This isn't just another box—it's a statement piece, designed to protect your most important gaming tools from loss, damage, and yes, even personal injury. (I'm looking at you, caltrops-in-disguise D4s!)

The Quest for the Perfect Case

I've spent years making dice cases, both my own designs and those from other creators. I felt that many laser-cut designs were inelegant due to their reliance on glue, and they often wasted material. On the other hand, many fully 3D-printed designs can be delicate.

I saw an opportunity to bring together the best of both worlds. My goal was to create something better: a case that was durable, material-efficient, and had a pop of style that 3D printing alone can't match.

The result is the Stratum Case. It uses a biodegradable, 3D-printed honeycomb core that is incredibly lightweight and strong. This core is then sandwiched between elegant cladding, creating a durable case that feels incredible in your hand and secures your dice for the journey ahead. As a maker, I'm also thrilled that this process allows me to dream up endless combinations by mixing and matching materials. I can't wait to roll out a wide array of new styles.

Meet the Editions

The Stratum case is more than just a container; it's a portable dice-rolling tray. The soft interior lining cushions your polyhedral treasures, and when it's time to pack up, super-strong magnets create a satisfyingly secure seal for transport in any backpack or bag.

I'm launching with two distinct lines:

Core Editions

First up, the Core edition cases feature a Gothic Deep Blue core, crafted from durable, eco-friendly PLA. Choose your alignment:

• LIGHT (Oak): Clad in laser-engraved Oak and lined with a sophisticated Sky Blue leatherette.

• DARK (Walnut): Clad in laser-engraved Walnut and lined with a luxurious Turquoise leatherette.

Limited Editions

Forged from rare materials for a legendary look. These editions feature unique acrylics and vibrant linings. Created in small batches, no two are exactly alike. When they’re gone, they’re gone! The first two are:

• FEYWILD: A satin-rainbow core is magically fused with rainbow-elixir acrylic and lined with a stunning rainbow-leopard print leatherette.

• ARBOREA: A silk-copper core is protected by woodlands-potion acrylic and lined with a classic rawhide leatherette.

Level Up Your Game Night

The Stratum Case is designed to be a unique, thoughtful gift for the tabletop gamer in your life. Or, why not treat yourself before your next epic campaign begins?

Ready to give your dice the home they deserve? Click the link below to see all the options and grab yours from my Etsy shop today!

Click Here to Visit the Etsy Listing!

What's Next?

This is just the beginning! Watch for announcements for more Limited Editions and the new Premium and Artisan lines, where I’ll be using exotic materials and time-consuming techniques to take these cases to a whole other level.

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Instructions

Dots points are awarded for these achievements:

Greenies, or hitting a green-in-regulation, can be a game to itself when no players go on an adventure in a round:

• On a par-3 hole, you earn a greenie by hitting the green in one stroke.

• On a par-4 hole, by hitting the green in two or fewer strokes.

• On a par-5 hole, by hitting the green in three or fewer strokes.

• If two or more players hit a Greenie on the same hole the point goes to the player closest to the hole. 

• If the player goes over par while putting they lose the point.

Pinnies are won when a player sinks a long putt — measured in flag lengths. The longer the sunk putt, the more points. 

Sandies, Woodies, Splashies, and Scruffies all score the same. A player wins the points if they come back to par or better after their adventure.

A hole-in-one is always worth four points.

Points:

• Greenie — Hit the closest shot to the pin and make par:

  • 1 point for a green-in-regulation

  • 2 points for birdie

  • 3 points for eagle

  • 4 points for a hole-in-one

• Sandie — Hit a shot in the sand and still make par

  • 1 point for par

  • 2 points for birdie

  • 3 points for eagle

• Woodie — Hit a shot in the woods and still make par

  • 1 point for par

  • 2 points for birdie

  • 3 points for eagle

• Splashie — Hit a shot in the water and still make par

  • 1 point for par

  • 2 points for birdie

  • 3 points for eagle

• Scruffie — Hit a shot in a cart path and still make par

  • 1 point for par

  • 2 points for birdie

  • 3 points for eagle

• Pinnie — Sink a putt longer than the flag pole

  • 1 point for 1 flagstick of putt distance

  • 2 points for 2 flagsticks of putt distance

  • 3 points for 3 flagsticks of putt distance

To keep it really interesting agree that each point is worth a quarter, or more if you dare!

About Savage Golf Dots

Each game set includes:

• 16 Dots game pieces: 9 Greenies, 1 Pinnie, 1 Sandie, 1 Scruffie, 1 Splashie, 1 Woodie, and 2 universal game pieces.

  • Each Dots game piece has a QR code that loads these instructions when scanned by a phone camera.

• 5 metal clips that players can attach to their bag, cart, etc. to keep track of their Dots.

• 1 burlap bag with a drawstring for storing the game between rounds.

Each Savage Golf Dots game piece has four holes that correspond to the number of points earned. Every player can thread the pieces they win onto a hook hanging from their bag. It’s easy to see the total number of points at a glance and the game pieces are a fun reminder how each point was won. When the game is over all the pieces can be stored on one hook.

Savage Golf Dots game pieces are made with environmentally-friendly cherry hardwood. Sustainably made in the USA, this game is made to last for years.

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Tag smilingsavagestudios on Instagram with your Savage Golf Dots pictures!

This piece is made up of single layer of hardwood and acrylic intricately pieced together to reimagine the motherboard of an Apple IIe platinum computer. Half is a black acrylic which when etched exposes an inner white core, and half is a cherry hardwood etched with details of the traces and components.

To make this, I started by taking high definition photos of the Apple IIe motherboard, which I etched onto the wood and acrylic of the piece to highlight the details of the chips and circuit board.

