Remembering Tony Diaz

Mid-afternoon during WOzFest Twenty BOO! 👻, frequent attendee Andrew, who had dialled into the Google Meet, announced in a shocked voice he’d just discovered Tony Diaz had passed away earlier in the week.

To say Andrew, Michael, and I were bewildered is an understatement. A real jolt, not only because Tony was only 54, but also because some of us had been in communication with him about a week before his passing.

Between then and now I’ve had time-consuming work and family matters to attend to, hence the delay in this post, but I was given the opportunity to contribute to the memorial for Tony published in the current issue of Juiced.GS, which can be found as a free download on the mag’s Samples page.

I’ve said much of what I felt I needed/wanted to say in that piece, so I’ll keep this short.

Tony was anti-exclusionary, loved to share his knowledge, and revelled in being around people who were enthusiastic about retro Apples and flying, his two great loves (actually, should extend that to three to include In-N-Out!).

I feel lucky to have met and known him, and to have seen him share his rare prototypes and knowledge, including at WOzFest-1 and WOzFest S7,D2.

He’ll be sorely missed at the next Oz KFest, and I’ll miss his virtual and occasional in-person WOzFest drop-ins. Take care, mate.

RetroChallenge 2021/10 Days 2-3 Report: Progress, of sorts, and a WOzFest!

I’ll be honest – I didn’t get as much done during WOzFest RC 21/10 as I’d hoped – I did continue to set up WOzFest HQ for working on my projects, and I did get some Applesaucing done, but I hit a few roadblocks…

Firstly, I think one of my disk ][ drives with an Applesauce sync sensor is having issues, which I only fully appreciated after about 10 disks (with quite a few multiple attempts to capture some of them). At four plus minutes per attempt, well…

I put the “track 0 always coming up orange” as attributable to some sort of protection scheme Personal Software applied to the Visi* range of products, but I finally tried an unprotected disk and had similar issues.

Of course, that first unprotected disk I tried had actual track 0 issues when I tried a new drive, but fewer of them, and a second disk I tried worked first time.

And it wouldn’t be a RetroChallenge without further confounding issues – the first Visi* disk I went back to also had real issues on track 0! Gah!

Oh, and of course, in the mix was the drive’s head cable occasionally getting caught and making captures useless (the same data being captured as different tracks). Between all that, it took me a while to get in my groove!

Anyway, I was able to capture several disks, sometimes using multiple captures to create a single working image (a newer [and long desired] feature of the Applesauce software).

I still have a lot more disks to do, but am now feeling at least in a better position than mid-afternoon Saturday.

Today, I’ve just tided up a little and started to set up my second spare iMac so I can use my ScanSnap sheet feed scanner for the pirated software manuals. The scanner uses 32-bit software, so I’ve installed High Sierra and am just migrating the other spare iMac’s High Sierra apps and user so I don’t have to set everything up from scratch.

This will allow me to use either machine for Applesaucing or scanning, or a single machine for both in less busy times.

Google Meet worked OK once I installed and set up the “auto admit” extension – for some reason, even with the invite link, Google doesn’t allow attendees outside of the inviting domain to just enter the meeting. And the first “auto admit” extension I tried didn’t work. And you have to restart Chrome to make the settings stick.

For sharing my projects, I joined from the Applesauce-connected iMac to stream various windows as I captured disks, and from an iPhone above the disk ][ drive to watch the drive do its thing.

My first two attendees were international – RetroChallenge judge Eric and Josh “Get The Damn Batteries Out” Malone, both from the US, joined for a while at the start. We had a few Australians hooking in across the day and evening, and everyone just worked on their own projects or whatever and discussed whatever came to mind.

It was nice having the company throughout the day, and I can’t wait for WOzFest 22 when I’ll hopefully get a few updates on where everyone go to – and with the way our vaccine rollout is finally going, I’ll hopefully be allowed to have 10 attendees as well!

