Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Trying to find meaning in owning an old Mac

blog.decryption.net.au

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–79 of 79 posts

Re: Trying to find meaning in owning an old Mac

#71

Post by Trixter »

jojobas wrote: post #15

An old car can still drive on current roads. There's may be no aircon, only AM radio and no airbags, but there's still horsepower and size to do what cars do. Then, cars rust and naturally become rare and expensive to restore to a running state, and almost all of the appeal is that you can show off in them, displaying how much money you can afford to spend on a hobby. Old computers are pretty cheap and are limited to…

Just because you can't find a useful purpose for an old computer doesn't mean they don't have any. For example, any computer, regardless of age, can be used to write a novel.

Re: Trying to find meaning in owning an old Mac

#72

Post by linguae »

jnaina wrote: post #38

Have 2 Apple ][e, Lisa, Apple NeXT Cube, Fat Mac 512K, Mac IIci, Mac LC and an Apple Xserve, as part of my Apple collection. Along with Sinclair ZX81 and an Atari 800. Many decades of collecting and maintaining them. Unfortunately kids are not interested in inheriting them after I'm gone, even as I have shared with the some of the great origin stories behind some of these machines. They don't see the value. Their log…

I also have a collection of Macs and NeXT computers, including a Macintosh SE and a NeXT Cube. I was just a baby when these computers were being manufactured; I first learned about these computers in high school when Mac OS X was new and when I was completely taken by the idea of a Unix with a nice GUI, coming from the world of Windows 9x.

While emulators are definitely convenient (especially when living in apartments), there is something about using physical hardware from the era and appreciating their technological limits compared to modern hardware. I also feel it is beneficial for young people who weren’t around to experience these machines during their heydays to experience them, to get a feel for what computing was like and how things have changed, for better and for worse. I miss the Living Computers Museum in Seattle, which was in operation before the COVID-19 pandemic and the passing of its owner, Paul Allen, cofounder of Microsoft.

Also, I love my mechanical keyboards from the era! I have a few old mechanical Apple keyboards (including the legendary Apple Extended Keyboard II) and two non-ADB NeXT keyboards.

Re: Trying to find meaning in owning an old Mac

#73

Post by doodlebugging »

jdougan wrote: post #20
doodlebugging wrote: post #16

I returned the MacSE30 that I bought at the Apple Store back in 1989 or 1990 when I went into grad school. Compared to the Epson that I bought at the same time it was a fantastic machine that would do almost everything that I needed to do out of the box whereas for the Epson I needed to buy other software. It helped that I already had Mac software though. I returned it because I couldn't afford it. The cost with peri…

MathCAD? TK!Solver?

I just went through the Internet Archive's issues of MacWorld from back in the day and think I found the software.

On page 9 (10 in the archive) of the April 1988 issue there is an advert for Eureka: The Solver by Borland International (Of course! They had such excellent software for years.)

There is a writeup about it on pages 191-192 (pages 192-193 in the archive).

One of the tools available is a polynomial finder. That is the tool that I used.

I will look around to see whether I still have the disk.

Re: Trying to find meaning in owning an old Mac

#74

Post by doodlebugging »

homarp wrote: post #64
doodlebugging wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No it wasn't Maple. I'm familiar with Maple. I found it by following ads in MacWorld magazine back in the day. It should be identifiable by checking issues between December 1984 and May 1987.

https://archive.org/details/macworld-magazine has the scans

Thank you for the link. I'm pretty sure I found it in the Internet Archive's issues of MacWorld from back in the day.

On page 9 (10 in the archive) of the April 1988 issue there is an advert for Eureka: The Solver by Borland International (Of course! They had such excellent software for years.)

There is a writeup about it on pages 191-192 (pages 192-193 in the archive).

One of the tools available is a polynomial finder. That is the tool that I used.

I will look around to see whether I still have the disk.

I also found my favorite, and first computer game since it was my first computer.

Silicon Beach Software put out a game called Airborne! in 1984. I got the Mac in January 1985 and bought that game with it. Fun stuff!

Thanks for the help.

