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Woz is amazing. such a genuinely good human. i have an Apple ][e, and one year he came to speak at some business lunch and i brought the case lid with me in case i had the opportunity to have him sign it. as it turns out, it was simple: he was just standing all alone outside the room afterwards, talking to anyone who wanted to talk, so i nervously went up to him and said, âumm, can i ask you a question?â and he nervously said back ââŚsure.â
when i pulled out the cover, his eyes lit up and i said, âi used an Apple ][ in high school, and iâve always loved them. this isnât from the same one i used, but i got it from a friend who also had one and he gave it to me because of the two of us, iâm the bigger Apple fan. Would you be willing to autograph it for me?â Woz pulled out a sharpie and said âOf course!â â he then laughed and said âAt first, for some reason, i thought you were going to ask me to speak in Klingon or something.â
i have NO idea why he thought that, but it says something about my nerdy vibe, i guess. i have had that cover hanging on my wall above my desk for maybe 15 years now. i look at it every day.
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Youâre very lucky to meet him.
Maybe he gets asked that a lot.
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i know, itâs crazy. it was just a small local Chamber of Commerce monthly business meeting thing, too. i am not 100% positive, but i THINK that he has family in town⌠Renoâs only about 3-4 hours away from the Bay Area of San Francisco, and he comes up here pretty often, or he used to. the only reason i know that is because i follow him on twitter, and he always posts what hotel heâs staying at, and even always posts his room number. i find this stunning, but heâs a numbers geek and heâs clearly had decades of experience with all manner of people, so if he still does it he must feel safe enough.
you know, that never occurred to me, lol. i wonder!
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I had a ][+ and then a ][e growing up. I still have the ][+ in my basement, but the ][e was loaned out to my grandfather and then lost amongst his effects when he died.
Prior to Twitter and social networks in general, I was foolhardy enough to email exactly two famous people:
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I contacted John Carmack because I had discovered that the son of one of my high school teachers had gone to school with him and had been friends. Iâm not exactly sure what I was expecting out of that interaction, but I would not characterize it as a positive one. To be fair, being contacted out of the blue by some was probably awkward for him too.
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Later, at my first job out of college I found myself upgrading the RAM on an early generation iMac and noting both the similarities and differences between working on a machine like that as compared to an Apple ][. I had recently read an article about Woz, and for some reason decided to email him and share my thoughts about that experience. To my surprise, he replied to my message with a kind and thoughtful response. I wish I had done a better job of archiving my email back then.
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itâs not a tech-related thing, but your story about emailing Woz reminded me: when i was in college i wrote a long, embarrassing fan letter to Roger Zelazny. (i have no idea how i even got his address, now that i think about it!) but anyway, a month or so later i got a hand-written postcard from him, thanking me and answering some questions i had about one of his Amber novels. signed and everything. he died not long after that, i think. i treasure it.
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I got a postcard from Isaac Asimov. I think itâs in a file upstairs. Maybe with my collection of >100 rejection slips.
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asimov?? omgâŚ
i would FRAME that.
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I think the post card was sort of eclipsed. Soon after I got this we went to an SF convention, and Asimov showed up one day as a surprise guest. This was 1990 and he was already very frail, walking slowly with a cane. We got a book autographed. My wife said, âThank you so much!â and he replied (imagine Brooklyn accent) âReally, itâs not a problem.â We also got to see him give one of his hilarious talks.
One other thing â at a party we met a oldish fellow named Jack Robinson, who was the guy whoâd invited Asimov into an SF fan club back (that became the Futurians) in the early 1940âs.* We talked a lot, and managed to meet him for Asimovâs talk. We sat in the front row. Before or after the talk (I forget which) Jack said, âI wanted to be in the front row so I could heckle Isaac, but he looked so frail, I couldnât do it. He was sitting down!â
But youâre right; I should frame it and hang it up (along with about 3 dozen other photos and so on that need to be put on the wall).
*Jack is mentioned in Asimovâs autobiography, In Memory Yet Green.
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I have userâs that need a flash card reader in the new system that Iâm getting a quote for.
If it was just SD cards, weâd be done and dusted.
But much of our manufacturing and maintenance equipment still relies on good old Compact Flash.
We will end up getting a USB to CF adapter, but those tend to get lost or wander away.
I understand the manufacturer wanting just SD cards. That covers most of the worldâs needs now. Oh maybe you need a micro-SD to SD card adapter, but who doesnât have a plethora of those just sitting in a drawer?
I understand the manufacturer doing away with 5.25" and 3.5" external drive bays. Corporate machines are not upgraded in todayâs world.
But there still lingers that Slim Optical drive space. Thatâs still there on a desktop or workstation.
I mean, I havenât had an optical drive in the default configuration in a half dozen years, but there are still use cases.
But I sit here looking at that 5.125" x .5" blanking plate and just know someone surely must make a flash card reader that would sit in that space.
I come away from my search empty handed.
I am despondent.
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What is the space behind that (or the target system) actually like? Iâm guessing itâs mostly empty space, but Iâm curious about any rails, etc.
I wasnât successful either at finding something to fit that relatively standard size. Apparently no one has thought to use that for anything other than an optical drive.
It occurred to me that this scenario is the perfect situation for a 3D printer. Unfortunately, it doesnât look like anyone has created a model yet to solve this problem based on a cursory search on thingiverse, so youâd be on your own. If youâre feeling industrious and can find a card reader that is thin enough to fit into that space even if itâs not designed for it, it should be possible to model an adapter and print it.
You could also just get a USB card reader and attach it to the top/side/front with some double-sided tape or something, if youâre nasty.
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Finding Nimo
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My son would love this - born the same year he was and itâs got one of his faves on it right there!
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I have no memory of this.
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My favourite Youtube woodworker:
Rex is a woodworker who
a) Is very good at explaining things from the ground up [1] to people with minimal experience, and
b) Specialises in minimal-investment low-tech handtool woodworking. A lot of his builds are done with nothing but a hatchet, a saw and a bit-brace. He also has several good episodes on how to build basic workbenches from scratch with minimal tools [2].
Worthwhile checking out for anyone looking to get into woodworking with minimal investment in equipment, as well as for experienced woodworkers interested in handtool techniques or antique tool restoration.
Heâs also just a very pleasant dude [3].
â
[1] For example:
[2]
[3]
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That $30 workbench is closer to a $100 if built today.
Thatâs depressing.
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Welcome to the world; the USAâs previously ultra-cheap timber was an anomaly.
Big-box store 4x2 construction pine costs about $4.50/m in Oz.
https://www.bunnings.com.au/90-x-45mm-mgp10-untreated-pine-timber-framing-linear-metre_p8030069
The fancy Tas native stuff can get over $100/plank.
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