I also responded to a few posts on the Australian Computer Museum Society forums site in relation to our Team ACMS project – a AU$500 grant is up for grab for Australians who register an ACMS affiliation when entering RetroChallenge and post about their entry on the forum. There’s a large Aussie/ACMS contingent this RetroChallenge, which is great to see.

I can’t wait to get some more progress under my belt – the nice thing about the scanning especially is it’s pretty brainless for me to keep plugging away at (even during the week), while my other projects are more hands-on.

Catch up in a few days – will I be able to report useful progress?!

RetroChallenge 2021/10 Day 1 Report: Prep is all you need

Just spent the time after a morning work meeting prepping WOzFest HQ – mostly sorting and getting rid of rubbish.

Bought some chips and some booze, even if I will have to be a martyr and consume them myself!

Ready for a proper day or retro tomorrow during WOzFest RC 21/10 – DM me on Twitter for the Google Meet link.

Apple ][/][+ Motherboard Test Sheets v1.2

Not long after WOzFest 18 I released some test sheets for Apple ][ and ][+ motherboards, to help tracking the testing of components on a motherboard, with separate sheets for the major motherboard revisions from Rev0 to RFI.

I silently updated them to v1.1 after correcting a weird default in my layout program that saw much of what was supposed to be solid black set to a very dark grey. No actual content changed, so I didn’t make a hullabaloo about that minor revision.

Today, however, I’m proud to release v1.2 of all the sheets, with improved content and some rewording I think makes things a bit clearer. In the background, I’ve also re-organised the underlying Affinity Publisher file to make changing common components between motherboard revisions easier.

Importantly, I’ve also included a second page with more space for notes and a representation of the keyboard so you can quickly record which keys work and which don’t.

I appreciate the feedback I received from Mark and Ross here in Australia, which helped me to either include extra info or clarify existing info.

Using the sheets on a couple of my machines also helped, and drove me to prepare the keyboard representation as well.

Mark also pointed out that printing onto A3 (i.e. at about 140%) makes the board layout roughly life-size – he placed this enlarged printout over some anti-static foam and pushed the chip pins through the printout into the foam while cleaning the board – a great way to store chips while cleaning or working on a bare board!

So, give the below a squiz and let me know if there’s anything else I need to do – or just use them as you check your Apple ][s.

WOzFest 19 Announcement

Hot on the heels of WOzFest 18 I’m very happy to announce the date for the next WOzFest: WOzFest 19 will be held on Saturday 1 May 2021, starting at midday Sydney time (UTC+10:00).

The theme for WOzFest 19 is “Freedom” – a good friend and frequent WOzFest attendee retires the day before, so I thought what better way to celebrate than to get together with Apple ][ enthusiasts?! I’ll leave it to attendees to interpret the theme as they see fit.

WOzFest 19 will be streamed on Twitch via WOzFest TV for the whole duration. I’ll be aiming to do some productive work to stream, and will have some Skype calls as well.

That said, I’ve not yet organised any Skype calls – but I’m sure I’ll be able to rustle up some Apple ][ enthusiasts from around the world to participate.

The COVID-19 situation has seemed to stabilise here. That said, all prospective attendees will need to pre-register their interest, and sign-in via QR code upon arrival. Masks are optional, hand sanitiser will be provided. I ask all prospective attendees to follow the NSW Government’s self-isolation rules.

Snacks and cider will be provided (I ask for a small donation for same), and those present at dinner time are welcome to join in our pizza order.

Lastly, for WOzFest 19 I’m continuing to raise funds via Ko-Fi. This allows small (or large!) donations to be made – check out my intro post there for the lowdown, and feel free to drop anything you can in the can to help me to run WOzFest moving forward.

I hope to see you there!

P.S. If you happen to be in Sydney and available on 30 April, drop me a line, I’m planning on taking the day off and will be in WOzFest HQ for much of the day.

Apple ][/][+ Motherboard Test Sheets

Towards the end of WOzFest 18, frequent attendee Andrew and I started to look into the use of the ROMX programmable ROM product in a pre-Revision 7 motherboard.

