Trenton Computer Festival
Encyclopedia
The Trenton Computer Festival is the longest continuously running personal computer show in the World. It was started in 1976 at Trenton State College by Sol Libes and Allen Katz. TCF has attracted attendees from across the United States and Canada. It moved to Mercer County Community College as it grew larger, and in 1999 moved to the NJ Convention Center in Edison, NJ. In 2005, TCF returned to The College of New Jersey
, formerly Trenton State College, to celebrate its 30th Anniversary. In 2006 TCF was extended by David Soll to include an Information Technology Professional Conference on the Friday before the Festival. In 2010 the ARRL NJ State Convention started co-locating with TCF. Also in 2010 was the start of STEM seminars and STEM Outreach, scheduled by TCNJ's Susan Donohue.
TCF, Inc. is a non-profit educational corporation under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code.
TCF is run by volunteers from the following non-profit organizations. Funds from TCF are used to support their operations:
The show features the following:
The 2006 31st TCF was held on the weekend of April 22 & 23 at The College of New Jersey.
The 2007 32nd TCF was held on the weekend of April 28 & 29 at The College of New Jersey.
The 2008 33nd TCF was held on the weekend of April 26 & 27 at The College of New Jersey.
The 2009 34th TCF was held on the weekend of April 25 & 26 at The College of New Jersey.
The 2010 35th TCF was held on the weekend of April 24 & 25 at The College of New Jersey.
The 2011 36th TCF will be held on the weekend of April 2 & 3 at The College of New Jersey.
The College of New Jersey
The College of New Jersey, abbreviated TCNJ, is a public, coeducational university located in Ewing Township, New Jersey, a suburb of Trenton....
, formerly Trenton State College, to celebrate its 30th Anniversary. In 2006 TCF was extended by David Soll to include an Information Technology Professional Conference on the Friday before the Festival. In 2010 the ARRL NJ State Convention started co-locating with TCF. Also in 2010 was the start of STEM seminars and STEM Outreach, scheduled by TCNJ's Susan Donohue.
TCF, Inc. is a non-profit educational corporation under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code.
TCF is run by volunteers from the following non-profit organizations. Funds from TCF are used to support their operations:
- Amateur Computer Group of New Jersey
- The College of New Jersey
- New York Amateur Computer Club
- Mt. Airy VHF Radio Club
- Delaware Valley Radio Association
- IEEE Region 1
The show features the following:
- On Friday - An Information Technology Professional Conference conducted by Princeton ACM/IEEE Computer Society
- IT Professional Conference Founded and Chaired by David F. Soll in 2006
- On Saturday & Sunday the following:
- An indoor flea market
- An indoor retail market
- User group displays
- Exhibits by national vendors (i.e. Creative Labs, MicrosoftMicrosoftMicrosoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
, Intel) - Many of seminars and talks by experts on a variety of topics
- Special events
- On Saturday evening, a banquet dinner including a featured banquet speaker.
- The 2011 ARRL NJ State Convention - Talks, Demos and Mentoring
- Amateur Radio License Exam Ham Cram on Saturday
- Amateur Radio License Exams on Saturday and Sunday
- On Saturday Only
- Integrated STEM Education Conference (ISEC)
- Full Day Arduino Developer/User Tutorial/Workshop
- On Sunday Only
- STEM Community Outreach for Students K-12 from 1 pm to 4 pm
The 2006 31st TCF was held on the weekend of April 22 & 23 at The College of New Jersey.
The 2007 32nd TCF was held on the weekend of April 28 & 29 at The College of New Jersey.
The 2008 33nd TCF was held on the weekend of April 26 & 27 at The College of New Jersey.
The 2009 34th TCF was held on the weekend of April 25 & 26 at The College of New Jersey.
The 2010 35th TCF was held on the weekend of April 24 & 25 at The College of New Jersey.
The 2011 36th TCF will be held on the weekend of April 2 & 3 at The College of New Jersey.
Past Keynote Speakers
- 2010 - Richard Stallman, the Free Software Foundation, "Free Software, Free Society" (Keynote)
- 2010 - Richard Stallman, the Free Software Foundation, "Free Software - The Inside Story" (Banquet)
- 2009 - Dr. Alain Kornhauser, Princeton University, "DARPA Challenge - Cars that Can Drive Themselves. The Robotic Car of the Future." (Keynote)
- 2009 - Dr. Alain Kornhauser, Princeton University, "Computers in Transportation: From Navigation to Automation." (Banquet)
- 2008 - David Perry, on Identity Theft (Keynote); Also gave Banquet Talk
- 2007 - Constantine Kaniklidis, Vista Exposed (Keynote)
- 2007 - Sol Libes, TCF Co-founder, on The Origin of the (Computer Hobbyist) Species; (Banquet Talk)
- 2006 - Gregory OlsenGregory OlsenGregory Hammond "Greg" Olsen is an American entrepreneur, engineer and scientist who, in October 2005, became the third private citizen to make a self-funded trip to the International Space Station with the company Space Adventures....
, Entrepreneur and the 3rd private citizen in space. - 2005 - Brian KernighanBrian KernighanBrian Wilson Kernighan is a Canadian computer scientist who worked at Bell Labs alongside Unix creators Ken Thompson and Dennis Ritchie and contributed to the development of Unix. He is also coauthor of the AWK and AMPL programming languages. The 'K' of K&R C and the 'K' in AWK both stand for...
, co-author of first book on the C programming language - 2004 - Dr. Rebecca MercuriRebecca MercuriDr. Rebecca Mercuri, Ph.D is an expert in computer security, especially in electronic voting where she has been researching, writing about, and testifying since 1989...
