Mac Folklore Radio

Hosted by Derek

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138

Latest episode

May 2026

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About the show

Comfort food for Macintosh users of the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s.

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60 recent

May 21, 202644 min

Bill Atkinson (1951-2025)

Original text from The Complete HyperCard Handbook (Expanded 2nd Edition with HyperCard 1.2 supplement!!!) Open HyperCard Stacks with just 512K RAM via HyperDA. If copying HyperCard was such an obvious idea, where did all the AmigaVision productions go? What happened to all the Asymmetrix Toolbook-ware? David Greelish “Before Macintosh” interviews with Bill Atkinson: Parts 1, 2, 3 Make beautiful Atkinson-dithered images with HyperDither, GraphicConverter (Effects => Dithering => Atkinson) or in your browser with DitherIt! More than you could ever possibly want to read about dithering and an undergrad lecture on Floyd-Steinberg dithering. Bill Atkinson’s Rolodex, a.k.a. Casady & Greene QuickDEX (v1.4, II). Bill Atkinson’s 10 Rules for Making Interfaces More Human Quotes from: Bill Atkinson Presents HyperCard at the Apple Corps of Dallas (1987) Legacy of HyperCard Event (2017) HyperCard Training Solutions (1987) Bill Atkinson on PhotoCard and HyperCard at the Eyeo Conference (2013) Bill and Andy Hertzfeld demonstrating oldmac stuff at the Computer History Museum (2010) David Pogue hosts “The Macintosh at 20” (2004) Triangulation Interview with Bill Atkinson, 2016 (part 1, 2) Triangulation Interview with Atkinson, 2018 (part 1, 2) CHM - Bill Atkinson on how Apple obviously doesn’t do user testing anymore (2022) CHM - The Macintosh at 40 Churchill Club - Steve Jobs’ Legacy (2011) Asymmetrix Toolbook Demo - Computer Chronicles on Windows 3.0 (1990) Hackers: Wizards of the Electronic Age - “People don’t read encyclopedias cover to cover. It just doesn’t happen! But …” Designing Interactions interviews: Bill Atkinson Unused 1984 Macintosh commercials: “I think of myself as a cross between an artist and an inventor” R.I.P. uliwitness, a.k.a. Uli Kusterer, longtime Macintosh programmer and HyperCard enthusiast. We will miss you too. Fun fact: I recognized Uli’s name when it popped up in the podcast Discord. Back in the late 1990s a friend and I used “Uli’s Panes” as the playlist interface for a classic MacOS MOD player. Remember Uli, HyperCard and Bill with: Myst Reverse Engineering Write Your Own XCMD with CodeWarrior Other HyperCard streams hypercard.org Stacksmith Classic MacOS programming streams “Why programming sucks and how to make it better” (SwiftConf 2015) with references to what made HyperCard a uniquely intuitive development environment. Get a load of Uli’s HyperCard stack icon shirt! Partial HyperCard stack file format documentation Uli’s Moose, an updated version of The Talking Moose for classic MacOS. Uli told me he tried to submit a new version of Mac OS X to the App Store but it was rejected several times and he eventually gave up. Thanks, Apple!

March 20, 20262 min

MFR Housekeeping, Spring 2026

Order David Pogue’s “Apple: The First 50 Years”. Watch the livestreamed Apple 50th event at the Computer History Museum.

January 14, 202619 min

KON and BAL's Puzzle Page II (1992, 1993)

Original text by Konstantin Othmer and Bruce Leak for Apple’s develop! magazine, December 1992, March 1993, and June 1993. Apple’s MicroBug documentation: Technote TN1136. Running MacsBug on an alternate monitor: “Using Touch and Go Breakpoints with Two Monitors”. Spaceward Ho! for iPad and Classic MacOS. Original product website (broken). Watch a Let’s Play of Spaceward Ho! by Effing Controller who also has hilarious playthroughs of F/A-18 Hornet and Marathon. See also: Debugging Macintosh Software with Macsbug by Konstantin Othmer and Jim Straus.