This requires a different character generator (CHARGEN) chip, and also the replacement of two logic chips that aren’t next to each other (the ROMX designers have created a U-shaped sub-board to allow the non-adjoining chips to be replaced in one go).

I only have one pre-Revision 7 board – something Andrew and I determined after checking each and every europlus board I have (not a small task, as those who know me understand). And, of course, it’s in my “to-be-refurbished” pile, so I wasn’t sure it would work. In fact, with several missing logic chips, I could tell it wouldn’t, so off we went scavenging the needed chips to try and get some joy.

However, joy was not to be had – we were unsuccessful in booting, but I could see a non-standard font was being used, so partial success as far as the character generator goes.

At this stage of the night, I was not up to pulling out my logic chip tester and working through the board, so we called it a night.

But this isn’t a single-board consideration for me. I have quite a few boards I need to check and try to get up and running, and that’s daunting enough that I have procrastinated on that part of my europlus Refurbapalooza.

I gotta say here, though: I promise the next step is not a further pit of procrastination – but I decided if I was going to check this board, I needed a resource to help me do so which might be usable on other boards, and, if it takes several sessions, to keep track of where I was at, and also to maybe record some other salient information about the board I was working on.

With my experience designing the “WOzFest Labs Apple Astec Power Supply Unit AA11040B/C Electrolytic Capacitor ‘Spec & Check’ Sheet” (over four years ago!), I thought I might be able to do something similar for Apple ][ motherboards – of course, it would have to have different versions for the main motherboard revisions, so you can see why there’s a risk it might end up being a useful way for a procrastinator to put off productive work!

But I’m a New Age Procrastinator! I’m happy to wastespend time preparing for a small job while accommodating the larger task it’s a part of. So for the last week I’ve been working on test sheets based on Winston D. Gayler’s RFI motherboard block diagram on page 177 of The Apple II Circuit Description. I’ve also referenced Jim Sather’s Understanding the Apple II, which, in Appendix G, details revision differences.

The result? Four test sheets covering the major revisions of Apple ][ and ][+ motherboards:

The sheets show most major components, including product codes, which motherboard product codes are relevant for that revision, areas to record info like case and PSU serial numbers and notes, and an area to record the dates of test sessions and progress through the board.

I would suggest first filling out the serial numbers, date code and (if not standard for the board) crystal frequency, along with any other salient info in the Notes area. Then mark missing (or clearly damaged) components with a red pen.

When testing components, I would mark bad components with a red pen and good components with a green highlighter. When bad or missing components are replaced, highlight with a green highlighter. Whether pads are cut or soldered can be indicated as well.

If switching components from other boards, some collectors might like to indicate that either at the component location or in the Notes area. Most collectors would likely be able to identify individual motherboards by date code – for those with larger collections with duplicate date codes, perhaps a numbering scheme will be need to be implemented by those collectors.

I’ll be leaving a test sheet in each of my machines not only to easily identify them and their operational status, but also keep track of any other work I might be doing on the machine (replacing speaker foam, etc.).

I want this to be as useful a resource for the community as possible, so any suggested changes are welcome. While I won’t be working on other Apple ][ models, I’m happy to discuss with others such sheets and provide info and files.

I’m now actually looking forward to the next stage of motherboard refurbishment, knowing I have the info I’ll need and an ability to keep track of each motherboard’s progress, as I rarely get enough time to work through a whole board in one sitting.

QFest 18 Announcement

SteveK in Brisbane has now confirmed he’ll be able to host a QFest to coincide with WOzFest 18 – hooray!

Not only that, he’s done the upgrade and got the quintessential mini-Australian-Apple ][-Fest infrastructure for use by attendees – a table tennis table!

Because of timezone differences, QFest 18 will be starting at 02:00 UTC (WOzFest 18 will be starting at 01:00 UTC), but we’ll stream with them as soon as they’re up and running at WOzFest TV.

Food and other refreshments will be provided by Steve (what a champ!), but registrations are essential – reach out to me or comment here if you would like to register.

