oTunes has been rebranded to Loquat

The oTunes Mockup Tracklist Table Widget has been re-branded; to the Loquat Music Tracklist Table Widget. In addition to a new name, it has a new scheme!

Its former "oTunes" self sought to create song playlists for web pages decorated to look like iTunes 7. It has been re-skinned, to resemble the version of Apple Music that shipped with macOS 12 Monterey.

This update was made possible via screenshots of Apple Music running in Monterey, which has finally been made possible courtesy of Dozerfleet Labs acquiring a working copy of VirtualBox. Running this effectively required an upgrade to 16 MB of RAM, which is also intended to be used to speed along the final comics of Dozerfleet Comics in production, as well as produce Linux content and re-make the Shrimp on a Treadmill Calculator for numerous operating systems.

If you'd like to perform similar experiments, and are running Windows 10 or 11 as your host OS, you can start by downloading VirtualBox from here. Mac users should be able to handle this operation effortlessly, so long as they can take screenshots in Monterey and work on them inside of either Photoshop, Photoshop Elements, Gimp, or Krita. Linux users, similarly to Windows users, will want to have VirtualBox installed to run Monterey as a guest OS. Native Mac users can use VirtualBox, if they wish, to run guest OS versions of almost any version of Windows, as well as most Linux distros.

Dozerfleet Labs can finally run Monterey

It's been a long time coming; but macOS Monterey now runs on VirtualBox. This isn't without some caveats. For starters, the hard drive for it is small. It can be used now to upgrade The Sims 3, giving that game a new lease on life at Dozerfleet. It can also be used for testing Mac-side apps. However, it can't develop them directly. XCode + The Sims 3 requires too much space.

New SoaT development underway

A Windows version of the Shrimp on a Treadmill Calculator is under development. If it goes well, its compilation will be used as a launchpad for creating an Android version. Pending a new RAM module, a Mac version / iOS version may also be pending.

Dozerfleet folder icons for Windows and Mac now available

Dozerfleet Custom Project Icon Packs for Windows and Mac have now been added. If you're a fan, and wish you could decorate your folders for downloaded Dozerfleet content to the same standards used by Dozerfleet itself, the folder icons are now free for you to download and install yourself. Download page also references the software used to make these icons, in case you'd like to make your own.

A slight upgrade may be possible

Theoretically, Dell Inspiron 3650 machines can support up to 16 GB of RAM; but only up to 16 GB. And it has to be one very specific type of RAM module. One has been ordered. If shipped, and it works, this extra stick will, in theory:

• Make a virtual machine installation of Monterey possible.
• Allow Dozerfleet Main enough RAM to run The Sims 4 at more reasonable speeds.
• Allow Dozerfleet Main to run The Sims 4, Firefox, and Photoshop Elements all at once, competently, along with Affinity Publisher.

Lack of access to sufficient RAM has always been one of the most limiting factors to Dozerfleet Labs operations. Hopefully, this new purchase will remedy some of that.

The absurd reason the Shrimp on a Treadmill calculator can't go Mac

While implementation is pending on Mac folder icon fan packs, as well as their Windows equivalents, there is also pursuit being made to put the SoaT Government Waste Calculator into numerous app modes outside of its current web port. With some minor difficulty, a Windows EXE version may be possible.

However, an Android app would be truly ideal. These would work on most major phones, and could theoretically qualify for the Google Play Store. Yet, one market remains inaccessible: the iPhone market.

Strange as it may seem, Dozerfleet Main, at the time of this writing, isn't quite powerful enough to handle the demands for iOS development. Because it, like macOS development, may require XCode to run. Without being fleeced by the Apple Developers club, Dozerfleet Labs is restricted to only downloading the most recent version of XCode. That's problematic, for one key reason: the Virtual Box VDI file running macOS on Dozerfleet Main!

At the time of this post, Dozerfleet Main is operating out of a Dell tower from 2017. It is one of the last of its kind to still use DDR3 RAM, rather than DDR4. As such, it's near-impossible to secure a RAM upgrade to a module that can competently match the 8GB module currently inside. The module type demands for that specific sub-generation of DDR3 are simply too hard to come by. Worse: the power supply is barely able to run a RAM upgrade of any kind. This creates a near-impossible dilemma.

