2000 – These instructions were written specifically for installing Mac OS 8.1 on a large group of Power Mac 6100s. However, they can easily be adapted to almost any situation where you may be updating the Classic Mac OS. This was written when the I was the IT Manager at Baker Publishing.
Category Archives: Low End Mac Tech Journal
2000 – It’s a common question on our Compact Macs email list: Can I use an SE card in the SE/30? The short answer is no. This article provides the long answer.
Every version of the Mac OS is ready for Y2K, but some programs for the Mac suffer from Y2K problems.
For those of us who cut our teeth with 8-bit computers in the late 1970s, dot pitch wasn’t an issue. A monitor might display 320 dots horizontally by 200 vertically. On a 13″ monitor (the norm back then) with 12″ viewable, you’d have about 9.5″ horizontally. That’s 0.75 mm per pixel, so a horizontal dot […]
I have yet to see a 15″ CRT monitor that looks crisp at 1024 x 768, or even a 19″ one that does justice to 1280 x 960 or 1280 x 1024 resolution. Yet these monitors are often rated for these settings, and often even higher ones.
I want to rattle on about this, since Dan [Knight] is testing out some of the things I’ve postulated about before. I keep seeing this dual RAM Disk/Disk Cache trend , and it astonishes me. I just haven’t figured out why everyone wants to equate them together, and then it dawned on me – some […]
“Although systems prior to Mac OS 8 can indeed do more than one thing at a time, OS 8 is also a better form of multitasking, a.k.a. Win95!”
A problem I used to have with using Macjordomo was with people sending subscription emails that were either in HTML format or had misspelt or missing subscription commands. Whenever I would receive such email, it would generate an error in Macjordomo.
1999 – I disagree about the G4 being a “marginally better” CPU than the G3. Given the 603 vs. the 604, where the 603 cannot handle multitasking properly and has a bus utilization rate that is so high that it cannot be configured for multiprocessing, nor can it handle intensive floating point calculations. The 604 […]
I maintained several email lists using Macjordomo, a freeware email list server from Leuca Software. The purpose of this page is to explain how Macjordomo works and how you can add, delete, or change your subscription – although the examples provided in this article are no longer in use. (Take that, spammers!)
Macjordomo is a powerful, easy-to-use freeware listserver. Versions are available for Mac OS 8 and 9 as well as Mac OS X.
1999 – USB is slower than promised, providing at most two-thirds of the expected speed based on its 12 Mbps bandwidth (see The Truth About USB Speed). But the iMac, iBook, and Lombard PowerBook don’t have any other option, do they?
1999 – There’s been a fair bit of interest in AppleShare 3 thanks to some articles on this site. Although long discontinued, it is possible to find copies of AppleShare 3 (be sure to get the 3.03 updater from Apple). And for the small network, it may be an ideal solution.
Your results may vary, but this should provide a good starting point for tweaking serial throughput on your classic Mac setup. Note that FreePPP allows serial port settings of 115.2kbps and 230.4kbps, settings not possible with Apple’s serial toolbox routines.
1999: Once upon a time, 1200 bps was a fast modem and 230 kbps LocalTalk was a decent network speed. That was a long time ago. Today, most modems are of the 56k variety – although the name is something of a misnomer. These 56k (a.k.a. v.90) modems can download files at up to 53 […]
The following story is true. The names have been changed for the privacy of the parties involved. The author is a longtime consultant who works with Macs, Novell, and more and has over a dozen years field experience.
One of the cardinal rules of computers: Things keep getting faster. There are a lot more parts to the speed equation than processor speed, although the CPU is certainly part of the equation. This article looks at how fast the computer moves data.
Apple has used the SCSI bus since introducing the Mac Plus in 1986. The SCSI bus must have termination power for clean data transmission. Most Macs provide termination power for the SCSI bus, so most SCSI devices for the Mac don’t need to provide it.
“One of the machines I have at the present moment is a Mac IIci, with a 68040 card, 128 MB RAM, 280 MB hard drive, and three empty NuBus slots. From what I have read on the list and elsewhere, it would make an excellent server.”
It’s easy to visit a site like Low End Mac and find out when a model was first produced and when it was discontinued. But how do you determine how old a specific device is?
This article was written in 1999, the days of the Classic Mac OS (then at version 8.5), which was designed for a single CPU – and the G3 was then bleeding edge. We now have OS X, which supports multiple CPUs, CPU cores, and hyperthreading, but some of the problems discussed in this article remain […]
Even ten years after its introduction, there’s something compelling about the Macintosh Portable.
The following tips are especially aimed at the lowest low-end Macs, such as the Mac Plus, SE, Classic, LC, Mac II, SE/30, PowerBook 100, and other models with older, slower processors or limited memory. However, some of the hints will help anyone using a browser.
I’m going to try to explain termination, because FireWire uses termination as well as SCSI, but very few people really catch on as to how.
There are plenty of sites offering installation and troubleshooting advice for Mac OS 8.5 – at least for the Power Mac user. Since neither Apple Computer nor Umax Corporation provides any support for Mac OS 8.5 on SuperMacs, this page exists to cover problems specifically noted by users of the Umax SuperMac series of Macintosh […]
1998 – Whether you’re using a 44 MB, 88 MB, or 200 MB SyQuest cartridge, a 100 MB, 250 MB or 750 MB Zip drive, or some other removable media drive of similar or greater capacity – or even have spare low-capacity hard drives sitting about – here are some practical things you can do.
As of 31 January 1999, Apple has posted System 7.5.3 for free download (19 disk images!) – and don’t forget the System 7.5.5 updater.
“Honest question: What are the specific performance issues for a separate Web and Email machine?”
1998 – I’ve looked at the theory of using an older, slower Mac as a server on a 10Base-T ethernet network in SCSI Throughput vs. Network Throughput – now on to the testing.
1998 – Scott L. Barber does something I didn’t understand for a long time: he recommends using a Mac Plus or Mac SE – or whatever your slowest Mac is – as a file server!
1998 – On the Mac side of the fence, we all know the processors found in the Power Mac G3, the PowerBook G3, and in G3 upgrades in a host of older Macs are up to twice as fast as Intel’s Pentium II processor. But did you also know that Intel has a long history of […]
1998 – Yes, Mac OS 8 takes up more memory than earlier Mac OS versions, but it’s not necessarily what you think. On a machine with 12 MB of memory, OS 8.x takes up less memory than on the same Mac with more memory installed. Here’s how – and Apple’s been doing things like this […]
The article on SCSI Component Order generated some excellent feedback and dialogue. The following comments were written by Keith Bumgarner of MacInformed, the author of the original article.
Per a few private requests, I found enough interest to post a thesis for all to see about the SCSI ID 5 issue.
This was posted during a discussion of stripping PowerPC (a.k.a. PPC native) code from the System Folder for use on 680×0-based Macs.
