Whether you spare just one lucky pumpkin from the death of a thousand cuts or buy one anyway and put it directly into the cooking pot for pie filling, you can make a ‘green’ statement on the night that’s traditionally bathed in black and orange by displaying a Mac-O-Lantern.

Technically, that’s an old, still-working, one-piece Macintosh computer (which you may have in storage somewhere, in a dark corner of the basement or the back of a closet) resurrected, painted bright orange and lit up with a big, bright Mac Paint Jack-o-Lantern face on its screen.

The old, original Macs are ideal for this application because of their shape and size, eerily like a good-sized (albeit, square) pumpkin. But you can use any old computer and monitor as a technology platform and any paint or draw graphics program to create the face. Strictly speaking, you don’t even have to paint the monitor orange. In fact, if you have a colour monitor you can use, just drape it with a black cloth and create a full-screen Jack-O-Lantern image in traditional orange and black.

Now, I know some readers are already thinking about what they could do with a rolling Power Point presentation, rather than just a static pumpkin face… Well, it’s your ‘Mac-O-Lantern’, so go to town!

For advanced computer users who really, really love Hallowe’en, there’s the ultimate digital fright night display option: A full-blown video scare show rear-projected on a plain white sheet hung inside your front window.

(Tip: If you use only images and avoid text, you won’t have to worry about anything appearing backwards to viewers outside, on the street…)

From all of us at TECHLife Post, have a happy, safe Hallowe’en!