Power Mac 9500 Project Ends on a Sour Note

2000: This is a story with a sad ending, and I’m not sure that it has any moral, but you may find it interesting. Our tale begins when my son was given the carcass of a Power Mac 9500 – the six-slot minitower that was Apple’s flagship desktop model back in 1996.

Are Aqua-Skeptics Luddites?

2000: In Bryan Chaffin’s latest The Back Page column on The Mac Observer, he argues that Apple was brilliant for showing Mac OS X’s new “lickable” Aqua user interface now, and he sharply chides the foot-draggers (your humble servant included) who have expressed misgivings about the GUI course that Apple has chosen to follow in […]

Apple to Get Toasted in Processor Speedstakes?

2000: Last week a reader named Mike Donahue asked if I would do an in-depth investigation into Apple’s CPU processor plans. I don’t know about in-depth – I don’t think I’m qualified – but this is a topic that I’m concerned about as well, so here is an overview at least. Others have been writing […]

From Pencil to PowerBook: One Writer’s Mac Odyssey

2000: With the proper wired infrastructure in place, there is no reason why e-businesses can’t operate virtually anywhere in the world. My own experience is a case in point. I live in an unlikely spot – the Eastern Shore of Nova Scotia, Canada, which is the extreme boonies even in a rural Nova Scotian context. […]

Are Extended Computer Warranties Worth the Cost?

2000: Apple Computer has revamped and enhanced it’s AppleCare Protection Plan extended warranty, which now provides two extra years of service and support for your Mac at a flat rate price, including telephone support, bundled third-party diagnostic tools, Apple-certified repairs, and 24-hour-a-day Internet support. But are extended warranties like AppleCare worth what they cost?

PowerBook Hard Drive Replacement Options

2000: As it approaches its first birthday, I am sorry to report that my PowerBook G3 Series 233’s 2 GB hard drive is beginning to get noisier, not as bad yet as my son’s identical machine became before it was stolen three days before Christmas, but it’s not the whisperingly quiet ‘Book it originally was […]

Pismo and Thin PowerBooks

1999: Dan Knight has already weighed in on this issue with The Next PowerBooks. I guess great minds think alike. I enjoyed reading Dan’s article, and I agree with most of what he said, finding his speculation about a possible thin and compact “MyBook” Apple portable (personally, I prefer the name “eBook” – for “executive” […]

Cat-lovers, Dog-lovers, and Computer Platforms

1999: A topic of enduring fascination for me is trying to analyze why people form polarized opinions and affinities about things. Why are some people liberals and others conservative? Why do some people like Chevies and others prefer Fords? Why do some like the toilet paper to unroll from the top while others adamantly insist […]

Backup Basics

1999 – I don’t back up my files nearly often enough. Theoretically, one should do it at least once a week. I do well to get to it once a month. It’s just a matter of the squeaky wheel getting the grease, and there always seems to be something more urgent to do than hooking […]

Legacy Macs and the Professional Wedding Photographer

1999: Many years B.C. (Before Computers), I made part of my living for a time as a wedding photographer. In those days I shot mostly with a Rolleicord twin lens reflex – a camera so civilized and quiet that I could often sneak a few available-light shots in the church without disturbing anyone, even if […]

USB Cards for PowerBooks with CardBus

1999: Getting kinda antsy waiting for USB connectivity for your WallStreet PowerBook? I know I am. There were supposed to be USB CardBus adapters for Macs shipping months ago. Originally the delay was reported to be the release date of Mac OS 8.6, but that came and went, and we’re almost ready for OS 9’s […]

Short Takes 9/23/99

Short Takes, Sept. 23, 1999 Cinema Display DFP – DFI Confusion Correction Why Doesn’t iBook Have A Sound-In Port? CD-R/RW Expansion Bay Drive For Wall Street PowerBooks Lombard SCSI Disk Mode Problems Discussed How To Beat The High Price Of Wall Street Internal Modems Trackpad Clicking Not Default-Enabled On iBook Moore’s Mailbag

PowerBook Upgrades, Bootleg and Otherwise

1999: Last month, the PowerBook Guy was offering 292 MHz/1 MB cache daughter cards to upgrade Series I WallStreet 233 (no cache) PowerBooks. The bad news is that (a) the 292 MHz card wouldn’t work in my WallStreet Series II 233 MHz (512 KB cache), and (b) they sold out in a couple of days.