Simple Beep

Before streaming, we listened to music on our Macs from CDs and low-quality MP3s found in shady corners of the Internet. This episode, Ed and Brian tell the Audion story, declare themselves children of the filesystem generation, and struggle to pronounce the word "earbuds".

Links for this episode:

• followup
  • Apple ID password reset
  • Connected 1 on the history of the iPod
  • aborted home folder on iPod feature
• pre-iPod music players
  • Brian's CD player: Panasonic SL-S360
  • Brian's wall of CD covers
  • jukebox
  • behind-the-neck headphones
  • AppleCD Audio Player
  • Ed's Sharp 722 MiniDisc player
  • MP3 CD
  • Diamond Rio

• Mac music software
  • MacAMP (aka Macast)
    • Winamp – "It really whips the llama's ass!"
  • MP3.com
  • Audion
    • available on the Panic software archive
    • the true story of audion.
    • faces [WayBack Machine]
      • Smoothface
      • Brian's favorite: some_bhodinut_preset
      • Ed's favorite: Reintegration
      • five flavors "Yum!" iMacs

• Ed's ~/Music Hazel rules
• Macworld review of Audion 2.5
• Roxio Toast
• iPod storage hierarchy
• SoundJam MP by Casady & Greene
• Music Player.app
  • DVD Player
  • Speakable Items
• "Rip. Mix. Burn." promo
• the iPod era
  • our first iPods: 3rd generation
  • Brian's favorite: 1st generation Shuffle
    • autofill
  • Ed's favorite: 2nd generation Nano
    • cassete tape adapter
    • Griffin iTrip

• how we listen now
  • iTunes 12
  • Pandora One
  • Rdio
  • Spotify
  • iTunes Match
  • Brian's 10 years of iTunes data
  • AudioScrobbler / last.fm
  • "upgrading" music with iTunes Match

We conclude our coverage of Triumph of the Nerds, finally reaching the famous "sugar water" quote. Come learn how Microsoft did everything right, Apple permanently lost its soul, and Oracle wound up dominating the internet…or not.

Links for this episode:

• previously on Simple Beep: part 1 and part 2
• watch part 3 online: [YouTube] [archive.org]
• Windows 95 launch event
• Xerox PARC history
• Xerox Alto
• Jason Snell's print preview demo
• Steve Jobs' Reality Distortion Field
• PARC innovations borrowed by Apple
  • object-oriented programming
  • networked computing
  • the GUI
• John Sculley

Sculley and his PowerBook 160/165

• "THINK" poster
• Think Different ad campaign
• "hello" and "insanely great"

• origins of "Good artists copy; great artists steal."
• Apple / Adobe partnership
  • Adobe history (requires Flash, of course)
  • PostScript
  • LaserWriter
• Apple army sales video (featuring Steve Jobs as FDR!)
• Apple donates $50 million to diversity efforts (March 2015)
• Gates Foundation against malaria
• Apple v. Microsoft litigation
• Microsoft investments
  • MSNBC
  • Dreamworks

Stephen Spielberg rocking a Microsoft Bob hat.

• Atherton police blotter [1] [2]
• Jobs' early cloud computing vision (WWDC 1997)
• digital distribution of OS X Lion

1992 PCMag cover story pits the PC against Mac, NeXT, and Sun. (Spoiler: The PC wins.) pic.twitter.com/ZOz4CZi8Vs

It only makes sense that any two of those four combined would be a nearly unstoppable force. History has told that tale too.

This is the episode when we don't talk about Apple much. (Sorry!) We cover Triumph of the Nerds part 2, including IBM's reactions to the success of the Apple II, Steve Ballmer gesticulating wildly, and Microsoft trying to be nimble.

Links for this episode:

frog dot gif

• Triumph of the Nerds official site
• watch episode 2 online [YouTube] [archive.org]
• the IBM song book
• David Pogue (@pogue)
  • tech-themed song spoofs
  • PBS NOVA: Making Stuff series
  • sequel: Making More Stuff
• Digital Research
  • CP/M operating system
  • Gary Kildall
• Steve Ballmer
• Seattle Computer Products
  • QDOS
• EFF against copyrighting APIs (November 2014)
• Lotus 1-2-3 (product officially retired in 2014)
• OS/2 partnership between Microsoft and IBM
• Windows 1, Windows 2
• Microsoft's current strategy
  • Satya Nadella
  • 2015 press event (Hololens &c.)
• Brian's first smartphone: HTC Excalibur
• Apple Desktop Bus Mouse II

We embark on watching the classic PBS documentary mini-series Triumph of the Nerds. We learn a little we didn't know about the early history of Apple, get excited with Woz, and facepalm with Jobs over the many offensive things that got said and done in the computer industry 20+ years ago (and, sadly, still today).

