Category: Uncategorized

Archades:

Dave & Buster’s in Lombard

Enterrium in Schaumburg

Galloping Ghost Arcade in Brookfield

Underground Retrocade in West Dundee

Things to do:

Mastermind Escape Games Escape Rooms Schaumburg, IL

Disco, Night Club, Chicago, IL

American Science and Surplus, Geneva/West Chicago, IL

American Science and Surplus, Park Ridge, IL

Chester Electronic Supply Co., Kenosha, WI

Micro Center Computers & Electronics, Westmont, IL

Hobby Lobby, Bloomingdale, IL

Alien Entertainment Store, Lombard, IL

Adler Planetarium, Chicago, IL

Brookfield Zoo, Brookfield, IL

Chinatown, Chicago, IL

Chicago Segway Tour, Chicago, IL

Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, IL

Illinois Railway Museum, Union, IL

DuSable Black History Museum and Education Center, Chicago, IL

North Riverside Park Mall, Riverside, IL

Yorktown Shopping Center, Lombard, IL

Leaning Tower YMCA, Niles, IL

     (half-size replica of the Tower of Pisa)

Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago, IL

Medieval Times Dinner & Tournament, Schaumburg, IL

Museum of Broadcast Communications, Chicago, IL

The Oriental Institute, Chicago, IL

     (museum about ancient Middle Eastern cultures)

Six Flags Great America, Gurnee, IL

Shedd Aquarium, Chicago, IL

Twin Lakes Golf Course & Recreation Area, Palatine, IL

     (Golf and paddleboats)

Frank Lloyd Wright Tours, Oak Park, IL

Woodfield Mall, Schaumburg, IL

Geneva 3rd Street and State Street, Geneva, IL

     (Antiquing and shopping)

Long Grove, Long Grove, IL

     (Antiquing and shopping)

The House on the Rock, Spring Green, Wisconsin

Galena, IL

     (Antiquing and shopping)

Ulysses S. Grant Home, Galena, IL

Chicago Theater, Broadway Shows, Chicago, IL

Busse Forest Elk Pasture, Elk Grove Village, IL

The Sculpture Park, Schaumburg, IL

LEGOLAND Discovery Center, Schaumburg, IL

K1Speed Indoor Go Karts, Buffalo Grove, IL

Cosley Zoo, Wheaton, IL

Forest Preserve/Nature Preserve, Cook County, IL

Wendella Tours and Cruises, Chicago, IL

     (Chicago River Tours)

Chicago River Tour

Casino/Gambling

Historic Route 66 Begin Sign, Chicago, IL

Mass Transit Chicago:

Chicago Trolley and Double Decker Co, Chicago IL

Big Bus Tours Chicago, Chicago IL

Gangster Tour Chicago

Chicago Tour

Chicago Transit Authority – CTA Buses and Train Service

Metra train

South Shore Line train

Airports:

O’Hare International Airport (ORD)

Chicago Executive Airport-PWK

Schaumburg Regional Airport

Chicago Midway International Airport (MDW)

Religion:

Billy Graham Museum, Wheaton, IL

Moody Bible Institute, Chicago, IL

Bahai House of Worship, Wilmette, IL

     (I hear it is very beautiful to look at)

Ark Encounter, Willamstown, KY

Creation Museum, Petersburg, KY

Spertus Institute for Jewish Learning and Leadership, Chicago, IL

The Oriental Institute, Chicago, IL

     (A museum about ancient Middle Eastern cultures)

Holocaust Museum, Skokie, IL

Sporting Events:

Chicago Sky

Chicago Cubs

Chicago Bulls

Chicago Blackhawks

Chicago Fire

Chicago White Sox

Chicago Bears

Chicago Curling Club

Chicago Park District Badminton

Chicago Boxing Events

Windy City Rollers (Roller Derby)

Roller Rink

Ice Skating

Golf

Frisbee Golf

Miniature Golf

Bowling

Shuffleboard

Carol Stream Park District Adult Pickleball

Climbing

Paddle Boat

Chicago Landmarks:

875 North Michigan Ave. (formerly known as the John Hancock Building)

Willis Tower (formerly known as the Sears Tower)