, Electronic Voting - 2003 - Bruce and Marge Brown, PC MagazinePC MagazinePC Magazine is a computer magazine published by Ziff Davis Publishing Holdings Inc. A print edition was published from 1982 to January 2009...
contributing editors - 2002 - Ari Kaplan, CEO of Expand Beyond Corporation
- 2001 - Emmanuel GoldsteinEmmanuel GoldsteinEmmanuel Goldstein is a character in George Orwell's classic dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. He is the number one enemy of the people according to Big Brother and the Party, who heads a mysterious and possibly fictitious anti-party organization called The Brotherhood...
, Publisher of 2600 Magazine, The Hacker Quarterly - 2000 - Jeff Waldhuter, Director of Bell Atlantic (Verizon) Network Services Strategy
- 1999 - Mike Elgan, Editor, Windows Magazine
- 1999 - Eric Raymond (Banquet Speaker) Open-source-software evangelist
- 1998 - Stacy Horn, Founder of Echo, an online community
- 1997 - Dennis Hayes, CEO and Founder, Hayes Microcomputer Products, Inc.
- 1997 - Phil ZimmermannPhil ZimmermannPhilip R. "Phil" Zimmermann Jr. is the creator of Pretty Good Privacy , the most widely used email encryption software in the world. He is also known for his work in VoIP encryption protocols, notably ZRTP and Zfone....
, Creator of Pretty Good Privacy - 1997 - Bjarne StroustrupBjarne StroustrupBjarne Stroustrup ; born December 30, 1950 in Århus, Denmark) is a Danish computer scientist, most notable for the creation and the development of the widely used C++ programming language...
, AT&T Researcher and Designer of the C++ Language - 1996 - Robin Raskin, Editor-in-Chief of Family-PC Magazine
- 1995 - Bill Machrone, Technology VP for Ziff-Davis Publishing
- 1994 - Steven Levy, Editor of Wired and MacWorld Magazines
- 1993 - Gordon E. Eubanks, CEO Symantec Corporation
- 1992 - Paul Grayson, Micrographix and National Chair for Missing Children Alert
- 1991 - Alfred Poor, PC Magazine ???
- 1990 - David House, Senior VP, Intel Corp.
- 1989 - Bill GatesBill GatesWilliam Henry "Bill" Gates III is an American business magnate, investor, philanthropist, and author. Gates is the former CEO and current chairman of Microsoft, the software company he founded with Paul Allen...
, CEO and co-Founder of MicrosoftMicrosoftMicrosoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
Corp. - 1988 - Chris Rukowski from Rising Star??? Not sure of year
- 1987 - Claudia Choi, Editor-In-Chief of Family Computing Magazine (only banquet)
- 1986 - Philip Lemmons, Editor of BYTE Magazine
- 1985 - Seymour I. RubinsteinSeymour I. RubinsteinSeymour Ivan Rubinstein is a pioneer of the PC software industry. He grew up in Brooklyn, New York, and after a six year stint in New Hampshire, later moved to California. Programs developed partially or entirely under his direction include WordStar, HelpDesk, Quattro Pro, and WebSleuth, among...
, Originator of WordstarWordStarWordStar is a word processor application, published by MicroPro International, originally written for the CP/M operating system but later ported to DOS, that enjoyed a dominant market share during the early to mid-1980s. Although Seymour I... - 1984 - Steve Ciarcia, Ciarcia’s Circuit Cellar columnist, Byte Magazine
- 1983 - Dr. Ken Iverson, IBM, Creator of APL
- 1982 - Dr. Gary KildallGary KildallGary Arlen Kildall was an American computer scientist and microcomputer entrepreneur who created the CP/M operating system and founded Digital Research, Inc....
, President of Digital Research Inc.Digital ResearchDigital Research, Inc. was the company created by Dr. Gary Kildall to market and develop his CP/M operating system and related products. It was the first large software company in the microcomputer world...
, Creator of the CP/MCP/MCP/M was a mass-market operating system created for Intel 8080/85 based microcomputers by Gary Kildall of Digital Research, Inc...
Disk Operating System - 1981 - Dr. Adam OsborneAdam OsborneAdam Osborne was an American author, book and software publisher, and computer designer who founded several companies in the United States and elsewhere.- Computers :...
, Author – "Microcomputer Tunnel Vision or Why I Designed and Built a New Microcomputer" - 1980 - Carl Helmers, Executive Editor of BYTE Magazine
- 1979 - Wayne Green, Publisher of Kilobaud MicrocomputingKilobaud MicrocomputingKilobaud Microcomputing was a magazine dedicated to the computer homebrew hobbyists from the end of the 1970s until the beginning of the 1980s.-How kilobaud started:...
and 73 Magazines – Remarkable Opportunities for the Hobbyist - 1978 - David AhlDavid H. AhlDavid H. Ahl is the founder of Creative Computing magazine. He is also the author of many how-to books, including BASIC Computer Games, the first million-selling computer book....
, Publisher of Creative ComputingCreative ComputingCreative Computing was one of the earliest magazines covering the microcomputer revolution. Published from 1974 until December 1985, Creative Computing covered the whole spectrum of hobbyist/home/personal computing in a more accessible format than the rather technically-oriented BYTE. The magazine...
Magazine – "The State of the Art in Computer Games" - 1977 - Mr. and Mrs. John W. MauchlyJohn MauchlyJohn William Mauchly was an American physicist who, along with J. Presper Eckert, designed ENIAC, the first general purpose electronic digital computer, as well as EDVAC, BINAC and UNIVAC I, the first commercial computer made in the United States.Together they started the first computer company,...
, Co-Inventor of the first large-scale general-purpose electronic digital computer - "The Circumstances Surrounding the Invention of the First Digital Computer" - 1976 - None