This article got me to pull out my original disks of Kings Quest that I bought in 1984 for my Apple//c and boot them on my Apple IIgs, 19 years later -- they lit up with ne'er a hitch!
In fact, out of two oldschool, standard sized boxes of 5.25" disks (maybe 40 disks per) I've had one go bad, from '84. Every one of my not-quite-as-old Amiga floppies (from the late 80's/early 90's) still has its data, as well.
The last really unique thing Apple did was popularize the GUI (not invent, of course). Their operating system was ANCIENT until OS/X. No preemptive multitasking. No memory protection. Virtual memory so brain damaged that most people turned off. Processing actually STOPPED when you pressed a menu button (this was especially laughable when Macs were used as web servers, and someone accidently leaves a menu item open).
Granted, OS 9 was pretty dated. It was not a strong kernel. I will give you this. But be aware that the first consumer machine with a GUI, the Apple Lisa, had a preemptive multitasking operating system. If only Apple had brought such a kernel over to the Macintosh System when the Mac debuted in '84.
Almost every significant hardware innovation began on the PC architectures. Proof? The bus, memory, (yes) SCSI, CD-ROM, CD writers, color monitors (Steve didn't like color until much later), even floppies, on and on. There's a reason that almost all of Apple's components are PC components. Hell! The original Mac didn't even ALLOW adding a hard drive. Yes, it was specifically NOT ALLOWED, because steve thought all storage should be removable. I distinctly remember the first company that figured out how to add a hard drive, and it was big news.
Not quite...
Apple was far and away the flag-carrier for SCSI. The Mac Plus was the first consumer machine to have SCSI on-board. I have a Mac Plus and recently spent weeks trying to upgrade the external SCSI HD on the unit. The difficulty was that the Mac Plus' implementation of SCSI was based on a version of SCSI that actually preceeded the official SCSI spec--it was pre-SCSI, in truth. Only this one Toshiba drive would work on the unit (I tried 5 drives). PC SCSI did not even exist at this point......which made it awful hard to add a CD-ROM drive to a PC as they were all SCSI in the beginning. Macs were the first consumer machines to sport CD-ROM drives regularly.
The original Mac did not have a dedicated HD interface or a general bus interface of any sort and so people rapidly developed external HD's that plugged into the floppy port of the Mac. The MacBottom was one such unit. Slow, sure, but it worked. There was no "disallowing" mechanism in play here, friend.
By time the pretty colored Macs were coming out, NeXT had already taken over Apple and was porting NeXTSTEP/OpenStep -- the most advanced OS I have ever seen, to the Mac. The seed had been planted to bring an ideal UNIX environment to the masses, and it is now here.
But not realizing the innovation here, one might actually choose to use Windows, it seems. I so pity those that are letting this, the OS X experience, pass them by. You really don't know what you are missing.
I work for the AFL-CIO, in IT -- software developer.
We have excellent benefits (uncanny, really) in order to demonstrate to others how benefits "should be handled," in hopes that the sentiment will take hold to the benefit of laborers everywhere.
I can retire after bascially 25 years with 80% salary. Not bad. Heh...been here 2 years so far...
We have had to use 10-digit dialing here in the DC area (I am in Alexandria, VA in NoVA) for a while now and I don't see what adding a 1 is going to do...esp. if you add it to each call.
The first computer I started using was obsolete at the time I started using it. Still have it as well, an old TI 99/4A. Also have TI's first laptop attempt, with the one line character display. Got that as a free gift from one of those travel resort trips...
I do not have my original TI-99/4A, but I grabbed another one from Salvation Army (the gay-haters that they are) after I was reunited with the TI when my girlfriend at the time whipped one of the more recent white models out of her attic. I played with it but wanted a black and silver unit, so I searched and found.
I remember back, '87 or so, in the day I desperately wanted to grab another TI (I had let my orig. go to get an Apple//c) and expand it with a Myarc Geneve 9640 ( here's a French page with a better pic )
Some animals' evolution is no longer guided by survival values, but rather is guided by how-can-it-best-serve-humans values....so you're saying animals will develop smooth, rounded mouths, big ears, and flat-heads?
Your post here got me to thinking. I had wanted and Indy back in the early 90's when I was working with Indigo's at a NASA contractor in Hampton, VA. Did not have the $$ tho. Now seems a good time!
After doing some digging, several things became clear:
- For a little more $$ than you'd need to spend for a used Indy (maybe $150 more on eBay), you can get a used O2 or Octane which are both much more powerful and viable today.
- The Octane is notably more powerful than the O2, but the market is flooded with them so the Octane is oddly cheaper than the O2. It's also much louder and larger than the O2--less of a "personal workstation" (see O2 and Octane photo here -- O2 on left)
So I have just grabbed an O2 with: - R10000 CPU @ 175MHz, 1MB L2 cache - 256MB RAM (unified memory architecture) - 4GB HD - A/V module (audio & video in & out) - O2 cam - keyboard / mouse...for $400.
