Re: Approving development without being bribed?
Eww!
212 publicly visible posts • joined 8 Mar 2007
Same here; Mom-N-Pop Apple/HP warranty repair place in late 90s. First couple of years, things were great, fueled in part by several school systems support contracts. Also helped there were lots of Apple recalls on monitors and such (popped capacitors plague). Third year, payroll was missed for new year. I left after a couple of months. Later, heard the store had been busted by Apple for doing too many unneeded warranty repairs. Hard business, Apple.
I have a beige Ti99/4a and it still runs great. Just wish I hadn't left my data cassette in the cassette player, and then stored in the attic for 20 years. It snapped, trying to read.
I'd coded a flat file Traveller ship database on there, with vector drawn deck plans, as well as a D&D character generator and of course, a dice roller. I also had a 4 channel conversion of Steven Howe's Mood For A Day. No, not a nerd, not nerdy at ALL!
Oh man, I lived in St. Pete for 10 years, doing both mobile computer repair (mostly businesses and schools) as well as IT at a small private party college. To help understand the west central Florida population: the entire area was settled by folks from other parts of the US, who screwed up and needed to start over. What a strange, jacked up town. So glad to be gone.
At the bottom of the main Apple Store web page, you can find a link to their refurb store. For recent versions of hardware, can usually save $100-$200 dollars (3£ - 5£ if my conversion maths is correct). Refurbs come in new cases, with regular packaging and 1 year warranty like new stuff. In order to recycle components from returns and stuff (boards, drives, RAM, etc), they have to be labeled as refurbs. Just got 3 iPad minis for $200 each. They shipped directly from China factory.
I prefer the Chemex. I don't mind the time spent pouring water over grounds as I'm already at the stove making breakfast (ham-n-cheese omelette, bacon, fried potatoes with green chile every day). Even with acidic coffee the filters do a good job of pulling the acid out and leaving it bean sweet.
I'm 46, with 13 year old daughter. Found my town has a gaming group (Abq RPG Gamers) and singed up for their newsletter. They do frequent one-shot games and game tests. Makes it easy to drop in on a Saturday afternoon for 4-6 hours. Ok, it is 30 miles away but this is all about geeking up my kid.
Got to do a play through of Firefly RPG a couple of weeks ago. It's running Cortex 2 rules, tweaked to make a game seem like a television episode. Basically, no matter what you have planned, trouble will pop up and improvising will be required. Comes with a bunch of base characters as well as the tv show characters so you can drop people into a game with minimal fuss. Looking forward to getting my printed copy, one day...
I have a Quadra 650 (upgraded to 128 MB of RAM!) and it still runs. Ok, it takes three different adapters stacked on top of each other to connect up to a monitor but still, it's never died in me. And the metal case makes a great stepping stone when I need to reach a high shelf.
Now, about the TI-99/4A that still runs...
Heh! There's a web comic using still images from the Star Wars films, but the storyline is it's a bunch of teens and a 10 year old little sister playing a space based RPG (laser swords, laser 10 foot poles, etc). The game quickly goes off the rails when the "cheddar monks" head down to a hastily created planet and Lil' Sis creates her character: a tall dinosaur with bunny ears and long eyes. He then tells the monks they have to travel through the planet to reach the wise old queen who is 14.
It makes as much sense as Lucas' version.
But, but, but, I thought Apple was just a marketing company, peddling copycat designs from real companies like HP and Dell, for 3x the $$$, for similar shaped boxen! How could they make so much money over so many years when geeks have been telling the apple customers how stupid they are?
Heh. Over the holidays, dug out my Quadra 650 and fired it up. I ended to scan in some blueprints (USS Enterprise blueprints) on my old Agfa Tabloid Scanner (scsi, no USB/FireWire adapters for modern iMac). Man, was weird but fun. Still had Photoshop 2.5 installed, as well as original Marathon by Bungie.
Scary thing: Base model Coffee Cup Mac Pro costs about what I paid for Quadra 650 (12 MB RAM/230MB HD/ CD drive) and monitor in 1993.