Applefritter - Macintosh, 68K

Revolution in The Valley

Fri, 04 Feb 2005 06:27:56 -0800

[center] [center][b]The Insanely Great Story of How The Mac Was Made[/b][/center] How was the Macintosh made? How did it evolve? What are the stories of the people who created it? [i]Revolution in the Valley[/i] is a series of anecdotes compiled by Software Wizard Andy Hertzfeld about the early days of the Macintosh. Andy first began to tell his tales of the Mac's creation on his website, [url=http://www.folklore.org]Folklore.org[/url]. Not long after, Tim O'Reilly approached him about the possibility of compiling the stories into a book. Browse Folklore.org and you can still read most of these stories online, but [i]Revolution in the Valley[/i] presents them in a more comfortable, enjoyable format. Every story Andy presents is an entertaining read, but most fascinating are the tales of chance. Luck and the determination of individuals working on scorned projects played a decisive role in the formation of user interface characteristics that we take for granted today. The Lisa, for example, almost had an interface based on dialog boxes. It was the surreptitious work of Bill Atkinson and Dan Smith that gave us the icon-based Finder we use today. In another story, Andy tells of how the "OK" button was labeled "Do It" - until one user asked why his computer was calling him a "Dolt." Equally interesting are the features that [i]didn't[/i] make it. The original Macintosh almost had a slot (euphemistically called the "diagnostic port") until management realized what it was [i]really[/i] supposed to be. On the more whimsical side, had it not been for limited ROM space, "Mr. Macintosh" would have appeared in a menu waving his hand, once every couple thousand times the user pulled down a menu. [i]Revolution in the Valley[/i] is an fascinating book which anybody reading this site will enjoy immensely. Even if you don't buy a copy, at least head over to [url=http://www.folklore.org]Folklore.org[/url], where you can read many of the stories online. [i]Buy on Amazon:[/i] [url=http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0596007191/applefritter-20]Revolution in The Valley: The Insanely Great Story of How The Mac Was Made[/url]

Quadra 7100b/G3 - Power Mac 7100/G3 in a Black Quadra 700 case

Mon, 11 Jul 2005 17:22:36 -0700

[center][b]Macintosh Quadra 7100b[/b][/center] [center][image:3434][/center] A Power Mac 7100 in a black Quadra 700 case with a wireless keyboard [center][b]Introduction[/b][/center] I've always been a fan of hacking, case mods in particular. Recently I've felt the desire to do something a little less intricate, and at the same time a little more comprehensive, than the CC mods I usually do. I love the Quadra 700 mini-minitower form factor, and while I respect the 68k purity of it (it's my favorite machine for running A/UX), I've always wanted a PPC Quadra 700. PPC601 cards are hard to find and relatively expensive, so I decided to make a cheapskate's PPC Quadra from what I had around the house: namely, an extra Q700 with a discolored case and no RAM, and a really beat-up 7100 with a terrible case and no CD-ROM drive. I later added a G3 card, a MacPicasso 340 NuBus video card, and an old Dolch industrial 10.4" black LCD VGA monitor. The G3, MacPicasso and Dolch LCD set me back quite a few clams, but hey, hacking ain't supposed to practical! You can see some pics of the monitor here: http://homepage.mac.com/mruben/macstuff/PhotoAlbum51.html The black color for the case was inspired by a very cool black wireless keyboard I just got off eBay. The Acer Airkey is an infrared, ADB keyboard with built in mouse pointer and clickers. It's compact and just too cool. Finally, I'd been wanting to try out Molecubond, a spray dye designed for cars and boats that actually bonds to plastic. Unlike paint, it won't peel off, it won't scratch off (unless you really gouge it), and it won't obscure the texture of the plastic. [center][b]Step 1: Get out the Jigsaw[/b][/center] Step One was to modify the Q700's case to fit the 7100's mobo. Both mobos share the same form factor -- they're the same size and, crucially, they have the same two cutouts in the middle, which allows the 7100's mobo to latch securely to plastic standoff hooks molded into the base of the Q700's case. So the only real modification involved removing the rear port holes to accommodate the 7100's different port array. I also cut a hole in the rear of the Q700 to accommodate a monitor port from the 7100's HPV card, because I had no HDI45 adapter, and this mobo's HDI monitor port seems to be defective anyway. Here are the cutouts, made with a drill and a jigsaw. I started with a dremel, but it was taking forever and was melting the plastic -- yuk! (Inside, the Q700's shielding was cut with tin snips--wear gloves, the edges are razor sharp!) [center][image:3410][/center] In the foreground is an Asante NuBus ethernet card I had lying around the house. When I upgraded to a G3 card, I had to abandon the HPV video card - it would no longer fit in the case. Instead, I got the aforementioned MacPicasso NuBus card. I now wish I hadn't cut the HPV card opening, but it is relatively small and is in the back, so it's not a big deal. [center][b]Step 1a: Plow the Field[/b][/center] The top wouldn't close properly with the HPV card installed. It doesn't appear to stick up any higher than the ethernet card, but you can't argue with physics. So out came the Dremel. After three abrasive cutoff wheels shattered on me, I switched to the metal cutoff saw, which did the trick. The basement did smell like melted plastic for the rest of the night, however. :-/ [center][image:3426][/center] [center][b]Step 2: Molecubond![/b][/center] I'd read about the miraculous Molecubond, a paint that's actually a dye, and which promises to bond to plastic so that it can't be scratched or peeled off like paint -- all the while preserving the texture of the Mac's case. Molecubond is now ColorBond, and is made by Bryndana International Ltd.: [center][url]http://www.colorbondtuner.com/[/url][/center] [center][image:3428][/center] So I got two cans for -- ouch! -- $9.99 each, and went out in the yard to spray. But first I had to remove the Apple logo and the plastic piece that lets the power LED shine through: [center][image:3415][/center] That done, I began to spray the dye: [center][image:3416][/center] [center][image:3417][/center] Molecubond preserved the case texture as promised, but it covers very thinly, as evidenced by the above pictures, taken before the final coat. And it stinks to high heaven. If I were indoors I would've passed out from the fumes -- seriously! :o I went through both cans, which promise a combined 14 square foot coverage, and the case -- which is about 4.5 square feet -- still needed one more coat. I made sure to coat the front and top well, so they looked the most even: [center][image:3408][/center] [center][image:3425][/center] Here's some detail on the front, around the floppy and logo area, and around the reset button holes: [center][image:3414][/center] [center][image:3407][/center] And here are some shots of the little things: reset buttons, NuBus slot covers, and case feet: [center][image:3436][image:3421][/center] [center][image:3429][/center] After I took these pictures, I bit the bullet and got a third can of Molecubond. The case now looks much better, deeper black and much more even in color. [center][b]Step 3: Putting It All Back Together[/b][/center] This part was fairly simple, with only one little trick. Here's the 7100's motherboard, fully populated with 72MB RAM (4 16MB sticks I had laying around, plus 8MB on the motherboard). Also shown are the cabling, the HPV card and the ethernet card: [center][image:3418][/center] Here's everything stuffed back in the painted case... [center][image:3419][/center] ... except for the speaker. The Q700 has a different shaped speaker, (below, left) with a different impedance and a different motherboard connector: [center][image:3422][/center] So the 7100's speaker must be used. And because of its different shape and size, it won't fit into the Q700's speaker enclosure. So I attached it to the case with super-velcro: [center][image:3427][image:3424][/center] [center][image:3423][/center] BUT, I soon discovered that the original speaker's plastic bracket also helps steady the motherboard in its case. So I cut off the top of the bracket and reinstalled it, re-stabilizing the mobo. Finally, I snapped on the top and put on the feet: [center][image:3409][/center] In outdoor light, or by the flash of a camera, some unevenness in color showed up. But now, with the third coat of Molecubond on, it's a non-issue. [center][b]Step 4: Fire It Up![/b][/center] I'd installed a 2GB Seagate Barracuda I got from who-remembers-where, and I had no idea if it had an OS on it, much less one that would boot the 7100. So in addition to a monitor, I attached an external CD-ROM drive in case I had to install an OS from CD. Finally, I attached the super-cool Acer Airkey wireless keyboard, pressed the power button (the Airkey has no power key :( ), and voila! [center][image:3413][/center] Turns out the Barracura had OS 8.0 on it and booted right up. It was rather noisy, however, and I got sick of listening to it. So I swapped in a 500MB Apple/Quantum drive and installed OS 8.6. Now, at this point the Quadra 7100b got a little full of itself and started posing like the old Beige G3 towers, with its keyboard leaned up against it, sort of like a jacket slung over the shoulder: [center][image:3411][/center] When not in use, the keyboard fits perfectly on top of the machine: [center][image:3412][/center]

