2000: It is amazing how time flies when you move from New York to California. Soon after my previous article, I purchased a car and drove cross-country to California via the Bible Belt. While the Bible Belt is not my lifestyle of choice, I have always been fascinated by it.
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.
2000: Being a Low End Mac reader, you’ve probably also been to the numerous articles on other Mac advocacy sites whose stories are linked to in the Around The Web section of the home page.
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 […]
In my earlier articles about speed, I made the point that much of speed depends on what software you choose and how you set it up for the way you work. In How to Pick Faster Software, I gave some yardsticks you can use to measure how good your software is. Now I’d like to […]
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 […]
This model, available in Graphite and Snow, replaced the earlier iMac DV. Both models share a 400 MHz processor. Other than colors, the biggest difference between the new iMac DV and the previous model with the same name is the use of a CD-ROM drive instead of DVD. The Summer 2000 iMac DV sells for […]
The iMac DV+, available in Indigo, Ruby, and Sage, boosts performance over iMac DV by 50 MHz. This is the only 450 MHz iMac model. The iMac DV+ sells for the same price as the 1999 iMac DV and ships with the Apple Pro Mouse and Apple Pro Keyboard. Got an iMac? Join our iMac Group or iMacs […]
A Limited Mac The indigo iMac 350 replaced a virtually identical model that came in blueberry – but at US$200 less. The 350 MHz indigo iMac ships with the Apple Pro Mouse and Apple Pro Keyboard. It is the only Mid 2000 iMac without FireWire. Got an iMac? Join our iMac Group or iMacs & eMacs Forum. […]
I have been thinking a lot about speed lately. Speed is the most touted feature of each new computer, but it is equally relevant to low-end Macs. Low End Mac’s webmaster, Dan Knight, puts it this way: Eventually every computer becomes low-end.
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 […]
Shock-what? Shock-huh? That’s been the usual response from Mac users when asked about Shockwave – until now.
In this article I’m going to look at three common types of Mac users and offer a suggestion for each that should make them faster.
As far as I’m concerned, the best news of the week came from Sonnet Technologies, which announced some of its G3 and G4 upgrade cards will be compatible with Mac OS X.
A few weeks ago I wrote a series of articles about fonts. In A History of Font Technologies, I looked at the four major trends in Mac fonts: bitmapped, PostScript, TrueType, and anti-aliasing.
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 latest craze in the computing/music/real world is Napster, the notorious MP3 sharing program. There is a lot of controversy over this program. Many musical artists, like Dr. Dre and Metallica, are suing Napster. They are doing this because many people are using Napster to distribute MP3s of their music to other computer users.
Last week, I reconsidered computing speed and came to the conclusion that time spent picking the right software and customizing it for the way you work is time well spent. With speed in mind, I think it is right that I discuss the slowest component of most Macintoshes.
2000: We all know that the Newton, once Apple got all the kinks out, was a fantastic platform. And we all know that Palm, despite it’s numerous former Apple developers, doesn’t have such great Mac support. And we know that the Palm OS allows for competitive models from other manufacturers – the Handspring Visor is […]
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.”
LisaList is Low End Mac’s group for Apple Lisa users, including those using Lisa emulation. The group was begun on 2000.06.18.
There’s been some interesting discussion of IBM’s new PowerPC 750CX and forthcoming 750CXe processors, especially related to IBM Discusses New PowerPC Chips on MacWeek. A lot of Mac users seem to think the 750CX would be a poor choice; I beg to differ.
June 2000: Since it’s unlikely that you spent the last few months in self-hypnosis by swinging your mouse back and forth, you probably heard that ATI leaked information about Apple’s new products before Apple announced them. And you probably heard that Apple “punished” ATI by removing all mention of their new Radeon chipset and using […]
2000: Apple’s newly released USB Printer Sharing 1.0 has a revolutionary new feature for non-networkable USB printers: It allows them to be networked! But wasn’t there something like this a few years ago?
2000: The Pew Internet & American Life Project has released results of its Internet Tracking Report on MP3 music traffic.
For years I have been following Macintosh hardware advances. When I first started using Macs in 1990, the wicked fast 40 MHz Mac IIfx was on the top. I was in college at the time, and I knew two frosh in my dorm who owned IIfxs. I did not realize then how rich their parents […]
One of the mistakes computer users make is confusing “complicated” with “complex.” Complicated means “Strap yourself in. The learning curve is about to get seriously steep.” Complex means “You can do really neat stuff with this program.”
2000: One of the problems of living out in the suburbs, where there are many trees and tall objects, is poor radio reception. Is there any solution to this problem for those who like to listen to the radio? Of course there is – Internet radio.
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.
In my previous article, Macintosh System Fonts, I surveyed the fonts that have shipped with the Mac OS and suggested that people without printers use a bitmapped font called Espy for everything on their system. Now I’d like to give a little more information about Espy.
Let me ask you this question: On a PowerBook, have you ever seen an out of memory warning? If not, you must have a newer machine. Every time I use my PowerBook 190cs, I get the same warning, but now that problem is gone. You could even say a birdie told me. A camera birdie […]
Once upon a time – April 1998 to be precise – Intel created a cheap version of the Pentium and named it Celeron. It had no level 2 (L2) cache, and it sucked.
This mod has been popular for a few years: Taking an old compact Mac, disassembling it, and applying a Stone Fleck finish to the case. In this instance, MacCollect has refinished a Macintosh Classic, although neither this reduced photo nor any on the MacCollect site really does it justice. You really have to see the […]
2000 – Let’s look at some options for 68040 based computers. If you do not have one, I will discuss which model might be right for you.
Bernard Bélanger’s PowerSuitcase (also in French) is quite a bit different from most CustoMacs: It doesn’t even look like a computer.
