With today's mailbag, we're caught up on what we
received through Tuesday. These are the emails that don't specifically
deal with video or Pages. We've got a lot of emails to dig through
about yesterday's Disadvantage
Mac.... dk - Tip Jar
Any Luck Replacing Claris Home Page?
From Frank Mellot:
Back in 2003 Dan Knight wrote an article for his Mac Musings column
entitled Claris Home Page 3.0: Still
Irreplaceable?, and I'm wondering if in the ensuing four years he
has been able to find a suitable replacement. I was a satisfied Home
Page user for years, but I just replaced my old G3, and of course Home
Page will not run on the new Mac OS X (v. 10.4.10). I'm looking for
software that has the same WYSIWYG ease of use, but hopefully without
the hefty price tag of DreamWorks. Any help would be most
appreciated.
Thanks,
Frank
Frank,
The short answer to your question is that I'm typing
this in Claris Home Page, the same tool I've been using for the entire
life of Low End Mac. It runs just fine on my Power Mac G4 using Classic
Mode in OS X 10.4, and it also works on my MacBook Pro using
SheepShaver, although I don't find that to be a particularly useful way
of running it.
The closest I've come to replacing Home Page is
KompoZer, an improved version of
Nvu, which itself is based on the Mozilla version of the ancient
Netscape Composer. KompoZer is at version 0.7.10, is available for
virtually every computing platform, and is more like Home Page than any
program I've tried to date. It still has some idiosyncrasies, so I use
it more for editing existing pages than for writing and editing new
ones, but it's quite a nice tool. Best of all, the developers have
long-term plans to make it even better, so it may eventually rival Home
Page in all areas.
Dan
Problem Using Compact Flash as a Hard Drive
From Jacob Wertzberger on Using
Compact Flash to Replace a Hard Drive:
Hello,
I just bought a working Lombard off eBay, a 266x Adata turbo CF
card (same card as the gentleman who wrote to you with the Pismo
success story), and a 44-pin to CF adapter. I have the retail OS 9
CD and a known working PowerBook CD drive. However, no matter what I do
or what keys I hold down during startup, the computer refuses to boot
from CD while the CF card is installed.
Without the CF card, the computer boots fine. With it in, I get a
folder/Finder icon that switches back and forth, followed by a CD
spinning noise and a flashing '?' disk icon. Outside of the internal
adapter, the only other connection I have to either the laptop or my G4
iMac is through a USB to compact flash adapter. I've tried erasing the
CF card and formatting it as Mac OS original and as journaled-extended.
I tried installing OS 9 onto the CF card directly (a clean install)
using the USB adapter connected to my laptop and to my iMac. I need
advice! :-) Anything you can think of would be much
appreciated. Again my resources are:
- iMac G4 with 10.4.10
- Lombard 333 MHz with either 9.2.2 or '?'
- Compact flash to USB 1.1 adapter
- Retail OS 9 CD that has been tried many times.
Every time I 'verify' the card using Disk First Aid, it passes.
Thank you for your time and help! Have a great week and love the
site!
Sincerely,
Jacob Wertzberger
Jacob,
You've got me scratching my head over this one. I'm no
expert on Lombards, but I wonder if perhaps both the CD drive and the
CD adapter are set to the slave or master setting. Assuming the Lombard
has a single IDE/ATA drive bus, one would have to be master and the
other slave, so try changing the setting on the CF adapter to the
opposite of where it's currently set.
Another thing to try would be formatting the CF card
in the USB-to-CF adapter with your Lombard booted into Mac OS 9.
Although it would be slow, it should be possible to install OS 9
on the CF card in the adapter.
Dan
Great news!
I was able to get another Lombard off of eBay and exchange the Adata
card for a SanDisk Extreme III. The setup works perfectly! The new
Lombard runs 10.2.8 completely silent and plenty fast, using 384 MB
RAM. I was able to install the bare operating system, essential
updates, and AppleWorks in just over 1 gig of space.
The machine runs faster and now has just over 7 hours of battery
life when using both bays. I previously had OS 9 tell me that I
was getting 4.5 hours when the hard drive was installed. After spending
many frustrating hours on the original machine, I determined that its
faulty behavior came from having no L2 cache. My theory with the Adata
card is that it may have to be formatted in FireWire Target Disk Mode
or in a PC Card adapter only. I thank you for your help, though.
Once again, I love the site! Have a great week!