So I shall add to the list my first IRIX machine. Hope my OS X box does not get jealous...
You've got me considering doing the same again--every year or so I think of grabbing an old SGI. I used to lust after the INDY for home in the early 90's.
Cause on IRIX you can run that super-cool file manager from Jurassic Park. [sgi.com] Why would you want to run that super-slow piece of dog shit Konqueror or Nautilus anyway?
Yes, Mac OS 9 and previous were all cooperative multitasking OS's. It's interesting to note that the Macintosh's predecessor, the Lisa, had a preemptively multitasking operating system. Few are aware of this.
I worked for a while, in '97-'98, as a systems engineer at the University of Virginia as a technician and systems engineer. I would get "Rock" duty (round the clock) every month or so and one of the systems I had to support was a patient tracking system for the UVA Hospital. It had a graphical user interface showing the floors of the hospital and what patient was where. It was an OS/2 Warp 3 system. Quite nice. It was the HARDWARE that kept glitching, making me aware of this system at 3am in the morning, sadly...
I tried to run Warp 3 a few years before but it did not work out. I really found the interface unattractive and the lack of apps difficult. I kept running Windows 3.1 sessions under it to the point that I just started using Windows 3.1. Sad.
A nice os. I also tried to run NeXTSTEP but had to take that offline for lack of app reasons (the interface was wonderful). Happily I run NeXTSTEP today and there is no lack of apps...well, it's actually OS X I am running -- but same difference.
I've been using computers for 20 years now and the only HD of my own, and I've had a lot of machines, that has ever failed was a 512MB, SCSI Fujitsu purchased in 1995. It failed a few months after I purchased it--they promptly replaced it for me. The replacement got a good bit of use and now sits with pretty light use in an enclosure tied to my Mac Plus (it was originally used on my 486-66 used at the time to run NeXTSTEP for Intel v3.2).
I have a 9" greenscale//c monitor. Attached to a Powermac 8500 as the primary display.:) It's cute. The collectors I know (including myself, to a lesser extent) are interested in gear with the Apple logo on it- something that//c has, for sure.:D If it didn't have an RCA plug, and if my 8500 didn't have RCA plugs, well... I probably still would have bought it. Because it's cute.
As cute as my Apple//c from back in 1984?? (Pic taken way back when, found it recently in a drawer, machine long gone.)
f you look at the photos closely, you can see a Lisa, a Newton 110-120-130 form factor, an eMate, [applefritter.com] a PowerCD, [applefritter.com] and a QuickTake 100- and 200-series cameras. Below and to the right of the Jim Henson poster, it looks like he's even got one of those set-top box prototypes, [applefritter.com] sitting underneath a laptop
I guess that officially makes my house into a Mac/Apple shrine, as you can look there and see a Newton 100, 130 form factor, an eMate, a PowerCD...and at least some of the images were taken with a QuickTake 200, if I don't have a pic available.
Mac shrine? What's he doing with an Apple//c 9" mono monitor (one of FrogDesign's efforts) thrown in? See what I mean towards the left in this image from the article.
...and here's a QT VR of my computer room (not clutered) as it was back in 1/2001 (that G3's been turned into a dual G4 since...and some other changes to the room).
Under the lid of my A1000 were the signatures of all the developers, molded into the plastic. _That_ was class.
The two most classy machines of that era shared that feature. I recently picked up a Mac Plus and cracked it open to do a 1MB -> 4MB RAM upgrade and grabbed a shot of its signed interior.
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blakespot
blakespot
Hell, Here's the whole damned list.
blakespot
This article got me to pull out my original disks of Kings Quest that I bought in 1984 for my Apple
In fact, out of two oldschool, standard sized boxes of 5.25" disks (maybe 40 disks per) I've had one go bad, from '84. Every one of my not-quite-as-old Amiga floppies (from the late 80's/early 90's) still has its data, as well.
blakespot
Granted, OS 9 was pretty dated. It was not a strong kernel. I will give you this. But be aware that the first consumer machine with a GUI, the Apple Lisa, had a preemptive multitasking operating system. If only Apple had brought such a kernel over to the Macintosh System when the Mac debuted in '84.
Not quite...
Apple was far and away the flag-carrier for SCSI. The Mac Plus was the first consumer machine to have SCSI on-board. I have a Mac Plus and recently spent weeks trying to upgrade the external SCSI HD on the unit. The difficulty was that the Mac Plus' implementation of SCSI was based on a version of SCSI that actually preceeded the official SCSI spec--it was pre-SCSI, in truth. Only this one Toshiba drive would work on the unit (I tried 5 drives). PC SCSI did not even exist at this point...
The original Mac did not have a dedicated HD interface or a general bus interface of any sort and so people rapidly developed external HD's that plugged into the floppy port of the Mac. The MacBottom was one such unit. Slow, sure, but it worked. There was no "disallowing" mechanism in play here, friend.
