The Canon Cat and the Mac that Steve Jobs killed
This is a new article about the Canon Cat and I know there are people who would be interested in this article and may have opinions https://reproof.app/blog/on-designing-a-more-humane-computer
Yep, I donated my two Cats to VCF- after trying to use them for a few months. Totally insane UI (and I hesitate to call it an _interface_). It's a good description to just call it a 'word processing computer that can't print (supports just like 3 specific models) and has bizarre keyboard chords to do anything.' The article does a good job explaining the backstory but you can't comprehend how impossible the Cat is to actually use unless you sit down and try to do something a 5th grader can do on a Mac- like type and print a simple note. Also forget about networking. Maybe VCF will get that Cat out on display at the museum at some point so visitors could see for themselves! -andy
On Oct 21, 2022, at 9:33 AM, Christian Liendo via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
This is a new article about the Canon Cat and I know there are people who would be interested in this article and may have opinions
https://reproof.app/blog/on-designing-a-more-humane-computer
I worked for a company in New Jersey that was a Canon dealership, so primarily sold copiers and fax machines. They were getting into computers as they became a thing - and the Cat came out in that weird space between dedicated commercial word processors (like Wang), 'digital' typewreiters (ones that had basically a line of editable text in them, and full blown computers. The Cat never caught on for a couple important reasons. It was very expensive (wikipedia says US$1,495 (equivalent to $3,570 in 2021)). It had a UI that tried desperately to be 'user friendly' but was too weird for most folks. The mac (and other projects) had established that the mouse was the way to work with screen elements. The Cat did not have one, but used a weird set of specialized keys for navigation. Lastly, because it was 100% custom, making it work with other printers, devices, etc was very difficult. In the end, no one wanted to spend $3500 (equiv) on a machine that was an island unto itself. Canon tried desperately to get into the computer market, with a whole series of machines that had some really beautiful designs and interesting approaches (see https://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?st=1&c=591 ) but in the end, they made 99% of their money on the Canon CX engine - a machine that proved to be a killer workhorse - and leveraged Canon's excellence in copiers to make a rock solid platform that drove the Laserwriter and the Imagewriter printers. Maybe someone can help - Canon was pushing a mouse-less desktop publishing program for a while. It had a really strange interface, but worked pretty well. This was just as Aldus Pagemaker was coming onto the scene. In fact, a story I heard was at some big Canon conference, some bright salesman stood up and said "HANDS SHOULD STAY ON THE KEYBOARD WHERE THEY BELONG!" and got applause. Yeah, that didn't work well. But I can't remember the name of the software. Anyone know? This would have been, oh, 1984 ish? On Fri, Oct 21, 2022 at 11:12 AM Andrew Diller via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
Yep, I donated my two Cats to VCF- after trying to use them for a few months.
Totally insane UI (and I hesitate to call it an _interface_). It's a good description to just call it a 'word processing computer that can't print (supports just like 3 specific models) and has bizarre keyboard chords to do anything.'
The article does a good job explaining the backstory but you can't comprehend how impossible the Cat is to actually use unless you sit down and try to do something a 5th grader can do on a Mac- like type and print a simple note. Also forget about networking.
Maybe VCF will get that Cat out on display at the museum at some point so visitors could see for themselves!
