Passing Along Your Old Mac Worth a Million
From Brian Gray
Charles,
I have an article to send in to Low End Mac My Turn series. When
I am finished I will send it to Mr. Knight, but I thought you might
be interested on the subject.
A while back you gave me some advice about fixing my ailing
Pismo's screen. Well, after
some inspection (and some good and bad days), I stopped using the
laptop. It sat for months with no use and no serious buyers.
A few months ago, I was still trying to make a decision. As I
sat staring at the laptop in it's bag, I decided that the best
thing to do was to give it to my father! My dad has never used a
computer for more than a few minutes at a time; he was completely
scared of them. Now he is learning OS X, using the digital
cameras I bought him, and enjoying the Internet for the first
time.
The value of the Pismo at that point was probably around
$550-575. I gave it to him absolutely free, yet I feel like I
received a million dollars.
I thought you might find this interesting, since the Pismo is
one of your favorite 'Books. This taught me a wonderful lesson in
giving. I learned what it takes to be rich without receiving one
single penny.
Brian Gray
- Hey Brian,
Great story. The Pismo is a super machine for folks who want decent
power and the PowerBook mystique for not a lot of cash (or, in your
father's case, no cash).
Handing down used Macs is an excellent policy.
Charles
Pismo Upgrade and TV Tuner Question
From Ben Funk
Charles,
A few weeks ago I emailed you regarding Pismo CPU upgrades. I'm
happy to report that I went the Daystar route, and it was quite
fantastic. A 550 MHz G4 (mostly the "G4" part, I'm sure) has added
quite a bit of usefulness to my aged 500 MHz G3 Pismo for work in
OS X. Thank you for that.
I have another question today, though, about TV tuner cards and
Macs.
I own exactly one Windows/AMD-based computer, and it can do
exactly one thing that my Macs cannot at this point: It serves as a
TV in my computer room, and my wife and I play on our Macs and let
the TV run in the background, mostly for watching baseball games on
the tube.
I'd like to see it gone. I've got a Sawtooth G4/400 dual-booting OS X
and OS 9, and I'd like to add either a FireWire/USB or PCI TV
tuner, but I'm having a hard time telling what's Mac compatible and
what's Windows compatible. I know for sure, though, that no
software exists for my current Hauppauge WinTV PCI card (standard
analog tuner).
Is there any advice you could give me on the subject?
Ben
- Hi Ben,
Glad to hear that the DayStar upgrade is working out well for you.
It certainly does give the old Pismos a new lease on life.
Actually, Apple pioneered the TV tuner in a personal computer
concept way back in 1994 with Macintosh TV. You can read more about
it at Dr
Bott's Apple Museum.
Two possible solutions: ATI still lists the ATI Xclaim
TV for PowerMac G3, and a more up to date product appears
to be Alchemy
TV.
Let me know if either of these proves suitable
Charles
From Ben Funk
Charles,
Oh, hey, that MacTV looks pretty sweet. I'll have to think about
getting my hands on one of them sometime in the near future. I'm so
in love with older Macs that my wife thinks I've lost my mind. I'm
just a recent convert at that - my Sawtooth was my first Mac, and I
got it back around New Year's.
In the meantime, I'm taking my chances on eBay and
ordered an Xclaim VR 128 and Xclaim TV packaged together. and that
should suit my needs just fine. AlchemyTV looks excellent, but
their OS X requirement would require additional upgrades (more
than 128 MB of RAM, for instance) that would actually make buying a
TV cost less.
Thanks for your time and thanks for your excellent articles on
both LEM and MacOpinion.
Ben
PlainTalk Microphone with iMic?
From
Eric Kaminetzky
Hi Charles, my name is Eric.
I've got a 12" iBook 1 GHz, a Griffin iMic, and an Apple
PlainTalk microphone.
Is there an adapter that will allow me to use the PlainTalk with
the iMic?
Should I give up on that idea and buy a microphone that already
has the right jack and technology for the iMic?
The PlainTalk has never been used, so I hate to throw it
out.
Thank you for your time.
Sincerely,
Eric
- Hi Eric,
The short answer is no; at least not that I know of, which is sad,
because I really like this iParrott stereo microphone headset I'm
using to dictate this reply with on my Pismo PowerBook. however, I
expect that the Pismo will be my last PlainTalk Mac.
It might be possible to splice a standard mini jack onto the
PlainTalk's cable, but your best bet is probably just to buy a
compatible microphone.
Charles
External Wireless Antennas for iBooks
From Sandy Mitchell
I haven't been able to find anything in such an antenna for my
12" iBook - so far I've only found info on antennas for PowerBooks.
