Saturday 01/27/2024
Did a few things today. In the morning I made a list of my various financial account numbers, bank, brokerage, credit cards. Charlie the Fiduciary requested that for our meeting next Tuesday.
After lunch I went down to FOPAL. Frank had asked me to look at a bunch of old Mac software he had collected in the bargain room. This was software packages, some in the original shrink-wrap boxes, dating back to 2005 and earlier. Would they sell in the bargain room? Frank should know as that’s his bailiwick. Would they sell better at the Vintage Computer Fest next summer? That was what we talked about. There are complicated compatibility questions. From 1984 to 2000, Apple put Motorola 65K chips in Macs, and used what we now call Classic Mac OS. There were a few software packages in Frank’s collection dating to pre-2000. But he says that, with the current 40th anniversary of the Mac, lots of hobbyists have been making online videos of pulling out their old 1990-era Macs. So they are still around.
Apple used the PowerPC chips from 2000, when they introduced Mac OS X, to 2006. Mac OS X version 10.4 “Tiger” in 2006 supported both the PowerPC and the Intel CPU chips. Then with 10.8 “Snow Leopard” in 2008, they dropped the PowerPC support, except that old PowerPC apps could still be run under an emulator named Rosetta. With 10.7 “Lion” in 2009, all support for the PowerPC chip was dropped.
Some of the software on Frank’s shelf dates before 2006, and calls for OS 10.3. Those definitely require pre-2006 hardware to run. But, some people still have those. Some of his collection dates to 2008 and later; that requires a 2008 or later machine to run. He decided that the few boxes in original shrink-wrap we would put away now for VCF. The rest will stay on the shelf for the next sale weekend. What doesn’t sell then, he’ll put away for VCF also.
Except for pre-2006 copies of “Norton Utilities for Mac” and Microsoft Word for Mac. I designated those as garbage, nobody in their right mind would want either, throw them away.
Back home I did a clever thing. I have to start preparing the video stream for “Strollin’ into the 60s” coming up in 3 weeks now. Like previous Good Times shows, we will have videos of the music on the big TV on stage, and I have to prepare that hour-long stream from downloaded YouTube videos. For the C&W Jamboree last fall, I did a cute clip of worn barn doors that shut at the end of each video and opened to reveal the next. For this one I wanted just theater curtains. I found a curtain video that would do. But I needed it also to close. In fact I wanted a clip that had the curtain closing, one second of it closed, and then opening. Also that one is too slow, I wanted it twice as fast, 3 seconds instead of 6.
So in an hour and a half of intense work before supper, I downloaded that video, I made it faster, I copied it and made the copy play in reverse. I stuck the two copies together into one clip that closes, pauses one second, then opens again. And I tested it and it works nice. iMovie supports the green screen, so the green part disappears and lets the underlying music video show through. Curtain opens on Chubby Checker doing the Twist, curtain closes, curtain opens on Little Richard doing Good Golly Miss Molly, just as slick as you like.
I feel like the video master.
Codgerville 