With no ability to upgrade to more RAM, Dozerfleet Main is deadlocked into a ceiling of only 8 GB of RAM, rather than the 32 GB that would be far more ideal for its intended purposes. This celing means that, at any given time, even an idle Dozerfleet Main can be consuming up to 4.7 GB in the background, just running Windows 10.

With fewer than the minimum 4 GB to give for a Virtual Box emulation of macOS Monterey to run on, Monterey simply cannot run at all. And that's when the assumption is made that a stable ISO for installing Monterey can be found in the first place!

Certain earlier versions of macOS can be installed, but will only work if given at least 2 GB of RAM to operate with. Dozerfleet Main is able to dedicate 3 GB of RAM to operate a macOS virtualization, and still have 700 MB of RAM left over. However, this still comes with the issue of finding a version of macOS that will run this. So far, the only stable virtualization that has lived up to the task is macOS Mojave. And therein lies the problem.

Dozerfleet Main, running macOS Mojave inside of Virtual Box, is able to successfully run LibreOffice, Krita, and Imag2icon. These three programs take the place of Photoshop Elements, Affinity Photo, Affinity Designer, IcoFX, and more, allowing the Mac side of Dozerfleet Main to pull off feats that are not possible on the Windows side without the aforementioned Windows-end programs. Yet, those same programs' Mac equivalents won't run or install on Mojave, since they are on the App Store. The App Store, as it were, will only allow back to Catalina to download the apps. Otherwise, all macOS installations are expected by the App Store to be either Monterey or Big Sur. Mojave is disqualified from most App Store content.

Barring the routine money to join the Apple Developers club, Dozerfleet Labs doesn't have access to older versions of XCode, which are needed to run XCode on Mojave. Therefore, while the fan icon packs are possible, and some image editing is possible, not all tasks on the Windows side can be replicated on the Mac side. LibreOffice Draw can fill in for Microsoft Publisher, but not for the more advanced Affinity Publisher, which is Serif's answer to Adobe InDesign.

Likewise, without XCode, the Mac equivalent to Visual Studio Community is off limits. This prevents the Shrimp on a Treadmill Government Waste Calculator from being turned into a macOS app. And with no way to make it for macOS, any version, there is also no good way to port it from Dozerfleet Main into a store app for the iPhone. Thus, no iPhone version is possible at this time.

With the right amount of plugins, the same Visual Studio on the Windows side that can be used to convert the web forms to Visual Basic forms, capable of being compiled into an EXE file on Windows, can also be used for making an Android port.

Therefore, measures are being pursued to make SoaT into an app for Google Play. Of all the apps in the Software and Crafts section of Dozerfleet Labs, none deserves the app port treatment more than this simple govenrment waste calcualtor.

Dozerfleet now making ICNS file fan packs

Now that Dozerfleet Labs has a successful virtual machine to run macOS Mojave, the Mac-side development of Dozerfleet can commense. However, early releases will be fan folder icon packs primarily. Hardware limitations prevent upgrades to a newer version, such as Big Sur or Monterey. This means that Dozerfleet Studios will still have to develop videos on the Windows side, using Premiere Elements. Final Cut is not available at this time for Dozerfleet Studios.

Dozerfleet Literature and Dozerfleet Comics will get new ICNS files for those wishing to have icon art on the Mac side for their favorite Dozerfleet projects. These, along with finally decoding the Albums Master to resurrect its icon libraries, has led to some chances for improved wiki artas well. Otherwise, all significant development of actual content will remain being done on the Windows side.

Dozerfleet Records may consider using GarageBand or similar Mac software in the future. But for the time being, little activity is occurring in this division.

Once icon packages have been completed, further Mac development will be halted, to get back to completing the remake of "Corando's Don't Lose Hope," along with the anthologies, etc. These will be followed by Volkonir 2008, and then with Blood Over Water, which will likely finish out the year.