-andy
On Oct 21, 2022, at 9:33 AM, Christian Liendo via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
This is a new article about the Canon Cat and I know there are people who would be interested in this article and may have opinions
https://reproof.app/blog/on-designing-a-more-humane-computer
-- Dave Shevett shevett@pobox.com
Just remember: Before running a Canon cat at the museum, be SURE to replace the head rail holder inside the floppy drive. The original piece which holds down the ?front? of the head rail (which the drive head carriage slides on) inside the cat's single-sided 3.5" floppy drive is made of delrin (plastic) instead of aluminum, and because it is under constant pressure to hold the rail in place, it cracks and eventually will break, freeing the head rail. If a disk is inserted and then attempted to be ejected when the head rail is loose, it will TEAR THE DRIVE HEAD OFF OF THE DRIVE head carriage, which is NOT REPAIRABLE. So IMHO the Canon Cats should not be even used with a diskette until that preventative repair is made. The canon cat drives are CUSTOM and cannot be replaced by a standard 3.5" drive without a LOT of extra work (they require the same 'true_ready' signal instead of 'disk_change' on pin 34 like Amiga machines do, plus they use a flexible flat cable instead of a standard 34-pin DIL floppy cable, so if the drive fails it requires a really complicated custom-made adapter to use a 34 pin drive anyway) Also because the canon cat floppy format is so weird, you can't use a Gotek floppy emulator in place of it either! So whoever in VCF takes care of setting these things up in the museum, please be aware of this before trying to use the cat. If the cat ever has a disk in it and it seems like it won't eject, DO NOT FORCE IT, the machine MUST be taken apart to prevent the drive from being destroyed! It should be possible to make a replacement head rail holder piece using a small piece of aluminum or steel and a mill or drill press, from what I understand. P.S. The canon cat uses a cr2032 watch battery inside, against the front edge of the mainboard, to back up the settings ram, and this needs to be replaced (or removed) as well. On 10/21/2022 11:12 AM, Andrew Diller via vcf-midatlantic wrote:
Yep, I donated my two Cats to VCF- after trying to use them for a few months.
Totally insane UI (and I hesitate to call it an _interface_). It's a good description to just call it a 'word processing computer that can't print (supports just like 3 specific models) and has bizarre keyboard chords to do anything.'
The article does a good job explaining the backstory but you can't comprehend how impossible the Cat is to actually use unless you sit down and try to do something a 5th grader can do on a Mac- like type and print a simple note. Also forget about networking.
Maybe VCF will get that Cat out on display at the museum at some point so visitors could see for themselves!
-andy
On Oct 21, 2022, at 9:33 AM, Christian Liendo via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
This is a new article about the Canon Cat and I know there are people who would be interested in this article and may have opinions
https://reproof.app/blog/on-designing-a-more-humane-computer
-- Jonathan Gevaryahu jgevaryahu@gmail.com jgevaryahu@hotmail.com
Thanks for the heads up. I don't think we have a CAT in the warehouse... if its there it has escaped my view for the last two months. If we handle one we'll consult you on the floppy. DC On 10/21/2022 12:31 PM, Jonathan Gevaryahu via vcf-midatlantic wrote:
Just remember: Before running a Canon cat at the museum, be SURE to replace the head rail holder inside the floppy drive.
The original piece which holds down the ?front? of the head rail (which the drive head carriage slides on) inside the cat's single-sided 3.5" floppy drive is made of delrin (plastic) instead of aluminum, and because it is under constant pressure to hold the rail in place, it cracks and eventually will break, freeing the head rail. If a disk is inserted and then attempted to be ejected when the head rail is loose, it will TEAR THE DRIVE HEAD OFF OF THE DRIVE head carriage, which is NOT REPAIRABLE.
So IMHO the Canon Cats should not be even used with a diskette until that preventative repair is made.
The canon cat drives are CUSTOM and cannot be replaced by a standard 3.5" drive without a LOT of extra work (they require the same 'true_ready' signal instead of 'disk_change' on pin 34 like Amiga machines do, plus they use a flexible flat cable instead of a standard 34-pin DIL floppy cable, so if the drive fails it requires a really complicated custom-made adapter to use a 34 pin drive anyway)
Also because the canon cat floppy format is so weird, you can't use a Gotek floppy emulator in place of it either!
So whoever in VCF takes care of setting these things up in the museum, please be aware of this before trying to use the cat. If the cat ever has a disk in it and it seems like it won't eject, DO NOT FORCE IT, the machine MUST be taken apart to prevent the drive from being destroyed!
It should be possible to make a replacement head rail holder piece using a small piece of aluminum or steel and a mill or drill press, from what I understand.
P.S. The canon cat uses a cr2032 watch battery inside, against the front edge of the mainboard, to back up the settings ram, and this needs to be replaced (or removed) as well.
On 10/21/2022 11:12 AM, Andrew Diller via vcf-midatlantic wrote:
Yep, I donated my two Cats to VCF- after trying to use them for a few months.
Totally insane UI (and I hesitate to call it an _interface_). It's a good description to just call it a 'word processing computer that can't print (supports just like 3 specific models) and has bizarre keyboard chords to do anything.'