Outbound Notebook

Thu, 17 Jun 2004 18:02:46 -0700

[center][image:3362][/center] Outbound Systems is the only pre-PPC clone manufacturer to actually receive Apple's blessing. Not coincidentally, the Notebook is the most plentiful clone, and Outbound Systems the most successful clone manufacturer. [center][image:3363][/center] The Outbound Notebook's processor, RAM, and ROM are all stored on a removable daughtercard. This is very fortunate, as the rest of the system is nearly impossible to get apart. Access is easily provided to all componets that the user may want to swap out. [center][image:3364] Mac SE ROMs, top; Mac Classic ROMs, bottom.[/center] ROMs from both the Mac SE and Mac Classic (and others?) can be used in the Outbound Notebook. In order to make the Notebook functional, Apple ROMs had to be installed. If the user already owned a Macintosh, pulling the ROMs from that unit was the most cost-effective way to go. [center][image:3365][/center] The Outbound Notebook uses generic video-camera batteries, an incredible advantage over other laptops. Batteries for the Notebook are cheap ($30 at Radio Shack) and plentiful. Compare this to Powerbook 100 batteries, which must be specially ordered through an Apple Authorized Dealer for $80 (now, no longer available at all), and are often depleted beyond recovery on arrival. The hard drives are IDE. I'm note sure what the reasoning was beyond this move (probably cost), but the drive works well enough. If it dies I could be in trouble, though.

Outbound Laptop

Thu, 17 Jun 2004 17:48:44 -0700

[center][i]Macintosh set your mind free. Now, set your Macintosh free. Lightweight. Powerful. Affordable. Don't settle for deskbound when you can be... Outbound.[/i] [/center] [center][image:3352][/center] The Outbound Laptop is a great computer. Other portable clone manufacturers settled for repackaging Mac Pluses. Outbound made their own. And they made it better. The Outbound Laptop weighs in at 9.3 lbs, heavy for a laptop today, but light as a feather compared to the Mac Portable. The computer's design is very innovative. The keyboard detaches and communicates with the computer via an infra-red port. The pointing device, built into the keyboard, is an Isopoint Trackbar, which is a cross between the eraser stubs on IBM Thinkpads and a trackball. [center][image:3357][/center] The motherboard and floppy drive (mine doesn't have an HD, though some did) are stored behind the LCD. The battery is in the computer's stand. The computer can be propped up at the edge of the desk, taking up only about 6 inches, and the keyboard, with its infra-red port, can be placed anywhere - under papers, on top of books. When the keyboard isn't needed, it can simply snap onto the front of the unit. The Outbound Laptop possesses a near perfect desktop design. And it also makes a pretty decent portable. There's a little bar that pops out of the back of the keyboard that iphysically attaches the keyboard to the computer, giving the user a perfectly functional, if a bit top-heavy, laptop. When it's time to actually move the computer, the base folds up, the keyboard snaps into place, and the handle pops out, making transportation effortless. [center][image:3358][/center] I am very interested in acquiring a power adapter for the Outbound Laptop. I burnt mine up by inadvertantly connecting it to an Outbound [i]Notebook[/i].

