We apologize for the delay in posting show #48 (June). Technical issues with Mike’s audio stream combined with unexpected life happenings to knock us off schedule a bit (okay, more than a little bit by now), but we wanted to assure you that the show is still planned for release and we’re working hard to get it out the door.
– Mike
The Open Apple podcast is on hiatus. We’ll be back soon with more great guests and all the Apple II news, commentary and discussion you’ve come to expect. We appreciate your patience.
Open Apple is an audio podcast. We don’t have readers; we have listeners. We’re always thrilled to hear from our listeners via any medium, but it doesn’t seem fair to ask you to shift gears to write an email in response to what you heard.
That’s why you can now send audio feedback to Open Apple right from our website. Just click the send voicemail button to the right, and if your computer has an inbuilt microphone and JavaScript enabled, you’ll be prompted to start recording. You can listen to and re-record your message before submitting it, if you like. Open Apple will then have the option of replying to your message via private voicemail, or playing your message on the air during our next episode.
We look forward to hearing from you — literally!
In July 2011, Ryan Vesler of retail store Homage found the site Apple II Bits and contacted its owner, Open Apple co-host Ken Gagne with a request:
I have a retail store in Columbus that sells classic t-shirts with
nostalgic artwork.I would like to build some kind of Apple II looking computer that
collects email address for our mailing list (and maybe allows people
to sign up for a free prize pack)Thinking about having some kind of Mac Mini operate inside an old
shell. I was wondering if you would be interested in working with us.
We could price something out and see if it’s worth your while…
Ken put Ryan in touch with Charles Mangin, about whom Ken had blogged back in 2010. Years later, on the September 2013 episode of Open Apple, Charles related the product of the resulting collaboration.
Charles did indeed embed a Mac mini inside an Apple IIe for Ryan’s store in Columbus, Ohio. The display screen for signing up for Homage’s newsletter, though powered by a Mac mini, is designed to look like it belongs on the green phosphor screen. It fits right in with the store’s variety of nostalgic memorabilia, from an NBA Jam arcade cabinet to a Hulk Hogan cardboard standup.
Photos are courtesy Ryan; see more shots of his store at Columbus Underground.
Nice work to all parties involved in reminding the the public of Apple’s roots!
We hope everyone has enjoyed listening to the July episode of Open Apple. Unfortunately, we got a few facts wrong during the “II News” segment of that show. Since some of the affected events will be occurring before our August show airs, we want to issue the following two corrections immediately.
First, we discussed that none of the show’s hosts or guests would be attending Vintage Computer Festival Southwest 3.0. It turned out there’s a good reason for that: VCF Southwest 3.0 is not being held. VCF SW 3.0 occurred in August 2012, and there is no VCF SW 4.0. We did not realize that the information we were referring to was a year old. Our apologies to anyone we misled into thinking there is a retrocomputing event in Arlington, Texas, next month, when there is in fact none. Any Open Apple listeners who nonetheless try to attend will find little to report. Thanks to Michael Sternberg and David Greelish for the heads-up.
Second, OzKFest is occurring exactly as detailed in our episode, but we want to give credit where due. Andrew Roughan has done a great job promoting OzKFest, and as a result of his marketing efforts, we have associated his name with the event — but, as he points out, he is not the prime coordinator. OzKFest would not be possible without the leadership of Steven Kazoullis and the assistance of Alex Lukacz and Jon Co, as detailed on the site’s “About Us” page. Organizing such a gathering is a great undertaking, and every contributor deserves to be acknowledged.
Fun fact: OzKFest is being held in Brisbane — specifically, Kurilpa Hall. And Mt. Keira Fest, the gathering of Apple II users in 2009, was named after its venue, which also began with a ‘K’. That makes OzKFest the second Australian ‘K’ Fest!
We apologize for these oversights and extend our thanks to our eagle-eared listeners for keeping us accurate.
At KansasFest 2011, Open Apple took you behind the scenes to show you how sausage podcasts get made. The audio and video of that session was published shortly thereafter, but we’ve learned plenty more since then. Both Mike and Ken have applied those lessons to the launch of new podcasts: Challenge Talk, No Quarter, and The Pubcast.
Ken recently had the opportunity to share those experiences with MIT’s Social Media Working Group. Despite the academic audience, the session was aimed at anyone who wants to do podcasting: what your topic should be (niche and target), what you need (hardware, software, time, and a co-host!), where to get royalty-free intro music, and more.
Although the presentation was not specifically about Open Apple, much of the material was derived from and is applicable to the Apple II community’s only monthly podcast. Ken’s key points were succinctly outlined by Robyn Fizz, MIT Information Services & Technology News Coordinator, in the article “Podcasting 101: A guide to getting started“. If you want to hear the entire show, the audio (with follow-up Q&A), set to Keynote slides, in this 38-minute TechTV video.
Thanks to Rob Walch and Mike Maginnis for the advice and assets that went into this presentation!
Open Apple is not a live show, giving its hosts the opportunity to edit the audio extensively prior to publication. We remove “ums” and “ers”, correct factual mistakes, and reorder sound bites to improve the flow of conversation. We’ve never made a secret of this fact, having conducted behind-the-scenes presentations that reveal our workflow.
But just as mistakes can happen in a live recording, so can they occur in editing. In the March 2013 episode, guest Egan Ford spoke at length on which CPU was faster, the 6502 or the 8088. During post-production, we were informed that he had reversed the comparison at one point. Due to a miscommunication, the editors thought this reversal had occurred consistently throughout the original audio. The result: we swapped Egan’s audio throughout the show to state that he had proven the 6502 to be faster, which is not the case.
Mr. Ford never stated, argued, or proved such a thing; on the contrary, his extensive research into the subject (the results of which are pending publication) demonstrates the higher speed of the 8088 compared to the 6502. Though these edits were made in good faith, we did not intend to modify the intention of Mr. Ford’s words. We therefore humbly apologize for misrepresenting this esteemed member of the Apple II community.
This correction will be restated in the April 2013 episode of Open Apple, which we hope this error will not deter our listeners from staying tuned for.
The Open Apple Web site has added two new features to help you find specific episodes and eBay listings.
In the more than a year since Open Apple began broadcasting, 21 episodes have been published, with more to come. Now that we have such an extensive catalog of content, we have created a sortable, searchable database of shows that lists our airdates, episode titles, guests, and show length (in minutes).
Many of those episodes reviews several eBay listings, the results of which are later posted to the Open Apple blog. Every auction we’ve ever covered can now additionally be found in a single, comprehensive table. Excerpts from this table will be used for each monthly report.
Both listings can be found using the horizontal navigational bar at the top of the site.
We hope you find these tools useful and will let us know how we can further improve our site and show to better serve you!