Buy now on Etsy

This artwork is sized to look great on your desk, shelf, or wall. The overall dimensions are 7 5/8"-inches (194 mm) wide by 10 1/8-inches (257 mm) tall and 1/4-inches (6 mm) deep.

This art is precision laser etched and each piece features beautiful, unique woodgrains that ensure no two will be exactly alike. All the wood is biodegradable, sustainably, and ethically sourced, and coated with a furniture-grade semi-gloss finish. The art is 100% hand-crafted in the Arlington, VA USA.

I’m pleased to introduce a new member to the family of artworks based on the classic Apple IIe “platinum” series of computers from the 80s and 90s.

This piece is made up of two layers of acrylic and wood pressed together to beautifully recreate the central facets of the motherboard. The base layer is a green acrylic which when etched with the traces exposes an inner white core. The top layer is cast in wood etched with details from the taller elements of the board, such as the chips, including the classic 65C02 CPU. All of this is wrapped in a custom walnut plywood frame.

Buy now on Etsy

To make this, I started by taking high definition photos of the Apple IIe motherboard, which I etched onto the various wood and acrylic layers of the piece to highlight the details of the chips and circuit board.

This artwork is sized to look great on your desk, shelf, or wall. The overall dimensions are 7 7/8"-inches (200mm) wide by 10 3/8-inches (264mm) tall and 3/8-inches (10 mm) deep.

This art is precision laser etched and each piece features beautiful, unique woodgrains that ensure no two will be exactly alike. All the wood is biodegradable, sustainably, and ethically sourced, and coated with a furniture-grade semi-gloss finish. The art is 100% hand-crafted in the Arlington, VA USA.

Here are some other photos and a video.

As I've been restoring classic computers I'm struck by the beauty of the circuitry design inside the cases. This art celebrates one of the longest and best selling computers of the 80s, the Apple IIe. This piece is based specifically on the "platinum" series of Apple IIe which was manufactured from 1987 - 1993.

To make this, I started by taking high definition photos of the Apple IIe motherboard, which I etched onto the various wood and acrylic layers of the piece to highlight the details of the chips and circuit board.

This piece has a layer of cherry hard wood  that is laser-etched and laser-cut to showcase the chips and prominent features of the board, which is then placed delicately on top of a laser-etched acrylic which is edge lit to reveal the traces and base layer of the board.

Then I wrapped the layers in a box of walnut plywood, and sparing no detail, even the interior frame is high-quality poplar plywood -- meaning that it looks almost as good on the inside as the outside. Likewise, the front is finished in a poplar plywood that is titled with an etched logo of the Apple IIe, the years of the platinum series, and numbered to reflect that this is a limited first edition of ten.

At nearly 3-inches deep the piece is designed to stand securely by itself on a desk or shelf, and the high-quality materials ensure the piece can be enjoyed for years to come. The overall dimensions are 7 7/8"-inches (200mm) wide by 10 1/2-inches (267mm) tall and 2 7/8-inches (73mm) deep.

The edge-lighting electronics are powered by either three AA batteries (included), or via a micro-USB port accessible in the back, and are controlled with an included remote control. I love setting the LEDs to illuminate the traces in white or green — though it looks great in any highlight color and can be set to cycle through all the colors.

This art is precision laser etched and each piece features beautiful, unique woodgrains that ensure no two will be exactly alike. All the wood is coated with a furniture-grade semi-gloss finish. I sign the back cover on the inside. The art is 100% hand-crafted in the Arlington, VA USA. All the wood is biodegradable, sustainably, and ethically sourced. 

Buy now on Etsy

These have been a real labor of love for me and I hope the folks that end up with them find them to be a great addition to their collection.

Over time I plan to make different series in other materials and sizes, and different limited runs of art to celebrate other classic computers.

Here are some other photos and video.

I’ve been restoring my collection of classic Macintoshes, and have been replacing the spinning hard drives with BlueSCSI. I have tried various ways of mounting the BlueSCSI inside a Macintosh SE and SE/30 and designed a bracket which can be easily created with a laser cutter.

The bracket is sized to attach into the expansion bay door so the BlueSCSI SD card is easily removable. On the inside, there are holes to mount the BlueSCSI board, and I’ve found the placement to be ideal for the drive ribbon cable.

You can download the SVG files for free from my Github. I hope you have fun making your own and I’d love to see what you create!

Download SVG from Github

Personally, for sort of steampunk look, I enjoy making brackets in Poplar hardwood and Cherry veneer. Poplar has shades of creamy whites with yellow grays, and looks great next to the platinum-colored Macintosh SE series — and Cherry adds a gorgeous pop of color. Finished with tiny brass screws to secure both the BlueSCI board and the bracket to the Macintosh, it’s exactly the right touch of class — especially if you have one of the “rare” cases with signatures inside, like me. (I kid, of course you do!)

I have these on my Etsy store if you’d like one, and thanks!

Buy now on Etsy

Brackets are 100% hand-crafted in the USA on biodegradable, sustainably and ethically sourced wood. Brackets are precision laser etched and feature beautiful, unique woodgrains that ensure no two will be exactly alike. Each bracket comes with four (4) #3 x 1/4” brass wood screws in an eco-friendly natural burlap drawstring bag.

For use with:

• Macintosh SE

• Macintosh SE/30

• Macintosh SE FDHD

• Macintosh SE SuperDrive

My brackets do not come with a BlueSCSI, so make sure to get one of those if you don’t already have one. :-)

The Savage Golf game of Animals is an easy way to laugh more during your next round of golf.

Buy Savage Golf

Instructions

A player earns a tile for each corresponding in-game foible.

