added a blog entry for the Vintage Computer Festival 2019 in Zurich

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+title = "Retro Computing - Vintage Computer Festival Zürich 2019"
+categories = [ "Retro Computing", "Vintage Computer Festival" ]
+date = "2019-12-08T09:37:22+02:00"
+thumbnail = "/images/blog/retro-computing-vintage-computer-festival-zurich-2019/retro-computing-vintage-computer-festival-zurich-2019.jpg"
++++
+
+## Intro
+
+My first visit to an exhibition of old computers. It was held on 
+November 30th and December 1st in Zürich in the "Rote Fabrik".
+Given my collection of not-so-old computers I wanted to see a collection
+of real old computers.
+
+## PDP-11
+
+The first thing which catched my attention was a PDP-11 emulator with
+frontend also simulating a Tektronix 4010 graphical terminal. It's
+running on a Raspberry-PI fully emulating a PDP-11 running BSD 2.11.
+I was aware of old Unix V6 or V7 versions running on emulators, but
+a BSD 2.11 with a TCP/IP-stack is so much nicer.
+
+The following is a real desktop PDP-11 with some emulators for things
+like tapes and external devices:
+
+{{< figure src="/images/blog/retro-computing-vintage-computer-festival-zurich-2019/retro-computing-vintage-computer-festival-zurich-2019-PDP-11.jpg" alt="PDP-11" >}}
+
+## Apple ][
+
+I brought some old floppies and was astonished they were booting the
+oldest Apple machines without any problems. Even the chess program
+worked (one of my earliest encounters with a computer was playing
+chess in the computer room back at my high school on an Apple \]\[).
+
+{{< figure src="/images/blog/retro-computing-vintage-computer-festival-zurich-2019/retro-computing-vintage-computer-festival-zurich-2019-Apple-2.jpg" alt="Apple \]\[" >}}
+
+I was also able to run a "games disk" with a menu system I once typed
+in from a book during my holidays back in school (yes, floppies where
+too expensive back then and you learned BASIC as a bonus while typing).
+
+Obviously too excited this still worked I didn't take any photos of it,
+so here is a placeholer, the original book with the program listings:
+
+{{< figure src="/images/blog/retro-computing-vintage-computer-festival-zurich-2019/retro-computing-vintage-computer-festival-zurich-2019-apple-games-book.jpg" alt="Apple Game Book" >}}
+
+## old PCS
+
+While everybody else at the exhibitation was showing off their machines,
+the IBM-PC guys were trying to make sure that monitors didn't explode
+(one did) and building up a network, so they were constantly busy
+doing something on those machines. I was able to run a Flight Simulator 4
+from Microsoft on an EGA-based machine, really nice:
+
+{{< figure src="/images/blog/retro-computing-vintage-computer-festival-zurich-2019/retro-computing-vintage-computer-festival-zurich-2019-FS4.jpg" alt="Fligh Simulator 4" >}}
+
+## SoftVGA
+
+Really interesting speech on how to implement a VGA "card" on an Atmel-based
+board. This catched my interest because I'm all in for minimalistic
+hardware and software on an FPGA.
+
+## Fluxengine
+
+This was more out of personal interest, as I still own 100nds of Apple \]\[,
+CP/M and PC-disks reaching back into the mid-80ies. My machines (an IMC-2001
+Taiwanese Apple/CPM-clone and the Olivetti M290 are not working anymore and
+I can hardly find a floppy connector on the already old machines I own.
+
+Fluxenine reads floppy images via a 5V FPGA on a stick, one side is an
+old floppy connector, the oder side a normal USB connection.
+
+I brought some old floppies I could donate (in form of an image) for
+future analysis.
+
+## What else
+
+SGI, a Next, IBM/360 on an FPGA, Amiga, Commodore, tons of Apple/Macintosh,
+ZX Spectrum, ...
+
+## What not
+
+I personally missed some CP/M-based machines. Closest (from the outer appearance)
+came the following IBM portable:
+
+{{< figure src="/images/blog/retro-computing-vintage-computer-festival-zurich-2019/retro-computing-vintage-computer-festival-zurich-2019-IBM-5155.jpg" alt="IBM 5155 Portable" >}}
+
+Also I missed some Atari (like the ST TT series) machines (or maybe 
+I just didn't see them).
+
+## Important Lessons Learned
+
+Talk to everybody! Every single one is an enthusiast and has an interesting
+history. If you just walk through the hall and stare at the machines, most
+things will not be impressive at all. Also the talks I can recommend.
+
+### Links
+
+* general links
+  * [Vintage Computer Festival Zurich](http://vcfe.ch/doku.php): official Webpage with exhibitors and schedule of speeches held
+  * [Event Information "Rote Fabrik"](https://rotefabrik.ch/#/events/5084?utm_medium=display&utm_source=kulturzueri.ch&utm_campaign=kulturzueri#/events/5084):
+    event information
+  * [Wikipedia entry on vintage Computer Festival](https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vintage_Computer_Festival): history and purpose of the event
+* PDF-11/Tektronik:
+  * [Tex4010](https://github.com/rricharz/Tek4010)
+  * [BSD 2.11](https://github.com/RetroBSD/2.11BSD)
+* [http://neil.franklin.ch/Projects/SoftVGA/](SoftVGA)
+* [http://cowlark.com/fluxengine](Fluxengine): the FPGA-based USB-floppy reader
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