My Performa Still Performa!
[an error occurred while processing this directive] - May 2000 - Tip Jar
My Performa still performa! And, with some tweaking, it does
everything and more since it was purchased in 1994: 
homework, music, multimedia, pictures, recording keeping,
games, web page, surfing the net, keeping in contact with friends and
relatives. The Performa 635 has
served my family well over the years. By trading off cost and
performance, the useful life of my Performa has been extended by
several years.
My family continues to use our Mac to learn about things: what digital photos are, making movies, and what the Web is all about. To explore how to write a multimedia report, manipulate graphic files and get used to web surfing. To reflect on the pluses and minus on having the latest and greatest versus realizing my Mac's full potential. A low-end Mac still serving a useful purpose.
What a difference six years makes. OS 7.5, 7.5.5, 7.6, 8.1, 8.6, 9.0; 68040, 601, 603, 604, G3, G4. Reductions in prices for storage devices and RAM. Seeing more of the Mac OS software written in native PowerPC code. Along the way, the Mac that came out of the box has been transformed into a Mac that was a twinkle in my eye six years ago. The differences between the two are shown in the table below:
| ITEM | 1994 | 2000 |
| OS | 7.1.2P | 8.1 |
| CPU | 68LC040 | 68040 |
| RAM | 5 MB | 36 MB |
| Modem | 2400/9600 | 14000/33600 |
| Hard Disk | 250 MB | 4.3 GB |
| External Storage | none | 100 MB Zip Disk |
| Printer | 2400 | 2500 (Software Upgrade) |
| TV Tuner/Video Card | none | Yes (New) |
| MPEG Card | none | Yes (New) |
| Presentation System | none | Yes (New) |
| Scanner | none | Yes (Refurbished) |
| QuickCam | none | Yes (Refurbished) |
| Speakers | none | Yes (New) |
| Microphone | none | Yes (New) |
| Video Camera | (On the Shelf) | Yes (Use with TV Tuner Card) |
Bottom Line: Instead of vertical upgrades, the horizontal upgrades above have been geared towards maximizing the Macs potential, without which this web page http://home.att.net/~novash/index.html would not have been possible.
Next Time: Resources and Upgrading by a Weekend Warrior
Links for the Day
- Mac of the Day: Mac LC III, Feb. 1993 - The first LC without compromise: 25 MHz 68030 CPU, 32-bit memory, up to 36 MB of RAM.
- List of the Day: G4 'Books an email list for G4 iBooks and PowerBooks.
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- Psystar Strikes Back, Countersues Apple, Frank Fox, Stop the Noiz, 09.03. Psystar is trying to paint Apple as a monopoly and force it to license the Mac OS.
- More links in our archive.
