What have you done with an early Intel recently?

[Amethyst1]

Any ideas if there could be something to emulate in the DOS or Windows?

Sure… retro gaming consoles is one thing. A Psion Series 3 is another. Or OS/2 (uh… probably not).

 

[ToniCH]

Sure… retro gaming consoles is one thing. A Psion Series 3 is another. Or OS/2 (uh… probably not).

The Pimiga -platform is pretty much a retro gaming console (includes 5000 games) but obviously as a full Amiga computer emulation it offers much more. And I also made a Retropie -setup couple of years ago so plenty of possibilities for that stuff already.

Psion...hmmm... 🥰 in fact I use Psion Series 3 every (work)day. I used to work for a company that specialized in Psion and I did use and program many Psion-models. I still use a Series 3a as an alarm clock which wakes me up every morning. Too bad my Series 5MX's both died long time ago. Maybe I'll give the Psion emulator a try, that would basically be another OS on top of others!

OS/2, no thanks. I also worked as IT-specialist for a city in early 90's and we ran IBM hw, OS/2, token ring network etc. Had quite enough of that stuff back then. Not a huge fan of IBM or MS OS's. 🤮

PS. my Retropie:

 

[DouglasCarroll]

This afternoon I found myself on a train journey that ordinarily took 20 minutes, instead lasting an hour due to engineering works - so I made good usage of the extended time by reading through academic material on my 11" 2010 MacBook Air running Catalina.

Its ultra-portability makes it the perfect choice for working on stuff away from home, especially in environments like this where I need something more substantial than my mobile phone but smaller than my 15" or even 13" MacBooks.

I agree 100% with your claim. I always travel with my 11" 2012 Macbook Air and it's the best portable laptop Apple has EVER made. I just spent a week in Japan with mine and it was invaluable when my Wife needed to access her work site or we needed to schedule flights & Hotels. WAY better than having an iPad with us I believe.

The only thing I dislike about my 2012 is that it's not a totally maxed out 2015 model, oh well...I can always keep my eyes out for one.

 

[rin67630]

I agree 100% with your claim. I always travel with my 11" 2012 Macbook Air and it's the best portable laptop Apple has EVER made. I just spent a week in Japan with mine and it was invaluable when my Wife needed to access her work site or we needed to schedule flights & Hotels. WAY better than having an iPad with us I believe.

The only thing I dislike about my 2012 is that it's not a totally maxed out 2015 model, oh well...I can always keep my eyes out for one.

The 13" is ways more comfortable to use with double the screen real estate.
And with its resolution of 900*1440 you have exactly the same content than the Retina models, just more grainy.

 

[TheShortTimer]

My dream — and also because I’m a masochistic glutton for pain and grief — is to continue where I left off with my masters-level research work, meaning writing a dissertation. But the stars are not aligned for this anytime soon, if ever.

Never say never! I had no idea that I would end up on a doctoral programme. I was content to earn a BA and leave it there but towards the tail-end of my undergrad, a classmate beseeched me to pursue a master's and that led to me being talked into tackling a PhD.

Given the topic of the reading material on your screen, I sussed you were working on root theory-level stuff germane to something more involved than a paper or a thesis. Just know I’ll be rallying for you to power through those chapters! 💪

Thanks so much!

Just look at that interface.

Haha... Ok but in fairness, Microsoft has gotten away with similarly dubious aesthetics for years.

As Adobe began to centre their applications around cloud-based services, I found the UI for their software, increasingly prioritized for those cloud and SaaS features, had an unfortunate tendency to seriously bury access to long-standing UI tools.

The single time I tried Acrobat DC was during a time when I didn’t have lots of it to re-learn a different user interface for repeatable tasks I had relied on for a long time — probably since the days of Acrobat 4. Soooo… it was out with the DC and back in with 9.5.5. (I also tried Acrobat X and XI, and it was evident that UI transition toward what became DC was underway on those, too).

Cloud-based services was a thing I never asked for from my software whose cores pre-date cloud services. It still isn’t a thing I’m asking for.

Fair enough. I found that DC worked for me and I didn't bother looking any further beyond that shallow satisfaction.

I'm in the midst of guiding my first PhD student as an advisor to their defense in a month from now. It's more stressful than my own was. 😬 Wish you all the best in completing your dissertation!