Links for this episode:

• EV followup
  • Naev
  • Starsector
  • SpaceSimCentral
• shoutouts to other Apple history podcasts
  • Welcome to Macintosh
  • RetroMacCast
• Robert X. Cringely
  • aka Mark Stephens
  • InfoWorld also still using the name
  • Cringely's about page
  • dodgy claims
    • early Apple employee
    • Stanford PhD

Triumph of the Nerds

• watch episode 1 online [YouTube] [archive.org]
• Accidental Empires
• Revenge of the Nerds
• sequel: 2.0.1
• extended Jobs interview

Episode 1, scene by scene

• Paul Allen
  • Seattle Supersonics, Seahawks, Sounders
• Woz: No, Apple was not started in a garage
• Macintosh Color Classic
• Eudora chicken!
• Douglas Adams

I think a nerd is a person who uses the telephone to talk to other people about telephones. And a computer nerd therefore is somebody who uses a computer in order to use a computer.

• vacuum tubes to transistors to integrated circuits
• Grace Hopper
• Woz on Segway polo
• Intel museum (yes, located at their HQ!)
• Gordon Moore and his law
• MITS, creators of the Altair 8800
• Apple I, Apple II
• VisiCalc

We go on a galactic adventure with one of our favorite Mac shareware games, Escape Velocity by Ambrosia Software. We encounter delightful pop culture references, everyone's favorite parrot space pirate, and — of course — the most destructive forklift in the universe.

Links for this episode:

• Escape Velocity official site
• Ambrosia Software
• pre-EV releases
  • Maelstrom (Asteroids clone)
  • Chiral (original)
  • Apeiron (Centipede clone)
  • Swoop (Galaxian clone)
  • Barrack (JezzBall clone)
• utilities: Snapz Pro, WireTap, SoundBoard
• development of the EV series
  • released May 5, 1996 after 13 months of development
  • lead developer Matt Burch
  • Burch was a freshman in college at release
  • sequels EV Override and EV Nova
  • EV 4 "unlikely"
• how to play classic EV in OS X

• inside jokes, references, and easter eggs
  • HHGTG: Mostly Harmless, Zaphod Beeblebrox
  • Hector the parrot
  • MST3K forklift song
  • Balloon Help

• EV plugins
  • The EV Bible
• influenced by EV
  • EV Nova card game
  • Warpgate by Freeverse Software
    (defunct after acquisition by ngmoco)

found a Captain Hector reference in Warpgate. that elevates its Escape Velocity homage status to 'official'. http://twitpic.com/2forzv

• • Out There
  • EVE Online
    • has over 500K subscribers
• KPT Bryce

We remember how we first got on the internet on the Mac in the early 90s (hint: it came on a floppy disk in the mail). Then we recall the rise and fall of eWorld, getting Sherlocked, and other classic Mac OS internet essentials.

Links for this episode:

• Feedback on keyboards
  • @petebocken's wall-mounted keyboard collection
  • The curious case of the disappearing Polish S
  • S-video and ADB are both mini-DIN connectors
  • eMate keyboard
  • AlphaSmart
     
• America Online
  • version timeline
  • our screen names
    • Brian: bdsboska, rasenberry
    • Ed: edcormany, dugtrio100
  • AOL Instant Messenger (AIM)
    "omg since 1997"
    • Adium
  • AOL financials
    • Q3 and Q4 2014 – nearly $200M from dialup
  • Aol. rebranding
    • R.I.P. The Unofficial Apple Weblog
    • appleworld.today

Non-sponsor: Street Atlas USA 3.0 2-pack
(Try Google Maps! It's 10 years old now!)

• eWorld
  • interactive re-creation
  • retrospectives: [1] [2] [3]
  • creative team
    • Cleo Huggins
    • Mark Drury
    • Scott Converse

other dialup

• NetZero, Juno, Kmart Blue Light (all now owned by United Online)
• Ed's last time on dialup: 2003 Northeast Blackout

• Sherlock
  • reviews [1] [2]
  • retrospective (with many screenshots)
  • Watson

• other internet apps
  • Mac OS 9 "helper apps"
  • Internet Explorer 5 for Mac
  • Netscape Communicator 4
  • IP NetMonitor
    • Ed's 1 GIG D/L!.mov
  • Outlook Express, later Entourage
  • Eudora
  • Hotline
  • Napster (Macster client) [WayBack Machine]

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 springs, and chiclets galore.