1. Frog - Water hazard

2. Camel - Sand trap

3. Snake - 3 or more putts

4. Bear - Hit a tree, or lost in the woods

5. Snowman - 8 stroke hole

Expansion pack:

1. Gopher - Lost ball

2. Alligator - The unplayable lie

3. Mouse - Not past the ladies’ tee

4. Gorilla - Drove the wrong fairway

5. Moose - Out of bounds

• Tiles move every time a new player’s action matches the description.

• A player may hold multiple tiles at once.

• A player holds a tile until another player earns it.

• A player may earn multiple tiles from the same stroke.

• The player with the fewest tiles at the end of the golf game, wins.

Variations

• Most tiles held at the end buys refreshments.

• Link tiles to monetary values and settle up end of round.

• Agree to settle up after 9 holes, but don’t reset tile ownership to keep up the pressure.

• Increase tile swapping by awarding tiles for nearly any malady: Perhaps agree to count puddles as water hazards, etc.

About Savage Golf animal tiles

Savage Golf is 100% hand-crafted in the USA on biodegradable, sustainably and ethically sourced wood.

Tiles are precision laser etched and feature beautiful, unique woodgrains that ensure no two sets will be exactly alike. Tiles are protected from the elements with a durable semi-gloss finish.

Each Savage Golf set includes five golf towel hooks to quickly secure pieces to player gear, and an eco-friendly natural burlap drawstring bag for storage.

Tile backs may be customized with a message or corporate logo to commemorate any special golf outing or event, and make unique gifts for the golfer in your life. Available on UncommonGoods and Etsy.

Buy Savage Golf

Buy Savage Golf expansion pack

Buy Savage Golf deluxe set

Photography

• I’m really happy with the results using the negative scanner at the library Makerspace, to be able to share new film photography…

  

• Plus, if you missed my latest gallery on train details, it’s worth a look. Those are all scans from the original negatives.

• Speaking of which, don’t get screwed and miss having your own Smiling Savage airplane tee-shirt, also available in long sleeve. ;-)

Music

• The latest entry in the Smiling Savage album creation podcast is out — even though I think the track has issues. Paid subscribers can also hear “Song 6” v1 — although they should skip this version.

• I’m liking the embedded player from Bandcamp, and thought “Digital Dreams… Just The Synths” by Sophie Rose was a great listen.

• Strange Interactions in the Night from Caracara is a great track off their new “New Preoccupations” album…

• This week’s earworm: Who Put You Up To This? by Sunflower Bean…

Retro Computing

• This is really cool: Plug & Play wifi to the internet for an old Mac, using these neat rs232 serial wifi modems, and a new software update. Here’s an explainer video. …

1. Or, instead of going to the internet from your old Mac, you could use the internet to load an old Mac. System7.app and macos8.app are great new work from Mihai Parparita. …

• This Apple I “Ultimate Collector’s Set” is very pretty.

• This Amiga-style USB keyboard — shown here in a tweet next to the new A500 mini is the perfect accessory for the mini…

• Dragon’s Lair was just ported to the Apple IIgs. You’ll need at least 2 MB of memory, ideally a hard drive, and an accelerator card.

• This origami model of a classic Mac is so cute!

• And here’s a great new hardware project for the Commodore 64 — the WiC64 is a wifi modem to download programs …

• An Apple II streaming music is something I hadn’t seen — or heard — before…

Gaming

• This 3D-printed case for the Mister FPGA multi system is really well thought out …

• Why yes, who hadn’t wondered if the PS5 was actually bigger than the Atari 5200…

• The Mobware minigame jam looked like fun, so, I entered it and created my first game for the Playdate.

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As the days went by my first thoughts were that I wouldn’t share this song as part of the album-creation process podcast — that I’d take it apart and put it back together into something different rather than show it as it is. Even today as I put together this episode I think there are parts that are starting to work, and parts that just need to be pulled out. That’s ok. This whole idea of podcasting about putting together a first album should cover the entire process, including mistakes and missteps.

To talk through this version of the song, I set out wanting to use voices and orchestral instruments to create atmosphere, put together with something more techno style to provide energy and drive. Trying it as an alternating verse chorus approach isn’t working that great in this draft. As you hear in the first transition from techno to atmosphere I started out looking at the juxtaposition as something to accentuate, and that’s not working for me.

By the third transition I think it goes better in part because there’s more a lot more going on by then — both with other layers of atmosphere, but also the beat doesn’t go away for long. There are parts here that will be fun to work with some more.

Constructing a song like this I’m reminded of working on a recent longer piece I wrote about the best computers for writing. As a piece there were enough different parts that the editing of it took a while, and ultimately changed the piece dramatically. Sometimes even great parts don’t make it to the final version, because they don’t help the piece be the best it can be.

I talked before about whether to keep writing songs or looping back to polish the song drafts I’ve already shared, and I’ve continued to err on the side of creating new work so that I don’t get bogged down. I think that’s been good given my inexperience with song writing and the software. There are still things that I’d like to achieve but don't know how. For example, recently I’ve had ideas for wanting to do quick bursts of guitar or drums as transitional elements.

A recent song I think that’s doing this well is Locus Laced by Sleigh Bells. I’m loving their use of the metal riff and slide, like you hear in the beginning of the song.

I’ve had trouble getting the results I want using samples, and like most things it will just take more practice. I think practicing those skills will be less frustrating in a green field of a new piece, rather than trying to nail an edit to an earlier draft.

This gallery is subset of the “trains” project focused on details in and around train yards.

There are more photos after the paywall for paid subscribers. If you liked these images be sure to check out my previous “workers” and “abandoned places” galleries and subscribe to get future projects delivered to you.