Systematics T5170-2

Thu, 17 Jun 2004 08:06:44 -0700

Like the recased Mac Plus by Techmatics, this Mac 512k has been re-engineered by Systematics General Corporation to meet TEMPEST standards. Unlike the Techmatics unit, Systematics chose to leave the Mac in its original case. While Techmatics changed the case, but left the actual Macintosh untouched, Systematics did the opposite, removing connectors and changing switches. [center][image:3335][/center] Front of the machine. Nothing unusual except for the square slot cutout where the keyboard RJ14 connector used to be. [center][image:3336][/center] Back of the machine. The brightness nob, power switch, and power cable have all been replaced with componets meeting TEMPEST standards. Also note that many of the ports have been removed, particularly that for the floppy drive. [center][image:3337][/center] The backside label. The manufacturer (or rather re-manufacturer) is Systematics General Corporation of Sterling,Virginia (a wholly owned subsidiary of Atlantic Research Corporation). [center][image:3338][/center] Guess what? That slot is another Sony 3.5" floppy that has been installed internally. The slot has been manually cut out. [center][image:3339][/center] A close-up of the keyboard connector. It attaches to the unit via the modular plug. Then the panel screws on to the front of the machine. The duct tape looking piece of material is a metallic mesh that prevents leakage of emissions. Note the brass gasket attaching the shielded cable to the keyboard housing. The metal box on the back covers the old keyboard connector. More information is available at [url=http://www.eskimo.com/~joelm/tempest.html]The Complete, Unofficial TEMPEST Information Page.[/url] This Systematics T5170-2 belongs Sellam Ismail, who kindly provided the pictures and information used on this page. Sellam runs the [url=http://www.vintage.org/]Vintage Computer Festival[/url] in California.

RealTech Travler

Thu, 17 Jun 2004 07:19:30 -0700

[center][image:3327][/center] It's understandable why most of the "clones" on this site are obscure. They're really just Macs in a different case with a different logo. The RealTech Travler takes this a steps further. It is a Macintosh [i]clone[/i] with a different label. The RealTech Travler is identical to the 200 series Outbounds, right down to the sticker inside the ports flap that reads "Outbound Systems Inc., Boulder CO; Model 200 Series." Jay Menna tells the company's history: "A company from Humble Texas had an agreement with Outbound. They changed names a few times. First they were called macRentals and they were in the "rental software business". Then they began to sell software under the name Software That Fits. Finally they began to sell all sorts of Mac Hardware and changed their name to Hardware That Fits. "They went public as a penny stock. They had some VC money involved. I'm not sure of the details. I do recall the going public celebration. They roasted a pig named Scuzzy as SCSI had just come to the mac. The company then moved to Conroe. "About the time the Mac portable came out Real Provencher, president of HTF, struck a deal with the Outbound people to simply act as an OEM for Hardware that Fits and their house brand "RealTech" (They also sold a ton of printers and hard drives. Perhaps even a scanner or two. They did not manufacture anything themselves.) "At any rate, the Mac Portable was a joke and the Outbound was really cool stuff. Especially the SCSI disk mode. "Along came Apple with the PowerBook 100, 140, and 180. The Outbound was a better machine but the cost of production was too high and I believe Outbound collapsed. "A few years later RealTech got caught up in some nasty litigation over some printer stuff and eventually proved to the judge and the world that they were ok guys. The problem was the fight dang nearly killed them. I believe you can still buy consumables for their printers from them." RealTech was owned by Real Provencher. [center][image:3329][/center] The RealTech logo. [center][image:3330][/center] The computer's bottom side, showing the RealTech Travler insignia. Note that RealTech really did spell "Travler" with just one 'e'!

Apple Confidential 2.0

Sun, 04 Dec 2005 15:01:26 -0800

The subtitle of Apple Confidential 2.0 does a really nice job of saying what the whole book is about: "The Definitive History of the World's Most Colorful Company". I would agree that this is an up-to-date and thorough history of Apple Computers. This contains chapters on subjects as diverse as "Why 1985 wasn't like 1984" to "Woz's Wanderings". Since it would be almost impossible to summarize what's contained in this book, I've concentrated more on readability in this review. As with anything that people offer to send me for free, I am of course slightly biased towards Owen W. Linzmayers new book, Apple Confidential 2.0. Though I'll try not to let it effect the review (I waited a while before writing this so I could think the book over), keep in mind that I opened this book with a good mindset. I'm pleased to say that I kept that mindset throughout reading this book. In the press sheet that came with it, one reviewer states that he was up all night reading the whole book through. Though I'd like to say I experienced a similar thing, I found this book heavy enough that I had to space it out over the period of a week. Of course, if you aren't concerned about being on time for work or school tommorrow, and you are an avid Mac fan, you may find this hard to put down. Thankfully, I was able to put this book down at the end of each chapter if I wanted to, as each chapter is pretty much self enclosed. With no cliffhanger to keep me reading, I tend to go off and find something else to do for a bit, and I don't think that Apple Confidential suffered in the slightest from this approach. Every chapter was absorbing and demanded to be read through. This makes this book great finding information quickly because, unlike many other 'history of computers and other stuff' books I've read, it doesn't make any huge attempt to carry one narative throughout the entire book. This means that I don't have to search through chapters 12-15 to find that sentence I thought I read. Ranging from 4-25+ pages, each chapter was interesting in it's own right, though I found it hard to see them all joined together. All in all, I'd say this is worth reading if you're a big Apple fan. If you aren't, it's a good history lesson. And for all the rest of you, I have to ask, why are you reading Applefritter? [i]Buy on Amazon:[/i] [url=http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1593270100/applefritter-20]Apple Confidential 2.0: The Definitive History of the World's Most Colorful Company[/url]

