Outliners as Lean Word Processors
From Sean M. Kelly:
Dan,
I enjoy the discussion of lean word
processors and just wanted to chime in my experience. I use a
Mac Classic running OS 6,
occasionally a Macintosh TV, as
well as a beige G3 Power
Mac for writing and "thinking" without the distractions and "bling"
of my MacBook Pro.
The program that I have most fell in love with is MORE 3.1. While technically it
would be more described as an outliner as opposed to a word processor,
it is lean, very easy to use, and my MORE documents are easily opened
with OmniOutliner
(though not backwards compatible). Before MORE, I had used the
extremely simple Acta with
enjoyment. Both are available for free download and both work on OS
6-9.
Thanks for the link to WriteNow 4. I'll check it out too!
Training to make a difference in 2008,
Sean M. Kelly
Sean,
Wow, that brings back memories. I remember using MORE
for a statewide Apple sales competition over 15 years ago. I don't
remember much about it, other than it was easy to use and I won a Sharp
BOSS organizer for taking second place (and I never did figure that
thing out!).
I do most of my writing in Claris Home Page, which
could also be considered a light, lean word processor - but it creates
HTML files, not Word or AppleWorks files. I often wish for a WYSIWYG
HTML editor that would let me collapse the text between headings, as
that would be a very helpful feature when working with long
articles.
Long live old Macs (and old Mac software)!
Dan
Mac Compatible PCMCIA WiFi Cards
From Gerald Wilson:
Dear Dan,
I've verified on both Pismo and Lombard that, running Panther fully
patched, each PowerBook can connect easily over WiFi using a
third-party CardBus card which has the same Broadcom 54g chipset
internals as are found in Apple's own AirPort Extreme internal
cards.
The PowerBook identifies the card as "AirPort". It treats it as if
it were (say) the internal AirPort Extreme card in a later model G4
PowerBook. You configure and connect as normal. You have full WiFi
capability including WPA2; hence you can connect to a fully controlled
corporate network with highest-level encryption if need be.
An example of such a card is the Dell TrueMobile 1300. Oh bitter
irony.
With the Pismo's own internal AirPort card (Apple original AirPort
card), you can connect to highly-secured WiFi networks, albeit at 11b
not 11g but only with WPA not full WPA2. WPA2 mandates the
sophisticated AES encryption standard. WPA uses the lesser (though
still secure) TKIP algorithm. The classic Orinoco chipset of Apple's
original AirPort card is too feeble to handle AES. This means that a
Pismo with Apple internal AirPort is locked out of any WiFi network
using highest-level encryption. Likewise, an early model G4 Titanium
PowerBook would be locked out. Likewise any pre-AirPort Extreme
iceBook. The Pismo and TiBook can use a third-party CardBus card to
gain 11g and WPA2/AES access. The iceBooks, lacking a slot, cannot.
Sympathetic admins can leave a secure WiFi running in "mixed node",
which will accept both WPA and WPA2 connections from clients.
Unsympathetic admins may not do this, especially where corporate or
government standards mandate use of AES. Both Apple's AirPort Extreme
and AirPort Express Base Stations can run in WPA/WPA2 mixed mode.
In theory, an external Orinoco PC-card will have the same WPA
limitation as an Apple internal AirPort card. I have not checked
this.
In theory, the same limitations and capabilities will apply to
Orinoco or Broadcom chipped devices connected to Macs by other means
(such as USB or internal PCI slot). I haven't checked this either.
It's known that WPA capability ain't found in Mac AirPort drivers
pre late-Jaguar. In essence: If you need to connect to a highly-secure
WiFi network, Panther should be considered your minimum OS. OS 8.6 and
OS 9 users need not apply. I have verified that neither my Lombard nor
Pismo, when booted in 9.2.2, can talk to a WPA WiFi network no matter
what card I try to use. So that's a tough one for Classic Mac
users.
rgds,
Gerald WW
Gerald,
Thanks for all your research. I'm under the impression
that the 802.11b standard itself doesn't support WPA2, but I could be
mistaken.
