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Quorten Blog 1

First blog for all Quorten's blog-like writings

Review of some different Macintosh Classic emulators

quorten

2019-05-18

Categories: mac-classic  
Tags: mac-classic  

  • Executor – if you simply want to run Macintosh Classic software and are okay doing so without a “genuine” ROM.

  • Mini vMac – my old preferred choice for emulating a Macintosh SE. The software and instructions for getting started are pretty nice, just as is the case for Apple Disk Transfer ProDOS. Also, genuine SCSI hard disk drives are not supported, so I can’t setup the virtual Macintosh SE just like I have the real one.

  • MESSS + MAME – MESS is now merged into the MAME project, MESS provides a more genuine emulation experience of Macintosh SE than Mini vMac when I last checked, but there was one bug on the timer and processor speed clocking that makes software run unusually slow. Genuine SCSI hard disk drives are supported, but not the kind of internal hard disk drive on SCSI0 that my real Macintosh SE has.

  • PCE and PCE.js – this may be more of a newer kid on the block in Macintosh emulation, but it has clearly grown much more popular by its inclusion in the Internet Archive. Also, it supports genuine SCSI hard disk drives.

And there were also a few other Macintosh emulators that I’ve mentioned in previous articles, but won’t revisit those for now.

Read on →

The forgotten Silicon Beach Software company

quorten

2019-05-18

Categories: mac-classic   computer-history  
Tags: mac-classic   computer-history  

Silicon Beach Software… yes, that was the company that made the Dark Castle and Beyond Dark Castle Macintosh Classic games. Surely, they are no longer in business anymore, correct? Correct.

Wow, now this is interesting. The developers behind Silicon Beach Software were the first to pioneer a lot of modern technologies years in advance. SuperPaint introduced many modern image editing tools like the Magic Wand before Adobe Photoshop was introduced, one to two years in advance (depending on how you count). SuperPaint2 introduced a plugin architecture. Jonathan Gay later went on to co-found FutureWave Software, which eventually produced Macromedia Flash and Adobe Flash. The animations in the Dark Castle computer game were produced with an early version of a tool that later became known as Macromedia Director. Even the company name, Silicon Beach Software, is credited for giving San Diego the nickname “Silicon Beach.”

As the productivity software was much more lucrative than the games, Silicon Beach Software did not produce many games, quickly shifting to a full focus on the productivity software. This companies end came about by its purchase first by Aldus in 1990, then by Adobe in 1994. Delta Tao acquired the rights to the Dark Castle video games in 1994.

20190517/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silicon_Beach_Software
20190517/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SuperPaint_%28Macintosh%29

Read on →

Apple Older Software Downloads Archive

quorten

2019-05-18

Categories: mac-classic  
Tags: mac-classic  

Apple “Older Software” page… ah yes, I have previous references where I simply mention that by name, but that was nearly 10 years ago by now. Surely, a commercial company like Apple could not be that reliable with supporting their older technology, now could they? Indeed, they are not. The original page is off the face of the Internet. Luckily, a quick web search does yield live archived copies on other sites.

20190117/DuckDuckGo apple older software
20190117/https://www.macintoshrepository.org/6877-apple-older-software-downloads-archive

The Gryphel Project also has some saved copies, but not nearly as many, and it does mention the original URL. You can find the archived page in the Internet Archive Wayback Machine.

20190117/https://www.gryphel.com/c/sw/system/index.html
broken/http://www.info.apple.com/support/oldersoftwarelist.html
20190117/https://web.archive.org/web/20080515225712/http://www.info.apple.com/support/oldersoftwarelist.html

Kermit and serial communications on a Macintosh Classic

quorten

2019-05-16

Categories: mac-classic   home-network   reiterate  
Tags: mac-classic   home-network   reiterate  

Recently, I’ve been following through on my previous notes on how to build a serial cable to connect a Macintosh SE to a PC via a null modem serial cable. Indeed, the devil is in the details! I didn’t realize the first time upon discovering those sources that the original Macintosh didn’t support full hardware handshaking, but later ones did, and this resulted in some early software having bugs whereby it doesn’t manage the handshaking status lines. So, that one really threw me off with three potential decisions to make on how to wire up a Macintosh Classic serial cable. Oh, and the fact that there is no easy way to wire up the much needed critical DCD signal, unlike is the case with the Apple IIc Plus. Initially, I planned on this scheme for my use:

  • Tie RTS & CTS together on the PC-side.
  • Wire DCD to DTR on the PC-side.

But, after having worked with the serial cable for a little while and learned a bit more about the software, I decided it makes the most sense to wire up the cable with full hardware handshaking. Why is this? Luckily, when you are controlling the other end of a serial port via a computer, it is very easy to reconfigure how your computer interacts with the serial interface. You can enable and disable hardware handshaking at your pleasing. Got a program that is being uncooperative with hardware handshaking wired up and enabled? Simply disable hardware handshaking in software, no need to cut wires.

