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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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They must have been running the server from that SE.
- Sherman
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.
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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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... still looks hotter than the latest Dell box I've seen ... and who ever said Apple Computers just look sexy from the outside ...
hey ... if you zoom up in on the monitor of that picture, I think I can make out the AmigaOS 4 AmiDock running on the bottom of there ...
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http://eth0.is-a-geek.org/
There seems to be a mirror (with pictures that load) here.
I've seen this already in a magazine (MacAddict?) but it's nice to see it's made its way into Slashdot.
Now just to trick out a G4 cube like this...
I've never seen Terry Gilliam's Brazil, so I can't compare this with the machine he says its based on, but it is very reminiscent of the computer used by the private detective in the Detective Story short film in The Animatrix. Very retro-cool. Though why build it with old circa 1980s Mac parts instead of present tech escapes me.
"I'm making perfect sense, you're just not keeping up."
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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Given the heat problems of that classic-style Macintosh case, i'm sure the components are actually cooler now than they were inside that thing.
The SE had a fan at least, the Mac Plus didn't have one, which spawned a significant aftermarket in attachable fan modules that would slide into the handle vent (and had an AC cord of their own).
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.
Brings the problems with that lucite cube into better perspective, when you remember back to that.
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The original had a pneumatic tube attachment.
Might I suggest the editors search Slashdot before posting articles to avoid repetition?
Check out the Underwood No. 5 PC where yet another fellow with too active an imagination has converted a typewriter to a computer. Quite clever, actually.
Yeah, that mod is great...the only thing that it needs is a talking anus. Shades of the David Cronenburg movie Naked Lunch. Exterminate all rational thought.
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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!
Unfortunately, this casemod is not going to help the case of this book.
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When I first read the "prop" part, I imagined those prop computers you see in furniture stores. You know, those plastic computer shells that resemble a generic computer (though lately Ikea seems to be using actual gutted computer cases).
In any case, I thought it would be hilarious to take something that was designed to look like a computer but not be one and make it into a computer. Or a toaster. Or anything functional.
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.
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"The question of whether a computer can think is no more interesting than that of whether a submarine can swim" -EWD
While working as an Apple repairer, I once had a Mac SE in for repairs that had a serious heat issue - it would work fine for about 10-15 minutes then cut out. When we opened it up we found about 1.5 inches of fine red sediment had collected in the bottom of the unit, encasing the logic board and causing it to overheat.
When I checked the paperwork which had come with the machine, it became clear that the computer had come from a cattle breeding station in the country.
I was the first computer I had ever seen that was literally drowning in bull dust. I stripped the machine down, cleaned it thoroughly inside and out, and it worked a treat.
Sara
Designer, Gamer, Macgrrl in an XP World
Here's the dupe story, from November 3, 2002. I remembered it, too, surprised more people didn't jump on this:
An incredibly bizarre sort-of case mod: someone recreated the computer terminals from Terry Gilliam's Brazil, using an old Mac and a 1923 underwood typewriter.