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Halt and Catch Fire is an American period drama television series created by Christopher Cantwell and Christopher C. It aired on the cable network AMC in the United States from June 1, 2014, to October 14, 2017, spanning four seasons and 40 episodes. She is this week’s Golden Apple Award recipient. KWTX 10 Day Forecast. Nominate your favorite teacher for a Golden Apple Award. 16, 2020 at 3:25 PM CDT.
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- 2009.01.27 -Tip Jar
In Greco-Roman mythology, the Trojan War was touched off by a goldenapple.
Offended that she was notinvited to a party thrown by one of the goddesses for all of the rest,Eris,the Goddess of Chaos, Strife, and the Random Factor made a goldenapple. On it was inscribed one word in Greek:καλλiστη. Roughly translatedinto English this means 'for the prettiest one.'
Of course, this disruptive little item was contended over by all thegoddesses, until one of them tapped a young handsome shepherd, Paris,on the shoulder and asked him to decide which of the goddesses was mostdeserving of the apple. Paris chose Aphrodite, who rewardedhim by producing Helen of Troy, the queen of Troy and wife ofMenelaus.
The little detail of Helen being another man's wife basicallystarted the whole messy business of the Trojan war.
Disruptive Technology
At its best, Apple technology is profoundly disruptive to theestablished technological order. Apple has indeed been all about'thinking different' - and it also never fails to give PC manufacturersfits. Thus it's quite applicable that the best and most disruptive ofthe Macs should be honored by a new designation: The Golden Apple.
In roughly chronological order, here are the first 25 recipients,plus a non-Mac product which deserves one:
1. Mac 512K (1984)
Yes, the 128K came first, but Apple had to use a 'Fat Mac' prototypeto run the famous Mac launch demobecause the 128Kwas too weak to do it. As a little bonus, I re-recorded the soliloquythe Mac spoke at the launch demo using Alex, the new generation voiceof Macintalk introduced with Mac OS X 10.5 'Leopard'. Listen and enjoy.
2. MacSE (1987)
The SE was the first Mac that was strong enough to take on the PCs.It meant business. It could read PC 3.5' 1.44 MB floppies (after anupdate in August 1989). It was also the first to come standard with aninternal hard drive and internal fans to provide the cooling CompactMacs needed but which were loathed by Steve Jobs. It was no accidentthat the fans were added to the Mac after Jobs was pushed out ofApple.
3. Mac SE/30 (1989)
The pinnacle of the Compact Macs - at least until its reincarnationas the iMac series. The SE/30 was the first Compact Mac to comestandard with the SuperDrive PC-compatible high-density floppy, andmany are still in action as web servers because of their power in asmall size. Don't expect to find one for a steal on eBay . . . they remain very much in demand.
4. Mac IIci (1989)
Incredibly expandable, this machine is sought after by Vintage Macenthusiasts to this day. I forgot how important this machine wasuntil Fearless LeaderDan Knight reminded me. Although it came before the storied MacIIfx, arguably it could be beefed up to the point where it was aspowerful as one. Unlike the Mac SE/30, which was unable to use 32-bitaddressing without the help of a CDEV, the IIci was 100% 32-bit clean, which made its useful lifespangreater than almost any other Mac of its era.
5. Mac IIfx (1990)
The 'Bull Goose Mac', as the editors of the original MacintoshBible put it. A mighty monster with a mighty price tag, ($10,000!)with lots and lots of muscle - sort of the 'muscle car' of Macs. It hasits faults, that's why it's both a Golden Apple and a Second Class Mac. The black SCSIterminator that is necessary to keep the SCSI chain working is almostimpossible to replace, the RAM it requires is rare, and the Mac OSnever got the tweaks it needed to take advantage of the additionalhelper processors designed into the logic board. But it took thepinnacle of the Quadras to beat this computer as it arrived out of thebox. A IIci might be able to beat it with lots and lots of tweaks andupgrades - upgrades that are also increasingly rare now.
