6 ms·
> Three decades later, with the release of macOS 26.5, Apple caught up: you can finally set your Mac to 'Always' boot whenever power is restored, regardless of
by adrianmonk 3mo ago
> Three decades later, with the release of macOS 26.5, Apple caught up: you can finally set your Mac to 'Always' boot whenever power is restored, regardless of how it was shut down.
Back in the 1990s, a Mac sysadmin showed me a clever trick for this.
Get one specific Apple Desktop Bus keyboard that has a soft power key on it, I believe the Apple Extended Keyboard[1]. Then get a Bic pen[2]. Push down the power key on the keyboard, and while it's still down, wedge the pen cap between the key and the keyboard case.
The pen cap is the perfect size and shape to hold the key down, and Bic pens are easy to find. There are no ill effects from having the power key down all the time, and the Mac will boot up after a power failure. So you don't have to drive to work just to push the power button.
This was especially handy considering you sometimes needed to use Macs as servers (file server, printing, certain Mac-only applications, etc.), but Apple did not make servers.
---
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Extended_Keyboard https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Extended_Keyboard
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bic_Cristal https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bic_Cristal
- woadwarrior01 3mo agoIsn't it easier to scotch tape or better yet, duct tape it down?
- geerlingguy 3mo agoTape gets weaker, mechanical wedge would stay a bit longer.
- olelele 3mo agoDuct tape gets real nasty after a while
- rzzzt 3mo agoThe power button on the Macintosh IIsi could be turned with a flat-head screwdriver to achieve the same thing you describe (locking it in the permanently-powered state): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macintosh_IIsi#/media/File:Macintosh_IIsi_Ports.jpg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macintosh_IIsi#/media/File:Mac...
- geerlingguy 3mo agoThis was a neat hack in many of the early Macs between the 'big switch' ones (like the Mac Plus and SE) and the 'pushbutton' ones (like the Performas and Quadras). You could even do it with your fingernail; just push in and twist the power button, and it would stay in forever, and the Mac would automatically boot when you plug it in.
- Lammy 3mo agoMy Quadra 700 has this too
- geerlingguy 3mo agoOh nice—and a true classic, that's the one from Jurassic Park, right?
- Lammy 3mo agoYea verily, although it was a free street find in 2014 and not something I sought out because it was in the movie. Here she is: https://i.ibb.co/1YkhpHzv/Quadra700-Stack.jpg https://i.ibb.co/1YkhpHzv/Quadra700-Stack.jpg
- luckman212 3mo agoOh man that's nice. When I was in high school slugging along with a Mac LC, I dreamt of having the amazing Quadra 700 with its superior speed and graphics. Crazy that the price was $5,700 ($14K in 2026) and you just picked it out of the trash.
- mrpippy 3mo agoMy memory from classic Mac OS is that pushing the keyboard soft-power key brought up a system-modal dialog asking if you wanted to shut down, restart, or cancel, a dialog with exactly the same design as: <http://www.christianboyce.com/page25/files/tipofthedayjulyth1037127828_1.jpg http://www.christianboyce.com/page25/files/tipofthedayjulyth...> That would obviously not be compatible with a server, maybe if soft power was just constantly held down starting from boot that dialog wouldn't show up?
- m463 3mo agoI remember debugging with macs and lots of engineers had fishing weights with square bottoms to hold down keys. I didn't have one so made a few stacks of pennies I taped together. for example shift at boot, cmd+s, etc...