Folks are posting about their #MARCHintosh plans, this year I really just have one set in stone and it's the one I didn't get to last year: organizing and archiving the giant collection of Mac floppies from my childhood. I'm pretty sure I've got a few apps that aren't archived online yet - or different versions of ones that are.
Other, less concrete plans: better organizing my #GlobalTalk public folder and splitting off the Apple IP Gateway into its own VM. Also maybe trying other MacIP options like IPNetRouter and the VICOM Internet Gateway.
"But what about the #Macstodon rewrite? Isn't that your big project?"
That's not going to happen any time soon - I've been very busy with my day job since September, which involves a lot of coding, and I just don't feel like coding much in my off time. Now don't get me wrong, I still plan to do some, but not enough to have any kind of app ready by March. C'est la vie.
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True story. I used to work with a guy who did exactly this.
Many years ago, the staff were gifted umbrellas with the company logo on them for Christmas, and my coworker decided to keep it open above/behind his monitors at his cubicle. It stayed up there for at least a year.
He even took a photo of it which made it to the official company blog ๐ https://doesstuff.social/@lety/113898390877367984
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I can't get past the ridiculousness of the cover photo on this article: someone using a Flipper Zero, modified to shoot arcs of electricity at what is clearly a wrinkled blanket with a map of Europe on it ๐ https://mastodon.social/@arstechnica/113877570287908709
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Update: if you couldn't see my PDF printer on #GlobalTalk this past week, you should be able to see it now. Thanks to everyone who helped me troubleshoot this! https://oldbytes.space/@smallsco/113819127126262675
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Oh thank god, someone's finally writing a much better vintage Mac Mastodon client ๐ https://hachyderm.io/@chrisgervais/113822555198739670
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This is true even without the "YouTuber" ๐ Looks nearly identical to what I've got currently laid out on my dad's work bench! https://mastodon.social/@samedwards/111274783264578678
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Thanks to help from @europlus I now have a virtual PDF printer set up and working on my #GlobalTalk node!
Using the Chooser, select the LaserWriter driver and the "GlobalTalk PDF Printer" printer. Print as you would normally. Then, connect to the new "GlobalTalk Print Jobs" share to see your print job show up as a PDF file!
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Confession time. I have a photo of a Nazi hanging up in my kitchen.
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I thought I'd be bringing my #Amiga #A500 home today, but, this computer is kicking my ass ๐
The keyboard membrane has been replaced with a new PCB, and broken key plungers have ben replaced as well. The switches under the plungers have been cleaned with Deoxit, and the keys themselves have been given a good scrubbing with soap & water, plus a touch of Windex.
Unfortunately, many keys are still not working - not only that, it seems that my servicing has only made things worse. So I'm not sure where to go from here. Do I replace the IC on the keyboard controller next? Or maybe I need to start looking at traces on the motherboard?
Another possibility is that some of the key switches have just failed outright and there was never a membrane problem to begin with - and the switches need to be replaced entirely, not just the plungers.
What I really don't want to do is buy a whole new replacement keyboard, because that costs pretty much the same as what I paid for this computer to begin with.
Then there's the serial port. The original one had a number of bent, broken, and corroded pins - so (after much difficulty and with Dad's help) I removed it and replaced it with a new DB25 connector. We damaged one of the traces but fixed it with a bodge wire. The pins all have continuity, but something's clearly still wrong because the test kit is unhappy.
(I bought a DiagRom too, but forgot to buy the EPROM adapter, whoops! So that's now on the way as well to get a "second set of eyes" on the hardware)
There's also the floppy drive. It was working fine before we opened the machine up. It doesn't work any more. It spins up and makes noise like it's reading disks, but then drops back to the Kickstart boot screen. Now, we didn't clean or service the floppy drive because...it was working fine before (and I have a Gotek). But I'd like for it to still be working. Maybe some dust got in there or something?
Lastly there was the recap, which as far as I know was successful (unless that's what's causing the serial, floppy, and keyboard issues?) But one gotcha was that the two new 3300uf/25v caps are much larger than the old ones, and the RF shielding around the motherboard didn't fit any more. Eventually we managed to bend the caps over so that we could get the shield back on, but they still brushed against the shield and so we coated that part of the shield with electrician's tape to prevent them from coming into contact.
Ah, the joys of #RetroComputing repair ๐ at least the darn thing still boots!
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CHK yo self b4 u wrek yo self
[#]RetroComputing #GlobalTalk #VintageMac #68K #Apple #Mac #ClassicMac #MacOS
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(๐งต 7/7) Life and stuff
On a sad note, my grandma passed away over the holiday break, making it to 98 years old.