Dr. Webster's Guide to the MacQuarium

Fri, 22 Jun 2007 07:46:02 -0700

Let's face it, the MQ is gone. Sorry. The MacQuarium Gallery is still around though: http://www.applefritter.com/image/tid/114

Compubrick Accessories

Mon, 07 Jun 2004 20:50:20 -0700

[center][image:1884][/center] The Compubrick 160� and its two accessories: a keyboard and a Quickcam. [center][image:1885][/center] The keyboard is simply encased in blocks; the actual keys are ordinary keyboard keys. This was actually a lot harder to make than it looks. A good many tabs had to be sanded off and it was difficult to get all the studs to line up. In fact, you'll see two slots up around the F6 and F7 key where I couldn't get them to line up. The keyboard's most noteworthy feature is the caps lock light. I placed a transparent block over the LED and the effect is very nice. The other two lights I covered up as I don't use them anyway. [center][image:1886][/center] Getting the round Grayscale Quickcam apart was a real challenge and I cut my self twice. But in the end it was worth it, as I now have a building-block encased camera and the wounds have healed. I may end up redoing this one in more interesting colors. It's kind of dull. [center][image:1887][/center] Clearly, I can't do an entire system in building blocks and then leave the mouse a dull platinum.

Balderdoush

Tue, 08 Jun 2004 14:54:38 -0700

[center][image:1562][/center] Balderdoush is an adaptation of Boulderdash, one of the best games on C64 and ATARI 130XE. Part puzzle, part action, the objective is to collect all the diamonds, while avoiding falling boulders and monsters. The registered version includes a level editor. The game's author, Georges Lobry, can be reached at lobry@phrasea.com. Download: [list][*][url=http://www.applefritter.com/?q=node/view/1556]Balderdoush 1.04[/url] [*][url=http://www.applefritter.com/?q=node/view/1557]Balderdoush 1.04i[/url] (modified graphics by CWS) [/list] Additional Levels [list] [*][url=http://www.applefritter.com/?q=node/view/1558]Atari 130XE Levels 1[/url] [*][url=http://www.applefritter.com/?q=node/view/1559]Boulder CWS[/url] [*][url=http://www.applefritter.com/?q=node/view/1560]Jihel Elcé Trainer[/url] [*][url=http://www.applefritter.com/?q=node/view/1561]PStokes levels[/url] [/list] Additional levels available when you register: [list][*]Atari 130XE Levels 2 [*]Atari 520ST Levels [*]Atari 520ST Skull Diggery Levels [/list] Have you made your own levels? Upload them and post a link below. [center][image:1564][/center] [center][image:1563][/center]

