Snow Leopard and LocalTalk
Cheap and Unobtrusive USB 2 CardBus Solution
From Scott:
Hey Charles,
I was recently looking for a USB 2 CardBus for my Pismo PowerBook. I saw the AKE
BC168 on
eBay for as little as $10 with shipping from Hong Kong
included.
I searched for information to find out if the card was compatible
with Mac OS X, but nobody knew. I decided to take a chance and
order one myself. The AKE BC168 CardBus showed up in today's mail. It
does work in my Pismo PowerBook running OS X 10.4.11 with all
current updates. I'm not using the little USB power cord that came with
the card, and yet the card is supplying enough bus power just through
the PCMCIA slot to power a USB Bluetooth dongle and a USB 2 thumb drive
simultaneously.
I moved files from the thumb drive to the internal hard drive
through the USB 2 card, then through the built in USB 1 port on
the back of the Pismo. The USB 2 card moves the same exact data almost
10 times as fast, so it's safe to say it is working at USB 2 speed. The
card is completely internal, with no protrusion from the side of the
Pismo at all. The face of the card fits flush against the side of the
Pismo and the color matches like they were made for each other.
This is an elegant and unobtrusive USB 2 solution worthy of a
beautiful old PowerBook. The casual observer won't even notice it - or
feel it for that matter. This card provides two USB 2 ports. The bigger
cards provide as many as four ports, but those big cards stick way out
of the CardBus slot. Unlike a lot of people, I don't have many USB 2
devices. Most of my external devices are FireWire or USB 1. I guess
that's because I own older PowerPC Macs. A USB 2 thumb drive and
perhaps the occasional USB 2 Flash card reader will probably be the
only USB 2 devices my Pismo will use.
Hope this review helps someone trying to make a decision. I'll write
back if anything changes, but so far the AKE BC168 looks like exactly
what I wanted.
Scott
Hi Scott,
Sounds like a perfectly ideal solution at a great
price. You don't happen to have the supplier's URL that I could share
with other readers and perhaps order one of these myself?
Thanks for the useful information.
Charles
Mac OS 9.x and Kanga
From Ron:
Hi Charles
I have one of these things. Kanga G3 PowerBook, M3553 (1997)
So it has [Mac OS] 8.5, and I can not seem to get on the Net with my
new AirPort Extreme (direct wire).
Also want to upgrade the OS to 9.x Have a fav application runs only
pre-OS X. What versions of 9 will this Laptop take? Net says maybe
it can take 9.1. Is that true?
You say:
The PowerBook 3500 has the dubious distinction of
being the only Apple G3 model that was never officially supported by
any version of Mac OS X (not even the public beta). At a modest
250 MHz with a 160 MB RAM ceiling, that isn't a tragedy - OS X
wouldn't perform very well on it anyway, and there is no processor
upgrade path. It was also the only G3 PowerBook to sport the
traditionally colored Apple logo; future PowerBooks would have a plain
white logo.
What's the best way to get 9.x and get on the Net? Netscape 6?
Thanks,
Ron
Hi Ron,
Check out Low End Mac's Compleat
Guide to Mac OS 9, 2008 Edition. I'm not sure how up to date some
of the information and links are, but it should give you some clues as
to what's possible.
As for web browsers, that's definitely the Achilles'
heel for OS 9 holdouts. My favorite has been Netscape 7, but there's a
new secure web browser for Mac OS 9 - a derivative of the Mozilla
1.3 browser called Classilla.
Charles
The Value of Mobile Macs
From Chris:
Hello there,
Join me once again, while I flutter to and fro in the world of used
Macs.
Recently I bought two PowerPC Macs at almost give away prices, both
on different occasions.
An iBook G3 600 MHz,
with a 20 gig HD and a Combo drive. In raw specs, it just appears to be
a minor upgrade form my other
G3 iBook, a base 500 MHz model, with a plain old CD-ROM. But it's
amazing how much difference a 100 MHz extra and 33 MHz extra [memory
bus] speed makes. Let alone more RAMå (384 vs. 256 MB).
