Has Anyone Seen Paul C. Pratt Online in the Last Year?

[ajacocks]

I have been a long (long!) term lurker, here, but never posted before.

Has anyone seen an update to the status of Mini vMac, or any post from Paul C. Pratt, since May of 2021? Normally, I'd just assume that he has been busy, but with the state of the world, lately, I'm concerned.

- Alex

[adespoton]

I have to admit, I haven't, and as you've noticed, he hasn't updated his mail archive since then. Has anyone else heard from Paul in the past year?

[macplus]

I too am concerned as well, but I haven't heard anything from him in particular.

[ajacocks]

I just dropped an email via the gryphel.com email form, and will update the thread if I hear anything back.

- Alex

[werdna]

I'd also like to say I'm concerned. A little while back I also sent a message and I have yet to receive a response. Does anyone know if there's a better way to get in touch with him aside from his email/email form?

[ClockWise]

Anyone get a response? Paul isn't a guy with much of a social media footprint, that's for sure.

[adespoton]

After still not getting any responses from Paul, I thought I'd go a different route:
Gryphel.com was last renewed on 2021-06-09. So that gets us two months further along.

Unfortunately, I also found obituaries from August, but they're from Anderson, Indiana, and the last I knew, "our" Paul lived in Ithaca, NY. Of course, that was over a decade ago.

There are other Paul C Pratts that show up that are definitely not him.

[emendelson]

If our Paul C. Pratt lived in Ithaca NY, he has a listing available online (with address and partial telephone number) saying he's 53 years old. The one in Indiana was much older and clearly wasn't a programmer (judging from the obituaries).

[adespoton]

If our Paul C. Pratt lived in Ithaca NY, he has a listing available online (with address and partial telephone number) saying he's 53 years old. The one in Indiana was much older and clearly wasn't a programmer (judging from the obituaries).

Good... so he's probably not dead

I also know Paul's got a full-time regular job, and Gryphel-related stuff takes lower priority as-needed. So we may just see him pop up again whenever he's got breathing space.

So, for (hopefully) when that happens: Hi, Paul! You had us worried!

[emendelson]

If our Paul C. Pratt lived in Ithaca NY, he has a listing available online (with address and partial telephone number) saying he's 53 years old. The one in Indiana was much older and clearly wasn't a programmer (judging from the obituaries).

Good... so he's probably not dead

Unfortunately, a listing like this doesn't imply that someone is alive. No one removes those listings when someone dies; that's why you'll often see people listed as living at some address, aged 105 or more. I looked up a few people who died in the past two years; they're all listed there in the same way they were listed before they died.

One of the listings for Paul C. Pratt provides a phone number. I don't have the nerve to cold-call. Perhaps someone else does?

[ajacocks]

If we can't get in touch with him any other way, it might be worth it.

Does anyone have any personal contacts with him?

- Alex

[ClockWise]

Let's not assume the worst.

I have a handful of personal email addresses I have used to reach Paul over the past 21 years (!). I'll cycle through them over the next couple weeks.

[swordlink1]

Did you get any response yet?

[ClockWise]

Sadly no. But I tried another address this morning.

[swordlink1]

Well, the state of the world didn't start going bad until early 2022, and he went inactive in mid 2021. Should clear things up and make everything less worrying... hopefully.

[ClockWise]

I assume he is just enjoying some time away from computer screens!

[swordlink1]

I assume he is just enjoying some time away from computer screens!

away from computer screens for 10 months*

Let's hope that's the case.

My worry level: Giga worried

[emendelson]

I decided to try the phone number listed for Paul C. Pratt in Ithaca NY. Last week, when I tried it, I got a prompt to leave a message (but I didn't leave one). Today I tried it again, and got a "This number is not in service" message. I assume this is very bad news.

[swordlink1]

First, I got COVID on May 13th, 2022, and now the number on Paul's listing suddenly stopped working. That's more than just bad.

I've sent a message to Paul via the feedback form, let's hope it does something.

My worry level: Tremendously worried

[thecloud]

Paul's personal domain, gryphel.net, was last updated on 2021-11-08 according to `whois`. At that point, seven months had passed without an update to the gryphel.com website (and many years with no new gryphel.net content), but it seems plausible that he was still around in November despite the lack of activity. People do move around, take off for extended periods to travel, experience life-altering events, lose interest in previous pursuits, need to care for family members, and so on. That said, the past year has seen much loss so it's natural to consider that possibility too.

I do hope Paul resurfaces and Mini vMac 37 finally gets released. But if the Gryphel domains go away at some point, it's reassuring to know that the Internet Archive has a full backup of the site.

[emendelson]

The Gryphon site may have been set to auto-renew at the hosting company. So it's possible that the November renewal doesn't signify anything more than that. But if no one is paying for the site, then eventually it will probably disappear.

[galgot]

I decided to try the phone number listed for Paul C. Pratt in Ithaca NY. Last week, when I tried it, I got a prompt to leave a message (but I didn't leave one). Today I tried it again, and got a "This number is not in service" message. I assume this is very bad news.

Maybe if there is another person named Pratt in Ithaca NY with a phone nmr, with a different forename, could be a family member. Could have info from there ?
EDIT: ... just checked, Pratt seems to be a very common name in the US... :/ too many.
Though check here :
https://www.whitepages.com/name/Paul-C- ... haca,%20NY
Can see persons related to a Paul Chapman Pratt.
Can't try calling myself, I'm not in the US, can't log to see the numbers.

[werdna]

Does he have an account here, on this forum, or on any other forums like 68kMLA? If so, has anyone tried messaging him that way?

[adespoton]

Does he have an account here, on this forum, or on any other forums like 68kMLA? If so, has anyone tried messaging him that way?

He does. He hasn't responded to any messages sent to him via those routes or his own website feedback form since last April. A number of us have already exhausted our existing known contact methods.

[Lucss21a]

If he's going back online, I want to add support with a different copy of the Twiggy 4.3T ROM in Mini vMac, and here's the info:

Code: Select all

Filename: Twig43.ROM
MD5 hash: e4faf3ecb169b875a1e66abbd5306b52
CRC32 hash: d2c42f18
How to replicate:
1. Go and download "TwiggyMacROMsCombined.zip on https://www.macintoshrepository.org/32455-mac-twiggy-rom-ver-4-4t-and-4-3t
2. Compile the interlace program
2.1 Clone this repo: https://github.com/drojaazu/interleave
2.2 Install clang
2.3 Compile using make
3. Copy the ROMs in the same directory as the program
4. Copy this command: ./interleave HIGHX.BIN LOWX.BIN > Twig43.ROM
5. Verify the results by checking the string "ROM 4.3T 07/04/83" on a hex editor.