HP-35s announced; VCF East Past; Altair 680 kit; BCS @ 50 present, VCF Midwest future; In memorium

Wow: lots to write about tonight.  Sorry that it's been so long.  Sometimes busy is good! So we'll just use some bullet points.

•  Back on April 6, I wrote about Hewlett-Packard's plans to celebrate the 35th anniversary of the HP-35 scientific calculator. Today it became official: the HP-35s is now available for only $60.  The new model lets you switch between RPN and algebraic modes, and has 800 storage registers, 100 built-in functions, and a two-line display. HP also announced the finalists of its calculator video memories contest -- my favorite is Godzilla Stole My 12C which (unfortunately in my opinion) did not win a prize. Some of the winners are Success Breeds Success by Chuck Innocenzi (best screenplay), 20 Questions with your HP 12c by Jamie Coy (best technical film), and  Calculator Man by Robert Wiest (voter's choice.)
• Meanwhile, on June 6, I wrote about the (at the time, upcoming) Vintage Computer Festival East 4.0 -- this is the show I run on behalf of my user group. Chuck Peddle wasn't able to attend in person, but he honored us with his virtual presence via Skype videoconference. That worked wonderfully until the very end -- the Windows computer went B.S.O.D. just as Chuck accepted his applause. But, Chuck and the audience alike found that oddly reaffirming of vintage computers' superiority! :) (You can listen to some of the lectures here until videos are ready. Assorted pictures of the show are here, here, here, here, here, here, and here. A bunch of people blogged it but you'll have to search for those manually... sorry!)
• And on June 13, there was news of Grant Stockly's Kenbak-1 replica -- it turns out that Grant doesn't rest; now he's got an Altair 680 kit too!
• An event I wasn't able to attend was the British Computer Society @ 50 celebration, happening right now at Bletchley Park, where a new museum is also about to open. One attendee's photos of the BCS event are here.
• For anyone in the midwestern US this weekend: check out my own group's sister event, the VCF Midwest 3.0.

This last item is too important for a bullet point: a tribute to Jim Butterfield, in 40 columns -- the only appropriate way. I never was any good at ASCII art but I'm sure Jim understands.

#########################################
#                                                                                           #
#         **** COMMODORE 64 BASIC V2 ****                #
#                                                                                           #
#  64K RAM SYSTEM   38911 BASIC BYTES FREE   #
#                                                                                           #
#  READY.                                                                           #
#                                                                                           #
#  10 PRINT "Jim Butterfield, the Toronto-"                  #
#  20 PRINT "based C= programmer / author,"          #
#  30 PRINT "died of cancer. He was 71."                   #
#  40 PRINT "We'll miss you, Jim."                                #
#  50 END                                                                           #
#                                                                                           #
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Read more about Jim in this newsgroup post and in other posts at comp.sys.cbm.