Sunday, January 29, 2012

Macintosh Classic from 1990

1990 Mac Classic.  Fired right up!  January 29, 2012

Fired up this 22 year old dinosaur tonight to try to salvage some old writing from the 1990s.  This was my primary computer from 1990 through to 1999 (though, once they invented those darned interwebs, it was pretty much the same as just not having a computer).

I was impressed.  Everything worked.  The first time I turned the power on, it sputtered and wanted a startup disk, which would have pretty much meant it was forever dead.  Flipping it off and back on, the mammoth 40 MB hard drive came on and it worked great.  First time I’ve powered it up in about ten years.

Heck, it worked better than many less ancient computers I have around here.  The frankenPC I am using right this second often needs two or three tries before it can figure out how to start up and load Windows properly.

Apple.  Damn.  I’ll put a check in the score column for you guys tonight.

Now the problem is how to get those old files across the gulf of time to my PCs.

Back in 1999, I didn’t have too much of a problem getting the files moved.  Windows 98 seemed to be able to read the disks and open the ancient Mac Word files as text files with little hassle, if I opened them as text files. I could salvage the content with little hassle and a lot of re-formatting.

12 years later, though, it may be a little more of a hassle.  While frankenPC actually does have a floppy disk drive, it couldn’t read the old Mac disks.

I think old tech may come to the rescue here.  We have an old laptop still running Windows 98, the same OS I was using the last time I tried to salvage some old files from this Mac, that The Ex One recently bough for five bucks off of Ebay.  We haven’t been able to figure out a use for this clunky old laptop but this project may, in fact, end up justifying it’s existence.

Bottom line, though, I am not wasting a lot of time trying to get these files moved.  I have no problem sitting down with my laptop and the Mac and just doing some good old fashioned data entry.  Just having any sort of readable (by eyes, not machines) version of those old files is a big relief to me. 

I think the longest document I want off of there is about seven pages long.  Fortunately, I believe everything much longer than that was moved over to my PCs many, many years ago and backed up properly to avoid any of the data crashes that have plagued my photography over the years.

Recently, though, I noticed a few files missing from my system that, in hindsight, were probably never moved off the Mac.  I am glad it works and that I can retrieve these scraps from my past.  If it can start four or five more times, it will have far exceeded any expected lifetime and it can go quietly off into the good night to rest in peace.

For fun, check out these specs…

Specifications

Component
Specification[1]

Display
9-inch (23 cm) monochrome CRT display, 512 × 342 pixel resolution

Storage
40 MB SCSI hard disk drive optional, Built-in SuperDrive 3.5 in floppy disk drive

Processor
8 MHz Motorola 68000

Bus Speed
8 MHz

Random Access Memory
1 MB, expandable to 2 or 4 MB using 120 ns 30-pin SIMMs and optional custom RAM-slot expansion card

Read-only Memory
512 KB

Networking
AppleTalk

Battery
3.6 V lithium

Physical dimensions
13.2 in × 9.7 in × 11.2 in (33.5 cm × 24.6 cm × 28.4 cm; depth by width by height)
16 lb (7.26 kg)

Port connections
ADB (keyboard, mouse)
mini-DIN-8 RS-422 serial ports (printer, modem, AppleTalk)
DB-19 (ext. floppy drive)
DB-25 SCSI connector (ext. hard drive, scanner)
1× 3.5 mm Headphone jack socket

Expansion slots
none

Audio
8-bit mono 22 kHz

Macintosh Classic - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

The Classic was an adaptation of Jerry Manock's and Terry Oyama's 1984 Macintosh 128K industrial design, as had been the earlier Macintosh SE. Apple released two versions that ranged from $1,000 to $1,500. Reviewer reactions were mixed; most focused on the slow processor performance and lack of expansion slots. The consensus was that the Classic was only useful for word processing, spreadsheets and databases. The lower price and the availability of education software led to the Classic's popularity in education. It was sold alongside the more powerful Macintosh Classic II in 1991 until its discontinuation the next year.

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Thursday, January 26, 2012

Facebook “types”

Not sure about its origins, but it looks pretty accurate to me…

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Really? 6 Volt batteries filled with AA batteries?

I’ll need to check this out when I have a chance.  (Probably not.  Acid burns suck, people.  Just sayin’)

 

This still leaves open one of the arguments that I’ve seen, that you need to get the right brand of 6 Volt.

 

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Thursday, January 19, 2012

LinkedIn & Ajax Social Media Consulting: How to get the most out of your LinkedIn profile

 Ajax and Linkedin - YouTube:

Ajax and Linkedin. Ajax social media consulting visits linkedIn to discuss effective Profiles and making the most of LinkedIn experience.

