iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Andrew @lisagui.com · 27/09/2026

Mission control and spaces in Golden Gate are absurdly buggy. Dragging windows to the top bar in exposé doesn't even make them fullscreen. Desktop switching is a bit broken too; sometimes fullscreen windows remain overlaid on top of other desktops when you try to swipe away from them.

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Andrew @lisagui.com · 25/09/2026

Filling in the ink traps/light traps of these Lisa typefaces. Typographers: forgive me, but it must be done. It's too unsightly.

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Reposted by Andrew

Tyler, from the Internet @tylerfromtheinternet.com · 22/09/2026

hey guys (hey guys (hey guys (hey guys check this out) check this out) check this out) check this out

an analog clock but each number is a smaller analogue clock showing where the hands would be at that time

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Andrew @lisagui.com · 19/09/2026

LisaGUI’s piano is partially based on the Lisa Toolkit example. I was also inspired by the Macintosh’s piano demo from the “MOUSING AROUND” tutorial on the original “Guided Tour of Macintosh” disk from 1984. #appleLisa #macintosh #apple #1bit #pcspeaker

A window containing a piano keyboard running on the Lisa Office System, with keys spanning 3 octaves.

A window of the Piano demo section of the original Macintosh’s “MOUSING AROUND” tutorial. It contains a smaller piano keyboard, with keys spanning about 4.5 octaves.

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Andrew @lisagui.com · 19/09/2026

I'm not gonna add modeless file renaming to LisaGUI (i.e. if a single file icon is selected, allow keyboard input to start renaming it immediately) as it's not a priority. If I do add that it will have to be an optional setting. Case in point:

folklore.org

Folklore.org: A Floppy named lsadkfjalhkjh

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Andrew @lisagui.com · 18/09/2026

You know what this means! We can have at least one more cat themed macOS release if Apple ever gets around to it.

nytimes.com

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Andrew @lisagui.com · 17/09/2026

The Lisa had high res copies of its fonts used when printing at a higher quality setting. Debating whether to implement this feature, or if I should use larger fonts as extra options at the same DPI. Leaning heavily towards the latter. #typography #fonts #retrocomputing #appleLisa #apple #1bit

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Andrew @lisagui.com · 12/09/2026

Using base64 for inline image serialization now. It's kind of cool how you can sort of see the image through the encoding.

A 1-bit bitmap of a triangle encoded into base64

The same triangle as it appears in the ui.

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Andrew @lisagui.com · 06/09/2026

Fixed some minor formatting issues with the latest blog post. Also, accidentally reverted it to a version from several hours ago when I was trying to fix them on my phone. I hadn't noticed my phone's browser had cached the older, incomplete post. That's fixed too, thank God

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Andrew @lisagui.com · 01/09/2026

Updated the blog to use GNU Unifont for the body text. I adjusted the colors for the light and dark themes; I'm still playing around with them so don't hate it too much

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Andrew @lisagui.com · 29/08/2026

Reorganized the preference pane system. It purposefully no longer remembers the selected pane, which is more in-line with the actual Lisa, and settings apps on other OSs. I also added the "Set all convenience settings to defaults" option from the original Lisa. Added it to the animations pane too.

Items in the view menu are bulleted to indicate their subordinacy to their parent panes.

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Andrew @lisagui.com · 28/08/2026

The only thing really missing from my blog's design is custom cursors. Anyone with more TUI experience than myself have any thoughts on some good cursor designs from that era? I don't want to just add the MS windows pointer, that's boring.

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Andrew @lisagui.com · 27/08/2026

Sure, half the people who even look at this blog have ad blockers which will filter these out, but that doesn't mean I still can't have fun. Naturally, had to add :focus-visible selectors so you can tab through the page #css #blog #dos #textmode

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Andrew @lisagui.com · 27/08/2026

Added some share links. I should be able to have share links. Other blogs have share links! I'll admit right now, I have no idea if some of these work correctly. I'm not even on all of these platforms, lol. I'll be sure to add a few more untested links sometime later

Social media share links on my blog, dark theme

Social media share links on my blog, light theme

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Andrew @lisagui.com · 23/08/2026

Oh, what could have been… www.folklore.org/Square_Dots....

folklore.org

Folklore.org: Square Dots

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Andrew @lisagui.com · 22/08/2026

Considering making an account to post on threads and/or instagram, if only because when I meet people in real life, they often ask for IG. Having more reach to share my work would also be nice. Not saying I'm a fan of Meta's practices over the years or their reckless disregard for privacy.

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Andrew @lisagui.com · 18/08/2026

I decided it does make sense to use the Lisa's horizontal pointer cursor for these selectable lists. It's a bit awkward, but it makes sense.

A vertical list of textual menu items. A pointer cursor (a hand pointing to the right) is pointing to one of them.

