Low End Mac Archive for February 23

February 23 in Low End Mac History

Praises, complaints, news, and more, Eric DeStefano, Mac Metamorphosis. CompUSA, Mac OS 9, the SuperMac S900, Microsoft-ware, and even more.

Free Internet for Mac users, Evan Kleiman, Mac Daniel. Are there any free ISPs left that support the Mac?
PowerBooks for school, Adam Robert Guha, Apple Archive. How and why a PowerBook can be the perfect student computer.

WallStreet and Pismo processor upgrades: Do they make economic sense?, Charles W Moore, Miscellaneous Ramblings. A faster clock speed always helps, but should you choose a G3 or a G4 processor?

A diehard OS 9 user makes the big leap, Beverly Woods, Acoustic Mac. Mac OS 9 "ain't broke" yet and is in some ways superior to OS X, but the best browsers require OS X.
Apple does us a favor by not shipping a better mouse, Dan Knight, Mac Musings. Instead of trying to come up with a one-mouse-fits-all multibutton mouse with a scroll wheel, Apple lets those who want a better mouse make their own choice.

Control 2 or more computers with 1 Mac, 1 mouse, 1 keyboard, and no KVM switch, Neil Reicher, Mac Daniel. Freeware and ethernet let you share one mouse and keyboard among multiple computers without the tangle of a KVM switch and myriad cables.
'Hammer' exploits Mac user vulnerability, Jeff Adkins, The Lite Side. There's a new threat to your Mac on the Internet that could result in serious damage to your hardware.
Olympians love iPods, beware iPod slurpers, iShirt for iPod shuffle, iPod Universal Dock, and more, iPod News Review. Also lossless compression and the audiophile, Logitech Wireless Music System reviewed, u-Link nano adapter, iKitty iPod toy and protector, and more.
Apple vs. OSx86, what Intel transition means to Apple, Linux running on Macintel, and more, The Macintel Report. Also Intel to phase out parallel ATA, Intel pushing for 3G wireless on notebooks, and Microsoft testing fix for Core Duo power drain bug.

Safari share up 50%, 8-core Mac Pro benchmarked, DST updates for OS X, $26 Bluetooth, and more, Mac News Review. Also Google analyzes hard drive failure, $30 SuperDrive upgrades, Carbon Copy Cloner 3 adds automated backup, free ClamXav virus checker, and more.
15" MacBook in Q2?, 802.11n in Core Duo MacBook, DST updates for Panther and Tiger, and more, The 'Book Review. Also Mac means doing things your way, Core 2 shutdown problem, fixing a dead pixel, hot lap prevention, bargain 'Books from $209 to $2,299, and more.

Apple won't ever make a Mac netbook, Dan Knight, Mac Musings. Netbooks are small, cheap, and underpowered. Apple should offer a subnotebook, but not something underpowered or cheap.
iBooks on TV, hard drive swaps, and using an iBook as a desktop, John Hatchett, Recycled Computing. More in using iVoice III with a 1G iPod touch, moving hard drives between 'Books, and why it makes sense to use a notebook as a desktop computer.
Color It 4.5 does work with Intel Macs, Charles W Moore, Miscellaneous Ramblings. Color It runs just fine using Rosetta, but you may have to reinstall it or trash your prefs after copying it from another Mac.

Apple's 10 worst products, Dan Knight, Mac Musings. Low End Mac reconsiders PC Authority's list of the 10 worst Apple products ever.
iPad promises to free users from files and folders and drives, Alan Zisman, Zis Mac. For a lot of computer users, finding files they've saved can be a confusing and frustrating process, one that the iPad eliminates.
Personality predicts your place along the Mac-PC divide, Charles W Moore, Miscellaneous Ramblings. There is a fair bit of truth behind the caricatures of Mac and PC users, although there are exceptions as well.

Introduction to computer memory, Frank Fox, Stop the Noiz. There are so many kinds of RAM: DRAM, SDRAM, ECC, DDR, SIMM, DIMM, SO-DIMM, FBD, and more. An introduction to what they mean.
Vintage Mac Workhorse: WallStreet PowerBook G3 with Mac OS 9.2.2, Adam Rosen, Adam's Apple. G3 Macs are ideal for the Classic Mac OS, and SCSI, ADB, and serial ports make the WallStreet PowerBook a great bridge computer.
When bad things happen to overly impulsive people, John Hatchett, Recycled Computing. You can hack OS X 10.5 Leopard to work with the iSub subwoofer, but then it might not work with other speaker systems.
Time to wave PowerPC good-bye?, Dan Knight, Mac Musings. Is it time to wave good-bye to your reliable old PowerPC Macs, or do they still have a lot of life left in them?

Software Compatibility: It All Depends, Dan Knight, Mac Musings. From the early days of the Mac to the present, software dependencies move us forward while leaving older Macs behind.