Thank you - I appreciate this. At one stage there was uncertainty as to whether I'd reach the finish line but now it appears to be a matter of not if but when.

And speaking of 2010 Macs, my 2010 MacBook still comes in handy occasionally for work. Just recently I even rendered some graphics for a paper using POV-Ray. At home it's my fastest laptop.

What's the paper about, can you say?

I agree 100% with your claim. I always travel with my 11" 2012 Macbook Air and it's the best portable laptop Apple has EVER made. I just spent a week in Japan with mine and it was invaluable when my Wife needed to access her work site or we needed to schedule flights & Hotels. WAY better than having an iPad with us I believe.

Absolutely! It's such a shame that Apple chose a RAM configuration that cannot be upgraded or repaired - which means that the average user cannot increase its capacity later and if a memory fault develops you'll have to discard the computer.

The only thing I dislike about my 2012 is that it's not a totally maxed out 2015 model, oh well...I can always keep my eyes out for one.

Keep hope alive!

 

[headlessmike]

Thank you - I appreciate this. At one stage there was uncertainty as to whether I'd reach the finish line but now it appears to be a matter of not if but when.

What's the paper about, can you say?

That’s great! It can be stressful trying to finish, especially if things are out of your control, so try to stay sane and enjoy the whole process.

I’m a physicist and wanted some nice figues of the molecular reactions we’ve been studying. Data visualization is one of my favorite tasks at work.

 

[B S Magnet]

Never say never! I had no idea that I would end up on a doctoral programme. I was content to earn a BA and leave it there but towards the tail-end of my undergrad, a classmate beseeched me to pursue a master's and that led to me being talked into tackling a PhD.

I may not say never-never (sorry, old Assembly-Feargal Sharkey reference), but it’s been a dozen years since I completed my master’s degree.

The senior prof who came closest to being my mentor in uni (even though he was completely outside my programme or school within the uni), who tried to coax me to stay in town and stick around under his tutelage for a Ph.D (and were it not for the city, the one which chewed me up and spat me out, I absolutely would have stayed), has since retired.

And as I have roots from the U.S. (and because my financial aid came from there for undergrad/grad), I’ll be paying down those six-figure loans until I’m, literally, beyond the age of mandatory retirement here in Canada. The U.S. is a delightful experiment.

Thanks so much!

It’s a path few ever take, and that path is arduous, gruelling, full of faculty drama, and other roadblocks (including the one which has a tendency to induce burnout). So I’ll be over here as your cheerleader with my pom pons cheering you on 📣 [But do not ask that I pull out the cheer costume, for I am fat and old and my knees are terrible now.]

Haha... Ok but in fairness, Microsoft has gotten away with similarly dubious aesthetics for years.

Microsoft Office is such a dog’s breakfast that whenever I can, I’ll choose to open Office 2008 applications as my first pick — not because it’s the most current or the best UI, but because that still, largely, implements the same, basic UI I first began to use way back in Word 5.1. The Office 2007/2011 re-vamp I still can’t get accustomed to, especially when I’m running its applications from a Windows box. I’ll still get what needs to be done, done, but I will kvetch and gripe the whole time, even if under my breath.

Fair enough. I found that DC worked for me and I didn't bother looking any further beyond that shallow satisfaction.

In the end, if it gets the job done, then it gets the job done.

 

[B S Magnet]

iTunes 10.6.3 in Mojave update! (with a call to invite y’all’s minds on this challenge)

View attachment 2347908

Some progress, but still some work to do:

Initially, I viewed the iTunes binary within 0xED, to assess whether there was an obvious chunk of ASCII-translated code pointing me in the right direction. At first glance, it didn’t appear so, so that’s on hold for now.

Instead, I tried a different idea: in Terminal, as root/su (it was already open), I launched the iTunes binary directly from within /Applications/iTunes/Contents/MacOS/. I expected an immediate termination message within the Terminal window, but not so! The “Terms of Use” screen on first run for iTunes showed up, coupled with a long beach ball delay. At this point, I was worried it would fault and crash.

After a few seconds, the UI freed up and allowed me to click “Accept” on the terms window. Then, the default, empty library displayed (coupled with a Little Snitch alert regarding software signing being changed — no big deal, really).