Do you know of anything that extends the wireless receiving range
of an iBook?
Thanks,
Sandy Mitchell
- Hi Sandy,
Not that I know of. One problem is that the iBooks don't have PC
card slots. Of course, neither does the 12" PowerBook, and
QuickerTek does offer an external whip antenna for that model,
which is claimed to increase range by up to 70%.
Presumably a similar solution for the iBook would not be an
engineering impossibility, but given that the iBook already has
substantially better range performance with AirPort then the metal
PowerBooks do, I assume that the reason no external antenna is
being marketed for the iBook is that there is not a lot of
perceived demand.
Charles
NotePad Deluxe vs. DEVONnote
From Brett Campbell
Charles:
Thanks for your informative
review, as always. I've been using DEVONnote for the last year
after reading your recommendation (I think) for DEVONthink.
Devon seems similar to NotePad Deluxe - what are the pros and
cons? Do you use both?
Thanks,
Brett
- Hi Brett,
I use both NotePad Deluxe and DEVONthink. It's really a bit of an
apples & oranges comparison. The DEVON programs are much
more powerful and deeply featured than NotePad Deluxe.
OTOH, I find NotePad Deluxe more convenient for stashing stuff
quickly that I will be able to find easily without a search.
The DEVON search engines are much more powerful.
They're all great programs. Depends on your particular needs which
one will suit best.
Charles
From Brett Campbell
Thanks, Charles. Think I'll stick with DEVONnote; it's done
practically everything I've asked of it. Keep those reviews coming.
Maybe in future you can include a quick comparison of the app under
review with similar apps, as in your reply to me. I value your
judgment.
Brett
SMTP Authentication Problems with Claris
Emailer
From Ernie Jones
Re: Low-end Macs and Email
Authentication
Hello,
I have had the email client SMTP authentication blues off and on
for some time. My ISP added this feature last year, and I managed
somehow to magically get Claris Emailer Lite to do the right thing.
I just upgraded to DSL and have had the same problem again and
nothing worked - not even unknown magic.
I found a free program called Baton Mail, written
by Chris Bartlett, that solves the older email client problem. I
fount it easy to configure. It can be downloaded from
Thanks for your Low End Mac info.
Ernie Jones
- Hi Ernie,
I should probably refer this question to Dan Knight, who was a big
Emailer fan, although I think he's moved on to a more modern email
client in OS X. [Editor's note: Yes, I have. I use GyazMail and
Apple's OS X Mail app for all my non-webmail accounts.
dk]
It's possible that the authentication protocol used by your DSL
provider is different from one you were able to work around with
your former ISP.
I experimented with Baton several years ago trying to get Eudora
Light to work with authentication, but I didn't have much luck. All
things must pass, and it's probable that if Emailer was available
in an OS X version, it would be very much like the OS X
Mail app.
If you're still running the Classic OS, Eudora, Nisus Email, or
even Outlook Express still work fine and support
authentication.
My latest roundup of available Mac email clients, Moore's
Omnibus Guide To Mac Email Clients - 2005 Edition, is
available on Applelinks.
Charles
Any iTunes Music Store Bad Track
Resource?
From Owen Strawn
Hello Charles,
I appreciate and enjoy your regular roundups of what's new in the iPod
world. One thing I haven't been able to find though is any kind
of resource discussing what to do about poorly mastered tracks
purchased from iTunes. It seems like there should at least be a
forum somewhere with a list of "Do Not Buy" tracks. For example, I
just bought the Casino Royale soundtrack, and one of the tracks
(Flying Saucer - First Stop Berlin) has a section with extremely
prominent clipping. So prominent that even I can't miss it, and I
have an extremely poorly trained ear.
Have you seen anything like this? I've Googled every phrase I
can think of and have come up with nothing so far.
Thanks!
Owen Strawn
- Hi Owen,
Glad you enjoy the news roundups.
If an intensive Google search turns nothing up, that's a strong
indication that it doesn't exist.
I don't know of any such forum.
Charles
Spotlight Plugin for WordPerfect
From John Rethorst
Hi Charles,
I don't know if news affecting only Tiger users qualifies, but
the other part of it is a high-end word processing program that's
still free, so here goes: An independent developer has written a
Spotlight mdimporter for WordPerfect, and it works like a charm.
Free, as is the rest of the program. Downloadable from <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/wordperfectmac/>
in the Files section.
Thanks,
John
- Cool.
Thanks for the tip and link, John.
Charles
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