6.PowerBook 170 (1991)
The PowerBook 170 was the top model from the first generation ofPowerBooks. The PowerBook 100 wassort of neither flesh nor fish nor fowl, having been manufactured forApple by Sony. Many people loved it though and still do. However, Ilove the Cupertino-originated PowerBooks. The trackball was made ofwin, and the PB 170 was powerful enough to be used as more than just a'basic portable' model.
7. Quadra 700 (1991)
The first Quadra (along with the huge Quadra 900). Also the first with the MacChord instead of the Mac ding at startup. The 68040 was one hell of achip. Too bad there was never a Mac with an '060. (I seem to rememberthe '060 made it into the Amiga.)
8.PowerBook Duo 210 (1992)
It was the Duo Series that werethe truly revolutionary PowerBooks. Slim, slick, powerful, with areally nifty dock to turn your road warrior lappie into a very capabledesktop. Apple got it right with the Duo.
This makes the MacBookAir particularly disappointing, because there is no way to turnthat machine into something more functional. There should have been anAirDock sold with every MacBook Air, giving it more ports and anoptical drive. For the 'elegance factor' perhaps such a dock would bewireless, with some sort of high-security wireless link instead of acable or a docking port. Apple didn't do this with the MacBook Air, andthat's why I think it may end up a potential Road Apple down theline.
9. Mac LC III/Performa 450 (1993)
10. LC III+/Performa 460(1993)
The LC series was a good idea but didn't live up to its potentialuntil these lovely machines came out. I'm a bit prejudiced in that thePerforma 460 was my first color Mac. It even had enough muscle to runPhotoshop 5.5! It was also a precursor of things to come with Macdesign. The little wonder weighs only 8 pounds and is only 3' tall. Itwas the most compact desktop Mac ever, up until the Mac mini. They loved these littlemachines in the schools, and for good reason: The low profile madethese machines easy to bolt down to desks with a couple of strips ofmetal.
11. Mac Quadra 630, especially thosewith DOS compatibility cards (1993)
In the bad old days, when Apple was the red headed stepchild ofcomputing and Microsoft/PC fanboyism intersected with real lifecircumstances that kept the company on death watch, there were oftenattempts to make Macs play nice with the DOS and Windows world. Thisstarted with the MacCharlie device that fit certaincompact Macs and continued right until Apple's switch to Intel/x86architecture allowed for dual-boot Macs and running PC operatingsystems like Windows and Linux in virtualization.
The Quadra 630 allowed the option of a processor card that addedfirst a genuine Intel 486DX2/66, then later the cheaper Cyrix 486/70.The computer had its faults: a 68LC040 instead of a full-fledged 68040,but that could be remedied. And the DOS compatibility card took upresidence not only in the CPU socket, but the Processor Direct Slot aswell. Still, pretty amazing to have something that could run DOSalongside the Mac OS. I'm guessing that when you consider the era, italso ran Windows 3.11 and Windows 95.
12. Quadra 660av (1993)
13. Quadra 840av (1993)
Although Amiga used DSPs (digital signal processors) to beef upprocessing power and offload certain graphic and sound intensivefunctions, this was the first time it was tried in the Mac. Althoughweak by today's standards, the AV Quadras were full of win in theirday. I also think the 660av was one sleek and sexy design. I have afatal weakness for the 'flat' Macs. The Quadra 840av, unfortunately,uses the Quadra 800 case, adesign so bad it merited being ranked as a Road Apple.
14. PowerBook Duo 2300c(1995)
The pinnacle of Duo-dom. Color screen, PowerPC processor, and theconvertible pleasure of the Duo experience. I don't know why thiswasn't carried over into future PowerBooks. It would have been nice tosee G3 and G4 Duo lappies.
