Ever since I was first introduced to ResEdit on a Mac Plus, back in 1986, I've always loved computer sight-gags. One of the first things I did, when I made my first bootable Mac floppy disk, was to change the desktop pattern ("wallpaper," to Win-Doze users) to a brick wall. And I changed the message icons to look like "Bart the Beaver," the Los Angeles Unified School District Maintenance Branch mascot, and the garbage can to look like an Apple //c (I worked for the LAUSD Computer Repair department at the time, and would sometimes spend an entire day fixing one broken //c after another, knowing that the kids would find another way to break them.) My disk volume icons looked like flowchart symbols for disk drives (or more recently, like disk packs to fit an IBM "Merlin" mainframe disk drive, from the 1970s)
Ever since the USB "novelty" thumb-drives came on the market a few years ago, I've felt that the obvious one was sadly missing: a thumb drive designed to look like a 1970s-vintage mainframe disk pack, of the sort that might fit an IBM "Merlin" drive. Back then, a typical disk pack might have a dozen 14" aluminum platters, and it would be completely removable from the drive (and stored inside a plastic "pack cover," when not mounted). Seeing as how nobody else was making them, I decided to figure out a way to make my own. Here is the result, complete with a real USB flash drive, that retracts inside when not in use. And it's rather amusing to note that this tiny thumb-drive is about a 1/12 scale model of the real disk packs, but has about 10 times the maximum capacity.
Gears Inside
Here are some parody stickers from the front of my DOS/Linux dual-boot.
Icons and Splash Screen from my WinDoze box at work
I have to deal with WinDoze at work, but I don't have to like it. It can take me weeks to get a new WinDoze box "deranged" to suit my tastes, in part because if WinDoze were as well-protected against malware as it was against having its appearance subverted, it would be completely invulnerable to viral attack.
Above is a selection of just a few of my sight gag icons for WinDoze, and to the right is the splash screen from when I had an NT box (it's since been modified for XP).
Above is a selection of just a few of my sight gag icons for WinDoze, and to the right is the splash screen from when I had an NT box (it's since been modified for XP).
