Digging and Filling
Current Wx: Temp: 69.78°F Pressure: 1016hPa Humidity: 72% Wind: 12.71mphWords: 53
The water line is in from the well, I gather there's still some more work to do in connecting the power line. We won't have power until NYSEG installs a new transformer and that'll be the final connection.
Sad to hear of Dolly Parton's passing. Truly a remarkable woman.
The beat goes on...
✍️ Reply by emailStill Crunching
Current Wx: Temp: 61.74°F Pressure: 1016hPa Humidity: 85% Wind: 6.4mphWords: 179
Went outside and had a good chat with the electrician. Realized we hadn't planned a penetration for the fiber, though I guess I thought it would just come in with the power. We're cutting the main floor penetrations today, so we could cut one near where the conduit is.
But I do have a penetration for an antenna from the Dave Cave. It's much bigger than I need for a couple of runs of coax, so they're going to stub out the conduit near that penetration. It'll come up to just above grade, and then they'll cap it off. When Empire Access comes out to actually run the fiber they'll have a long pull from the power pole to the house, but no major bends.
Once it gets inside, we can run it through the floor trusses to wherever it makes the most sense. I think I want it on the main, but I'm not certain yet.
Meanwhile, the IIc Plus is still crunching away, about two hours since it started.
This brings me joy. Maybe because I'm old.
✍️ Reply by emailDitch
Current Wx: Temp: 59.54°F Pressure: 1016hPa Humidity: 88% Wind: 5.21mphWords: 622
I'm writing this at the dining table because the Apple IIc Plus is at the desk grinding away on a Mandelbrot set. Once it's finished this run, I'll save it, turn it off and get the MBP set back up.
I've had a little success getting applications transferred to the MegaFlash virtual drives. Where I have had some difficulty is with getting the Floppy Emu to mount hard drive images.
For reasons I don't understand, a 32MB hard drive image must be stored in contiguous blocks on the microSD card. In the past, the way to deal with this was to copy everything from the microSD card to the Desktop on the Mac, delete the contents of the microSD card, and then copy the folder back.
It didn't seem to work for the latest version of Total Replay, a collection of several hundred games for the Apple II, which have been converted to ProDOS and wrapped in a launcher platform. I have an earlier version that came with the MegaFlash, but they're often adding games and squashing bugs, so I wanted the latest one.
I'll try again later, perhaps reformatting the microSD first.
What has been successful is getting 5.25" and 3.5" disk images to mount. I haven't tried booting any, but I haven't needed to either. I just need them to mount so I can copy the files to one of the virtual drives in the MegaFlash.
Some of those applications work, others don't. VIP Professional was a sophisticated 8-bit GUI spreadsheet in its day, but I can't seem to get it to launch. I'll have to experiment with it some more in Virtual II and see if I can't figure out what's missing.
I did manage to get 8/16 Paint, Dazzle Draw, and Mouse Paint all copied to the A2.DeskTop virtual disk. As their names suggest, they're all paint programs that were popular back in the day. Less so, probably, for Mouse Paint by Bill Budge, though it came bundled with the Apple II mouse, so if you bought a mouse you had Mouse Paint.
Mouse Paint was intended for use on all Apple IIs, so it was limited to standard hi-res graphics, 280x192 in monochrome or 140x192 in six colors. The other two take advantage of "double hi-res" graphics, 560x192 in monochrome, and 140x192 in 16 colors (15 since there are two grays).
Prior to the Apple mouse, most graphics programs on the Apple II relied on a tablet of some kind, usually the Koala Pad, a light pen, a joystick, or even the keyboard for input. Some pretty good artwork could be created with those peripherals, but the mouse really made it more rewarding as an experience.
The virtue of those three programs is that they were all ProDOS based and there are unprotected versions of them. Dazzle Draw has very limited file system features for use with a hard disk, which limits its usefulness somewhat. But I'll see what I can figure out.
A program called Fractal is running now. It's very slow by today's standards, but the experience of entering the parameters and watching it run feels much more like you're using a computer. It's plotting in double hi-res graphics, but the pixelated output can still evoke the mystery of the Mandelbrot set. With the Apple II, you're watching as each point is calculated and plotted, line by excruciating line. Using an iOS app, it's more like you're just watching a slideshow.
Much less exciting.
Lots of action today and tomorrow on the house, if the weather cooperates. Not as cool this morning, and less wind, but it's cloudy with a chance of showers later in the day. We'll see.
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