My first and (probably) my last computers

A newspaper advertisement in 1980 claimed I could own a computer for less than £100. I was not sure what a computer was or what it could do but who could resist such powerful marketing? So I cut out and filled in the coupon and posted it off with my cheque – how quaint this all sounds today.

What came back was a Sinclair ZX80. I was hooked. Whilst it did not do very much – the single digit MHz processor chugged along turning off the video display whilst it worked, and the 1 KB of memory (someone may need to explain these numbers to younger readers) imposed its own limits – the idea of programming a logical sequence of instructions was fascinating. You could attach a portable cassette recorder and save your creations on to a cassette. These could be then be loaded back into the computer – if you did not jiggle the connecting wire or the cassette tape was not too worn or the wind was not blowing from the east and you were wearing your lucky socks. I added a 16KB expansion pack which allowed for ever greater creations. I avidly read the growing number of computing magazines that were appearing and any books I could find. The magazines would often include a listing of a program (to this day I resent the American spelling of program – if you are a programmer programming a programmable computer the end result should be a programme!) which you could type into your own computer or adapt so it would run on your computer. One such listing was a program that calculated your travelling time when cruising between the locks on the river Thames. That was not something I was ever going to do but the coding was so well written, so clear and concise, it was possible to learn most of what you needed to know from that single listing. Alas I have no idea who the author was but from then on coding was poetry.

I moved on to a Sharp MZ 80K which had a built in screen and cassette recorder. It could also play sound. It was quite loud and there was no discernible way to reduce the volume. With a pillow wedged against the speaker to muffle the sound I phoned the retailer who explained that the volume control was inside. So unscrewing the top half from the bottom half allowed the hinged top to be lifted revealing the volume and brightness knobs. This computer used a very similar character set (think chunky graphic blocks) as the increasingly popular Commodore PET and so one could easily adapt the magazine’s program listings. There were a range of programming languages available for it ranging from Pascal to Assemblers. There was a Sharp Users Group that sent out booklets with news and programming listings etc. This is from the December 1982 issue:

We also had a short lived local computer club where people could enthuse about their favourite computer (of which there were many) and why it was better than the others. Personal computers were more personal then – quirky and idiosyncratic.

By the end of the 1980s I had progressed to an Amiga 500 which was a delightful computer. I fitted a hard drive which provided a vast 40 MB of storage space – that could store ten or twelve photos from your phone today. The computer always required a second restart as it failed to see the hard drive on its initial start up. I wrote some programs that I sent off on a floppy disc to a Public Domain library who would distribute them for free – which meant you sent them money to cover the cost of the floppy disc and postage; some libraries were better at accurately calculating these costs than others. Some of my creations were favourably reviewed in magazines. Alas the managerial manoeuvrings sealed the fate of the once popular Amigas ultimately leading to bankruptcy – this scenario may sound familiar to Twitter users today.

The salesman tried to convince me that Windows 3.0 was the future. I smiled politely and bought a Mac. I had never seen the appeal of the IBM PC or the subsequent clones and compatible variations. They did not bounce and delight like other computers. The Mac was running System 6 which would soon be updated to System 7 – operating system updates were provided on the CDs that came with computer magazines by then. These free OS updates stopped with Apple’s financial woes in the mid 1990s and Mac OS 8 and 9 had to be purchased. Apple would then move on to the Unix system OS X. I am often puzzled why people abandon a real Unix system for a pretend one.

And now there is a Mac mini with an M2 Processor which certainly bounces and delights – probably the best computer I have ever had and probably the last one too.

Whilst people rightly celebrate the longevity of the Mac it is, with its numerous changes in processors and operating system over the years, what we in the UK would call a bit Trigger’s Broom – see Ship of Theseus:

Connecting iPad/iPhone to GarageBand on a Mac – Wireless

There is an old post, from 2011, that is regularly visited (I assume it is linked on a forum somewhere) and so it is probably time to do an updated version expanded into several posts covering all the options available today.

To connect using a WiFi network:

Open Audio MIDI Setup which you will find in the Utilities folder within the Applications folder – or hit the Command and Space keys and type Audio MIDI into the Spotlight search box.

From the Window menu select Show MIDI Studio.

Menu selection in Audio Midi SetUp

This will open the MIDI Studio window from where you can select Open MIDI Network Setup from the MIDI Studio menu.

Menu selection in Audio Midi SetUp

You need to create a new session by clicking the + button

Creating a new session panel

The default name is Session 1. Tick the box to select that as the network session you wish to use

New session selected

With an app sending MIDI signals your device will be available. Click the Connect button for it to join the network session.

iPad available

Your device will be listed as a Participant in the right hand panel – from where it can be disconnected if required.

iPad connected and good to go

In the iPad’s/iPhone’s app you will see the Session 1 option within the MIDI settings – sometimes shown as a Settings button or three dots …

Dots

or a cog wheel icon

Cog

Once connected to the Network Session it is all happening in GarageBand…

The Reset

Over the years the old Mac had become such a tangled mess (the oldest file dates back to 2009) and iCloud Drive had become inaccessible from the Finder which insisted I needed to log in although everywhere else insisted I was logged in, and everything was working normally, but System Preferences refused to let me log out. Having tried killing birds and all manner of Terminal artfulness which failed to change anything I decided to just set up a new account and move into that. Alas this meant finding all the Serial numbers/licences for a lot of apps etc. Most seem to working now but I am sure something will turn up and refuse to work. Have made a fresh Time Machine and will try and keeps things better organised until the new iMac’s arrive.

