Events and Appearances

All local images and video clips herein are Copyright © 1996,1997,1998,1999,2000 James Willing except where superceded by previous existing copyright.

Events and Appearances

Pictures from the Vintage Computer Festival v1.0 (September 1997)

Pictures from the Vintage Computer Festival v2.0 (September 1998)

Preparations in the Garage for our appearance at the Vintage Computer Festival v3.0 (October 1999)

And for info on the 3nd Vintage Computer Festival, follow this link:

Pictures from the Vintage Computer Festival v4.0 (September/October 2000)

Behind the Scenes of the CNET segment featuring the second annual Vintage Computer Festival and The Computer Garage (September 1998)

Things like this can make all of the work worthwhile... Sometimes we get lucky, and get to schmoose with the media. In this case, I get to hang out with CNET TVs Desmond Crisis.

Pictures courtesy of Jordan Ruderman

Check the camera, check the notes...	QÀ with Desmond Crisis	So... what's it all about?	Discussing the Altair
Discussing the LISA	Reviewing the history of the Macintosh	Sam Ismail - VCF Producer	Desmond Crisis with Jordan's SOL-20 (A graduate of the Computer Garage restoration program)

And just in case anyone has wondered... In talking with Mr. Crisis I learned that he is a long time commercial computer game designer and programmer. No talent agency 'talking head' here! This man knows of what he speaks! In fact, I learned that it was he that pitched the idea for the segment on the VCF to the CNET production staff. He made us all look very good!

(and apparently, the segment went over very well as it has been re-shown numerous times since the 1998 VCF.)

Fir Grove Elementary School Science Fair

Photos from Science Fair appearance on November 5th, 1998 at Fir Grove Elementary!

Robby (oldest son) and HERO-2000 at the Tic-Tac-Toe board	Jim, Carole, LegoBot, and HERO-1 (au natural)	Robby (oldest son), Paul (youngest son), and HERO-2000

We made our yearly appearance with the robots from the collection at the Fir Grove Science Fair in November. While the LegoBot ran in circles (line follower demo), the HERO-1 played 'static' display (with all of the covers and panels off), the HERO-2000 took on all comers in 'Tic-Tac'Toe'.

Over the course of about two hours, over 100 games were played against the robot. While the HERO-2000 played at various levels of skill depending on who it was playing against, it ended the evening with nearly equal numbers of games won, lost, or tied.

Assisting are my two sons Robby and Paul, and my wife Carole. The banner on the wall graciously provided by class assistants.

National Engineer's Week appearances in Washington County Schools

Once a year, usually around mid-February, the people where I work let us out during the week (while the sun is still up) to go into the local schools and talk about what we do in support of National Engineer's Week. Since I hate to work alone (or without props), one or more of the robots or a computer or two from the collection usually accompanies me.

We talk about our jobs, and possibilities in the fields of engineering. Answer a lot of questions, and in general just try to get the kids to consider if their interests might lead them into one of these fields. This year (2000) will be my fifth year of participation in this program, and some pictures from the presentations are below.

The Robots attend Science Class at Cedar Park Middle School	HERO-2000 contimplates a Tic-Tac-Toe move	HERO-1 introduces students to robotics and problem solving

The Robots run through their paces at Fir Grove Elementary School	...with assistance from younger son Paul

Fir Grove Elementary School Science Fair

Photos from Science Fair appearance on April 14th, 2000 at Fir Grove Elementary!

HERO-2000 and HERO-1/too (au natural)	HERO-2000 at the Tic-Tac-Toe board and HERO-1/too	HERO-1 and Robby out for a walk
HERO-2000 ready for play	HERO-1/too looks out on the Fair	HERO-1 and Paul (on left) stacking blocks
A player contimplates his next move against HERO-2000	Everyone wants to play...	Paul and HERO-1 with their blocks
Paul explains HERO-1 to an interested group	Someone said that there were robots!

We made our yearly appearance with the robots from the collection at the Fir Grove Science Fair in April. The newest addition to the collection (HERO-1/too) made his first Science Fair appearance playing 'static' display (with all of the covers and panels off), the HERO-1 wandered about the fair floor and constructed block houses (and knocked them down), while the HERO-2000 took on all comers in its favourite game - 'Tic-Tac'Toe'.

Assisting are my two sons Robby and Paul.

InnfoGraphics final warehouse sale (April 1999)

Click on the logo above to reach my pictures of the event

Love it or hate it, Paxton Hoag's InnfoGraphics has been a fixture among computer and electronics collectors for many years. It occupied various buildings over the years, but finally has gone the way of many of the other surplus outfits in the area, and closed for the final time with a auction of remaining items.

Fittingly, some items from the final sale have joined the Computer Garage collection, some have gone to other local collectors, and even (by proxy) to some out-of-town collectors that we work with.

Refusing to allow this to go unseen, I offer the pictures here both for those who have spent many a day seeking that 'one more' unusual item in the warehouse, and for those who only ever knew it by word-of-mouth and legend.

The "Warehouse"...

Well, for those of you who have asked... And even for those of you who have not!

Something to strike fear into the faint-hearted, and prove if those daring enough to venture here really earned their "Indiana Jones Adventurer Badge"!

Presented for your approval... Images from within (one of) the Computer Garage Warehouses!

See how many of the artifacts hiding within that you can identify! (if you have to ask, you probably don't really want to know...)

And before you ask... "Why is this on the 'Events' page???" Trust me, if you've ever entered the warehouse and escaped unscathed, it is a true event!

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Last updated: 11-October-2000