SE/30CD

Sun, 11 Sep 2005 12:34:22 -0700

by Ian at www.Fantasticthings.co.uk [center][image:1328][/center] [b]The SE/30 - An Overview[/b] For those of you not familiar with the SE/30, here's a brief rundown of the facts. The SE/30 is the finest compact Mac Apple ever produced, second only to the highly sought after Colour Classic I & II. It has the same all in one design as the earlier SE, but is much faster. Originally designed to take a maximum of 32mb of RAM, by using 16mb simms you can bump it up to a whopping 128mb! Although slow by modern standards, we love our SE/30 and use it for email, newsgroups, Irc, and writing scripts to send to the BBC. Oddly, they don't seem interested in a 'Mice on the Mouse Organ' spin off series, or 'Charlie Mouse - P.I.' [b]Our Mac![/b] [thumb:1322,middle] We're going to put this 'ere CD-ROM drive into this 'ere Macintosh! Anyway, onto our Mac. Our SE/30 has 20mb of RAM, an 850mb Hard Drive and is running System 7.5.5. [b]Why do this?[/b] You can of course attach an external CD-Rom drive via the SCSI port on the back of the machine, but this means an extra power socket is needed, and you end up with leads everywhere. This way everything is neatly stored in the one box. It also makes a dandy CD player! Just connect it up to an amp and you're away! Or plug some headphones into the front and chill while you work! [b]How we did it and what we used.[/b] [thumb:1354,middle] You can see our homemade long T-15 wrench on the right. The hacksaw on the left proved to be an essential. [b]Tools we used:[/b] [list][*]Long T-15 wrench [PICTURE] [*]Assorted screw drivers [*]Glue [*]Hacksaw [*]Needle files [*]Spanners [*]Drill [*]Pliers[/list] [b]Hardware we used:[/b] [list][*]50 pin SCSI CD-Rom drive [*]Half height floppy drive taken from an LC475 [*]SCSI cable with 2 drive connections [*]Standard PC power splitter [*]3.5" to 5.25" mounting brackets.[/list] [b]The Initial Idea:[/b] The plan goes thus: The SE/30 floppy drive is full height. Take this out and fit the CD-ROM in it's place, cutting a section out of the front of the case for the tray to pop out. Above that fit the slimmer floppy drive from the LC475 and the hard drive into the existing hard drive cradle. Then cut a new slot for the floppy drive. [b]Potential Problems:[/b] The floppy drive screws to the inner cage. The hard drive cradle then screws to the floppy drive. With the CD-Rom drive replacing the floppy, it may be tricky to fix the hard drive cradle. Can the PSU cope with the extra demand? Yes, we think so. The CD-ROM drive covers the only expansion slot. We may never be able to add a network card. The internal speaker is in the way and will need to be relocated. [h3]Step By Step[/h3] [b]Opening up:[/b] [b]Note:[/b] These sections are also relevant if you're opening up a Mac SE or a Plus [thumb:1317,middle] If you're opening up a Mac Plus, there is an extra screw behind the battery cover. Using the T-15 wrench, undo the 4 screws. The two black ones at the bottom, and the two deep in the handle. We made our own long wrench by cutting an L shaped tool and using it in a cheap multi-bit screwdriver. You can use a long flat head screwdriver if you've one the right width, and if the screws are not too tight, but this isn't recommended as you can damage the screw heads. If your Mac has the reset button on the side, take it off. It's just clipped on. Place the Mac face down and gently pull the back of the case away. [b]Removing the logic board:[/b] Remove the shielding from the bottom of the Mac. [thumb:1350,middle] Looking down onto the board from the back. Carefully pull the floppy cable from the board, followed by the hard drive cable. Slide the board towards you a fraction so you can get your big clumsy hand to the power cable. On the back in the middle of the connector is a catch. Squeeze the catch at the top and gently disconnect the cable. [thumb:1356,middle] You can see the tabs on the right side of the board that must be lined up with the notches in the cage. [thumb:1324,middle] The board removed. Now slide the logic board up until the notches on the right side match up with the notches on the cage. Gently lift the board out then pull away from the left side, but not too far as the speaker cable is still attached. Make a mental note of where the speaker cable is plugged in and remove. Place the board somewhere safe. You don't want to sit on it! [b]Removing the drives:[/b] [thumb:1337,middle] An empty Mac. Unscrew the hard drive cradle from the floppy drive and remove. Then remove the four screws fixing the floppy drive, and remove the drive. That's the easy bit. [b]The Speaker:[/b] [thumb:1352,middle] Once the speaker is removed you need to get rid of the lip as you can, but gently. The speaker has four fixings, but only two of them are actually holding in the speaker. We cut one of the fixings and then gently twisted the speaker out. The lip was then cut away to allow the CD-ROM drive to go right up to the front of the case. Some of the lip can be twisted out with a pair of pliers as the plastic is quite soft, but care must be taken as some of those grooves at the front are vents that are only fixed in a couple of places, so they are quite flimsy once you start prodding around. Once the speaker was free the cable was stuck between the front case and the cage. We removed the two screws under the cage, prised the cage and front cover apart slightly, and then slid the wire left (away from the PSU) until it came free, then we just pulled it out. [b]The CD-ROM Drive:[/b] [thumb:1333,middle] After removing fascia we replaced the front of the tray. We used a Toshiba drive. The standard Apple driver doesn't support it, but separate drivers are available. Or you can modify the Apple driver with ResEdit which may then do the job. Using a paperclip we opened the drive and removed the front of the tray, and then the front cover of the drive itself. We then replaced the front of the tray. Why? If you don't do this the drive will be too far back in the case when fitted. [thumb:1331,middle] By marking the edges of the floppy slot on the CD tray, and then removing the front of the tray and holding it over the slot, we marked out the hole for the CD tray. We placed the drive in position. We then marked on the front of the tray the position of the floppy drive slot. Then we removed the drive and the front of the tray, placed the front of the tray over the slot and lined up the marks. We then marked out where the hole for the tray needed to be cut. When the CD-Rom drive is eventually in place, the bottom of the drive is at the same level as the bottom of the floppy drive slot. So we just needed to extend the floppy drive slot for the bottom cut. The top's not as easy. The groove above the tray is a vent, and a bit flimsy. We could of course remove the groove completely but then the hole for the tray would be too high, and not look correct. [thumb:1339,middle] The first rough cut. We cut well within th elines and then filed it out as needed. The case is very soft plastic and easily cut. We took our time and cut well inside the lines, widening them with the needle files or knife afterwards to the correct size. Once the tray hole was cut we placed the drive in the Mac to make sure it was about the right size, and in the right place! Small adjustments can be made later. We then took the original CD-Rom cover, and broke any protruding bits of plastic off the back. Then, using the cover as a template we marked out where the holes needed to be cut for the headphone socket, volume control, LED and eject button. The smaller holes were cut by drilling first and then filing them out. [thumb:1341,middle] The smaller holes were drilled and then filed out. We used a hot needle to make a hole for the manual eject. You can just see it to the right of the eject button. You can also see the small hard drive LED lens above the CD drive. This marks the top of the new floppy drive slot, too. The CD-ROM drive then sits nicely up to the case, with everything sticking through as it should. You