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Photography

• The first edition of the Smiling Savage airplane tee is now available…

• Don’t miss the write up of my first round of results trying out photo printing workflows with Red River photo papers in an Epson P800 and wood in the Glowforge.

• A toad! …

Music

• The latest entry in the Smiling Savage album creation podcast dropped. Paid subscribers can also hear Song 5 v1.

• This is a great version of Head On, by Ducks Ltd. …

• I’m looking forward to hearing more new Pete Yorn, here’s the first single, Ransom…

• This week’s earworm: Angelica by Wet Leg…

Retro Computing

• Now you can 3D print your own 2600Hz “Captain Crunch” whistle and party like you are hacking the phone system in the 70s. If that’s all gibberish to you here’s an explainer…

• A 2017 iMac 8,1 recently came into my retro collection and this High Sierra patcher came on to my radar. Really well done instructions.

• I also just found out about the cool airyxOS project, with the goal of the “finesse of macOS with the freedom of FreeBSD”

• The new Yellowstone Universal Disk Controller for Apple II computers looks fabulous. The latest creation from Big Mess O’ Wires, it supports every type of Apple disk drive ever made including 5.25”, 3.5”, Mac drives, and a hard drive via the BMOW’s Floppy Emu. I can’t wait to try one out.

• Disk Jockey was just released for modern Macs aiming to reduce the frustration of creating disk images for classic Macs.

• Here’s a great write-up about what should be in the “ultimate” System 7.1, and a related walk-through video…

• This HP16c calculator kit looks fabulous.

Gaming

• Bloom is a launch game for the forthcoming Playdate system, and looks really well done.

• Ha ha…

Writing

• Roman emperors are very metal and, Enjoy My Flames: On heavy metal’s fascination with Roman emperors, quantifies it. (Spotted from Arts & Letters Daily)

Electric Transportation

• This piece, How a Classic Car Goes Electric, doesn’t get very into the weeds, but says some nice things about the work of Austin’s Moment Motor Co., and has some very pretty pictures.

It makes sense, all were of the age where the capacitors in the power supplies would have stopped doing their jobs. Generally speaking I knew I wanted to learn how to replace the capacitors across the retro fleet, but the Apple II series of power supplies looked to me to be a daunting place to start since they each have about 15 capacitors. Since then I’ve obtained the soldering equipment and re-capping experience that I wouldn’t find this to be a very daunting job, but before all that I bought some replacement universal power supplies from ReActiveMicro. This week I finally got around to trying them out.

One of the things that originally attracted me to ReActive Micro’s “Universal PSU” as a solution was that the kit works across many different computers in the Apple II line up — including the IIgs and III — leaving my options open for how to use the kits. Also, I liked that the Universal PSU are constructed with a more modern, efficient, and cooler-running design than the original power supplies.

I started with the Apple IIe, not least of which because those computers are so easy to open up and troubleshoot. While I had it apart, I realized that this IIe is actually one of the last series made — often referred to as the “Platinum IIe,” which entered production in 1987 and ran all the way until 1993.

As a piece of trivia, the first Apple II was made all the way back in 1977 which means the Apple II series had an impressive 16-year production run. I find that fascinating! While, as of 2022, the iMac has existed as a product line for 23 years, and the iPod line for 20 years — those are marketing names for products that have evolved dramatically. By comparison, the Apple II series was the same CPU and the same basic architecture across the entire run.

And honestly, if I knew my Apple II history better I would have known at a glance. This computer has a number pad — which seems so common based on modern computer keyboards that I didn’t give it a second thought. But it wasn’t until the 1987 Plantinum revision that the Apple II series gained a built-in number pad. For most of the Apple IIe run there was just a standard QWERTY keyboard. Other, less noticeable enhancements to the Platinum revision include a standard 80-column card, stock 128Kb of RAM, and a reduced chip-count on the streamlined motherboard.

This particular one was made in 1992 according to the markings on the mother board, which I personally think is interesting because it means most of the classic Macintoshes I’ve been working on are actually older based on their date of manufacture.

The installation of the Universal PSU was super easy. Time spent from first opening up the computer to being done was under an hour, and could have taken less time. I spent some time stripping wires and testing with a multimeter that weren’t strictly necessary. (If anyone from ReActive Micro ever reads this, I think the Wiki instructions could be made a tad more clear for this newest revision PSU board because while clear in a photo, the written instructions say to place the neutral wire in the center, which is not correct.)

This IIe does not have any sort of upgraded video card, so I had to find an appropriate composite monitor in the collection. Luckily, I have an Apple Color Composite Monitor (dated 1985) which worked like a charm. I also don’t have any IIe 5.25” floppy drives in my collection— which seems like a shame given how great they sound. I do appear to have an Apple 5.25” drive that is daisy chained to an Apple 3.5” drive made for the Apple IIgs. With some tinkering, likely via the exciting new Yellowstone card, that route might work.

In any case, I already have the trusty Floppy Emu from Big Mess ‘O Wires which lets me run any floppy from an SD card and I am now definitely lusting after their Noisy Disk Mechanical Sounder. For that mater, while I’m dreaming about next steps it would be fun to also get an AppleSauce kit and make some real, physical Apple II floppies! Next though, I think I’ll get some other computers up and running.

After the paywall there are some more pictures for paid subscribers. Thanks for your support!

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In the last week I’ve scanned 35mm film negatives into 4K images at the library’s Maker lab, and processed the images for printing onto an Epson SureColor P800 and onto a Glowforge CO2 laser cutter.

So far, I’ve stubbornly held off on buying a Photoshop subscription but I have found the editing features of the nondescriptly named Photos, version 7.0 in macOS Monterey, to be adequate so far. For example, I’m happy with the adjustments to this airplane image for digital printing.

