GPL ***holes

This isn't a complaint about the GPL itself, or it's alleged 'viral nature.'  This is about a specific group of people who don't know what the GPL, write software, release software under its terms...and then complain when people exercise the rights granted to them.

* If you don't want people to make and distribute their own binaries, don't use the GPL
* If you don't want people to fork your software, don't use the GPL
* if you don't want people to make daily builds of their own code modifications while you use a cathedral model, don't use the GPL
* If you don't like people using your code to make builds inferior to your official releases...don't release your source code at all
* If you don't want those things, release your code under the GPL, and then complain because people do what you told them they could, you are an ***hole

Thank you.

New diet idea

This just popped into my head, so I thought I'd write it down before I forgot.

There are a bunch of different kinds of fake vegetarians out there. Pescetarians, who eat seafood but not land animals. Pollotarians, who eat poultry and seafood, but not others, people who eat animals with "beady" eyes but not "sad" eyes. And so on...

I call my new diet ahumortarian. You can eat animals that don't have fun, like fish, chickens, and cows, but not ones that play, like otters, elephants,  dolphins, cats, dogs, octopi, and cockatoos.

Now you, too, can have a snobby diet. By making sure to eat only dolphin-safe tuna, you too are helping the environment (secret: almost all tuna these days is "dolphin-safe").

Apple IIGS, part 1 of ∞ * π

Recently (within the past month or so), the school my mother works at was preparing to throw out / recycle some old computers. I frequently collect old computers, as members of my family frequently break theirs and/or need replacement parts. So my mother asked if she could have the stuff, and was permitted to take it.

A semi-complete list of the haul is as follows:

• One Pentium 4 desktop @ 1.8 GHz. It had a 20 GB hard drive with Windows 98 on it and 256 MB of DDR RAM. I upgraded it to 1 GB of RAM and installed Xubuntu 12.04 on it. My sister is currently using it; I expect it to be broken within a month, as is typical of her
• One AMD Athlon 64 motherboard and processor @ 1.8 GHz, IIRC. No hard drive, RAM, or power supply. Case is nice looking but with a broken power button. I installed 1 GB of DDR RAM, a 20 GB hard drive, and a power supply, and put Ubuntu 12.04 on it (which is slow on such specs, but meh!) Currently sitting in my bedroom doing nothing
• Two 3Com Baseline switches (model 2024). Both have "no power" written on the bottom. Accurate, as neither will power on when plugged in. I suspect a power supply issue rather than something wrong with the motherboard, but they use a proprietary power supply so I can't just swap one out. I will probably experiment with these eventually. Even if I can't get them working, the boxes look nice and are extremely sturdy, so I can always put some goofy project in them
• Two Apple IIGS computers

One is a ROM01 motherboard with a "Woz Limited Edition" lid. These apparently aren't very rare but are quite collectible.  The other is ROM03 motherboard.

The ROM01 with Woz lid

The ROM03

Both are slightly yellowed with age. The white patch on the ROM03 was a sticker that was placed on it that I removed. It said something along the lines of "This computer was made possible through the donations and efforts of Food Conglomerate and Television Station That's Been Around Forever as part of the Expensive Computers For Students So They Can Play Oregon Trail and Number Munchers Even Though They Ran Fine On The Older Apple IIs They No Doubt Had Before Anyway program." The sticker is a thick plaque-like thing made of tin/aluminum and was not damaged in removal, so I can photograph it if anyone is actually interested in it for historical reasons.

The ROM03 also has some slight scratches along the top. I may use Retr0Bright to try to clean it up, but in general, slight yellowing doesn't bother me. Some might even call it a feature.

The ROM02 is packed full of cards, most of which I can't identify on sight. I will have to examine and document them to find out what they do. I don't have any software for the Apples yet, and it's possible some of the cards are so obscure that I may never get them working.

Anyway, back to the haul list:

•  Two Apple RGB monitors. They are similarly aged and yellowed. I only got one cable with them, so I can't operate both computers at the same time unless I hook one up to a TV. They didn't work when I first tried them, and I was about to chuck them, but tried one again and it worked. I guess the knobs in the back are sensitive; touching them seems to jiggle the picture out of existence. 

Apple RGB Monitor. Not pictured: The one that looks just like it

•  Assorted floppy disk drives. All of them are 5.25", which should make getting disks a fun challenge. I did get a box of 5.25" floppies a few weeks later, but I don't know yet if they're any good or whether they'll work in the GS. I didn't count how many drives I got, but it was about six or seven, which is about four or five more than I'm likely to ever need, assuming they all work. The ones in the middle are a single unit and labeled as a PC TransDrive. They are standard PC-type drives, and apparently go with a special card and software so you can transfer software between PC-compatibles and the GS. I think I may disassemble it and see if the drives are internally the same as an PC drive and/or are swappable. It might make for a neat experiment to switch them with something else, like a 3.5" drive

Stack of 5.25" drives. I don't think this is all of them, just the ones I could grab quickly from my stash

 

• An Apple Desktop Bus keyboard. Slightly dirty, but surprisingly unyellowed
• An Apple Desktop Bus mouse. Very slightly yellowed, but much lighter than the computers, monitors, drives, etc...
• A massive external SCSI drive. It looks to be of a similar vintage as the Apples, but it doesn't have a cable and nothing on the ROM01 (which has all the cards) jumps out at me as being a SCSI controller. The sticker on the front has a Q on it and says "42 MEG" underneath, so I assume it's a 42 MB drive

Front of hard drive

Rear of SCSI drive. Cable connector, SCSI terminator, ID selector, two power receptacles, power cord connector, and power switch. I think the black thing in the lower right under the switch is for some cord for locking the drive to a table (like anyone would want to steal it)

•  A cable with a min-DIN 8 connector on both ends. This is the kind of jack used for the serial and printer ports on the GS. I assume it was for a large ugly daisy-wheel printer, so I will henceforth refer to it as the ImageWriter cable

That's it for the collection. I want to goof off in front of nobody with the GSes in the near future, so expect another long dull post (or run away screaming).

Starting a blog

Starting a blog is probably one of the last things I planned on doing on the internet...ever. Most blogs are about the uninteresting exploits of ordinary people. Not exactly prime reading material.

But as time wears on, I realize that I, too, have thoughts no one want to hear. I frequently have the urge to talk ad nauseum about things other people find mundane. Finding people to do this with, however, is hard. So blogging is a way for me to pretend I'm making myself heard without actually bothering the people around me.

I don't have a specific topic to rant or ramble about, but my interests are pretty narrow, so a lot of it will probably be me wrecking computers or murdering plants in my garden. If you find what I say interesting, that's great. If you're easily bored, please don't be offended.