europlus

So much more to learn

I’ve read a heap of books about Apple, its people, products, and history. These include, but are not limited to (and in no particular order):

Apple: The Inside Story of Intrigue, Egomania, and Business Blunders, by Jim Carlton (ISBN 0-7126-7901-4)
Accidental Empires: How the Boys of Silicon Valley Make Their Millions, Battle Foreign Competition, and Still Can’t Get a Date, by Robert X. Cringely (ISBN 0-14-025826-4)
The Mac Bathroom Reader, by Owen W. Linzmayer (ISBN 0-7821-1531-4)
iWoz, by Steve Wozniak with Gina Smith (ISBN 978-0-7553-1407-2)
The Apple II User’s Guide, by Lon Poole with Martin McNiff & Steven Cook (ISBN 0-931988-46-2)
Return to the Little Kingdom: Steve Jobs, the creation of Apple, and how it changed the world, by Michael Moritz (ISBN 978-0-7156-3941-2)
Steve Jobs: The Exclusive Biography, by Walter Isaacson (ISBN 978-0-7481-3132-7)
Becoming Steve Jobs: How a reckless upstart became a visionary leader, by Brent Schendler and Rick Tetzeli (ISBN 978-1-444-76200-6)

And then there are the numerous articles, blog posts and reminiscences about my favourite tech company by past and present employees, journalists, users, and podcasters.

You could say I’m steeped in the Apple culture, and not just because I’ve literally bled six colours!

I’ve certainly known of Ron Wayne’s part in Apple’s founding, and how Mike Markkula not only helped Apple establish itself with finance and guidance, but also by writing some of the early Apple-branded software to help showcase the Apple ][’s capabilities when it was first released.

What I didn’t know until last week was one little snippet of information about Mike Markkula’s impact on the Apple culture which is still on display in many products and in product announcements throughout its history – the programs he wrote were published as being authored by none other than “Johnny Appleseed”.

Yep, that’s right – the perennial Apple-using chap who shows up in probably every screenshot of a phone call, contacts list, iMessage chat, or e-mail shown during Apple keynotes and product announcements, and as a dummy name programmed into many Apple products, started his association with Apple 40 years ago as the programming nom de plume of one of Apple’s early founders.

I simply cannot imagine how this fact has eluded me all these years – I suppose there’s a chance I missed it when reading or hearing about it in the past, but it really is exactly the sort of factoid I tend to remember and take note of. I can find it referenced on websites going back to at least 2010, and I’m sure it must have been mentioned or relayed somewhere before then.

I know I don’t know everything there is to know about Apple – but I obviously know at least a little less than I previously thought!

It says something of my obsession that I was thrilled to learn even this little tidbit – here’s to learning a heap more!

Apple logo tattoo

It’s no secret that I love the old six-colour Apple logo – to me it epitomises the part of Apple history of which I’m most nostalgic for.

There are very few corporate logos which survive for 40+ years untouched – and, although Apple’s logo (largely) retains its shape, management (starting in Steve Jobs’ second reign) moved generally to a monochrome treatment of the logo.

As an admitted Apple logo hagiographer, I’ve certainly enjoyed the occasional nod from modern management to the logo’s colourful past, such as the WWDC 2012 logo, its appearances in this MacBook Air ad and six-colour themed Apple tv promotional material. I fully support Apple’s move to the modern logo treatment, but I think it says a lot about the company that they’re still prepared so readily to acknowledge and utilise their logo’s colourful past.

For many years I suggested to my family that I’d like to get a six-colour Apple logo tattoo – then I really could say I’d bled six colours!

In my role as the family’s Great Procrastinator, however, this wish never formalised into a plan, let alone action.

And so, as my 40th birthday approached, my kids made a wonderful suggestion – they would pay for my Apple logo tattoo for that landmark birthday!

Of course, acceptance of such an offer is only half the battle – I wanted to make sure whoever ended up doing the tattoo not only got the colours right (without the black outlines you sometimes see on Apple logo tattoos), but the shape also had to be spot on.

