Tag: Tech

Mac Plus Emulation & HyperCard on Mac Pro

You’ll always remember your first. For me, it was a Mac Plus. Purchased by my parents as a family Christmas gift in the mid-eighties, it later ended up in my room and quickly became the center of my universe.

The killer app for me was always HyperCard. Of course at the time I had no idea how prescient that experience would be, since the hypertext driven world wide web did not exist yet nor did my resulting career.

While’s I’ve kept that original Mac in working order (including the original 20MB external hard drive), at some point parts are bound to fail and my trips down memory lane will be over (especially attacking conveys in the Pacific).

Enter Mini vMac, a Mac Plus emulator for modern computers. Now assuming I can successfully migrate the contents of that SCSI hard drive (connected to a computer with LocalTalk but no TCP/IP networking) to the disk image running in the emulator, my Mac Plus can live on indefinitely (that is until 10 years from now when I’m emulating Mac OS X to run the Mac Plus emulator).

It’s only took a couple of hours to get cooking. Notice the top (black and white window) is actually the Mac Plus (running a HyperCard stack I created in the early 90’s), with the purple window being VNC giving me access to the desktop of a headless G4 running OS 9 (for the SetFType utility that does not run on Intel Macs), then some OS X finder windows with access to the G4 shared drive to move the disk images back and forth, and of course Safari with the emulator site.

Note how much more real estate I get to use these days compared to the original 9 inch screen. It really is amazing when you step back and think about it.

Following a fresh install of System 6.0.8 from Apple, I had success! Welcome back Larry, John, Steve and Bruce. Mounting disks is easy, just drag them onto the emulated screen and they mount. Don’t have to worry about only having one floppy drive!

And for those a little more curious, back in my early teens I developed several HyperCard projects, including this piece of shareware that generated random yet pronounceable words (perfect for passwords) based on a consonant/vowel/number structure you could customize.

I’ve toyed with the idea of getting the physical Mac Plus onto the internet via a LocalTalk to Ethernet bridge, or perhaps just getting the SCSI hard drive accessible via some kind of adapter to Firewire. I’d be curious if anyone else has undergone a similar effort–let me know. In the meantime, I’m off to sink a convoy!

It can be a challenge to get your iPhone, or any cellphone for that matter, to ring like an actual phone (unless you’re into the whole music ringtone thing, in which case you ignore the rest of this).

Some time ago, I discovered you can find that pleasant ringtone used in the Apple’s iPhone commercials on your iLife-enabled Mac here: <audio missing>

Then follow these instructions to build the tone in Garageband and share it in iTunes, then your phone. Voila! Problem solved in two minutes flat.

That worked until I started watching HBO’s Entourage, where every time Eric’s cellphone rings in show (this happens frequently), I reach for mine. It’s annoying. Well, not as annoying as Ari calling me I suppose.

Anyhow, that forced me to choose between the show and my ringtone–the show won. So, I came across some other good basic tones to give myself other options. I’m still looking for that perfect generic and unique specimen.

AppleTV is Almost There

I love movies. With a growing family and career on overdrive however, I don’t get to see many these days. There’s a swank new theatre in town that serves booze and has reserved seats, but it might as well be a figment of my imagination.

I loath mindless TV. I dropped cable service for good a few years back and honestly don’t miss it. Well, the occasional ballgame would be nice but it’s an acceptable loss. And with the exception of another historic event (such as 9/11 or the moon landings), the web blows away TV for concise and directed news consumption.

Enter AppleTV. First, in full disclosure, there are some who call me an Apple fanboy. I prefer to think of myself as a connoisseur of fine things and an admirer of Steve Jobs, but I’ll admit Apple’s marketing has me zeroed like a German 88 on a Normandy crossroads (yes, we’ve been watching Band of Brothers again).

I purchased it on a bit of a lark, and was frankly not very impressed for the first few months. It wasn’t until their 2.0 software update and some experimentation running Boxee as hack that I began to think more about the device.

It’s first big win came from an unlikely place, the screensaver. The default setting (assuming you choose to sync your photos to it) is to display all of your photos in a subtle but engaging stream across the screen. Intellectually that doesn’t sound so cool, but if you keep photos from your whole life in there, watching events from different corners of your life really makes it a stream of memories. There have been several occasions with guests were we simply sit and watch it. Sometimes for more than an hour. Great reminders.

Since there are 3 iPhones in the house, the free Remote app (iTunes link) that lets you control the AppleTV (and any other shared iTunes library) via WiFi connection was a brilliant addition. It’s great for wowing guests in the demo or lowering the volume of Johnny Cash during a late night poker game.

The next step was the death (due to old age) of my all-in-one DVD player / surround sound system. Having just invested a small fortune in baby resistant living room furniture, I was in no mood to spend even $100 to replace the device. It’s rare I actually watch a physical disc these days, as I love the convenience of having my collection in iTunes and independent of the screen. For now, no actual disc player hooked to the TV.

So now the only competition for our AppleTV comes from the Roku device that sits next to it, solely for the Netflix streaming (and maybe next year for MLB.tv to scratch that ballgame itch).  I’d like to see the next AppleTV update include streaming from say Hulu. Can’t we all get along? Live sports and breaking news, even as content subscriptions, would be intriguing.  RSS and Twitter would be nice to throw up on the big screen, maybe as part of the screensaver.

Lastly, the biggest improvement will come from the network, not the device. Just as AT&T turns off potential iPhone converts and frustrates the faithful, Time Warner’s 1.5 down (on a good day) simply doesn’t cut it for spur the moment movie rentals or anything in HD. You basically have to make your choice well before dinner or the night before. I’ve heard about the mythical Verizon FiOS, but alas not a soul at that company can tell me when it will be available in my neighborhood. Why is that such a secret?

While I realize it’s just a hobby for Apple, I hope it gets upgraded to full fledged side business. It’s good lemonade.

Random Web Jargon Generator

Random Web Jargon Generator

I love this random text generator, you can use the jargon they provide or point it at an RSS feed to produce things like:

Bottom-line subscription are portal a encryption is author each web of. Employee RSS of system take breakdown best access to intranet here’s. Services ROI on bottom-line are web here’s client create video to. Management staff to edit easy manager provide license the control to. Access benefits given intranet each portal are feed provide feed it. Secure encryption most portal of power simple website a administer is. Manage asp easy .NET most license to compose here’s tour simple. 

Adjust video simple marketing on power work asp with portals it. Forum administer a compose a user provide manager most polls here’s. Cms adjust of true it sample is video here’s power are. Polls cms to open source a management here’s build take .NET put. Employee asp here’s administer starts to team starts to comprehensive best benefits here’s. Control staff put edit most unlimited a power provide tour provide.

It’s great for confusing colleagues over IM or email.