December 15, 202515 min

Frank Casanova Interview - Maclopedia (1996)

Original text from Maclopedia. While I wasn’t looking, Frank Casanova parted ways with Apple in 2024. Whoops. John Buck’s book on Apple’s Advanced Technology Group, Inventing the Future, is worth your while. John is also on the fediverse. Stick around and you might pick up some extra dirt. Unedited versions of the Macintosh Quadra 700/900 launch, the Macintosh IIfx launch, and the WWDC 2004 announcement of QuickTime 7’s support for H.264.

December 8, 20256 min

Steve Hayman - Great Idea (2025)

Original text by Steve Hayman. NeXT Mail clips from the NeXT launch event in Tokyo and the NeXTSTEP Release 3.0 demo VHS tape.

November 20, 202518 min

Jecel on the Unitron 512 Macintosh Clone (1998)

Original text by Jecel Mattos de Assumpçao Jr, 1998. Rainer Brockerhoff, who also participated in the Unitron 512 project, provides additional background at Low End Mac. More about Brazil’s reserved market policy, a.k.a. the National Policy of Informatics. More about Jecel’s projects in this 2019 presentation about SmallTalk-oriented hardware and the Merlintec website. Our Friend The Computer discusses the political and financial circumstances surrounding the Unitron 512. As so often happens in weird corners of the Internet, people have somehow obtained copies of Unitron’s ROMs and put them under the microscope.

October 21, 202518 min

Power 100 Review and Mac OS Clone Commentary (1995)

Original text by Tim Warner, Macworld, August 1995. Additional clone cancellation fallout information from Macworld, October 1997. Original Power Computing magazine ad. Clearly the Mac OS clone program failed due to the absence of discount furniture warehouse-style radio advertising. Gary Davidian: “As far as I know, nobody ever made a CHRP machine.” “Mr. OS/2” David Barnes talking about IBM’s intention to support Mac applications running on top of Workplace OS. IBM’s repeated attempts to run all existing OSes on top of one OS and one hardware architecture lead to the incorrect assumption that PowerPC Macintoshes would run DOS and Windows right out of the box. Insignia Solutions’ SoftWindows marketing department did what came naturally. The Motorola StarMax 4000-series motherboard, designed and manufactured entirely by Apple. Jean-Louis Gassee: “We used PReP as the basis for the design of the BeBox…”

September 20, 202524 min

KON and BAL's Puzzle Page (1992, 1994)

Original text by Konstantin Othmer and Bruce Leak for Apple’s develop! magazine, May 1992 and June 1994. “These problems are supposed to be tough. If you don’t get a high score, at least you’ll learn interesting Macintosh trivia.” More about Bruce Leak’s time on the original QuickTime team. Gary Davidian PRAM stories from his CHM oral history (video, transcript). See also: Debugging Macintosh Software with Macsbug by Konstantin Othmer and Jim Straus.

September 1, 202515 min

Glider 4.0 Reviews (1991)

Game Hall of Fame text by Steven Levy, Macworld January 1992. Review of Glider 4.0 by Toni Thompson, Macworld February 1992. I wonder if that’s the Toni Thompson who did the graphics for the Apple II version of Temple of Apshai? John Calhoun interview by Richard Moss at MacScene. Buy Richard’s book, The Secret History of Mac Gaming. Tanara Kuranov, a.k.a. Gamer Mouse covers games that helped make the Mac (and only the Mac) special. Glider Pro and Glider 4 playthroughs.

August 13, 202511 min

The Desktop Critic Secret Reviewer's Notebook (1996)

Original text by David Pogue, Macworld June 1996. The database review mentioned in this article might be one of these two. Review of the hilariously terrible Brother HL-8 printer and two (yes, two) attempts at Macintosh drivers for the HL-8. Review of the smoking hot Envisio Notebook Display Adapter (1992). Audio version. “If you’ve worked for the company, can you write the review? No.” Pogue found himself in a similar conundrum. His review of Finale 1.0 included the disclaimer, “Since writing this review in September 1988, David Pogue has become a paid consultant for Coda Music Software.” One reader applauded Macworld for this disclosure but still argued it was a conflict of interest. Pogue stated, “My future reviews for Macworld will not include music software,” though that was not to last very long. See his 1994/1995 reviews of AutoScore, Practica Musica, MOTU’s Performer, and Opcode Vision. I don’t recall and was unable to dig up any rebuttal ads targeting David Pogue. If anyone out there is in the know and feels like naming names, drop me a line and I’ll update this episode. David, are you reading this? :-)