NewtoneMate 300 (1997)
No, it's not technically a Mac, which is why I'm not assigning it anumber. However, it was incrediblyahead of its time and displayed the first hint of the designphilosophy that would explode into the iMac, G3 and G4 minitower, andiBook lines. In fact, this durable little machine, designed for K-12students and only available through Apple Education channels, wasso tough it could survive drops and live to fight another day. It alsoprophesies the eventual rise of the netbook, a trend Apple has yet tojump into. I think if Apple revived a similar form factor and basicallyadapted the iPhone/iPod touch build of Mac OS X to it, they mighthave a netbook for the ages.
15. Power Mac 9600 (1997)
After moving from the knuckle-busting case of the 9500 and sporting6 PCI slots (one must be populated with a video card), this was amachine made for such rarefied applications as AVID and ProTools mediaworkstations. For example, I saw one of these as late as 2003 as theheart of a professional recording studio, its 5 'free' slots crammedwith DSP cards and handling 30 tracks of digital audio. A truly meanmachine, one that should have the same legendary status as theIIfx.
16. iMac Bondi Blue (1998)
This was the computer that saved Apple. There were better, faster,and more useful iMacs, but this was the first, the one that broke Appleout of its doldrums, resurrected the Compact Mac heritage, and put thephrase there's nostep three! into the geek vocabulary.
17. Mac G3 Yosemite(Blue & White) (1999)
Just like the Bondi Blue iMac, this reinvented the Power Macintosh.And indeed, there were better Power Mac minitowers that emergedafterward, but the Yosemite was the first. It introduced FireWire,albeit in a rather crippled and ineffective way. The version 1Yosemites were borderline Road Apples, thanks to a broken IDE bus.The puck mouse sucked, andit used the iMac keyboard, which I love but a lot of people hate with apassion. But they were revolutionary in their own way. And they stilllook beautiful and new, even to this day.
18. PowerBook G3 Pismo (2000)
The PowerBook would never be this good again, in my humble opinion.Some cite the aluminum PowerBook G4 as being close to or even betterthan the Black 'Books, but I still say that these elegant, beautifulmachines were nothing short of awesome with their incredibly beautifulLCD screens. The Pismo finally lived up to the promise of the G3PowerBook, added FireWire, and got rid of the last vestiges of 'OldWorld' Mac architecture.
19. iBook SE (FireWire)(2000)
This Special Edition iBook was of the generation that added FireWireto the groundbreaking design of the 'Clamshell' iBook, and this modelraised the ante by adding a more powerful chip. Theoretically, youcould use it to edit DV video. It might not be as muscular as the 500MHz G3 Pismo, but in its day it was the economy choice.
However, there is nothing that causes a Mac technician to break intocold sweats more than the prospect of upgrading a Clamshell. Thesefirst iBooks were celebrated for their durability, but the durabilitycame with a price: the guts of the Clamshell are buried deep withinlayers of metal shielding and high-impact plastic. Tearing it down is ascary job; putting it back together right is even worse. Still, theseare sweet machines. And cute, too. A little on the heavyset side, butcute.
20.iMac G4 (iLuxo)(2002)
Yes, everyone loved theCube, however, it was overpriced and underpowered. It was the iMacG4 with its Luxolamp-like monitor arm that people bought and loved. Beautiful design,beautiful functionality. However, it's best to leave Mac OS X10.4.x on this machine, even if you can hack it to install Mac OS X10.5, because you run into video problems with Leopard.
21. Power Mac G4 (Mirror Doors)(2002)
The penultimate translucent Power Macs, and also the very last Macthat could boot into Mac OS 9.2.2 natively. They were followed bythe last translucentPower Macs, which could not boot 9.2.2 but had the higher-speedFireWire 800 ports. However, these machines could use Mac OS 9.2.2 asthe 'Classic' compatibility layer, just like the rest of the newerPower Macs. These machines all can officially run Leopard, which ismore than can be said for my dual-processor Gig-E G4.
