I made a project-update video for the Salem Witchboard Museum to show some changes I've made to the kiosk software and figured I'd share the update here because it's fun.
I am finally getting dragged kicking and screaming into software build-dev. Last night I figured out a build issue that's been killing me for a year. Last year I built that museum kiosk to play that old 1985 Macintosh Ouija game. I was always kind of stuck with a very specific SDL binary build that the original author of Mini vMac had made in 2019 as an update to the one being shipped with RetroPie. I couldn't reproduce this version 36.04 build even using his stated exact command line for the arguments. My builds would run lots of Mac stuff and seemed fine, but they crashed when I would launch our Ouija board app. Last night I was alternating between his binary and mine and noticed his screen size was lower. So re-compiled at 512x342 and boom. Worked no problemo. He did not mention that in his build notes of course! And my application is so old, from like about a year after the first Mac launched, that they probably never conceived that it could be a res other than 512 across. Even in the build guide for Mini vMac they list "popular resolutions" of 640x480, 800x600, 1024x768.
640x480:
512x342:
So NOW I can use the latest & greatest version of the software off of Github. I'm not reliant on running a 32-bit OS or availability of 32 bit SDL, and I don't have to worry about "what if they stop supporting some other XYZ in the future". I do understand that since this thing is basically a modestly locked down interactive signage machine with no internet access even should someone maliciously hand-hack a machine at a tourist museum. I shouldn't really need to worry about running the latest OS in a decade anyway. If it ain't broke and all.
Now I'm ripping into the Mini vMac code itself and disabling all the safeties such as "Are you sure you want to quit" type dialogs and probably will make "quit" be just "Q" if I can instead of "CTRL+Q" (this is a public kiosk, so there is not a full keyboard available to the public). I wonder if I could get the emulator to start at "all out" speed for like, 2-3 seconds and then drop down to Z speed so everything is accurate.
Next I need to try and write a program (Pascal?) to set the system time of the emulated Mac. When you run Gypsy it complains about the system clock being wrong and I want to try and make that dialog go away. The Mini vMac guy wrote a Mac OS plugin for that, to periodically sync his system clock to the clock of the host, but it only works on System 7 and Gypsy does not work on System 7. I don't care about accuracy, I just want to set the time to some arbitrary value in 1985 or 1986.
Some time ago my NeXTStation stopped booting from the BlueSCSI and started to default to just "Loading from Network" and just looping there forever.
I know the fix for this involves hitting the right-command key and hitting ` / ~ a couple times like you'd hit F2 on a PC. Well that doesn't work here. Dunno why. Keyboard works fine to turn the machine on & off, whatever. I guess I'll recap the machine just to see, but yeah, no idea. I did change the Lithium battery and I'm gonna order a CR3032 holder adapter for it.
It just occurred to me that I never finished the video and walk through of the cable management project I did a couple months ago. It came out great and hasn't been a problem since I did it. Honestly I've been on other projects, but I know that the next thing I do with that retro-gear is going to be a breeze.
As you can see, the Checkmate spins right around and it's super easy to get at everything without putting any strain on any of the ports or stretching any cables. It's never going to win the tidiness olympics, but it's all safe and convenient and well managed. I do like some organization porn though, and this is definitely that.
Big thanks again to Checkmate for making exactly the right product for my extremely specific use case and tying this whole collection of stuff together in one easy to navigate package.
I would pay the MiSTer project money and jump in and help in any way I can to help with a "Lite Mode" UI that could be quickly picked up by say, a house guest with their only instruction being on-screen or physical info-graphics.
To that end, I'm making an arcade-cabinet-bezel inspired custom background overlay with basic "how to navigate" with QR code links to my Wiki for a little more detail if the user needs more specific info.
To give myself a visually consistent target I took two photos and crammed them together and have been meaning to share the result:
This effect really only works from very specific spots, but one of them happens to be "Standing at the controls".
The current running test is below. I've already got a list of things to change and yeah I promise the first thing is to remove my phone :
This is pretty stupid, but this is the kind of thing I do when I'm bored. Obviously I'm making a sub menu from my main boot menu to do the same thing directly in Linux, but this is more fun. And when everything breaks I'll be ready for it.
In my intro to the Checkmate monitor video I mentioned how I'd love to have this on a datacenter bench and maybe throw a switch in there as well. Well now I'm going to do that.
