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I got a free Mac Plus!
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sek929
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Sep 17, 2014, 04:31 PM
 
At the local dump today I just happened to glance into the old CRT recycling container and this little guy caught my eye.





Pretty damn good shape, no cables/keyboard/mouse though.
( Last edited by sek929; Sep 17, 2014 at 05:35 PM. )
     
starman
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Sep 17, 2014, 04:39 PM
 
Lucky bastard. Looks like it's in great shape.

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Waragainstsleep
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Sep 17, 2014, 04:44 PM
 
Why would anyone dump one of these? Madness.
I have plenty of more important things to do, if only I could bring myself to do them....
     
sek929  (op)
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Sep 17, 2014, 04:45 PM
 
Somebody paid to get rid of it, let that sink in.
     
BLAZE_MkIV
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Sep 17, 2014, 05:01 PM
 
Looks like a perfect conversation piece for the knick knack table in the corner.
     
Mike Wuerthele
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Sep 17, 2014, 05:05 PM
 
Originally Posted by sek929 View Post
edit: Thread title is obv. Wrong, as this is a mac plus clearly
ftfy.
     
The Final Dakar
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Sep 17, 2014, 05:14 PM
 
So what are your plans for it? I confess I'm not as excited as you, but then again I have a minidisc player in my closet for no logical reason.
     
sek929  (op)
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Sep 17, 2014, 05:29 PM
 
Any number of things came to mind right off the bat, none of which are an aquarium BTW.

Gut it, throw a 9" LCD inside (touchscreen?), rasperry Pi w/WiFi running some flavor of media center, small wireless TV for the bedroom. Keep the CRT, make it into a fancy alarm clock somehow. Buy the cables/etc get it running for no good reason. Gut it, line it with carpet, small cat house.
     
BLAZE_MkIV
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Sep 17, 2014, 05:33 PM
 
I still have the plus my parents bought in the 80's. Still works. It has a whole 4 megabyte of RAM!
     
Stogieman
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Sep 17, 2014, 05:46 PM
 
Originally Posted by sek929 View Post
Gut it, line it with carpet, small cat house.
That's what old iMacs are for.


Slick shoes?! Are you crazy?!
     
Thorzdad
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Sep 17, 2014, 06:11 PM
 
And the plastic is still white! The ones I see these days have yellowed terribly. Great find. Does it boot?

I'm impressed your local dump has a CRT recycling bin. I'm pretty sure that, if I tossed an old monitor in my trash, it would end up in the landfill over in the next county.
     
Waragainstsleep
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Sep 17, 2014, 06:17 PM
 
My local dump has one too but being in the UK you are not allowed to remove anything from it under any circumstance.
I have plenty of more important things to do, if only I could bring myself to do them....
     
sek929  (op)
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Sep 17, 2014, 06:19 PM
 
The small towns in this area have dumps/transfer facilities. Usually you have to pay 10 bucks for a TV or other electronic devices in a box and drive to the facility to get rid of it, they won't take them off the curb. They are also usually manned by townies half-drunk on lite beer by noon. I asked this particular townie if I could nab something out of the container and he replied in a gravely voice "I don't a give a shit what you take out of there."

No idea if it boots because all related cables were most likely thrown in the actual trash pile, it's just a bare unit.
     
BLAZE_MkIV
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Sep 17, 2014, 06:59 PM
 
All you need is a power cable and you can get to happy mac. Then you need a system floppy. It turns on with the switch in the back like a real machine not some fancy smancy keyboard.
     
Mike Wuerthele
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Sep 17, 2014, 07:03 PM
 
6.0.8 is still available as disk images at Apple.com. Good luck finding floppies.
     
Waragainstsleep
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Sep 17, 2014, 07:49 PM
 
I have plenty of more important things to do, if only I could bring myself to do them....
     
Mike Wuerthele
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Sep 17, 2014, 07:56 PM
 
ahem.

Good luck finding floppies THAT WORK. The HD will work in a DD system, but I don't remember how reliably.

