April 22, 2006

As most reading this are likely aware, Apple has begun transitioning the Mac to the Intel processor. The processor used by most of the new Intel-based Macs, the Core Duo, supports virtualization technology which is utilized by software such as Parallels Workstation to allow many x86 operating systems to run at basically "full speed" from within Mac OS X. Windows and Linux are the first operating systems that jump to mind for most people when considering this capability. I had a different idea.

I've long been a fan of all things NeXT. From the sexy and robust NeXT Cube and NeXTstation machines to the operating system itself, NEXTSTEP, I lusted after them all since their debut in the late 80s. I was fortunate to have had a high-end 486 66 setup on which to run NEXTSTEP for Intel, back in 1994, got hold of a refurbished NeXTstation Turbo Color unit in 2000 and, more recently, picked up an HP PA-RISC workstation for pocket change and had much fun installing NEXTSTEP on it.

All that said, it occured to me that perhaps NEXTSTEP for Intel would install under the Parallels virtualization software. Having the media for both NEXTSTEP and OPENSTEP (the latter a further evolution of the former), I gave the OPENSTEP install a try. Lo and behold, it worked just great! See the article along with a screenshot gallery over at another site of mine, Mac on Intel.

April 2, 2006

I'd seen them at ThinkGeek for quite a while, but I never put in an order. PixelBlocks, they are. For whatever reason, I finally got around to grabbing a 2000-block pack (12 colors) last week. By design, they're great for rendering into plastic what one might find on a computer screen. But given the limited palette of home computers of years past, these blocks seem ideally suited to bringing to life classic retro computing scenes. They're pretty great.

It's a modest first go, but the above little character definitely brings to my mind memories of some pretty fun moments behind a joystick, back in the mid-80s. Anyone know who he/she is? Anwser correctly and I'll mail you one of my blocks. (I won't really.)