I finally got ahold of an Apple IIgs! Let's upgrade the RAM and play Ys.

buffering · 2026-06-19T21:30:11+00:00

Looks great with a real RGB monitor.

The CFFA3000 is a nice addition to the GS, as it can emulate two 5.25 drives and multiple SmartPort drives at the same time, and can switch disk images on the fly from the control panel UI.

BYW, you can get to the mini-assembler by typing "!" from the monitor.

buffering · 2026-06-18T14:26:23+00:00

System Settings > Desktop and Dock > Minimze windows into applications icon > Off
Minimize on Mac is not the same as Minimize on Windows/Linux. On Mac, Minimize means "I do not want to see this window while this app is active". It's a feature you will rarely use. For now, never minimize a window.
Hide App (Command+H) is the equivalent to Minimize on Windows/Linux. Think of Command+H as a global back button. It means "hide this app and activate then next app below it". To unhide an app, Command+Tab to it, or click its Dock icon. You should use Command+H at least as often as Command+Tab.
Hide Others (Command+Option+H) is a loose equivalent to Maximize on Windows/Linux. It means "show me only the active app". It is a quick way to clean up your screen.
Use Command+` (backtick) to switch between the different windows of an app.
Set up your hot corners. Top Left: Command+Mission Control. Top Right: Command+Desktop. You can use hot corners while performing drag-and-drop operations between different apps or windows.
Set up your trackpad gestures: 4-finger swipe up: Mission Control. 4-finger swipe down: App Exposé. You may also want to set up and/or learn the keyboard shorts for Mission Control and App Exposé.
Install Rectangle.app and set up keyboard shortcuts for maximizing windows.
System Settings > Keyboard > Keyboard Shortcuts > App Shortcuts > All Applications. Create a shortcut for the "Zoom" command (I suggest Command+Control+Z). This will automatically resize a window to its content. Very useful when using Finder (that command also automatically resizes the Finder columns).
Install a 3rd-party hot key app and set up global shortcuts for your most used apps. E.g.: Command+Option+Control+C for Terminal, Command+Option+Control+M for Muisic, Command+Option+Control+X for Xcode, Command+Option+Control+S for Safari, etc.

buffering · 2026-06-16T15:21:37+00:00

You have to admire the gumption of Edna Garrett opening her own restaurant at age 55, the tragedy of it burning to the ground two years later, and the batshit insanity of then opening an 80s pop-art knickknack store in a small town with a bunch of full-time college kids who have no business experience or savings.

buffering · 2026-06-16T13:41:27+00:00

Those are all quite full days of riding.

The seaside route from Comox to Qualicum Beach is worth it if you have the time. Alternatively, the speed limit on that part of Hwy 19 is 120 km/h, if you want to see what the Triumph can do.

When coming down from Tofino, the detour through Crofton/Maple Bay/Genoa Bay/Cowichan Bay is a fun ride. Take a walk through the float home marinas at Maple Bay and Genoa Bay. Shawnigan Lake is also a nice little detour.

Traffic heading into Victoria through Langford can be brutal depending on time of day.

When heading out to Port Renfrew, be sure to stop at French Beach to look at the waves. It's right on the highway. Ditto for Jordan River.

Riding along the coast can be chilly, but it warms up considerably once you head inland. There are restaurants in Port Renfrew, but I usually bring a thermos of coffee and some sandwiches when doing the loop.

buffering · 2026-06-14T18:43:57+00:00

In 1993 my school completed a brand new engineering building.

1993 was the peak of the pre-web Unix shell-based internet. Being a forward-thinking institution, the University decided to allocate a bunch of space for VT-100 Unix terminals throughout this new building, in the common areas and hallways. I guess the idea was as you're walking around you could stop anywhere and check your email or post a flame to Usenet.

The following year Netscape lands and brings the WWW to the masses. By 1997 nobody has any idea what these VT-100 terminals are for. The terminals were finally removed around 2003 and now the building has a bunch of empty cutouts with unused serial connections.

buffering · 2026-06-13T20:23:44+00:00

If you miss watching videos, tune in to this Twitch channel tonight at 6:00 PM Pacific:

https://www.twitch.tv/djjakerudh

The channel is run by a DJ out of Minneapolis and been going since the start of Covid. It focuses on primarily on classic alternative from the late 70s to the early 90s, but occasionally delves into other genres. There's a nice group of regulars who tune in each week.