Read on →

Ghostscript ps2pdf force landscape rotation

quorten

2019-05-13

Categories: media-prog  
Tags: media-prog  

Quick note here, suppose you save a PostScript file and convert it to PDF via ps2pdf, but the orientation was not properly embedded in the PDF. How do you fix this? Use this command line rather than the ps2pdf command:

gs -q -dSAFER -dBATCH -dNOPAUSE -sDEVICE=pdfwrite \
  -sOutputFile=printout.pdf -dAutoRotatePages=/None \
  -c "<</Orientation 3>> setpagedevice" -f printout.ps

20190513/DuckDuckGo ghostscript ps2pdf orientation landscape
20190513/https://superuser.com/questions/70054/set-page-orientation-to-landscape-using-ps2pdf
20190513/https://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/linux-newbie-8/how-to-create-landscape-oriented-pdf-with-ghostscript-775308/

I thought there was an easier way I used before… I’ll have to investigate more. But yes, I had to use a Ghostscript command line.

Well, I guess this must have been the alternative command line I was using before:

gs -q -dSAFER -dBATCH -dNOPAUSE -sDEVICE=pdfwrite \
  -sOutputFile=dummy2.pdf -dDEVICEWIDTHPOINTS=792 \
  -dDEVICEHEIGHTPOINTS=612 -dFIXEDMEDIA -dPSFitPage pirates.ps

Read on →

Cat6A Cabling Speed Test Tool? No.

quorten

2019-05-12

Categories: home-network  
Tags: home-network  

So, I’m wondering. Where is a good Cat6A in-wall cabling speed test tool available? Unfortunately, all Ethernet cabling speed test tools are relatively expensive. For small-time use, your best speed-test tool is simply using equipment that is capable of the higher speeds and seeing if you can sustain a transfer at the maximum rate.

20190512/DuckDuckGo cat6a speed test tool
20190512/https://forums.tomshardware.com/threads/what-is-an-excellent-cat6-6a-cable-testing-unit.1303821/

Splice Ethernet cables and trunking

quorten

2019-05-09

Categories: home-network  
Tags: home-network  

Wondering how the best way to join solid-wire Ethernet cable segments together is? A special kind of punch-down junction block appears to be the best way: Punch-down the two wire ends to the block to join them into one. You get the same speed you’d otherwise get from using a port-based coupler and you don’t need to do soldering. In fact, you probably shouldn’t do soldering, mainly for the purpose of making splices obvious, and the fact that doing so can cause larger speed degradations.

20190509/DuckDuckGo punch down splice two cat5 cables together
20190509/https://forums.anandtech.com/threads/best-way-to-extend-cat5e-wire.2295028/

Another thing to wonder about. What is the best way to do branching/trunking with conduit for Ethernet cabling? Well, that’s not so clear of an answer, but here is some background information.

20190509/DuckDuckGo big conduit carries multiple cables split into smaller conduits
20190509/DuckDuckGo conduit split branches
20190509/DuckDuckGo conduit trunking ethernet cables
20190509/https://diy.stackexchange.com/questions/71692/how-many-cat6-cables-can-fit-in-3-4-conduit
20190509/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrical_conduit

Physical placement of logical sectors on removable media

quorten

2019-05-09

Categories: vintage-computing  
Tags: vintage-computing  

Removable digital storage media… ah, yes, it’s something we no longer use nowadays in modern desktop computing. Only in the halls of big datacenters might you find removable storage media nowadays. But, if you’re really into 1980s and 1990s era vintage computing, removable media is a major element of this genre. Additionally, errors on removable media were also a somewhat rare but occasional occurrence. So, when you take out your physical media that is in error and look at it, how do you know how to deal with the error? First, you need to know the geometry that the data is logically stored on the physical media.

  • Floppy disks and hard disks: Both floppy disks and hard disks are formatted via the cylinder, head, sector (CHS) methodology. Cylinders/tracks are concentric rings. The logical first cylinder is always the outermost ring. Each head is one side of a circular disk. Side A of a floppy disk is the “top” side, as seen when you insert the disk into the drive, and side B is the “bottom” side.

    The cylinders/tracks on most floppy disks are divided up into the same number of sectors regardless of where the cylinder appears on hte disk surface. For example, IBM-formatted disks have the same number of sectors per track on all tracks on a disk, but Apple-formatted disks, format more sectors on outermost tracks.

  • CD-ROMs and other optical discs: The data is written on a spiral track that starts on the inner edge of the disc, spirals counterclockwise, and ends on the outer-edge of the disc.

Read on →

How hot is too hot for non-stick pan coatings?

quorten

2019-05-03

Categories: twitter   misc  
Tags: twitter   misc  

Some interesting analysis about non-stick pan coatings. If the pan is overheated, the coating will decompose and may release hazardous chemicals. Typical stoves can overheat a non-stick pan surprisingly fast, in just 10 minutes or less if put on high.

20190502/https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/cooking-tools/cookware-reviews/a17426/nonstick-cookware-safety-facts/