Have reduced the web site to a minimalist HTML site because that is all it needs to be. Yes you could make a case for a little CSS design but we will live with it for a while. Have removed the Indie Web stuff from this blog as I was not using it and had no real interest in doing so; similarly the link to micro.blog is gone as I do not do the social/interaction thing so derived nothing from it – as excellent as these projects are and worth supporting if that is your thing. At some point I will develop my own theme for this blog.

Onwards.

More Apple weirdness

Amphetamine is one of those neat little things that sits in your menu bar and does something useful and does it well.  It keeps your Mac awake for as long as you need. Hence the name.

 

Apple claims that it will lead users to start consuming drugs and alcohol but I have been using it for years and do not consume drugs or alcohol.   Perhaps Apple may be mistaken in their silly assessment.

Curiously asking the iPad to Look Up Amphetamine it suggests the app (and a film)…

 

You can sign a petition to support the developer. If you own the app you can give the app a 5 star rating on the App Store if not you can get it from the App Store. It’s free.

Mac Bravery

And so here we are again. With a new MacOS version imminent I contemplate erasing the hard drive and starting afresh – again. Alas I have not been brave enough to do it for many years and so a new version just updates the old version amidst all the accumulated crud. And when I occasionally buy a new computer the hard drive size will be enormous compared to the old one so everything gets copied over, because there is so much space in there, and we carry on. The oldest file on here dates back to 2007.

How many versions of GHC does a chap need?

ghc versions

But this is a whole new era and we are moving from iterations of macOS 10 to the all new and shiny macOS 11 and so I will definitely be doing it this time. Deep down I know that something is going to get screwed up – like that account for something or other that I use daily and set up 10 years ago which will now require a password which I will not have saved anywhere – or more frustratingly I will have saved it but cannot now find it anywhere.

I did a full back up yesterday and a mere 13 hours later it had copied all of the 4.5 million files.. did I mention the crud?

So I am planning on using a blank partition on an external drive and booting from that with a fresh install to see what happens and if I can produce a functioning system. If that works then the big red ERASE-AT-YOUR-PERIL button will be clicked and we will be crud free – for at least a week.

(Not) Mac Apps

These days some of the software produced for Macs seems to lack the very Mac-ness that makes a Mac a Mac – the attention to detail, the delight of discovery. Some would argue that Apple itself is as guilty as anyone here – although the cursor for the iPad suggest they still get it mostly right. The article today by Brent Simmons highlights some common problems. I have left reviews on the Mac’s App Store along the lines of – nice idea but it is a pity it is not a Mac app. To their credit some developers have taken steps to rectify the problems when they are pointed out – If I close a window it does not mean I want to quit the app. Etc. Etc.

Yadit #100DaysToOffload

Menu Bar Clutter 2020

A quick catch up after the 2010 and 2012 editions.

Skitch Capture material for sharing.

Quick Draft Simple text editor for notes. Syncs with iOS devices.

Dropbox Online storage, file sharing etc.

Backblaze Online backup service.

MyAddress IP address monitor syncs across iCloud for when you are away.

BlockBlock Keeps an eye on what is being installed and notifies you about anything suspicious.

Presentify Highlighter for presentations etc.

Hazel Automates routine tasks.

Typinator Type in a short sequence and it gives you the long form version.

1Password Excellent password manager.

PopClip The single most useful thing to add to a Mac.

Amphetamine Keeps your Mac awake. Very configurable – set a time or wait for a job to finish etc. before going to sleep.

BwanaDik Monitors your connection notifying you when down. No longer supported but included here for continuity with older posts.

WiFi

LittleIpsum Adds Lorem ipsum text in words, lines or paragraphs. No longer supported.

Cookie Removes specified cookies, trackers and the like either at set intervals or when you quit the browser etc.

Memory Cleaner

Bluetooth

AirPlay

Sound

Bartender Declutter the menu bar. Hides all the icons you do not need to click on regularly.

FuzzyTime Tells you the time in a normal (not to the precise second) way
in a variety of languages. I have had to add the day to the display otherwise I would not have much idea what day it was lately.

ClipMenu Having tried numerous clipboard managers I have found nothing as useful as this although it has not been updated in years and never made it to version 1.

Spotlight Search for anything on your Mac.

User

Notifications See/ignore information.

Yadit #100DaysToOffload

Resolving Liquid and Hyperwords errors – com.hyperwords.liquidwordsfree

Even on a Mac things can go awry. The nifty Liquid app was spewing out errors in the Console

com.apple.xpc.launchd: (com.hyperwords.liquidwordsfree) Service only ran for 0 seconds. Pushing respawn out by 10 seconds.

Console errors

Others have observed that just deleting the Liquid app will not remove the errors. You will need to dig a little deeper and delete…

com.hyperwords.liquidwordsfree from the Containers folder in your Library

~/Library/Containers

com.hyperwords.liquidwordsfree.plist from the Preferences folder in your Library

~/Library/Preferences

com.hyperwords.liquidwordsfree from the system’s…

/private/var/folders/vx/qbl8t4dn1dsbjqc4_67vymg80000gn

(that last bit may be different for you).

If you have trouble finding these folders the nifty PopClip app can, once you have selected the text, offer you a folder icon that will take you straight to the desired location.

Alternatively the nifty Hazel app will find all those extraneous files, when you have moved the main app to the Trash, and ask if you want to delete those too.

Once it is all cleared out a fresh install from the App Store and all is well again.

Today’s secret word is Nifty.

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