The article does a good job explaining the backstory but you can't comprehend how impossible the Cat is to actually use unless you sit down and try to do something a 5th grader can do on a Mac- like type and print a simple note. Also forget about networking.
Maybe VCF will get that Cat out on display at the museum at some point so visitors could see for themselves!
-andy
On Oct 21, 2022, at 9:33 AM, Christian Liendo via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
This is a new article about the Canon Cat and I know there are people who would be interested in this article and may have opinions
https://reproof.app/blog/on-designing-a-more-humane-computer
Degnan has the working one loaned to him by Adam. I don't know if that came back to VCF- someone can ask him or he can reply to this. There is a pretty big box that says CANON in the warehouse, on an end-cap cart. That box has the non-working one, but could work probably. The floppy drive on the working one needs to be taken apart and fixed- the floppy in it currently should _not_ be ejected or it will break the good working floppy drive. -andy
On Oct 21, 2022, at 1:53 PM, Douglas Crawford via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
Thanks for the heads up. I don't think we have a CAT in the warehouse... if its there it has escaped my view for the last two months. If we handle one we'll consult you on the floppy. DC
On 10/21/2022 12:31 PM, Jonathan Gevaryahu via vcf-midatlantic wrote:
Just remember: Before running a Canon cat at the museum, be SURE to replace the head rail holder inside the floppy drive. The original piece which holds down the ?front? of the head rail (which the drive head carriage slides on) inside the cat's single-sided 3.5" floppy drive is made of delrin (plastic) instead of aluminum, and because it is under constant pressure to hold the rail in place, it cracks and eventually will break, freeing the head rail. If a disk is inserted and then attempted to be ejected when the head rail is loose, it will TEAR THE DRIVE HEAD OFF OF THE DRIVE head carriage, which is NOT REPAIRABLE. So IMHO the Canon Cats should not be even used with a diskette until that preventative repair is made. The canon cat drives are CUSTOM and cannot be replaced by a standard 3.5" drive without a LOT of extra work (they require the same 'true_ready' signal instead of 'disk_change' on pin 34 like Amiga machines do, plus they use a flexible flat cable instead of a standard 34-pin DIL floppy cable, so if the drive fails it requires a really complicated custom-made adapter to use a 34 pin drive anyway) Also because the canon cat floppy format is so weird, you can't use a Gotek floppy emulator in place of it either! So whoever in VCF takes care of setting these things up in the museum, please be aware of this before trying to use the cat. If the cat ever has a disk in it and it seems like it won't eject, DO NOT FORCE IT, the machine MUST be taken apart to prevent the drive from being destroyed! It should be possible to make a replacement head rail holder piece using a small piece of aluminum or steel and a mill or drill press, from what I understand. P.S. The canon cat uses a cr2032 watch battery inside, against the front edge of the mainboard, to back up the settings ram, and this needs to be replaced (or removed) as well. On 10/21/2022 11:12 AM, Andrew Diller via vcf-midatlantic wrote:
Yep, I donated my two Cats to VCF- after trying to use them for a few months.
Totally insane UI (and I hesitate to call it an _interface_). It's a good description to just call it a 'word processing computer that can't print (supports just like 3 specific models) and has bizarre keyboard chords to do anything.'
The article does a good job explaining the backstory but you can't comprehend how impossible the Cat is to actually use unless you sit down and try to do something a 5th grader can do on a Mac- like type and print a simple note. Also forget about networking.
Maybe VCF will get that Cat out on display at the museum at some point so visitors could see for themselves!
-andy
On Oct 21, 2022, at 9:33 AM, Christian Liendo via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
This is a new article about the Canon Cat and I know there are people who would be interested in this article and may have opinions
https://reproof.app/blog/on-designing-a-more-humane-computer
Yep. the broken Cat already has the destroyed floppy drive. The working cat has a floppy in it that _cannot_ be ejected or that person will destroy that floppy. I have no idea if anyone has tried to eject it. It's perfectly useable with just leaving that floppy in there for now. -andy
On Oct 21, 2022, at 12:31 PM, Jonathan Gevaryahu via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
Just remember: Before running a Canon cat at the museum, be SURE to replace the head rail holder inside the floppy drive.
