Back to the Future

08:49 Wednesday, 5 August 2026
Current Wx: Temp: 68.99°F Pressure: 1020hPa Humidity: 77% Wind: 6.26mph
Words: 643

Kanasfest, the annual get-together of Apple II enthusiasts, was a couple of weeks ago, so I've been seeing various reports here and there. Somehow, somewhere, I learned of a new product for the Apple IIc, the MegaFlash for Apple //c. The idea is to have four mass-storage devices, virtual hard drives, stored internally. It also offers some modifications to the Apple IIc ROM that correct a couple of bugs in Applesoft, a 400K RAM disk, and a routine that intercepts Applesoft floating point routines and performs them in the onboard Raspberry Pi Pico, in effect a sort of math-coprocessor.

Naturally, I ordered one.

It came in a while ago, and I've been preoccupied with house and health, so I didn't try to install it. Yesterday I decided I needed a break from house stuff and broke out my IIc to install it.

To make a long story short, it works! It has a wifi interface and you can connect it to your local wifi network, and it'll get the date and time from a network time server, then it provides that to ProDOS as if you had a clock card installed. It boots into a program called Apple II DeskTop, which is a GUI interface to ProDOS. I played around with it for a bit, and while it's definitely slow, it's usable.

I had some issues with my internal disk drive and to rule out any problems with the machine itself, I reverted back to the stock configuration and verified the drive worked fine and the IWM (Integrated Woz Machine) disk interface was working. It may have been an issue with the BMOW Floppy Emu mods I installed, so I removed those as well.

In reinstalling the MegaFlash, I bent one of the pins on the riser socket for the cpu and broke the pin when trying to straighten it. Bummer.

Well, the huge advantage with this device is that you can have an enormous amount of software available internally. Which makes working with the IIc in confined quarters, like I have here, much easier and more entertaining. The Applesoft floating point acceleration is a nice bonus since I like playing around with BASIC and graphing programs.

When I ordered the MegaFlash for the IIc, they didn't have one for the IIc Plus in stock. When I checked yesterday, they did, so I ordered one of those as well. I also emailed Joe to see if he could throw another riser socket in the package, and he replied promptly and said it would be no problem.

So I'll be installing both boards when the IIc Plus version arrives. I'll probably mostly use the IIc Plus, since it runs at 4MHz and everything, except games, is a lot snappier.

I'm really looking forward to getting this house done, so I can get my two Apple //e computers set up. I've got another IIc in storage. I hadn't intended to buy another IIc, I thought I was buying an external disk drive for the IIc, but it came with the computer too! Unfortunately, the seller didn't package it well and the external drive did a number on the keyboard, breaking a number of keys and the drive door latch. I've since replaced all the keys but the space bar, since that seems to be unobtainium. The issue with the space bar is the stabilizer wire, and the two little clips that hold it in place.

It dawned on me the other day that those plastic clips are also present on all the other stabilized keys, like the Shift key, which isn't unobtainium. The challenge is those clips are glued to the bottom of the key cap, so I'll have to carefully razor-knife them off, then glue them to the space bar.

Anyway, keepin' me off the streets!

The beat goes on...

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Looking Up

08:12 Wednesday, 5 August 2026

Current Wx: Temp: 65.91°F Pressure: 1020hPa Humidity: 78% Wind: 5.79mph
Words: 590

I've been deleting images from Photos trying to recover some disk space. That inevitably brings to mind various cameras I've owned and enjoyed. For reasons that are unclear to me, I've always just enjoyed the jpeg renderings from the 12MP Panasonic CMOS sensor Olympus used in several cameras, including the early Pens, the E-620, the E-30 and the E-5.

I had a number of those bodies, and sold all of them. Later, just because I liked that sensor and jpeg engine combination, I bought a used E-PM1 with a broken image stabilizer. I took it out yesterday and played around with it a bit. This image was taken with it this morning before my walk. I debated bringing along with me, deciding not to and thinking I'd probably regret it.

I did. Saw what I think would have been a very nice shot, shook my head and kept moving.

It's an unremarkable photo in most ways. If you pixel-peeped you'd see noise, and it really isn't a good example of what I like about that sensor, but I wanted to post a pic today, so this is it.

We're making progress on the house. Max the electrician came by yesterday and we discussed all the issues regarding bringing utility power to the house. It's probably going to be about $10K-$15K, which bites, but we really don't have a more affordable option. We talked about laying the conduit for the garage at the same time so we can do all the digging at one time. We'll put conduit in for the fiber at the same time as well, so all the have to do is pull it through conduit where it'll be at least 2' below grade and we're less likely to stick a shovel through it at some time in the future.

Energy Vanguard has completed their design for the HVAC system. We'll have a meeting to discuss it, and then I'll have to start shopping it around to get a quote or two.

We ordered windows on Monday. We couldn't get a price on the front door because it's not in stock at the local warehouse, but a comparable one is north of $8K, for a door! It is an 8-foot door, so there's that, but still.

Brad is working on the basement interior framing for the load-bearing walls. Once those are up we can set the floor trusses and get the subfloor down so he can start setting blocks for the main floor.

Mitzi and I were in the basement yesterday afternoon and noticed something that Brad had mentioned. The ICF is white and it reflects the heat inside the basement, kind of turning it into an oven. It's going to be a bit warm today, although not hot by any means. Working in that basement makes it feel otherwise.

Tomorrow I go see the doc to go over my bloodwork and talk about next steps. I'll be picking up a home sleep study kit to see if I have sleep apnea. I don't think I do, but we'll see.

Friday I have my first appointment to begin the process of removing my cataracts. I feel like I'm starting a "service life extension program," something the Navy used to do with its carriers. Hopefully get on a GLP-1 and drop 40-50 pounds, get my vision cleared up. Start working out on the regular.

If I take care of myself, I might live long enough to enjoy this place!

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