The Daily Teaser — 22-1-2015: Introducing Macintosh

Drat … !

Drat, I slept through my alarm, again … !

Which is awkward, as I’m working, today.

Frankly, though … ?   Frankly, I’m starting to suspect there’s something mildly wrong with the alarm clock I use.

Seemingly, I can’t reset it, that easily.

Oy heh … !

~≈Ω≈~

The Brentwood Gazette’s Weekly Teaser — 22-1-2014: Introducing Macintosh

Well, THAT was a first … 

Well, ish … 

GOT to admit, I had an old friend over, this morning: who I’d not seen in a while.

Which is why my posting of the Gazette Teasers were a touch late, this morning.

It’s amazing how distracting a cuppa, and a chat can be, some times … !

At any rate, today’s Wednseday: which means that it’s time for this week’s Brentwood Gazette Teaser: given what it’s the thirtieth anniversary of, I couldn’t resist this week’s questions, covered by the usual Creative Commons License* …

Q1) 22nd January, 1984, saw the airing of the first ad for the Apple Macintosh computer.   Which George Orwell novel was the ad named after … ?

Q2) Which well known British director directed it: Barry Scott, Tony Scott or Ridley Scott?

Q3) The heroine of the advert was played by athlete and model, Anya Major.   She also appeared in the video for which Elton John song: ‘Nikita’, ‘Sad Songs,’ or ‘I’m Still Standing’ … ?

Q4) The ad was famously shown during a well known — and very American — sporting event.   WHICH sporting event: the World Series final, the Superbowl or the NBA Basketball finals … ?

Q5) Name either of the teams in that year’s event … ?

Q6) Apple itself was founded by two Steves: the late Steve Jobs, and who else?

Q7) The original Mac was the first commercially successful computer to use a ‘GUI’, or Graphical User … what … ?

Q8) It was also the first commercially successful computer to use what handheld device … ?

Q9) Apple’s currently range of Macs include its famous all-in-one desktop: what’s the name of that desktop … ?

Q10) Finally … Apple’s current computer operating system — the one on the Mac, not the iPad and iPhone — is called OS X.   What does the X stand for … ?

And here’s last week’s questions and answers …

Questions.

Q1) 15th January saw the British Museum open to scholars.   In which year of the 1750s?

Q2) The Museum was housed in Montagu House, on the grounds of cost.   And refused to use which palace, on the same grounds?

Q3) The Museum is in which London area: Bloomsbury, Kensington or Chelsea?

Q4) The Museum’s original collection was from Sir Hans who: Jones, Sloane, or Beckenbauer … ?

Q5) The ‘Old Royal Library’ was donated to the Museum.   By which king: George 2nd, 3rd or 4th … ?

Q6) The British Museum’s Natural History branch is in South Kensington: and shares Exhibition Road with two other famous museums.   Name either of them.

Q7) The British Library is also a branch of the British Museum: and one of the two largest libraries on the planet.   What’s the other largest library … ?

Q8) The British Museum famously contains the Parthenon Gallery: also known as the Elgin … what … ?

Q9) One of the Museum’s departments is devoted to Numismatics.   In other words, coins … and what else?

Q10) Finally … the Sutton Hoo Treasure is housed in the British Museum.   Which English county was it found in?

Answers.

A1) 1759.

A2) Buckingham House: what’s now called Buckingham Palace.

A3) Bloomsbury.

A4) Sir Hans Sloane.

A5) George 2nd.

A6) The Science Museum or the Victoria and Albert.

A7) The Library of Congress, in the USA.

A8) The Elgin Marbles.

A9) Medals: both are the preserve of the appropriately named Department of Coins and Medals.

A10) Suffolk.

Enjoy those … 

*        Regulars will know already, but for newcomers … all it means is that you’re free to copy, use, alter and build on each of my quizzes: including the Teasers, Gazette Teasers and the Friday Question Sets.   All I ask in return is that you give me an original authors credit on your event’s flyers or posters, or on the night: and, if you republish them, give me an original authors credit AND republish under the same license.   A link back to the site — and to the Gazette’s, if that’s where you’ve found these — would be appreciated.

RIP: Steve Jobs

Hmmm …

You know, I’ve GOT to admit, the almost constant reportage, today — about the death of Apple Chairman, Steve Jobs — is …

Well, almost constant …

And a touch depressing.

Lets face it, it is — for the iPad and Mac using community — going to be a bit of a shocker.

After all, we’re talking here about not only one of the men that founded the company, but also the marketing man that — when he rejoined the company, back in 1997 — turned around a company on the verge of bankruptcy in to the worlds biggest technology firm.

At least, by market value.

»»·««

Let’s face it …

There’s not much I can say, except to tell you to check the words out of the man, himself.

Firstly, at the original Macintosh demo, a few (ahem) years ago …

Along with a quick demo of that original machine’s abilities: granted, they’re not much by TODAY’S standards, but in 1984 … ?