don't have to cut holes for the headphone socket and volume control of course, but if your drive has them you would have to remove them, otherwise the drive won't sit up to the case. Also remember that the volume control only effects the headphone socket. The audio out on the back of the drive is uneffected by it, and the Mac itself cannot control the CD volume. [b]Fixing the drive in place:[/b] The drive was screwed to the cage from underneath. Amazingly, we found that 3 of the 4 fixing holes on the bottom of the drive lined up with existing holes already in the bottom of the inner cage. [thumb:1326,middle] The CD drive is place. In the end it was only screwed to the cage at the front, and the rear was lifted using a couple of fnuts, which were then glued in place. The back of the drive needed to be raised until the front of the tray was in the right position. We fixed the CD-Rom to the cage using the front two fixings, and then raised the back using nuts, wedged and then glued in place. [thumb:1346,middle] With the Mac open, we connected the drive power to the CD-ROM and tested to see if the tray would open and close correctly. Small adjustments were then made. We were careful as the tube is powered up at this point. We then connected the power to the CD drive and switched it on, just to make sure the tray opened and closed properly. [b]The Floppy Drive:[/b] [thumb:1335,middle] The original floppy drive on the left, and the drive from the LC475 on the right. Quite a difference in height. The LC475 drive has the front fascia with dust flap removed here, but it was put back on for the final fixing. Tricky this one. The drive had to lay straight on top of the CD drive for the slot to be in the right place, so it needed to be fixed from the side. We could of course glue it to the CD drive, but then we'd struggle if we ever needed to replace either the floppy or the CD-ROM in the future. Using two brackets designed to fix a 3.5" hard drive into a 5.25" drive bay we sorted it. With the drive held in place we cut out a section of the case for the floppy disk. The hole was made a little wider at one side so we can push the disk right in. [thumb:1343,middle] The freshly cut floppy disk slot. [thumb:1318,middle] Above you can see the floppy drive with the hard drive mounted on top, with the two brackets on the left. [thumb:1325,middle] Here we've outlined the back fixing for the lower bracket. The front of the bracket is bolted to the expansion card fixing. Because the bracket is only fixed to the front expansion card fixing, there is a lot of movement there. So the rear bolt, which is fixed straight to the cage, is spaced to keep the floppy drive from swinging away from the front of the case. [thumb:1320,middle] You can see above the two bolts. The second bracket was then turned the other way up and fixed to the rear expansion card fixing. Using large washers the front of the second bracket was trapped using the spaced bolt, and the whole thing became rigid. Then we fixed one bracket to the drive. Then the bracket was fixed to the front expansion card fixing. The cage is a little flexible here so to keep the floppy drive lined up the back of the bracket was spaced with a bolt and several nuts. [b]The Hard Drive:[/b] [thumb:1344,middle] The hard drive is fixed to the top bracket as mentioned before. It is only fixed on this side, although that seems adequate. The picture here shows the drive too close to the tube. This way caused severe bowing of the screen image at the bottom. We turned the drive the other way around, and moved it as far back as possible, which sorted the problem. Before attempting the fix the drive we extended the wires for the LED and connected them to the drive. We fixed the second bracket to the other expansion card fixing hole, and then trapped the front behind one of the washers used on the spacing bolt. This also holds the floppy drive in place. The hard drive was then fixed to the bracket. We found that the drive had to be fixed with the power and SCSI connector towards the tube, otherwise the bottom of the screen image was bowed up in the centre, which caused distortion to any horizontal images. The drive also needs to be as far back as possible, to prevent distortion. [b]The Speaker:[/b] We mounted this to the back of the cage using an existing screw. [b]Hard Drive LED:[/b] The LED lens was removed to make way for the floppy drive. We then cut a small slot below one of the vents to one side of the new floppy drive slot and glued this in place. The LED was held in place behind the lens using soft putty. You could also glue it in place. [b]Plugging Things Back In:[/b] [thumb:1358,middle] You can see the speaker in it's new home. When the hard drive was turned around and moved further back, the speaker was moved to a higher postion, using an existing fixing screw. There's not a lot of room for all the cables either. Once the drives were fixed, it was time to fit the logic board back in place. The speaker cable was reattached first, then the board was slid into place. Then we reconnected all the leads to the drives and the logic board. The power splitter is used to connect to the CD and hard drives. The floppy drive has power and data fed through the one lead. Our 2 way SCSI cable was plenty long enough. The floppy cable was only just long enough to reach. [thumb:1348,middle] All systems go! You can see the floppy slot here too. The slot was made wider on the right side so you can push the disk right in. The hard drive LED is mounted right of the floppy slot, in the groove level with the bottom of the slot. With everything reconnected we plugged it in to see what would happen. A pleasant 'Ding' sound was made, and it booted up like the trooper it is! We installed the CD-Rom extension before the modification to save hassle. Then we tested the CD and floppy drives before putting the case back together. [thumb:1328,middle] The audio CD has been recognised, as has the PeeCee formatted floppy disk! Success! [b]Things still to do:[/b] If the SE/30 is going to be permanently connected to an amp, it would be tidier to mount an audio jack on the back of the Mac (like the standard audio out already there), and connect it to the audio out on the back of the CD-Rom drive. Some of the cutting is still a little rough and needs tidying, perhaps some rubbing down with very fine paper will sort it. [b]Problems after the modification:[/b] Before we turned the hard drive round, the bottom half of the screen suffered from bad distortion. It was a severe bowing upwards. That has now gone, although about a inch from the bottom of the screen there is a small strip that bows very slightly, without affecting the display above or below it. But this is very minimal, and isn't really noticeable. [b]There must be a better way?:[/b] If you put the slimmer floppy drive in the same place as the original then the slot doesn't line up. Leaving the original floppy fitted and then mounting the CD-ROM above it is a possibility, although that would be really cramped, and it's unlikely that you would fit everything in. Fitting a slot loading CD-ROM drive would look much neater, especially if you just cut a slot for the CD, and forgot about the buttons and lights etc. It may also be possible to mount a slot loading CD-ROM pointing upwards. A slot could then be cut in the top of the case front to back, and the CD would be dropped in like a toaster, just like the DVD drive on the G4 Cube! [b]How about other compact Macs?:[/b[ There's no reason why this couldn't be done with a Mac SE, as they use the same case. There's no way this could be done on a Mac Plus. There's no internal SCSI port for one, and secondly there's barely room for a hard drive, let alone a CD-Rom drive. We've never seen the inside of a Classic or Classic II so we couldn't say. Although the Classic has a curved front so a slot loading drive would be in order. It has been done to a Colour Classic though. Check out Cybermouse's page for links to other sites featuring customised Macs of all kinds!