I processed four other images the same way and took them to Photoworks at Glen Echo to print in their digital darkroom. I got two paper sample packs from Red River Paper — the 9980 Photos Base Sample Kit and the 99832 Fine Art & Photography Discover Kit. Here are the results seen next to one another.

So far, I like the results on to UltraPro Satin 4.0 most, though I think the results on the matte are striking different than anything I’ve ever achieved in a traditional darkroom. I wanted to like the textured look of the canvas paper, but I don’t think much of this first attempt. In any case, I look forward to trying other papers in the coming weeks, and of course further perfecting digital printing technique.

While I was at Photoworks I also made several more prints in the traditional darkroom — detail shots of the mk1 Midget project car. I found it to be an efficient use of time to start in the darkroom, then shift to digital as the analog prints were in the wash and dryer.

I’ve also tried my first proof of printing one of the 4K images to wood via the Glowforge at the Arlington Central Library’s Maker Lab.

The wood was some plywood I got from Home Depot just before my Glowforge appointment. I wanted to print the first one at 8 x 10 size — the same as the other prints — just for conversation value. In itself, that decision imposed quite a constraint: I reserved an hour and this print took about 50 minutes to make.

While I’m not super impressed by how this came out I have a lot of things I’d like to try differently as experiments. Different woods will give quite different results, and I’m particularly eager to try some of the “Proofgrade” material from Glowforge. Generally speaking I should also do a test grid on each new wood too, to have an idea of how dark various laser power levels will be — which seems very similar to creating a test strip in the traditional darkroom. Next time I don’t think I’ll mask the wood with tape either. I should tweak the settings of the image’s histogram levels and sharpness. And there are are higher quality settings that I can use in the Glowforge UI too — plus, I should make etchings at smaller sizes until I see the results I want. In the long run there may be additional tricks worth exploring too. I’ve seen some discussion online about the merits of pre-treating the wood with a Borax mix to darken the images.

After the paywall are several more images for paid subscribers…

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Photography

• Show your support of Smiling Savage with the limited edition Airplane tee…

  

• I’ve been enjoying the “Glass” iPad app and definitely think viewing photos on the iPad is enjoyable. Here are some black and white gems I liked from the last several days (One, Two, Three). It’s easy to appreciate the niche they’re trying to fill, left by Instagram both choosing to ignore the iPad and being loaded with advertising. That said, I wonder how many people will find it worth $5/month.

• I’m looking forward to trying out two paper sample kits — Photo Base Sample Kit and Fine Art & Photography Discovery Kit — from Red River Paper. I’ll plan to post results.

• Related, I’ve been studying up on black and white digital darkroom technique and thought these were all helpful…

• And I’m reading up on how to engrave photos onto wood and other materials with a Glowforge. Again, I’ll plan to post results when I have some…

Music

A couple of new songs from old bands that I recently enjoyed are Voyage by Berlin and If the World Should End Today by Men Without Hats.

Leave it in the Dust, new alternative folk music by The Accidentals, is simply great.

This week’s earworm: Complete Mess by 5 Seconds of Summer. (No snark intended, but this song sounds really familiar but I can’t put my finger on why.)…

Retro Computing

This BBS — available through the web as well as dial-up — offers the ability to send a tweet from your classic computer.

Here’s a wifi cartridge for the Commodore 64, which could be fun.

Equally cool, here’s a floppy drive replacement for Atari 8-bit computers that uses SD cards…

Gaming

• Elden ring is hard. Personally I liked this guide to making the magic-user class live a little bit longer…

Writing

• This thread about mysterious building in the English countryside is entertaining…

• And if you’ve ever wondered about why some pizza — as I’ve seen in the Midwest — is cut square, this thread will hook you up…

• This article about Burnout by Charlie Tyson in The Baffler gives some nice background on the malady which is everywhere in the 2020s. (Spotted from Arts & Letters Daily)

• Something In the Way from Nirvana’s 1991 album Nevermind hit the Billboard charts for the first time in 31 years thanks to being featured in the movie The Batman. (Spotted from The Retro)

Electric Transportation

• This article says E-bikes are booming — again — because of high gas prices, but I’m not convinced there’s much correlation there. E-bike sales have been trending up for years now.

• In any case, this related article makes the point that electric bike incentives are languishing because it’s a blind spot for both politicians and environmentalists — and that makes a lot of sense.

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This is the longest and most complex song I’ve created yet. There are already 35 tracks, and the song is currently about 4:15 in length. Both stats reflect my getting more comfortable with the tools, and finding the layering of sounds to be a more interesting listen.

To describe this song in traditional structures, the verse and chorus are heard three times — twice at the beginning and once again at the end after a long breakdown. At the moment I like both the intro + verse + chorus, the breakdown, and the outro. As I post this I’m not convinced the verse + chorus needs to repeat twice at the beginning — regardless of there being some build between the cycles.

I took a fresh listen to the previous four songs and like each progressively more than the preceding song, to the point where I don’t like the first one very much at all. I now think it’s far too simple. I’m tempted to take a pass through the first couple of songs to create second drafts though I think there’s still more creative benefit to forging ahead with new songs.

I looked up the rules for an album, and there are slight differences between how Apple and Spotify classify singles, EPs, and albums. The bottom line seems to be that to release an album I’ll need have at least seven songs that are cumulatively more than 30 minutes long.

Then I did some more reading about all the other things to cover off when releasing music and I felt a slight panic. There’s a lot! For now I’m going to focus on creating a set of music I love.

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It’s never been clear to me at the outset of using a new computer which would prove to the best tools for writing. Any different computer introduces change into one’s writing routine. It often takes me months to realize whether those changes have culminated in more or less friction in areas such as:

• Portability — How accessible is it to write anywhere?

