Forget The Pentium, Hack The 68K

Mr. Groove writes: "Hey foo, think your PIII is killer? Imagine running Photoshop on one of these!" Frugal or insane -- only you can decide.

Comments

Re:68k is great!

[Stormie]

68k is great.. but unfortunately this article is a little mislabelled. The site in question is all about hacking Mac Color Classics, which came with a 68030, to use a PowerPC.

So, sadly, we're not talking about a true believer in the coolness of 68k's.. but rather a true believer in the coolness of a certain size & shape of all-in-one Mac.. oh well..

Trollers' Paradise

[Anonymous Coward]

As I scroll through the stories, see the mods are on meth
I take a look at my karma, realize there's none left
'Cause I've been trolling and flaming so long that
Even Trollmastah thinks that my mind is gone
But I ain't never crossed a post that didn't deserve it
Me be modded up at all, you know that's unheard of
You better watch how Katz's talking, courting the masses
If I ever meet his homies I'll kick their asses
I really hate to troll but I gotta say
VA pays the bills, that means Hemos is gay... fool
I'm the kinda troll that script kiddies wanna be like
On Slashdot in the night, trollin' to set this earth right

They been spending most their lives living in a trollin' paradise
They been spending most their lives living in a trollin' paradise
We been spending most our lives living in a trollin' paradise
We been spending most our lives living in a trollin' paradise

They got the moderation, they rule the nation
I can't post a normal post, I tried -- no route to host!
So I gotta be down with the Slashdoterati
Too much videotape watching got me chasing Natalie
I'm an anonymous fool with hot grits on my mind
Got pancakes in my hand and first posts in my eye
I'm an open source caveman from k-stuff-inchfan
And my homies is down so don't even try that ban ... fool
First ain't nothing but a heart beat away
I'm owning you left and right, what can I say
I'm -3; never will I whore to hit 25
The way we're going just won't survive
Tell me why are we so blind to see
That the ones we mod aren't just ACs

They been spending most their lives living in a trollin' paradise
They been spending most their lives living in a trollin' paradise
We been spending most our lives living in a trollin' paradise
We been spending most our lives living in a trollin' paradise

Karma and the stories, stories and the karma
Zealot after zealot, dogma after dogma
Everybody's posting, but half of them ain't thinking
What's going on in Andover, something must be stinking
They say I've got to log in; nobody talks to ACs
If they can't even read it, how can they raise me
I guess they can't
I guess they won't
I guess they front
That's why I know my life is out of luck... fool

Tell me why are we so blind to see
That the ones we mod aren't just ACs
Tell me why are we so blind to see
That the ones we mod aren't just ACs

Re:Trollers' Paradise

[zeck]

Cool song, but I think it says something (bad) about Slashdot and the Slashdot readership that as I write this, the Trollers' Paradise post is the highest scored post on this article. I mean, it's pretty good as trolls go, but still, I'd hope there would be a meaningful, on topic comment somewhere on this thread deserving a better rating.

This page isn't about 68k @ all

[linuxonceleron]

The webpage referenced descibes modifications to the Mac Color Classic (and Color Classic II which was never released in the US) Almost all of the mods are done by replacing the Classic motherboard with one from an All-In-One mac like the educational models. Since the motherboards are similar enough, they can be hacked to fit into the case of the classic. Also, most people tweak the little 9" trinitron to 640x480 so it can actually be used for real work. Some people even go as far as to replace the 603e in the LC motherboard with a G3 upgrade chip, making one crazy fast classic. To me this seems like crazy stuff, but I'm sure some people enjoyed doing it. Looks like a sweet hack.

What's wrong with 68k?

[Grant Elliott]

You'd be surprised what can run off a 68k chip. They truly are an example of excellent versatile design. These things have been in common use since the 70's when they ran the first Macs. Since then, they've found their way into everything from robots to calculators. They provide an excellent chip for robotists (hobby and professional) as they are highly versatile and can be programmed using Interactive C (designed to be similar to a language most programmers already know). Check out the Rug Warrior for an example of a robot running off a 68k. Now, they run the TI-89 and TI-92(+) graphing calculators. 68k assembly is remarkably capable. Plus, they can be overclocked from the intended 10 mHz up to a whopping 12 mHz very easily (even farther with a little work). Despite the speed limitations of the chip, a good assembly or C programmer can use one of these things for just about anything.

