Lombard vs. Pismo
From Tobias Buckell
I'm sorry to bother you, but I was hoping you could help me out. I
just bought a Lombard 400
MHz thinking it was a Pismo 400 MHz on auction. For
some reason I was under the idea that the Lombard went only up to 333
MHz.
I paid $720 for it (good condition), with the exception of a broken
PC Card slot cover. It ships tomorrow.
How does the Lombard stack up to the Pismo? I own an iBook Rev A 300 MHz with 320
MB RAM. I use only OS X. I was hoping for a Pismo for added speed
and the monitor out abilities (I have two large monitors at work and at
home gathering dust).
Is it worth trying to sell the Lombard (I don't think I could get
much more than $720 back, and I'm not sure how much a Lombard 400 with
128 MB RAM and DVD is worth used) and still go for the Pismo, or does
the Lombard match up when running OS X? I'm imagining that 33 MHz
bus speed jump makes more of a difference than my jumping 100 MHz in
processor speed.
Slightly worried I jumped too quick...
Tobias
Hi Tobias,
I would say that you got a really good deal on the 400
MHz Lombard. You paid less than the going rate for a 333 MHz Lombard -
more like what 250 MHz and 266 MHz WallStreets are going for.
I would suggest that you give the Lombard a try. My
son has been running OS X on a 333 MHz Lombard since the
pre-public betas, and he gets satisfactory, albeit not scintillating,
performance. I would suggest bumping the RAM up to at least 256 MB -
more if you can swing it.
The biggest differences between the Lombard and the
Pismo are the latter's 100 MHz system bus (vs. 66 MHz), and the Pismo's
FireWire support. My son uses a PC Card FireWire adapter, which works
well.
Charles
500 MHz vs. 600 MHz iBooks
From Rick E.
Hello Charles,
I have a question, and I'd really appreciate your opinion. I have a
G3 500 iBook with CD ROM
drive that was the 
original model that came out (64 MB
RAM, 66 MHz system bus, etc.). I had a free 128 MB RAM upgrade, and
this seemed fine for my work in OS 9.1. My peripherals include the
following: Sony Spressa CD-RW drive (USB), Zip 100 MB drive, PC Home
Connect USB Web Cam, and an Epson 740 printer. All of these devices
worked fine under the Classic OS but in the last month I've tried to
make the transition to OS X.
In regards to performance, OS X is okay with 192 MB of RAM. I'm
trying to stick with all native apps because Classic mode seems
dreadfully slow and clunky. Most apps launch fine under OS X but a
few are painfully slow. My Epson printer works fine along with my
Iomega Zip drive, but the web cam and Sony Spressa drive are out of the
picture under OS X.
I've come to a decision that most are coming to realize, upgrade
some of your hardware and software or live with it. I've decided to
increase my RAM by purchasing 256 MB, bringing my total to 320 MB of
RAM. I thought I would also upgrade my CD-RW drive to a Fire Wire VST
drive. The total cost of this should be around $ 300.
$300 doesn't seem like that much, but it's enough. For the work I do
- mainly word processing and web applications - I don't need unlimited
power.
My question to you is do you think that a G3 iBook with a 600 MHz
processor along with an increase in bus speed to 100 MHz would make
much of a difference? I thought if I got a new model with more base RAM
and a DVD/CD-RW drive included, I wouldn't have to worry about
compatibility. I would definitely have to sell my current iBook and
Spressa drive, but I'm not sure quite what to do. A hardware upgrade
(and some software) vs. a speedier G3 and a larger system bus.
I'm not really sure that the upgraded G3 (along with the system bus)
really makes that much difference under OS X. I've seen some
reports say that OS X is really geared toward the G4 because of
the AltiVec optimization. What do you think?
Thanks for Your Advice,
Rick E.
P.S. I enjoy reading your views on anything Apple.
Hi Rick,
I think you answered your own question in the last
paragraph.
IMHO, the speed bump and faster system bus of the 600 MHz iBook would not give
you enough of a performance boost to make trading up worthwhile from a
value perspective. As you have inferred, OS X is optimized to take
advantage of the G4's AltiVec engine, and a slightly faster G3 won't
make a whole lot of difference.
I would suggest upgrading your present iBook with the
256 MB RAM module and getting the VST drive if you need it to tide you
over.
I'm using a 500 MHz Pismo PowerBook as an OS X
platform, and while the performance isn't scintillating, it is adequate
for me for now.
Apple will almost certainly be addressing the iBook
speed issue within a year, likely with either a G4 version or perhaps
one with IBM's "Sahara" G3 750fx, which is rumored to feature
"AltiVec-like acceleration" and clock speeds of 1 GHz or more.
I would suggest that a sensible plan would be to make
whatever solution Apple settles on your next system upgrade.
Just my 2¢
Charles
Elitism and Expertise
From C. Bennett
Charles Moore -
Here's the short letter I didn't have time to write before.
Bob Brattland, who teaches at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul,
Minnesota, has a comment about tenure, arguably the highest rank of
achievement for academics: Those who deserve it, he says, don't need
it; those who need it don't deserve it.
- Clayton Bennett
Concise and on the money.
Charles
Indecipherable Mumblings from the Land of Fruits
& Nuts
From Tom Randol
Dear CWM,
Read with interest you article(s) on the pits and stops of bringing
the 9500 and subsequently
the SuperMac S900 back to life. Was
particularly fond of the comment about it being "to good a box to throw
away."