Now that I'm starting to use all these computers for more than a couple minutes once every few months it's time to build a proper isolation network. I'm beginning the process or archiving loads of Atari ST and GCR Mac floppies so I definitely want to have somewhere safe to do that work. The little Raspberry Pi 3 in my monitor will serve as the bridge, serving old and insecure protocols to that network so we can have the full '90s experience. So it's listening on Telnet and FTP to host archives of all the NeXT software ever made for instance. I'll be dialing back Samba security to the point that a Windows 3.11 or 95 machine can connect to the fileshare. The Pi will also provide the WiFi network for exciting things coming up like my FujiNet cartridge that I haven't even tried to play with yet. I will very likely move DHCP and DNS resolution from the default gateway to the Pi just so I can pick the whole thing up and take it places. Plug devices in and they'll be able to get an address and browse by hostnames and stuff.
It's so nice to have an all-in-one solution and I'm happy to stick a little PoE powered switch in the Checkmate to provide the networking for all of it. This monitor is now a "pick it up and go" solution to demo a wholly contained network of 1980s and 1990s machines where no one can hurt them. If I went to things like VCF, this is what I'd bring to run my whole table.
That monitor is going to feature in a lot of my stuff in a big way. Every time I do a project I find a new use for it! Running desktop computers through multiple VGA switch-boxes? Still looks great!
Again, sorry for the "beginner" nature of all of this but I'm playing with kdenlive and learning how to speed things up and make short clip montages, so you can watch me suffer as I learn :-) It's basically 1978 PBS, WTF do you want it fits my entire aesthetic. Look where I live.
Stay tuned to see my friction-free and more importantly secure way of interacting with all these backend systems. Coming Soon!
I've got a ton of video, all of it garbage, about making a dumb shelf and backplate for my "retro things Isolation Network" that I'm trying to get down to like 20 minutes.
I think the thing to do is watch it all through, then make notes and then go back and execute the notes rather than try to do it one at a time as individual tweaks.
To manage this I'm gonna try and use my internal Wiki with a link on the homepage to like my Blog Notes category so I can go update stuff as I watch, then check them off as I complete them.
We'll see. I just want to put up the dumb "Switch in a Monitor!" video so I can do the really cool stuff of "How I am securing this since no one else talks about this stuff.
But since I've been working on this in the last two days:
My NeXTStation started hanging at the ROM Monitor check screen. I know this has happened before and I know I changed the iSCSI image but I think the real answer was something stupider than that.
This would be a way cooler demo if I had a second machine, like say a NeXTStation which was just working awesome like 3 days ago. I think I gotta just fire up the 95 PC what am I even thinking here duh.
I just replaced my webserver hardware up to the hard drive. I suspect this thing's problems aren't hardware but you never know and it's easier than moving everything.
I dropped one of the very nice thumbscrews from the monitor while I was wrangling cables. It's in the room somewhere. But if you've ever worked in a datacenter you know that a lot of the stuff you drop is just gone into the rack somewhere and you'll never see it again.
Bonus points for nice and beefy but non-ferrous objects. So if I could hit 'em with a magnet they'd probably be super easy to find.
NeXTStation status updated to Dead. All of this has happened before, and all of this will happen again
My stupid thumb is still bleeding after cutting it on Friday. I've lived with much worse without going to a doctor don't you worry. It could probably use like a stitch or something. I should figure out how to do that.
I've updated all my tools and unit tests for the video no one ever makes about how they actually do the work of dealing with their Retro networks.
Argh. I've got so much stuff to build and I just want to get at it already instead of wasting time editing nonsense that didn't even really work out!
Today was my last day at work, so of course I'm pulling an all-nighter working on projects and building my workflow. I don't think that will ever stop.
*I just got yelled at at 2:40am for pulling an all-nighter right now today. I'm like dude, it's my vacation, and this is me, relaxing on my goddamn vacation! I can sleep in a few days*
This is the desk I sat at for the last 5 years of my job and for two days a week for a decade before that. To be honest it feels weird for the job to be gone and for me to still be allowed in here. This is likely the last photo that will have my work laptop running Gibson in it. I am currently running through every bin and every parts drawer and converting my entire life over from full time network and server admin to ... someone who just hangs out and does projects and upgrades and documentation for a while.
And this is a sneak peek at what I mean when I say "I have a lot of projects in mind for this CheckMate monitor". I'm waiting for one sort-of crucial piece to this puzzle, then I'm going to make an in-depth tour of how I run all of this stuff, from media services to radio broadcasts. I'll be upgrading and making a lot of sysadmin improvements now that I have been freed for a bit. Retro computers are a piece, but are not really the "purpose" of this pile of stuff. My talents lie elsewhere. Fun times ahead as I embrace my inner digital hermit! I will explain why that is a good thing.