Despite COVID-19, this is going to be a bumper WOzFest year, and I hope our Northern friends can keep up the pace!

Apple ][ Forever!

Community Service

As per the official WOzFest 18 announcement, the theme for the upcoming event is Community Service.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about giving back to our retrocomputer communities – it’s something I’m passionate about because of the significant help and support I’ve received not only from my own local community especially, but also from the wider community online.

I was never much involved in “the community” back in the day, and it took some time from when I first started getting back into Apple ][s in 1998 to when I found and became a part of the local retrocomputer community (in 2013/14). (I was, however, quite involved in the Mac community, which ended up seeing me start my Mac consultancy in 1997.)

But in the short time since I found the local retrocomputing community, here I am in 2021 planning four WOzFests and Skyping/communicating with some of the current leading lights of the Apple ][ retrocomputer scene!

I engage with the community in other ways, sometimes just participating in conversations, but, more importantly, also trying to find ways to give back to the community that has given me so much.

This is not to big note myself – many people are doing much, much more than I, but even a schlub like me can make a positive contribution to the community, and I’d like to share some of the ways I have done so over the years.

I hope this post will serve as inspiration to others and give them ideas on how they might be able to contribute to their retrocomputer community – every little bit really does count.

Offer help

First up, I’d say if you see a request for assistance you can answer, answer it! It doesn’t get any easier than that. Try to keep all contributions positive. This is most especially applicable when dealing with new members of the community.

You might know the answer immediately, or know which manual you have to open – you might even find yourself firing up some equipment to check behaviour. But it’s amazing how strange the path to helping might be.

For example, a question was asked on the KansasFest 2020 Discord about converting a vector PICT file – modern programs were having issues interpreting it. I also found none of the graphics or DTP programs I had on my macOS Catalina iMac wanted to convert the file.

However, I remembered one semi-modern (or at least able to run on semi-modern macOSes) program which I thought might have the legacy parsing code in it, even though it’s the worst page layout program I have ever used: MYOB AccountEdge. And guess what? Under macOS Mojave (10.14), MYOB AccountEdge v11.5 was able to load the PICT into an otherwise empty invoice layout screen, and print to PDF the file in its full vector glory!

Just jump right in and try things out when helping your fellow enthusiasts – in and of itself, overcoming such technical challenges can be rewarding.

Specialist skills – Silentype font

As a long-time desktop publisher and user of vector-editing programs, I’ve always been interested in fonts. In several DTP jobs, this led to using Fontographer to create bespoke fonts for customers to simplify logo and symbol use in their work.

When I started getting back into retrocomputers, I wanted to recreate the feel of one of my first printers, the Apple Silentype. I didn’t have a Silentype, but I was able to source a full character output “rainbow” printout via a request online.

With that in hand, I released the original version of my Silentype font in March 2004. Because of character rendering changes in OS X, I had to tweak the font and released v2 in December 2012. I released it under the Open Font License so that others could work on it if they wish.

Chris Torrence has done something similar with another font I always intended to work on, Motter Tektura. Not wanting to duplicate effort, I now just use his font and am happy to see it available before I got a chance to work on my own version.

Specialist skills – Proofreading

Once again utilising my experience in publishing and editing, I have proof-read a few items for different projects, most significantly early versions of the .woz file spec for John Morris’s Applesauce and more recently passing my eye over John Snape’s reprint of the Beneath Apple DOS/Beneath Apple ProDOS books.

I don’t always bring a deep technical knowledge to such a task, but I am very details-focussed, and often pick up slight inconsistencies otherwise missed. This helps the community as the documents have had more review, and being non-technical is in some ways an advantage as I will request details to try and make sure technical material is clear to cater to all levels of readers.

Grunt work – BBS Crackscreens

Sometimes the work is much less glamorous and/or much less interesting in its actual undertaking.

Many retrocomputer enthusiasts know of Jason Scott, who not only works at the Internet Archive but also maintains his own archives of information from and relating to BBSes.

