KFest continues on, but it’s getting harder to post timely updates to A2Central. Personally, I’m having such a great time that it’s extremely difficult to pull myself away to put the day into words. By the time I do, it’s very late, or early, depending on how you want to look at it and I really just want to get some sleep. Selfish of me, I know. Sorry. ?
I forgot to mention a couple of things yesterday. First, Hackfest started Thursday morning and will wind up on noon Saturday. My money is on Margaret Anderson, who seems to have a perpetual knack for winning the event.
And how I could forget to mention this, I’ll never know (sleep deprivation?) but James Littlejohn showed off his “Little Speedup” adapter. It’s an oscillator board that switches the Apple //c Plus from 4MHz to 8MHz. Currently in prototype, the product is undergoing design refinement and should be available from Reactive soon. The Little Speedup will be available in kit and assembled versions. Prices haven’t been determined yet.
The “worst kept secret, secret product in development that everybody secretly wants” prize will probably go to Tony Diaz who is busy working on an internal RAM and IDE interface for memory-expansion //c and //c Plus computers. The card is expected to have 512K onboard, and feature a standard IDE port that will allow the user flexibility in deciding what storage solution they want to use, ie. a 2.5 hard disk or compact flash. The project is still in it’s early stages, but Tony hopes to have prototypes out to testers by the end of the year.
Today’s sessions kicked off with Andrew Roughan providing a walk through of the Marinetti Open Source Project (MOSP). Andrew is the MOSP maintainer, and one of our international KFest participants hailing all the way from Sydney, Australia. Powerpoint slides from Andrew’s presentation are available here.
Next up, Austin Phelps demonstrated medical imaging technology using the open source OS X application Osirix. We wrapped the morning with Tony Diaz hosting the video presentation “Spam, The Documentary”.
Eric “Sheppy” Shepherd gave back to back entry-level presentations on ORCA, going over the basics of how to get started using ORCA. Perfect for the beginning GS/OS programmer.
Ryan Suenaga, with help from Carrington Vanston and Andy Molloy, recorded a “live in front of a studio audience” podcast that should be available from iTunes by the time you read this. Look for A2Unplugged show #0012.
Rounding out the afternoon, Michael Mahon gave a presentation on his sensational AppleCrate Eight-Voice Music Synthesizer.
Our evening activities revolved around more modern Apple topics. Rob Walch of Today in iPhone gave us a live, hands-on demo of the new Apple iPhone. He showed off it’s innovative new features and eye candy, leaving many of us wishing we had one. After that, several folks headed out to the local Apple Store to pick up supplies, buy gear and freak out The Guru with Apple II questions.
Thursday night (10-11pm) is our usual Krispy Kreme gathering, and Denny’s run — but both of those establishments were closed! Someone must have tipped them off that the unruly Apple II crowd was in town because they’re usually open during that time. We might try again on Friday.