Remember, on the Mac Plus double-sided disks were new.
     
sek929  (op)
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Sep 17, 2014, 08:38 PM
 
And I'll just write system 6 to those disks using the other working antique Mac I own...
     
BLAZE_MkIV
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Sep 17, 2014, 09:34 PM
 
You can use the 1.44 disks in the 800k drives if memory serves. But you can't read them a 1.44 drive if you format them as 800k or something odd like that.
     
Hawkeye_a
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Sep 17, 2014, 09:52 PM
 
Very cool.
     
Ω
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Sep 18, 2014, 02:41 AM
 
I have system 7 install disks and a few other bits and pieces, but no idea how I could get them to you. Can you still buy floppy drives?
"angels bleed from the tainted touch of my caress"
     
Waragainstsleep
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Sep 18, 2014, 05:12 AM
 
Blaze is right, you can format HD as DD.

As for needing another classic Mac to copy/format:

IBM USB Portable Diskette Drive 05K9276 | eBay
I have plenty of more important things to do, if only I could bring myself to do them....
     
P
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Sep 18, 2014, 05:14 AM
 
Originally Posted by BLAZE_MkIV View Post
You can use the 1.44 disks in the 800k drives if memory serves. But you can't read them a 1.44 drive if you format them as 800k or something odd like that.
Correct - but you can make it work by taping over the little hole in one corner.

These days I'm amazed at how slapdash Apple used to be about never fixing hacks like this, but essentially, it is an artifact of the original Mac development process. The Mac was supposed to use the "Twiggy" drive from the Lisa, but late in the production the Twiggy drive proved unreliable. Sony was working on a new type of floppy - what would become the 3.5" disc. Unfortunately its size was 360k, and the Mac was designed for a 400k Twiggy drive and it was too late to change this size. Sony modified their drive to fit 400k by making a drive that slowed down the disc rpm for the outer tracks, so more data could be fit along the outer tracks (like a CD), and Apple bought it. This was then carried over the double density drives which were 800k.

When the high density drives came, Apple wanted out of the special drives business, so they moved to 1440k regular HD discs, and a drive that supported both 1440k HD and 800k DD - the original Superdrive. This drive distinguished between discs that should use the regular speed rotation (HD) and the special adjustable speed (DD) by detecting the little hole in the corner - hole = HD, no hole =DD.
The new Mac Pro has up to 30 MB of cache inside the processor itself. That's more than the HD in my first Mac. Somehow I'm still running out of space.
     
osiris
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Sep 18, 2014, 11:14 AM
 
Nice find! Must be a very clean dump.
"Faster, faster! 'Till the thrill of speed overcomes the fear of death." - HST
     
ShortcutToMoncton
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Sep 18, 2014, 01:22 PM
 
Originally Posted by P View Post
Correct - but you can make it work by taping over the little hole in one corner.

These days I'm amazed at how slapdash Apple used to be about never fixing hacks like this, but essentially, it is an artifact of the original Mac development process. The Mac was supposed to use the "Twiggy" drive from the Lisa, but late in the production the Twiggy drive proved unreliable. Sony was working on a new type of floppy - what would become the 3.5" disc. Unfortunately its size was 360k, and the Mac was designed for a 400k Twiggy drive and it was too late to change this size. Sony modified their drive to fit 400k by making a drive that slowed down the disc rpm for the outer tracks, so more data could be fit along the outer tracks (like a CD), and Apple bought it. This was then carried over the double density drives which were 800k.

When the high density drives came, Apple wanted out of the special drives business, so they moved to 1440k regular HD discs, and a drive that supported both 1440k HD and 800k DD - the original Superdrive. This drive distinguished between discs that should use the regular speed rotation (HD) and the special adjustable speed (DD) by detecting the little hole in the corner - hole = HD, no hole =DD.
Hahaha yes! I remember having to look for that little hole

I also agree with Dakar that very cool, but in my life it would just end up as junk taking up space in a closet somewhere. I'm just not very good at turning classic things into useful/kitschy modern devices. On that note I think I have a working Apple II Plus stashed somewhere in a closet in my parent's house, 2000 miles away....
Mankind's only chance is to harness the power of stupid.
     