The Newspaper Mac

Mon, 07 Jun 2004 13:12:56 -0700

by Gavin and Graham [center][image:1290] Well, this is The Newspaper Mac. This is how it came to be...[/center] I was cruzin' around Applefritter's hacks area, and I stumbled across "Mercury." I thought, "Whoa that thing is so slick...I wanna make one." I went down in my basement and realized, "Dang! No spray paint!" So I searched through my mind for an idea...how could I make a Mac Plus look reeeeaally strange? Then I thought: newspaper. I got some newspaper out of the trash and then basically I glued it on. Not really that hard of a concept. If you want to make one of these (which I HIGHLY doubt) then do the following: Get Mac Plus (Or Mac Classic). Put glue on Mac. Put newspaper on glue. (simple, no?) Congrats. You have a Newspaper Mac. Here are the specs of it: No hard drive 512k RAM 8 mhz One 800k floppy drive A screen As you can see, The Newspaper Mac gives you only the finest technology 400 years ago. Everything but the screen works (oh joy). [center]More Pics: [image:1288] [image:1289] [image:1287][/center]

Hal

Mon, 07 Jun 2004 13:54:06 -0700

By: Shane Hale [center][image:1242][/center] [b]Ingredients:[/b] [list][*]Macintosh Classic, 4 MB of RAM, 40 MB Harddrive $5 [*]Apple Keyboard and Desktop Bus Mouse II [*]Krylon Interior/Exterior Sara Paint (1 Can Red) $6.00 [*]Plasti-kote Cracklin Finish (2 Cans Black) $6.00 [*]Clear Coat $4.00 [*]Sheet of plexiglass (11x14) 1/8 inch thick, Clear $2.00 [*]12v Lighted Switch [*]Rivet Gun, w/ rivets [*]Molex Power Splitter, $3.00 [*]12v Strobe kit [*]12v 6in Neon Light [*]Drill with bits [*]Dremel with Fiberglass Cutting Weans and Drum Sander bits [*]Various Electrical Connectors[/list] [b]TOTAL COST: Less Then $50.00[/b] [h3]Concept:[/h3] As odd as this seems, the concept came to me in a dream. It was just after I picked up the Classic, and spent most of the night looking at it and contemplating how to hack it. Well what I visioned was a black compact mac with red lightening, and glow from within. It appeared powerful and very evil. The next morning, I knew what I had to do, and brainstormed with my fiancé. She reminded me of an antiquating paint technique, with two colors and the top color imitates aging cracks revealing the first color. This technique will be applied to a mouse and keyboard. Second part was the window concept, glow and the lightening effect. Pulling from an automotive modification background I was very familiar with Automotive accessories. Namely an automotive 6in neon tube and a strobe kit. Both are 12v so I could power it right from the hard drive power cable with ease. I also had plexiglass readily availble. This would be great for my two side windows. First step was to disassemble everything and start planning how the project would be layed out. I organized a plan, so that any mistakes could easily be corrected. [hr] [h3]Window:[/h3] My original concept was to have matching windows on both sides of the of the Classic. This failed when I opened the case to discover the power guppy and video control board was mounted on the left side of the case. If a window was placed there, I would have a good view of nothing. So window ended up being just fine. First thing I did was cut the plexiglass down to size. I chapped it similar to the side of the case, with the front being at a slight angel knew I was painting the case dark later so I didn't worry about the lines on the exterior. I then marked the sides of the case to represent the glass inside the case then measured 3/4 if an inch in so I have plenty of room for mistakes and mounting. The second picture you can see the two outlines. I decided to cut the top right slash to match the case even further and duplicate the natural angles, already present. Next step was fairly easy. Cut. I tool a dremel with fiberglass cutting discs to cut out the window. I tried to keep the lines as straight as possible. I cleaned all the lines up with an electric sander. The window was then outlined with weatherstripping. This might be an anal step, but I wanted to create a tight see, not letting out any computer noise, and preventing any moisture from getting in. I figure its the finishing touches that really add to the final appearance. I will be drilling holes and riveting the window in. But that will be described later in the assembly process. [center][thumb:1231] [thumb:1232] [thumb:1233][/center] [hr] [h3]Painting:[/h3] Next came painting. Preparation was one of the instrumental steps to a good finish. My fiancé and I started, sanding the entire case, removing any imperfections, oils or decontamination. We used 220 grit sandpaper. It wasn't too aggressive but defiantly smoothed everything over. This included the keyboard, mouse and the case. Now, there was one major problem with the case. The classic was used for educational purposes by the Los Angeles Unified School District, at Belmont High School. And to protect against theft, they engraved this above the monitor. We took the Mouse sander and sanded down till it was gone. Painting was fairly easy. 2-3 Coats of the Red Krylon. This dried in 10-15 minutes. We were careful to cover every piece including the bottom of the case. Next came the Plasti-kote Cracklin Finish paint. We got this at Michael's Craftstore. Here they had both a top and bottom coat. Only problem is the colors were limited. We went with black, and used the red as a base. We took the chance that the bottom base coat was just standard paint and the top is what truly caused the finish. This paint is designed to be applied in heavy doses. So heavy, the wet paint looks like it will run. There are several options for the thickness of the cracks, depending on how thick the coat is. You can only do 1 coat, as the dry paint will not crack to reveal the red, if more paint is applied. So with my fiancé we slowly painted the individual pieces. Once covering the entire piece then going over it several more times, without waiting for it to dry. Within minutes the paint starts to dry and produce the cracklin finish. Taking a note from Mercury we painted each individual key red. Light coats allowed the black letters to still remain visible. [center][thumb:1238] [thumb:1239][/center] [hr] [h3]Assembly:[/h3] The assembly was essentially the reverse of the first step. However there were several new additions. 1) I added a light switch to the rear of the case below the bar code. This would control the neon light and the strobes. The catch was that if you ever wanted to disassemble the case, you must disconnect the switches also had to cut out some of the metal chassis to ensure the switches would fit without hitting any metal parts. The switches are standard Red Glow Automotive switches. I thought having the switch glow was a nice extra touch. The neon glows nicely and the strobe adds a little more attention to the case. (As if it needed more) 2) The window was then placed on the outside of the case. Drilling points were marked around the 3/4 in excess border I had marked earlier. One by one I drilled holes for the divots. Once complete I placed the plexiglass inside and riveted the window into place. The fit is very secure and I have 11 divots holding it in place. Some of the side chassis was cut to ensure proper fit. The divots are not flush on the inside but have 1/8 of an inch of metal sticking out. They clear the ram card fine. [center][thumb:1241] [thumb:1240][/center] [hr] [h3]Final:[/h3] Well all finished up. I must say that I am very pleased with the end result. There were a few snags, but they all worked out. Over all the project too a little over 2 days from start to finish. Cost was relatively cheap. Paint and lights took the majority of the budget. I can't wait till I find my next project... or perhaps finish another one first. My G4 already has the neon glow, but there is a lot of work until its complete. Its my main puter so I take that one real slow. If you have any questions or comments, please contact me. I would love to hear the feedback. [center][thumb:1234] [thumb:1237] [thumb:1235] [thumb:1236][/center]