He maintains a list of BBSes – including the dialin number, sysop, date/s in operation, etc. His tweet sought volunteers to scour old text files looking for such details, and as a follower of the Apple II Crackscreen Twitter account, I knew the details available in such crackscreens would need special attention as it wasn’t just text – it would all need to be manually transcribed.

With the bot owner’s permission, Jason provided all 8,000+ source images to me. On Jason’s suggestion I removed the screens without details, then went back and transcribed the details for all the BBSes I could find in the remaining images.

I ended up with about 750 screenshots with details to transcribe, which had about 1,450 BBS listings (many of which were, of course, duplicates). Jason is incorporating these details into his main list, and many Apple ][ BBSes will now be findable. On and off, this took me three months to complete.

Twitter image bot

Speaking of the Apple II Crackscreen Twitter image bot, it inspired me to create my own image bot, the Applesauce Fluxes bot, which tweets random flux .pngs from the Internet Archive’s Flux Capacity collection several times a day.

I just love the variety and beauty of the Applesauce flux images, I felt I had to share them with the world!

While I’m not regularly updating the bot’s image collection, there were over 20,000 images at the time of my download – this will keep things fresh for quite some time to come!

Preservation/digitisation

This is one which gets more critical every day as bits rot, pages moulder, collections are trashed upon death (bleak, I know), and knowledge and expertise fade.

I have an Applesauce I make available to WOzFest attendees, and others are brought to spread the load. Attendees bring scanners for scanning at WOzFests, and many attendees are scanning while at home, too.

While some preservation/digitisation requires specialist knowledge or specific equipment (not always cheap), even allowing others to undertake the preservation of your own items is a contribution to the community.

Reach out to other enthusiasts and find out how you can contribute material, time or effort to this very worthy cause.

non-eBay sales/disposal

Even when I didn’t have WOzFest HQ available to me, I acted as a clearing house for old tech for customers, family and friends.

With a reduction in e-waste collections generally in Sydney, I continue to offer to hold material for people, including WOzFest attendees, and will periodically visit the local Community Recycling Centre, which accepts e-waste and is only 5 minutes drive away. Occasionally, I’ll even offer items to Freecycle before e-wasting if they seem still usable.

I am diligent, however, in ensuring this “service” does not lead to accumulation of bulk material as I very much savour the free space I have available to me and I work tirelessly against the strongest of my hoarding inclinations (and I will always want to be able to meet my preferred definition of “collector”).

Society membership/volunteering

The Australian Computer Museum Society is trying to establish a national computing museum here in Oz – I recently became a Committee member (I like the fact that several WOzFest attendees are also Committee members or volunteers).

The Society has had a checkered past, and the new Committee is trying to get things back on the rails, which I think is well worth my time.

Beyond Committee matters, I also help out as they’re moving their massive collection to a single storage location, which involves pushing heavy, dirty computers on and off trucks – but it has to get done.

I’ve previously been on local and national Committees for APANA (an Australian community-based ISP), and was co-editor of (and contributor to) the Club Mac club magazine MACinations for a few years.

WOzFest

And, of course, I host WOzFests! I’ve enjoyed the 5+ years of WOzFests tremendously.

Product releases, Skypes to international luminaries, interesting technical discussions all feature at WOzFests, and I am also building up tools and resources for attendees to use (and perhaps borrow) including books, manuals, and test/repair equipment.

Providing space and motivation for attendees to work on projects has proven very rewarding and instructive, and I can now offer storage space for frequent attendees who can’t complete projects in one sitting but are space-constrained at home.

This is the hardest volunteering role for me to recommend to others – not because it’s hard work (it can be), but because it relies on a reliably-available venue. I would find it very hard to commit to hosting an event without the 42 m² (360 sq ft) in WOzFest HQ.

An alternative would be to get involved in the running of other events like Oz Kfest, KansasFest, VCF events, or just local gatherings of like-minded retrocomputer enthusiasts. I’m pleased that regular WOzFest attendee Murray now holds a generalist gathering called Nozfest.

