'Obsolete' Technology?
From Scott:
While I might agree that labeling my
10-year-old Blue and White
[Power Mac G3] out of date might be accurate, I still do most of my
writing on it. As soon as I pick up another monitor, it will be moved
upstairs next to my TV chair so that I don't have to go to the icebox
that is my office.
On the other hand, I do think that landline phones are going towards
their ends. It has been a while since we have had one (2004, in Germany
to be exact). We currently use Skype and phones from two carriers. I
process my credit cards via phone, and I needed a backup in case one
was out of range or service.
Scott
Hi Scott,
Glad to hear you're still getting useful service out
of that Blue & White. Obsolete is a partly subjective term. I
expect some folks think the early Core Solo and Core Duo Intel Macs are
"obsolete".
In the interest of objectivity, here are Apple Support's definitions of
vintage and obsolete:
"Vintage products are those that were
discontinued more than five and less than seven years ago.
"Obsolete products are those that were
discontinued more than seven years ago. Apple has discontinued all
hardware service for obsolete products with no exceptions. Service
providers cannot order parts for obsolete products."
So according to Apple, your B&W and my beloved
Pismos are all
obsolete. ;-) For the record, my (now my wife's) 17" 1.33 GHz PowerBook G4,
released in Sept. 2003, is nearly there as well.
So far, 75% of Americans - and I think a higher
percentage of Canadians - disagree with you, at least in practise,
about landline phones. I do hope you're mistaken about them being on
the way out anytime soon.
Here's a topical, concrete example of why.
On Saturday, Jan. 2, we had a major storm here in Nova
Scotia. Very strong winds here. The precip came as rain, unlike in many
other parts of the Canadian Maritimes, so I didn't get to try out the
new snowplow we just got for the 4x4, but that's fine with me.
Perfectly happy to have bare ground and above-freezing temperatures
nearly a week into January. I digress.
Anyway, on Saturday the barometer reportedly dropped
50 millibars in 24 hours - twice the ampount of drop in that time
interval needed to qualify as a "weather bomb". The wind tore shingles
off our roof and the rain gutters off the front of the house - I think
the strongest winds I've experienced here, or at least the most damage
from wind we've ever had. That went on for about seven hours on
Saturday, beginning in late afternoon. Our power went off at 7:00 p.m.
and was restored at 11 a.m. Sunday, but not for the broadband Internet
wireless tower until 7:30 p.m..
Ironically, I had canceled our dial-up Internet
service just five days earlier, our new wireless broadband having been
completely reliable for nearly four months. Happily, however, our
landline telephone kept right on working (I can remember it being
offline only two or three times in the past 15 years - all less than
one day outages). A friend took pity on me and allowed me to log on to
the Web on her dial-up account, so I was able to keep working and stay
connected online for the duration. It was interesting to be back on a
26,400 bps connection for a day.
I was glad when power was restored at the wireless
transmission tower, but it was an object lesson that if you really
don't want to be offline during power outages and such, there's no
substitute yet for good old hard-wired landlines. There is only one
carrier here for either broadband or cellphone service respectively, so
service redundancy is not an option - and then there's the cost. Cell
service plans, to say nothing of data service plans, are absurdly,
astronomically expensive here in Canada.
Charles
Better YouTube Options for G4 Macs
From Dr. Dave:
Charles,
Tried André's suggested
YouTube hack of going to Mobile
YouTube, and QuickTime can't open the 3Gp files. Tried copy and
pasting the link into VLC
and opening it as a URL, and that didn't work either. What am I doing
wrong, or is there another step I am missing?
My G4 iBook can
still play most YouTube videos if I let them load all the way, and for
those that don't, MacTubes is
an excellent free solution for searching and downloading YouTube
videos. You can download them as Flash or as MP4s - plays great in
QuickTime on older PPC Macs. If you don't like third party software in
Safari, you can open Activity under Window and look for the big file,
double-click on that, and Safari will download it. That works for most
other Flash-based video sites like Daily
Motion or Veoh too.
When I get on my wife's MacBook and all videos, even HD ones, play
with shocking ease, I begin to realize how far I am being left behind,
but I am committed to get as much life as I can out of this ol' iBook,
which is only four years old for Pete's sake. That isn't that
old.