Sincerely,
Jake
Jake,
Congratulations on getting things working - and the
incredible battery life you're now experiencing.
Dan
Leopard Harware Requirements
From Lee Jackson:
I wanted to let you know i really enjoy your website. I am a new Mac
user and want to purchase a used Mac that is capable of running of
Leopard. I know the actual system requirements have not been released
yet, but some rumors that i have read indicate that it might not work
with a processor below 867 MHz. I have been shopping on eBay, and now
have found some good links for used Macs through your website. I
noticed on your website that you said that Leopard should run on all
G4s. I have seen several of the dual 533 MHz, which would be 1066 MHz
actually, so you think Leopard will run on a dual 500 or 533?
Thanks again for all your hard work on the website, and great
links.
Lee
Lee,
Apple hasn't released official system requirements for
Leopard, nor do I have access to developer builds. As Mac OS X
10.5 has been developing, Apple has been upping the hardware
requirements for the developer preview, so what we wrote several months
ago may not be true of the final release version.
There's a lot more to setting minimum hardware
requirements than CPU speed, RAM, and hard drive space. Leopard will
make extensive use of Core Image
technology, which requires a G4 CPU and works best with a modern, high
performance AGP or later video card. (Apple lists ATI Mobility Radeon
9700, Radeon 9550, Nvidia GeForce FX Go 5200, GeForce 6800, and later
as supported.)
Without a GPU that can take over Core Image duties,
the G4 CPU will be heavily taxed to create the visuals used in Leopard.
Apple wants to make sure that the Macs that meet the hardware
requirements for Leopard are going to perform decently, and factors
involved in that determination include CPU speed, memory bandwidth,
what level of AGP video is supported, the graphics processor, the
amount of video memory, and the hard drive data bus.
It is very likely that Leopard will be able to run on
Macs slower than 800 or 867 MHz, but Apple's installer may prevent it.
At this point, it looks like Core Image may so tax the CPU when a
supported graphics processor isn't present that it just won't run well
on anything slower.
Will a second processor help? Probably, but it's
unlikely that a pair of 533 MHz G4s will offer equivalent performance
to a 1066 GHz G4. Because of system overhead, caches, and memory
coherence issues, a dual 533 MHz Power
Mac G4 will probably provide equivalent performance to an 800-867
MHz single processor Power Mac G4.
We'll know a lot more later this month. I don't intend
to upgrade to Leopard for some time, as Tiger runs very nicely on my
Power Mac G4/1 GHz dual - and
Leopard apparently won't support Classic Mode, which I depend on. When
I do migrate to Leopard, I'll probably want to replace the Radeon 9000
graphics in that computer with a supported video card, which will
further increase the cost of the upgrade.
I hope to have more to say about this in the near
future when I look at the future of various G4 Macs in the Age of
Leopard.
Dan
Mac mini Upgrade Problems
From Arthur Mickel:
I wrote you a few months ago with questions about the max memory for
the mini and outlined my plans for upgrading my mini Solo.
Well, money and the will to do so have come together but - , the
mini starts but no video, no response to after upgrading my mini Solo
to a 2.33 Core 2 Duo with 3 gigs of RAM and a Hitachi 7200 RPM 200 gig
hard drive.
I forgot I was using an Apple Bluetooth keyboard with it, and
although the computer starts up, I'm getting no video, much less any
other kind of response.
I'd planned to load the contents of the hard drive I removed via a
FireWire external drive but no response.
I tried using the Restore Disc - still nothing.
I'm sure there's something basic I've done wrong but have no
idea.
When I upgraded my MacBook with a larger drive, I started it from
the original in a FireWire external HD - no problems.
Help
Arthur Mickel
Arthur,
One of the most important rules of upgrading is to do
just one thing at a time. Putting in a new CPU, new memory, and a new
hard drive all at once makes it that much harder to determine where the
problem is.
I'd suggest you put in the original hard drive and
memory, then see if it will boot. If so, you know the CPU is not the
problem. Next put the new Hitachi drive in the external enclosure and
"clone" your older hard drive to is using SuperDuper or Carbon Copy
Cloner (both free for this). Then transplant the hard drive.
It should boot from the new drive, and if so, it's
time to test memory. Somewhere along the way, you should be able to
determine which component is causing the problem.
Dan
Thanks for the suggestions. The reason for the total upgrade was to
avoid cracking that mini case multiple times. So, I'm back to square
one - keep your fingers crossed and I'll let you know how I fare.
