How best to access (possibly outmoded) Complete New Yorker DVD set?

January 12, 2013 10:41 AM

I have a Complete New Yorker DVD set. My current Mac OS (10.7.5) doesn't support it any longer. ("PowerPC applications are no longer supported.") Is there a way to download individual issues on my ipad? (I know that, theoretically, I could go back and look at old issues via the New Yorker app, although it isn't clear how far back the electronic archive goes.) Or is there a way to view this stuff on my current Mac?
posted by Mr. Justice to Computers & Internet (10 answers total)

Was your current Mac once able to run Snow Leopard (10.6)? If so, you could look into running it on your now-10.7.5 Mac within a virtualized setting with Parallels. Within a 10.6 environment, you can run Rosetta and therefore run PPC apps like the New Yorker DVD viewer app.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 10:47 AM on January 12, 2013

PearPC? I've never used it myself, though, so I can't report on the efficacy of it.
posted by XMLicious at 10:54 AM on January 12, 2013

Three people bought me that DVD set.

I'm pretty sure the electronic archive is complete.
posted by roger ackroyd at 10:57 AM on January 12, 2013

According to this post from Boing Boing which directs one to this set of instructions, it's possible to extract the files from the DVD set. If you were to do that, you might be able to figure out a way to browse them with an alternate database-reading app, as they are stored in an SQLite database. Lots and lots of Mac apps use SQLite to store their data (it's pretty standard), so it seems somewhat feasible.
posted by bcwinters at 11:28 AM on January 12, 2013

Sadly, it seems that instructions page Boing Boing linked to is no longer live...
posted by incessant at 2:26 PM on January 12, 2013

Apparently there is some sort of update CD. Given that they mention Win Vista, it must be a bit more current than the original. (both newyorker.com)

The Complete New Yorker: FAQ: Update DVD 1.1

And some sort of page for notifications of updates.

Complete New Yorker Contact Sign Up
posted by lampshade at 2:32 PM on January 12, 2013

There's a Wayback Machine version of those extraction instructions, although it looks to be a bit of a pain to deal with and certainly not a straightforward solution.
posted by bcwinters at 5:59 PM on January 12, 2013 [1 favorite]

The few times I've needed to contact TNY help they've been really helpful and respond to email very quickly. Good luck!
posted by cestmoi15 at 6:29 PM on January 12, 2013

The issues are DRM-encumbered .djvu files, viewable only by the New Yorker software.
posted by unmake at 2:42 PM on January 13, 2013 [1 favorite]

This comment sounds smart--if in fact there are PDFs in there:
"Chances are very, very, very high that the only thing that has actually stopped working on that disk is a player program (ported badly from Windows, no doubt) that "played" the PDF files for you.

A dig around that disc is VERY likely to reveal the PDFs themselves, which can be copied over and read on Preview or many other programs."
www.mac-forums.com/forums/os-x-apps-games/286448-power-pc-apps

There's a Djvu Viewer that I can attest runs on Mountain Lion at sourceforge.net/djvu/ - if that's any help.

(Am trying to decide whether to buy this thing.)
posted by zo219 at 7:05 PM on February 14, 2013