Category: Columns
Apple’s M2 Pro MacBookis a wicked fast production machine. The Spy’s reader will recall he got one to replace his 2019 MacBook Pro, which has never been very rugged, reliable or power smart, and has now been relegated to recording his lectures and uploading them to Streams. The new machine never gets warm even when in heavy use, and he still does not know what the fan sounds like, if indeed it has one. On boot it pauses to think…
…like an arrow (a) “but fruit flies like a banana”, is an excellent sentence to illustrate the difficulty that speakers of other languages have in learning English. Even most who grew up in English could not parse the parts of speech in the following: “Did you know that…that that that that that that followed was redundant?” …like an arrow (b) is a common aphorism to be sure…one many people would use to refer to its speed–a subjective perception of course,…
In episode 648 of the popular podcast “RetroMacCast” (RMC), hosts James Savage and John Leake took a trip down memory lane as they discussed some fascinating finds on eBay, as well as revisiting a classic issue of MacAddict from April 2003. The duo started the episode by discussing some exciting discoveries on eBay, including a large Macintosh banner, three banners from 1999, and five banners from 2023. Additionally, they talked about an Apple 2 clone that was up for sale….
In the latest episode of RetroMacCast, episode 647, hosts James Savage and John Leake dive into some exciting eBay finds, including an original LaserWriter, a lot of Macs, and even a rare Newton prototype. The duo also shares some interesting tidbits about Apple mice, with John learning something new. Aside from eBay finds, the show also covers the latest news in the world of vintage Apple technology. The hosts discuss the recent auction prices at Juliens, the announcement of WWDC,…
The April Fool, A.K.A. The Northern Spy took a break from April foolishness this year, except to wake up the sleeping-over grandchildren with a clarion call to go outside and play in the snow. Believe it or not, ye who be denizens of Terra Incognito to our South, but this part of Canada does have snow-free months–unlike Calgary, place of the Spy’s birth, which has the occasional year where it snows at least once every month, and the saying is…
The latest issue of the RetroMacCast has been released. This 643rd episode of the RetroMacCast features James Savage and Steve of Mac84 talking about the latest eBay finds: iMac watch, Lisa 1, and Macintosh XL Screen Kit. They talk about the Outbound Outrigger monitor with a SCSI interface, and news includes a visit by Ron (Ron’s Computer Videos) to preview Marchintosh. Be sure and join the Retro Mac Cast Facebook page, follow them on Twitter, or watch them on YouTube, and visit us at RetroMacCast.
This month, has some pretty important dates, and all in a row, starting with the fourteenth, fondly known by mathematicians as pi day. The Spy is unaware of a type of pie that would not be a favourite, unless someone makes it with kidney or liver. Moreover, pi philology has come a long way since “Yes, I have a slice.” There’s “How I love a drink, raspberry of course, after the heavy chapters involving quantum mechanics,” or “And, O, have…
Last month, we announced the official release of GBBS Pro version 2.2. For those who have purchased a manual for the program with the earlier 2.2n release, there is now an errata available for download:https://gbbs.applearchives.com/dl/GBBS-Pro-2.2-Erratta-CA2023.pdf. This is a free update available for download by all users. If you would like to purchase the new up to date GBBS Pro 2.2 manual, it is available through our GBBS Pro 2.2 release page at: https://www.callapple.org/documentation/books/gbbs-pro-2-2/. You can also download the latest version…
The RetroMacCast has released their 641st episode and this time around are looking into the 30th anniversary of the game SimCity 2000. James Savage and John Leake, hosts of the RMC talk about their latest ebay finds including Macintosh/Canon gold sign, NIB Mac M0120 numeric keypad, and a Rally NYC Mac logo t-shirt. They also discuss the video from the Apple Lisa 40th birthday and Macstodon for Mastodon. You can listen to the latest RMC episode on the RetroMacCast website
Last month, the Spy said of the botched Ecoline window installation: “Yes, if one can believe the scheduling department, the installers shall return(!) on January 4 (that’s 2023 BTW) to fix their errors and damage, install a long list of items missing from the first delivery, and make everything honkey-dory. But given the history of this thing, if you believe all will be well at the end of that day, I know of a really busy bridge I can sell…
