Twoey! IIe! Tooeeeee!

You may be asking, “What? Twoey? What are you talking about?!?!” I can explain. When I was in fifth grade (last year), we did reports on famous Americans. I got Steve Wozniak. I barely knew who Steve Wozniak was, so I did some research. He was co-founder of Apple with his friend Steve Jobs. He designed the Apple I, II, and III, and built the Apple I.

Back to my report. For my report, I really wanted to have an Apple II. I managed to get a non-working one to show for my report, then I had to give it back. I still wanted one of my own. That was almost a year ago, and just a few days ago, an Apple IIe arrived. I had bought it on eBay a few days before.

It included the IIe, a Disk II floppy (really!) drive and its manual, some software, and the original manual for the IIe. The eBay listing said that it was from 1983, but the motherboard said 1982. We had an old monitor out in the garage that my dad said he used with his Apple II. Turns out I heard him wrong, and the monitor was for a Mac II, not an Apple II. Oops!

The hookup for a monitor on the computer is the same as a standard TV video cable, but we didn’t think it would work with our modern (sort of…) TV. It worked! I played a few games, then turned it off. I put it in my room with the monitor for display and another Disk II I had bought for $5 at Weirdstuff in Sunnyvale.

The picture below shows it on display. The monitor is the one that doesn’t work with it (the only one I have). The Disk II on top is the one I had. Enjoy!

Click here to view picture

Amateur Radio

Here’s my new hobby: amateur radio (ham radio). To do amateur radio, you must get 26 or more questions correct on a 35 question test. Tests have to be given by three General class or higher amateur radio operators. Tests are given from time to time by local clubs. If you pass the test, a few days later you will get mail from the FCC (in the USA) with two copies of your license. Your license will tell you what your callsign is. For example, I’m KI6ZON. Now that you have your callsign, you can get a radio and get on the air.

For my information on amateur radio, visit the amateur radio relay league at ARRL, or Google amateur radio.

If you live in the Sonoma County, California area, try contacting me on the local repeaters.

If you are an amateur radio operator or want more information, post a comment, or email us at mackidsblog@donaldlaird.com

Have fun!

PowerBooks in the Smithsonian?!

A few weeks ago, my family was on vacation in Washington D.C. from California. These PowerBooks were in the Smithsonian National Museum of American History.

First up, a PowerBook G3 Lombard or Pismo found in the glass cases right as you walk in. It was used on a TV show.

Next up, we have a titanium PowerBook G4 used to edit video by an NBC cameraman during the Gulf War. You will find this computer in the war exhibit.

Enjoy! Sorry about the long silence.

iPhoto ‘09 First Impressions

I just got iLife ‘09 yesterday! I have not had much time to play around with it, but today I wil give you my first impressions about iPhoto.

Faces
iPhoto’s new face detection feature works quite well. You tell it who some pictures are of, and it will go through and try to find other pictures of that person. It has some crazy ideas as to what is a face. I have seen it think a knee, a tire, a flower on a shirt, and a lens cap leash on a camera are a face. Telling it whose face is whose is very simple.

Places
I haven’t gotten to try Places much because I don’t have any photos with a location attached to them. If you have tried this, leave a comment with your thoughts! From what I can tell, it looks pretty cool.

Upload
Since I am not a MobileMe, Facebook, or Flickr user, I haven’t gotten to try the upload options for these sites.

Slideshow
The new feature to play a slideshow of photos in an album works great! You can choose effects and music to play during your show.

If you have any thoughts on iPhoto, please leave a comment!

Review of DarwiinRemote

Darwiin Remote

DarwiinRemote is a very cool program for anybody who has a Wii. I had heard about a program that lets you use your Wii remote as a mouse, but that program cost like $20. Then I found DarwiinRemote. It is a free program that lets you use your Wii remote as a mouse. It takes a little exploring the program to get it to work, but if you have any questions, email me at mackidsblog@donaldlaid.com. You can even program the buttons on the remote to do stuff like click with the A button or use the arrows as the computer’s arrow keys. Have fun!

PopCap Games 50% Off Sale

Merry Christmas! Once again, PopCap Games has 50% off all their games. Just add the game to your cart and it automatically drops the price. My favorite game is Bejewled, what about you? Post a comment!

Club Penguin Cheats

I know a lot of you probably play Club Penguin (www.clubpenguin.com). I personally think virtual worlds for kids are just annoying. I do not play, but my friend Aidan does and I would guess lots of other kids do too. Anyway, if you do play Club Penguin, you may be interested in a blog I found by clicking the random blog button. It is a blog about Club Penguin cheats, and could be fun for anyone who plays. Visit it by clicking here. Do you play Club Penguin? Why or why not? Leave a comment!

An Interesting Story…

Today, August 9th, we headed up to Oakland California (about 50 miles from home) to do some geocaching ( see “New Use For GPS”). We found one cache and then headed for a second. I started digging through dead leaves and then I spotted a plastic bag. The plastic bag was open at the top and I saw the edge of something white. I thought at first it was a cutting board, but pulled it out part way and I thought then it could possibly be an iBook. We pulled it all the rest of the way out and opened it because it was a laptop. It turns out it was a white MacBook! The login screen said the person’s name and showed their photo. We took it to the San Leandro police and they looked up the person’s name. There was a police report for a stolen white MacBook! I was so happy it would get back to its owner. With his iPhone my dad looked it up and only 2-3% of stolen laptops get returned to their owners. It was an exciting adventure.

Have an interesting Mac story? Post a comment with it!

Want to See Cool Graphics?

Do you want to see cool graphics with your music in iTunes? The visualizer, hidden under the file menu, speeds up and slows down with your music. I can’t really explain what it does, but you should try it. Have fun.