Floppy Days 156 - Interview with Paul Schindler, Computer Chronicles

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Hello, and welcome to episode 156 of the Floppy Days Podcast for October, 2025. I'm Randy Kindig, your host for this "retro"spective covering vintage computers of the late 70's through the 80's and the people who were on the forefront of that incredible revolution.

This month, I'm bringing you another interview episode with a tech media personality that was involved with the Computer Chronicles TV show (among many other things): Mr. Paul Schindler. Paul has a big personality and has a lot of great stories about Computer Chronicles and about the tech industry in general in those days. I really enjoyed talking with Paul and he made me laugh a lot!

As you know, if you're a regular listener, I was able to interview Stewart Cheifet some ago about Computer Chronicles. Computer Chronicles was a great way to get information about computers in those early days and I've always wanted to do some follow-up. Thanks to S.M. Oliva, who is mentioned in the resulting interview, and who runs a blog called "Computer Chronicles Revisited", I was able to get in contact with Paul.

Next up for Floppy Days will be a series of podcasts on the KayPro line of computers, for which I was able to line up an interview with a key figure from that company and was also able to find someone who knows a lot about the computer line to help me discuss the technical topics. Stay tuned for that series.

As usual, I will begin this podcast going through new acquisitions and what I've been up to, upcoming vintage computer shows and more.

Video version of the episode at YouTube:

New Acquisitions/What I've Been Up To

Tandy Assembly - https://www.tandyassembly.com
TRS-80 LED sign - https://techdungeon.xyz
TS2068 mailing list - https://ts2068.groups.io/g/main/topics
Compute!'s Gazette - https://www.computesgazette.com
Atari Tricky Tutorial #7 Disk Utilities by Jerry White - https://www.atarimania.com/documents/Tricky-Tutorial-7-Disk-Utilities.pdf
TenoxVGA for Atari TT - https://www.legacypixels.com
Call-A.P.P.L.E. - https://www.callapple.org/

News

Compute's Gazette article from the October, 2025 issue about Floppy Days written by Brian Cox of FutureVision Research - https://shop.computesgazette.com/product/computes-gazette-issue-4-digital-edition-october-2025/

Upcoming Shows

Ami West - November 1-2, Sacramento, CA - https://www.amiwest.net
Atari Party 2025 - Nov. 22, 2025 (noon to 4) - Quakertown, PA Train Station - http://atariparty.org/
World of Commodore 2025 - December 6-7 - Admiral Inn, Mississauga, Ontario, Canada - https://www.tpug.ca/world-of-commodore/world-of-commodore-2025/
Vintage Computer Festival Montreal - Jan. 24-25, 2026 - Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, QC - https://vcfed.org/vcf-montreal/
Tandy Retro Show 2026 - Jan. 24-25 - virtual - tandyretroshow.com
Vintage Electronics Expo - Jan. 31, 2026 - Oakland Expo Center, Waterford, MI - https://www.thevee.org/
Vintage Computer Festival SoCal - February 14-15, 2026 - Hotel Fera Events Center, Orange, CA - vcfsocal.com
Indy Classic Computer and Video Game Expo - March 20-22 - Wyndham Indianapolis Airport Hotel, Indianapolis, IN - https://indyclassic.org/
VCF East - April 17-19 2026 - InfoAge Science and History Museums, Wall, NJ - https://vcfed.org/events/vintage-computer-festival-east/
Midwest Gaming Classic - April 24-26 - Baird Center, Milwaukee, WI - https://www.midwestgamingclassic.com/
The Annual "Last" Chicago CoCoFEST! - April 24-25, 2026 - Holiday Inn & Suites Chicago-Carol Stream (Wheaton), Carol Stream, Illinois - https://www.glensideccc.com/cocofest/
Schedule Published on Floppy Days Website - https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vSeLsg4hf5KZKtpxwUQgacCIsqeIdQeZniq3yE881wOCCYskpLVs5OO1PZLqRRF2t5fUUiaKByqQrgA/pub

Interview

Paul's general Website - https://www.schindler.org
Paul Website about the Computer Chronicles - http://compchron.com/
S.M. Oliva's Computer Chronicles Revisited
Paul's long-running blog
Paul's podcast, PS A Podcast on Things
Paul recounts some tales from his Chronicles days
Paul's YouTube channel
Computer Chronicles at archive.org
Computer Chronicles episodes on YouTube