Category: Columns
The RetroMacCast crew has released episode 261 of their podcast, entitled “Possible but Not Probable”. This time around, James and John discuss their lastest eBay finds: an Apple Acapulco patch, the TAKKY Color Classic, and a clear prototype Apple IIcx. They also take a look back at March 98 in the Macintosh world through the lens of MacAddict magazine. Some of the news items they discuss include Apple’s filing for the six-color logo return, an Apple 1 restoration, and Steve…
Bad news for the iPhone X continues to hit the net–both by way of fact and rumour. Apple has severely scaled back its orders for displays from Samsung–indicative of the ongoing disappointing sales of the X. The falldown is extensive. Samsung will now have surplus capacity and can both use those displays itself and sell them to Apple’s competition, who will in turn retail phones challenging the X but at much lower price points. They won’t make as much money,…
The guys over at RetroMacCast have released their 260th episode of the RetroMacCast. This time around, they take a look at Descent as well as some really old Apple-1 Relica stuff. To listen to the RetroMacCast, check out their website at: http://retromaccast.ning.com/
This is the first issue of the rebooted Working Smarter Newsletter, aka version 2.0. My goal is to provide you with useful tips, hints, and techniques you can use to work smarter, along with links to tips, hints, and techniques of others you might find beneficial. First up, a quick tip about the WiFi menu on your Mac: The old Option key trick for your Mac’s Wi-Fi menu I heard this today on one of my favorite podcasts—MacGeekGab—and it reminded…
I just sent the email below to literally everyone I know to bring them up to speed on what I’ve been up to, since I haven’t posted here or sent out a newsletter in months. If you’ve ever signed up for one of my mailing lists, or were ever in any of my Contacts databases, you should have received the message (I’m Back!) earlier this morning (February 19, 2018 at 10:39 AM Central as I type), If you’re not…
MacCast has released their 645th episode of the Adam Christianson produced podcast. Topics this time around include: You CAN remove HomePod cable. Don’t. Apple’s changing OS release policy. Apple moves up in global laptop shipments. Apple developing TV show based on NBA’s Kevin Durant. Apple working on fix for Indian character bug. Another option for remote iOS support. How to reset a HomePod. Apple needs to fix album categorization. When Apple won’t replace your battery. To listen to the latest…
This month on Open Apple, we sit down with Ken Gagne and Andy Molloy of Juiced.GS, the longest running continuously published Apple II magazine (that you can still get in your mailbox to this day!). Juiced.GS is in its 23rd year, which has to be a record for magazines of almost any type. Ken and Andy talk about the bloodless coup of the magazine, the long history of same, where things are headed, and why they hates trees. Meanwhile, Quinn…
James and John have been busy and a massive dump of episodes to the RetroMacCast website brings them up to date. A number of topics are discussed including the latest EBay finds, VCF and other retro Macintosh related topics. Be sure to catch all of the latest episodes by going to the RetroMacCast website at: http://retromaccast.ning.com/
Wrong about the iPhone XWell, it has happened before…back in ’83. See, from a feature point of view, the iPhone 8 look doomed beside the X. But price points do come into play in such matters. Apple is curtailing the production of the X, and the Spy assumes it will be discontinued once the X year is done. As the physician said to the 12-year old Spy when he came into his office looking like scarlet fever: “Allergic to the…
January 2018 The Spy thinks he understands a little about a lot of things, and quite a bit about a few things, but he does not understand… Why some people’s reactions are so ridiculously extreme? Leaving ordinary politics (if there is such a thing) aside for the moment, and as detailed here last month, the Spamhaus reaction to spam emanating from a handful of servers at the NewTek/Deerfield/Atjeu facility was to ban an entire range of 65536 IP addresses. Despite…
The MacCast podcast episode 639 has been posted. According to the posting on the MacCast website, this episode takes a looks at: the iPhone sales debate. Possible new Apple Watch features. Early benchmarks on iMac Pro. Apple responds to iPhone battery slowdowns. How to check your iPhone battery health. Follow-up on syncing bookmarks. Positive Apple support experiences. Moving Notes to new iCloud. Dealing with malware pop-ups. Some of my favorite things from 2017. If you would like to subscribe to…
We’re baaaack! Sorry for the unscheduled hiatus folks, but your intrepid hosts had some family matters to attend to. This month on Open Apple, we sit down with Seth Steinberger of 8-bit Weapon. We talk about their new album Class Apples, which was made entirely on an Apple II. Yes, every sound on the album is generated by real Apple II hardware with no add-on cards. Apple IIs can make good sound with the right software and in the hands…
RetroMacCast has in quick succession posted both Episodes 451 and 452 of their podcast. Episode 451 covers a number of topics including: “eBay finds: Apple playing cards, set of 6 classic Macs, and unused Mac box. They discuss the Mac EvangeList, and news includes the end of Apple fanboyism, Apple MacBook sleeve, and Steve Jobs’ BMW auction.” Episode 452 is the RetroMacCast Holiday Buying guide. Both episodes can be heard on Flickr or iTunes via the RetroMacCast website for free…
Ever wish you could cool off your Apple II without all of the fan noise from the Kensington System Saver? Watch as we tear apart the System Saver and replace the fan with an ultra-quiet version: https://youtu.be/KnliZMbmGQA See more Assembly Lines podcast videos at: http://www.youtube.com/c/ChrisTorrence1
December 2017 Under his hat as a sometimes web hosting and domain name provider (Webnamehost.com and WebNameSource.com) the Spy must monitor the spam arriving at his server. Numerous filters and subscriptions to spam services cut the volume of mail by forty percent in a slack month and as much as ninety-five precent during time when the BlackHats think they’re on to something new. Usually, this is a good thing. But recently, spam sent out from another server at the data…
Chris Torrence comes to us once again with an interesting Assembly Language problem. Wizardry, one of the early Apple RPG’s, on the Apple II and II plus runs normally, however, running it on the Apple IIe causes an issue with the computer switching to 80 column mode and causing weird issues with the displayed text. Suddenly instead of the normal display of the text, it puts spaces between each character of the text. While most people who have played the…
A few months ago i acquired an Apple IIgs, and to my surprise it had a Vulcan drive inside. The Vulcan was an internal combo of hard drive/power supply with a controller card. At that time, the only hard drive options were an external drive or an IDE card. The Vulcan was attractive by combining a strong power supply that also housed the hard drive. It was black colored and looked really nice replacing the internal power supply. The controller…
The latest episode of Adam Christianson’s MacCast is now available. Episode 205 covers some of the idiosyncracies of tthe latest version of iOS and how they affect the user. You can listen to the podcast at: http://www.maccast.com/2017/11/18/maccast-members-205-ios-notes/
The latest rendition of the MacCast has been released by Adam Christianson. Episode 633 gets into the latest hub-bub on the iPhone6, and other late Apple offereings. The iPhone X has arrived. Plans forming for future iPhones. More Apple original content hires. iOS Camera access privacy questioned. Apple Watch Series 3 stripes issue. Apple’s Q4 results Apple TV 4K HDR auto switching. iPhone X first impressions. iPhone X tips and tricks. Tips on using Live Photos. To listen to the…
Technology News and Views Since 1983 November 2017 The soft sound of a pair of occupied boots landing on the table behind me as I toiled over this column alerted me to my visitor. Good thing she doesn’t wear spurs when she comes here,” I thought. “Nice of you to drop by, Nellie. What’s up?” “You mean besides the rookie goof-up you just made in your code?” “Eh? Shame on you Nellie Hacker for looking over my shoulder. I tested…
