Simple Beep

Our first foray into Macintosh hardware, we examine a part of the Mac we often take for granted: the keyboard. We wind back the clock all the way to the Apple II to uncover all sorts of oddities including the BELL key, "open Apple", buckling switches, and chiclets galore.

Join us as we explore the core values of the Vineyard movement.

We revisit At Ease, the multiple user management system in System 7. Our discussion of its interface leads us on a historical journey through Apple's 22-year quest to perfect a grid of buttons.

join us as we explore the core values of the Vineyard movement

In a stocking-stuffer-sized holiday special we remember Merryxmas and other HyperCard viruses. Happy holidays!

Ed tells the story of his efforts to make System 7 look like Yosemite by creating his own Kaleidoscope scheme. In the process, he remembers just how painful it was to work in a fragile, crashy, data-loss-prone OS.

We revisit the golden age of Mac interface customization: the development of the Kaleidoscope control panel, the extensive Kaleidoscope scheme archive, and the limited possibilities for theming in OS X.

Our first episode takes a tour of the Macintosh startup chime, from drilling holes in a prototype Mac case in 1982 to the current chime we've known and loved since 1999.