The original piece which holds down the ?front? of the head rail (which the drive head carriage slides on) inside the cat's single-sided 3.5" floppy drive is made of delrin (plastic) instead of aluminum, and because it is under constant pressure to hold the rail in place, it cracks and eventually will break, freeing the head rail. If a disk is inserted and then attempted to be ejected when the head rail is loose, it will TEAR THE DRIVE HEAD OFF OF THE DRIVE head carriage, which is NOT REPAIRABLE.
So IMHO the Canon Cats should not be even used with a diskette until that preventative repair is made.
The canon cat drives are CUSTOM and cannot be replaced by a standard 3.5" drive without a LOT of extra work (they require the same 'true_ready' signal instead of 'disk_change' on pin 34 like Amiga machines do, plus they use a flexible flat cable instead of a standard 34-pin DIL floppy cable, so if the drive fails it requires a really complicated custom-made adapter to use a 34 pin drive anyway)
Also because the canon cat floppy format is so weird, you can't use a Gotek floppy emulator in place of it either!
So whoever in VCF takes care of setting these things up in the museum, please be aware of this before trying to use the cat. If the cat ever has a disk in it and it seems like it won't eject, DO NOT FORCE IT, the machine MUST be taken apart to prevent the drive from being destroyed!
It should be possible to make a replacement head rail holder piece using a small piece of aluminum or steel and a mill or drill press, from what I understand.
P.S. The canon cat uses a cr2032 watch battery inside, against the front edge of the mainboard, to back up the settings ram, and this needs to be replaced (or removed) as well.
On 10/21/2022 11:12 AM, Andrew Diller via vcf-midatlantic wrote:
Yep, I donated my two Cats to VCF- after trying to use them for a few months.
Totally insane UI (and I hesitate to call it an _interface_). It's a good description to just call it a 'word processing computer that can't print (supports just like 3 specific models) and has bizarre keyboard chords to do anything.'
The article does a good job explaining the backstory but you can't comprehend how impossible the Cat is to actually use unless you sit down and try to do something a 5th grader can do on a Mac- like type and print a simple note. Also forget about networking.
Maybe VCF will get that Cat out on display at the museum at some point so visitors could see for themselves!
-andy
On Oct 21, 2022, at 9:33 AM, Christian Liendo via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
This is a new article about the Canon Cat and I know there are people who would be interested in this article and may have opinions
https://reproof.app/blog/on-designing-a-more-humane-computer
-- Jonathan Gevaryahu jgevaryahu@gmail.com jgevaryahu@hotmail.com
I replaced those before donating so they are three years old at this point. -andy
On Oct 21, 2022, at 12:31 PM, Jonathan Gevaryahu via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
P.S. The canon cat uses a cr2032 watch battery inside, against the front edge of the mainboard, to back up the settings ram, and this needs to be replaced (or removed) as well.
Oh OK... they are in the warehouse somewhere then! I always wondered if Raskin was on to something here, but allegedly... not. I have the apple card implementation, but I think its very cut-down, didn't spend much time with it. -DC On 10/21/2022 11:12 AM, Andrew Diller via vcf-midatlantic wrote:
Yep, I donated my two Cats to VCF- after trying to use them for a few months.
Totally insane UI (and I hesitate to call it an _interface_). It's a good description to just call it a 'word processing computer that can't print (supports just like 3 specific models) and has bizarre keyboard chords to do anything.'
The article does a good job explaining the backstory but you can't comprehend how impossible the Cat is to actually use unless you sit down and try to do something a 5th grader can do on a Mac- like type and print a simple note. Also forget about networking.
Maybe VCF will get that Cat out on display at the museum at some point so visitors could see for themselves!
-andy
On Oct 21, 2022, at 9:33 AM, Christian Liendo via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
This is a new article about the Canon Cat and I know there are people who would be interested in this article and may have opinions
https://reproof.app/blog/on-designing-a-more-humane-computer
participants (5)
-
Andrew Diller -
Christian Liendo -
Dave Shevett -
Douglas Crawford -
Jonathan Gevaryahu