Take note how the iTunes 10.6.3 icon is still showing a 🚫/prohibited cross-out, implying incompatibility:

View attachment 2347911

What this tells me, I think, is the inability to launch iTunes from clicking its application icon is something Apple added to Mojave to prevent a user from doing just this very thing (perhaps because they really wanted people to just let iTunes 10.x (and possibly even 11.x) go, in lieu of iTunes 12.9.x for Mojave. (I had a feeling this might be the case, as other 32-bit applications do launch, and iTunes should, in theory, be no different).

If so, then this also suggests there is probably a flag or setting within Mojave which can be overridden is disabled to permit the means to launch iTunes 10.6.3 by simply launching from selecting the iTunes icon. This is where I invite y’all to brainstorm this with me.

[When I managed in 2020 to get iTunes 10.6.3 to launch in Mojave, back when I briefly tested Mojave, I don’t remember doing all of this. I remember it being much less roundabout.]

---

As proof of concept, I just opened a random ’80s stream and lo’ Whitney Houston’s and Narada Michael Walden’s anthem from June 1987 was there to greet me:

View attachment 2347912

One additional note for anyone planning to run iTunes 10.6.3 on Mojave:

An issue I discovered (the hard way) this evening occurred when I tried opening some audio files in any sound editing application which, in any way, called upon the CoreAudio.framework:

As-is, with iTunes 10.6.3 dropped in, via Pacifist, iTunes may run, but this custom-install of 10.6.3 replaces the macOS 10.14 6 PrivateFranework called MobileDevices.framework.

What MobileDevices.framework calls, when a CoreAudio-dependent application is invoked is the expectation that the CoreAudio.framework has the dyld for a function which, in Mojave, does not exist:

System Integrity Protection: disabled

Crashed Thread:        0

Exception Type:        EXC_CRASH (SIGABRT)
Exception Codes:       0x0000000000000000, 0x0000000000000000
Exception Note:        EXC_CORPSE_NOTIFY

Termination Reason:    DYLD, [0x4] Symbol missing

Application Specific Information:
dyld: launch, loading dependent libraries

Dyld Error Message:
  Symbol not found: _AMDeviceCopyValueWithError
  Referenced from: /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreAudioKit.framework/Versions/A/CoreAudioKit
  Expected in: /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/MobileDevice.framework/Versions/A/MobileDevice
 in /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreAudioKit.framework/Versions/A/CoreAudioKit

Contrary to syntax, it’s not that CoreAudio.framework requires a downgrade to the version iTunes 10.6.3 is expecting. Rather, one needs to do the following re-upgrade after getting iTunes 10.6.3 to run successfully:

1. sudo mv /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/MobileDevice.framework/Versions/A/MobileDevice /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/MobileDevice.framework/Versions/A/MobileDevice.1063
2. Copy only the /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/MobileDevice.framework/Versions/A/MobileDevice binary from within the macOS 10.14.6 OS installer, via Pacifist, to its designated designation.

If the following is done properly, what this should look inside the MobileDevices.framework/Versions/A/ like is:

As with before, backporting to run iTunes 10.6.3 in Mojave means you still won’t be able to connect and sync your iDevices with iTunes, and as with before (and same as with High Sierra), a dialogue box upon iTunes launch will gripe about this missing support. But if you’re using iTunes 10.6.3 because of non-iDevice sync support purposes, as I am, then this final adjustment should allow you to continue to launch iTunes 10.6.3 in Mojave 10.14.6 and to allow you to open and use applications like Audacity, Sound Studio, and Max 0.9.1 as you could before the backport-install.

Without this single-file re-insertion of the MobileDevice binary from the Mojave installer, those sound editing applications will abort on launch no matter what you do. Note above how all the other files and directories within the MobileDevices.framework are still from iTunes 10.6.3. I haven’t re-tested this, but in doing iTunes 10.6.3 tweaks like this on other non-support macOS builds, to replace the whole MobileDevices.framework keeps iTunes 10.6.3 from launching properly. I might re-test this anyway to see whether this holds for this specific setup as it did in earlier macOS builds like Sierra and High Sierra. If so, and the results differ, I’ll post a reply/update to this.

 

[Nightphase]

I received an email from Mozilla saying that they're going to kill off syncing on Firefox 78 and earlier. That means that the latest version for Mavericks won't sync anymore after the 31st of March.

 

[ricom2ger]

I received an email from Mozilla saying that they're going to kill off syncing on Firefox 78 and earlier. That means that the latest version for Mavericks won't sync anymore after the 31st of March.