Cloudgate sculpture, Millennium Park, Chicago (known as “the Bean”)

Buckingham Fountain, Grant Park, Chicago

Chicago lakefront, Jean Baptiste Point DuSable Lake Shore Drive

Navy Pier, Chicago, IL

     (Amusement rides, boat rides, IMAX Theater, restaurants and ship cruises)

Gardens

Chicago Botanic Garden, Glencoe, IL

Lincoln Park Conservatory, Chicago, IL

Fabyan Villa Museum & Japanese Garden, Geneva, IL

Lilacia Park, Lombard, IL

Morton Arboretum, Lisle, IL

Notes:

American Science and Surplus

Salvador Garcia says: Yes, you can go to the Website and browse, but it does not prepare you for when you go in person. There is a huge number of stuff, everything from a periscope (Geneva store), beakers, test tube and more for your chem lab, motors, gearmotors, LEDs, electronic components, foam human hearts, stuffed plushy brain neurons, real frogs for dissection, bearings, magnets, DaVinci machines kits… well, the list just goes on and on.

Alien Entertainment Store

Salvador Garcia says:  And if there are any sci fi fans (Dr. Who, Star Wars, Star Trek) then Alien Entertainment in Lombard has enough stuff to keep you busy for about two hours.

If you are coming to the CoCoFEST! from out of town on an extended stay, you may be interested in other things to see while you are here. The ladies may enjoy a trip to the mall or antiquing and shopping in Long Grove, IL or Geneva, IL.

Chicago Chinatown

North Riverside Park Mall

Salvador Garcia says:  And if there are any die-hard fans of the movie Contagion, I can point you to the mall where the mall scenes were filmed 🙂

Navy Pier

(Amusement rides, boat rides, IMAX Theater, restaurants and ship cruises)

Frank Lloyd Wright Tours

Salvador Garcia says:  If anyone is into architecture, Oak Park was home to the internationally renowned architect Frank Lloyd Wright.

How to prepare for the CoCoFEST!

• Q) How do I reserve some booth space?
  • Go to https://www.tandylist.com/ and login and click the 2023 CoCoFEST! icon at the top of the page.
• How do I reserve time to give a presentation?
  • Contact Grant Leighty. He can be reached at: https://www.glensideccc.com/about-us/

About Us

Q) What should I bring?

A1) Musical instruments.

A2) We hold two auctions, so bring stuff you want to keep out of landfills to go into the auctions, and bring some spending money to spend on auction items to add to your collection that you didn’t have a chance to purchase when you were younger.  The money from the auctions goes to help pay for the CoCoFEST!  Buy books, manuals, software, cables, joysticks, disk drives, computers, fanfold paper, and such.  If you bring an item and it does not sell, then consider taking it back home with you.  Printers generally do not sell and no one wants to be stuck with them.

A3) People are selling hardware and software (outside of the auction) so bring some spending money for that.

A4) Charge the battery in your camera and bring it.

A5) Bring hardware you want repaired or upgraded.

A6) If you have a booth, then bring extension cords, power strips, and tape to hold them down.

A7) Bring your ideas.

A8) Chicago has toll roads but you can no longer bring some change to drop in the tollbooth change accepter basket. Instead you can pay by plate by signing up at https://www.getipass.com/ Or use your GPS and avoid toll roads altogether.

A9) An ice scraper for your car, just in case.

Q) Is Wi-Fi available to all at the CoCoFEST?

A) Yes!

Q) What kind of computer should I bring to show at the CoCoFEST?

A1) CoCos, Tandy, TRS-80, Radio Shack, and clones.

A2) Anything that runs a Motorola 6809, Hitachi 6309, Motorola 68k, Zilog Z80, Intel 8080, Intel 8008, Intel 4004

A3) Southwest Technical Products Corp. (SWTPC)

A4) Tomcat, MM/1, AT306, Delmar System IV/ Peripheral Technology PT68K-4

A5) FPGA, Microprocessor, Arduino, Raspberry Pi and such.

A6) Calculator, adding machine, slide rule, and abacus.

