Recycled Computing

Stupid Pismo Tricks, 2008 Edition

- 2008.03.24

It's time for our completely random annual series of "Stupid Pismo Tricks". For those of you who own Pismos, this is familiar ground. To the rest of you, please be patient, and I will try to explain the esoteric foibles of this old Mac.

The Weight Saving Device

All Pismo owners know about the PowerBook weight-saving device. This is a hollow piece of plastic that fits into one of the Pismo drive bays to reduce the weight of the laptop. It is a pretty useless device to me, as I always have both bays filled with batteries or the DVD drive.

Or is it?

If you have a thin bladed standard jeweler's screwdriver or versatile fingernails, pry the weight-saving device apart.

At this point, you could use the device to store important paperwork and/or paper money, traveler's checks, etc. I find that once you pry the weight-saving device apart, it is easier each time to pull apart the device. I don't advise that you store the weight-saving device with your valuable loot in the Pismo's modular bays, as even the dumbest thief will steal a Pismo. (It's a computer, dude!) If you leave it around the hotel room, only the illiterate thief will steal it. Come to think of it, you're better off storing cables, dongles, or other tiny items that you use.
While the WSD (wow, that was a quick acronym) is open, you could fill it with sand, glue it together, and use it for a paperweight or doorstop.
While the WSD is open, you can use a Dremel tool (a dangerous object for those of us who probably shouldn't be using hand tools due to a proclivity for playing chess during shop class) and cut a couple of notches in the base and use it as an ashtray. (You shouldn't smoke.) And using the Dremel tool, you can clean up the top to use a drink coaster. (You probably shouldn't drink as well.)
You could convince somebody that without a WSD his Pismo is incomplete and sell him yours.
The problem with number 4 is that there doesn't seem to be a shortage of these things on the market, and practically any vendor has a supply of these things that they are more than willing to sell to you - cheap!
Since there seems to be no shortage of WSDs, maybe some future society will use them as a method of exchange. (Hey, Charlie! That hard drive will cost you 50 WSDs.)

Pismo as a DVD Player

Now this isn't that a stupid Pismo trick. Run down and pay for an S-video-to-RCA adapter. I had a sad experience with the DVD player that was attached to our TV in the bedroom. (I know - pure decadence, but if you have three teenagers in your house, you will understand why my wife and I retreat to our sanctum sanctorum.)

The DVD player had a laser that was misaligned and would have cost more that it was worth to repair. Pismo to the rescue! With the S-video adapter, the Pismo's DVD Player allows my wife and I to watch videos that appeal to the older generation. You know what I'm talking about - movies without a car explosion every 2 minutes.

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Mac of the Day: PowerBook 500 Series, introduced 1994.05.16. 'Blackbird' includes a 25 to 33 MHz 68040 along with smart batteries and grayscale or color displays.
May 16 in LEM history: 98: iMac reconsidered - 01: The exclusivist Mac - Cubed - Troubleshooting - 02: SE/30 catharsis - Microsoft free - 03: SCSI and OS X on a beige G3 - 05: Failures: Apple III and Lisa - Bigger, faster, more - 06: MacBook - PowerBook 3400 still useful - 07: 3 GB in a MacBook - 08: Mac Pro beats HP and Dell - Limited USB power in Santa Rosa Macs
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