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Building Basilisk II for iOS (2021)

blog.gingerbeardman.com

11–20 of 33 posts

Re: Building Basilisk II for iOS (2021)

#11
post #4

Excellent, amazing, incredible, best emu for Mac 68k ever, but can never get on the AppStore (boo AppStore!); only for developers. Still...

Even ignoring the app store emulator policy, Basilisk II requires ROM images doesn’t it? And they could never distribute that.

Not never. For the original Mac ROMs, we’re just over halfway the 75 year for copyright expiration (in the US). ‘Only’ 37 years to go.

(If I’m not mistaken, the first software for the ENIAC is out of copyright. I don’t know whether any of it still exists, though)

Re: Building Basilisk II for iOS (2021)

#12
post #11
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even ignoring the app store emulator policy, Basilisk II requires ROM images doesn’t it? And they could never distribute that.

Not never. For the original Mac ROMs, we’re just over halfway the 75 year for copyright expiration (in the US). ‘Only’ 37 years to go. (If I’m not mistaken, the first software for the ENIAC is out of copyright. I don’t know whether any of it still exists, though)

Isn't it "75 years after the death of the author?" (Although I have no idea who the "author" would be in this case.)

Re: Building Basilisk II for iOS (2021)

#13
post #11
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even ignoring the app store emulator policy, Basilisk II requires ROM images doesn’t it? And they could never distribute that.

Not never. For the original Mac ROMs, we’re just over halfway the 75 year for copyright expiration (in the US). ‘Only’ 37 years to go. (If I’m not mistaken, the first software for the ENIAC is out of copyright. I don’t know whether any of it still exists, though)

Nit: There was no “software” for the ENIAC, programming was done with plugboards and cables. The very concept of software would require a stored-program computer, which ENIAC was not.

Re: Building Basilisk II for iOS (2021)

#14
Followed this guide a while back and got it working - an iPad makes a wonderful classic Mac, especially with Bluetooth keyboard and mouse.

Even thought about getting an iPad mini and putting it in a Mac Plus enclosure, but the fact I’d need a developer account put me off somewhat, couldn’t be bothered to keep rebuilding the app.

Re: Building Basilisk II for iOS (2021)

#16
post #11
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even ignoring the app store emulator policy, Basilisk II requires ROM images doesn’t it? And they could never distribute that.

Not never. For the original Mac ROMs, we’re just over halfway the 75 year for copyright expiration (in the US). ‘Only’ 37 years to go. (If I’m not mistaken, the first software for the ENIAC is out of copyright. I don’t know whether any of it still exists, though)

American copyright law before 1976 was radically different from the current situation (which was largely implemented with the Copyright Act of 1976). Probably most importantly, unpublished works, and works without an explicit copyright mark (on paper!) were not under copyright. This is why nearly every single bit of software IBM wrote and provided to customers and users in the 50s to mid 70s is public domain; it was never copyright to begin with.

Anyway, the copyright term in the USA and elsewhere too, have been repeatedly extended. I say it's a distinct possibility that some works under copyright now, will still being under copyright another 100 or even 1000 years from now. That is, assuming anyone is still around to sue and be sued over such things.

Re: Building Basilisk II for iOS (2021)

#17
post #16
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not never. For the original Mac ROMs, we’re just over halfway the 75 year for copyright expiration (in the US). ‘Only’ 37 years to go. (If I’m not mistaken, the first software for the ENIAC is out of copyright. I don’t know whether any of it still exists, though)

American copyright law before 1976 was radically different from the current situation (which was largely implemented with the Copyright Act of 1976). Probably most importantly, unpublished works, and works without an explicit copyright mark (on paper!) were not under copyright. This is why nearly every single bit of software IBM wrote and provided to customers and users in the 50s to mid 70s is public domain; it was…

I suspect that AI generated content is (eventually, not the current versions) going to destroy copyright as a concept.

The generally-stated reason for copyright is to incentivise the creation of more works, but when those works can be made for less than the cost of the food needed to feed a human for long enough to ask a machine to make it[0], the economic value disappears and only tradition remains.

However, that's assuming it's purely economics; if art is humanity's version of peacock tails, then the effort is the point, and even an uploaded brain will be dismissed as "not capable of real art".

[0] I don't know how much power a genuinely human level creative AI would consume, but let's compare one of the current image generators:

For the human, 10 seconds to type in a prompt * minimum cost of keeping a human alive ($1.90 abject poverty threshold) = $0.00022

For the AI, maximum power draw of Mac mini M1 * 90 seconds to create an image = 3,510 joules; at $0.1/kWh[1] that's $0.0001

The cost of the AI doing the thing is about half the minimum possible cost of getting a human to ask the AI to do the thing.

[1] Close enough: https://www.energybot.com/electricity-rates-by-state.html

Re: Building Basilisk II for iOS (2021)

#19

Very cool. I got MinivMac running on the Raspberry Pi — with a 7" LCD display I made pretty convincing "classic Mac" running on modern hardware. I may have to revisit it. I was able to get THINK C installed and was trying to figure out again how to open/compile one of the old apps that I had written back in the late 80's. The thought of writing Mac "Toolbox" code again, using ResEdit is hilarious to me. EDIT: wow, gu…

That MinivMac Raspberry Pi looks nice. I don't quite get from your post who made it.

EDIT: nevermind, after cyberstalking you a little bit I found some more info: https://magpi.raspberrypi.com/articles/systemsix-a-modern-ho..., https://www.engineersneedart.com/systemsix/systemsix.html

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