Happy Holidays

I haven’t been writing much around here the last couple of weeks, sorry…it’s been very busy here at Idiot Central. Everyone have a safe and healthy New Year, and I’ll promise to write more in 2007.

History of the Canon BX Print Engine

History of the Canon BX Print Engine, for all those folks out there still rocking a Xante B/W Accel-A-Writer. Related: a do-it-yourself Apple LaserWriter 630 exit jam repair kit.

Democrats ’08

Three of the Democratic front-runners.

Christmas Digital Photography Tips

16 Digital Photography Tips for Christmas. Lots of good stuff in here, from people shots to atmospheric hints.

OS 9 on an Intel Mac

Everything with the new MacBook Pro has been going swimmingly, up until this afternoon when I ran headlong into a brick wall. You see, I’ve got this one little utility which was written in 1991 or so which takes Mac fonts and converts them into PC versions so that I can transfer files back and forth, enabling my PC programs to edit Mac-authored files, and vice versa. Now that I’m on the Intel Mac, I can’t run OS 9 in the background under emulation like I used to on my iBook. So, I booted up the trusty old G3 tower under my desk to use the application there. Because I’ve hooked my second monitor to the MacBook, I don’t have a monitor on the G3—no problem, I’ll just use Remote Desktop, right? Wrong. Remote Desktop 2.X is incompatible with Intel Macs, so I have to upgrade to 3.0, which costs $300. Argh! Now my iTunes server, downstairs on the porch, is cut off from remote administration. Double Argh!

I found a website which points to a little application called SheepShaver, which purports to run OS 9 on Intel hardware, but apparently one must have the boot ROMs handy to be able to get the thing hooked up—something I don’t have time to fool with right now. When I get a moment to get it sorted out, I’ll write about it here. But for now, I have to dive under the desk to swap the monitor cables. Again.

Update: After a bunch of false starts and failed attempts, I found this article, which is a lot more detailed than the first. Knowing which ROM to use, which install CD to use, and the correct keyboard file helps out a lot. Still no success, though.

Update 12.27: I got Basilisk working with a copy of a Quadra 650 ROM linked from the second article above. SheepShaver just didn’t seem to like the ROM I pulled from the OS9 disk; whatever. Basilisk is running OS8 with no problems, and that’s all I need.

Update 1.1: I’m going to run through this so that folks can benefit from my experience:

Download Basilisk. Uncompress the Basilisk file.

Download the Quadra 650 ROM found here (and good luck if it’s not still available.) Drop it in the Basilisk folder.

Open Disk Utility (found in Applications->Utilities.) Click on New Image, and make a disk image at the size you’d like (my image was 500MB, and after installing OS8, I had 350MB of free space left.) name it what you like-I called mine “OS 8 Disk”. Drop that in the Basilisk folder as well.

Start up the “BasiliskGUI” application. Cringe at the UNIX-tastic UI goodness!

Under the “Volumes” tab, click Add and browse to the image you just created (in my case, the “OS 8 Disk” volume.) Inside this volume, you’ll install the operating system.

Under the “Keyboard” tab, click browse and navigate to the BasiliskII_keycodes file in the Basilisk folder. This way you’ll be able to use the keyboard under emulation.

Under the “Serial/Network” tab, select slirp in the Ethernet Interface pulldown. This allows the OS 8 emulator to use the ethernet interface.

Under the “Memory/Misc” tab, bump the RAM size up to 128MB or so. I have the Mac Model ID set to Quadra 900 and CPU Type set to 68040. For ROM File, click Browse and navigate to the quadra650.rom. This is how Basilisk gets to the point where installation can start.

Additionally, under “Graphics/Sound”, I changed the refresh to 15mhz and width/height to 800/600.

I used an OS 8 install disk for my installation. Put it in the machine and click the “Start” button. This should bring up a window with the happy mac and start booting off the install CD.

Install OS 8 with whatever options you like. Restart the emulation; it should bring up the installed OS. From here, you should be able to get online, bring up a web browser, and use OS 8.

If you’d told me a year ago that I’d be running OSX, Windows XP and OS8 on the same machine concurrently, I would have laughed at you.

Update 3.19.07: I was able to get the shared folder working with Basilisk, finally, and it’s much easier to use than mounting and unmounting the disk image.

Kill-A-Watt

This little gadget plugs into a wall socket and displays just how much power any appliance or electrical device pulls when turned on. I’d buy this for the sheer geekery of it. (via)

Vintage Hot Rods

Here’s a link to a series of vintage (post WW2) pictures from speed trials at the Bonneville Salt Flats. There is something absolutely classic, timeless, and beautiful about the design of cars towards the end of the entry.

Seatguru

Seatguru, a site providing information about seating on commercial airlines. Does your assigned seat have a power jack? Is it near the lavatory?

iTunes Power Tips.

iTunes Power Tips, from Lifehacker. Of special interest: this link to tips on managing multiple libraries, which is, unfortunately, Windows-oriented.

Living Room Update, 12.18.06

We moved furniture back into the living room on Saturday night after everything got final coats of paint. The area above the mantel is supposed to be darker than the wall, but it’s not dark enough for us yet. It’s great to have everything coming back to normal again, and even better to look at the base of the walls and see crisp white paint on clean new baseboard going around the length of the room. For your amusement (and my indulgence), here are some before and after shots. I don’t have any good shots of the room in original condition, unfortunately.