Of course, my calculator is more powerful than those Macs...

Re:What's wrong with 68k?

[Dr. Evil]

I think that's supposed to be 680x, the 8-bit generation of CPUs which ran stuff from the PET to the Apple, and the C=64. People have told me that the functionality of the chip varied greatly between the versions... but I don't really care.

I know it best as the 6808 in the Heathkits they used in my highschool digital electronics class.

I think the coco also ran the thing.

The first Macs were 68000s or something... and as another poster pointed out.. mid '80s, not late '70s.

Re:What's wrong with 68k?

[loki7]

Uh...The Dragonball is a 680x0 series. 68328 to be exact. These have got other neat stuff in them like RS-242, IRDA, PCMCIA(?) and video, but the core is a 68000.

/peter

oh no!

[soulsteal]

[sung to the tune of "georgie girl]

hey there, power mac,
swinging round the mouse so fancy free
nobody you meet could ever see the source code in there...
inside you

hey there, power mac,
why do most fanatics pass you by?
could it be you just don't try?
or is it the case you wear?

you're always window shopping
but never trying to change
this won't get newer people in range.....
as customers..

hey there, power mac,
there's another OS deep inside
BSD is really neat but darwin it came to be...
the world will see....

a new power mac!

[Fade music out]

That'll teach me not to stereotype!

[Otter]

I have to admit, I would never have imagined that the person who hacked a Color Classic monitor to run at 640x480 would be a woman! That'll teach me to Think Different!

Breath of fresh air

[Witchblade]

With the deluge of political battles, legal battles, market wars, and marketing bullshit we're bombarded with these days it was so refreshing to read something that makes you say, "Damn, it feels good to be a hacker!"

Thanks, Slashdot, this story made my day. :)

Sigh. Why mod this down?

[Medieval]

While this post is offtopic, this post and others like it define a part of Slashdot that hopefully won't die.

I'm not talking about ten page pastes of the same thing over and over or one word attempts at getting a first post. I'm talking about the intelligent trolls. Anyone who reads the above post without cracking a smile - nay, anyone who reads any such post without cracking a smile - has obviously missed the boat.

Trolling on Slashdot has become its own subculture, much like B1FF on Bitnet. OOG, the Don Knotts guy, they are all a part of Slashdot culture.

Trolling has taken a new meaning with Slashdot. Trolling is not necessarily flamebait. Admit it, you've been had by the Don Knotts guy *at least* once, and you felt pretty silly. It was harmless enough, and nobody but you knows you've been had, but thats part of the charm. The OOG posts and poem or song lyric posts, arguably, require intelligence and a certain amount of cleverness to produce.

Most trolls on Slashdot are like graffiti artists; if you let them grow a little bit, they can paint murals that you're somewhat ashamed to envy, like the above spoof of "Gangsta's Paradise."

Yup...holy shit..

[fluxrad]

I'm not sure this is exactly newsworthy. I mean...it's just a guy who basically gutted an old mac and put new shit in it. What other articles are we going to see??

Learn how to make your own 500hp Ugo
John Holmes writes: it's the craziest thing...you have to have m4d sk33lz to figure this out. Basically, we put an engine from a Z28 into an old ass Ugo, we put new headers and an exhaust kit on it, as well as a K&R filter and new plugs and wires. A subframe connecter, and a new racing tranny. But the badges are still the same.

Oops - that's going to be posted on /. tomorrow. oh well - you heard it first.


FluX
After 16 years, MTV has finally completed its deevolution into the shiny things network

Re:Yup...holy shit..

[Anonymous Coward]

I HACKED A PICKLE JAR TO STORE APPLESAUCE!

680x0 as workhorse.

[RennieScum]

For years I had a Quadra 700, which I did tons of graphic design work on. People would ask how fast it was, and were amazed when I told them 25mHz. It was completely stable, and you could work ahead of the processor, as in punch in several keystrokes (Cut, New, Enter, Paste, F11) and it would do all of them, something Windoze won't do. (Does GIMP do this, anyone?)