A7) Analog computer

A8) Mechanical computers

Q) Would people want to see NitrOS-9/6809 driving a teletype machine, teleprinter, paper terminal or silent 700?

A) Yes!

Q) Would people like to see a plain old telephone bulletin board system in operation using 300 baud?

A) Yes!

Q) Can I arrange for my booth to be next to someone else?

A) If you sign up early enough then you can select the tables you want. This is done on TandyList.

Q) What is the attendance like?

A) 50 to 100 people are likely to attend and 95% of them are male.

Q) Will there be an opportunity for non-vendors to swap/trade/sell hardware?

A) The entire event consists of trading, swapping, buying and selling software, hardware, other stuff, stories, anecdotes and knowledge. I think you would be hard pressed to not find time to do this.

Q) How do I get from the airport to the hotel?

A1) You can take a rental car, taxi, Uber, or limo.

A2) If by taxi, I would recommend American Taxi (AT).

Q) What should I wear?

A1) A Hawaiian shirt and blue jeans would be fine.

A2) A CoCoFEST shirt and wash pants are also fine.

Q) How do I know I am getting a good room rate at the hotel?

A) Check out the link below:

The 31st Annual “Last” Chicago CoCoFEST!

Q) When should I arrive?

A) Get there before dark on Friday.  Sunset is 7:40 PM.

Q) When can I set up my booth/table?

A) It may be possible for a few people to set up on Friday evening between 5:00-11:59 PM.  Otherwise you can set up on Saturday morning between 8:00-9:00 AM.

Q) What are my options for gluten free food?

A1) Jimmy John’s sells a lettuce wrap.

A2) Lou Malnati’s Pizzeria, Schaumburg, IL

A3) Pizzeria Uno, Schiller Park, IL

Q) How do you know how many people are coming to the catered dinner?

A) You can signup for the dinner on TandyList.

Q) Is the CoCoFEST! in a high crime area?

A) No!  Absolutely not!

Q) Is this a busy area?

A) Busy is a relative term.  Downtown Chicago is very busy.  Carol Stream is half or a third as busy.  And parking is free.

Q) What if I have more questions?

A) Go to the About Us portion of our website.

All,

The Glenside Color Computer Club, Inc. picnic is October 22nd, 2022. It is from 1:00 PM to late. It is at Woodfield mall in Schaumburg, IL. It will start in the food court and then move to the Enterrium. The Enterrium is a restaurant, bar, arcade, and bowling alley.

If you park in the 3 story east parking lot (next to Macy’s) then you can go in the mail entrance or you can go in the Enterrium entrance. If you go in the mall entrance then you can ride the escalator to the 2nd floor and find the food court. There is also an elevator to the 2nd floor. If you take the Enterrium entrance then you can take the stairs to the second floor or you can take the elevator to the 2nd floor. Then walk out the back door and you will be in the food court. If you plan to stay past 7:30 PM then you should use the Enterrium entrance because the mall closes at 8:00 PM. Enterium is open from 12:00 PM to 12:00 AM.

It can be hard too at times to find a seat in the Enterrium restaurant, but if we use the food court restaurants then we should be ok. You will need to buy your own food, there are several restaurants to choose from. The Enterrium will sell you a plastic card for about $20.00. You can play video games and pinball games until the money runs out. The games cost between $1.00 and $3.00 each. Bowling:  $100/Hour per Lane with Shoe Rental Included.

The video games include games such as PAC-MAN, Qix, Dig Dug, One of the PAC-MAN games lets you start out at level 255. There is also a version of PAC-MAN this will let 4 people pay at the same time, competing against one another.

Woodfield Mall is handicap accessible. I am not sure if the video games are considered handicap accessible.

I would like for people to let me know if they are coming and how many people they are bringing with them.

Enterrium: https://www.enterrium.info/

Woodfield Mall Dining: https://www.simon.com/mall/woodfield-mall/dining

The food court is on the second floor next to the escalator and elevator above the train ride:

This is a map of the food court:

https://www.simon.com/mall/woodfield-mall/map/#/location/enterrium

If we sit in the back of the food court, close to Enterrium then we can all sit together.