It's by no means a speed demon, but it chugs along nicely with
Tiger. (And even better with
Panther, but some of my open
source software needs Tiger.) It plays video files with VLC adequately,
and its battery life is just monstrous at 5 hours. It's a great laptop,
and I have always been enamored by the small iceBook form factor.
The 12-inchers are a lot better than the 14-inchers, which in my
mind are generally nothing more than the 12-inch form factor blown up.
It's not the newest of the newest - already 7 years old - but it does
what I want from it. Audio, video, playback, and word processing on the
go, and that's good enough for me. Its price was a no brainer too, 100
Euro.
Today I picked up a whole different Mac. A 2001 Quicksilver 733 MHz G4
with two hard drives, 1 gig of RAM, and the only bad part of the whole
machine - a rather pedestrian ATI Rage 128 16 MB video card, which
has been replaced by an Nvidia GeForce 3 TI 200 with 64 MB RAM.
This machine was just 50 Euro - half the price of the iBook, but
infinitely more upgradable.
I can upgrade the iBook's hard drive and CD drive (just don't ask
how), but even then I'm still stuck with the same G3 CPU and the same
8 MB video card. While as long as I am willing to spend the money,
I can upgrade this Quicksilver to a dual G4 1800 MHz with 1.5 gig RAM.
A 250 gig HD, USB 2.0 DVD writer, and a 512 MB Vidcard running Tiger
and/or Leopard. (Assuming I even
want to run Leopard, which generally speaking I don't.)
Something the iBook will never be able to do. And it sells for less
than the iBook, isn't that peculiar ? Just because the iBook is
portable, it's worth more than a computer who is actually more.
Not that I begrudge my iBook, I love the little machine, both of
them.
But the Quicksilver was just given away, it might be 8 years old by
now, once it was $1,700, and now you can't even give them away any
more.
The used market for
PPC Macs has really bottomed out, and worse is to come.
Of course, for those of us who still use the PPCs, this is only good
news. I'm not dependent on Mac OS 9 apps. I'm strictly OS X,
but just because something is old does not mean it's useless.
Mac OS X Jaguar, Panther,
Tiger, and Leopard won't all of a sudden stop running when Apple
releases Snow Leopard and
drops PPC support. We all knew this would happen, and they have given
us 3 years to prepare for it.
PPC Macs are dirt cheap now. Now is the time to get the ones you
want, even the mighty
MDD's are relatively cheap.
The only PPC Macs that still command top dollar are - well, you
guessed it, the laptops.
I'd like a 1200 MHz G4 alu 17 inch PowerBook once. But I wonder why
I would need it. I'm a desktop user, not a laptop, and my iBook
suffices in all my on the go needs. (Other then playing The Sims 2
)
Chris
Hi Chris,
Great deals on both machines. It is really difficult
to compare value in any rational sense when prices get down into that
range. It really depends on availability and what the seller is willing
to part with the unit for.
Supply and demand plays a role as well. There is
simply more demand for used laptops than there is for high-end used
desktops. Many people are quite content getting along with a relatively
underpowered laptop for the sort of things that they use a mobile
computer for, but want a lot more power in a desktop machine. Not
illogical.
These old PowerPC machines, provided you don't need
any more power than they are capable of, can provide years of useful
service yet. I intend to use my 550 MHz G4 Pismo for several years into
the future, provided I can keep it running, and it's working flawlessly
so far, plus I have a good supply of spare parts.
Actually, my main computer remains pretty well in
desktop substitute mode virtually all the time, although it is
convenient to be able to easily pack it along on road trips if I need
to, and as I've mentioned many times in my columns, the ability to keep
running under battery power (either built-in or external from a car
battery and power adapter) can be priceless when you live in a rural
area like I do and long power blackouts are not rare occurrences.
I'm somewhat tempted to get a larger external monitor,
but so far have resisted.
Anyway, enjoy your new acquisitions. You've got a lot
of computer there for very little money.
Charles
Hello there.
Yes, prices really have dropped out for users who don't need to have
the latest and greatest, such a thing is off course excellent. Right
now I'm seriously considering to buy a used MDD with 1.5 gig of RAM.
Even these mighty machines are becoming cheaper and cheaper, and its
just EU125. More than the QS, but quite worth it.
I am quite content with my iBook, but I wouldn't use it for anything
more intensive then watching movies in Videolan and word processing
with MS Word (I'm tied to Word; I have well over 20,000 MS Word
docs).
I use my desktops for gaming (though I have a monstrous HP quad-core
laptop with a 1 gig video card, and there is very little that machine
can't handle, including Leopard. The upshot is that I don't dare to
take that machine outside.)
My favorite Apple laptops so far are still the iceBooks, especially
the 600 MHz models; I had one that served me faithfully for years,
until I dropped it down 3 flights of concrete stairs.
I doubt even an eMate or a first gen iBook would survive
that, and neither did my iBook sadly. But thankfully I got it back
again (of sorts).
I live in the city with power generators and transformers all
around, a power outage is rare here though it did occur in July. But
for in the train, the 6 hour battery life of the iBook is simply
amazing.
I view the iBook as a low-end netbook, it's small enough to be one
yet fully featured with CD-ROM or CD-RW or DVD. Yes, it won't play a
lot of games, but most netbooks won't either, not comfortably anyway.
And with an AirPort Card or WiFi stick, the iBooks are perfectly
capable of going online on the go as well.
Something tells me though you won't be able to resist that screen
for much longer.
I did indeed got a lot of computer for very little money, especially
the QS, whose poky ATI Rage I upgraded to a GeForce 3 Ti 200. No
stellar card by any stretch of the imagination, but still good enough
compared to what was in it.
Chris
Hi Chris,
I really liked my 700 MHz G3 iBook, and used
it as my workhorse for just over three years, after which my wife took
it over. It finally died (motherboard we think) at six years old. It
was a nice little computer while it lasted, although I really disliked
the keyboard and trackpad (not an issue for desktop substitute use, but
rough on my neuritis-plagued hands and arms when using it on the
road).
My daughter liked her 1.2 GHz G4 iBook too - used it
through her last year of undergraduate studies at university, then on a
scholarship in Germany, at which time she dragged it all over Europe
and the UK. Then she took it to Japan for two years, and back to
England for a post-grad year at Cambridge, where it finally died. It
had an unceremonious end when she and a friend stripped it down to get
the hard drive out, and sshe ays they had no intention of attempting to
put it back together.
She replaced it with a 2.13 GHz white MacBook,
which she likes very much.
As for me and the external monitor, maybe, but I just
got an eyeglass prescription for bifocals, so that may keep me on the
13" screen for a while yet.
Charles
Snow Leopard and LocalTalk
LocalTalk Printin Options for Snow Leopard
From Joe in response to Snow
Leopard vs. LocalTalk:
Dear Charles,
Jeany may still be able to use her LaserWriter 600 the same way I still use
my Canon BJC2000 and HP LaserJet Series 2 printers with Gutenprint
drivers or possibly with a native driver. Since the LW 600 supports HP
LaserJet 2/ PCL4+ and Gutenprint has LaserJet 2 (and generic PCL 4)
drivers, she could probably use a Centronics-to-USB or serial-to-USB
adapter with CUPS drivers to print to her 600.
However, Apple's support website says 10.6 still includes the LW 600
Pro driver, so if you use a USB-to-Centronics/serial adapter, it maybe
able to print with the native driver still. Apple says for AppleTalk
only printers you can connect them to an AppleTalk capable print server
which 10.6 can then use, so she has a few options to keep this printer
alive. I use Gutenprint for a BJC2000 and LaserJet 2, which is slower
than native drivers but works. The BJC2000 prints at a reasonable
speed, while the LaserJet 2 I find takes forever (2-4 min per page),
but the LW600 may be faster.
For the price of a cheap adapter versus a new printer she may find
the slow speed acceptable. I actually use an old Epson branded
Centronics-to-USB adapter that came with my brother's old inkjet, which
he was going to throw out with the printer when it died, so she may be
able to save even more money by locating one of these cables on eBay or
seeing if someone she knows has one sitting in a box somewhere. No need
to junk good equipment :-)
Joe
Hi Joe,
Thanks for this information. I've forwarded it to
Jeany.