• Comfort — Do the parts seen, heard, and touched minimize distraction?

• Convenience - Does the experience promote frictionless writing, including in related steps such as saving, formatting, previewing, compiling, and publishing?

For me, there have been four computers over the decades that have been superior tools for my writing by minimizing friction.

Apple IIc (1984)

The Apple IIc was the first computer I bought with money earned from an after-school job. That alone would have made it a prized possession. Coupled with the “Apple Monitor IIc” it was a thing of beauty. It had an iconic 80s look that stood out even among the bold computer designs of the 80s, when companies took risks to figure things out, and before every desktop computer turned into a beige tower with interchangeable parts.

When I first started using the IIc, I didn’t know how to touch type, and I remember how long it took hunting-and-pecking on the keyboard to enter programs from the back pages of computer magazines. I learned how to type on IBM Selectric typewriters in a high-school typing class, but I learned to love to type on the Apple IIc. Part of the sentimentality I have for writing on the IIc is probably attributable to the stark difference between writing on a computer versus writing on a typewriter: Typos were easily fixed, ideas were easily moved between locations, and formatting — such as margins and spacing — was easily adjusted to suit evolving needs.

The AppleWorks software was key part of the overall writing experience. The software packed an amazing amount of features for the era — including find and replace, and the ability to move text within a document or across documents. The software also did the heavy lifting of file management and presented information in a file-folder metaphor with a menu bar across the top — perhaps owing to some inspiration gleaned from its siblings, the Apple Lisa and fledging Macintosh.

Unlike the Macintosh, the Apple II series of computers were everywhere in the 80s. I always had a 5.25” floppy with me to transport my work. I recall it was just barely possible to fit the AppleWorks software and a few files on a floppy. In the pre-internet/pre-USB-stick era, the “sneakernet” of moving content on disk by foot was surprisingly easy with the Apple IIc. I could start, finish, or continue work from home to school and vice versa. Better yet, I could write at home and print at school where many better-stocked printers were available.

The floppy door on the right of the IIc was such a notable, organic touch point — at least for a right-hander. A flick of the hand in-and-up from the side at just the right angle could release the door up-and-open with one’s middle finger, then on the down stroke one could pinch the disk out to toss it off to the side. After putting in a new disk, hitting the door down-and-closed with one’s thumb (or fist, depending on the mood) was the satisfying culmination. The process had a mechanical satisfaction sort of like slapping a typewriter carriage back to the left side of the page, with the sound effects to match. The door action by itself had just the right amount of ka-chunk, but the entire floppy experience was visceral. All Apple II disk drives were notoriously loud. I could hear the data being saved through the click-clacking of the drive mechanism, and could tell if there was an error when things sounded wrong.

Staying in the zone for writing was easy, as the machine itself was distraction free. In my opinion, the handle for the 7.5 lb “portable” IIc put the keyboard at exactly the right angle for typing and its short keys were square, comfortable, and stable. There were no other open windows, indeed no other running applications — and this was long before notifications. The green text on black was exactly right for late nights of writing, long before night modes were invented too many years later.

The Apple IIc was the full writing package. The keyboard was satisfying, the sounds visceral, the storage media convenient and portable, and the display free of all bullshit or distraction.

PowerBook Duo 230 (1992)

There was so much wrong with the Duo series of computers I might have been surprised to find this on someone else’s best list if I hadn’t experienced it first hand. Portable computers of this era were tightly-packed boxes of compromises, and on top of that the Duo was designed to the beat of a different drum.

A pioneer of the docking concept, the Duo was the first of Apple’s computers to flirt with the concept of having very few ports. Aside from power it had one giant docking port across the back, and one serial port hidden behind a flip down leg. I also opted for the optional internal modem, which hid behind the flip down leg on the other side. Long before there was controversy over a phone ditching the headphone jack, the Duo lacked even a headphone jack. Heck, the Duo didn’t even have built-in floppy drive and that was a deal breaker for many.

The Duo was targeted to those that would have used it in tandem with its giant desktop dock, which swallowed the computer up whole, like a VCR loading a tape. The laptop would then become the digital beating heart inside a shell housing all the ports one would need, attached to all the removable media systems, displays, and networks of the era. For me that desktop dock and monitor were made of pure unobtanium. Not only could I not afford it, I’m not sure I ever saw a full Duo desktop dock set-up in real life. They were rare.

There were a plethora of other docks for the Duo though, and the dock that put the Duo on this list was a little one by Newer Technology that allowed Ethernet networking.

Between that dock’s network port and the Duo’s built-in modem, this 4 lb PowerBook that was smaller than a sheet of paper (in two dimensions) was a networking powerhouse. Good thing, because the keyboard was mushy, low travel, and prone to missing key strokes. The marble-sized trackball would easily get slippery with finger oils and not track in one or more directions until cleaned. But notably, I could plug in one network cable to print to any laser writer, trade files and images with ease, and most importantly check in or out QuarkXPress pages. Thankfully, the dock’s other addition was an ADB-port used for keyboards and mice. ADB keyboards and mice were basically everywhere I went, and they daisy chained together, mouse to keyboard, keyboard to dock.

QuarkXPress is still made and used today but in the 90s before Adobe crushed it with PageMaker, and before the web crushed print all together, it seemed like every magazine and newspaper used it. QuarkXPress 3.1 was so fast and so flexible at mixing words and images into layout that it was a dream to use. It seemed to put all other software to shame, including Microsoft Word — and here’s the thing: Word was pretty great on the Duo too. 1992’s Microsoft Word was version 5.1a — which has long been held up by Mac users as the best version of Word ever made for the Mac.