Art Mickel
Art later followed up with this email:
The problem is that the mini I have won't operate with 3 gigs of
RAM! After removing the one gig module, everything worked great. So I
have two gigs of RAM, a 2.33 Core 2 Duo processor, and a 200 gig hard
drive.
I haven't had time to check with OWC yet about the RAM
(their website shows 3 gigs max for minis) if maybe the original 1.5
GHz Solo won't handle 3 gigs.
Haven't had a chance to use the mini yet, as I'm in the process of
moving my office, but soon....
Thanks again for the suggestions.
Art Mickel
Art,
Thanks for sharing your findings. To the best of my
knowledge, the motherboard in the Intel Mac mini hasn't changed, but
perhaps there's something in the ROMs of pre-Core 2 minis that prevents
them from working with more than 2 GB of RAM. I'm sure others will
benefit from your experience, as I'll be sure to note this on our Mac
mini profiles.
I just checked the OWC site, and they specify that the
3 GB upgrade is only for Core 2 models. I suspect they may not have
tried in a Core 2-upgraded mini. I'll be sure to pass along your
findings.
Dan
'Old' Computers in School Systems
From John Hatchett:
There have been a couple of columns in Low End Mac about the
lamented disposal of older computers in favor of the latest and
greatest. I would like to present the other side of the equation. I
don't mean to defend the bureaucratic approach now being used to make
decisions in our school system, but I would like to point out the
issues involved with supporting older equipment on a school
network.
- I supervise two labs - One has eMacs running OS X Tiger. Using Apple
Remote Desktop, I can (remotely) turn them on or off, put them to
sleep, sign in one of our testing programs, use System Restore and
other network resources to maintain these computers from my computer or
one of the IT personnel's computers. Easy-peasy. I can also monitor all
of the OS X machines, take pictures of the inappropriate websites
that teenagers are drawn to like moths to a flame, and "fix" the issues
that always occur when adolescents operate fine machinery.
- The second lab has computers running three different operating
systems. I do have some eMacs, iMacs, and B&W towers running OS X. However, I have
15 old Power Macs running OS 9.2 or 9.1. Then there are the Windows
machines running Windows 2000. I can use ARD to look at the OS X
machines, but we'll have to use a VNC to monitor the Windows machines.
The OS 9 machines could use ARD for System 9, but that
means I have to have an OS 9 machine on my (already crowded) desk.
This also means that anyone operating this lab has to be able to
troubleshoot in all three operating systems.
- On our network system, our IT director would like to get rid of
Macintosh Manager. This means that we will phase out all machines that
can't run OS X. I know there are many who use "Classic" OS 9
machines without any problems, but I've forgotten what I used to know
about OS 9 (when I switched to OS X, I didn't look back) and
the Power Macs have teeny, tiny hard drives, no ability to upgrade to
OS X, and they are getting cranky and prone to issues.
- The biggest questions that should be answered is why are school
systems buying computers? Most businesses lease equipment. This means
that they can constantly lease the latest equipment, and the "old"
equipment does not have to be disposed of (by the school system). The
field of computer technology is so fluid that, in order to take
advantage of new software and hardware, you can't be using 15 year old
equipment.
In spite of what I have written, in some cases, old technology (or
rather limited technology) has it's place in education.
- Have you ever seen what a crew of teenagers can do to a computer
lab? Anything that can broken off a computer, will be. DVD/CD-ROM drive
doors are broken on a regular basis, and if I have to remove another
Nazi swastika.... If I had it all to do over again, I would buy the
smoothest monitors I could find and use a central mini mainframe. I
wouldn't even want display controls, since "idle hands are the devil's
workshop".
- Remember the old eMate 300? Another Apple idea ahead of its time.
If we are going to let students use laptops, they should be limited in
terms of the abilities they have. If you want a student to write, don't
give them a computer that can surf the Internet or has chess on it - or
has a bunch of apps they can "explore". You need a laptop that lets
them word process and little more. Many students need to "research" on
the Internet, but a good bit of that research is involved in playing
flash games, trying to circumvent "Sonicwall" to visit websites with
naked people on them, or trying to hack into one of our servers. We
should use simple machines for simple lessons.
I have the usual American distaste for throwing things away, but
sometimes things outlive their usefulness. No reason they can't be
recycled to folks who can't afford computers, but time does march
on.