Sometimes I wonder how much effort LinkedIn is really worth.  I look at my updates, and aside from the occasional job posting from one of my contacts (usually not in my field), there is usually little more than “’A’ is now connected with ‘B’” there.

However, I have used the site at all during a contract hunting season.  My feelings about it might change as I head back into job hunting mode.'

Recently, I’ve been dipping my toes a bit deeper into the Groups, and there I am finding some more depth, including some informative conversations about topics that interest me and relate to my career goals. 

So it might not be a waste of space, completely.  But I still have a hard time finding the motivation to spend too much time working on my profile there…

In his presentation, Jason Seiden tackles these sorts of feelings almost immediately.  I suppose I am not alone in my thoughts here, and he does a very good job of outlining LinkedIn’s role in the social media landscape.

Overall, this video is geared towards Talent Recruiters rather than Candidates, but much of the territory covered applies to both.  After all, it is all about sales, bottom line.  Recruiters selling themselves to Candidates and vice versa.  When he speaks of using LinkedIn profiles to communicate credibility and expertise, the tips work equally well for those on either side of the equation.

Very interesting and worth 25 minutes of your time.  It left me fired up and ready to go take a look at my long neglected profile page.  And that is pretty amazing.  I’ve been dreading the though of running through and updating everything as I prepare for the hunt for a new writing contract, but watching this video actually has me looking forward to getting started.

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Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Pre-Photoshop Soviet Historical Correction Machines

Note: Cross posted from Rubble.

Permalink


Obsolete: Photoshop Before Photoshop | Motherboard:
In this Sesame Street-reminiscent vintage Russian clip circa 1987, we learn how images were edited before the days of Photoshop.
Yes.  I am sure the Soviets used this technology purely for improving the contrast on old photos!




For some reason, these Soviet machines made me think of this…

Censorship of images in the Soviet Union - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:
After Joseph Stalin rose to power in the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and became Soviet leader, he initiated a number of purges that eliminated perceived enemies. At first, a purge meant expulsion from the Communist Party, but after the Great Purge in the 1930s members were arrested, imprisoned, sent to gulags or to internal exile in Siberia, or executed. The Soviet government attempted to erase some purged figures from Soviet history, and took measures which included altering images, destroying film, and in the most extreme cases, killing off entire families.
File:The Commissar Vanishes 2.jpg - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:
Stalin, (Nikolai Yezhov, censored) and Molotow at the shore of the Moskwa-Wolga-Channel. After Yezhow was executed he vanished between 1940-1990 from this pic too.

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Sunday, January 8, 2012

~36,489 Views Last Month: December 2011 Statistics Wrap-Up

Up nearly 12,000 hits over November, even though I took several weeks off from posting much in the way of new content.  Up and to the right.  I’ll take it.

2012-01 Site Statistic Totals graph 182012 10655 PM

2012-01 Site Statistic Totals all 182012 10655 PM

 

2012-01 Site Statistic Totals  monthly graph 182012 11218 PM 2012-01 Site Statistic Totals monthly chart 182012 11218 PM

 

Rubble:

November:     3,377
December:    3,822
Change:        +445
All Time:      15,305*

 

Democracy In Distress:

November:     6,129
December:    5,945
Change:        -184
All Time:       21,469*

Retrovirus Lab:

November:     1,312
December:      1363
Change:           +51
All Time:        4,290**

Suburban Eschatology Part Two:

November:     873
December:     255
Change:          -618
All Time:        1,730**

All My Base Belong To You:

November: N/A
December: 120
Change:       +120
All Time:   120

Panoramio.com:

November:    5,998
December: 11,383
Change:       +5,385
All Time:      30,617***

Photobucket.com:

October:      855
December:  7,546
Change:      +6691
All Time:      25,726****

 

Picasa Web Albums:

November:     471
December:      741
Change:           +270
All Time:       5021*****

YouTube:

November – Channel Views:  110
November – Upload Views:    953
December: 314
All Time:      1,829


* Blogger has been keeping stats since May 2009, these blogs have been around much longer.  However, since they were essentially dormant until March 2011, they do reflect the activity on these blogs during their current, active incarnation.
** These blogs were created in August 2011.
*** Since August 2011, when I first started posting on this site.
**** I hate Photobucket and I rarely use it.  I believe 11,007 is the total since May, not March, since I had 10,909 hits on June 15.  I've arrived at this static by adding the monthly counts since June to 10,909, which is probably more accurate, but still leaves 15 days worth of hits unaccounted for.
***** I began recording statistics on Picasa in March, 2011. I was posting to the site earlier, but not by much, so this should be a fairly accurate statistic.

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