This was the first machine I’d regularly carry everywhere. Instead of carrying disks I’d simply take the Duo — which was the disk — and plug it in to the network wherever I ended up. Sometimes I’d grab the work off the Duo and work on a computer with a bigger monitor and keyboard, or sometimes I’d just borrow the keyboard and network cable to work on the Duo. But what really sticks with me as a memory was how much the Duo was always handy. My desk became less of a computer shrine and more of a desk. And for the first time writing didn’t always happen at a desk anyway. Writing happened in cars and bars, on sofas and at news events, with people and away from people.

The Duo would have never made this list without the Ethernet dock, AppleTalk networking, QuarkXPress, and Microsoft Word. However, a great writing experience is always the sum of its parts, and this was a fantastic set of parts to throw into a bag and go write.

MacBook Air 11” (2011)

The MacBook Air series of computers is already so well regarded by so many, maybe you’ll think this is an all too obvious pick. The Air series of computers essentially defined small notebook design for a decade. In 2011, when this wedge of a computer was introduced it came in two sizes: The 13” from which one can trace a straight line through to the newest entry-level portable in Apple’s line up, and its smaller, 2.4 lb 11” sibling that made my list.

Unlike the writing experience on the Duo — a small computer that went anywhere, plugged in everywhere apart from my own desk, and was useful for writing despite being seriously compromised — the 11” Air was basically the opposite. The Air still went anywhere, but plugged in nowhere apart from my own desk, and never struck me as compromised for writing.

In the most noticeable way, the keyboard and trackpad were actually great — a true joy to use. For some reason it seems like Apple spent a decade making keyboards progressively worse after these computers nailed it. And the trackpad was big, accurate, and was the first to ditch a separate button for clicking. Instead, the whole trackpad was a mechanical button. I think Apple has done a magical job making subsequent, non-mechanical trackpads mimic the feel of a button via haptic feedback — but there was a hugely satisfying click on this trackpad. These Airs set a click benchmark that’s been chased by complex software and hardware since.

No disrespect to any other computers on this list, but lets take a moment to acknowledge that portable computers up to this point were basically creaky pieces of mostly plastic shit. The Air line felt solid — nice to carry open or closed. The hinge on the screen had enough resistance that it could stay set in position while being carried around, yet adjusted smoothly at a touch. The computer got chucked into bags, pouches, and backpacks all the time and always came out none the worse for wear.

One area that is similar to the Duo was that Apple made a 27” monitor that sold alongside the Air and which perfected the idea of a docking station. The cord from the monitor split into two parts that plugged into the Air — the O.G. MagSafe for power, and Thunderbolt to carry all the A/V, wired networking, and data to the USB ports on the monitor. When at my desk, that the computer I using was a laptop was effectively an afterthought.

Wifi was basically, finally, everywhere and useable by the end of the 2000s too, having moved out of the novelty stage, past the incompatibly stage, and almost past the available-but-uselessly-slow stage. In fact, the early 2010s were — in retrospect — the golden age of wifi in the sense it was generally a thing to join anyone’s wifi anywhere and bad things would not happen. Passwords were written on a whiteboard, or sometimes one could join actual open, useful networks. Wifi helped the Air be so darn useful for writing everywhere. An additional nicety of the era was that basically any web browser except for one beginning with “I” and ending with “E” was basically great. Chrome, Safari, and Firefox all helped the Air be a writer’s dream machine.

No software helped my writing on the Air more than BBEdit, both for writing prose and code — which were often intermingled in that era, even when trying to stick to the ideal of keeping them safely separated.

BBEdit’s powerful tools like regular-expression searching coupled with it’s minimalist interface helped it achieve a best-tool-for-any-job status. Line breaks messed up becuase it came from Windows? BBEdit will fix it. Need to change every occurrence of an embedded copyright in hundreds of files across dozens of directories? Not even difficult. Need to simply write in a fast, stable environment? Check.

For me as a writer on the go, its smaller size made the 11” Air one of the best writing computers ever. Yes, famously an 11” Air fit on an airplane tray perfectly, but generally it also fit everywhere better. And here’s the thing, the keyboard was exactly the same size as the 13”, meaning I never once thought I’d made the wrong choice.

iPad Pro 12.9” with Magic Keyboard (2021)

The 2021 version of the 12.9” iPad Pro coupled with the Apple magic keyboard is my current reigning champion for best writing computer. I think portable computing technology is at a point where there are a lot of great choices, but here’s why I think this one is the best for writing.

I’ve been using this computer for almost a year now and I’ll lead with the uniquely unassailable: The 5G networking in this writing computer is staggering good. Everyone has probably thought of the iPad as a giant phone at some point, and here’s where that statement is undeniably, positively true: Its networking is on — all the time — and instantly available.

I find that 5G is faster and better than wifi in most situations. Not faster than my own wifi, but let’s acknowledge that by 2022 most wifi in most places is a well past its heyday. Wifi is overloaded, poisonous, treacherous bullshit. I’d rather not use the internet than get on coffee shop or hotel wifi. And I’d rather not share my personal data on a corporate network that I trust only marginally more than the Chinese government.

Let’s pause right there. The iPad with 5G is the only writing machine I’m even aware of that’s ticking this rather important safe-and-fast-always-connected box. I agree tethering a computer to a phone is a nice workaround, but it keeps any other computer from being my current best writing computer.

