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The Mac Geek's Journal - Archives Archived March 15, 2003
2003_11_10 |
 03/15/2003 - AppleCommander 1.2.2
is releasedCourtesy: comp.sys.apple2 - A new release of AppleCommander is available! Version 1.2.2 continues on the general cleanup. One new export filter of a generalized hex dump has been added and quite a bit of work in relation to ProDOS volumes.
AppleCommander is hosted on
SourceForge. The
SourceForge project page is located
here. The files
are located
here.
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03/04/2003 - Seiko Matsuda and her
new "area62" CD release Besides Noriko Sakai, I'm also crazy
about Seiko Matsuda. In 1995, one of my dear friends gave me a copy of her CD
It's Style 95, personally signed by Seiko herself. I've been a big fan of
hers since the early 1990's, even before I started listening to Noriko. I first heard about Seiko in a CNN news segment in 1993, coining her the "Madonna of Japan", probably because of her flamboyant presentation at her concerts. She's not only a great recording artist, but she's also a excellent dancer and star of the big screen. She speaks English very well. She was among the first Japanese artists to make is really big internationally... She's been in several American movies, including Armageddon, Final Vendetta, Surrogate Mother with Bridgette Wilson (Mrs. Pete Sampras), and Sweet Evil. My all-time favorite songs of her is "Gone with the Rain" (1998) which has a style quite similar to Eric Clapton's recent acoustic pieces. Earlier today, I purchased her latest album under the name "Seiko" called area62. If you're into modern dance music, you must purchase this CD! It's almost entirely in English, and all but a couple of the tracks are fast-paced. Two of my favorite tracks are All To You and Downtown Tokyo. For more information about area62, check out the CD's official website. Also, check out Seiko's official homepage via this link. |
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 Here's a photo of my Noriko Sakai CD singles collection, all stacked up. You can see scans of both the front and back of each CDS here. |
03/01/2002
- Noriko Sakai CD Single Index posted It took some time, but I've
finally completed my Noriko Sakai CD single index. Yeah, I know there are many others on the Internet. My main goal here was to not only have the layout English-friendly, but also to display the front and back of each CDS package. I've also included the release date of each CDS, as well as notes specific to each release. Please use this as your resource to finally completing your Noriko Sakai CDS collection. |
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02/28/2003 -
Cigarette packs used in auction bid photos I don't
know... It's one of those things that just irks me! I shop around different
on-line auction sites quite a bit. Two of my favorites are
eBay and Yahoo Japan. eBay is by
far the largest of all the auction sites on the Internet. And, in many countries
around the World, the region-specific sites (eBay UK, etc.) are also considered
the giants of the region. Except for Japan. In Japan, eBay Japan was so lousy that eBay eventually took the site down. This is probably the only regional market on the Internet where a competitor, Yahoo Japan in this case, gave them a fight and won. Today, YJ is considered the giant of the Japanese on-line auction scene. |
How tall is that Snoopy figurine? About 3/4 the size of a pack of cigarettes. |
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Because I'm quite active buying and selling on eBay and YJ, I've noticed a number of differences in presenting an item that's up for bid. Size of the item is a big issue because you really don't know the size unless there's something sitting next to it you can relate with. On eBay, sellers stick in many things to demonstrate size: rulers, pencils/pens, can of Coca-Cola... These are items us westerners can relate with. However, on YJ, many items are sitting next to either a Bic lighter, or a pack of cigarettes. I find the practice of using smoking items somewhat a pet peeve of mine, probably because I'm a non-smoker and I'm against anything related to smoking, including women who smoke. During lunch with a few co-workers of mine, I brought up this issue. One of them said that Japan has a high rate of smokers (Hawaii has the smallest percentage of smokers in the United States), and that they can relate to the size of a pack of cigarettes, very much like how relate to the size of a quarter. So basically the whole idea behind this rant is that when you deal with other cultures, you need to realize that these other cultures deal with objects quite differently than you do. Very important to note this, especially when you're planning on target an auction item at a different culture. Remember, it's all in the presentation. |
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02/25/2003 - New Mac Geek Favorite
Links Section I
finally got off my fat butt and developed my
favorite links section. It's very much under construction, as I surf through
my Favorites, SimpleText clippings, etc. finding the links I regularly use.
Expect this link list to grow very rapidly over the coming week. |
 The Apple-1 in a customized wooden case. Quoting the crocodile hunter, "Ain't she a little beauty?" |
02/20/2002
- Vintage Computer Festival Auctions Another Apple-1 The auction will
run from Friday, February 21 through February 23. Unlike the previous Apple-1
auctioned that featured only the logic board and cassette adapter, this
particular specimen includes a home-made wooden case and keyboard.
Check out the auction's
web site... It's packed with photos of this unit. In order to particpate in the auction, you must register ahead of time. The registration form is located at the bottom of the auction web page. UPDATE: The bidding has ended, and the highest bid price is $12,000. However, according to one source, it didn't reach the $16,000 reserved price. The VCF has taken down the bidding link, so I don't know what the future lies for this unit. |
02/18/2003 - Link between Apple
and Walt Disney???? Check this out... Look at the cover of a Power
Macintosh G3 Blue/White model. Focus specifically on the area between the bite
of the Apple and the "3". Turn the machine 90-degrees counter-clockwise, and
you'll see the link. Coincidence? There was a good relationship between Disney
and Steve Jobs' other hobby, Pixar at the time this machine was built. Hmmmmm...
