable to earlier but may be in a position to now, your further help in that department would be greatly appreciated. We cannot keep this going without your support. For some news coverage of the tornadoes, and some really scary photos of the aftermath, see: https://triblive.com//airport-hangars-destroyed-church-ro/ Thanks, -Dave McGuire President/Curator, LSSM/MACT

Hi folks! I'm getting ready to do a little work on our DEC PDP-11/44. As I just mentioned on our Instagram feed, while our museum is closed due to the COVID19 situation, I (Dave McGuire, president) live right down the street from the museum, and I will be coming over here several times a week to do restoration work and keep things maintained during our lockdown. I will try to post periodically to give you folks some nice pics to see, hopefully that will help alleviate the is...olation and boredom. The response to my request for funding help has been fantastic, thank you all very much for helping out. We are still in need of additional help in that area, so please help us if you can. It is the hope of the LSSM/MACT crew that we will be here and operational after this mess is over, to help things get back to normal. Stay safe everyone. -Dave McGuire President/Curator, LSSM/MACT

Dear friends of LSSM/MACT, Due to the ongoing COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic, we are suspending in-person visits to the museum, effective immediately, until May 31st. While our museum is free for visitors, much of our operating funds come from donations from in-person visitors, and the loss of that revenue stream puts us at significant risk. Even while shut down, we must pay our normal monthly expenses, such as utility bills, to maintain our security systems and minimal cli...mate control, for the safety of our exhibits. In the past, our donors have helped us drive to far-flung places to pick up vintage hardware, restore systems, and keep things going here. Now, we must ask for your help to cover these expenses. Up until now, I (Dave McGuire, founder) have personally absorbed any financial shortfall, but my work as a consulting engineer in embedded systems (under McGuire Scientific Services, LLC, http://www.mcguirescientificservices.com) has come to a sudden halt as my clients scale back operations. Honestly I don't know how I'm going to keep the power on at home, much less at the museum. Some of you may be in a better situation than me, and I'm asking you personally to help LSSM/MACT survive. The COVID-19 pandemic will deeply affect our society, but it is my hope that we can come out of it in one piece. Building and running our museum has taken years of hard work by our team, and we're looking forward to reopening to the public once this pandemic has run its course. We plan to do our part to help society return to some semblance of normalcy after this crisis has passed, but we can't do it without your help. You may donate via PayPal or check. Our PayPal address is [email protected]. Checks may be made out to Museum of Applied Computer Technology, and mailed to 924 4th Avenue, New Kensington, PA 15068. Thank you for your support, and for being a friend of LSSM/MACT. Thank you, Dave McGuire President/Curator, LSSM/MACT

Another successful work day this Saturday. A short summary of what happened. Reconfigured the PDP-11/70 to not use the extended instruction or math instruction options while doing troubleshooting. Take a Fujitsu Eagle drive out of storage, test it, repair its blower and service the air filter and install it in the PDP-11/70. Take the PDP-14/35 industrial controller from storage to the work area to start restoration.... Remove old air filters from PDP-11/70 and it’s racks, replace the filter material in the filter frames. See more