No Widescreen Computer Displays for Me
From Ted Hoofar:
Dan:
Finally! I've been waiting to hear from someone else in the world
that doesn't like this trend toward wide (and wider) screen displays.
In my office, accessing zillions of files listed on servers, I have
found that the 4:3 ratio works best for me. However, I've been shopping
for a standard shaped monitor lately, and all I see in stores are these
widescreen jobs. I can never get the sales people to understand that I
need the extra height to compensate for the dock. In fact, if you think
about it, OS X essentially makes your 4:3 monitor widescreen by
default because of the dock.
If I may add to your point, what these widescreen monitors giveth in
virtual desktop, they taketh away in actual desktop. At home I work on
music and have two sets of speakers on my desk. My house is small, and
in turn my music/computer room is small, and thus my desk is small, so
my desktop real estate is rather precious. Lately I've been using an
old 14" LCD monitor (I'll pause while some readers point and laugh) to
make everything fit. I would like to eventually move up to a 17" or
19", but looking at these new monitors in stores I'm going to have to
shop for a used one to get the dimensions I need.
These new monitors have stunning clarity, 10,000:1 contrast ratio
and resolutions that might as well go to infinity, but I do wish some
manufacturers out there would understand that some of us need to work
"vertically".
Ted Hoofar
Ted,
Here's a tip: Some monitors pivot, including the Dell
on my desk. I can go to System Preferences, select Displays, and rotate
90°, pivot the display to 1024 x 1280, and click the Confirm
button. I don't do it often, and video runs slower on my older Power
Mac G4, but sometimes when working on a lengthy column or new roundup,
it's the best way to work.
I used to think that square monitors would make sense,
as they could display vertical or horizontal content without the
hassles of pivoting, but it would be a hard sell.
Dan
Monitors Need More Vertical Space, not Less
From Kenichi Watanabe:
Dan,
You are right on the money with this article.
My main display is 1600 x 1200 (4:3), and I love the vertical space.
It's an old high-end ultra-sharp 21-inch flat screen CRT that I got at
a local computer surplus store for a low-end price. My second display
is the display on my 17-inch iMac Core 2 Duo, sitting off to the right
and connected to my main display via the mini-DVI port. So I've
reversed the way most people use iMacs as a two-display system. But I
keep the Menu Bar and and Dock on the "secondary" iMac display. Why? To
maximize the vertical space on my main display even more! And with
modern apps (and web pages) having most controls on the window,
having the menu bar across the top of my main display does not seem so
essential. Power users use keyboard shortcuts anyway.
I don't know about others, but my eyes work better scanning up and
down. I don't mind turning my whole head to look at a window on the
second display, but looking side to side on the same display feels
inefficient and tiresome.
When my huge CRT finally fails, I certainly hope I can still buy a
big 4:3 LCD display to replace it. Maybe I should buy one now....
- Ken
Ken,
Sometimes there's an advantage to being out of step
with the rest of the world - when they all buy widescreen displays,
those older monitors should become even cheaper. And 1600 x 1200 sure
sounds nice, although I'm comfortably getting by with 1280 x 1024.
:-)
Dan
Reading MacWrite Files
From Mark Hurvitz:
Dear Dan,
My first Macintosh was a 512Ke. My brother-in-law had
purchased an original Macintosh and
showed me what I could do, and that was the beginning.
I have always copied old files from floppies onto newer media, and I
have a number of files going all the way back. However, as they are
MacWrite files, they are in a weird format, and I cannot read their
text.
Do you have a suggestion?
Write on!
Mark Hurvitz
Mark,
Without knowing what you have access to, it's hard to
say. If you have access to a Mac running the Classic Mac OS or have a
PowerPC Mac with Mac OS X and Classic Mode, you should be able to
import the files in ClarisWorks/AppleWorks and older versions of
Microsoft Word. (I'm pretty sure Word 5 still supported MacWrite
import.)
Another option is a program called Quill, which is a
Desk Accessory for the Classic Mac OS. Online sources say it isn't
pretty, but it gets the job done and doesn't require you to own Word,
ClarisWorks, or an old enough version of MacLinkPlus translators that
still included MacWrite support. I have no MacWrite files for testing
the program, but you can download it at
<http://ftp.actrix.co.nz/macintosh/apps/wp/quill.sit> - let me
know if it works!
Dan
Dear Dan,
I'm sorry for not giving you the basic information... silly me!
Yes, I have a MacBook G4 with Classic on it. It even has AppleWorks.
I never use AppleWorks . . . especially not its word
processor. I'm a Nisus guy.
Thanks for the thorough reply.
Mark,
You're missing out on a great spreadsheet program, a
decent word processor, and a usable drawing program, so even if you're
sold on Nisus, there are reasons to give it a try. I'm not sure that
recent versions include conversion support for MacWrite, but early
versions had it.
Dan
Unleash Old Macs and Bad RAM with Linux
From Timothy Sipples:
I read Carl Nygren's article, Mac
OS X 10.2 'Jaguar' Can Unleash the Power of G3 iBooks, with
interest about rehabilitating a 128 MB iBook G3. (The iBook was reduced
to 128 MB because of a bad RAM module.)
