Questions I get asked fairly frequently are variations on the general theme of upgrading the operating systems of older Macs to more recent system versions. There is no all-purpose boilerplate answer. The appropriate system to use depends on variables like the speed of your machine, how much RAM you have, what you use the computer […]
Category Archives: Miscellaneous Ramblings
Last week, Gadgets Page’s Michael Moncur posted Alternatives to Apple’s Aluminum Keyboard, a column about his search for a replacement for his iMac’s original keyboard, which had bitten the dust – more specifically, too many food crumbs from meals eaten at his workstation.
2007: The notebook computer is a sublime invention. I prefer working on notebooks even though mine are mostly used as desktop substitute machines, but road trips make you even more profoundly appreciate the genius of the laptop.
2007 – With all the rumors and speculation about a new subcompact MacBook Pro, which some have even suggested might be called the MacBook Pro Duo (I’m exceedingly doubtful about that), I thought it would be timely to take a retrospective look at the original subcompact Mac notebooks (aside from the PowerBook 100, which was […]
In July, I posted a column, Installing OS X 10.4 Tiger on DVD-Challenged Macs Using FireWire Target Disk Mode, describing how I had installed OS X 10.4 Tiger on my CD-ROM equipped iBook G3 by mounting it as an external hard drive from my DVD drive-equipped Pismo PowerBook via FireWire Target Disk Mode and choosing the […]
The new MacBook Pros and MacBooks run hot – almost hot enough to fry eggs. Indeed, Apple no longer advertises its portable computers as laptops, presumably fearing product liability lawsuits should someone singe their thighs.
2006 – Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger ships on DVD media, which is great if you have a Mac equipped with a DVD drive (as most of us do these days), since the entire set of installer files can be contained on one disc, eliminating the necessity of disc-swapping in the middle of the process. […]
TopXNotes is Tropical Software’s solution for creating, working with, and managing text-based notes – another entry in the increasingly crowded field of Classic Mac OS Note Pad replacements for OS X. The program supports to-do lists, Web account information, software serial numbers, and just about anything else you need to store – another spin on the theme […]
I’m a big fan of the optical mouse known simply as The Mouse. It was originally sold by MacMice and is now being marketed directly by its maker, the Chwang Yi Company.* By whatever name, it’s one of the the smoothest, slickest, most comfortable conventional computer mice I’ve ever used.
Many Mac users from way back in the legacy era consider the old ADB Apple Extended Keyboard II to be the best keyboard Apple ever made. Others of us might debate that, but the Extended Keyboard II was certainly the biggest, heaviest keyboard Apple ever made, covering a vast expanse of desktop and weighing in […]
I didn’t always shun Microsoft software. Indeed, for half of my decade as a Mac user, Microsoft Word (first version 4, then version 5.1) was the application I used most in those pre-Internet years.
2000: Last week, Lee Dye of the Los Angeles Times reported on a research project by Ghassan Jabbour, an assistant research professor in the optical sciences department at the University of Arizona in Tucson, whose team is developing thin computer display screens so flexible that they can be folded and tucked away in your pocket.
2000: I received a letter from a reader this week asking what sort of hard drive would work in his PowerBook G3 233 (233 MHz no-cache “MainStreet” version) whose original Toshiba hard drive had expired.
On June 7, 2000, online Mac upgrade reseller MacCPU voluntarily closed its cyber-doors and shut down permanently. MacCPU principal Bob Moriarty explained dyspeptically in a column on MacNN that while, in his opinion, “CPU upgrades remain the single best idea we have ever seen in computing after the Macintosh Operating System . . . Apple […]
2000: When you partition a hard drive, each partition functions as a separate volume and appears on your desktop with its own icon and name. I’m a fan of hard drive partitioning and have had four partitions on the 500 MB hard drive in my PowerBook 5300 and on the 2 GB unit in my […]
2000: If you’re a regular Low End Mac reader, you probably remember my articles back in May about the Frankenstein Power Mac 9500 project, in which I was attempting to procure a decently fast and capable machine as a backup to my faithful WallStreet PowerBook by adding bits and pieces to a stripped 9500 my […]
2000: One of the things I used to love about my Mac Plus back in the old days is that I could put a stripped-down version of System 6 and a text editor on a floppy disk, boot the machine from that, and work in blessed silence with the (external) hard drive shut down, disturbed […]
2000: The Mac Observer’s Michael Munger has written another interesting and provocative piece entitled The Deplorable State of Mac Software, in which he argues that “the condition of Mac software is as pathetic as it could be.”
