We mentioned this a few years back, but it's worth a look if you have never seen it. The intro:
"At the outset, when designing NadaNet, I envisioned that it could be used to support parallel computing on Apple II machines. To add more processors and save space, I decided that I would package several Apple //e main boards together, without keyboards or peripheral slot cards. (I didn’t disassemble the Apples myself, but found a box of Apple //e main boards being sold as an auction lot for about a dollar each!) I settled on a wooden cube about one foot on a side which I slotted to hold up to 8 main boards. For whimsical reasons, I called it an 'AppleCrate'."

AppleCrate: An Apple II-Based Parallel Computer

On this site devoted to Apple's mid-90's online service eWorld, you can take a cool walkthrough that is almost like using the real thing! From the site:
"Remember...? Back in 1994 Apple introduced a unique online service called eWorld. With its homelike, cozy look and feel it fascinated its users even though it was rather expensive compared to other online services. eWorld competed directly against AOL, CompuServe, and MSN, and finally lost this competition. On March 31, 1996, at 12:01 am the service shut down. Apple's management decided that the product was doomed to fail in a market where AOL had such a commanding lead."

www.remember-eworld.com

The fantastic 8-bit Apple II emulator for Mac OS X, Virtual ][ has been updated to version 5.3.

New in this release:
• Added emulation of the Thunderclock card, and made it the default clock card for all virtual machine types.
• The old "ProDos clock card" is now obsolete. It is still supported, but can no longer be selected in a new configuration.
• Added emulation of the the Saturn 128K memory card.
• Improved the support for international keyboards.
• Added additional Apple II character sets: British, French, German, Itialian and Swedish.
• Adjusted the Apple //e character set, to eliminate some minor differences with the characters in the original machine.
• Added an AppleScript property to get the path of the configured favorite disk folder.
• The RAMWorks card can now be configured in increments of 64KB (was 128KB).
• The 16K RAM card can now be inserted in all slots, not only slot 0.
• Fixed an issue that prevented 2img disk images from being recognized on an Intel Mac.
• The "generic printer card", which has been obsolete since version 3.4, is no longer supported. It has been replaced by the Grappler+ card and the serial printer card.

Visit the Virtual ][ Website

Another great bit of Apple history at Folklore.org by Andy Hertzfeld. This time, the Andy visits his alma mater to try to sell them Macs. It Begins:
"Apple always had a natural affinity for education, and, almost from its inception, the Apple II became very successful in the K-12 education market. In the late 1970's, Steve Jobs initiated a marketing program called "Kids Can't Wait" and personally paced the halls of Congress in Washington for three weeks, lobbying for legislation granting tax breaks for donating computers to schools. Even though the national legislation got stymied by politics (it was blocked by Bob Dole), California eventually passed a similar bill and Apple soon donated almost 9,000 computers, one to every school in California."

Read More:
What's A Megaflop?

Bob Sander-Cederlof has placed the entire run of his Apple Assembly Line newsletter online. From the site:
"From October 1980 through May 1988 I published a newsletter called Apple Assembly Line. This newsletter focused on assembly language for the Apple ][, //e, //c, and //gs computers. In the beginning all the programs were written for the 6502 microprocessor, but as the Apple II family developed, this expanded to the 65C02, 65802, and 65816. All the programs were published using the S-C Macro Assembler, which I also authored and sold under the label of S-C Software Corporation.
I mailed each issue to subscribers all over the world, over 1000 subscribers at its peak. Many of the subscribers were just learning to program in assembly language, and have since gone on to found software companies of their own, or to work in software development for major corporations. One subscriber I remember well, started when a sophomore in high school. Now he writes image processing software for NASA’s JPL, and was heavily involved in the Mars Rover software."

Apple Assembly Line Archive

Today we return to the informative "This Week in Apple History" series at The Mac Observer. The August 22-31 entry in the series by Owen Linzmayer & Bryan Chaffin is entitled, "Welcome, IBM. Seriously," Too Late to License".

August 22-31: "Welcome, IBM. Seriously," Too Late to License"

Sweet16™, the Apple IIgs emulator for OS X, has been updated. From the Sheppyware page:
"This is a pretty significant update, belying its minor version number bump. It includes some new features, including the ability to mount lots of 800K floppy images as "CleverPort" devices by holding down the Option key while mounting them. This lets you install System 6 without ever having to do a disk swap, for instance.
There are also nearly 20 bugs of varying significance fixed, including bugs preventing preferences from being saved, a jerky cursor when Default Folder X is installed, and problems with configuring the size of the emulated IIgs's memory."

Visit the Sweet16™ page:
Sweet16™ for Mac OS X

As you may notice, here at VAN we view the Internet like a daily treasure hunt. It seems if you spend some time really digging, you can always come up with another little nugget. Today we have located the text from a rather obscure article on the launch of the Lisa from Windfall magazine. From the February, 1983 issue, the article begins:
"LISA has arrived. And its the biggest breakthrough in microcomputing since the first hand-built Apple emerged from a California garage in 1976.
That pioneering machine was the blueprint from which a all the hundreds of different micros produced since have been based.
But now there's Lisa, so revolutionary a concept that it's no exaggeration to say that the future of personal computing has only just begun.
The result of the many millions of dollars and hundreds of man years (Reportedly 50$ Million, and 200 man years - RTK) that Apple has been devoting to research and development is a giant leap forward in making computers far more human."

Read More:
ENTER LISA..Now the Future Can Begin!

