Even ten years after its introduction, there’s something compelling about the Macintosh Portable.
Category Archives: Low End Mac
- 'Book Value
- 10 Forward
- 75 Mac Advantages
- Adam's Apple
- Apple Archive
- Apple Before the Mac
- Apple Everywhere
- Apple History
- Apple, Tech, and Gaming
- Back & Forth
- Benchmarks
- Best Tools for the Job
- Building Bridges
- Classic Mac Nostalgia
- Classic Mac OS Software
- Classic Restorations
- Collection Spotlight
- Compleat Guides
- Cortland
- CustoMacs
- Developer Transition Kits
- Different Branches
- Digital Fossils
- Down but Not Out
- Early Mac Clones
- Edelweiss
- Embracing Obsolescence
- Empowered
- Hacking Your Mac
- iBasics
- iBasics Classic iBasics articles for the Classic Mac OS
- iMac Channel
- In My Palm
- Interviews
- iOS & iDevices Articles about iOS and iOS devices: iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch
- iOS Accessories
- iOS Apps
- iOS Hardware iOS devices and accessories.
- iTed Talks
- Kitchens Sync
- Leo and Mac
- Linux to Mac
- Low End Campfire Discussion Campfire style storytelling of Apple finds, exciting discoveries and more.
- Low End Mac FAQs
- Low End Mac Mailbag
- Low End Mac Round Table Low End Mac round table discussion.
- Low End Mac Tech Journal
- The Serker Files
- Mac "Extras"
- Mac Accessories
- Mac CPU Upgrades
- Mac Daniel
- Mac Fallout Shelter
- Mac Gaming
- Mac Happens
- Mac History
- Mac Lab Report
- Astronomy Software
- Mac Life
- Mac Metamorphosis
- LinuxPPC Chronicles
- Mac Musings
- Mac OS X Software
- Mac Resources
- Mac Restorations
- Mac Scope
- Mac to Windows Articles about using Macs and Windows PCs together.
- Mac UK
- Mac USB & FireWire
- MacInSchool
- Macinthoughts
- MacPaint and Its Children
- Matt's Macs
- Maximize Your Mac Jason Schrader's tips on getting the most out of your Mac hardware.
- Bluetooth & Wifi Upgrades
- Memory Upgrade Options
- Menagerie of Macs
- Miscellaneous Ramblings
- Moore's Mailbag
- My First Mac
- My Turn
- Older G4 Macs in the Age of Leopard
- One More Thing
- Online Thrifter
- Orchard
- Overclocking Your Vintage Mac
- Plays Well with Others
- PPC Linux
- Printer Reviews
- Reality Check
- Recycled Computing
- Second Class Macs
- SETI on Mac
- Software FAQs
- Stop the Noiz - Frank Fox tries to cut through the static and get to the facts.
- Taking Back the Market - Tim Nash on how Apple can retake its markets.
- Tangerine Fusion
- Tech Spectrum
- Tech Stuff
- The 'Book Page
- The Efficient Mac User
- The Lite Side
- Bumper Snickers
- The Low End Designer
- The Mac Pack Rat The every day adventures of a Macintosh Pack Rat. Repairing and using lower end machines for productive daily work.
- The Mobile Mac
- The Odyssey
- The Power of Mac
- The Practical Mac
- The Productive Mac
- The Review Vault
- The Road Warrior
- The Rumor Mill
- The Value Equation
- Things Macintosh
- 10 Commandments of the Church of Macintosh
- Triassic Mac
- Unofficial SuperMac Support Site
- Using WordPress - Tips on using WordPress, particularly as deployed at Low End Mac.
- View from the Classroom
- Busman's Holiday
- Teacher Tools
- View From the MacCave
- Vintage Mac Living
- Vintage Mac Workhorses
- Welcome to Macintosh
- In House with Low End Mac
- Working with Vintage Macs
- Zis Mac - Alan Zisman on Macs, iOS, and other tech.
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.
1998 – There is no functional difference between the Power Mac 7100 and the Quadra 650 with the PowerPC upgrade card: They use the same ROM. As for the PPC Toolbox, that appears on all the 68040 Macs I’ve worked with, simply because the PPC Toolbox is 68k code.
Apple launched the Macintosh in 1984 with an 8 MHz 68000 CPU. When this list was published in April 1998, the fastest Mac was the 300 MHz Beige Power Mac G3. Here are Scott Barber’s picks as the best Macs from each CPU family Apple has used to date.