Laminar
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Sep 18, 2014, 01:48 PM
 
I still have my old Ruby iMac, running 10.2.8. No idea what to do with it, but I don't want to get rid of it.
     
ghporter
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Sep 19, 2014, 07:22 AM
 
I just recycled elebenty hundred old 3 1/2" floppies, with many of them being old distribution disks that I'd at some time repurposed by sticking a bit of cardboard in the read/write slot. I still have a goodly number of blank double-density floppies sitting in a box, waiting for some sort of need. Let me know if you need some. How many floppies did 6.0.8 take?

Glenn -----OTR/L, MOT, Tx
     
P
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Sep 19, 2014, 10:09 AM
 
Originally Posted by ghporter View Post
Let me know if you need some. How many floppies did 6.0.8 take?
4.

Google is slightly scary sometimes.
The new Mac Pro has up to 30 MB of cache inside the processor itself. That's more than the HD in my first Mac. Somehow I'm still running out of space.
     
Jawbone54
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Sep 21, 2014, 05:23 AM
 
Pretty incredible find, if you ask me. Love it.
     
ghporter
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Sep 21, 2014, 08:25 AM
 
I didn't even think to search for that... I guess there is no longer any "pre Internet so it's not going to show up on a search" information.

Glenn -----OTR/L, MOT, Tx
     
driven
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Oct 12, 2014, 10:52 AM
 
Originally Posted by EstaNightshift View Post
6.0.8 is still available as disk images at Apple.com. Good luck finding floppies.
Where on Apple.com are you finding old versions?

I need an old version of 10.X to reformat my PowerMac G5.
- MacBook Air M2 16GB / 512GB
- MacBook Pro 16" i9 2.4Ghz 32GB / 1TB
- MacBook Pro 15" i7 2.9Ghz 16GB / 512GB
- iMac i5 3.2Ghz 1TB
- G4 Cube 500Mhz / Shelf display unit / Museum display
     
P
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Oct 12, 2014, 02:16 PM
 
Here, but that seems to be pre-OS X stuff. Older OS X versions are not available that I can see - remember that they were not free.
The new Mac Pro has up to 30 MB of cache inside the processor itself. That's more than the HD in my first Mac. Somehow I'm still running out of space.
     
Mike Wuerthele
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Oct 12, 2014, 03:33 PM
 
Yeah, there are no early, free OS X versions.
     
Spheric Harlot
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Oct 13, 2014, 07:14 AM
 
Originally Posted by BLAZE_MkIV View Post
All you need is a power cable and you can get to happy mac. Then you need a system floppy.
Incorrect. That will get you the beep and a floppy disk icon with a blinking question mark.

The "happy Mac" icon is a sign that a valid, "blessed" System Folder has been found. That's one which contains both a System and a Finder, and which has the "bootable System Folder" flag set — usually done by dragging one or both components into the folder while booted under a "Classic" system.
     
Spheric Harlot
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Oct 13, 2014, 07:18 AM
 
Originally Posted by P View Post
Here, but that seems to be pre-OS X stuff. Older OS X versions are not available that I can see - remember that they were not free.
Apple started charging for OS upgrades with System 7, IIRC. And while Apple dealers would still tend to just hand you a stack of floppies with the latest OS if you asked them nicely, that was technically piracy, and it stopped pretty much completely with OS 8 here in Germany.

None of the paid upgrades have ever been made available for free download on the Apple website.
     
Spheric Harlot
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Oct 13, 2014, 07:25 AM
 
Originally Posted by P View Post
Correct - but you can make it work by taping over the little hole in one corner.

