September 30, 2006

I've long used Bresink's Hardware Monitor to keep a tab on the vitals of various Macs I've used in recent years. After upgrading from a dual G5 2.5 to a quad-core Mac Pro, I hit the Hardware Monitor website to grab a Universal version of the app. That's when I noted that external LCD support had been added to the program. Right now the only officially supported LCD controller is Code Mercenaries' USB-based IO-Warrior.

I put my order in right away.

This weekend I received both the IO-Warrior 24 kit as well as the white-on-blue, LED-lit 4x24 LCD I ordered. I made some free time this afternoon, pulled out the soldering iron, chopped up an old SCSI cable, and got things together. The result is most technoglorious. (See photos here and a QuickTime h264 video here, showing the unit running on a 3GHz quad-core Mac Pro.)

See another user's IO-Warrio project involving custom code pushing iTunes and EyeTV data from Mac to LCD.

Next step: construct a balsa wood enclosure painted flat black. Stay tuned.

UPDATE: It wasn't balsa wood but PixelBlocks that came to the rescue on an enclosure...

September 10, 2006

Here's an interesting story I ran across in my Sunday morning browsing: Inside Steve Wozniak's House. It's a look at the Woz's rather amazing, recently rearchitected space rendered in harmony with nature. The abode sports natural curves and, among other things, an arcade as well as a cave. A house befitting the friendlier Steve.

I'd love to meet the Woz one day.

September 2, 2006

We've seen public websites powered by some unlikely machines, from the Apple Newton to 8-bits from yesteryear to breadboards the size of a postage stamp. How appropriate, then, that only days after I post my Lisa 2 pictorial, I discover Lisa2.com, a small website running on an Apple Lisa 2.

I gather that the owner's Lisa 2 has been upgraded to a Macintosh XL running the Macintosh System / Finder rather than the Lisa Office System. Impressive, nonetheless.