DuoDesk 280c

Sun, 11 Sep 2005 12:45:11 -0700

by Ian at www.Fantasticthings.co.uk [center][image:1210][/center] The Powerbook Duo 280c. Small, quiet, crisp screen, crap keyboard. Yes, as lovely as the Duo range is, the keyboard's are hard work. You can fit a later revision of keyboard, you can give it a good clean but even then you have to hit the keyboard too firmly for comfort. Batteries. They're expensive. A new or refurbished battery costs more than the Duo itself, so unless you really have to use a Duo on the move it's a bit of a waste of money. And so most Duo's these days no doubt spend their time fully docked, used as a desktop system, or remain in a cupboard, because you can't be bothered to unpack it, get the mains adapter out and plug it in. And the thought of that keyboard puts you right off. And so we come to my Duo, which has indeed spent most of it's time in the cupboard. It has 32 meg of RAM, a 328mb hard drive and a built in modem, so it makes an excellent backup email machine, or a nice quiet Irc terminal. I'd been thinking of doing something with the Duo for a while. The only thing that came to mind was turning it into a super slim desktop machine, with a proper keyboard and mouse. This has already been done with other Powerbook's of course, all of which can be seen on Applefritter. [b]Destruction Time Again:[/b] I didn't take any photo's while I was building it unfortunately, but here's a general description of what I did. First, I made myself a really hot cup of tea, and then made my way to the shed. I took out the keyboard, and dismantled the case, disconnected the screen and removed the hinges completely. With the case reassembled but the screen not fixed I basically slid the screen down over the base of the Duo, and fixed it in place. But this involved doing two things: i. I took the lid off the screen and cut a big hole in it for the display cable to pass through. ii. The display cable was too short, so I *carefully* sliced the covering on the back of the screen to free up more cable. Easy peasy. I then glued the back of the screen to the top of the base, and then clipped the rest of the screen in on top. I used a hot melt glue gun to hold everything together. These a great things to have, and cheap too. You put a rod of glue in the back, the gun heats up the end and out comes melted gluey plastic. It's kind of like plastic welding. It dries quickly, and although it holds firmly, it can be peeled off once dry if you make a mess of things. I went round the edges of the Duo with the glue gun, using much more where it couldn't be seen. You can only really see it down each side, and a strip of grey tape will cover that nicely. [center][image:1215][/center] Next I had to stop the Duo falling over once upright. I fixed the screen a bit lower down than I originally planned, as this in itself allows the Duo to stand upright, but it is unsafe, and can easily fall over. So spying a spare shelf taken from the fridge (don't tell The Wife!) I cut a piece off and pushed it through the hinge holes at the bottom. It was then just a case of bending the ends round and up slightly. I then added a couple of spongy bits which were inside the Duo's lid to the underside front to steady it. [center][image:1212][/center] Putting it to Work: Of course, the Duo has no ADB port, but thankfully I have a floppy dock, which includes one, so once plugged in we have a lovely little TFT desktop. One power button is covered now, but you can use the one on the back to switch it on, or even better, the power button on the keyboard works too! Networking is through the printer port for now using LocalTalk, but I can add a minidock, or preferably an etherdock at a later date. Once the Duo has ethernet, it will be able to connect to the Internet through my LAN, making it great for email or Irc. But in the meantime I can connect to the Internet through the built in modem. Although the screen is small, it's easy to read across the desk. This was a quick and easy hack to do, only taking a couple of hours, and I'm very pleased with the result. It's a silent desktop once the hard drive spins down that takes up very little space. You could even hang it on the wall! I did toy with the idea of fitting everything inside a Mac Plus case, but decided against it for space reasons. [center][image:1213][/center] The back of the Duo. I just need some little feet to cover the ends of the stand. [center][image:1211][/center] For size comparison, here is the Duo next to my 7600.

Radiation

Mon, 07 Jun 2004 14:11:20 -0700

by Brenton Beck These are pictures of, Radiation, a customized Apple Classic II. It has a silver paintjob covering the entire machine and red radioactive logos painted on the sides. Radiation also has a modified system fan position so that is on the side instead of on the bottom. [center][image:1207][/center] This is a side view of Radiation showing the silver paint, red radioactive logo, and modified system fan, which uses the dust filter from the original mounting of the fan as a cover on the outside. [center][image:1206][/center] Here is the front of Radiation also showing the silver paint, and the Apple logo. [center][image:1204][/center] Here you can see a closeup of the fan with the cover off. It's the regular system fan with a lengthened cord inside so it would reach. [center][image:1205][/center] Lastly, this is the fan with the cover off, showing the optional expansion bay brackets that made the mounting easier for me, and the bracket system made out of two pieces of thin metal bent around it. The compressiion of the fan on the metal holds it in place with the help of a screw at the top.