| Website of the Week |
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ESC!Webs Site of the Week Week of May 14, 2000 Fake-intosh Main Web Site: http://www.yaromat.com/macos8/index.htm Have you been eye-balling those new iMacs? How about those slick -- but really expensive -- G4s? Perhaps you used to be a Macintosh user and lost your ways -- you know, strayed too far from the cult. I know of that which I speak. I used to be a die-hard Sinclair computer user before the late 80's consumed every other type of computer besides the PC and Mac (Okay, before the flames start up, I recognize that Amiga is hanging by a thread and I fully realize the existence of other systems. It's just that, well, they don't count really when it comes to the general computer user. Sorry.) But I digress. How Cool Is That? The web site Browser Mac is a rudimentary Macintosh simulator designed for those Macintosh users who are forced into using PCs and Windows at work and simply miss their baby. When you hit enter after typing in the address, your system is magically transformed into a Macintosh computer (circa OS8). It's great because it even includes the boot sequence! Cool. Once "booted" there are few applications you can run, though I am especially fond of the tile-matching game which pokes fun at just about every aspect of Windows and Microsoft possible -- right down to the picture of Bill Gates with a Darth Vader helmet on. You are not able to, alas, run any "real" Macintosh apps within the simulator. Bummer. One very amusing sequence is just before the Mac start up when the site proclaims the successful removal of Windows from your system much to the shock and horror of those I've shown the site to. The Technology The most amazing thing about this site though, is the fact that the entire thing is written in HTML and other web based languages. Take notice of the fact that you can drag and drop icons around the screen! Menus and windows pop open as if you were sitting at a real Mac. You can run a program by double-clicking its icon. This is all done with JavaScript and DHTML. To complete the effect, when the site starts, it kicks your browser into full screen mode from which the only exit is to "shutdown" the "Mac" by choosing FILE -> QUIT. (Ironic Note: True full screen only appears to work in Internet Explorer. The Fake-intosh still runs in a window under Netscape Navigator.) I think the strongest argument for this site is to prove just how feasible it is to take an entire "operating system" and shove it onto a web server for all to use. In theory, this guy could have added a word processor, spreadsheet, graphics program and even a web browser to this simulator, thrown in some password protection and created a secure, fully featured and working operating environment. I suspect his goal in creating the site was to merely prove that it could be done. This is one of those sites you're going to want to add to your favorites. Not because you want to visit it over and over again, but, rather, because when you tell people about it they won't believe it until they see it!
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