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ElectriClerk Computer Of The Future
ElDuderino44137 points out this "Fully functional retrofitted prop computer." Chocolate / peanut butter, Mac SE / Underwood. This is no spray-paint job.
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The site is already Slashdotted (with 1 comment!) but it's very simple to describe. He turned a 1988 Macintosh into one of the computers from Gilliam's movie "Brazil." Truly impressive piece of work.
Bush: He's Liberal in all the wrong ways.
Purchase the Criterion edition if you can. Yes it may be 50 dollars, but there is a lot of great content on it.
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Actually deep discount DVD has it for 43 dollars.. Free shipping too!
http://www.deepdiscountdvd.com/dvd.cfm?itemID=HVD
- what is the definition of simultanagnosia?! I've been meaning to look it up!
The site is already slashdotted but here is the text (not too useful without the photos though) Built for a game of Cthulhu Lives! that has yet to be played, this piece was inspired by the retro-futuristic machines in the movie Brazil by Terry Gilliam. It was one of the most difficult and time-consuming pieces I've ever attempted. Despite the ridiculous amount of abuse I subjected it to, and despite the fact that all its components are now exposed to the air, the 1988 Macintosh SE which forms the heart of this piece still works just fine. Click on the photo at left to see an enlarged view.
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http://eth0.is-a-geek.org/
The interesting thing is that you CAN run a (low volume) web server from a 1988 vintage SE...
There seems to be a mirror (with pictures that load) here.
This neat little prop was done in 2002, as the wayback machine will tell you. Seems /. is loosing its edge as far as up to date news go :-)
On a redeeming note, I am sure I saw this on /. before...
He tricked out the machine to use the original typewriter keyboard, hacked the carriage return lever to act as the return key, cleverly grafted a trackball onto the side of the typewriter chassis to replace the mouse. The grafted on trackball looks just like part of the chassis.
There are exposed vacuum tubes and the chassis of the Mac, as well as the CRT are alao exposed.
There is a swingaway Fresnel lens in front of the mac CRT.
Recall the computer Theora used in the old Max Headroom TV series? That's a lot what the ElectriClerk looks like.
It is one VERY sexy/Retro casemod!
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Yup: add an ethernet adapter, System 7, MacTCP, NetPresenz, and you'll be up and... walking. (If you want something that's actually borderline practical, I recommend a Quadra with System 7.5 and MacHTTP.)
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I've had a Plus for about 14 years as well as a 128K and a 512Ke for the past 8. All run fine, the Plus even ran 24/7 for three years as my X10 home automation controller. The top vent gets warm, as does the vent on my oldschool G3 CRT iMac... but I've never had heat-related crashes. Very few crashes at all, actually.
OT: On the other hand, my well-vented PowerMac 8100 was a crashy nightmare, but that was due to the horrid versions 7.5.x and 8.x of the OS.
Further OT: I never tried 9.x. I did the NT, 2K, and XP thing. Came back to Apple/Mac/NeXT with a PowerBook G4 and OS X 10.3 Panther... and I couldn't be happier!
That was all a Steve Jobs snafu - he wanted the Macs to be silent so they were. They were so silent they overheated. After his departure from Apple the fan was added in.
The Mac Plus came out in 1986 and was still fanless. Steve Jobs had already left by this time.
The first fanned Macs - the Macintosh SE and Macintosh II - came out in 1987, a long time after he'd left. They were also the first Macs to include internal hard drives, a much more likely reason for the fan to be included.
The G4 Cube does not have overheating problems, that was a myth which went with its "cracks" (in reality, scratches in the mould). Its efficient chimney design transfers heat very effectively from the unit. I still use mine to drive a "photo wall" that is on 8+ hours a day without issue.
The Cube was designed with a place for a fan, It was there if it was needed, should it survive in the market long enough for hotter 1+ GHz PowerPC chips to require one. But at 450/500 MHz it simply didn't.
The Cube flopped, not because of overheating, but because it presented confused expectations of how a computer should look, and because of poor access to its ports and limited expandability. It was still a brilliant design.