Thanks for being a friend of the lab!
The spring semester is ending and normally we would be mostly closing up shop until fall... But! Because of our amazing volunteer crew, we are able to hold extra summer open house hours this year! If you do happen to drop by, please give them the thanks they deserve - we wouldn't be here without their help and enthusiasm.
thing.net
MAL PAL Eric has been hard at work trying to revive the thing.net bbs hardware in our collection. So far the diagnosis has been some very dirty fans and a blown capacitor... but he's making progress!
Ultimately we will also be imaging and archiving the hard drive in order to re-create the system as a virtual machine, in addition to working out some other bbs systems. Look for a MAL bulletin board in the future...
May's Featured Media: After Dark
We recently, by way of a PAL's old collection of floppies and because of a resident's interest in the program, acquired a whole stash of modules as well as the software development kit for After Dark. Now we have modules including The Simpsons and Star Trek: TNG and the ability to design our own screen savers!
For some history, an interview with the creators from Berkeley Systems.
Machine Glamour Shots
Our machines are in the process of getting new glamour shots - check last month's featured device ready for its close-up! Some parts of our collection have limited visual documentation online, so we look forward to sharing them in the very best light. And, thanks again to PAL Eric for his hard work in the lab.
Film? In My Camera!? It’s more common than you’d think!
Mysterious Oddments with Grace
While bringing two adorable Instamatics into the MAL family, I noticed that one was twice as heavy as the other. Inside of our Instamatic 104 (produced up to 54 years ago) is a cartridge of 126 film. 126 film cartridges have square exposures and were designed to take the hassle out of loading regular 35mm film. They’re clever wee beasties that made Kodak a very large amount of money. They are also the precursor to the classic Polaroid we know and become nostalgic for every ten years. The cartridge is constructed in such a way that even if there is a light leak, only one square should be exposed, so there’s a definite possibility that there could be salvageable shots. As part of the MAL mission to experience the past to understand the present, I’m sending the instamatic off to the folks at The Darkroom, who have equipment, expertise, and decent reviews on the Google. Hopefully they can help us answer the question… what’s in the box?
More technical info gathered from camera-wiki.org
Summer Hours
Starting May 13, we will be switching to summer hours. A million thanks to our PALs for making summer hours a reality! Check our social media for updates & email if you are visiting from out of town, just in case.
We are also able to host some tours by appointment - contact us.
SUMMER OPEN HOUSE HOURS
Monday
Tuesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
1:00 - 4:00
1:00 - 4:00
1:00 - 4:00
12:00 - 3:00
1:00 - 4:00
* hours can be subject to change for weather & other unforeseen circumstances*
double-check our social media for updates!