I lost my beloved Mac Plus, the computer that made me become a programmer, because of COVID.
Shortly before COVID hit, I fired it up to see if it still worked, and within like a minute, a certain capacitor (that is a common and well-known failure point) fried, and it was dead. I brought it to a computer repair store to fix, and then COVID and its lockdowns hit.
When I returned months later to see what was up after my phone calls weren't returned, turns out the whole place had shut down and I to this day have no idea where my Mac Plus went. :/
He was making a pun on the common practice during COVID of attributing death in death to certificates to COVID whenever the patient presented a positive PCR test, no matter the real cause of death, the actual existence of COVID disease in clinical terms or the existence of more preeminent factors in the death.
This usually happened due mostly as a result of federal policy of paying out extra money for hospitals based on the number of covid patients, thus creating an incentive of diagnosing anyone with a positive PCR test as sick from covid, whether they presented actual clinical symptoms of the disease or not.
my understanding/recollection is that it was necessary for surveillance to note when decedents had COVID; it was listed as a (contributing or underlying, not sure of the jargon) cause, and so depending on how you cut the data you could count it either way -- tally all deaths with COVID as deaths from COVID (bigger), or only those where COVID was the main cause (smaller).
Sounds made up to me, too. Unless he lives in some country where that happened.
In many places in the United States it was unusual for COVID to be listed as a cause of death in paperwork. Often it was listed a something coronary or pulmonary. This isn't unique to COVID, but happened a lot more with that disease, especially before there were vaccines and the stigma was stronger.
The actual number of COVID deaths is estimated because policies varied so much among different political jurisdictions.
Source: Work in the healthcare industry, and had relatives die of COVID who ended up with something else listed on their death certificates.
Brilliant. Got my old Macintosh Plus out a few months ago and flipped it on and unfortunately that let out some of the “magic smoke” that keeps all electronics running. I think it’s an electrolytic cap that blew. Just too old. Will have to find time to refurb it.
Always look at caps and look for/test corrosion shorts before energizing old gear.
Caps are easy fixes if you can get the board out. Use quality electrolytic caps if bothering to go through the trouble, or I'd see if modern ceramic alternatives exist that will essentially last forever. (Don't get me started on how (vintage) tantalums suck.)
I zoomed into the photo to check that out after you pointed it out. I initially assumed it would've been placeholders that were labeled, since writing `DISPLAY` on your screen doesn't make sense, but the buttons and MicroSD slot are obviously there. The text for the MicroSD slot extends past the edge of the front surface, though, so it's not actually physically labeled-- just labeled in the image with a perspective effect. I assume it's because the buttons are a bit hard to see (and it's not obvious the display is a display without it being turned on).
I've preserved a number of machines by building them in to rackmount cases. It never occurred to me to make a faux product out of them. This is amazing! The graphics and detail are wonderful.
Crystal Quest was a legit all-time classic game. I remain amazed that, nearly 40 years after I first played it, nothing else has ever reproduced its precise control mechanics.
It's already 25 years or so ago but in the early 20-teens I fixed up a Mac Classic II and got it online on the Internet, running both System 6 and MacOS 7.6.1, both fully tricked out with every possible enhancement. A great learning and revision exercise, and still a lovely OS to work with in the 21st century.
Reminds me very much of my college project where my roommates and I repackaged a Commodore 64 into an IBM PC form factor, complete with external keyboard.
Difficulty: College was in a town without a Radio Shack, and none of us had cars.
I think I've seen such a conversion, and am now frantically searching for it but with all the wrong keywords it seems!
There was also a "shucked" 1541 PCB and drive fitted in the top section of a tower case and IIRC in the post I've read they have served all power demands either from a standard PSU or an off-the-shelf power supply module.
I wish I still had my Mac Plus. Upgraded from a 512Ke, 40Mb drive, and a Radius 020 accelerator with 68881. Still limited to 4Mb, And I ran 7.0.1 and 6.0.8. Any testing with The two screen panning programs? Stepping out II? I played Spaceward Ho! to death on it.
Shortly before COVID hit, I fired it up to see if it still worked, and within like a minute, a certain capacitor (that is a common and well-known failure point) fried, and it was dead. I brought it to a computer repair store to fix, and then COVID and its lockdowns hit.
When I returned months later to see what was up after my phone calls weren't returned, turns out the whole place had shut down and I to this day have no idea where my Mac Plus went. :/
This usually happened due mostly as a result of federal policy of paying out extra money for hospitals based on the number of covid patients, thus creating an incentive of diagnosing anyone with a positive PCR test as sick from covid, whether they presented actual clinical symptoms of the disease or not.
In many places in the United States it was unusual for COVID to be listed as a cause of death in paperwork. Often it was listed a something coronary or pulmonary. This isn't unique to COVID, but happened a lot more with that disease, especially before there were vaccines and the stigma was stronger.
The actual number of COVID deaths is estimated because policies varied so much among different political jurisdictions.
Source: Work in the healthcare industry, and had relatives die of COVID who ended up with something else listed on their death certificates.
Caps are easy fixes if you can get the board out. Use quality electrolytic caps if bothering to go through the trouble, or I'd see if modern ceramic alternatives exist that will essentially last forever. (Don't get me started on how (vintage) tantalums suck.)
It's already 25 years or so ago but in the early 20-teens I fixed up a Mac Classic II and got it online on the Internet, running both System 6 and MacOS 7.6.1, both fully tricked out with every possible enhancement. A great learning and revision exercise, and still a lovely OS to work with in the 21st century.
But the most fun I had on it was playing CQ...
Close, they wired the Reset button!
But, no Programmer switch.
It's very hard to contain my disappointment. Bridge too far I guess.
Difficulty: College was in a town without a Radio Shack, and none of us had cars.
https://bsky.app/profile/nanoraptor.danamania.com/post/3k47g...
Better still... someone built it for real:
https://www.reddit.com/r/retrobattlestations/comments/1iqth0...
There was also a "shucked" 1541 PCB and drive fitted in the top section of a tower case and IIRC in the post I've read they have served all power demands either from a standard PSU or an off-the-shelf power supply module.
I kinda wished it had a panoply of external SCSI devices like a floppy drive, a CD ROM, and a ZIP drive (needs driver v.4.2 ) for good measure.