Links for this episode:

• Apple ][, //c, //e
  • BELL key

• Logitech K760 solar bluetooth keyboard (discontinued)
• US English QWERTY layout
• ⌘ command key
• Univers font
  • regular (original Macintosh)
  • condensed oblique (many models)
• vi arrow keys
• Apple Desktop Bus
• PS/2 port
• buckling spring switch
  • more info than you ever needed on the switches in the AEK II
• Gruber's eulogy for his AEK II (1992–2006)
• Griffin iMate (not Belkin!)

Non-sponsor: Power Macintosh 9600

• PowerBook G3 "Lombard"
• AirPort card
• VAG Rounded
• change in power key behavior in Mavericks
• Merlin Mann's disgusting keyboard
  (which was actually a Matias Tactile Pro)
• Dr. Drang on keyboards and numeric keypads
• Tontie flash game
• iPad Keyboard Dock
  • discussed on Connected 24 (at about 2:10:00)
• Ed has long hated the iOS punctuation layout

sometimes i wonder if the person who laid out punctuation input on the iphone has ever seen a qwerty keyboard

• iPhone 6 and 6 Plus landscape keyboard features

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.

Links for this episode:

• At Ease
  • Wikipedia
  • Apple wikia
  • info and screenshots
• BeOS
• pegman

• System 7.1P
• Extensions Manager
• At Ease FAQ

• At Ease for Workgroups
• AppleCD Audio Player
• Number Munchers [playable Apple II version on archive.org!]
• Slug-Man: The Video Game
  (No link, sadly. It was a skinned version of Joust)
• RescueTime
• Simple Finder (still exists in OS X)
• Panels view in Mac OS 9

Non-sponsor: Ram Doubler 2 by Connectix

• Other grid-of-buttons Apple interfaces
  • Launcher (good info, bad formatting)
  • Pop-up windows in Mac OS 8 [Google Books]
  • View as buttons in Mac OS 8.5
  • Launchpad
    • (not to be confused with Launchbar, Launch Center Pro, etc.)
    • comparisons to At Ease [1] [2]
  • Springboard
  • F4 Launchpad key on current Apple keyboards

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

Links for this episode:

• HyperCard
• "HyperCard was introduced by Apple in 1987. It shipped for free on all Macs. HyperCard was difficult to explain then, and -- to some degree -- remains so today." from Apple's Lost Decade on ZDNet
• Myst (made with HyperCard)
  • wiki entry
  • official site (iOS and Steam ports available!)
  • Riven (the epic 5CD or 1 DVD sequel)
• HyperTalk scripting language
  • XCMDs (external commands) allowed extra features
  • Color Tools – became standard in HyperCard 2.2
• @hypercard unofficial twitter account

I would wish you Merry XMas, but then everybody would think I had a virus again …

• SIMM Stack – vector for Merryxmas
• other HyperCard viruses
  • descriptions [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]
  • HC 9507
  • Dukakis
    • 1988 US presidential election
  • MacMag
  • ThreeTunes
    • "Muss i denn" [YouTube]
    • "Behind the Blue Mountains"? [YouTube]
• Douglas Adams on HyperCard
• Disinfectant (retired in 1998)

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.

Links for this episode:

• Last episode: intro to Kaleidoscope
   
• ResEdit
• the large cicn hack
  • clip2cicn
  • waferbaby's pixhell cartoons
• software and tools for editing schemes
  • University of Michigan software archive
  • Emaculation
  • K official site "tools and goodies"
    includes Pink Elephants, Scheme Factory, Regia scheme template
  • Basilisk
  • Stuffit Expander (OS X version!)
  • ClarisWorks emulation kit
  • GraphicConverter
    • current version (9.4)
    • old version (5.9.5)
    • ancient version (2.2)
• scheme format reference guides
  • K2 resources [PDF]
  • K2 intro [PDF]
• type and creator codes
• xScope
• features that haven't always been in Mac OS
  • Quick Look (10.5)
  • window edge resizing (10.7)
  • app switching
    • Application menu
    • LiteSwitch [WayBack Machine]
    • Application palette (8.5)
  • click-to-open menus (8.0)

Behold, the (un)finished product: