I've just finished my Macquarium using instructions and
inspiration that I found through your site....
Here's the link: <http://www.davedaranjo.com/Macquarium/>
Many thanks,
Dave D'aranjo
davedaranjo.com
Dave,
Your Macquarium is a thing of beauty. Did you paint
the old Mac casing dark gray, or was it that way when you found the
computer?
Dan
Another Pismo Lover
From Alan Nakamura:
Dan,
I found your website a couple of months ago when I was looking for a
used Mac. I had my eye on a Mac mini,
but after doing research on your website (which was a gold mine of
information BTW), I opted for a Pismo PowerBook, noting in your
columns about its durability and flexibility. I found one on eBay for
$175, with an AirPort Card, 512 MB of RAM, and a great battery (holds a
4 hr. charge)!
I totally agree with the comments Mr. Marques made about the Pismo.
After owning Toshiba and Dell laptops, this Pismo is one of the most
reliable and durable laptops ever made. It never skips a beat, always
comes up on command, and Tiger runs excellently on it! I take it with
me to the jobsite, check my email at the local WiFi hotspot, and print
up job proposals for customers using a StyleWriter portable printer I
found at, of all places, a thrift store for $5!
I've been a PC user since 1995, and with the success I have had with
the Pismo, I found a 500 MHz G3
iMac with 512 MB RAM, a 40 GB HD, and AirPort for only $80 with the
keyboard, puck mouse, and Tiger included! I'm currently using this as
my main computer! Who needs 2 GB RAM and a 2.0+ GHz Intel chip for
basic word processing, emails, and surfing the Web? This baby does it
all, and very smoothly, too!
Since I found your website, I check it every day to read all of the
latest information about Macs and Apple. Please keep up the good work
. . . your website and your staff offer a resource you
couldn't ever find for the Windows environment, and I applaud all of
your efforts.
Alan Nakamura
Alan,
Thanks for sharing your story. I've been a Mac user
since the tail end of the Mac
Plus era, and I sold my DOS computer within 6 months of getting my
first Mac. I barely touched Windows 286/386, which were the current
versions at the time, so I missed the whole relearning experience
Windows users go through.
Macs have traditionally had good build quality and a
stable, elegant operating system. You'll find few Mac users who would
switch because we've generally had such a great experience with Macs.
That's part of why we love our Macs, even old ones - and that's the
reason I started Low End Mac nearly 11 years ago, so I could share my
knowledge and love of the Mac with others.
I have my first Mac, and my second, and my SuperMac
clones. I work on a 2002 Power Mac Mirror
Drive Door computer, and I have a Blue & White Power Mac G3
next to me that I've just booted into Tiger for the first time
today.
I'm glad we were able to help you make informed
choices about your Pismo and iMac. Our goal at Low End Mac has always
been to educate our readers, giving them the tools they need to make
their own informed decisions about what to buy, when to upgrade, and
when to move to a newer Mac.
Dan
Problems with D-Link USB WiFi Adapter
From James Johnson:
Hello Dan:
I wanted to get WiFi capability for my Mac PCs, so I asked on the
list that I am part of if anyone used anything other than Apple's WiFi
devices. The resulting information convinced me to buy a D-Link
DWL-G122 on the 15th of August in 2006. I downloaded the Mac drivers
and installed it, and it worked fine from August of 2006 until about
April 2007, when it just did not work anymore - and it even crashed the
400 MHz iMac and my 1.33 GHz Mac mini. I used D-Link's website to
communicate the problem to D-Link in hopes of exchanging my dead
device. Here is what I put in the blanks on the website:
"Device stopped working. It even crashed the computer.
I tried it on another computer with a newer OS and the same thing
happened. F/W ver. 2.02 S/N DR5Z25B051039 First computer running Mac OS
X 10.3.9. Second computer running Mac OS X 10.4.6."
D-Link's response was:
Dear James Johnson,
Your Case ID is DLK#########.
Date of Reply: 5/16/2007 Products: DWL-G122_revB
Operating System: Mac OS 10.3
James,
Unfortunately, there are no Mac OS drivers for
DWL-G122_revB.
Should you require further assistance with your D-Link
products, please reply to this message, or call toll free at
877-###-####.
For D-Link's preferred Home Networking application
please try http://www.networkmagic.com/nmlp/dlinksupport.php
from Pure Networks. It simplifies Microsoft Networking and may allow
you to trouble shoot your network on your own.
Thank you for networking with D-Link.
Sincerely,
[deleted name]
D-Link Technical Support
My response to D-Link was:
Does this mean that the Mac OS X driver that I was
using was for a later version or an earlier version of the device? It
worked very well from August of last year till sometime around April of
this year.
James Johnson
I also sent them one of the drivers for the device. I am trying to
keep others from getting into the same situation that I am in. I wanted
them to exchange the device so I could go on using WiFi without
shelling out a ton of money for Apple's solution.
The issue was never resolved, and I use an Airlink 101 brand WiFi transceiver
now. I have better connections and better speed with Airlink 101 than I
ever had with D-link. I hope others do not have the bad fortune that I
had with D-Link.
It is unfortunate that Hawking prices the Mac OS compatible products
$10 higher than the same thing with a Windows XP logo on the package.
Why do they assume that because we use the Mercedes of computers that
we are made of money? If they were priced the same, then I would buy a
WiFi transceiver from Hawking.
James Johnson
James,
Thanks for sharing your story. Let's hope it serves as
a warning to others about the level of customer support Mac users can
expect from D-Link.
Also thanks for the heads up on Airlink 101, a brand I
wasn't at all familiar with. Looks like they have five different USB
WiFi adapters, four supporting 802.11g and its extensions and one
with 802.11n support. It's sad that only one mentions Mac OS X
support, the AWLL3026 802.11g
Ultra Slim USB 2.0 Adapter, but at least they haven't completely
neglected Mac users.
Using Google, I've only found one online vendor who
lists this adapter, and they're out of stock. Another option is the
Asus/Addlogix WL-167g USB 2.0 Wireless WLAN Adapter, which supports
Macs, Windows, and Linux. It's available from Other
World Computing for just $30. For those who want 802.11n, they also
list the new NewerTech
MAXPower 802.11n/g/b USB Adapter for $55.
Dan
Compact Flash to SCSI Adapter
Hello Dan!
Wow, I was surprised when I received an email from you! I've been a
long time reader of Low End Mac since the late 90's. Now, back in
Japan, I still check LEM everyday (which also helps retain my English
skills!)
Yes, the LC II is running on
a 128 MB CompactFlash Memory Card. This works by using the CF->SCSI
adaptor and a 40-pin SCSI to 50-pin SCSI+Power adaptor.
The CF->SCSI
adaptor is in a 2.5" form-factor, so some simple adaptors (for mounting
and the SCSI port) are also necessary to be used on a desktop Mac.
I bought this card directly from the company that sells these cards.
This is their website: <http://www.artmix.com/j_home.html>
(Though it is in Japanese).
The CF->SCSI adaptor is called "CF PowerMonster", which
is the second one down from the top.
Essentially, it is a standard IDE to SCSI adaptor, but a CF card
slot is placed instead of a standard IDE port.
It is easy to get in Japan, as you can just order directly from them
on their website. However, outside Japan, the only way to buy one seems
to be through eBay. A bit of searching on Google showed that the owner
of the company "Artmix" seems to have an eBay account, which can be
found here: <http://myworld.ebay.com/artmix/>,
and has sold this adaptor in the past.
Although the Dual CF to IDE adaptor is listed right now, the CF to
SCSI adaptor does not seem to be available right now.
Currently, "Artmix" seems to be the only company that sells such
adaptors. Though it is easily available by ordering online, it may
become rare if they stop making it....
The performance is not bad . . . at least on the LC II,
there's no difference between a normal hard drive, except there's no
noise! The Performa 450, which
runs a webserver, has a similar adaptor to drive a 2.5" ATA hard drive.
It is the same as the CF to SCSI adaptor, except that it has an IDE
port instead of the CF slot, and a standard 2.5" ATA drive is bolted on
top of it.
In my case, I'm using a 2.5" Seagate Momentus drive, which was a
stock drive inside the first generation Mac mini G4.
The only hard part is formatting on these adaptors. If I remember
correctly, I had to format it using a
modified version of Apple HD SC Setup, and then update the drivers
using the more modern Apple Drive Setup. Without doing this, for some
reason it will display the "?" at startup, even if the system is
properly written in the CF card.
Third party formatting utilities, such as Silverlining from LaCie,
may also work, but I wanted the "genuine" Apple drivers . . .
for no reason ;-)
I also have a Power Mac
6500 that runs on a 1 GB CF card. The adaptor for that is a
standard CF to IDE adaptor that I got for about 500 Yen (about $5).
Please feel free to email me if you have any other questions!
I always enjoy visiting Low End Mac! I have links to the LEM
profiles of the LC II and Performa 450 on the site so people can find
out more . . . I hope you don't mind.
Yoshihide Katagiri
Yoshihide,
Thanks for your email. This is something a lot of us
have been longing for, although the US$90 price before shipping makes
it an expensive way to put Compact Flash in an old PowerBook that uses
SCSI drives. Of course, SCSI drives are expensive and hard to find
compared with IDE drives and CF cards, so it could be a great way to
put a big, relatively fast drive in an ancient Mac.
Dan
HD iTunes Movie Resolution
From Ed Hurtley:
Dan
In Something
New in the Air you rhetorically inquire as to if the HD movies are
720 or 1080.
According to the
Apple TV specs, the Apple TV is still limited to 1280 x 720p at 24
frames per second. It specifically lists "iTunes Store purchased video:
320 by 240 pixels, 640 by 480 pixels, 720 by 480 pixels (anamorphic),
or high-definition 720p" in its formats. My guess is that the "new"
Apple TV is really just a pre-software-upgraded one. No hardware
update. 1280 x 720 at 24 frames per second has always been the maximum
resolution Apple TV could play. (And if you want 30 frames per second,
the resolution drops to 960 x 540.)
Even at that resolution, it is limited to 5 MB/s. Which is odd,
since many of the 720p HD
trailers on Apple's trailers site are over 5 MB/s. That means that
the free trailers are quite possibly higher quality than the actual HD
rentals.
Ed Hurtley
Ed,
Thanks for the info. I'm still living with an analog
TV and mono sound, so I don't pay a lot of attention to digital video.
That stuff should become a lot more affordable in a year when analog
broadcasting is on its last legs here in the States.
As for Apple TV, it's now just two steps from being a
great digital hub for TV. Add a television tuner so you can use it like
a TiVo/DVR and a SuperDrive so you can watch DVDs and burn your own
discs, and the world will beat a path to Apple's door.
Dan
MacBook Pro to Replace a 12" PowerBook?
From Ben Chong in
response to The
MacBook Air Misses the Mark:
MacBook
Pro as a replacement for a 12"
PowerBook? Are you kidding?
I upgraded from a 12" PowerBook (1.5
GHz) to a MacBook. No Pro.
If you are concerned about size/weight etc., the MacBook is the
perfect update. And It's a real upgrade with a higher res screen.
No aluminium case? Who cares?
Ben,
My Turn is our column for reader-submitted articles.
It's meant to provide a different perspective, which is important when
you're writing about computers designed for those who "think
different". While most of us would not consider a 15" MacBook Pro
(instead of a 13.3" MacBook) as a replacement for a 12" PowerBook, it
makes sense to Barry Shell.
Why? For the same reason people chose the 12"
PowerBook over the 12" iBook in the first place: it's one of Apple's
"pro" aluminum-clad 'Books. Were there a 13" MacBook Pro, I suspect
Barry would choose that vs. the substantially larger 15" model, but
it's not a choice Apple gives us.
Dan
MacBook Air Whiners
From John Christie:
Dear Dan,
From all complaints the MacBook Air is a poor offering from Apple
because it isn't a low end Eee PC and it isn't a Toshiba RX1 (starting
at around 4000). Both of those computers are much slower. Both
of those computers have much smaller screens. And....
None of that matters, because you'd have someone whining over what
it's not no matter what it was. If it was an Eee PC, it would be
underpowered, cramped, and useless. If it were an RX1, it wouldn't have
enough memory or CPU and be overpriced. If it had two USB ports, it
would be a disaster because there weren't 3, or a disaster because they
could have used one spot for ethernet, or it would be terrible because
there's too many ports and it looks bad, or is fragile, or is now too
heavy, or....
I think it's a pretty good laptop on spec and design. You don't get
compact like this without paying unless you want to make a lot of
compromises. If you want more ports then it's bigger and heavier. If
you want more battery life it's bigger or is less powerful. If you want
more power it's bigger and less battery.
I also don't think the battery life is going to be as poor as people
are suspecting. I'm guessing from the weight (batteries can be roughly
guessed for capacity by weight, assuming comparable technologies) that
the battery is pretty close to a MacBook battery (in the 80-90% of that
range). That should easily get 4 hours or more with an LED lighted
screen, no optical drive, and a more efficient CPU and hard drive. It's
hard to get a new MacBook down to 3 unless you pound the optical drive.
I watch movies on mine all the time straight from battery with loads to
spare.
And what about the fabulous innovations this ushers in? Apple is
trying to make it so that those complaints don't matter by giving you
options to computer differently. Other people just sell you the one
product and let you hope for the best. With this change in computing
model they're also trying to help by changing the ecosystem. It's that
kind of thinking that makes them different. You can't just look at the
computer by itself and compare it because, in reality, there is no
competition.
We ordered one in our lab right away. I guess when Apple sells 36
models of laptops, then everyone will be happy.
Okay Dan, the letter's too long. Sorry.... :)
John
John,
The Mac Web exists to second-guess Apple. :-)
And we're the first to speak up when a new Apple product doesn't live
up to our expectations, regardless of whether Apple intended to meet
our expectations or not. The Cube was a perfect example: We weighed it
on the same scale of cost, performance, and expandability as the Power
Mac G4 towers and found it wanting. We measure the Mac mini against the
theoretical midrange modular Mac that we all want Apple to produce, and
we find it wanting.
I admitted long ago that I didn't really "get" the
iMac at first, because I'm more of a technophile and geek than the
average Mac user. I want Apple to "think different" about the midrange,
just as they've done throughout the product line.
I look at the MacBook Air and recognize it for what it
is: A complement to the desktop Mac, not a desktop replacement. It's a
field computer, and in light of that most of its compromises make
sense. I don't like 1 USB port because it means you can't print a file
from your USB flash drive without a hub. (Too bad wireless USB didn't
make it into the MacBook Air. I was kind of hoping for that as well as
wireless power in light of Apple's "air" theme.)
Apple never intended the MacBook Air as a replacement
for the 12" PowerBook, so anyone who views it in that light will be
disappointed. It's not meant to be the smaller MacBook Pro they long
for and hope Apple will make someday. It's something new and different,
but also a phoenix rising from the ashes of the PowerBook Duo line. I think it's going
to be a raging success. I know I'd be very tempted to choose it as my
next notebook.
Dan
MacBook Air a Road Apple
From Julian O'Connor:
Dear Dan
Limited, compromised - I nominate the MacBook Air as a Road Apple.
Why?
Because it exhibits many of the faults not seen for years in Apple's
product range:
- Running cheaper, slower components to keep size down (and probably
cost too - without these savings even the basic Air would be Mac Pro
money) like the Macintosh LC.
- Removing the ability to expand the computer in the most common and
basic ways like the Macintosh
Classic.
- Lacking sufficient connectivity to be useful in the real world
like the PowerBook 150. Okay,
that one isn't very fair to the Air, but another USB port would have
saved so much bad press.
My favourite are the last two paragraphs of the Mac TV entry. My updates are in
brackets:
"If you're very tight for space, don't need a lot of
memory, and aren't interested in a lot of speed, the beautiful black
Mac TV (of beautiful silver MacBook Air) is a really cool find,
although it's not much of a Mac."
"But with no expansion slot, an 8 MB (2 GB) RAM
ceiling, and poor performance, the gorgeous-but-crippled Mac TV
(MacBook Air) earns the title of Road Apple - the oldest (newest) Mac
with this designation"
Maybe I'm just bitter because the cost of a compromised MBA makes a
real replacement for my PowerBook 12" so much more unlikely! I wonder
if this 'ultra high end of the low end' machine is really a better bet
for Apple than the proven market for a MacBook Pro 12.
Many thanks for your attention,
Julian O'Connor
UK
Julian,
I think this is the first time a Mac has been
nominated as a Road Apple before it shipped, and from the perspective
of a 12" PowerBook replacement, it definitely qualifies. Problem is,
it's obviously not intended as that. There's no optical drive. There
are too few ports. There is no expandability. And the footprint is too
big.
We have to look at the MacBook Air as an addition to
the Mac matrix, not a replacement for any existing model. That's how we
got the iMac, iBook, Cube, and Mac mini: New kinds of Macs, or at least
rehashes of long gone designs. (The iMac comes from the all-in-one
tradition, the Cube is in some ways a successor to the 20th Anniversary
Mac - designed for executives, not average consumer or power users, and
the Mac mini is in many ways descended from the Cube.)
Like the Cube, the MacBook Air was designed because
it's what Steve Jobs wanted. Unlike the Cube, I believe the MBA will be
a success because it has enough features for its intended market and it
can run Windows, giving it a much broader potential market. I'm not
ready to declare it a Road Apple, although that day could come.
Here's hoping Apple will someday replace the 12"
PowerBook with a small footprint MacBook Pro.
Dan
Dan
A 12" PB replacement it is not, that became clear as soon as I saw
the onboard graphics. Regarding your reasons for it's possible success;
I think the Cube had more than was required for it's intended market
but still managed to fail because the market didn't really exist. I
think the MBA will follow that route too, unless it can be made much
cheaper once production is underway.