Steve's Gathering Golden Apple Mac Os Download
22. Mac mini G4 (2005)
The Mac mini was a bold play that should have been bolder: It shouldhave been priced into the bargain basement, not stopping at $499 forthe entry level version. By this time, PC makers like Dell andeMachines were pushing cellar dwellers cheaper than this - andincluding monitor, mouse, and keyboard with them.
The Mac mini G4 is pretty good in spite of the timidity with whichApple pushed it. It's downright dinky . . . this marvelous'bitty box' is thedimensions of five stacked CD jewel boxes. The G4 version had dedicatedVRAM and a ATI Radeon 9200 video chip separate from the logic boardchipset. After Apple adapted the design to the Intel Core architecture,it began to use built-in video from the Core chipset and take systemRAM for video.
Mac mini stomps all over VIA's EPIA platform, becauseit's just plain better. Better chips, better components. Unfortunatelythat edge is not obvious to the average low-end computer buyer. IfApple wants to save the mini (and I'm not sure they do) they are goingto have to price it way, way down to compete with netbooks and EPIA. Ofcourse, that might mean going to the same crappy parts that you see inthe ultra low end of PCs.
23. 20' Core Duo iMac (2006)
Apple made its first step into the wider world of the Intel x86architecture with this iMac. Yonah was a big step forward, although itwould take Core 2 Duo (Merom and after) with its 64-bit architectureand higher efficiency to really meet the full potential of the chips.After the disappointing G5 microprocessors, Intel Inside was a breathof fresh air.
24.iPhone 3G/iPod touch (2008)
Like the eMate, the iPhone isn't a Mac; it's a completely differentanimal. However, it does run a build of OS X, and it augurs well forthe future of Apple's low end - perhaps even an eventual Apple netbook.A convergence device about the size of an eMate with a beefed upversion of the iPhone's OS running under the hood with built-in 3Gwireless next to WiFi and Bluetooth would be nothing short ofawesome.
The iPod touch, which does nothave the 3G wireless and the lock-in to AT&T's wireless service, isa great alternative for those who prefer other wireless carriers and/ordon't want the single point of failure that a multifunction handhelddevice represents.
25. MacBook White (Nvidia Graphics)(2009)
And now we come to the newest Golden Apple, the white MacBook withNvidia graphics. In many respects this is actually a better machinethan the higher-end unibody aluminum MacBooks.
- It uses the Digital Rights Manglement-free mini-DVI port ratherthan the DRM-ladenDisplayPort.
- It has a FireWire port, and the aluminum MacBooks don't.
- Although it actually got a raw processor speed downgrade ratherthan a speed bump, as you would expect in an enhanced model, the newprocessor may make up for the speed downgrade in efficiency, and it gota faster frontside bus, making the downgrade a wash.
The DRM problems hurt everyone, as was shown with new restrictionson viewing iTunes video content on 'unsupported' monitors andprojectors. As Free Software theorist Richard Stallman correctly pointsout, computers with these kinds of 'protections' are defective bydesign and in essence transfer control of your computer from you, theuser and owner, to the Big Media consortiums known as the RecordingIndustry Association of America (RIAA) and the Motion PictureAssociation of America (MPAA). The industry-hated 'analog hole' thattheoretically allowed copyrighted material to be captured in anunprotected form is 'patched' - at least in the industry'sviewpoint - by the chips that control DisplayPort. This may be the verylast Mac made that does not have DisplayPort, and that alone makes itworthy even at this early stage of the game of the Golden Appledesignation.
One suggestion for use of USB 2.0 devices with this machine: Investin a powered hub, because this Mac can only provide the full 500mA ofpower to one high-powered USB device at a time. Put another USB deviceon a bus-powered hub, or even on the second USB port, and you will onlybe able to get 100mA out of it. Use a powered hub, one with a plug-in'wall wart' power supply, and you will likely have the workaround youneed.
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