FF 78 esr is quite buggy already on many webpages.

 

[rampancy]

Took my old Mid-2009 A1181 that was my daily driver for ~5 years out for a spin for old times' sake - it was nice to see that the wonky optical drive bay holding my 500 GB SSD still works. It wasn't nice to see that the battery finally gave up the ghost after a year in storage. Oh well. At least it isn't bulging yet...

I fired up the App Store and wondered if it would let me download the last version of IA writer compatible with El Capitan and sure enough, it did. My kudos to the developers for making that happen. (I've noticed that not all apps on the App Store give you the option for downloading the latest version that's compatible with your OS if the current release requires something newer than what you have.)

 

[TheShortTimer]

The recent developments with the Jam Master Jay case led to me becoming aware of this 2021 documentary which in turn led to me using methods (which I won't disclose here) on my 2011 MBP under High Sierra to view it legitimately but without the obstacles of geo-blocking and paywalls.

As always, VLC rules!

Overall I found it informative, albeit somewhat rushed - which was probably due to the 44 minutes running time. An extra 16 minutes to bring it up to an hour would've made a huge difference to many areas of the presentation.

 

[Dronecatcher]

Back to negligible CPU use for 720P Youtube via SMTube courtesy Macports...

 

[TheShortTimer]

Back to negligible CPU use for 720P Youtube via SMTube courtesy Macports...

You'd install the Mac version via Macports? That explains why there's only Windows and Linux versions available from the official site.

 

[Dronecatcher]

You'd install the Mac version via Macports? That explains why there's only Windows and Linux versions available from the official site.

Yes, @barracuda156 did it a while back.

 

[TheShortTimer]

Yes, @barracuda156 did it a while back.

Cheers.

 

[ocmac]

Back to negligible CPU use for 720P Youtube via SMTube courtesy Macports...

View attachment 2355105

I've discovered so much great music just by searching for the band that Dronecatcher is featuring in his posts. Loving Wolf Alice. Also love that they are using a Macbook Pro from the early Intel era running....possibly snow leopard but could also be Lion. Granted, its 11 years old, but it's the thought that counts...

 

[rampancy]

...I thought I'd try my luck with my previously mentioned MacBook's battery. As an experiment I thought I'd plug it in without turning it on and leave it overnight just to see what would happen. And sure enough, the battery charged itself back to full!

I thought I'd celebrate by updating my web browsers, including Chromium Legacy, which still disables/pauses syncing everytime I restart or quit it (requiring me to log back into my Google Account everytime). Oh well. I'm just grateful it works at all, and that it still allows me to work in Google Drive and my other important websites like Submittable and ChillSubs.

 

[Amethyst1]

As an experiment I thought I'd plug it in without turning it on and leave it overnight just to see what would happen. And sure enough, the battery charged itself back to full!

Is that Fira Sans as the system font? It really gives the OS some character!

 

[rampancy]

Is that Fira Sans as the system font? It really gives the OS some character!

Yes it is! At first I thought I'd try it out just for the lolz a couple of years ago, and also because I really miss being able to easily mess around with the UI like I could in the pre-10.7 days. But then I actually grew to like it.

 

[MacFoxG4]

First, I just started off wanting to see how new of a macOS I could run Photoshop Elements 11 on. I bought it on sale years ago and discovered that my purchase included the Mac version too, so I downloaded the DMG and decided to install it on one of my Macs. I found out it was 32-bit, so I put Mojave back on my 2012 MBP and tested it out. I couldn't do this the normal way without destroying my Windows partition, so I installed Mojave on one of my 2009 Minis, but instead of installing the patches after the reboot, I booted the Mini into target disk mode, hooked up the 2012 MBP, booted that to a Mavericks installer, and used Disk Utility to make a DMG of the Mojave install. I then erased the 2012's Lion partition and restored the DMG I just made to it. Photoshop Elements 11 installs on Mojave, but closes randomly without letting me see a crash report. I did, however, discover that PPCMC 6 will run on Mojave, so that's nice. I then downgraded to El Capitan (using the same method as I did with Mojave) and discovered that Photoshop Elements 11 runs perfectly fine there.