But other than that, 2024 was a pretty good year for me! My health's been stable (aside from that crazy 3-week fever in August) and I'm smashing my weight loss goals, reaching my lowest weight since 2020.
Anyway, thanks for reading if you made it this far, and happy 2025 ๐
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(๐งต 6/7) #Macstodon, REALBasic, and Proxies
I've been planning - since last April - to start work on Macstodon 2.0. This is going to be a rewrite using REALBasic instead of MacPython, in the hopes of getting around many of MacPython's limitations - poor performance and memory leaks, primarily.
But I discovered pretty quickly that REALBasic has its own set of problems - lack of support for custom LDEFs being a big one, unless you use a plugin. Fortunately there is such a plugin - Einhugur Software's CustomGrid, which incorporates the features I want. It has a big problem though, it corrupts the menu bar and window title font when running on 68k machines...and other plugins that provide comparable features don't work on 68k at all.
I have a hard requirement that Macstodon needs to run with System 7.1 on a 68020 system. Sure, things would be a lot easier if I wrote something that was for PowerPC only, or required Mac OS 8 - but I'm stubborn like that!
Anyway, after about 8 months (seriously) of trying different things, I've managed to find a solution that doesn't corrupt the menu and window title when rendering a custom grid with REALBasic. So now I can actually proceed with the project... until the next roadblock, that is ๐
Meanwhile, there's another problem with Macstodon, which is that it doesn't work correctly with
Mastodon 4.3. Well...technically it's not Macstodon that's at fault here, the problem is that Mastodon 4.3 changed how the login page works, making it incompatible with vintage web browsers. So Macstodon can't do the initial login/authentication, unless you manually copy the authorization URL to a modern computer, log in there, and then copy the authorization code back into Macstodon. Yuck!
To resolve that problem, I've been looking into MacProxy Plus (https://github.com/hunterirving/macproxy_plus/) as a replacement for WebOne on the backend, via its' extension mechanism. In addition to SSL-stripping, this should let me "massage" the login form into a format that works with vintage web browsers. And not only that, but it'll also let me do things like transform the JSON that gets sent from the Mastodon API before it reaches the client, as some things are much easier to do with modern Python than in a vintage app.
I've already made a bunch of contributions to the MacProxy Plus codebase already over the last few weeks, including support for SVG rendering and a number of bug fixes.
So, between the MacProxy Plus work and the REALBasic work, things are finally starting to come together for Macstodon 2.0. I'm sorry it's taken so long - and it's going to continue to be in development for a while - I'm taking things slow so I don't burn out, but work is picking up.
Oh, and one more thing - I'm looking into Bluesky support for Macstodon 2.0 as well. No promises yet, but I'd like to do it ๐
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(๐งต 5/7) #GlobalTalk
I apologize that my GlobalTalk node hasn't been super stable lately. I'm not sure why, but the Apple Internet Router has decided to randomly start quitting, and refusing to come back up until I restart QEMU. I haven't really touched it since March, so I'm not sure what made it less stable - my guess is that it's a compatibility issue between QEMU and a recent Mac OS update.
I updated QEMU to the latest version a few days ago - I'm hoping that will make things more stable.
Meanwhile, I got my printer mostly working again. I set up my Raspberry Pi, reinstalled Raspbian, Netatalk2, and CUPS - all the same versions I had running during Marchintosh last year. However, the PPD file I was using then (and had backed up) doesn't seem to work any more - some print jobs get flipped, others would only print the corner of the page and blow up that corner to fill the page.
So I ended up switching to a generic PPD (for my printer model), which works correctly, however print jobs from certain apps (i.e. Print Shop) take 15-20 minutes to spool for some reason.
I also tried to set up a virtual PDF printer - and weirdly, it has the exact same failure mode as when I use the proper PPD file for my printer - some jobs get flipped, others print the corner of the page all blown up. So I'm wondering if the problem is CUPS itself or maybe something with the print driver on the Mac side - it's bizarre.
At some point I need to go through my GlobalTalk shares and organize them better. I'm sorry it's such a mess right now ๐
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(๐งต 4/7) The #Amiga 500
I brought my Amiga 500 to my dad's workbench over the holidays, and finally recapped the thing. It's by far the most difficult recapping job I've done yet - not because there's a lot of capacitors (there isn't), but they're really hard to get out. You have to use a ton of heat, and the holes are so tiny that you have to make sure every bead of solder's gone from the area or you're never going to get the replacement cap back in. It was painful.
