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My new Mac.....

PDXMark Page Icon Posted 2014-07-23 8:07 PM
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A co-worker was helping to clean out a file storage area on another floor, and came across a variety of older electronic components. Most of it will be donated to a tech thrift shop in town, but the co-worker knows I enjoy old tech, so when she stumbled across this she nabbed it for me.

It's a Mac Plus (circa 1986 or so). It came in its own soft-sided carrying case (about the size of a picnic cooler), and included the Mac, extra hard drive, keyboard, mouse, and cables. I plugged it in, and it fired right up without missing a beat. It still had some work files from 1994, from an employee who retired just in the last year or so. Apparently a group of employees were issued these Macs at some point before the organization (local government) had PCs, as a trial. It's been sitting in storage for about 20 years.

It will need to be donated at some point, but in the meantime I'm having fun playing around and figuring out what it can do. It has a surprisingly well-featured Word 5.0a installed; I'm still figuring out some of the other software.

BTW, the framed picture to the right of the Mac is of me and my wife, from about 5 years ago. I'm quite a bit grayer now.





(WP_20140722_002.jpg)



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Rich Hawley Page Icon Posted 2014-07-23 8:42 PM
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I still have Mac software on CD...things like ClarisWorks, ClarisWorks Home Page (great html editor), and Filemaker Pro. The great thing about the CDs is that they came with versions for both Mac and Windows when you bought them.

They were originally hundreds of bucks back when I got them, but I think you can pick them up on eBay these days for less than $10....

I did have System 7 disks I though, but I sure can't find them now...wonder what I did with them.

Anyways...very cool acquisition you have there....

...and the other picture, can't quite make it out...something floating in water with a rainbow?
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Jake Page Icon Posted 2014-07-23 8:47 PM
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Amazing how even the keyboard was bulky. How big a hard drive? HDs were a pricey thing back then. $2600USD for the computer says wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macintosh_Plus Just about twice as much as a PC, same as today

Jake
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C:Amie Page Icon Posted 2014-07-23 9:18 PM
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What are you running? OS 3? 4?
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Rich Hawley Page Icon Posted 2014-07-23 11:07 PM
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If I remember correctly, the Mac SE was the first that came with System 4. But your's might have System 6 on it cause that runs just fine with it, while System 7 makes it pretty laggy unless you have extended memory inserted.

Nice thing about Apple Macs is you can download all the old OS's for free from them.

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PDXMark Page Icon Posted 2014-07-24 12:41 AM
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I believe it has 1 mb of ram, plus a 50 mb hard drive. I've been trying to determine the OS version, but haven't found it so far.

The keyboard and mouse are both very chunky. The mouse has one button, and you have to hold it down in order to keep a pull-down menu open and scroll to the item you want to select.

It even has a few sound options for system events, including a screeching monkey. That's my favorite so far.

Rich, you're right about the 2nd picture having water. It's actually me and my oldest child, standing on the Oregon coast looking out at the waves. He was almost two at the time (he's 19 now), and I had to keep a good hold on his hand to keep him from running headlong into the surf. He wasn't even up to my waist then, and now I look up to him - he's 6'4". This is one of my favorite pics - takes me right back to those days. Both pictures are clearer in the original photo, but I had to compress it to post it (it was over 400 kb).
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CE Geek Page Icon Posted 2014-07-24 1:43 AM
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Quote
Rich Hawley - 2014-07-23 3:07 PM
Nice thing about Apple Macs is you can download all the old OS's for free from them.


Pardon me while I don't jump with excitement over that, given how expensive Macintosh computers are in the first place.
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C:Amie Page Icon Posted 2014-07-24 8:47 AM
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Hit the apple logo and head into About this macintosh.

If it is older, use About the finder.
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Mobi Page Icon Posted 2014-07-31 5:01 AM
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There's a great website for old macs called lowendmac.com. They might have some information on your new acquisition.
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