John,
About five years ago we had a garage sale and sold 14
(or so) LC 630 systems: computer,
monitor, mouse, keyboard, and power cable. These circa 1994 computers
were almost exclusively purchased by teachers so they could have
something in the classroom that students could learn keyboarding and
word processing on. Most of all, something the school didn't own and
thus would not remove from their classrooms because they were
"obsolete".
As a former IT guy (I supported 80-some Macs in three
locations, all running System 7.5.5 as long as possible and Mac OS 8.1
when we needed a more modern OS), so I understand the headaches of
supporting multiple platforms. I'm positively rusty on Mac OS 7.5-9.2
except for using Classic mode on my Power Mac G4.
I don't think any of our writers were suggesting
computer labs with a wide range of operating systems, and Apple has
been very good about producing operating systems that support years and
years worth of hardware. For a computer lab, it's best to have as much
consistency as possible. That also keeps the students from fighting
over the "best" computer.
I think that the real potential of these articles
would be for schools to either start loan programs that provide older
but still working computers to students who don't have a computer at
home or getting them out of storage by either giving them away or
selling them (to students and their families first) at very low
prices.
It's criminal to have these computers gathering dust
when someone, somewhere could make some use of them.
Dan
Beware Crucial RAM Rebates
From Scott Cook:
I have another important tip. Don't buy RAM with a rebate, even if
the rebate is half the purchase price of the RAM. I just called to see
where my $40 rebate is from the $80 Crucial RAM I purchased from Tiger
Direct. The rebate center told me my rebate had been declined because
there was no application in the envelope, which isn't true. I have a
copy of the application here. Of course they didn't tell me my rebate
had been declined, so I kept waiting for it. Now it is past the due
date for the application, and they won't give me my rebate. I am
writing angry letters to Crucial and Tiger Direct. This is the second
time I have been taken on RAM rebates. (sigh)
Scott Cook
Scott,
Thanks for sharing your warning. I make it a policy to
never buy anything based on "after rebate" pricing unless it has an
instant rebate. While rebates can make for awesome deals, the number of
times a rebate doesn't come through means you can't count on actually
getting the money.
Dan
Free Imposition Software
From Paul Durrant:
Hi Dan
I've remembered that there is a freeware application/print
enhancement that does just what you need.
It's called CocoaBooklet.
I did use it before I got PDFClerk (which does lots more, including
combining PDFs and re-ording pages easily).
CocoaBooklet not only works really well as a stand-alone application
for turning a PDF document into a document with imposed pages, but it
can also be invoked automatically from the Print dialog - one step to
an imposed pages PDF.
regards,
Paul
Paul,
Thanks for the tip. I'll have to try it the next time
I have a project like this!
Dan
A Lost Imposition Option
From Tod Fitch:
I don't know squat about Pages, but I did need to generate booklets
on OSX using inDesign. Older versions of inDesign came with a tool for
that but Adobe in their infinite wisdom appears to think that is not
neccessary now. Anyway, I found an application called makebooklet
written by Fabien Conus that I put in my ~/Library/PDF Services/
directory. With it one of the options on the PDF portion of the print
dialog box is to make a booklet when you print.
Doing a Google search, I don't see that exact application any more
but I do see the newer version from the same author called CocoaBooklet.
Use the word "imposition" in your Google search if/when you are
looking for alternatives to this program.
Tod,
Thanks for writing. I'll be sure to give CocoaBooklet
a try with my next booklet project. All the other imposition software
I've run across (not counting PDFClerk) seems to be specifically
designed for Quark XPress or InDesign.
Dan
Dead LC 520
From Steve:
Hi,
My LC 520 finally completely
bombed out. Now, when it's turned on, it just displayed a flashing "?"
at the center of a gray screen and nothing else.
I want to start up the LC again, if I can, by reinstalling the
system software, but I no longer have all the system software needed,
except the "Install Me First" encased CD. I also don't know how many
floppies or CDs comprise the Apple supplied "system software" for LC
520. Can you help with my problem?
Regards,
Steve
Steve,
The CD should have everything you need. Back when the
LC 520 first shipped, the whole Mac OS install set was four 1.4 MB
floppies, if I recall correctly - and a CD stores about as much as 450
floppies. If that doesn't work, Apple makes System 7.5.3 (plus an
update to 7.5.5) freely available on its
website.
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.