1998 – Okay, kind of a flame, but really specialized. I disagree that Apple should dump the 68k code simply because they want to isolate the 68040 machines from modern use.
1998 – I have this incredible desire to mention a few things about SCSI, seeing the wealth of posts that in some way or another ask whether this drive or that drive will work with this machine or that machine. This isn’t meant to be sarcastic, and it’s very serious – I have clients that […]
All Macintoshes are capable of achieving the 230 kbps (kilobits per second) transfer rate, since this is the speed of LocalTalk. The problem is, unless a device uses the LocalTalk protocol, the port cannot stream that way and is limited to normal serial modes.
1998 – “One topic you you didn’t address was VRAM. Since I use a lousy 15″ monitor, I’m assuming that increasing monitor size will be key to increasing ease of use/performance. Of course, I assume that someone in a prepress use already has two 24″ monitors….”
1998 – It sounds to me like you’re running the kinds and types of software that can create common crashes. I’ve noticed a considerable number of people on the list that don’t have crashes, but I’m not one of them. There are things you can do to shore up your system from crashes and eliminate […]
1998 – First, you’re going to need a lot of memory. All you can afford. Pump your Mac to the maximum memory you can get. Once you get over 80 MB, you’ll be kind of redundant – most CD-writing programs only provide for a 64 MB RAM cache. Aim for at least 64 MB of […]
By request, I’ve searched my personal archives and stumbled on my thesis. It’s rather short compared to the ones I write now, but it should get the point across. Now, there are two complete reposts here, so don’t get confused when the subject changes.
1998 – Long ago, as it has been mentioned, some companies used soft partition software.1 This was an overlay of the hard partitioning format. In some cases, this worked okay, but in most cases, it worked just like Stacker or eDisk2 (for more on these ancient utilities, see Miscellaneous Macintosh FAQ) – sooner or later […]
“How come my folders/apps inflated in size when I moved them from the old drive to the new one? The size of files has jumped by more than 25% across the board. Did I do something wrong in simply dragging the entire contents from the old drive the new one?”
“I’m using my PowerBook Duo 280c over Apple’s LocalTalk Bridge to get access to my ethernet network. What do I need to get TCP/IP to flow through that, too? Where can I get it?”
1998 – Go into your Preferences folder and remove Display Preferences and Sound Preferences. One of the problems when Mac system software switched over was that the engineering team at Apple created Monitors & Sound, instead of leaving them separate, when they created Mac OS 7.6. This created two separate versions of preferences files which […]
A Level 2 (L2) cache was a popular way to boost performance on faster 68030-based Macs, including the Mac IIci, Mac IIvx, and Mac IIfx. But none of the 68040-based Macs shipped with an L2 cache, although most were capable of using one. The L2 cache is automatically accessed by the 68040 series processor, whether […]
ISDN is a nearly forgotten service provided by the telephone company to provide digital transmission of voice, data, video, and more over a conventional land line. It is faster and more reliable than the 56k modems that have been in use since the late 1990s. [There was a time when we had ISDN service for […]
I have posted my answer to your question to the Quadlist, simply because it’s the most on-topic question I’ve gotten in a while. Contained within my answer are little tips that I think others need to know so that they can get powerful performance out of their machines as well. I have eliminated a considerable […]
1998 – Quantum makes the best SCSI drives for Apple or Mac clone branded equipment. I think they make lousy IDE drives though and vote for IBM or Maxtor when it comes to IDE.
Someone I’d love to give credit to, but don’t know who they were when they suggested it to me, gave me a wonderful idea for the RAM disk/disk cache solutions in an article I wrote a while back, RAM Disk vs. Disk Cache: When to Use Each
1998 – This is a long post, but it is relevant to many of the problems we have discussed recently. I would also be interested to know if people agree with what this Apple tech has to say.
1998 – Your results may vary, but this should provide a good starting point for tweaking serial throughput on your Mac setup. Note that FreePPP allows serial port settings of 115.2 kbps and 230.4 kbps, settings not possible with Apple’s serial toolbox routines. This follows up on our earlier article, Macintosh Serial Throughput, providing real […]
1998 – The entire idea of a LocalTalk gateway is to bridge LocalTalk devices that don’t have ethernet – such as Macs, early LaserWriters, other printers, etc. which are not TCP/IP devices (visible on the Internet in the Internet’s most common language) as LocalTalk devices.
