Back to the Future
17:05 Monday, 13 July 2026
Current Wx: Temp: 85.57°F Pressure: 1020hPa Humidity: 55% Wind: 6.06mph
Words: 463
A couple of weeks back, at the Tinderbox meetup, something prompted me to look for something on eBay, I don't recall what.
But "the algorithm," surfaced a used copy of an old Mac PIM app, Arrange, by Common Knowledge. I became familiar with Arrange after it was sold off to CE Software to be reborn as WebArranger. (Dumb name.)
Yes, a dumb name, but a remarkable app!
Things were moving pretty fast back in those days, the latter 90s. The Web was the new hotness, and $495 PIM packages were not. I think WebArranger retailed for something like $59.99. I could be wrong. Maybe less.
Anyway, it was pretty much just Arrange with some bookmark templates and some functionality for capturing things from a website.
I didn't really care so much about any of that, I was fascinated by its PIM capabilities. It was structured around an outliner interface that could include calendar views in an item. It had been described as an "object-oriented data base," because that was hot. I don't know much about that, but it does resemble a database in that you can customize records and display notes in tables and so on.
I don't recall exactly what happened, but Tinderbox came along, MacOS X, I went through a number of different Macs, and somehow Arrange slipped out of use.
Anyway, there was a complete used version, including the box, for $50. So I bought it.
I'd always regretted not having the complete Arrange docs. WebArranger came with little more than a pamphlet. I was mainly interested in the docs.
Of course, I wanted to play with it again, so I launched SheepShaver. I'd used it before, so it was configured with a MacOS 9.0.4 disk image and WebArranger was already installed. Unfortunately, SheepShaver seems to have an incompatibility with MacOS 27. It'll run fine for a few minutes, then the external display goes black and the computer becomes completely unresponsive.
Le sigh.
As these things go, there was a link in one of the blogs I follow that pointed to a way to get Basilisk II to run on iOS. But I'll have to compile the source myself, so that'll be a learning opportunity. I don't know if I have the time to dive into that, but I think it'd be cool to have a Mac emulator running on iOS, so maybe I'll make some time. We shall see. Anything is possible in the era of "vibe coding."
I'd buy an old G4 Mac mini, but I don't have enough room for the stuff I'm using now. That may be a solution when the new house is complete (enough) and I can establish the Dave Cave, "a place for my stuff."
Anyway, as usual, the beta goes on...
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Current Wx: Temp: 72.19°F Pressure: 1022hPa Humidity: 77% Wind: 8.81mphWords: 87
My 9" iPad (9th version) is still on iOS 26 so I was able to control the DJI mini 2 using the DJI Fly app on the iPad.
It's not an ideal situation because you have to hold the controller separately, and it's hard to keep the iPad out of the sun's glare. Should be easier this afternoon after the sun gets behind the house a bit.
I'm going to try to use the mini 3 with the iPad next time. The camera is a little better.
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