Also, running Windows is a disadvantage for this particular niche as
it makes it a direct competitor against quite a few less compromised
and far less expensive offerings from elsewhere. Granted none of them
look as nice, and that's the iPod/iPhone business model, but the
iPod/Phone have function as well as form. The MBA is functionally
compromised whether it runs OS X or Windows, so all it has left is
beauty - but that didn't save the Cube! In the old days Apple could say
that they needed a super-sub notebook to get OS X into that market
but Windows compatibility means Apple can't stand the MBA in a position
of it's own any more.
Still, at least it's given everyone something to talk about instead
of the iPhone!
Julian
Julian,
The MacBook Air uses some expensive components: the
special, reduced-size Core 2 Duo CPU, the miniature hard drive, and a
MagSafe adapter that only works with this one model. The screen and
keyboard are commodities, though. If it takes off, I'm sure Apple will
be able to reduce the price a bit.
Dan
Disappointment with MacBook Air
From Keith Veitch:
Just agreeing with many of the comments on the MacBook Air. I have
been holding on to my 12" PowerBook for a while now in anticipation of
a smaller footprint MacBook. Thinness is not an issue for me, it is the
footprint for working on fold-down tables in planes (and more often)
trains as I travel across Europe. An 11" widescreen would have been
perfect (and would it not also improve battery life?) - still better
than portable DVD players.
Lack of an optical drive is less of an issue for me, as long as
there is the option of an external one, but the single USB hub would
pose a problem. I like to add a mouse when possible and don't trust
Bluetooth ones, which always seem to run out of battery just when I
need them. In view of the lack of ethernet (which is the primary
connection offered in my experience of US hotels) and, as noted, the
overwhelming lack of wireless access when working in offices other than
your own, transfer of documents will have to be by USB key [drive]. Has
no-one at Apple ever attended a conference where that last minute
PowerPoint (sorry, most do not know what Keynote is) has to be handed
in on a USB key [drive]? I also like to use my USB-connected/powered
Altec Lansing speakers as my sound system in hotels, while still
working - carrying a hub or switching USB devices, USB-ethernet
adaptor, external DVD drive, are all additional pain.
And in view of the multimedia capabilities, why not a few control
buttons on the front to allow it to be used as a big iPod, as offered
my many PC equivalents?
I was really interested to note the comments regarding the Asus Eee,
as that is an option I am seriously considering, if I do finally decide
that MacBook is too big - so MacBook possibly, but MacBook Air never
for me.
Keith
Keith,
Always good to hear from a road warrior who knows only
too well the importance of multiple built-in ports. I think one of the
unfortunate ways Apple keeps thinking different from the rest of the
industry is its decision to provide as few USB ports as it thinks it
can get away with: one on the clamshell iBook and MacBook
Air, two on most other 'Books.
You make a valid point about Bluetooth (and other
wireless) mice. Batteries run down, and there's no way to charge most
of them in the field. (My wireless mouse is charging as I write this. I
should have put it in its dock last night. And I only know of one
wireless mouse that has a USB cable for charging and use when the
batteries have run out of juice.) There's also the complaint that
Bluetooth doesn't always respond immediately to mouse movement,
although I have no experience in that area.
Apple long resisted putting USB and FireWire ports on
the front of Macs, finally doing that with the Power Mac G5. They still
don't do it with the iMac or Mac mini, forcing you to reach around the
back. But that's another rant entirely. (To date Apple has consistently
avoided something almost every PC maker does, putting a big, ugly
multicard reader in a laptop. A SD slot would be a welcome addition to
the MacBook Air.)
The MacBook Air does work with Apple's remote, which
may make up for it not having any controls you can access when the lid
is shut.
Apple hasn't yet come up with a replacement for the
12" MacBook Pro. Let's hope they do this year.
Dan
Dan,
As a quick follow on from the mail I sent 2 minutes ago, I do take
exception to your comment that the MacBook Air "is small enough that
you can take it with you almost anywhere". It is thin, but having
exactly the same footprint as the MacBook, it is not small.
Finally, following all the noise generated about non-replaceable
batteries in iPods and iPhone, except by expert dismantling, and
experience with failing batteries myself, is the whole machine meant to
be disposable?
Keith
Keith,
I don't think Apple intends the MacBook Air to be
disposable, although they have made a big deal about the aluminum
casing being easy to recycle (Jobs forbid!). As long as replacement
batteries are available, I think the MBA will make a wonderful field
computer years and years from now.
With its large footprint, relative to the 12"
PowerBook, I don't think the MBA is a use-it-anywhere notebook, but the
issue I was addressing there was its lack of a security lock. I think
the MacBook Air is small enough and light enough that users will be
less likely to leave it sitting on the desk when they walk away in a
public setting (most of which have no place to lock up a traditional
laptop either - how do you secure a 'Book at Starbucks?).
Dan
