So, you got yourself an old m68k Apple Macintosh and you want to install Linux or some *NIX OS on it. But, after looking around at some of the tutorials around the web, you find to your surprise that you still need a Mac OS install to boot Linux. This is because the only option to boot alternative operating systems on these old macs was to first boot Mac OS and then hijack the boot process with a custom Mac application that acts as the Linux boot loader. Until now.
I did some searching for alternative boot loaders for m68k Macs and stumbled across EMILE, Early Macintosh Image LoadEr. It’s a real boot loader that doesn’t require a Mac OS install to boot. It takes advantage of boot blocks on the Mac’s hard drive or a floppy disk to trick the Mac ROM into thinking it’s the rest of the Mac OS. It’s an awesome development in the Linux m68k Mac port that I hope to contribute some time to help further development. So if you got an old Mac, check this out.
Over this past week, I’ve purchased 360 Atmel AT49F002-70JC (2Mb flash chip), 1000 IDT 71024S15Y (1Mb sram chip), and 140 Motorola MC68030RP25C (old m68k processor found in old Macs and other computers) in large lots on eBay. Now when you add them altogether, what do you get? Something big…a supercomputer. Well, ok, maybe not a supercomputer of today’s standard since I got ancient processors, but it will still prove a concept. And this concept will be based off the work I’ve done previously with my PComMS project and off two other things.
One is based on the way the early Mac OS was built. Originally, most of the operating system was built inside the ROM on the Mac’s motherboard. User programs would call functions based in the OS using the m68k’s trap/illegal operation ability which would basically allow you to create ‘custom’ instructions.
The other is based on an older piece of technology meant to fix the original megahertz plateau in the late 1980′s. It was called the Transputer. The Transputer processor was a fascinating system that had built in serial links to allow each processor to talk with another. Coupled with a programming language like Occam, you could easily build a distributed system in a single box.
My idea here is to create a ‘boxed’ distributed system that can be upgraded by just adding more processor cards that contain the basics: the CPU, RAM, and a bit of ROM to boot the processor. So no more replacing the RAM or the CPU in your computer to make it faster. With this, you’d just stick in another processor card. I’ll be posting more details about this project in the coming months.
Microsoft decided to hire Jerry Seinfeld to do a batch of television commercials for Windows Vista. Here’s the first of the series:
The commercial shows Jerry Seinfeld in a shopping mall going past a “Shoe Circus” and spotting Bill Gates in the store. After meeting with him in the store, they talk about the shoe Gates is trying on and about wearing clothes in the shower. Once done with that, Gates buys the shoes and heads out the store with Seinfeld. Now finally in the parking lot, Seinfeld asks Gates if Microsoft is going to come out with a computer that was like ‘cake.’ Then at the end, the words “The Future” are displayed followed by “Delicious” before the Windows Vista logo.
Now here comes my critique as both a filmmaker and a television commercial producer (and probably quite biased as I’m not a MS fan and a co-owner of an independent shoe store). The commercial has some major issues concerning its message. Seinfeld, being who he is, was used to draw the audience to the plot as he’s well known. Once the audience takes notice, Gates is shown. Gates is synonymous with Microsoft so the audience is expecting a message about something to do with MS. Unfortunately, there’s a long and cumbersome story line to go through before a single thing about computers is even mentioned. This story line about the shoe store and the shoes is drawn on too long making the audience think that somehow their previous assumption was wrong and that this commercial was actually about the shoes. Then as the plot finally gets to talking about computers, nothing is mentioned about any actual product, just Seinfeld’s wish to have computers that are edible. And once his questioned is finally answered, we get to the final few scenes with the Windows Vista logo being shown for only a few seconds. By that point, any person watching this commercial is probably confused as to what the commercial was about.
What needed to be done was to edit the commercial down to at most a one minute slot, removing much of the babel at the shoe store. Also, mentioning a real product instead of a conceptual one may help get a stronger message across. And maybe having a voice over at the end with the words and logo will help garner attention from the part of the audience that may not be visually focused on the TV at the time of airing.
