Podcast

e6 – Keyboards

Our first foray into Macintosh hardware, we examine a part of the Mac we often take for granted: the keyboard. We wind back the clock all the way to the Apple II to uncover all sorts of oddities including the BELL key, "open Apple", buckling springs, and chiclets galore.

Links for this episode:

The ADB era

Also notice there is a “BELL” key that is activated by typing “Control-G”. That’s another hold-over from old typewriters and teletype machines that actually did have a little metal bell in them!
 

Non-sponsor: Power Macintosh 9600

The USB era

  • iPhone 6 and 6 Plus landscape keyboard features

e5 – At Ease

We revisit At Ease, the multiple user management system in System 7. Our discussion of its interface leads us on a historical journey through Apple's 22-year quest to perfect a grid of buttons.


Students are holding down the space bar at startup to open the Extensions Manager. Then they disable (deselect. At Ease Startup. The next time the computer restarts, it goes straight to the Finder. How can I prevent my students from getting access to the Finder, yet still run System 7.5 and At Ease?

Non-sponsor: Ram Doubler 2 by Connectix

e4 – Merryxmas

In a stocking-stuffer-sized holiday special we remember Merryxmas and other HyperCard viruses. Happy holidays!

Links for this episode:

  • HyperCard
  • "HyperCard was introduced by Apple in 1987. It shipped for free on all Macs. HyperCard was difficult to explain then, and -- to some degree -- remains so today." from Apple's Lost Decade on ZDNet
  • Myst (made with HyperCard)
  • HyperTalk scripting language
    • XCMDs (external commands) allowed extra features
    • Color Tools – became standard in HyperCard 2.2
  • @hypercard unofficial twitter account

e3 – Kaleidoscope scheming

Ed tells the story of his efforts to make System 7 look like Yosemite by creating his own Kaleidoscope scheme. In the process, he remembers just how painful it was to work in a fragile, crashy, data-loss-prone OS.

Links for this episode:

Behold, the (un)finished product:

e2 – Kaleidoscope

We revisit the golden age of Mac interface customization: the development of the Kaleidoscope control panel, the extensive Kaleidoscope scheme archive, and the limited possibilities for theming in OS X.

Links for this episode:

Scheme gallery!

Innovative schemes

OS Mimicry

Minimalist

Getting a little silly…

…and now really impractical

Ed and Brian's picks