2000: The Pew Internet & American Life Project has released results of its Internet Tracking Report on MP3 music traffic.
2000: The innovative, leaning joystick-shaped, Animax Dr. Mouse/Anir Mouse from Norway is a simple idea: a pistol-grip on top of a conventional, albeit flattened, mouse base, with a thumb-button for clicking.
2000: Last week’s article about cheap Power Macs for G3 and G4 upgrading was the most popular Miscellaneous Ramblings article that Low End Mac has published, beating out my previous champ – a piece on the economics of processor upgrades. Apparently, upgrades are a popular topic. They also generate a lot of reader feedback: From […]
2000: Dan Knight tells me that my column last week about cheap Power Macs for G3 and G4 upgrading was the most popular Miscellaneous Ramblings article that Low End Mac has published, beating out my previous champ – a piece on the economics of processor upgrades. Apparently, upgrades are a popular topic. Thanks for reading.
2000: How would you like a Power Mac G3 for less than $500? Or perhaps a G4 Power Mac for less than $750? Both deals are currently available from Web sources with a little mixing and matching.
2000: I received a ton of mail in response to the tragic Power Mac 9500 saga posted last week. The letters were so good that Dan Knight suggested we publish them, so here they are with some replies from me where appropriate.
2000: This is a story with a sad ending, and I’m not sure that it has any moral, but you may find it interesting. Our tale begins when my son was given the carcass of a Power Mac 9500 – the six-slot minitower that was Apple’s flagship desktop model back in 1996.
2000: Project AppleSeed is one website you really must check out. A team at the UCLA Department of Physics and Astronomy has established that a cluster of four Blue & White Power Mac G3s now has the same computational power (and twice the memory) as one of the best supercomputers of eight years ago, a […]
2000: In Bryan Chaffin’s latest The Back Page column on The Mac Observer, he argues that Apple was brilliant for showing Mac OS X’s new “lickable” Aqua user interface now, and he sharply chides the foot-draggers (your humble servant included) who have expressed misgivings about the GUI course that Apple has chosen to follow in […]
An all too common annoyance to users of computers with Active Matrix Thin Film Transistor (TFT) Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) screens is the dreaded “dead pixel” phenomenon.
2000: Rolleiflex, a name from photography’s golden era, embraces the digital camera revolution
2000: Last fall I predicted that used PowerBook prices would fall significantly once the iBook began shipping in quantity. I was inspired to revisit the topic by a note last week from reader Jeff Danick, who reports that his father just got a sweetheart deal on a Lombard 333 demo from a local dealer.
2000: Last week a reader named Mike Donahue asked if I would do an in-depth investigation into Apple’s CPU processor plans. I don’t know about in-depth – I don’t think I’m qualified – but this is a topic that I’m concerned about as well, so here is an overview at least. Others have been writing […]
2000: What Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson eventually decides regarding Microsoft’s fate in the U.S. government’s antitrust action against the software colossus may not be the biggest problem on Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer’s plates.
2000: With the proper wired infrastructure in place, there is no reason why e-businesses can’t operate virtually anywhere in the world. My own experience is a case in point. I live in an unlikely spot – the Eastern Shore of Nova Scotia, Canada, which is the extreme boonies even in a rural Nova Scotian context. […]
2000: Apple Computer has revamped and enhanced it’s AppleCare Protection Plan extended warranty, which now provides two extra years of service and support for your Mac at a flat rate price, including telephone support, bundled third-party diagnostic tools, Apple-certified repairs, and 24-hour-a-day Internet support. But are extended warranties like AppleCare worth what they cost?
2000: Last week Newer Technology announced its new iMAXpowr G3 466 processor upgrade for Revision A through D iMac computers. Reportedly, a similar upgrade product is on the way for PowerBook G3 Series computers as well.