Granted, it sucked at web browsing, but it produced many beautiful images for years.

Its death came (at 21,000 hours total runtime) because a mouse (the furry, wall-chewing kind) moved into the case, leaving droppings on the motherboard. I've since moved on to multitasking systems with more than one mouse button, but I wish I would have had the foresight to duct tape shut the PCI slot that was open.

200MHz Apple //e

[Noer]

Does anyone else remember this one? Someone frankensteined an ancient Apple //e into accepting a Powermac 9500 motherboard with a ~200MHz 604e (this was a couple years ago, I think). They actually did a really nice job - the reset key on the //e's keyboard mapped to the power key on the Mac, and a bunch of other things were rather elegantly handled.

sorry in advance...

[option8]

man, is this old news (look at the dates on the site). but, if you're still interested in 68k, apple hardware, or if you're looking for cool cases and some other really interesting hardware hacks - including links to the power colo(u)r classic among others - take a gander at AppleFritter.com - a site dedicated to apple hacks, prototypes and rarities.

and as for all the rest of you, why do so many of you spell "Mac" "MAC"? what do you think it stands for? Mac is short for Macintosh. not McIntosh or even MacIntosh, and certainly isn't an acronym. those of you in the northern US, where an A.T.M. is sometimes called a M.A.C. i can understand, but these are not cash machines!

Unexplainable Truths...

[Darlok]

Okay, what IS it about folks taking an old junk computer, spending more money on parts than they would on a NEW computer, cramming the stuff into the old case and making the news?!? When's the last time you heard of someone gutting a transistor radio so they could fill it with the innards of a new Denon 5.1 system? Or perhaps disassembling grandma's old Underwood typewriter and jiggering an IBM Electromatic into the shell?

Not often...

Why? Because it's cooler to keep them around! How many of you have old Commodore 64's or ColecoVisions that still work? Would you gut it to get a Pentium III crammed in there? Heck no! It's more froody to show it off in working condition during dinner parties...

... or at least do something even more sheik and turn it into a fishtank, or perhaps rig that floppy drive that made the "ZZZzzzzzz-cla-click!" noise to dispense Post-It notes.

My point is, the whole reason this is cool and noteworthy is that the old Mac-in-the-boxes were classics. You could turn it into a two-bottle beer cooler using some copper tubing and an air conditioner pump and people would still stand up and take notice because it's nostalgic.

So, let's all Here-Here! for the Mac-in-the-boxes. But, can we perhaps stop throwing a party everytime someone jams something inside that doesn't belong there?

Apple Hardware pretty cool?

[dbm00]

One thing that really impressed me about the original Macintosh machinese was that the Apple engineers were really creative about how they built the hardware-- not just what the box itself looked like.

For example, I was really impressed when I learned that the Macintosh SE/30 included custom ICs to accelerate the normal windowing GUI operations. This was YEARS before the PC saw any kind of real 2D acceleration... and it was a great idea. Anybody who ever played with an SE/30 and a PC of the same era would see the awesome performance advantage the SE/30 had.

That being said, I was reading through some of "Inside Macintosh" books circa the SE/30 and these guys looked like they were BEASTS to program-- people really had to write assembly language GUI programs? I guess I'm a spoiled product of the OOPY late 90s, but that seems like a deathwish if ever I heard one.

Another interesting tidbit-- the Apple Macintosh OS is more INfamouse than famous, we all know, but those from around the San Jose area will appreciate the code name Apple engineers had for the OS: Winchester Mystery OS -- signal traps and jumps to null addresses etc... I laughed hard at that one...

My Post Is Offtopic

[linuxgrp]

But it has to do with getting rid of - or getting - unwanted computer hardware.

freeboxen.com is a site for people to unload the hardware they don't want for people who do. I just stumbled across it in another thread. It could really use some support. What a great idea!
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That's nothing!

[/]

I'm working on fitting an entire computing lab inside a converted ENIAC. A whole 3000 cubic feet, baby!