Hello RMC Listeners

If you clicked on the RetroMacCast link in episode 47 then I bid you welcome. Yes, that is my humble Apple IIgs featured. If you have any questions about it you can contact me via e-mail address kenfager(at)gmail.com. Regular RMC listeners may remember a previous photo that was featured on their show.

If you are a regular reader, I highly recommend RetroMacCast. James and John do a fantastic job every week. Even though they are amateurs their production values would have any layman fooled. Check them out.

Obfuscation Rules

It took days of failed attempts, but I’m now reliving my childhood. I figured out how to write Apple II disk images to those big 5.25 floppies. Sure there are emulators out there. Sure it is a whole lot easier to just download the disk image and play on a new iMac. It just isn’t the same. There is something truly satisfying about hearing those big drives click away. Here is what it took.

  • Mac OS 10.5 on an Intel iMac to download the disk images and drop them in a shared folder to go to…
  • Mac OS 10.4.9 on a PPC iMac that has support for…
  • Mac OS 9.2.2 which can run Bernie II the Rescue, an Apple IIgs emulator that can manipulate the files, which can then be transfered via 3.5 floppy to…
  • Mac OS 7.0.1 on a Macintosh Classic which can write to ProDOS disks, which are compatible with…
  • Apple GSOS 6.0.1 which runs on an Apple IIgs.

What is the end product for all this hassle? Number Munchers, Odell Lake, Battleship, and Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy are just the beginning. Oregon Trail… I’ve got my eyes on you next.

FedUp With FedEx Part IV

A new letter sent to FedEx Public Relations reads as follows.

Attn: FedEx Public Relations

I use the following sentence in the purest sense that I scoured the entire English lexicon to adequately describe my feelings toward your services. So without further ado…

Shove these worthless savings certificates ***********************.

(Edit: Changed to “You Suck.” in the actual letter.)

Now that all pretenses have been so academically put forth, let me explain my position. I received three $20 savings certificates from FedEx in response to a letter in which I out-lined the egregious failings of your shipping service. The impassioned letter I received along with the certificates did little to quell my displeasure with your service. Nonetheless I still felt as though I had the right to use FedEx services until the certificates were used and thusly terminate my patronage thereafter.

But oh woe falleth unto this savvy consumer. No one knows at thy local FedExKinkos how to process said savings certificate. It took nothing short of an hour of waiting to get the first set of packages out the door after I presented the first certificate, as the clerk and manager had no idea how to enter the certificate into the system. Phone support apparently was no help either.

The second time I entered FedExKinkos nearly two months later I found out that they were still waiting from FedEx how to process the first savings certificate. After waiting a good length of time I finally opted to pay cash for the transaction, rather than grind my teeth into a bloody slurry of enamel chunks.

It is with mounted displeasure that I return to you two of the three savings certificates. Enclosed along with the certificates is the business card of a poor FedExKinkos employee whose store took a loss, as she is unable to process the first worthless savings certificate I used. I have also enclosed the receipts for the original transaction that I used with that original certificate in the hopes that one day you get around to honoring your own promises. The receipt where I opted to use cash instead of your infernal savings certificates in order to save myself time is also enclosed.

Somehow your company missed the point of trying to win back my business. I hope that by returning these two $20 certificates prior to their expiration date is indicative of my displeasure. Using these certificates has been an experience that has only further entrenched me in my hatred of all things FedEx. The next time I receive a FedEx package I may not even take the item out of the box before I burn it in effigy.

If you have read this letter and feel as though I am some nut-job with an unwarranted vendetta, please refer to the following links for a valuable history lesson.:

https://kenfager.com/wordpress/index.php/archives/283
https://kenfager.com/wordpress/index.php/archives/294
https://kenfager.com/wordpress/index.php/archives/308

Included Documents:
1 – FedExKinkos employee business card
2 – $20 FedEx Savings Certificates which no one knows how to use
2 – Customer Shipping Record forms
2 – Original receipts for all transactions

Filled to the brim with apoplectic rage,
Ken Fager

FedEx, you truly have earned my disdain.