To talk of many things but rather than ‘shoes and ships, and sealing-wax, Of cabbages and Kings, And why the sea is boiling hot, And whether pigs have wings,’ and also with apologies to Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, the Spy will instead speak of windows, wackiness, and the weather, Of controllers and cameras, Of furnaces and hernias, And what else is really hot, And whether digital assistants, new MacPros and EVs have wings. Windows, wackiness, and the weather The Spy has…
The Spy was working in his woods a few months back, trying to rehabilitate a trail that had been washed out when his little creek became a raging torrent this time last year as the mother of all atmospheric rivers struck the area, causing Sumas Lake, which had been drained for farmland a century earlier, filled back up again, destroying roads, killing 630 000 chickens 12 000 hogs, and 420 cattle, and displacing thousand of people from that quarter of…
Apologies to our impatient reader for the extreme lateness of this column. The Spy is attempting two full time jobs at once (his own and that of his boss, who has a concussion) plus handle the fiscal year end and budget for his church, and that of the Science faculty, all at once. Moreover, he spent the last weekend (Thurs-Sat) at the Murdock College Research Conference in Vancouver WA (5+ hour drive). Things got a little hairy. Climate change is…
The Webb Bang No, that is not a spelling error, but a reference to the James Webb telescope, successor to the Hubble platform, and capable of producing images of long ago and far away. Initial results are disconcerting, as they seem to blow up long accepted models for the “early” universe, by revealing spiral galaxies much like our own, but at distances of sufficient light years that should in theory have revealed early post Big-Bang chaos from before such galaxies…
The Spy’s Reader who’s been lurking around here a while will be familiar with his many discourses on the mutual effects of society and technology upon each other (including the entire currently-being-revised textbook on that theme referenced below among his web sites). In order of technological sophistication, the three (kinds of) civilization to date are/were the Hunter-Gatherer, the Agrarian or Agricultural, and the Industrial. Hunter-Gatherer societies are usually nomadic, and transition to Agricultural mode with the invention of the plough–which…
Not “Supply and Demand?” The supply and demand equilibrium is elementary economics, and easy to explain to anyone who understands graphs. The demand curve has quantity intercept the number of units that could be given away, and price intercept the cost at which no sales will happen. The supply curve has both intercepts at the origin, and a positive slope–theoretically, as the selling price increases, so does willingness to produce, and indefinitely so. Of course there are other constraints such…
Is There Enough energy available to power our planet? Russia’s war of aggression and nation destruction has the obvious consequences of squeezing Western Europe on energy supply, as much of the oil and gas for that region comes from there–a deal done with the devil with payment now coming due, as Russia is counting on Europe blinking in the face of turned off taps. Given the choice between freezing this coming winter and abandoning Ukraine to dismantlement, it is difficult…
It’s often been said that half of Physics can be summed up in the sentence “You can’t push on a rope.” The other half is: T M A U H S W T Well, the Spy has said both often enough, at least. It’s a common belief, reinforced by a boatload of Speculative Fiction led by Isaac Asimov’s books featuring thinking robots, that RSN (Real Soon Now) we will succeed in creating true thinking machines that will either be equal…
Technologically speaking it has been the worst of months, it has been the best of months, or perhaps neither. On the low tech side of things, the Acme engine (never terrific) on his 40+ year old BCS Mainline walk behind tractor that he lately uses only as a tiller, choked out its last while preparing his garden for planting. Moreover, it went out with a bang, one that in the Spy’s experience, strongly evidences a broken rod. Dead dead in…
The Spy has it on good authority that on Monday next week after the markets close, Apple will announce the takeover of one-time rival IBM for a cash and stock package valued at $162B, just under a 25% premium over where the latter’s stock was trading this week. Given that Apple’s own market cap at nearly $3T is some 23 times that of the company that once dominated the tech world, Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO brushes the purchase off in…
