Category: Columns
An apparently lost episode of the Open Apple podcast from 2018 featuring Applesauce Floppy Disk Controller creator John Morris has been located. Originally from July 2018 and hosted by Em Maginnis and Quinn Dunki, this two hour episode, Open Apple #86 (July 2018): John Keoni Morris of Applesauce FDC, includes a ton of Tidbits about the Applesauce Floppy Disk Controller and its workings. To listen to the episode, check out the Open Apple podcast website at:https://www.open-apple.net/2025/03/31/show-086-john-morris-applesauce/
April 1, 2025 Dear Spy Can you help me with a family issue? It’s really breaking us up. See, we have this uncle who’s lately become a problem for the family. O.K. strictly speaking Samuel’s not actually our uncle, but he styles himself so. Yeah, we’re distantly related, but that was, like, centuries ago. For almost that long, our two branches of the family have lived peacefully on side-by-side properties, and we’ve both built up extensive business interests that over…
Technology News and Views Since 1983March 2025 That title isn’ta reference to bus drivers on strike at the beginning of a bright sunny week. Rather, it is a reflection on how quickly worldly honours (glories) can vanish into oblivion, whether through conquest, or self-destruction via overweening hubris. Take, for instance politicians. (Please.) OTOH, they paint a glorious picture of how great will be their reign if the electorate will hand them and their party the keys to the empire. But…
First up is Murphy who is very well known in politics, the military, engineering, and, of course, computing. – “Murphy was an optimist.”–a former Mrs. Murphy. – It only appears to work now; it’s still in the process of going wrong. – The law of small scale software development: There’s always one more bug. – The law of large scale software development: We can make a statistical estimate within one or two orders of magnitude for how many bugs there…
Expect Apple tohave a big hardware year in 2025, with new phones, tablets, Apple TV and a new MacPro. The latter has become somewhat of a niche product of late, as busy professionals can now use a laptop as a heavy duty machine with suitable accessories such as multiple external monitors and bulk storage without sacrificing much by way of workflow capability. Still, for people doing video editing and/or running multiple high-demand applications at once, the big bulky desktop beast…
In this episode of the RetroMacCast, James and John discuss their latest eBay finds including the following items: John also takes a few minutes to show off his MacRecorder. Some of the News Items in this episode include the Mac IIvx, Apple Twiggy Macintosh auction, and overclocking an LC475/Quadra 605/LC575 and Mystic Color Classic to 40 MHz and beyond. If you would like to subscribe to the RetrroMacCast or to listen to their latest episodes, be sure the check out…
to prepare for Cinco de Mayo, which seems appropriate in view of this column being a little late in the mad panic to get the graduates across the stage and out into the “real” world, where their work week hours will be halved. It’s budget time, there’s a $10K typo, meetings galore, research season is ramping up and the Spy’s been busy preparing a paper for a literary conference. The title is Alternate and Future History Speculative Fiction as Mythopoesis….
For a changethe Spy will do a “normal” (sic) and less long winded column despite the date on the calendar–sporting only the usual random observations, and a few extended thoughts on common themes. He’s not in the mood for fool-ishness. Intelligence–of various kinds and degrees:In general terms the Spy sides with Roger Penrose (“The Emperor’s New Mind”) on the subject of AI ever becoming a straight out equivalent-part replacement for the human mind–the former resides on a finite state machine,…
Have you ever questionedhow the transition from gasoline powered cars and trucks to electrified ones willwork in practice? To wit: The Spy does have a possible solution to #4-5a on the list. Keep many of the gas stations open, but change what they sell to reusable and recyclable component materials. Assuming for the sake of argument that future batteries consist of (metal) plates immersed in a liquid electrolyte, why not rather than recharging batteries directly using electricity, use the regular…
Have you ever noticed that most people pronounce the name of this month as if the first “r” were not there, viz. “Feb-you-air-e” rather than “Feb-roo-air-e”? That’s on the level of the ads one hears on radio stations from third mortgage loan sharks saying “our criteria is less strict”, or the habit of our neighbours in the terra incognita to the south of our frozen north failing to distinguish between “metre” (an international standard unit of length) and “meter” (an…
