Blogging Like It's 1999

Pardon the lazy Prince pun/reference but all will become clear...

While writing theses posts will always primarily be done in front of a Mac screen, it's nice to have the ability to write when out and about too - enter my pocket sized, vintage Oregon Scientific Osaris from 1999 - a budget copy of the mighty Psion Series 5 PDA.

Being an 18Mhz EPOC32 device, this thing only gently nibbles away on two AA batteries and saves files to a Compact Flash card - so even in the worst case scenario of the main and backup batteries failing, my data is safe.

 

Whilst working on a post it's no sweat to swap the Compact Flash card out of the Osaris and use an adaptor to share it with a Mac, however, I'm reluctant to place repetitive strain on the card hatch and connector on the Osaris - I'd rather use it's friction and fatigue free infrared port.

This is by necessity more than anything, as unfortunately, buying the Osaris secondhand, it didn't come supplied with the original serial connector lead so the only connectivity available is the infrared port and luckily, I do have an old USB infrared dongle - however, it only works with Windows 98/ME/XP.

At the moment I don't have a PC - old or otherwise - permanently setup but what I do have is Virtual PC 7 on my Powerbook.

So, after installing Windows 98SE to a 1Gb virtual drive, and doing a few optimisations to keep the CPU demands down, the workflow is as follows.

With the USB infrared dongle attached and in range of my Osaris with Desktop Link activated, I start Windows 98 and launch PsiWin (the connectivity manager designed for Psion PDAs but also fully compatible with the Osaris.)

Once the infrared serial connection is made, from PsiWin I can browse my Osaris and it's Compact Flash card and exchange files - in this instance, an EPOC Word document is imported and converted to a TXT file (MS Word and other options are available too.)

The same applies in reverse if I wanted to import a document to the Osaris with PsiWin converting the file to a native EPOC version.

Once within Windows, my document is readily accessible to OSX where I can work on it or share it to another device via WebDAV.

Virtual PC often gets a rough deal in the PowerPC sphere as being a poor substitute for Windows but I've had good use out of it - the key is to have reasonable expectations, use the oldest compatible version of Windows for your applications and to realise it's performance doesn't scale with the spec of your Mac.

wicknix

 In my two plus years away from this blog, I was also away from using PowerPC hardware most of the time.  So I hadn't been keeping up with the development of PowerPC software much.  Then I come back to find someone named wicknix who frequents the Mac Rumors PowerPC forum.  This guy has been very busy developing PowerPC and early Intel software, and he's done some pretty amazing work for Linux and Mac OS X users alike.  

He also has a blog called Random Mac Stuff where you can find all his software.

So I just wanted to help bring awareness to the amazing efforts this guy has made.  I have had written correspondence with him, and I can tell you he's extremely humble.  I was trying to recruit him to write here, but he's just too busy.  So thanks for all your work, wicknix!   

A list of everything he has done and/or contributed to:

Arctic Fox Browser for 10.6

InterWeb Browser for 10.6 & 10.7+

SpiderWeb Browser for 10.6 & 10.7+

Software for 10.4 - 10.7 and PowerPC Linux

Lubuntu PowerPC 12.04 & 16.04 Remix live DVD + installer

Debian Sid PowerPC Remix installer

How to install Fienix Soar on 32-bit PPC Macs

How to watch Twitch Streams on 10.3/10.4/10.5 (he contributed the twitch script)

Security of the mind

 Security is a very dynamic sort of thing quite often.  It changes a lot over time, but it also often stays the same in many ways.  For the average user out there, they only have the know-how to rely on the OS for all potential security threats.  We all have experience using the internet every single day, but some don't utilize the best security tool on earth...  your own sound judgment. But sound judgment often derives from experience.  From experience comes confidence, and from confidence comes a sound mind.  Confidence should never be cocky though, because that will get you into trouble eventually.

When you consider that Apple hasn't offered a security update for a PowerPC OS since 2009...  we really are on our own with OS X.  But that's okay, because we the users dictate how secure we are through our own habits online.  And I am guilty myself of not having the confidence in some to be their own best security in my past writing here.  I don't know if that ever hurt anyone's confidence back then, but I certainly didn't help it either.  This changes now to a personal policy of encouraging confidence once people are put on the right path.  I'm going to instill confidence rather than fear. 

We notice things much easier when of a calm mind, and awareness is very important with security.  

So the point here is don't allow the lack of security updates on OS X to ever stop you from using it online.  Look no further than TenFourFox for modern web compatibility and security.  We really owe so much to Cameron Kaiser, because he alone has kept Mac OS PowerPC a viable internet platform.  So let's give him the respect he deserves.

I have been away from PowerPC Linux for a few years now, and need to re familiarize myself with it again, so for the next few months at least, my writing will be Mac OS related, and to me that's a great place to start after a two year hiatus here.

So for the next few months I will be doing a series of writings on OS X PowerPC security in 2020/2021, and how to best protect yourself.  To instill in you what I have to offer in me to keep yourself safe on operating systems that are 11+ years old now.  Only now instead of a Sawtooth, I'm using a G4 mini that dual boots Tiger and Leopard.

You're all going to have hardened ceramic armour shells when I'm done with you!  I hope you all can deal with that!