Dr. Dave
Hi Dr. Dave,
Thanks for the comments and tips.
Four years seems pretty young. I've got an 8-month-old MacBook, but my
17" PowerBook (now my wife's machine) is a 2004 model, and my two
Pismos, still in active service, are pushing 10 years old.
Charles
PowerPC Optimized Browsers
From Michael:
Charles,
Greetings! I wanted to let you and LEM readers know about some
PowerPC optimized Mozilla web
browsers that I've had terrific results with that I highly
recommend. There are optimized Mozilla products optimized for Power
G3s, G4s, and G5s.
On the page, there's a link to the Mozillazine build threads, links
to the optimized build of your choosing, and lastly, these builds are
very, very fast!
-Michael
Thanks Michael;
I've downloaded the G4 7400 optimized builds of
Firefox 3.5.6, Camino 2.0.1, and the SeaMonkey 2.0.1, and they work
really well on my Pismos. I would seat-of-the-pants rate the optimized
Camino build the fastest browser I've used yet in OS X on that
machine.
Charles
Editor's note: For more on this subject, see Optimized Software Builds Bring Out the
Best in Your Mac. Intel-optimized builds are also available.
dk
Pismo WiFi Problems
From Larry:
Hello Charles,
I was happy to stumble upon your article Pismo WiFi Networking Issue
Finally Solved?, as it echoes what is currently the very problem I
am encountering with my Pismo FireWire - recently upgraded to Tiger (Mac OS X 10.4.11) and
trying (so far unsuccessfully) to wirelessly access the newly installed
cable Internet through a new Linksys dual broadband WRT400N router,
configured and hardwired by ethernet cable to my desktop computer, a G5
also running 10.4.11.
Everything has been working well, but for my ability to bring the
Pismo to participate wirelessly.
I can't even begin to know how many times I entered that WEP key
sequence in the few places on the Pismo that would accept it. I am able
to connect the Pismo to the Internet directly with an ethernet
connection - but then rebooting the laptop and trying without the cable
got different results. It will accept my WAP info network name/security
key code if I make a computer-to-computer network (and remain
unconnected to the Internet), but to try and make a successful
connection to the Internet wirelessly has so far not worked out
. . . not quite sure what I'm missing, but with system prefs
under AirPort the "preferred networks" include my network, but it's
never accessible from anywhere I can see. To try to connect, I always
need to go to "Internet connection" with AirPort "on" and using
drop-down network menu will either select "other" and re-enter all the
info anew each time, resulting in an "error joining my AirPort network"
or I'll select "create" and have my info accepted but only as a
computer-to-computer network and not connected to the Internet.
I am not sure where else to go on the Pismo to enter my
router/network info . . . I am really hoping you can point me
in the right direction - just need to establish my network as something
recognized and made accessible with the Pismo.
Please send a quick email to acknowledge receipt of this, even if
you will not respond just yet . . . but my fingers will be
crossed that it's a simple thing you'll suggest that I am too close to
see, and will solve the whole issue neatly.
One way or the other, I hope the holidays are good ones for you.
Regards,
Larry
Hi Larry,
I wish I could help, but I'm anything but an expert in
wireless network troubleshooting.
With my Pismos running OS X 10.4.11, I've never had
any difficulty with getting AirPort to detect the wireless router, WiFi
hotspot, or whatever. All I've ever had to do is to turn AirPort on in
the Network preference panel and then select the detected network (I
always check the "Ask to join new networks" and "Show AirPort Status in
menu bar" options).
I've never had to enter any router/network info
manually.
Perhaps other readers can offer some advice.
Charles
New Paint Program for OS X
I read your review of Paintbrush and thought you
might be interested in a new alternative Paint program of OS X.
myPaint will be released soon, and is now available for review at
www.rdsisemore.com/mypaint/mypaint.dmg
Supports most of the the functions of MSPaint, with several
additions such as GrayScale, Sepia Tones, RGB, and Brightness controls
and much more.
Editor's note: I've downloaded and installed myPaint
(currently known as PaintDS), which
requires OS X 10.5 or later, on one of my production G4 Power
Macs, the one running Leopard. myPaint reports that it is not
compatible with my hardware, leading me to believe that this is an
Intel-only app. The program is $15 trialware. dk
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