I'm of the mind that the best course is probably two
WiFi hubs rather than mixing 802.11b and 802.11g/n on one. Use the
newer, faster hub with WPA2 encryption and run the 802.11b hub from one
of its ethernet ports with "plain" WPA. That keeps your 802.11g/n
hardware running at maximum efficiency and restricts 802.11b users to a
slower, less secure WiFi connection. You might even put further
restrictions on the 802.11b router, such as blocking certain ports.
Fortunately there are plenty of 802.11g/n USB dongles
and CardBus cards for those who want to make older Macs work with
faster, more secure networks.
Dan
Disappointed with iWork
From Bob Forsberg:
Dan
I noticed your comments on AppleWorks being all you really need. I
have the same feeling and used it in its various Apple/Claris Works
versions since it came out.
I invested in iWork, a great suite. Until I discovered I cannot
import/convert my years of AppleWorks drawing or text/word documents. A
waste of money and useless to me now. I just expected and assumed Pages
would import my AppleWorks documents.
Bob Forsberg
Bob,
Pages and Numbers can't open your AppleWorks files by
double-clicking them or dragging them onto the appropriate icon, but
once you're in these programs, you can import your old AppleWorks
files. It worked very nicely for me, and considering the problems I've
been having with AppleWorks for months now (it sometimes, but by no
means always, takes text input very, very, very slowly - like seconds
between registering keys), it might be time to invest in iWork 08.
Dan
Maxed Out Digital Audio Running Leopard
From Paul Pollock:
Because I have arrived at the conclusion that PowerBooks are very
sensitive to overheating under 10.5.x (already blew up my PB G4/1.5
GHz, and is overheating my G4 iBook), I decided to stick with PPC and
bought a G4 Digital
Audio on
eBay for $77!!! I then upgraded it the max (that was my plan
<grin>).
Presently, this system includes a 4-port USB 2.0 card, an ATI-9800 Pro video card (I ran into
dropped frames with the stock Rage Pro-128/16 MB card).
The bigger video card has fixed DVD Player and VLC (and everything
else that is video related). However, it does not work under
OS 9 at all (creates a grey screen for some reason, but kill
extensions and the thing works, I tried to figure what was conflicted,
no soap), so OS X only for the present.
System also now includes 1.5 GB memory, 2 Seagate 250 GB Barracudas
(with 16 MB caches), and an Acard RAID card. Now also has a dual
processor 1.6 GHz. Geekbench score is around 1200 (My PB 1.5 GHz was
around 800). Xbench equally impressive, 107-MB/sec on drive test.
I would have liked to try a G5, but requires additional modules in
the OS to run properly. Could not just clone from an existing backup,
but G5 would have been a lot faster.
Hope this info is helpful.
-Paul Pollock
Paul,
Thanks for your report. There's a lot of life in those
old G4 Power Macs, especially with a better video card, lots of RAM,
and fast hard drives. I still use one daily, although going Intel is
increasingly tempting for some things (video, geni.com).
Dan
Clamshell iBook Hacks for Fun and Nonprofit
Dan
I am the proud owner of a new to me 466 MHz key lime iBook G3,
which was given to me in exchange for a couple spays and neuters (I'm a
vet work at a nonprofit in Ohio). I had a graphite 466 way back in
school and have always regretted parting ways with it (I upgraded to a
Titanium G4, then 12 inch G4, which saw me through school admirably). I
popped some more RAM (to 576 MB) and Panther, and was off.
Overall I was pretty happy with the performance, but got lots of
spinning beachballs, and the 800 x 600 display was very limiting, as
many others have noted. Since I got this mostly to play with, I decided
to try ShapeShifter out. I
downloaded a few themes and was extremely surprised to find that the
overall performance of the machine seemed to improve with certain
themes, most notably Max Lumberg's XP
theme (luna). Far less spinning beachballs, windows seem snappier,
etc.