6.4.05 This is the day I tore the nasty wood paneling off the wall. (note the shitty floor, pre-sanded.)

6.4.05 After the paneling came down, before I patched the wall (note the chimney.)

This afternoon.

Life With Parallels, Day Two.

This is so strange, and very hard to get used to, but… I have two monitors on my MacBook, the laptop screen and an external monitor. The native display runs all my Mac stuff, and the external monitor is handling Windows apps, so I’ve got HomeSite runing in fullscreen on my left side, where a blocky ThinkPad used to live, but there’s only one laptp on my desk. Mousing between the two environments is seamless and easy. About the only thing that I had to alter was disabling my Mac’s default F12 quickkey (which toggles the Dashboard, something I find worthless) so that I could see quick previews in HomeSite. Oh, and remembering Command+( ) combination vs. Ctrl+( ) for basic modifiers like Cut and Paste wil take time, but that’s minor.

Shiny new Macbook Pro!

Next I’ve got to change my workflow around completely so that all my working files are in the same place (I had working files on both my PC and on my Mac, and some of them didn’t ever get synced up, a situation that I’ve had no luck fixing over the last ten years, and something that has caused major heartburn.)

I’ve noticed the MacBook runs pretty hot (the strip directly above the keyboard is very, very hot) so I’ll have to keep an eye on temps and the battery.

This is, without a doubt, a jump far into the future. How did I get by without it for so long?

This Laptop Goes To Eleven.

I just got a delivery from FedEx with a new toy inside. It’s a shiny 17″ MacBook Pro, bought refurbished from the Apple Store (saving me $700). On first blush, this thing is beautiful. The keyboard is so much better than my iBook. And the screen? Well, let’s just say I have more than twice the room I had before. Moving all my data over via the Migration Assistant took about an hour, and when it came up on the new computer, everything was smushed over in the upper left corner of the screen. I don’t know how I put up with that tiny thing for so long.

I have another stick of memory to drop in it and then I’m going to install Parallels and a fresh copy of Windows XP, and try to get a decent development environment organized. This is very, VERY nice.

Update: Things are humming smoothly along; I’ve found that my external monitor only does 1280×1024, so I can’t make things any bigger than that, which is a slight bummer. I also just realized (slaps forehead with hand) that I can’t run OS9 on this machine, which means that a little legacy piece of software I’ve got called FontMonger is an orphan. I’m going to have to keep an OS9 machine around here just to convert fonts, I guess. The keyboard is sexy and feels great, but it’s taking me some time to get used to the tactile feel, and the backlighting feature is the bomb. Props to Other World Computing for their clear, easy to follow RAM installation guides. If you are buying gear for a Mac, I strongly recommend this company.

I’m also officially in love with the Apple Remote; I don’t know how I survived without one for so long. For those with more than one Apple Remote in the room, this little Technical Article will come in handy: pairing your remote with your particular computer.

Archival CD/DVD information

How to choose CD/DVD archival media. DVD+R is supposed to be the best. Then why doesn’t my Mac recognize (or like) the DVD+R media I’ve got?
update: Looks like it might have been the Superdrive in my old iBook that didn’t like the media I bought; I just burned a DVD+R in the new MBP and it worked like butter.

CarMD

Hmm, this is pretty cool. CarMD is a little gadget that plugs into your car’s computer and diagnoses any problems it may have, along with estimates for repairs. Pretty slick.

Now, With More Paint!

This fireplace thing has been burning up all my free time, to the point where I’ve been up until 1AM this entire week trying to get it finished. The problem with carpentry, I’m finding, is that the amount of time needed to finish the project multiplies exponentially as the project gets closer to completion. (This logic, of course, states that the project will never get done, but don’t tell that to my wife.)

Anyway, I was able to get paint on the entire thing last night after the final sanding was completed, and this is what it looks like. There are some small issues to be touched up, but overall I’m happy with the results.

It got even better after two coats of super bright white semi-gloss; having the walls and trimwork on either side cleaned up sets it off even better. Today I’m going to put two more coats of paint on it, clean up the sides, and touch up the black on the brick.

Windows and OS X with parallels

How to run Windows and Mac apps side-by-side with Parallels. This may come in handy in a couple of days…

Toy Truck

I set up the light tent to shoot some shoes for a comp Jen was working on last night, and remembered this toy truck sitting in the bottom of a box, waiting to be displayed again. I found it on sale at an antique store because the trailer it originally came with was missing, but I loved the rake of the grille in the front.

I had to do some serious color retouching because I still don’t own a proper flash unit and the lighting situation is still less than optimal— these issues affect DSLRs as much as my G3. But I’m excited to do some more experimentation with brighter lights and learn to use my camera better for this kind of thing.

Abu Ghraib Whistleblower

If you have the time, read (or watch the Tivo) this 60 Minutes article about the whistleblower of Abu Ghraib. The logic of those who brand him a “traitor” is mind-boggling; they claim he “put our troops in harm’s way”. What about Donald Rumsfeld, who publicly identified the whistleblower on live television? Doesn’t that qualify as “putting troops in harm’s way?” People should be celebrating this man (Darby), not castigating him. This country is pretty fucked up.

Tourfilter

A website to catalog upcoming live music in the area: Tourfilter. Too bad DC is the closest listed city to me, but since most national and international tours skip B’more, it’s worth the drive. Thievery Corporation at the 9:30 club on the 20th!

Charlie Brown Scrubs Christmas

This is probably very old, but…A Charlie Brown Christmas performed by the cast of Scrubs. (youtube link)