RETRO COMPUTING

And One Mouse to Rule Them All

By Tom Owad

Illustration by Dustin Amery Hostetler / Upso.org

How Tom tames his computers.

1. HP Scanjet with automatic document feeder

2. PowerBook G4 Titanium (display broken off in mishap)

3. PowerBook G4 12" Aluminum

4. Dell UltraSharp 2001FP 20.1-inch LCD

5. Color Classic (running System 7)

6. FingerWorks TouchStream LP keyboard

7. Acer Wireless ADB keyboard

8. RackMac TZ (running Mac OS 9)

9. GatorBox LocalTalk-to-Ethernet adapter (hidden from view)

10. Replica I (a replica of the Apple I, hidden from view)

11. Apple IIGS (with all the extras)

The computers are stacking up. They’re on my desk, behind my desk, in the attic, in the basement, in the garage. Ideally, I’d like to have one monitor, one keyboard, and one mouse on my desk, with all my computers hooked up through them.

What’s the most efficient setup for a workspace with a range of equipment spanning 30 years of technology? I began with a 1970s DEC desk with a built-in, three-foot rack. Desks like these are hard to find nowadays. It’s much easier to find self-standing, three-foot racks, which can then be crafted into a custom desk.

This desk’s rack contains my Apple IIGS, Replica I (an Apple I replica), RackMac TZ, and GatorBox LocalTalk-to-Ethernet adapter. Sitting atop the desk is a SCSI-based HP Scanjet with Automatic Document Feeder, which I use to scan documentation on the RackMac. The two PowerBooks and the Color Classic are on the desk.

In trying to find a monitor that would work with all these, I came up with the Dell UltraSharp 2001FP 20.1-inch LCD. This display supports DVI, VGA, S-Video, and composite video. Switching modes occurs at the push of a button, so it’s easy to rotate through multiple systems. The 12" PowerBook connects via DVI, the RackMac via VGA, and the Apple IIGS via composite. I access the PowerBook through the Mac OS X server tools and have a serial interface, via USB adapter, for the Replica I, which allows me to control it through a terminal window on my 12" PowerBook. The Color Classic, of course, has its own internal display.

This approach eliminates the need for a desk full of monitors, but it leaves the keyboard and mouse problem. I use a FingerWorks TouchStream LP keyboard/gesture pad with my PowerBook. Since I connect to the Replica I via a terminal session, this also works with the Replica I, but leaves me with three ADB systems needing keyboards and mice. ADB switches are extremely difficult to find. In lieu of this, I decided to use infrared keyboards. I chose an Acer Wireless ADB keyboard.

I connected an infrared receiver to each of the ADB Macs and positioned these on my desk. I stow the keyboard in an open slot in the rack. When I want to work with any of the ADB Macs, I slide the TouchStream aside and pull out the Acer Wireless. Communication from the keyboard to the receiver is one way, so if I have all three machines on at once, all three will receive the same keyboard and mouse input. I keep a piece of tinfoil handy to cover the other receivers, if more than one is active.

With one display, a handful of video switches, and infrared keyboards, there are very few computers that cannot be incorporated into this setup.

Tom Owad ([email protected]) is a Macintosh consultant in York, Pa., and editor of Applefritter (applefritter.com). He is the author of Apple I Replica Creation (Syngress, 2005).