Charles
Using a LocalTalk LaserWriter with Snow
Leopard
From Josh:
Charles,
I read about Jeany's beloved LaserWriter and her dying to scratch
the ol' upgrade itch. I haven't bought Snow Leopard yet, but that's
only because my local Apple Store is closed for renovation - until
today that is. :-)
Anyway, brass tacks: per Apple's website, there is a driver included
for the Apple LaserWriter Pro 600 in Snow Leopard. Jeany's best bet is
to look into getting a "USB-to-Parallel" converter for her printer,
since her 600 didn't include an AAUI port for network printing, but it
does have a Centronics parallel port interface! It is possible that she
might be able to get it working that way.
New printers run faster, yes. But I can vouch for her reluctance to
get rid of that old dinosaur. We have an HP LaserJet 4 at work. It's
slow, yes. But unlike the faster and cheaper inkjet and laser printers,
it is much more ruggedly built and needs less maintenance. It's our ol'
reliable backup, and some people send jobs only to it, because they
know it will not be down unless it's out of toner!
The only reason I would change that printer would be due to the cost
of consumables (refurbing a LaserWriter cartridge can't be cheap) or to
save energy. Newer laser printers are more environmentally aware. I
never had a LaserWriter (played with a StyleWriter a bit back in the
day), but I doubt its standby mode was as flexible as a newer model's
would be.
Feel free to forward my email to Jeany and see if it might help her
out.
Regards,
Josh
Hi Josh,
Thanks for the comments and info. I've forwarded your
message to Jeany.
My daughter used to have a LaserWriter printer that
she picked up surplus for free somewhere. It worked nicely and did a
great job. Not sure what happened to it in the end. These days I used a
Canon inkjet printer and have found a mail-order outfit in
Montréal called BlankDVD.com that sells Canon compatible
cartridges for Canadian five bucks apiece. I'd like to have a laser
printer, but I simply don't do enough printing to justify the cost.
Charles
AppleTalk Printers with Snow Leopard
From Darren:
Charles,
Two things that may be of interest to your Low End Mac readers:
- There are a few easy solutions to getting an Apple LaserWriter 600
running with Snow Leopard. LocalTalk will not work, but the parallel
port provides an easy solution. Either a parallel-to-USB cable or a
parallel port print server (wired or wireless) should do the trick.
Note that these are getting harder to find, and some USB/parallel
cables are not properly recognized by most versions of OS X - I have
had bad experiences with the Rosewill cable in particular. Up until
this summer, I used a Personal
LaserWriter NTR with a wireless parallel print server with no
issues whatsoever.
- I use an iMate with a Apple Extended
Keyboard (circa 1989). No problems with Snow Leopard - works
exactly the same as Leopard.
Darren
Hi Darren,
Thanks for the comments and experiential insight.
Charles
You Can Use AppleTalk Printers with Snow
Leopard
From Peter:
Charles,
If you read the 10.6 support documents on Apple's page, you
can use AppleTalk printers with Snow Leopard. You need an
appropriate print server that is AppleTalk compatible, or simply put,
another Mac on your network that is running Leopard or earlier. I have
an HP LaserJet 6MP connected to my home network through an
Asanté Ethernet/AppleTalk bridge.
It is true, SL no longer supports AppleTalk, so the printer is not
seen by SL. However, there is a simple solution. My iMac G5 running
Leopard is now set up to share the HP LaserJet 6MP, so now my SL iMac
can see and print to the HP, using the 6MP driver included with SL.
Since the woman has two Macs, one of them can run Leopard on her
network and share her AppleTalk-based printer. Thankfully I don't have
to give up my 6MP workhorse.
Peter
PS: Here is the support
document which explains AppleTalk and Snow Leopard.
Hi Peter,
Thanks for the information and support page link. I
have subsequently discovered that there are a variety of ways to make
these old AppleTalk printers work with Snow Leopard. Here are some
links to more information on the topic:
Charles
USB-to-Parallel
From Edmund:
"My network printer I use at home is an Apple
LaserWriter 600 - a printer that has served me for most of my life.
I've had it since I was a little girl, and it's currently on it's 9th
computer!"
Could Jeany use a USB to parallel cable?
Edmund
Hi Edmund,
Evidently yes.
Thanks,
Charles
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