Give it a go!

I’m sure others have more ideas for what they can do for their community – focus on things that “spark joy” for you, and it will make it that much more enjoyable. That said, grunt work can also be rewarding as there is a definite physicality to the contribution you’ve made.

Please add your own suggestions in the Comments below – it may even give me other ideas on what I can do, and hopefully will do the same for other enthusiasts.

WOzFest 18 Announcement

I’m very happy to announce the date for the next WOzFest: WOzFest 18 will be held on Saturday 20 March 2021, starting at midday Sydney time (UTC+11:00). UPDATE: QFest 18 has been announced for the same day!

The theme for WOzFest 18 is “Community Service” – I’m asking attendees to bring something to upload to the Internet, to update an online resource, to do some Applesauce imaging on the night, to do some scanning, to interview a luminary via Skype…anything which contributes back to the retrocomputing community (it doesn’t even have to be Apple ][-related!). These services would need to be performed during WOzFest 18.

Many WOzFest attendees already do these things, both outside of and during WOzFests – I just think it would be nice to have that as a theme of a specific WOzFest, and that everyone find some way to participate.

As per recent WOzFestsWOzFest 18 will be streamed on Twitch via WOzFest TV for the whole duration. I’ll be aiming to do some productive work to stream, and will have some Skype calls as well.

That said, I’ve not yet organised any Skype calls – but I’m sure I’ll be able to rustle up some Apple ][ enthusiasts from around the world to participate.

The COVID-19 situation continues to fluctuate here – currently 5 visitors are allowed, but that may ease (or tighten?!) before 20 March. All prospective attendees will need to pre-register their interest, and sign-in via QR code upon arrival. Masks are optional, hand sanitiser will be provided. I ask all prospective attendees to follow the NSW Government’s self-isolation rules.

Snacks and cider will be provided (I ask for a small donation for same), and those present at dinner time are welcome to join in our pizza order.

Lastly, for WOzFest 18 I’m continuing to raise funds via Ko-Fi. This allows small (or large!) donations to be made – check out my intro post there for the lowdown, and feel free to drop anything you can in the can to help me to run WOzFest moving forward.

I hope to see you there!

P.S. If you happen to be in Sydney and available on 19 March, drop me a line, I’m taking the day off and will be in WOzFest HQ for much of the day, so maybe some will get a little bit of extra retrocomputing done – the more the merrier, right?!

WOzFest 17 Oct/QFest 17 Announcement

I’m very happy to announce the date for the next WOzFest: WOzFest 17 Oct will be held on Saturday 17 October 2020, starting at midday Sydney time (UTC+11:00). An easy date to remember! And Steve in Brisbane has confirmed QFest 17 will be held at the same time – double the Apple ][ goodness!

The theme for WOzFest 17 Oct is, as it was for WOzFest SWEET16, “Community” – having supportive communities is important at the best of times, but especially so at the moment, so I’ve decided to extend the theme to cover WOzFest 17 Oct. The camaraderie involved in events like WOzFest certainly help me feel lucky in these trying times. So come and join my community for a few hours, no matter where you are in the world.

As per recent WOzFests, WOzFest 17 Oct will be streamed on Twitch via WOzFest TV for the whole duration. I’ll be aiming to do some productive work to stream, and will have some Skype calls as well.

That said, I’ve not yet organised any Skype calls – but I’m sure I’ll be able to rustle up some Apple ][ enthusiasts from around the world to participate. As usual, we’ll have a permanent connection to our QFest 17 buddies.

For WOzFest 17 Oct I’m continuing to raise funds via Ko-Fi. This allows small (or large!) donations to be made – check out my intro post there for the lowdown, and feel free to drop anything you can, in the can, to help me to run WOzFest moving forward.

I hope to see you there!

P.S. If you happen to be in Sydney and available on 16 October, drop me a line, I’m taking the day off and will be in WOzFest HQ for much of the day, so maybe some will get a little bit of extra retrocomputing done – the more the merrier, right?!