I also downloaded a few web browsers to see which one worked best
with an old clamshell, and I'm by far the happiest with Opera - particularly since you can zoom web
pages to any percent you want (90, 80, 70, etc.). At 90% with minimum
font size set to 10, it's almost like I have a 1024 x 768 screen
resolution, albeit only in the web browser. Firefox doesn't support
page zoom at the moment, version 3 (still in beta) will, but it
requires Tiger. I couldn't find any Firefox Mac add-ons that support
page zoom; if your readers know of any, or other browsers that support
page zoom, I'd love to hear from them. I'd also be curious to hear if
anyone else has seem performance improvements with ShapeShifter.
Perhaps some of themes are less resource intensive than Panther's
brushed metal, which frankly is ugly anyway.
Keep up the great work at Low End,
David Maloney DVM
David,
Thanks for writing. I haven't used Opera very much,
but if you have a mouse with a scrollwheel, you can hold down the Cmd
key and scroll the wheel to zoom in and out. As so many websites these
days assume you have a 1024 x 768 or larger display, I imagine that's
very useful with your clamshell iBook.
I'm pleased that you've found a way to make Panther
more responsive on your older Mac. I haven't tried ShapeShifter myself,
but I can see where different themes could really improve the speed of
the interface on G3 Macs.
Dan
Lombard and External Widescreen Monitors
From Gerald Wilson following up on More Pismo Resolutions with an External
Monitor:
Dear Dan,
I repeated the connection test of widescreen Dell 2007WFP but from a
Lombard.
Lombard very limited: only 640 x 480, 800 x 600, 1024 x 768, 1280 x
960 and 1280 x 1024. All of these naturally stretched and somewhat
distorted on 1680 x 1050 native widescreen.
This is a clear win for the Pismo, which I had not
anticipated. I think you or Charles Moore have discovered that Pismo's
graphics is via AGP in any case.
I'll try to get data from an iceBook (with screen spanning enabled),
and I may be able to test also with a 24" jumbo widescreen (native 1920
x 1200).
rgds
Gerald WW
Gerald,
Thanks for sharing your findings. All things
considered, the Pismo is definitely the way to go if you're looking for
a flexible G3 PowerBook.
Dan
Collective Nouns
Hi Dan,
Hooray for John Black!
I agree with him completely, Apple as a company should be treated as
singular (and I'm from England). The singular usage would be common in
England, I'm sure, though some would use the plural. When some
collective nouns (e.g. government, team, audience) are used (by some
people) as plural, one can imagine the word 'members' as a skipped or
missing word. So if one says 'the audience were', this is equivalent to
the longer form 'the audience members were'.
I read your link on the subject, but here's
another which says that it is perfectly acceptable to treat any
collective noun as singular (all over the world). Many collective nouns
are always be treated as singular (e.g. 'the bunch of grapes was given
to me', would anyone write 'were given'?). It is not sensible to think
of any corporate entity as a collection of approximately equal members,
all with 'input' to any action or decision or policy; in this sense a
corporation is different from an audience, or team, or government.
Very good site, keep up the good work.
David Lye (Toronto)
David,
As a one-time English major, I cringe when I read
"Apple are" in a headline or in a reader comment on The Register - and
that happens pretty much daily. Educated in the States, I learned that
collective nouns are always treated as singular things, and in my
writing and editing, I try to refer to Apple as "it" rather than "they"
- but I'm sure I'm not completely consistent on that one.
I wouldn't object at all to the worldwide
discontinuation of treating a collective noun as plural, but until it's
banned by some English language standards body (as though such a thing
exists!), I'm not going to prevent my readers and writers from using
plural verbs with collective nouns.
Dan
Dan Knight has been publishing Low
End Mac since April 1997. Mailbag columns come from email responses to his Mac Musings, Mac Daniel, Online Tech Journal, and other columns on the site.