Re: Trying to find meaning in owning an old Mac

#75

Post by userbinator »

Reubachi wrote: post #57
flomo wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here's the thing. A 68 Mustang had no almost emissions controls. A 78 Thunderbird was almost the exact same stuff, except it was choked to shit. A modern computer-controlled Camry is not only way better performing, it also orders of magnitude cleaner. IMO the ICE has achieved its final form, so now the future has to be something else (electric).

RE: "ice final form" It's an intersting time to live, we are indeed seeing the peak of ICE, though I think there are lots of room for improvement in EGR, compression, more efficient catalytic process. "smaller market" ICE manufacturers IE isuzu, mazda, hino etc. are sort of working towards this, as opposed to jumping on EV train. Theoretically, it's completely reasonable for a high compression inlne 3 cylinder with a…

https://ecomodder.com/forum/showthread.php/94-caprice-wagon-...

50mpg from a 5.7L V8, using most of the drivetrain from a truck(!)

My daily driver gets roughly half that, but it has a carbureted 6.6L and an automatic transmission, with some mild performance tuning done. I am satisfied enough with that.

Re: Trying to find meaning in owning an old Mac

#76

Post by homarp »

doodlebugging wrote: post #66
homarp wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://archive.org/details/macworld-magazine has the scans

Thanks. I'll dig through and see what I can find or dig through my disk archive.

https://www.macintoshrepository.org/37630-eureka-the-solver has a .sit

The author's page: http://www.spinstop.com/roger/eureka.htm

Re: Trying to find meaning in owning an old Mac

#77

Post by typewithrhythm »

dlcarrier wrote: post #69
typewithrhythm wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In theory they can be mechanically, in practice high ADAS standards and functionality like regenerative breaking make it feel like a pretty high risk proposal to allow an end user in.

Electrically, regenerative breaking just runs the motor driver in reverse (or really, out of phase) and it doesn't take any extra components, only requiring a few instructions in the motor drivers firmware. It's not anything a DIYer has to even know exists, let alone mess with. Driver assist has nothing to do with what type of fuel and powerplant a vehicle has, and those features can be broken by DIYers on any vehicl…

Its not about the actual mechanism of regen, it's how it interacts with the other systems on the car.

Modern ADAS is a whole lot more integrated on EVs than it ever was on combustion cars, not by some inherit requirements of EVs but due to consumer demand when considering a new ev platform.

The driver is increasingly more removed, things like drive and break by wire go through a long chain of controllers in order to allow ADAS, and the input from the user is really just one more signal from a sensor.

There is no longer any circumstance where these systems are completely "off". And none were I would consider off to be safer. (Yes, even gravel and snow)

Re: Trying to find meaning in owning an old Mac

#78

Post by flomo »

userbinator wrote: post #75
Reubachi wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

RE: "ice final form" It's an intersting time to live, we are indeed seeing the peak of ICE, though I think there are lots of room for improvement in EGR, compression, more efficient catalytic process. "smaller market" ICE manufacturers IE isuzu, mazda, hino etc. are sort of working towards this, as opposed to jumping on EV train. Theoretically, it's completely reasonable for a high compression inlne 3 cylinder with a…

https://ecomodder.com/forum/showthread.php/94-caprice-wagon-... 50mpg from a 5.7L V8, using most of the drivetrain from a truck(!) My daily driver gets roughly half that, but it has a carbureted 6.6L and an automatic transmission, with some mild performance tuning done. I am satisfied enough with that.

Really none of that is improving the ICE.

Re: Trying to find meaning in owning an old Mac

#79

Post by rcarmo »

decryption wrote: post #49
rcarmo wrote: post #39

I know what he means. I don’t have the room (or time) to restore and keep an old Mac, but I am 3D printing little replicas (and tweaking the models out there) to build something to toy with: https://taoofmac.com/space/notes/2025/06/22/1830 Mine currently runs System 7 and After Dark 24/7 (while acting as a Tailscale exit node) on my shelf, and I’m currently (slowly) designing a facsimile mouse for it. I love tinkerin…

That little replica Mac is very cute - the flying toaster screensaver is a nice touch. Is that running on a Pi Zero or something?

A 3b, which is what I had gathering dust.
Post reply on HN