With apologies to “Our Anne” (with an “e”) the Spy this months takes note of some notable disappointments, failures, and wonders who or what is on the brink. We start with the technological realm itself of course, but this column has always been about much more than machinery. The industry giants have had their share […]
Technology News and Views Since 1983May 2021 The academic realm is often stereotyped as an impregnable, remote-from-life, unscalable ivory tower with little to say to the real world. The Spy’s corner of said kingdom is actually an ivory basement overdue for new carpeting and a coat of paint, and he likes to think his […]
With the announcement this past week that Volkswagen was to embrace the electric era by changing the corporate name to Voltswagen, the Spy decided to research the matter of pending corporate name changes and related issues. He made some fascinating discoveries. And, in an exclusive to this intrepid reporter comes word on internal debates at […]
If you have one of the early Macintosh computers in the 128K, the 512K or the Plus series and are missing a keyboard, then this video from Mac84 also known as Steve Matarazzo takes you through the building process of creating an adapter for a PS/2 type keyboard to be able to connect to the […]
Some things just last longer than others Those comfortable old sweaters, housecoats, a few pants and shirts worn to threadbare, and even beyond as they get relegated to gardening work, the 91 Buick Regal we kept till last year, and traded in before it was really finished with life, the forty year old rototiller, the […]
A nifty little video cast called the Macintosh Librarian is now running through the Retro Macintosh channels. The Macintosh Librarian ( K.Fox ) in her latest video talks about the history of the Minnesota Educational Computing Consortium (MECC) with her digital Mac SE-30, Maccy. Taking you from the earliest days through to the hey day […]
Over the past several years, we have been following along with James Savage and John Leake as they brought us the RetroMacCast Podcast. Since last year James and John have brought back the Video Cast of the RetroMacCast. Now, for those who prefer to actually watch video of the broadcasts rather than just listen, the […]
The 560th episode of the RetroMacCast has been posted to the RetroMacCast website. In this episode, James and John talk about their eBay finds including: MacEffects Mac Portable 8MB card, computer lot, and PowerBook 550c. John also takes the time to talk about a SCSI hard drive replacement, and news includes the Action Retro Libretto Hackintosh, System 7 Today return, Lisa X […]
James Savage and John Leake, curators of the RetroMacCast, have released three episodes of their podcast simultaneously. In these three episodes, they cover : A number of eBay finds including Power Computing 100, SuperMac C600, and Power Computing Field Vest, Power Mac G4 Cube prototype shell, Mac Classic II, and classic Mac lot, Macintosh TV, Color Classic, and Macintosh 128k. In Episode […]
Technology News and Views Since 1983February 2021 Why is understanding so difficult? The Spy’s opening lectures to both his first year calculus classes, and his third year computing students taking programming language concepts start with much the same words. “To date you have been shown recipes for ways to manipulate your algebras (that’s what a […]
In Assembly Lines Podcast episode #121, Chris Torrence takes us inside of disabling the write protect switch in a disk II drive and the newer 5.25″ drive produced by Apple after 1982. He goes into disassembly, functioning of the switch and the disabling of the switch. Check it out here:
I have good news and bad news. The Bad News The time has come. I’m sad to announce that I’m closing Working Smarter for Mac Users forever in February. It breaks my heart, but it’s the right thing to do. Although Working Smarter for Mac Users has been my passion project for 4 years, and I don’t regret a […]
The 554th episode of the RetroMacCast has been released. In this episode, James & John discuss their latest eBay Finds including the following: Mac icons mug, collection of Steve Jobs magazines, and Chiat/Day newspaper congratulations. James also unveils The Macintosh Office, and news includes a tiny all-in-one Macintosh LC, Captain’s Quarters II, and NanoRaptor creations. The RetroMacCast is produced by James […]
January 2021 The Technology Industry did well in the otherwise annus horribilis of 2020. Remote teaching, learning, business and personal teleconferencing, combined with the need to outfit and/or upgrade home offices meant that sales of computing equipment finished well after a short-lived COVID-induced slowdown. Preliminary indications to the third quarter show that Lenovo, GP, and […]
The global villagewas much touted back in the 60s and 70s. Better knowledge of our neighbours, countrypersons and those of other nations was supposed eventually to bring about unity, prosperity and a great love-in. The Spy has noted before in this space that his own prediction back in the day was quite the opposite, that […]
COVIDhas dramatically changed university teaching, and not in the Spy’s humble opinion, for the better. Oh, yes, students can still take university courses when, but for a few requiring personal skills performance, they are entirely online. But the Spy has four major concerns: 1. the lack of face-to-face interaction. Not only does the professor not […]
This episode marks the end of the quest to play every single Infocom game by the EBAG hosts Kay Savetz and Carrington Vanston. In this 39th Episode of the EBAG podcast, Kay and Carrington take a bit of a victory lap after completing every single one of the Infocom text-only adventures. As they say, “Turn […]
The 543rd episode of the RetroMacCast has been released. In this Episode, James and John discuss eBay finds: Macintosh Portable prototype, interesting serial Mac HD, and Apple/Braun calculator. They recap the Apple Event, and news Newton, found Jobs audio, curved monitor G4 iMac, and more great NanoRaptor designs. To see all of the show notes […]
Apple and Tesla last week split their stock, the former by four-to-one and the latter by five-to-one. Since splits make the price of a single stock lower, such actions tend to attract more retail investors and this pushes the price up further. In the case of Apple this is merely the latest in a long […]
James Savage and John Leake have released the 536th episode of their RetroMacCast. In this episode, James and John discuss their latest eBay finds including: An Apple dealer sign The black ADB Mouse II, A sealed copy of the Macintosh manual. Michael Mulhern the Joins the RetroMacCast Crew to take a look back at August 1990 in Macworld […]