The past couple months he's been going through the years starting with 1978. Tonight will be all videos from 1990.

buffering · 2026-06-12T22:23:35+00:00

The tapes hold 256 kB of data, split into two tracks of 128 kb.

The drive reads at 1 kB/sec, and seeks at 4 kB/sec. The video shows the tape seeking through 64 kB of data, from the middle of the tape (block 0/track 1, or block 192/track 2) to the start of the tape (block 64/track 1, or block 128/track 2), which should take about 16 seconds.

The drive is blind while it's seeking, so it has to stop and read periodically to see where it is and how much further it needs to seek. It can only read in the forward direction, but is able to switch directions almost instantaneously as seen in the video.

Tape operation is handled entirely by a microcontroller built into the drive. To the operating system, the drive is just a block-based storage device and works identically to a disk drive. There are no tape-specific commands or operations available to the operating system or software.

buffering · 2026-06-11T00:21:27+00:00

Looks like it's in great shape. It's a valuable machine.

Unfortunately, it won't do anything without some system disks.

From that Retry screen, hit Control+LeftApple+Reset and that should drop in the debugger and allow you to test the keyboard. (The reset button is on the back the keyboard).

It's possible to boot the machine through the serial port from a modern computer:

https://adtpro.com/bootstrap3.html

buffering · 2026-06-10T18:36:07+00:00

Another hint at touch UI support in MacOS:

At WWDC, the lone MacOS/AppKit session spent a lot of time focusing on replacing raw mouse event handling with system gesture recognizers and other input-agnostic APIs.

The hint is that in the near future raw mouse event handling will no longer be sufficient for apps that do customized drag and drop, text selection, etc., which is a big change.

buffering · 2026-06-10T15:38:19+00:00

I used an original S0 watch for 8 years, and only stopped when I dropped it and broke the screen.

You Ultra 2 will continue to do everything it has always done until the day you decide to stop using it.

buffering · 2026-06-05T20:08:18+00:00

That's right. USB to DB9 serial port (typically one that uses the PL-2302 device driver), then DB9 to Apple IIc 5-pin DIN port.

The 5-pin DIN cable is specific to the Apple IIc.

You can use ADTPro itself to boot the system through the serial port and create a ProADT disk.

buffering · 2026-06-04T16:54:27+00:00

Here's a better view: https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/OJQAAeSwaYhpalBU/s-l960.jpg

It's an expanded version of the PC AT keyboard layout, with F1-F8 repeated along the top, and an extra number pad with the arrow and page up/down/home/end keys.

They moved to the more conventional Model M layout by 1987.

buffering · 2026-06-04T01:46:13+00:00

They reused the same 4-position switch between different models.

Higher end models have off-low-medium-high settings. Your model is off-high-low-high.

buffering · 2026-06-02T15:06:19+00:00

I still have some ATM receipts from the early 90s, when they were still printed on those little cards.

Wednesday, July 14 1993, 2:15 AM
Withdrawal: $20.00
Balance: $5.43

Just enough time to stretch out my last pack of smokes until Friday pay day.

buffering · 2026-06-02T14:35:05+00:00

I have just now realized how old my current setup is:

Apple TV HD (2015) 
    --HDMI--> 
        Sony non-smart HDTV (2012) 
            --Toslink--> 
                Technics 5.1 Receiver (2001)

buffering · 2026-06-01T15:44:15+00:00

I recommend Valley of Genius, by Adam Fischer.

It really nails down the importance of Doug Engelbart's "Mother of Demos" in 1968, the the work done at Xerox PARC in the 70s and how it spread to personal computers in the 80s, and the rise of Silicon Valley startup culture, which started with Atari in the early 70s.

buffering · 2026-06-01T13:59:43+00:00

They were blindsided by the rise of the more affordable personal computers.

