WOzFest COLOR=15 Update

Wow, what a month! When I announced WOzFest COLOR=15 I was looking forward to another fun get-together of fellow Apple ][ enthusiasts, and I’d already started planning to stream the day for those who couldn’t make it.

Now, communities around the world are in lockdown (Australia is heading down that path) and people’s lives are being turned upside down.

By mid-last week, I decided to go stream-only for WOzFest COLOR=15. While a difficult personal decision, it’s nothing compared to what some people are experiencing.

I love hosting WOzFest and I love having enthusiasts here at WOzFest HQ – but for the next short(?) while, we all have to pull our head in.

I still need help, though – while I won’t have physical attendees, I’d like to do Skypes during the day. If you’re tinkering, if you have something to share or say, if you’re releasing a new product, if you’re lonely, whatever – let me know what time suits between 01:00-11:00 UTC 4 April 2020 and I’ll try and schedule you in. Let’s go around the world, let’s go around Australia, let’s show this stupid virus it won’t dampen our enthusiasm for the Apple ][!

On a practical level, I’ve been able to utilise some donated equipment for my streaming setup – a recently donated iMac 27” with 32GB RAM and 2GB VRAM is powerful enough to do the video processing. Two donated cracked-screen iPhones are acting as webcams, a donated webcam is being used above my Applesauce Disk ][, and a donated Airport Express is creating a dedicated WiFi network for the iPhone webcams.

But I have had to purchase some items – three camera mounts, two extra long USB cables to keep the iPhones running, a USB hub – all up, I’ve spent about AU$140.

I’m passing the hat around via Ko-Fi and asking if you’d like to support the stream please consider a small contribution to this. Large contributions welcome, too, of course!

The intention is that all future WOzFests will be streamed, but I expect this expenditure to be a one-off.

So, via Skype or Twitch chat, I’m looking forward to talking to some of you on 4 April and sharing some of the work I’ll be doing on the day. If I can I’ll try and draw up a schedule – for example, I wanted to do an Applesaucing session and discuss usage tips, etc.