One disadvantage to 10.2 is that modern browser options are limited,
and security-related patches are no longer available from Apple. Carl
considered Ubuntu Linux but discovered that Ubuntu uses too much
memory.
But Ubuntu is not the only Linux option for the G3. There's a lower
memory version available called Xubuntu, with a so-called alternate
installation CD that works on systems with even lower memory. Another
choice is Debian Linux. You can install Debian on very low memory
systems by choosing a reduced memory window manager such as Blackbox. I
installed Debian Linux on a Quadra 700 and could actually get a
graphical interface working, believe it or not. The G3 is luxury in
comparison.
However, don't throw away that bad RAM module just yet. There's a
Linux kernel driver called "badram" that is included with certain
distributions - and available for all others if you can manage to
recompile your own kernel. You start by running any RAM diagnostic
program that can record the address ranges for bad memory. (Many Linux
distributions have such a diagnostic program, called memtest.) Assuming
some of the RAM on the module is still functional, you can then pass
the bad address ranges to the Linux kernel (and badram) at bootup time.
Badram keeps that bad memory from being used by any applications, so
the system keeps running and avoids stepping on faulty address ranges.
Badram can set aside as few as 4 bytes of bad memory.
Now this assumes that the memory module has predictable, fixed
errors in specific address regions rather than growing errors over
time. It also assumes that the iBook's ROM will still allow a bootup
with that defective module. But assuming Carl's iBook clears those
hurdles, badram might rescue some otherwise "low end" memory that would
otherwise go to waste.
There are more details about badram from its author at <http://rick.vanrein.org/linux/badram/>.
Timothy Sipples
Timothy,
Thanks for writing. I've been experimenting with
Debian and Xubuntu on my 400 MHz iMac, and I have to say that they are
not yet nearly as easy to use as Macs. But both work decently on the
stock 4200 rpm 10 GB hard drive. Once I have the time to install a 7200
rpm 40 GB or 80 GB drive, it should be a lot better.
Thanks for the tip about badram - what a clever
hack!
Dan
Fedora Linux on G3 Macs
From MP:
Dan:
FYI, Fedora 9 works on the G3 iMac 400 DV (circa 1999, 400 MHz,
slot-loading DVD-ROM, 640 MB of RAM, 20 GB hard drive - not
original).
I had a bit of difficulty installing initially - I don't remember
which package was causing the problem. So I dropped back to doing a
more minimal install. Then, after Fedora 9 was up and running, I added
in more packages via yum.
Initially, I was unable to get X started. After the most recent
Fedora 9 updates to X, though, X is running fine. For whatever value it
might provide to others, here is my working /etc/X11/xorg.conf in
Fedora 9:
# Xorg configuration created by "X -configure" and modified
Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "Default Layout"
Screen 0 "Screen0" 0 0
InputDevice "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
EndSection
Section "Files"
FontPath "catalogue:/etc/X11/fontpath.d"
FontPath "built-ins"
EndSection
Section "Module"
Load "dbe"
Load "glx"
Load "dri2"
Load "dri"
Load "extmod"
Load "GLcore"
Load "xtrap"
EndSection
Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Keyboard0"
Driver "kbd"
Option "XkbModel" "pc105"
Option "XkbLayout" "us"
EndSection
Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Mouse0"
Driver "mouse"
Option "Protocol" "auto"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5 6 7"
EndSection
Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Monitor0"
VendorName "Apple"
ModelName "Apple iMac CRT"
DisplaySize 270 200
HorizSync 60.0 - 60.0
VertRefresh 75.0 - 95.0
Option "DPMS" "true"
EndSection
Section "Device"
Identifier "Videocard0"
Driver "r128"
VendorName "ATI Technologies Inc"
BoardName "Rage 128 RL/VR AGP"
BusID "PCI:0:16:0"
Option "UseFBDev" "true"
EndSection
Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device "Videocard0"
Monitor "Monitor0"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Viewport 0 0
Depth 24
Modes "1024x768" "800x600"
EndSubSection
EndSection
You are welcome to publish this info.
Good luck with your project. By the way, where on your site do you
plan to put your Incomplete Guide to
Linux and BSD for Older Macs page?
It's very much a work in progress at <http://lowendmac.com/linux/incomplete.html>
Dan:
It looks like a good start. I assume that you intend to provide more
fulsome information, including user-validated hardware and
user-submitted notes, such as the notes on xorg.conf for Fedora 8 and 9
that I contributed in my previous two messages. As for the two items
that you specifically flagged in your checklist:
- There is no Live CD for the PPC version of Fedora. There is a
netinstall CD, however, which can enable a smaller ISO download,
followed by selective network package installation.
- I don't know if Fedora PPC is bootable from FireWire or USB - I
haven't had occasion to try it.
With respect to Fedora, you might also want to include the following
links:
Good luck.
- Mike
Mike,
Thanks for the information. The goal is to include
every Linux and BSD distro for PowerPC and 680x0 Macs on that page with
a brief description of what hardware platforms each supports.
Eventually each of these will be linked to a page covering that distro
with more depth - such as the Fedora page
I'm developing based on the information you sent me and information
found on those pages.
Thanks again!
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.
