Posted 2025-04-01 | Back to blog index
And my second MARCHintosh is over! Another great year!
My stated goals were
1. Release TalkCrawler
2. Rewrite the networking in GlobalTalk Chat
3. Recap a IIvi/IIcx to replace my PB540 as router
An unstated goal was
4. To get a printer on GlobalTalk
I completed 1 in time for March 1, and 2 by the middle of the month, 2 felt like redemption for something that felt like failure last year. Never had the time/desk space for 3, but maybe that'll be a good post-March project? mb… (1/5)
4 was a mess with several false starts (Brother laser with bad rollers, crumbling LW300, rusting IW), and even my backup plan of getting the first Fax machine on GlobalTalk being a failure (more on that later), but eventually I got a working ImageWriter first using PortShare and then splurged on an ImageScribbler card and that was extremely fulfilling to start receiving printouts from all around the world! (2/5)
Then there was the scavenger hunt which come out of the left field, a random idea I had one night and slapped together in a day but turned out to be really fun to watch people struggle with!
I have a growing list of ideas for things I want to built for GlobalTalk, March felt far too short!
Thanks to everyone who participated! Scott Small did a way better job of highlighting some of the things people did than I could ever do so I'll just link to him! https://oldbytes.space/@smallsco/114260246707261676… (3/5)
My GlobalTalk Zone will stay online year round as before.
I'll leave the ImageWriter on for another week I guess before shutting it off, if the AsanteTalk lasts that long.
If the new networking means the GlobalTalk Chat server is less CPU-intensive I'll move it to Blackbird to keep it running, otherwise that will go offline with the ImageWriter when I reclaim that space. (4/5)
Right now is an extremely stressful and uncertain period of my life, and MARCHintosh has meant so much to keep me sane right now I don't have the words to express it. I truly mean it when I thank everyone who just has tried out something I built for GlobalTalk, left a message or printout, sent me mail(!!!) or even just liked one of my toots. This has all made March my absolute favorite time of the year that I look forward to more than Xmas. Lots of love to you all! :apple_inc: (5/5)
Here are all of the printouts I received on GlobalTalk for MARCHintosh! Thank you everyone!
And here is the final leaderboard for the MARCHintosh GlobalTalk Scavenger hunt! Thanks to everyone who participated!
The final clue submission Stack will be removed in the coming days.
Adding some screenshots to this thread for posterity,
First we have GlobalTalk Chat which saw a redesign this year. I am unreasonably happy with how the sad "Disconnect" icon turned out!
And here are some various screens from TalkCrawler, showing the scanning/chart, browsing the zones/services on the network, and showing some more specific details.
I don't think I've ever seen a HyperCard stack with nearly 4000 cards in it before! Amazing that it works as well as it does!
I know in reality it's a stupid minor thing, but with the new lower-level Chat networking it feels *really cool* seeing the name of some software that *I wrote* show up as a proper grown-up AppeTalk service across the network! Instead of as before just being HyperCard buried under the PPCServer/the Program Linking protocol.