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02/17/2003 - 11-year old Macintosh
given credit for serving on Space Shuttle Columbia investigation In
the wake of the tragic loss of the space shuttle Columbia, a grainy silhouette
photo made the rounds. The image of the shuttle showing what appears to be a
plume trailing off the left wing was attributed to the
Starfire Optical Range -- a
powerful telescope system used by the US Air Force at a research installation in
New Mexico. As it turns out, however, the image wasn't taken with a Starfire
telescope at all -- it was snapped by The Starfire telescopes are designed to spy on enemy satellites and to look at incoming missiles, according to the Associated Press. The telescopes are very powerful, which led some to question why the image of the shuttle appeared to be so low-resolution: the photo is noticeably pixelated and lacking in detail, not at all consistent with what Starfire's telescopes are known for. As it turns out, the system responsible for the image wasn't a Starfire telescope at all. It was a hobby system cobbled together by Starfire engineers using a commercially available 3.5-inch telescope and an 11 year old Mac. "The people who work here are geeks," Starfire technical director Robert Fugate told AP. "This was an opportunity to look at a rapidly moving object and try to take a picture of it." Re-published courtesy of the Macintosh User Group Store. Written by Peter Cohen. |
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02/15/2003 - Apple IIe-to-IIGS
Upgrade On-Line Museum is here I've finally placed my Apple IIGS
Upgrade on the Internet for the World to see (and drool over). The unit that I
currently own is the most cherry you probably will ever see... It's because the
shell was taken out of its original wrapping and box about 1.5 years ago. And,
right after I assembled it, I slipped it right back in the package. |
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 What you're looking at here could be the world's first baked Apple PowerBook Titanium G4. I wonder if titanium will burn at 350-degrees F? |
02/06/2002
- Apple Service Mystery, Part 1 Aaron Steele, who works for an
Authorized Apple Reseller and Service Center, was given an Apple PowerBook
Titanium G4 which appears to have been baked in an oven. According to its
original owner, it sat in an oven for 20 minutes.
Get the complete
story here! Speaking of baking... How about melting? I worked at a ComputerLand store in the early 1990's, when one day a customer came in with a melted Apple Keyboard II. Literally melted!!!! While the customer was away, his son spilled orange juice all over the keyboard. He washed it in the bath tub the proceeded to dry the keyboard out with a hair dryer at the maximum heat setting. |
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02/02/2003 - Logic Board
Restoration Tutorial Mark Cummings of comp.sys.apple2 has posted
a step-by-step
process of restoring old logic boards. The process is quite good, and it can
be used for just about any Apple logic board, including Apple II and Macintosh
logic boards. Logic board restoration is quite an art form. In theory, electronic parts do not fade or go bad alone. Usually, corrosion, mildew, salt air, or a bad neighboring component are what causes components to go bad. The chips themselves are difficult to replace (especially if they're custom chips, such as the ROM), but other components like capacitors and such are quite simple to de-solder and replace. |
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 A very recent photo of Noriko Sakai, courtesy of YES! Even at the age of 32, she's still delicious eye-candy!!!! :)
Peek-a-boo!!! I see you!!! :) |
01/29/2003 - Valentine's Day is
coming (and so is Noriko Sakai's birthday) February the 14th is looked
upon in many countries around the World as Valentine's Day, a day where
romantics like myself show their special someone their affection, in the form of
gifts, music, among other forms. Japan has an interesting take on this un-official holiday... Valentine's Day is the day that the woman shows her affection to that special man by giving him chocolate. I first learned about this tradition in the Japanese manga Love Hina, where Shinobu and Naru make home-made chocolates for Keitaro. Shinobu has a cute little crush on Senpai, but Naru's affection for him is a lot more serious, more than what she'll admit to. Women who have casual relationships with the men in their lives, such as co-workers or friends, will usually buy chocolate for them. If the woman has deeper desires for the man, she'll actually make the chocolate from scratch, usually in the shape of a heart. And, in the case of Keitaro Urashima, his tradition is to make home-made chocolate for himself to make everyone think it came from an admirer. In return, March 14 is known in Japan as White Day. On this day, the men return the favor to the women by giving them something -- it doesn't have to be chocolate. We do not celebrate White Day in the U.S. I wish we did! These traditions is just a pinch of why I love Japan so much! Another thing I love about Japan is Noriko Sakai. If you've been through my site, you probably know that by now. And, as if it couldn't get any better, Noriko was born in the Fukuoka Perfecture on, of all dates, February 14. Yuppie yuppie!!!! |
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01/26/2003 - Update on Vince
Briel's Apple 1 Clone Project Vince announced today that he's gaining
progress in cloning the
original Apple 1. Paraphrasing what he's posted, basically he has a working
version of the project on breadboard for easier troubleshooting, and it's
functioning. He'll soon move the project back to wire-wrap. The video right now
is provided through a serial port connection to his PC. He's yet to design the
video out support, so for now the serial option will be the method of video
interfacing. He's also made some changes from the original Apple 1, such as
sticking the BASIC language into an EEPROM rather than relying on loading BASIC
via the cassette interface. |
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01/24/2003 - Updated Mac OS
Compatibility Chart
Apple Computer has updated their
Mac OS Compatibility chart, which covers models starting with the Macintosh
Centris and up, as well as Mac OS versions 8.0 through 9.2.2. One thing that's
interesting to note is that the Aluminum Powerbook is the first Macintosh to
show full incompatibility with any Classic version
of Mac OS. Steve warned everyone months in advance, and it's now becoming a
reality. |
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2003_11_10
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