Next is the news report about his death, on the BBC, this morning …

Along with a few words from Lord Alan Sugar, and BBC technology reporter, Rory Cellan-Jones

And you can’t mention Apple or Steve Jobs, without mentioning Steve Wozniak, the technology giant whose design of the Apple 1 and 2 were the technological foundations that the two Steves built the giant on.

And lastly … ?

Well …

I think I’ll leave you with a few words from the man, himself.

In Memorium.

Steve Jobs: February 24, 1955 – October 5, 2011.

The Daily Teaser: 28-6-11

You know, I’ve got to admit, I got bored, yesterday.

I do, occasionally.

Part of that’s the job situation, I think. Once I’ve got the job-hunting out of the way, I really have little to do of a day.

So admitting I get bored … ?

Is par for the course, really.

I will happily admit, though, that I actually got bored enough, yesterday, to move some of the furniture around.

Including the Performa in The Bedroom.

Which is now the Performa in the Front Room.

You know …

I think I might just put up a post about that …

Later …

Definitely later …

Lets get moving on, shall we … ?

»»^««

Yesterday’s Teaser saw both Debbi and Suzie putting in their answers: with both scoring 5 out 5, it also saw Suzie admitting she had a thing about the Teletubbies*, and Debbi admitting her Peter Falk post had people saying it was a fitting tribute.

Lets see how they — and you — do with today’s questions, shall we?

Here they are, along with the ‘How To’, License and video …

Q1) 28th June, 1914, saw the death of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the event that kick-started World War 1: where was he an archduke of … ?

Q2) In which city WAS the Archduke, when he was shot … ?

Q3) In which modern country is that city … ?

Q4) 28th June, 1919, saw the formal end of World War One, with the signing of the Treaty of Versailles: name any of the main allied powers who were signatories to the treaty.

Q5) Moving on … 28th June, 1948, saw the Cominform expel Yugoslavia from the Eastern Bloc communist nations: what was COMINFORM short for … ?

Q6) 28th June, 1935, saw the birth of the extremely camp English actor, John Inman: in which sitcom did he famously find fame … ?

Q7) And finally … 28th June, 1991, saw Margaret Thatcher announce she was to step down as an MP, at the next general election: what was the constituency she represented at the time … ?

And here’s yesterday’s questions and answers …

Q1) 27th June, 1991, saw Yugoslavian troops march into which newly independent small nation … ?

A1) Slovenia.

Q2) 27th June, 1957, saw the publication of a report by the UK’s Medical Research Council: this report showed a connection between smoking … and what … ?

Q2) Lung Cancer.

Q3) 27th June, 1899, saw thirteen year-old schoolboy cricketer, A. E. J. Collins score the worlds highest ever recorded cricket score: what was it … ?

A3) 628, not-out.

Q4) 27th June, 1880, saw the birth of which noted deaf-blind activist … ?

A4) Hellen Keller.

Q5) And finally … 27th June, 1898, saw who complete the first solo circumnavigation of the globe … ?

A5) Joshua Slocum, of Nova Scotia.

Enjoy those, everyone: I’ll catch you later.

* Hmmm … Suzie, I think me, Debbi and the rest of the gang are going to have to sit you down with sensible cartoons. Like Pinkie and the Brain. (Apparently, Pinkie’s supposed to be a cockney. US tv can put out some good stuff: but does hit a bum note, occasionally … )

The End Of The G3 iMac Story

Blimey, nowthere’s a thing … !

Do you remember that, over the past few year’s, I’ve done a bit of tweaking to an old G3 iMac that I’ve had sitting around … ?

Including, I should add, managing to put a copy of Xubuntu 6•06, Dapper Drake on it: I’d no access to a more recent version of OS X to put on there, as much as anything else …

At any rate, I’ve managed to find a buyer who’s interested in taking it off my hands: and has a copy of a newer version of Mac OS to put on it.

The upside … Is that I’m keeping the old keyboard that came with it.

Actually, that’s kind of nice.

Bar a dodgy ‘c’ key, that keyboard still works.

It even manages to play rather nicely with my Mac Mini, and happily deals with a 4 gigabyte flash memory drive, in the USB port, at the opposite end of the keyboard to the mouse.

And the Power button on the blessed thing still — under OS X 10•6•7 — activates the shut-down menu.

Happy days … !

Oh Dear!!

Hmmm …

Looks like I’ll combining two of my favourite subjects on this one …

But, suffice to say that — Life Saver and news hound that he is! — ComBom, of Life, Doctor Who and Combom, has managed to do a touch of investigating, and found a press release.

From the BBC.

With the transmission times of parts one and two of The End Of Time …

I believe I’m correct in assuming the usual words, in the Internet Age, is something along the lines of “Whoop, Whoop” …

Apparently …

Hopefully, these are fairly fixed.