I’ll actually praise the keyboard next. It’s simply great. The size of the 12.9” magic keyboard is full size and perfect for touch typing. The travel and response is just right. The sound is pleasant and not annoying. It’s laid out properly. It has arrow keys that make sense and are therefore useful for text editing. It’s backlit and makes writing in dim light effortless. The trackpad is an actual mechanical trackpad with a satisfyingly real click and it navigates text precisely. Best of all, on top of nailing all the usability points, when closed for moving about, the entire combined 3 lb of keyboard and iPad — front and back — is wrapped by whatever soft, agreeable, non-rubber/non-plastic/non-leather fusion that covers the magic keyboard. I’m not some sort of aluminum hater, but to my hands this is more comfortable for long periods of writing than any metal-clad MacBook.

Trackpad gestures are relatively new to the iPad and I’d guess most iPad users will never use them, but they are executed so well that seems like a shame. A quick tap and three fingers swiped up will unlock the iPad with a near instant face-ID check. Three fingers swiped up will bring up other applications. And three fingers swiped to either side will switch apps. While these gestures aren’t wholly unique to the iPad, triggering an unlock with the magic keyboard’s trackpad, or swiping between apps feels different — and improved — from other similar environments.

I never would have guessed that I’d like having a touch screen writing computer so much. For reasons that don't seem tied to a usability deficiency I find myself alternating between touching on screen and using keyboard and trackpad shortcuts. I think there’s an ergonomic synergy between how the screen juts out toward the keys and one can gesture onto the screen without really moving away from the keyboard. I guess there some fusion between MacOS and iOS mental models inside my head when using this computer, and to its credit iPadOS doesn’t care which paradigm you bring to the table at any given moment.

Like any of my favorite writing computers the iPad Pro is plenty fast at writing. Unlike the others on this list I struggle to think of anything at which the iPad Pro is slow. It’s much the same story with regard to the battery. I don’t know how long the battery lasts, even though a Google search would easily answer how long the battery lasts when watching a streamed video over wifi at maximum screen brightness. On this writing computer the battery stopped being a concern. The battery life is good enough that there’s no sort of writing “range anxiety.” At the same time, having a tiny charger in my bag, or opting to simply borrow a USB-C charger to top off while traveling are a new levels of travel freedom.

In terms of software, these days I mostly write in the cloud itself. For prose, Substack’s editor is great. For code, Github Codespaces is actually fantastic. In either case, as a window to writing, Safari is invisible. And the iPad itself is just a piece of glass — a window to the work. The quality of the screen itself is so good that it seems like it should warrant some description, but like the rest of the iPad Pro it manages the incredibly difficult and thankless job of being so good that it ceases to be noticeable as technology.

After years of transporting writing, first as disks then later via the writing machine itself, now it feels like I’m merely bringing my favorite keyboard along to create things in the cloud. I find myself as immersed as ever when writing — maybe more so — and still at times I’ll notice some detail about the quality of the writing environment, like how easy it is to move words around because text doesn’t blur when scrolled up or down, or that when a finger fidgets on the edge of the screen there’s no discernible seam. These things seem natural, inevitable, and trivial but I appreciate they actually aren't. Like anything well crafted, it took a lot of work to sweat the details.

I wonder how the next best writing tool might pull off a trick unique to its era of balancing physical unobtrusiveness with ubiquitous availability so that writing can stay in focus.

I have exciting news to share: You can now read Smiling Savage in the new Substack app for iPhone.

With the app, you’ll have a dedicated Inbox for my Substack and any others you subscribe to. New posts will never get lost in your email filters, or stuck in spam. Longer posts will never cut-off by your email app. Comments and rich media will all work seamlessly. Overall, it’s a big upgrade to the reading experience.

The Substack app is currently available for iOS. If you don’t have an Apple device, you can join the Android waitlist here.

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Photography

• Beautiful grain in this shot…

• I’m checking out the subscription-based photo-sharing app Glass, but it’s too early to share opinions.

Music

• The Tipping Point from Tears For Fears is their seventh album, and their first in 18 years. Here they are playing the third single, Break the Man, live…

• The Atari Music Video was “the earliest commercial electronic music visualizer” and here it is in action…

• This week’s earworm: Faithless by The Airborne Toxic Event…

Retro Computing

• The Callisto II looks like a wonderful 3D print project. Make sure to check out the retro-themed “product” website too…

• Take a look at the pure retro joy of bbs.retrocampus.com. You can also build your own BBS. Looks like lots of fun to load on an old computer…

• People are putting the Raspberry Pi Pico into a Commodore 64 cartridge…

• Here’s a song written for the Commodore 64 in 256 bytes. The drivers are here.

Games

• The Open Lara project (Facebook group) is an open source engine for the classic Tomb Raider game. So, of course there are ports for all kinds of things like a version you can play in your web browser, Game Boy Advance, and the Sega 32X…

• Is this the smallest portable Doom yet? Probably not for long…

• Okay, I guess I’ll be playing my Switch on it’s side soon…

• Grand Tour Legends looks like a great use for the Playdate’s crank…

• This D&D game with voice actors is so entertaining…

Writing

• What Makes a Great Opening Line? by Allegra Hyde is a great read. (Spotted from Arts & Letters Daily)

• Soon you’ll be able to make your own “Bread Pirate Roberts” from The Princess Bride Cookbook: The Official Cookbook! (Spotted from The Retro)

• The Making of Nox Archaist, written by the designer of the first commercial role-playing game released for the Apple II in almost 30 years, is an insider’s account of the creation of a modern game on a classic computing platform.

• Here’s a joke so old that no one really understands it…

• I wish a movie of this series could be written with as much fan love as this commercial…

Electric Transportation

• The new electric version of the VW bus looks fun, but about the name ID.Buzz…

• There is a new MG Marvel R coming to Europe…

• And a new electric MG ZS coming to India…

• And there’s still another new electric MG4 coming from China…