Stories in this month’s blog: https://appleusergroupresources.com Ongoing Offers for User Group Members: Offers for User Group Leaders: Thanks to Elsa Travisano, who provides member offers and codes on one easy-to-cut-and-paste page for newsletter editors. If you would like to take advantage of the discounts offered to Apple User Group members, Join A.P.P.L.E. Today and get instant access! AUGB Staff Questions? Comments? Tips for group leaders or members? Send them to ugbeditor@me.com ……………………………………………………………. Information about third-party offers and promotions was provided…
Apple has been on somewhat of a roll of late, particularly with the M-series chips, which offer blinding fast speed and literally cool machines. Rival Qualcomm claims its new Snapdragon X Elite PC processor is 21% faster than the M3 chip when it comes to multi-core performance, but first indications are that the thermal profile renders it far from being a serious competitor. The iPad and iPhone have also done well, but the latter market is at or close to…
Meme: a recursive or self-defining term (“meme” is its own meme) originated by Richard Dawkins in his 1976 book “The Selfish Gene”. He defined it as a cultural unit transmitted from person to person by imitation. Today this might happen via serial re-posting and liking. Memes are now a principal means of communicating ideas, entertaining, or making political or social commentary, particularly of the semi-humourous type, though they can sometimes have a very dark side. For instance… Trump and his…
Stories in this month’s blog: Ongoing Offers for User Group Members: AgileBits 1Password 8: 25% Discount Too many passwords to remember? 1Password 8 for Mac is a password manager that goes beyond simple password storage by integrating directly with your web browser to automatically log you into websites, enter credit card information, fill registration forms, and easily generate strong passwords. As an Apple user group member, you are entitled to get the new 1Password service at 25% below the normal $3.99(US)/mo. retail price. This subscription also gets…
Does it seem odd to anyone else that a religious holiday once created to honour “saints” with no personal day of their own on the then religious calendar, would become deprecated in most of the Western world, while “All Hallows’ Eve” (=the evening before said “All Saints’ Day”) should become both a “dress-up and beg for candy” day and one to enjoy being frightened by symbols of death and evil? On the one hand, Apple iCooked up a “scary fast”…
Stories in this month’s blog: https://appleusergroupresources.com Ongoing Offers for User Group Members: Member deals are available to A.P.P.L.E. members. You must be logged in to access the link and password for the deals. If you are not already an A.P.P.L.E. member, you can join by selecting the level of service and clicking join in the side panel of this page. Don’t miss out! Thanks to Elsa Travisano, who provides member offers and codes on one easy-to-cut-and-paste page for newsletter editors….
This month we welcome Nicholas Pyers to the Apple User Group Advisory Board. Nicholas is known for his website AppleUsers.org, which is full of resources for user group leaders including: back issues of the AppleUsers Spotlight – a former digital magazine, his clever puzzles, a diverse range of Discs of the Month; and for being a long-time championship of all things Mac and Apple – having started his computing life in 1986 with an Apple II; and now has multiple Macs, iPhones, iPads…
The Editor Still Bytes Back KansasFest 2023: A Celebration of Apple III’s Legacy KansasFest 2023 has concluded, once again leaving the retro Apple hobby faithful with a treasure trove of exciting developments. This year’s event with its focus on the Apple III computer, was graced by Apple luminaries Wendell Sander and Dave Ottalini as keynote speakers, and as usual, was nothing short of spectacular. Come along with us now as we delve headlong into the highlights of this gathering of…
July-August 2023 Apologies are certainly in order, as the Spy let not just a day or two of July go by with no column, but the entire month. Put the lapse down to senility setting in if you will, for he simply forgot until queried at month’s end by the editor of one of the magazines to which these random ramblings are syndicated. Even then, the Spy thought “no, impossible; I surely wrote and sent it, but for some reason…
Apple User Group Bulletin – July 17, 2023……………………………………………………………. Stories in this month’s blog: https://appleusergroupresources.com Ongoing Offers for User Group Members: -Offers for User Group Leaders: Thanks to Elsa Travisano, who provides member offers and codes on one easy-to-cut-and-paste page for newsletter editors. Leaders can use the same password for leader offers. Please remember that leader offers are limited to one per group. Staff Questions? Comments? Tips for group leaders or members? Send them to ugbeditor@me.com ……………………………………………………………. Information about third-party offers…