Directions:

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Enterrium/@42.0453884,-88.0363073,17z

You can contact me using this link. Look for Vice-President.

https://www.tandylist.com/contact.aspx?id=8562636e-1120-458e-b74e-bc2467e67d5b

We can communicate at the event using the Telegram app on our smartphones. I have started a group called “Glenside Color Computer Club, Inc. CoCoFest! and picnic communications. I have set a public invite link: t.me/glensidecccevents

-John Mark Mobley

Glenside Color Computer Club, Inc. Vice-President

While the club has utilized the BlueJeans video conferencing solution for a few years to hold virtual portions of our club meetings, we now have access to less expensive options (via discounts for non-profit organizations) including Zoom. Thus, starting for our April 2022 business meeting, we’ll be sending out a new video conferencing link directing folks to Zoom.

For those who would like to validate you have things configured correctly, we’ll be hosting a “test” meeting this Thursday at our normal 7:30 start time. Feel free to join for a bit and say Hi and test your system.

Jim Brain (GCCC ’22 President) is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Topic: GCCC Zoom Video Test
Time: Apr 14, 2022 07:30 PM Central Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting
https://zoom.us/j/99249032946?pwd=SG5RUUMvalE4aFZwSG1BTDY5R2xQUT09

Meeting ID: 992 4903 2946
Passcode: glenside
One tap mobile
+13017158592,,99249032946#,,,,82591145# US (Washington DC) +13126266799,,99249032946#,,,,82591145# US (Chicago)

Dial by your location
+1 301 715 8592 US (Washington DC)
+1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago)
+1 646 558 8656 US (New York)
+1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma)
+1 346 248 7799 US (Houston)
+1 669 900 9128 US (San Jose)
Meeting ID: 992 4903 2946
Passcode: 82591145
Find your local number: https://zoom.us/u/ab9cRFlQRo

Hey everyone. This is the club treasurer here.

Recently I’ve been looking at ways that we can operate our club indefinitely. I asked in our meeting recently if anyone could help out in setting up something like a trust fund or investment account. One of our members, Bob Swoger, said something to us that took me a couple days to data process. He asked mainly if we’re allowed to do this. He said something like: “I’ve been in many ham and computer clubs and we never did anything like this.”

Of course investments in the future are what non-profits like ours is all about. But what did he mean, nobody else does this? It struck me that he’s looking at it through a lens of a modern computer club. Of course in any modern computer club, their mission would almost certainly not think 10, 20, 30 years down the road. They’d be looking at how to throw a great LAN party or something next year!

For me and I bet for others in the club, we are moving on from being a simple modern computer club to being more of a knowledge resource and historical society, one that will need to worry about how to keep things going if and when our membership dwindles or retro computing becomes less of a popular hobby.

I have some ideas for goals for the next 20-30 years. My current mission is I would like CoCoFEST! to some day become entirely self-funded. As in, nobody needs to pay anything to have a CoCoFEST! every year. This would mean that there would never have to be a “Last” CoCoFEST!

Is this something I should be focusing on? Do you all see us as a computer club or are we becoming something (should we becoming something) different?

Lastly, if anybody with some investment knowledge wants to help me figure out a proposal for the club to help shape a 20-30 year mission, please get in touch with me!

We are considering continuing the No Minimum Bid Auction tonight after the business meeting tonight. If you have thoughts for or against, let us know via Facebook comments or via email. We will discuss during out abbreviated business meeting coming up.

If you’re not able to join is in person, be sure to catch the live feeds and presentations. We are streaming both on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFk2dMxcjJcX2qbSqFHQMbA/videos) and on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/groups/290791956162), with 2 all day show floor feeds going in addition to the presentation feed:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMKDlmx41OY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKzw6fyvSxc

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

https://abc7chicago.com/illinois-covid-mask…/11178818/

Hat tip to Grant Leighty for making me aware of this last week. I checked with the venue today, and they noted that masks are optional in our meeting space. They’d prefer folks wear masks in the walkways and foyer, though. As always, feel free to wear a mask if desired. We will have sanitizer as well in various locations.