And to make matters worse, Dad noticed that the serial port (the male DB-25 connector) was looking pretty rough. Some pins were bent, others were missing entirely, and it was pretty rusted on top of that. So we replaced it, and while that soldering job was even more troublesome than the recapping, we got it done. Only damaged one trace, which was fixed with a quick bodge wire.
I've got a loopback adapter coming in the mail so that we can double-check that the replacement serial port works correctly, by using the test kit software. Ordered a diagnostic ROM as well (though, silly me forgot to order the EEPROM adapter so I'll need to bodge it to get it to work with my Rev 5 board). Shout out to Retro Rewind, it's great to have an Amiga parts supplier in Canada so that I can get parts at a reasonable price ๐
The keyboard's mostly been serviced, the membrane has been replaced with a PCB that I got from eBay, and I ordered some new plungers from Retro Rewind to replace a couple that had broken as well. Fingers crossed that it'll all work again when I put it back together!
I also picked up an external Gotek drive a few months back from eBay (not sure if I posted about it already) - it works great. I didn't bother with a DF0/DF1 switch since I plan to get an ACA500plus in the future, which can do it in software. But before that, I want to make sure that everything is working stock. Almost there!
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(๐งต 3/7) The #Mac IIfx and Tower of Power
Not a whole lot has changed with the IIfx, I did end up installing the Interware 24-bit video card I picked up off eBay a couple months back. Haven't benchmarked it yet but it feels roughly the same speed as the Radius card it replaced - but it also does 24-bit video, appropriately for a IIfx.
For my tower itself I'm running out of slots on my 4-port KVM, I'm thinking of replacing it with an 8-port KVM and switching from HDMI to VGA, since I've had troubles with the signal dropping sometimes. VGA should make it easier to connect older machines anyway, since I wouldn't have to worry about using an Extron or OSSC scaler (which always seem to introduce scaling artifacts despite my best efforts).
I'm playing a lot of Shanghai. Haven't found a Mahjong Solitaire game for modern Mac OS that's just as good (and I'm addicted to the punishing "Gravity Defier" layout ๐ )
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(๐งต 2/7) The #Mac SE
Shortly after I got my Mac SE, I replaced the 800k floppy drive (which didn't work) with a 1.44Mb SuperDrive that I picked up from eBay. This also involved replacing the ROMs on the motherboard and the IWM chip with ROMs and a SWIM chip from another SE motherboard, which I also got from eBay.
The SuperDrive initially didn't work either, but I serviced it with the help of my dad and Adrian Black's excellent video guide (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pGhwtyFG2I). This got it to the point where it would work about 75% of the time, but the remaining 25% of the time the disk would either fail to eject, or the computer would think that there was a disk inserted when there was nothing actually in the drive.
So, after that initial servicing, I ended up ordering a new gear for the eject motor and replaced that as well... and the drive went from working 75% of the time to working 0% of the time... ๐ง I'm not exactly sure what happened, but the SE doesn't recognize the SuperDrive at all now. Putting a disk in the drive has no effect, it doesn't even try to read or spin it up. We think there's some kind of electrical failure, but the voltages look good, and without a schematic to go on, there isn't much more we can do.
And yeah, we tried changing the gear back to the bad one, with no effect.
So yeah, that's now become a "parts drive", and I've ordered another SuperDrive from eBay to start the whole process over again ๐
Meanwhile, I've installed the Performer 030 accelerator board that I picked up a couple months ago. Haven't actually tried it yet as the whole machine's disassembled, but I look forward to seeing it in action.
As for that other SE motherboard that donated its ROMs to my main SE, eventually I'd like to build it into an SE Mini case (https://jcm-1.com/product/se-mini-desktop-case-for-macintosh-se-or-se-30/), but that's a low priority for now since shipping costs are outrageous.
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(๐งต 1/7) Happy New Year, folks!
I've been on a break from social media for the last six weeks or so, it wasn't really planned but it's been nice and refreshing not to be doomscrolling all the time, especially during the holidays.
That's not to say I haven't been busy, though! I did manage to get caught up, more or less, on my #RetroComputing project backlog. So here's something of an update thread with all the things I've been up to lately:
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Happy Holidays folks! To you, your families, friends, and all your loved ones, no matter what you are celebrating this time of year.
I've been taking a social media break the last few weeks, but I'll be back soon ๐
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Lots of variety this year #SpotifyWrapped
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So many #RetroComputing goodies I'd like to buy:
I decided that I wouldn't buy any more until I've fixed my current systems. But the dollar is tanking, and tariffs are coming. Should I just buy everything I want now before they get even more expensive?
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