MacGeek

So I had myself a little geek binge with my Macs. It all started innocently enough when I couldn't download After Dark 4.0 Set 2 from Macintosh Garden. I thought to myself, "Self, you have an old SE with a bunch of cool old games that you could run on OS 9. Why don't you put your geekiness to the test and transfer them to the iMac?" Here's the trouble: the iMac has no floppy drive. The SE has no Ethernet adapter. How do I transfer the files?

Method 1 - Install an Ethernet adapter in the SE:
I do have one for the SE in storage somewhere, believe it or not. The trouble with this approach is that you need a super-long screwdriver to get in to the screws in the handle to remove the case. Alas, I do not have this tool. For now, installing the Ethernet adapter will not happen. I may be able to find or craft such a tool at a later date.

Method 2 - Use a connection between the modems:
I do have a painfully slow 14.4 modem for my SE. My iMac has an internal modem. I could connect the two modems directly with a normal telephone cord and use ZTerm on both machines, setting up the iMac to answer the dialing SE. This would give me a connection between the two for file transfers but not Internet access for the SE. Additionally, ZTerm is not installed on the SE and if I had a way to grab the files I needed off the Internet and put them on the SE to make this happen, this issue would be a moot point. So this won't work.

Method 3 - Zip drives:
I have a USB Zip drive connected to my iMac. I have a SCSI Zip drive for my Windows PC that I hooked up to my SE. Unfortunately my SE didn't like the Zip drive, to the point where on booting it would give me the bomb with an unexpected "Finder" error. Zip drives are out. Plus this wouldn't have any network connectivity involved which simply makes it just plain ungeek.

Method 4 - The Gatorbox:
I also happen to have a couple of Cayman Gatorboxes in storage. This would work fine if I had a way to convert the XCVR or BNC connections to CAT5 Ethernet. Which I don't. So while I have all the AppleTalk gear I could ever want to set up an entire LocalTalk network of 68k and PPC Macs to furnish a small corporation, my Gatorboxes are useless in making the conversion without the necessary adapters.

Method 5 - The Asante EN/SC adapter:
I don't own this, but there are always some on eBay for around $15 to $30. This handy little device will connect to the SE SCSI port and convert it into an Ethernet port. Then I can directly connect to my home network.

My guess is that I'll probably go with method 1 or method 5 when I do this. I really like method 4 but it seems silly to go through the trouble of setting up a Gatorbox for a single Mac. Back in the day when I had at least 4 SEs, a Mac Classic, a Mac Plus, an LCIII and an LC475, the Gatorbox(es) would have been ideal. That's why I had them. But when I found out that some of these machines no longer functioned and realized I hadn't the space to keep all of these machines, those dreams of the incredibly large and useless Mac LocalTalk network bridged to an Ethernet network were dashed. Too bad. I was going to get everything talking with a Linux box, including my Amiga 2000HD and probably the Apple IIe, Atari 130xe and Commodore 64s, too. At least one of the SEs found a nice home with quantumswordsmn.

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The Return of the Draft

Read the article, my friends, because the plan is for the return of the draft (if it happens, which is quite likely since they're already assembling state draft boards) to include ALL MEN AND WOMEN AGES 18 TO 34!

I am not happy. I signed up because it was required for me to get my financial aid. I have fulfilled my obligation because I am now over 26. If Selective Service is extended to include me now until I'm 34 and I have to go to war for our tyrannical government, you can bet I'll become a draft-dodger just like those tyrant in our government now who have become our biggest war pigs. Remember that excerpt that I posted from the holocaust book a few days back? It's time we all start seriously considering the implications and how it reflects on us today. We are all literally either sitting around saying, "he's our President and he knows what's best," or "I don't like it but what can I do?" I'll tell you what we can do. We can protest. We can resist. We need to speak out more and more about how this war is wrong, how it needs to end, how we will not tolerate these injustices to the world and tyranny in our own government.

I'm pledging to start attending the weekly peace vigils in Plymouth religiously and bringing protest signs of my onw, too.

Oh, and Steve: get ready. The military is still doing its "don't ask, don't tell" thing so I'm ready to go all out hardcore on the recruiter's floor with you if it will save our lives, my friend. :P

Kathy has been looking at the University of Alberta's paleontology degree program. As much as I love living in New Hampshire, I think it's time we seriously start considering an exit strategy real soon. Canada looks lovely any time of year right about now.