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Andrew @lisagui.com · 16/08/2026

Decided to recombine LisaGUI's view and housekeeping menus. To keep the menu's length under control, the visibility of some items is now determined by the active context (disk root, desktop, trash, or ordinary window), as opposed to just disabling the irrelevant items.

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Andrew @lisagui.com · 16/08/2026

A new LisaGUI build is out: - Dragging icons within a folder nudges the scroll position - Automatic repositioning of icons is animated. This occurs when "straightening up" a folder (auto-arranging the icons), when putting a file away from the desktop, and on shutdown. #apple #ux #icons #appleLisa

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Reposted by Andrew

RM @dorsalstream.bsky.social · 03/04/2026

The horse op-ed is an instant classic. I can't tell you how much joy this piece gives me. It should be taught in every introductory writing class in no small part because the horse arguments are so compelling. "I have noticed that human children get to eat cake. But I am bigger than the children."

I Work Very Hard, And I Would Like To Try Cake

By A Horse

Hello. I am a horse. I work very hard at my job of being a horse. When humans say move the heavy thing, I move the heavy thing. When humans sit on top of me and pull on my head, I carry them where they want to go. The main food the humans give me is hay and oats. But I am thinking it would be nice to have a different food.

I am thinking I would like to try cake.

Yes, yes. Cake. I know all about it. When humans eat cake, it is in glad times. It is the food for a celebration, such as when a woman becomes 47. I have seen cake on the Fourth of July. When humans have a cake, they stand around it and clap hands and smile and say happy birthday at each other. Sometimes there are beautiful markings on a cake, such as balloons or a pink shape.

Sometimes the top of a cake is on fire and a boy must blow on the fire with mouth wind. This is the scariest cake. I do not want this kind. But I will eat any other cake. Any cake that is not the fire cake that tries to kill the boy.

Please understand: I do not get money for doing work. I do not get to go inside the house. All I am either doing my horse job or standing in my pen or eating food off the floor. I always do these things. But I have never once gotten cake and I would like it very much.

I have noticed that human children get to eat cake. But I am bigger than the children. I am more helpful to the farm. Children do not move the heavy things like me or let anyone ride on them. And yet they get cake. Maybe the humans will realize this. Maybe they will say, "You know who deserves cake? That horse. That horse whose back we are always on."

Every day I dream about what it will be like if I get to eat cake. Here is what will happen. First, I will walk to the cake and putt my nose at it like hrrfff to make and stomping my hooves to make sure it is not a snake. Then I will trot in a circle to show that I am a horse and I am large. After that, I will nuzzle the cake to …

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Andrew @lisagui.com · 15/08/2026

Why do I even have the ability to like my own posts on social media sites, like BlueSky and Mastodon? Not only is it poor etiquette to do so, but redundant. Of course I like it, I'm the one who posted it.

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Andrew @lisagui.com · 08/08/2026

LisaGUI now displays an hourglass cursor when a wait dialog is present. You can also grab yourself a calculator from the desk accessories disk, although it might still have some bugs in it.

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Andrew @lisagui.com · 05/08/2026

Having thought about it, the favicon brightness feature is actually sort-of useful because it indicates whether LisaGUI is asleep. (Whether it's actually discernible depends on the difference between your normal brightness setting and your dimmed brightness setting.)

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Andrew @lisagui.com · 05/08/2026

Adjusted the styling of LisaGUI's mobile click cursor. Also, no one asked for it, but the brightness of the color palette of the favicon now matches the display.

A screenshot of LisaGUI with two circular overlays. The one on the left has a slight blur and an embossed rim. The one on the right is a simple flat overlay.

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Andrew @lisagui.com · 05/08/2026

Released a new LisaGUI build with a bug fix - open items were displayed on the desktop regardless of whether they were placed there. Also, the pointer icon has been updated to one that's a bit more authentic, based on one of the LisaGuide icons.

On the left: LisaGUI's pointer icon. On the right: An icon from the original LisaGuide tutorial application

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Andrew @lisagui.com · 03/08/2026

LisaGUI has touch controls; dragging one half of the screen moves the pointer; the other half presses the mouse button. I'm now using a second cursor instead of highlighting the entire mouse button div (it looked awful). This still needs more polish, but you can try it out in the latest build.

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Andrew @lisagui.com · 03/08/2026

I wonder if anyone at #Apple still uses #TextEdit for anything. There are a few bugs where the text view isn’t redrawn properly. It can happen when text is deleted (remaining visible until you add a few lines), or even while scrolling the document. They’ve been around for a while now.

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Andrew @lisagui.com · 28/07/2026

I wonder if some added text will garner more likes

Text next to an upvote button that says “…like this? Click here”

Text next to an upvote button that says “Thanks! :)”

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