And then there are the issues of size and position – I’d originally thought of getting the tattoo on my back, but then I wouldn’t see people’s reaction to it! And my wife wanted it to be as small as could be – I knew getting the colours right on a small tattoo would be difficult, and if I was going to get a tattoo, I didn’t want it to be just 1cm tall!

So I suggested a size twice as big as I wanted, and “compromised” down to the real size I was after – approximately 4cm tall. With the “wanting to see people’s reactions” argument, I was able to successfully pitch for having the tattoo placed on the left hand side of my chest towards my shoulder. This has the added benefit of people thinking I wanted to have the logo “close to my heart”, which really didn’t come into it at all!

After a lot of web searching and asking around, we finally settled on Megan at Inner Vision Tattoo, in the Sydney inner suburb of Chippendale. Megan has a great portfolio of detailed colour work which mightily impressed us.

Mine was Megan’s first (and perhaps still only) Apple logo tattoo, but she was very willing to take on the challenge of getting the shape and colours right. After an hour and a half of “not as bad as I’d feared” pain, I had a shiny new six colour Apple logo tattoo!

Megan did phenomenal work on the joins between the colours, and to this day, nearly 8 years later, people still think it’s actually a sticker, not a real tattoo!

And so now, I have the most portable way of proving to people I meet just how much of an Apple fanboy I am! Which can’t be a bad thing…can it?!

WOzFest $04 Announcement

To celebrate KansasFest 2016 (and commiserate with other non-attendees) I’m proud to announce WOzFest $04 will be held on Saturday 23 July, kicking off at around midday.

At 1400 AEST we’ll try and get a video hookup with any KansasFest insomniacs (it’ll be 2300 CDT there) and share the KFest vibe.

Potential projects include ESR testing of PSU capacitors (feel free to bring some along), software preservation, assessment of some complete Apple //e education systems Jeremy from Canberra has recently secured from his high school Maths teacher, disk drive maintenance/recovery, and anything else people bring with them or decide on the day!

The usual munchies and cider will be present, with an expected dinner of pizza.

I expect it will be more low-key than WOzFest /// – but as I discovered last time around, anything can happen in 3 short weeks!

Hope to see you there!

Update: I’ve been donated an EDD+ card by Chris from Townsville and it’s now arrived – subject to it being operational, software preservation is definitely on the agenda. And, speaking of agendas, the video hookup “session” has been added to KansaFest’s official schedule – so I hope to see you there…or here…or, umm, wherever!

Dedication

It takes a lot to inspire dedication – people have to care very deeply about something to be dedicated to it.

Apple ][ aficionados are by no means the only dedicated species on this planet: car enthusiasts, Raspberry Pi tinkerers, painters on art tours – we all share a degree of passion which outsiders often view askance…while being so dedicated to their own “thing” such as a football team, a TV show, or a favourite restaurant.

But today, I was reminded of just how dedicated my fellow redo-computer enthusiasts were, in a few (very) different ways.

Firstly, there was an e-mail from Ken Gagne, the Editor-In-Chief and Publisher of Juiced.GS, the world’s only remaining (and longest running) Apple ][ print magazine. [Disclaimer: Ken kindly commissioned a story for the June ’16 issue of Juiced.GS on WOzFest from me.] To continue sourcing material for and publishing Juiced.GS takes a special kind of dedication. I burned out after only a few years of co-editing the Club Mac magazine, MACinations – Ken has been Editor-In-Chief of Juiced.GS since 2006! And, it seems, he has no intention of stopping – what an effort!

Secondly, Jeremy, an attendee of WOzFest /// posted his gallery of photos from the event on the WOzFest /// Galleries post I finally got around to putting up. Jeremy drove up for WOzFest /// from Canberra, a 6-hour round trip. And Jason and Geoff flew up from Melbourne to attend – it takes a certain kind of dedication (or crazy) to go so far for what is, in effect, a one-night informal gathering of Apple ][ collectors – what an effort!

