[sanddrag]

Over the winter break I was going to experiment with a mail server program on an SE/30. I wanted FTP on my machines but I just haven't found anything good. There is NetPresenz but I don't like the way it functions, it does not seem as secure as MacHTTP.

What is really cool is browsing web sites on the old Macs. There aren't too many that will work but surprisingly Google searches do. Unfortunatley, it is nearly impossible to view images on web pages with the 68000 processor Macs. But I bet my SE/30 16Mhz 68030 with 16mb of RAM could run an early version of Netscape which would be more compatible with today's web and would be able to display images.

On a side note I dug up a "Welcome to the Macintosh SE" tutorial floppy disk today. I popped it in and it was so funny. It teaches how to move the mouse. It actually shows a little animation that if you slide it along the table, the cursor moves but when you lift it off the table the cursor does not. Then it shows how to click, and then it teaches you how to click and drag. The really funny part is that after booting from this disk, you must be able to perform these three tasks (pointing, clicking, dragging) before you can do anything else. It will not let you exit the tutorial, and there is no way to get the floppy out because it is electronic eject. (unless you use a paperclip).

Also, it goes on to explain the desktop making an analogy to a real desk. Then it explains what icons are and how to open files and resize windows and make folders and soforth.

I believe the Macintosh was the first computer with a mouse, and the Mac SE was a lot of people's first computer. The tutorial seems absurdly basic today but back then the mouse and desktop and icons were such new concepts.