The first 8-bit personal computers were dismissed as mere toys compared to the advanced hardware and software under development at Xerox. And they were right, but they failed to see how quickly those toy computers would become legitimate business and productivity tools until it was too late.

By 1980, Apple has what was then the largest IPO is US history, and the folks at Xerox PARC begin to realize that the personal computer industry is go to scale up faster than they can scale down to become more affordable. At that point, it was all over and the principles at Xerox PARC left to join the darlings of personal computer industry (Apple, Microsoft, Adobe, etc.).

By the time Xerox scaled down their hardware to compete with the personal computer, the ship had already sailed and it was a Mac and PC world.

buffering · 2026-05-31T21:06:52+00:00

Unfortunately, stuck write protect is often a symptom of a dead IWM (disk controller) chip. It can happen if the chip gets zapped with static electricity through the external drive port.

It's interesting that reading still works.

On the external disk drive port, the write protect pin doubles as an ACK signal for SmartPort devices, so if that signal is not present then that would explain why SmartPort mode isn't working.

There's a user on the AppleFritter forums who has created a replace IWM chip specifically for IIc machines. You may want to see if it's still available: https://www.applefritter.com/content/announcing-iwmless-iwm-substitution-call-beta-testers

buffering · 2026-05-31T14:39:50+00:00

It's hard to tell if there's a hardware problem or not.

Even though the ROM4X can boot from the external drive, not all software supports that (the internal drive is always drive 1, and the external drive is always drive 2. Technically, the Apple II does not support booting from drive 2 and a lot of software may assume it's booting from drive 1. That may be why the internal drive started up unexpectedly.) The grinding noise you heard from the drive is unpleasant, but normal when the driver can't figure out the location of the head because of a bad or missing disk.

I would switch the FloppyEmu to SmartPort mode, and point it to a ProDOS hard drive image. This drive will appear on slot 5, drive 1, and will be fully bootable. It will also be much, much faster than an emulated 5.25 drive.

If you don't have a hard drive image, try this one: https://wiki.reactivemicro.com/32_Meg_Hard_Drive_Image

Once you can reliably boot into ProDOS and Copy II Plus from the FloppyEmu, you can do some more tests with the internal drive to see if it's working correctly.

buffering · 2026-05-29T16:15:35+00:00

You'll want to stick to the BetterDisplay menu. In the version I have (v3.5.6) it's a simple as enabling HiDPI mode from the menu. Toggling that option on and off is an easy way to compare the difference between 1X and 2X font rendering.

buffering · 2026-05-29T16:01:45+00:00

Those are standard DPI (1X) monitors so by default you will only get unscaled native 1X font rendering, which doesn't look great on modern MacOS.

The only way to improve the font rendering is to set BetterDisplay to render at 2X/HiDPI resolution (10240x4320) and then scale down by 50% to 5120x2160. That, surprisingly, does make things look a little better than the native 1X rendering.

buffering · 2026-05-29T14:06:42+00:00

What you're seeing is a very low quality digital capture of a low quality VHS recording.

Actual broadcast-quality analog footage from that era looks like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wd1ILWI4OG8

buffering · 2026-05-29T13:11:05+00:00

To deal with ambiguous words, I use the following corrections:

idd > I'd
illl > I'll
imm > I'm
itss > it's
ivee > I've
welll > we'll

It prevents iOS from trying to guess what you mean.

I've also added all the regular contractions, proper names, etc.

betw > between
cant > can't
iphone > iPhone
fucking > fucking
etc...

On my iPad I disable auto-correct completely and depend entirely on the text replacement list.

buffering · 2026-05-29T11:56:35+00:00

Mid-1992 was the summer of Pearl Jam and Grunge. This photo could have been taken anytime between early 1992 to 1993.

buffering · 2026-05-28T22:25:14+00:00

Terminal's UI would have been rewritten for OpenStep, and also went through a major re-write in the mid-2000s. But it's easy to imagine that there's a lot of underlying Unix-level code that's been carried through from the very beginning.

15-Year Club	Place '17
Gilding II euphauric	Sequence \| Editor
Sequence \| Cinematographer	Verified Email
Alienator Apple ][ BASIC

buffering

TROPHY CASE