Posts by Glenn Amspaugh

Rules Testing

Reminds me of numerous stories going back to compuserve/AoL days; users would use a verbal/ad loophole to abuse a commercial offering and then be all rage upset over inevitable take down.

In Vegas for a tech conference 8-10 years ago; fancy new Coke Machine in the mezzanine, BSOD rendering it useless as thousands of geeks streamed past in search of caffeine.

Busted out laughing.

So it goes

So it goes

So it goes

Still Got Mine!

I have a beige Ti99/4a and it still runs great. Just wish I hadn't left my data cassette in the cassette player, and then stored in the attic for 20 years. It snapped, trying to read.

I'd coded a flat file Traveller ship database on there, with vector drawn deck plans, as well as a D&D character generator and of course, a dice roller. I also had a 4 channel conversion of Steven Howe's Mood For A Day. No, not a nerd, not nerdy at ALL!

Home Town Hero

Oh man, I lived in St. Pete for 10 years, doing both mobile computer repair (mostly businesses and schools) as well as IT at a small private party college. To help understand the west central Florida population: the entire area was settled by folks from other parts of the US, who screwed up and needed to start over. What a strange, jacked up town. So glad to be gone.

Apple Refurb; save cash

At the bottom of the main Apple Store web page, you can find a link to their refurb store. For recent versions of hardware, can usually save $100-$200 dollars (3£ - 5£ if my conversion maths is correct). Refurbs come in new cases, with regular packaging and 1 year warranty like new stuff. In order to recycle components from returns and stuff (boards, drives, RAM, etc), they have to be labeled as refurbs. Just got 3 iPad minis for $200 each. They shipped directly from China factory.

German Design

I prefer the Chemex. I don't mind the time spent pouring water over grounds as I'm already at the stove making breakfast (ham-n-cheese omelette, bacon, fried potatoes with green chile every day). Even with acidic coffee the filters do a good job of pulling the acid out and leaving it bean sweet.

Marketing!

But, but, but, I thought Apple was just a marketing company, peddling copycat designs from real companies like HP and Dell, for 3x the $$$, for similar shaped boxen! How could they make so much money over so many years when geeks have been telling the apple customers how stupid they are?

Time travel

Heh. Over the holidays, dug out my Quadra 650 and fired it up. I ended to scan in some blueprints (USS Enterprise blueprints) on my old Agfa Tabloid Scanner (scsi, no USB/FireWire adapters for modern iMac). Man, was weird but fun. Still had Photoshop 2.5 installed, as well as original Marathon by Bungie.

Scary thing: Base model Coffee Cup Mac Pro costs about what I paid for Quadra 650 (12 MB RAM/230MB HD/ CD drive) and monitor in 1993.

Still in use

Am literally using mine as a doorstop. Keep meaning to grab some plexiglass and convert case to aquarium but not yet. Maybe I'll stick a new Mac Pro in there and keep it running.

Round peg in square hole?

I bet this would fit in my Mac Cube (picked up for free for long planned Macquarium conversion). That would be pretty funny; ancient cube actually running nice and fast, with multiple monitors hooked up to it.