And lastly (for now), there’s Steve Chamberlin, of Big Mess o’ Wires. I’d been following Steve’s travails around sourcing/reproducing DB19 connectors for his most excellent Floppy Emu disk drive emulator for many retro-Apple computers. It turns out, Steve has bitten the bullet and organised manufacture of 10,000 (yes, 10,000!) DB19 connectors to supply not just his own needs, but (as a group purchase) the needs of other retro-enthusiasts, including Atari and NeXT enthusiasts.

Steve had already gone above and beyond in extending his Floppy Emu beyond its original scope of being an early Macintosh floppy drive emulator. It now emulates pretty well any Apple drive designed to use the DB19 connector, including SmartPort drives, the Macintosh (non-SCSI) HD20, Apple ][ drives and Lisa drives. Steve could have quite rightly rested on his laurels and said, “No more DB19? No more Floppy Emus!”. Instead, he took the bull by the horns and solved his own supply issue and that of other enthusiasts – what an effort!

With dedication like the above, there are many exciting days ahead for us Apple ][ collectors!

WOzFest /// Galleries

Here are my pictures from WOzFest /// – feel free to post links to your own galleries in the comments!

Now we're cooking’! — Now we’re cooking’!

WOzFest /// Recap

Oh, what a night!

We had 18 attendees, which ended up being a little cramped, but no tempers were frayed (well, none of the attendees’ tempers were frayed, but that’s a different story).

Early attendees were the interstate visitors Geoff and Jason (they were at a bit of a loose end) and über-locals Jon and Andrew.

Others arrived throughout the afternoon and evening, and it wasn’t long before the work table (the fancy name for my table tennis table) was covered with Apple ][’s in various states of déshabillé.

When a //c for a new young enthusiast, Charlie, seemed to have auxiliary memory issues, Jon (thanks!) was tasked (by me) to troubleshoot the problem and figure out how to get a working machine (thanks, Craig, for spares).

When Hans, the author of Caverns of Mordia, arrived with a disk of the game to be imaged, Jason (thanks!) was tasked (by me) to try and image the disk for preservation as he had brought his EDD+ card with him.

When the pizza delivery guy arrived, he was fascinated with what we were doing, and asked to look around. He ended up getting a tour from Christian (thanks!) of the various machines, their histories, etc. and he left with several photos, I suppose to show off to his mates. The costs of the pizza was covered by a mystery donor attendee (thanks!).

At 8pm, the developer of the first surprise new hardware product being announced, Alex Lukacz, videoed in via Skype to give an overview of the 4play digital joystick interface card.

The 4play allows up to four digital joysticks (including the Atari 2600 joystick) to be connected to a slotted Apple ][. Alex had secured support for the card in KABOOM!, allowing the user interface to be navigated via attached joysticks and for gameplay to incorporate connected digital joysticks.

What Alex didn’t know was that Jon Co had approached me about also releasing the 4soniq four channel/surround-sound interface card (co-developed with John Valdezco) on the night. I thought KABOOM! would be a perfect demo program for the 4soniq, so I sent the request to Jesse Blue of Ninjaforce. He took up the challenge (thanks!), and with only 10 days’ notice, was able to bake in support for the 4soniq into KABOOM!.

Once Alex had made his announcement of the card and KABOOM!’s support of it, I then handed over to Jon, who could then announce his card…and KABOOM!’s support of it! Players then got to play the surround-sound and digital joystick enhanced KABOOM! using both cards.

Michael from the Retro Computing Roundtable brought a bottle of 1987 port which was then served up for attendees – it was a nice touch to have an era-appropriate tipple to go with our retro-computers. Michael also kindly left a magnum of 2002 Redman Cabernet Sauvignon as a thank you for my hosting WOzFest /// and gifted a copy of Steven Weyhrich’s excellent Apple ][ history Sophistication & Simplicity: The Life & Times of the Apple II Computer to Charlie. Thanks, Michael, for your extraordinary generosity.