I began my S900 project with thoughts of my old 1975 Mercedes 280s
in the back of my mind. It was the long body of the 4.5 and 6.9, was
mostly black, and truly looked its best from dusk 'til dawn.
I loved that car. It had been dubbed "Satan" by a lady friend of
mine because of its unflagging obedience to Murphy's Law(s). I had
narrowed its problems down to the poor engineering of the stock Solex
Carburetor and was ready to do a rebuild when out of the blue a Holley
carb modification came available. I bolted it on my vehicle at the
dismantlers, just took it off the smashed Benz and "threw" in mine with
no adjustments, and had no more major problems - that is until Parking
Enforcement had it booted and towed. Damn! That was truly a box that
was to good to be "towed" away. (I took my sound system and my Holley
and sank slowly into the sunset - on the bus!)
Talk about digressing! Sorry!
The S900 I got had the motherboard and nothing else. I was later
delivered a box of components that had allegedly come from the beast,
but it was an odd assortment including some NuBus and the odd PC
component, but there was a USB PCI card and the horror story 3D video
card I had read about. There are no drives, the front face plastic has
its mounting "hooks" broken off, and it doesn't look any thing like the
pictures I've seen. The mother board has "Storm Surge" emblazoned on
it, and the PCI/memory slot configuration match the specs of the
S900.
When you spoke of the price you paid OWC contrasted with the almost
forty three hundred dollar original cost, I wondered how you felt some
two years later. Could you give us an update, or has the moment
passed?
Thanks again for the article(s)!
TR
Hi Tom,
I enjoyed the digression. I'm inclined to lapse into
car topics here occasionally myself.
The S900 is still running fine, although I don't use
it much now that I have two PowerBooks on the go.
We tried installing OS X on it at Christmas using
Ryan Rempel's hack, but we had no luck. The installer worked, but
we got a kernel panic when we tried to boot into OS X. Just an
exercise anyway. I doubt that OS X performance would have been up
to much on a 200 MHz 604e.
The thing is such a mongrel, that it didn't surprise
me that OS X balked.
However, it works well under OS 9, and with a G3 or G4
upgrade and a decent video card, it would be a useful computer I think.
I just like my PowerBooks better.
Charles
Yoon's Father
From MD
Hi, Charles,
I would unfortunately have to say that Yoon's father's passion for healthcare far
outshines that of almost every doctor I've known in my life. Compassion
must be to medicine what talent is to art.
Having multiple sclerosis, which was in their arrogant language
called "incurable," my mother found no such compassion from the
self-interested, callous, and even cruel healthcare experts at the
hospital. I have immense anger toward them. Because of their attitudes,
not their inability to help, I consider them to be the "untalented" of
medicine.
At the HMO on our plan, they routinely write prescriptions for
antibiotics to patients with colds. So, in valuing antibiotics as a
panacea, the consumer isn't totally to blame. It's been my observation
that the average person's misinformation is no longer dominated by
inherited superstition, but by the manipulative and misleading
information distributed by commercial and government interests.
Advertising is almost nothing but half-truths and omissions, and,
unfortunately, often becomes the basis of a person's "knowledge" about
a given subject.
-MD
Hi MD,
Sorry to hear about your Mom. MS is a horrible
affliction. I have several friends who are sufferers.
And I agree with you about the attitude of many
medical establishmentarians being much more infuriating than their
inability to help with certain illnesses (mine, for instance).
"We don't know about that," is an honest admission.
"We are not interested in finding out more about that," is maddening
cognitive dissonance.
If I were a physician, I would be curious, just as a
matter of inquisitiveness, about treatments that fall outside the
sacrosanct "Medical Model" that have strong anecdotal support and which
are apparently less harmful than many conventional drug therapies.
Charles
Macally CardBus USB
From Saro Tribastone
Hi, I read your article </1996/umax-supermac-j700//misc/991129.shtml#4>.
My card works simply selecting no cycling of the processor in the
energy saving panel in control panels.
Anyway I can't print from Acrobat Reader
I read this in a Web site about this card found trough MacFixIt
Continue the good work
Saro from Sicily
More on Professionalism
From George
Hello,
I have a counter-argument, not because I disagree, but because of a
rare case of incompetence coming from a rare (in Canada) unregulated
sector. This pertains to a soaring club where the leadership aged so
advancedly that they started to make up the rules as they went along.
Blathering on about mandates this and mandates that, they ended up in a
hopeless situation. Older members felt themselves more and more out of
the loop, replacements for key positions were rushed in but
inadequately prepared and started blundering about. Meanwhile,
insurance rates started climbing. Membership rates had to be increased
across the board. The safety officer quit on a moment's notice (not a
very "safe" thing to do - two weeks notice would have been a morally
sound thing to do). Fleet management became an oxymoron - ships were
being damaged and/or destroyed at an alarming rate.
It's one thing to sit at your favourite desktop (laptop doesn't have
the same ring to it) and hurl criticism at the world. I do cry for your
high-schooler who says she is getting "dumb and dumber." I remember the
Ontario Teacher's union linking the name of Preston Manning to
Hitlerism. Based on their teaching levels and aptitudes, this is
probably an accurate statement!
Let's not get caught up in generalisms and platitudes. I was (and
probably still am) an inveterate critic (i.e., too lazy to write). Now
I have little or no excuse not to write - having a soft-touch Mac
keyboard (a hacker buddy calls it "Saratoga"), a variety of Macs to
use. I pray it's not too late.
George (Montreal)
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