Macbook M1 Accessories

The M1 Macbook has only an audio jack and two USB C ports, so a dongle was a necessary expenditure. I ended up buying the model shown in Figure 1. It only cost about Rp300,000 or A$30, so certainly not expensive. It was bought online of course. In a store, it would have cost twice as much.

Figure 1

After clipping it in securely, it is working fine. I tested it out by inserting a memory card. However, I left it connected overnight and noticed a significant drop in the battery percentage. The problem is that the dongle lights up in blue when inserted which is useful in a way but it also drains the battery. I don't think there's any way to disable the light, so it's only to be inserted as needed. I have a USB 3 card reader with USB C connector so I can use that where memory cards are involved and it doesn't draw any power. For HDMI output however, I'll need the dongle.

So far I've downloaded VLC for playing movies, Calibre for my ebook library, Chess X for playing and analysing chess moves and SageMath for mathematical investigation. Most of the work I do is done within the Chrome browser.

Macbook Air M1

Having acquired a Macbook Air M1 for my birthday, I set about getting Astrolog to run on it under Wine. I succeeded under Linux but it's proving frustrating using the Macintosh operating system running on the newer non-Intel chip. I've had Astrolog running quite happily on my 2013 Macbook Pro when the Mac OS was installed. The error message when trying to get WINE to run the astrolog.exe mentions "bad CPU type" so the newer CPU seems to be the problem.

There is a Macintosh version but it only seems to work in the terminal and produces output as shown in Figure 1. As the documentation says:

The main difference from the Windows version is that it does not offer a Graphical User Interface, and so you will not find a mouse-driven menu system or dialog interface. However, it offers just about everything else. You can even draw temporary squiggles/annotations with your mouse ona chart displayed in X11.

This is clearly of limited use and takes me back to the bad old days of the late 1980s using MS-DOS on a 286 PC.

Figure 1

Of course I could install Virtual Box and run astrolog.exe under Windows proper but it's a lot of trouble to go to for just one program so it's a problem that I'll have to keep working on. Here is what Google's Gemini had to say about the problem when I asked the question:

I have installed WINE on my Macbook Air but it will not run astrolog.exe. I keep getting an error message. Here is what it says. If you can understand it, you're a better man than me (I then copied the entire error message).

The error message you provided indicates an issue with running astrolog.exe using Wine on your Apple Macbook Air with M1 chip. Here's a breakdown of the error and potential solutions:

Understanding the Error: 

"Bad CPU type in executable": This is the core issue. Wine expects a program compiled for a specific CPU architecture (likely x86 for traditional computers). However, your Macbook Air uses an M1 chip with ARM architecture, which is different. Astrolog.exe is likely compiled for x86 and incompatible with your Mac's CPU.

Why Wine Doesn't Work with M1 Macs (for now):

Wine typically translates instructions from Windows programs to work on the underlying system's architecture. However, M1 chips are a significant departure from Intel x86 architecture, and full compatibility with Wine is still under development.

Possible Solutions (Limited)

There are unfortunately no guaranteed solutions to run astrolog.exe directly on your M1 Mac with Wine at this time. Here are some possibilities to consider, but keep in mind their limitations:

Alternative Software: Explore if there are alternative astrology software programs that are native to macOS or have web-based versions.

Crossover (Paid Software): Crossover is a commercial alternative to Wine that attempts to run Windows applications on macOS. It might have better compatibility with M1 Macs than the free Wine version, but there's no guarantee it will work with astrolog.exe specifically.

Virtualization with Windows on ARM (Experimental): There are ongoing efforts to run Windows on ARM processors through virtualization. While Microsoft does offer a limited preview of Windows 11 for ARM on compatible devices, it's still in development and might not be suitable for everyday use yet.

Recommendation:

Since Wine isn't a reliable option for astrolog.exe on your M1 Mac at this point, investigating alternative software or waiting for potential future compatibility improvements in Wine or virtualization solutions might be the best course of action.

Of course, there's paid astrology software for the Mac but I've gotten used to using Astrolog for free over many years and it does all I need it to do.