These days I'm amazed at how slapdash Apple used to be about never fixing hacks like this, but essentially, it is an artifact of the original Mac development process. The Mac was supposed to use the "Twiggy" drive from the Lisa, but late in the production the Twiggy drive proved unreliable. Sony was working on a new type of floppy - what would become the 3.5" disc. Unfortunately its size was 360k, and the Mac was designed for a 400k Twiggy drive and it was too late to change this size. Sony modified their drive to fit 400k by making a drive that slowed down the disc rpm for the outer tracks, so more data could be fit along the outer tracks (like a CD), and Apple bought it. This was then carried over the double density drives which were 800k.
I don't know about Sony modifying their format for Apple, but Steve Jobs' response to hearing of the Sony 3.5" disk was to have Apple roll their own format (seven months ahead of releasing Macintosh), which the engineering team considered suicide.
So they kept working on the Sony drive in parallel, keeping it completely secret from Jobs the entire time.

This account of how that happened is great, and the details of how Jobs had to be evaded by hiding the official Sony representative in a janitors' closet are just hilarious:

Folklore.org: Quick, Hide In This Closet!
     
P
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Oct 13, 2014, 11:01 AM
 
Originally Posted by Spheric Harlot View Post
Apple started charging for OS upgrades with System 7, IIRC. And while Apple dealers would still tend to just hand you a stack of floppies with the latest OS if you asked them nicely, that was technically piracy, and it stopped pretty much completely with OS 8 here in Germany.

None of the paid upgrades have ever been made available for free download on the Apple website.
They started charging with 7.1, and there has been two exceptions to the rule: 7.5.3 (ie the full installation, not the upgrade from 7.5), which was released for free at some point long after it was obsolete, and 10.6, which you could get for free from iCloud, at least for a while. Since the last was a bit unofficial and seemingly time limited, you could say that there was only one real exception. Too bad they used it for the most despised version of the OS ever.

OS 8.1, 8.6, 9.1, 9.2.x and 10.1 were of course free, but they were always free from day one and all required a specific previous version (8.0, 8.5, 9.0 and 10.0 respectively) to install.

(Personally I wish they'd release 8.0, 8.5 and 9.0 for free, along with 10.4. All of those were releases that - including free updates - represent the last you could conceivably use to run some things, and they don't have any remaining value.)
The new Mac Pro has up to 30 MB of cache inside the processor itself. That's more than the HD in my first Mac. Somehow I'm still running out of space.
     
Spheric Harlot
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Oct 13, 2014, 12:32 PM
 
Originally Posted by P View Post
OS 8.1, 8.6, 9.1, 9.2.x and 10.1 were of course free, but they were always free from day one and all required a specific previous version (8.0, 8.5, 9.0 and 10.0 respectively) to install.
Ah yes, 10.1 was the only full version of OS X to be released for free until they moved into the App Store.

8.1, 8.6, 9.x don't qualify as "free" to me — as you say, they were updates to paid system versions that never allowed bare-metal installation.

I didn't know about 7.5.3. Interesting that I don't remember.
     
reader50
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Oct 13, 2014, 01:08 PM
 
You can easily modify the 10.1 install check so it will install without fussing for 10.0
     
Mike Wuerthele
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Oct 13, 2014, 01:35 PM
 
Yeah, but who needs/wants 10.1 anyhow? 10.2 demanded the same in system requirements, and was a better OS overall.
     
P
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Oct 13, 2014, 01:35 PM
 
Originally Posted by Spheric Harlot View Post
I didn't know about 7.5.3. Interesting that I don't remember.
7.5.3 is best forgotten. I'm sorry I reminded you.

Hm. Of all the for-pay OS versions, I think I own all but 7.6. Many have come with new Macs, but still.
The new Mac Pro has up to 30 MB of cache inside the processor itself. That's more than the HD in my first Mac. Somehow I'm still running out of space.
     
chris v
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Oct 14, 2014, 10:21 PM
 
I've got floppies going back to 7.1 I think? Along with Photoshop 3.0 & Aldus Freehand 2. no idea if any of them still work, though. Haven't put them in a drive in 15 years. Have CD's going back to 8.something that came with my Power Computing 150. I've got a working USB floppy drive - I should get them out & make disk images of what all still reads.

When a true genius appears in the world you may know him by this sign, that the dunces are all in confederacy against him. -- Jonathan Swift.
     
   
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