It's hard to imagine the hip, respected Apple of today as the company of the mid-90's. But they were dark days...oh they were. When the faithful had nothing to go on but faith. We nurtured the flame when it was almost out, against battering and ridicule from all sides. This article at Wired from 1997 lists 101 suggestions from readers to help the company survive, some of which Apple actually did, some - thank goodness - they didn't!

It Begins:
"Dear Apple,
In the movie Independence Day, a PowerBook saves the earth from destruction. Now it's time to return the favor. Unfortunately, even devoted Mac addicts must admit that you look a little beleaguered these days: a confusing product line, little inspiration from the top, software developers fleeing.
But who wants to live in a world without you? Not us. So we surveyed a cross section of hardcore Mac fans and came up with 101 ways to get you back on the path to salvation. We chose not to resort to time travel or regurgitate the same old shoulda/coulda/wouldas (you shoulda licensed your OS in 1987, for instance, or coulda upped your price/performance in 1993).
We don't believe Apple is rotten to the core. Chrysler nearly went under in the late 1970s and came back to lead its industry. Here's a fresh assessment of what can be done to fix your once-great company using the material at hand. Don't wait for a miracle. You have the power to save the world - and yourself."

Read more:
101 Ways to Save Apple

Today we return to the informative "This Week in Apple History" series at The Mac Observer. The August 15-21 entry in the series by Owen Linzmayer & Bryan Chaffin is entitled, "Luxo Jr., iMac Ships, eMachines Sued".

August 15-21: Luxo Jr., iMac Ships, eMachines Sued

From the Editors of PC World comes this top 25 list. It begins, "The IBM PC is 25. And here are the top PCs ever, from machines you owned and loved to systems you've never heard of." And at number one - The 1979 Apple II! Apple commands five of the 25 spots with the Apple II, the Macintosh Plus, the PowerBook 100, the second generation iMac, and the eMate 300.

See the complete list here:
The 25 Greatest PCs of All Time

"An unsolicited, then approved, music video for the band Grandaddy and their song of the same name off of the album The Sophtware Slump. Programmed in Applesoft II on a 1979 Apple ][+ with 48K of RAM. Seriously." This video takes place completely on the screen on an Apple II+ as we see at the end. Worth a look on a Friday much like this one.

Jed's Other Poem (Beautiful Ground)

This page describes a project to create a CompactFlash / IDE Interface card for Apple II computers (][+, //e, //e enh or //gs). The card is ProDOS 8 and GS/OS compatible. With an additional driver, GS/OS user get additional partitions and speed. From R & D Automation, LLC and at $105 each, this seems like a bargian to us!

Check it out:
Project: CFFA at R & D Automation, LLC

Another interesting 1982 tale from the inside at Folklore.org by Andy Hertzfeld. This time, the team receives Steve's permission to dismantle the onerous burglar alarm.

You Guys Are In Big Trouble

Today we return to the informative "This Week in Apple History" series at The Mac Observer. The August 8-14 entry in the series by Owen Linzmayer & Bryan Chaffin is entitled, "Happy Birthday, Woz!".

August 8-14: Happy Birthday, Woz!

To compliment today's addition of a rare 1979 Apple Pascal "Iron-On" Ad to page one of The Mothership Advertising and Brochure Gallery, we present this page detailing the history of the enigmatic Pascal poster. The article, subtitled "Jef Raskin said it was useful code. Steve Jobs said it was contemporary art. You decide." begins:
"Since I posted this article several years ago on Slashdot, this page has become an Internet starting point for discussing a number of different issues, ranging from "What is your idea of the ultimate geek poster?" to discussions about the turbulent relationship between Jef Raskin and Steve Jobs, the two fathers of the Apple Macintosh computer.
One of the things that fascinates people about this project is that it is a tangible byproduct of two great minds, Steve Jobs and Jef Raskin, working together... but not necessarily seeing eye-to-eye. There are few examples of this, aside from the Macintosh, that exist today.
The late Jef Raskin kindly edited, clarified, and co-authored this with me, and for this I am grateful."

Read More:
The History of Apple's Pascal "Syntax" Poster, 1979-80

Sweet16, the Apple IIgs emulator from SheppyWare for Mac OS X, has been updated to version 1.6.1.

What's new in this version:
• The Disks window no longer disappears when Sweet16 isn't in the foreground, which makes it an easier target for drag & drop of disk images.
• DiskCopy 4.2 disk images are now recognized for mounting even if they don't have an extension.
• Fixed a problem that caused an empty error dialog box if you tried to mount a disk image that's already mounted by Sweet16.
• Dragging disk images into the disks window now displays the fancy arrow with a green plus cursor.
• Enabled some optimizations when compiling that I hadn't been using before. These may or may not have any noticeable impact on performance, but it probably doesn't hurt.
• By default, the speed used when you turn on speed control is now 2.6 MHz instead of the strange 0.5 MHz it was set to before.

Sweet16, the Apple IIgs emulator for Mac OS X

The July, 2006 issue of the A2 News and Notes Newsletter for Apple II fans has been posted by Howard Katz!
This issue:
* Kansas In July
* Phoenix Rising
* Sweet Emulation
* Name That Format
* Apple I Rebirth
* Apples Online
* Name That Game
* More Storage Options
* Software News
* Emulation News
* SignOff

A2 News and Notes

Today we return to the informative "This Week in Apple History" series at The Mac Observer. The August 1-7 entry in the series by Owen Linzmayer & Bryan Chaffin is entitled, "Newton Introduced, Big Brother Bill".

August 1-7: Newton Introduced, Big Brother Bill