It Came From The Porch : Museum (or something)

I'm a gadget nut. No twelve-step's gonna cure me, no encounter group can help me.

So help me lawd, I can't resist the call of an obsolete but really nifty computer... especially the ones that run the MacOS.

So far the tally runs like this (in order of aquisition)
(specs are links to www.apple-history.com):

• Commodore 64
• Commodore Amiga 1000
• PowerMac 7500 (Apple specs) Mortis
• Mac Portable (backlit) (Apple specs) Mortimer Sneed
• Newton Messagepad 2000
• Mac SE/30 (Apple specs) Leviticus
• Powerbook 160 (Apple specs) Ariel
• Mac Plus (Apple specs)
• PowerMac G4 Grendel

They all work, and yes, I even use them. Some more than others. The SE/30 is my word processor of choice, and the Newton is probably the one I use the most consistently, every day for one thing or another. The 7500 I've had since they came out in '95, and it's now a 250mhz G3 (thanks to a Newertech MaxPower card.) I use a Desktop G3 266 (Gabriel) at work, and that one gets most of my attention.

Up at Dogwood, we're starting to fill the room in front of Ray F's studio with old computers. Two Apple //e's, John's totally tricked-out TRS-80 COCO (and all the stuff he's got hooked up to it, including a huge 300 baud modem he built by hand), a TRS-80 Model 3, a Tandy 1000, my Amiga 1000, and probably something else I've forgotten. Anybody who wants to make sure that any kind of old computer has a happy home, please drop me a line if you'd like to donate to the cause!

For a complete listing of every Mac ever made (in a really cool format), head over to http://www.apple-history.com/gallery.html.

To download old versions of the MacOS, click here.

Some links to help you get that old Mac on the Net:

• Macintosh Networking: everything you need to know to get on the Net.
• MacOS Internet Connection Guide
• Mac On The Net : internet software
• Pure Mac: "all the software you really need." This one's cool.
• The Internet Starter Kit : the whole book (Mac and PC) online!
• Ultimate Mac: lots of links covering broad Mac subjects

The most recent bit of news is the addition of Grendel to the family. Power enough to do video editing and all the 3D graphics and sound processing I could want... and he has introduced me to the joys of USB. I love this computer. A lot. Unreal Tournament runs REALLY well on it. :) But never fear, the 7500 is far from dead. It's currently handling my internet connection and my webcam.

We've got the house wired up pretty good now. Rob's two PCs and his ThinkPad are all downstairs running Linux (and Win98 when they absolutely have to), along with Siddy's new Grape iMac 333. Nick has his Windows machine in his apartment. All of them are networked to each other and my 7500 and G4, and I'm using DAVE so that I can see the Win95 network. It works out pretty well. Right now Rob's got the only scanner in the house (but not for long! Cheap USB scanner, here I come) and the only printers. But again, not for long. I ordered an Epson 740i last night, and I'm gonna see whether I can figure out how to share that across the network too.

Connectivity is fun! Wahoo...