Category: Columns
Last Month’s chat ended with Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping are no doubt laughing at the North Americans who must seem to them bent on destroying the very democracy we once touted as superior to their brutal and genocidal dictatorships. Surely they can now go to war, annex their neighbours (and eventually us) into a totalitarianism that brooks not a whisper of dissent from the glorious leader’s agenda, and expect the west to remain supine as it is swallowed whole….
A couple of recent purchases are worth a mention here. First up is Apple’s second generation TV+ Siri remote –product A2540 with the aluminum case, now sold with the Apple TV. 4K, but also available for standalone purchase. This is the replacement for earlier iterations of the Siri remote in the black case–a rather poorly designed piece of work in the Spy’s view. Its touch pad was far too sensitive, making cursor control difficult, even haphazard. Moreover, it had no…
James Savage and John Leake have released the 599th episode of their RetroMacCast podcast. Join them as they talk about their eBay Finds: American Girl desk and Mac, icon trash bag, and Apple Game Team jacket. John gets his RaSCSI working, and news includes 3D printed Apple logo and iMac found on Twitter. To listen to the latest episode or any of their back episodes, check out RetroMacCast at:https://retromaccast.libsyn.com/rmc-episode-599-rascsi
On the world stage, 2021 started with the failed violent coup attempt against the government in Washington, proceeded through an assortment of bad to worse COVID-19 news, the Afghanistan fiasco, deepening hostile divisions in the formerly more temperate and tolerant United States, worsening political situations in many parts of the world, the first potential breezes presaging the winds of war in India, Pakistan, China, Russia, Europe, and of necessity, the United States. The only plus for general peace was the…
It used to be that the three most important things to business success were location, location, and location. Today they are the content of your inventory, the content of your web site that permits access to ordering said inventory, and how content you make your customers (you don’t want your reputation slagged on social media do you?) Apple seems to consistently navigate all this in a manner that leaves many of its competitors in the dust. Yes, there have been…
Some four decades ago when many of us knew some form of net-based document linkage was coming, just not who would instantiate it and what form it would take, the Spy coined the term “metalibrary” to refer to the collection of all a society’s knowledge, in whatever medium, together with the means of accessing them. He reserved the term “The Metalibrary” for such collection in electronic form, somewhat anticipating the linguistic distinction later adopted for “internet” versus “The Internet”. The…
To the thieves who stole jewelry from my Bradner home on September 16–two questions: 1. How much did your fence give you for 52 priceless years of memories? Enough for a couple of fixes each of your favourite narcotic? 2. Why didn’t you also take the flowers in the living room? You could have made a “big spender” impression on your significant other. They were, after all, still fresh from my wife’s funeral. And a comment: I do not pray…
Joyce Sutcliffe March 5 1947 – August 27, 2021 Joyce Arlene Sutcliffe (nee Madland) was born at home in Surrey, B.C. on March 5, 1947 to Philip and Grace (Halls) Madland and lived her early life near Whalley’s corner. Her parents were in fellowship at Westminster Gospel Chapel, where at a young age she accepted God’s grace and received his gift of eternal life. She in turn has been a faithful and practical witness to Christ and his loving grace…
A hot summer gasps to an end in numerous western wildfires that spew smoke across the continent, the degree of Arctic ice melt is unprecedented, high temperatures and drought set records–all visual evidence that the climate is indeed changing, and more rapidly than even the worst pessimists once predicted. Meanwhile billionaires engage in a space race for publicity and pleasure, elected officials and influencers dispute whether election results, COVID, and violent insurrections are real or fake, vaccine deniers threaten their…
And the not entirely so grimas, once again, Canada persists in celebrating the Spy’s birthday a couple of daysearly and the Excited States a day late. ‘Course, both have been at it a tad longerthan he, so he extends best wishes that both will outlast him, despite at least someindicatiors to the contrary. Truth and ConsequencesThere was a time in the increasingly distant past when the truth of one’sstatements was considered non negotiable, for it had to founded on actualrepeatable…
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 of embarrassments over the years. The much-touted, but poorly assembled Apple /// from late 1980 gets an honourable mention, as does the Power Mac powered…
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 students are becoming well-equipped to tackle the real world–not just as it is today, but as it is becoming for the years to come. Oh,…
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 Apple between those who want to embrace the current name and are trying to sell the slogan “An Apple a day keeps MS away,” and…
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 older Macs. This original series of Macintosh computers used RJ-45’s or phone cable type connectors and the keyboards are not very prevalent. Now, you no…
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 house the Spy built in 1992 (the one before that was 1972), this old column he started in 1983, the Church he’s been involved in…
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 of the MECC, the Macintosh Librarian Episode 6 is well worth the twenty minutes of time to watch it and gives some interesting perspective, not…
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 Video Cast of the RetroMacCast Episode 561 is now available. Join James and John as they take you through the world of Retro Macintosh computing…
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 Fusion X 360 Project, Floppy Emu update, and recreating a Mac SE logic board. You can download the latest rendition of the RetroMacCast podcast at the RMC website…
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 555, they look back at MacAddict from January 2001, and news includes Apple car rumors, G5 Minecraft server, and more NanoRaptor creations. In Episode 556, they turn on James’s…
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 programming notation is) in order to solve a few canonical problems. But now, you are done with rote learning. This course focuses on what may…