By time the pretty colored Macs were coming out, NeXT had already taken over Apple and was porting NeXTSTEP/OpenStep -- the most advanced OS I have ever seen, to the Mac. The seed had been planted to bring an ideal UNIX environment to the masses, and it is now here.
But not realizing the innovation here, one might actually choose to use Windows, it seems. I so pity those that are letting this, the OS X experience, pass them by. You really don't know what you are missing.
blakespot
I work for the AFL-CIO, in IT -- software developer.
We have excellent benefits (uncanny, really) in order to demonstrate to others how benefits "should be handled," in hopes that the sentiment will take hold to the benefit of laborers everywhere.
I can retire after bascially 25 years with 80% salary. Not bad. Heh...been here 2 years so far...
blakespot
blakespot
So 10-digit == 11-digit dialing, basically, no?
blakespot
Is Safari based on Konqueror?? Truly??
Where is this shown?
blakespot
I do not have my original TI-99/4A, but I grabbed another one from Salvation Army (the gay-haters that they are) after I was reunited with the TI when my girlfriend at the time whipped one of the more recent white models out of her attic. I played with it but wanted a black and silver unit, so I searched and found.
I remember back, '87 or so, in the day I desperately wanted to grab another TI (I had let my orig. go to get an Apple
blakespot
TI-99/4A
AT&T PC 6300
Apple IIgs ( inside shot )
NeXTStation Turbo Color ( inside shot )
Amiga 2000
Amiga 1200 tower '060
Apple Macintosh Plus
Apple PowerCD
blakespot
Some animals' evolution is no longer guided by survival values, but rather is guided by how-can-it-best-serve-humans values. ...so you're saying animals will develop smooth, rounded mouths, big ears, and flat-heads?
Your post here got me to thinking. I had wanted and Indy back in the early 90's when I was working with Indigo's at a NASA contractor in Hampton, VA. Did not have the $$ tho. Now seems a good time!
...for $400.
After doing some digging, several things became clear:
- For a little more $$ than you'd need to spend for a used Indy (maybe $150 more on eBay), you can get a used O2 or Octane which are both much more powerful and viable today.
- The Octane is notably more powerful than the O2, but the market is flooded with them so the Octane is oddly cheaper than the O2. It's also much louder and larger than the O2--less of a "personal workstation" (see O2 and Octane photo here -- O2 on left)
So I have just grabbed an O2 with:
- R10000 CPU @ 175MHz, 1MB L2 cache
- 256MB RAM (unified memory architecture)
- 4GB HD
- A/V module (audio & video in & out)
- O2 cam
- keyboard / mouse
So I shall add to the list my first IRIX machine. Hope my OS X box does not get jealous...
blakespot
Interesting. An INDY? Any pics / specs?
You've got me considering doing the same again--every year or so I think of grabbing an old SGI. I used to lust after the INDY for home in the early 90's.
Would add it to the collection.
blakespot
Cause on IRIX you can run that super-cool file manager from Jurassic Park. [sgi.com] Why would you want to run that super-slow piece of dog shit Konqueror or Nautilus anyway?
You can do it with OS X...but in a swimming pool.
blakespot
Yes, Mac OS 9 and previous were all cooperative multitasking OS's. It's interesting to note that the Macintosh's predecessor, the Lisa, had a preemptively multitasking operating system. Few are aware of this.
blakespot
That's 233, number lad.
blakespot
I worked for a while, in '97-'98, as a systems engineer at the University of Virginia as a technician and systems engineer. I would get "Rock" duty (round the clock) every month or so and one of the systems I had to support was a patient tracking system for the UVA Hospital. It had a graphical user interface showing the floors of the hospital and what patient was where. It was an OS/2 Warp 3 system. Quite nice. It was the HARDWARE that kept glitching, making me aware of this system at 3am in the morning, sadly...
I tried to run Warp 3 a few years before but it did not work out. I really found the interface unattractive and the lack of apps difficult. I kept running Windows 3.1 sessions under it to the point that I just started using Windows 3.1. Sad.
A nice os. I also tried to run NeXTSTEP but had to take that offline for lack of app reasons (the interface was wonderful). Happily I run NeXTSTEP today and there is no lack of apps...well, it's actually OS X I am running -- but same difference.
blakespot
blakespot
The collectors I know (including myself, to a lesser extent) are interested in gear with the Apple logo on it- something that
If it didn't have an RCA plug, and if my 8500 didn't have RCA plugs, well... I probably still would have bought it. Because it's cute.
As cute as my Apple
blakespot
I guess that officially makes my house into a Mac/Apple shrine, as you can look there and see a Newton 100, 130 form factor, an eMate, a PowerCD...and at least some of the images were taken with a QuickTake 200, if I don't have a pic available.
blakespot
?
blakespot
I love the II but it ain't a Mac.
blakespot
blakespot
The two most classy machines of that era shared that feature. I recently picked up a Mac Plus and cracked it open to do a 1MB -> 4MB RAM upgrade and grabbed a shot of its signed interior.
blakespot