And also — if nothing changes — means I’ll be pre-programming my dvd recorder, well ahead of time …

•••••

At any rate, some thing I do know is that — after doing a bit of digging around on Google — that I may have problems with the vintage iMac.

Not serious ones, just tricky ones to deal with.

Something I know it has trouble with, is keeping accurate time, when not connected to the Net.

In fact, having chewing it over with Movie Night Adrian – no mean streak when it comes down to computers – he thinks that inability may — in part — be the root of the restart problem it seems to be suffering, under Xubuntu 6.06. Dapper Drake.

Suffer it didn’t seemingly suffer with, under Mac OS 9.2.2.

But with both OSes, it did seem incapable of keeping accurate time, whilst offline.

Something I know others in the same shoes have had trouble with, from reading through the Ubuntu forums.

But what really got me thinking it through, was nattering with Tim, the other day, who’d been browsing through eBay, for potential Christmas presents, the other day: he’d noticed a cheap laptop on there, that was described as being in fine working order, apart from a ‘Flat CMOS Battery’.

Which meant, it seems, that the little watch battery the computer had on it’s motherboard, to power the computer’s internal clock, was dead*.

Dead …

But easily replaceable …

Which got me digging around Google, again: as I know I had to reset the PRAM — the Mac version of the relevant part of a PC motherboard — as part of installing Xubuntu on there …

What I’ve managed to find tells me that I need to find a ½ sized AA battery.

Which, after a quick walk to the local shops in the pouring rain, I’ve found come in three different voltages; shame I hadn’t thought to check on what was the right one.

Turns out, after I looked around again, it was the 3.6v …

With the result that it sounds like I’ll be posting stuff about about it, at some point; especially as it means disassembling it.

Tim, I think I’m gonna need to borrow your neighbour’s angle grinder …

* Apparently, this is a component common to all modern home computers.

Hmmm … Well …

Hmmm … well …

Quite … !

Exactly what Allison and Kelly were laughing about, I really don’t know.

But I’ve a feeling there’s going to be trouble, I really do!

At any rate, I’m thinking this will be a quickish post, before I go to bed, tonight, but you never know.

I do know I’ve been intent on mentioning that’s there’s still something of a fuss about the parking.

Not necessarily as big as it’s been, but none the less, still an ongoing situation.

Mostly because whilst Rollason Way, itself, is (near enough) finished, the rest of the development isn’t. The pictured waste ground, just at the top of Saint James Road.

And, from what I’ve been able to pick up, has had quite a few changes of use, filed to the various planning applications. From what I understood of it, from when I moved in, it was planned to be offices, of some description.

Then more flats.

Then more offices.

Then flats, shops, offices, a donkey sanctuary … you get the picture.

Very mixed up, seemingly … !

And, while I’m still not sure what’s to be put there, it seems there’s not been enough provision made for parking.

Or, at least, the plan’s haven’t been altered enough to increase it relative to the size.

Not such an issue, now that the parking permit scheme has finally gone into operation, but before those kicked in, something of a worry.

And I’m just wondering how Saint James Road’s going to look, once whatever the building site turns into whatever it’s going to be.

I can’t help but think it’ll look like a traffic jam …

•••••

Oh, just as one final point, I did manage to grab a quick photo of Rob, at the bottom, there.

Bless, he’s been the regular who’s been able to help out quite a bit with the vintage iMac; mostly as he had a spare copy of the Mac OS 9.2.2 install disc, sitting around.

•••••

Phew!

More stuff about Macs … !

Hmmm …

Says I, pondering, deeply …

I’ve got to admit, I had a touch of fun, this, afternoon; I managed to lug the vintage iMac G3 to my front room, and hook her up to the ’net.

Whooh … !!

Not something I could’ve done, where it was, as it — unlike the Mini — doesn’t have an AirPort card.

A shame, but there you go.

Another shame is simply the speed of it, online; this is one time where the iMac isn’t as zippy as the Mini, although, in other regards it can go some.

At least — for the basic bits and bob’s I’ve been using it for — it looks quite zippy, to me …

I do know, however, that I’ve managed to use the Automatic update system the iMac has to get the few updates it needed.

This didn’t include the various QuickTime updates and plugins, that have been put out since QT initial release.

Awkward, as I know I wouldn’t mind watching some of the Doctor Who stuff I’ve backed up onto an exterior drive.

Saying that, I’ve managed to have a tinker around with Square 5’s Mpeg Streamclip video editing software.

And managed to convert one or two bits into a legacy QuickTime format that can be read, by the version of QT*, on the iMac.

Handy!

It means I’ll be able to have some bed time viewing.

And listen to some Bob Marley … !

* It seems that exporting something to a .mov format, using the Apple Motion JPEG A compression format, allows the movie file into a version that can be understood by QuickTime 5, the version bundled with Mac OS 9.2.2