I’ve always liked enamel pins. They are nostalgic, durable, and expressive. I have some 30 years old from high school. I never actually sported them publicly much, but I did display them in my workspace for my own enjoyment.
A number of places exist that will manufacture them for a reasonable cost, so I made some. The first was one recreating the iconic menus of the Macintosh Menu bar, followed by the character Ida from Ustwo’s Monument valley — an immersive, meditative game set in an escher-like word of geometry.
You can buy one at iantm.etsy.com
A search for focus
I’ve been restoring an SE/30 to use as a writing machine. The black and white simplicity of the early system 6 operating system feels gloriously peaceful in today’s oversaturated, over stimulating screens. Though some have labored to get these machine on the internet, the whole point for me is to avoid it, and bask in its uncluttered focus to write more books.
A decade ago, I tried working with a Classic II I’d acquired for free. At the time it wasn’t easy at all — the hard drive died as they inevitably do, and the floppy drive was unreliable. I ended up gutting it and turning it into an empty vessel, which remains a quiet reminder of that era of industrial design.
What’s Old is New
Fast forward to today and there’s been a whole movement of people building modern hardware to bring these machines back to life. Using SD Cards, PCB wizardry, and 3D printing, it’s now possible to revive these old machine for modern use, happily existing with modern computers.
You don’t need to scour eBay, however. You can use a Raspberry Pi, local virtualization, or just use your browser. Whatever you choose, you can recapture the quiet bliss of the Macintosh’s early operating system history. What it may lack in modern capabilities, you gain in peace and focus — surprisingly refreshing in a a computer world that is designed to distract you.