After that is where things got interesting. I've been having some regrets about compromising my principles and moving to Apple Silicon last year. I did so because I wanted to run a version of macOS that still got security updates, but the built-in Wi-Fi became rather unreliable under patched Monterey on my 2012 MBP. I should have downgraded to patched Big Sur, but instead of doing that, I spent $500 on an M2 Mini. Ironically, this Mini has its own Wi-Fi issues and with both USB A ports taken up by the keyboard and mouse, I had to buy a USB dock that is kind of annoying to use. On top of that, the lack of upgradeability still bugs me and after my trip last year, I've come to realize that portability is more important to me than I thought. If I could turn back time, I would save that $500, keep daily driving the 2012 MBP and when that finally gets to slow to do what I need THEN I would buy a new computer (preferably one with upgradeable RAM and storage like the Framework, giving up on macOS if I have to). But I can't turn back time and get my $500 back, so I decided that the best thing I could do was make the 2012 MBP a backup computer.

So, I changed the 2012's OS configuration yet again and this is what I came up with:

-OS 1: Lion (for the Universal/Intel-only apps that I would normally run in Snow Leopard, a fallback if something were to happen to my Snow Leopard machines) [100 GB]
-OS 2: patched Sonoma (Experimentation, but if successful would be the main OS) [300 GB]
-OS 3: Windows 10 (for Windows exclusive software) [300 GB]
-OS 4: Ubuntu 22 LTS (for Linux exclusive software, plus a fallback if Sonoma doesn't work)

I downloaded OCLP for the first time since 2022, but discovered I needed to put Mojave back on here in order to make the Sonoma installer (since it uses APFS). Once I did that, the installer was ready and now it was time to partition. I used Mavericks' Disk Utility to make the 4 partitions I wanted, with the last partition being "formatted" as Free Space. I installed Lion by restoring a DMG backup I made to partion 1. Sonoma was installed by booting into it's installer, re-fromatting partition 2 as APFS and proceeding as normal with the install. Unfortunately, Sonoma randomly rebooted during the part where you select your language, and after that happened it would freeze on the Apple logo screen, so I had to install it again. It succesfully booted up this time, but even with root patches applied and OCLP installed to the boot drive, Sonoma felt pretty slow. After shutting down and turning the Mac back on again though, it seems to have lost a lot of this sluggishnes. It still is a bit slow for the first minute after a cold boot, but after that the system becomes more responsive. Music and TV apps still seem to work and I was able to watch a DVD in VLC without stuttering (which cannot be said for Apple's built-in DVD player app, which amazingly still exists, but hasn't been good since Leopard, IMO). Safari is the fastest browser on here, but Firefox runs nicely too. So far, the Wi-Fi issue from Monterey hasn't reared its ugly head, so yeah Sonoma is not bad on here.

Windows and Linux installed normally and show up in OCLP, though Linux gets labeled as "EFI." So yeah, my 2012 MBP is working nicely with this setup. I'd use it as a daily driver again if I could.

 

[rin67630]

...with both USB A ports taken up by the keyboard and mouse...

If you have an Apple keyboard, you plug the mouse (or it's dongle) to the keyboard, and use only one USB port.

 

[MacFoxG4]

If you have an Apple keyboard, you plug the mouse (or it's dongle) to the keyboard, and use only one USB port.

I do, but I notice that when I have the mouse plugged into the keyboard's USB port, the M2 Mini takes longer to wake from sleep, so that's why I have the mouse plugged directly into the Mini. It also takes a minute for the Mini to receive input from the keyboard when it wakes from sleep. This doesn't happen when the keyboard and mouse is used with other Macs.

 

[davigarma]

Reading great classics of literature that are free to download and read in the Ibook Store, I think they have gone crazy. And I do it in my Early 2008 with a retro static that I can only enjoy in OSX Yosemite 10.10 (Metal Brush) with the aesthetics and effectiveness of the Vivaldi browser (they have never made a better version). And HDD ten years old at 7200 rpm, yes !

 

[rin67630]

I do, but I notice that when I have the mouse plugged into the keyboard's USB port, the M2 Mini takes longer to wake from sleep, so that's why I have the mouse plugged directly into the Mini. It also takes a minute for the Mini to receive input from the keyboard when it wakes from sleep. This doesn't happen when the keyboard and mouse is used with other Macs.

Interesting. I never made such experiences with my iMacs, but I take notice. Thank you for that report.