I had a great time, there was a great vibe, and I think the new products were a hit. I’m not sure yet when the next WOzFest will be, but I’m already looking forward to it.

WOzFest /// Approaches!

One week to go till WOzFest ///!

I’ve been scrabbling to get ready – it’s more work than I expected, partly because the Man Cave was in a worse state than I expected after our renovations, but also because I’m divesting myself of so much of the retro-computing material I’ve collected to focus on my Apple ][ passion, the Apple ][ europlus. What that means is heaps of processing and selection that needs to be done on top of just prepping the Man Cave for not far off 20 visitors. I’m hoping this Anzac Day long weekend will give me the time I need to get things prepared.

It now looks like we’ll have at least two products announced and demonstrated on the night, and that’s not all that’s happening.

Ken Gagne, Editor-in-Chief and Publisher of Juiced.GS is generously providing us with a door prize! The winner gets to choose one of:

A 2016 subscription to Juiced.GS (a US$27 value);
A 2017 subscription to Juiced.GS (a US$27 value);
Opus ][: The Software (as a disk image download – a US$25 value); or
Opus ][: The Source (as a disk image download – a US$25 value).

The aim is to have an Apple ][ select the winner via a random draw – details to be announced. The winner doesn’t have to be present when the prize is drawn, but only attendees on the day will be eligible.

Thanks, Ken, for helping someone get lucky at WOzFest ///!

We’ll have at least two out-of-towners attending, with Geoff and Jason flying up from Melbourne.

Although it’s a work day, I’ve settled on a midday start for those who can make it then. Product announcements and the prize draw won’t happen until after business hours when the bulk of attendees are expected to be here.

But it’s shaping up as a great gathering of Apple ][ aficionados – tinkering, soldering, reconfiguring, cider, pizza, prizes, video hookups, new products! If that sounds like your kind of thing, drop me a line.

WOzFest /// Announcement

In Sydney on 29 April, 2016?

Love Apples, especially of the ][ variety?

Join me (and around 10-15 other retro-enthusiasts) at WOzFest /// – an Apple-lovers’ gathering at Wollstonecraft (on Sydney’s Lower North Shore).

Bring your soldering irons, bring your projects, bring your discards, but most of all bring your enthusiasm for…

…an exciting new Apple ][ hardware product to be announced – and demonstrated – on the night!

It’s not my product, but I’m overjoyed to be providing the venue (and audience [i.e. attendees]) for the announcement. I’m sure quite a few Apple ][ enthusiasts’ buttons will be pressed by it – it’s a real game changer! Beyond that, I can’t say anything about it.

It’s not strictly an Apple ][-only affair – there’s plenty of crossover into early Macs (and sometimes other computer brands) as well. We’ll have a few out-of-towners attending, and apple cider and pizza are the refreshments of choice.

“WOzFest ///? What of WOzFest 1 and ][?”, I hear you say.

WOzFest 1 was a hastily convened after party for OzKFest 2015 to take advantage of the fact Tony Diaz, who had flown over from the States, was in Sydney, along with his huge collection of Apple and Apple-related prototypes and gear. It provided a great impetus to tidy up the man cave and continue the OzKFest spirit.

WOzFest ][, held in July 2015, was a little more organised, and featured an Apple IIgs sound card “sound-off”. It also saw testing of a prototype of the Universal Drive Adaptor for the Floppy Emu. A surprise was the fact that Steve and Karina Howell from the Carte Blanche II project were in attendance.

I have a few projects I haven’t been able to get to because of the renovations – including testing my Uthernet II and testing my two Silentypes now I have the appropriate interface card, so I’ll try and get to that on the night. I’m aware of other attendees’ projects which will be worked on as well.

Drop me a line if you’d like to attend – it’s going to be a great night!