Recently in Apple Category
These questions have always been bouncing around in my mind. It hasn't been until now that I could do something about it, though. I have a relatively stable and good-paying (well, it actually pays poorly) job.
I've decided to use that extra bit that I throw into savings for something. For once, I have something to save towards that is a real goal: a Macbook.
I would go for a Macbook Pro if I could but there isn't much point to it. I am definitely not going to use it as a gaming machine (maybe a bit of light gaming). My GamingPC is faster (well, it suffers from my lack of funds just like my mac) and cheaper to upgrade. So, I basically just need something to take over for my upgraded B&W G3. A Macbook would fulfill that, with room to spare.
So, with that out of the way, I've added the Macbook fund to the progress thing on the left of the page. It doesn't show the full amount needed but it shows the amount to reach when I will begin seriously considering buying one.
It seems that the Newton is going to make a comeback. Well, its a PDA-type thingie. The Newton was a PDA thingie. There you go.
Hell, it apparently runs Mac OS X as well. Neato...
Its still kind of sad, for I had hoped the last bastion of PowerPC Mac-ness would last a little longer. I suppose Apple couldn't afford to wait, though.
The only thing this does for me is to cast doubt upon bothering to upgrade the Powermac G4 my Dad is letting me use. I mean, I have a relatively high powered PC sitting around that plays any computer games I want to. Plus, I don't do any heavy video editing or anything that would really benefit from a faster Mac.
Blarrghhh. Thomas not want talk more. Until later...
Firstly, increasing the speed of the frontside bus does generate better performance sometimes because it overclocks other components on the motherboard and not just the CPU. Of course, these other components might not react well to the overclock and might stymie one's efforts. Sadly, I've not heard good reports from overclocking the bus on a B&W G3, probably due to the Grackle chip.
The only method left that I could use is upping the processors's multiplier to just increase its clock frequency. The chip I have in there now is only rated at 1GHz but runs fine at 1.1Ghz. 10% is a nice and modest overclock, it's not enough for me.
That is why I intend to push my lowly G3 to 1.2GHz. The reason behind why I believe it will take the relatively small jump to 1.2GHz is that it seems to run fine for a while at this frequency. I've come to the conclusion that the heatsink that came with the B&W may be quite inadequate to handle the heat output of an overclocked 750gx. It does put out more heat than previous G3s.
With this knowledge, I'm hoping to get a hold of a 1U socket A or 370 heatsink that will fit in the B&W's case. Until then...
As you may or may not know, the 2100 came with no built-in serial port. Thus, I have to either have an adapter or an internal add-on for it, in order to use the keyboard. Both these options cost nearly the price I paid to get my hands on the Newton itself.
So, you see my predicament. I could possible construct my own adapter for it, but I fear it may be a little difficult.
I'm going to have to come up with something. I really would like to use a keyboard to input info onto the Newton.
Hmmmmmmmmmmm...
Ah, my beautiful Newton Messagepad 2100. The mightiest of the late Newtons. I do not know if I've already blogged about it, but I received it not that long ago. Its case was scratched up and the screen had a barely tolerable scuff mark on it. Despite these cosmetic flaws, I was more than glad to welcome it to my family of computers and other electronic things.
Of course, before I began to use it to fill in the boring spans of time sitting around on campus, I needed to do something about that case. Looking online only yielded one such case transormation of a Newton. The Great White Newton was an extremely well done mod (the 'iNewt' thing just seems too much, though).
I was just looking for inspiration, though. That is when I decided to go for a nice 'stealthy' but professional-looking coat of black. Black spraypaint was cheap and I already had a type of clear coat to protect the spraypaint once it was on there.
While I initially sprayed the back of the Newton days before the front, the work in total didn't take very much time at all. The only problem I ran into was the case not wanting to go back together properly. That problem was easily sovled though.
I doubt if I will ever replace the screen. The cost of a replacement screen is more than what I payed to get the Newton itself. It just doesn't seem worth it. Nevertheless, with the recent addition of a hard carrying case and a wireless card, my Newton is more than ready to tackle my scheduling and let me do a little surfin' on the side.
I love free stuff. In fact, 'FREE' is the best of prices. I can understand when something costs more than nothing, but I always enjoy the price of free. This free-icism even spreads to my computer. Sadly, hardware is hard to come by for free but software isn't.
So, I've decided to showcase some freeware software that I don't believe that I would be able to live without on Mac OS X. The list isn't a 1, greatest, to 10, worst, list but just a list with the software placed arbitrarily in it.
1. MenuMeters
Ah, all that empy space in the menubar just begs for something useful to be put up there. This, of course, is where MenuMeters comes in. It provides plenty of function in a small system preference.
It allows various types of graphs and sorts to be placed in the menubar. For instace, it can put a graph of the CPU usage or temperature up there. Or, it could put a graph showing disk activity. The main reason I have it, though, is for its graph showing network activity. I like to know when something is going out or in of my computer via the Interwebs.
2. XMenu
The good ole days of Mac OS 9. Its 'Apple Menu' provided a very easy place to gain access to the 'Applications' folder or any folder you placed in there for that matter.
XMenu brings some of this ease of use back with its ability to show a menu in the menubar that allows easy access back to OS X's 'Applications' folder, or the 'Document's' folder, or a folder of the user's choice. It can show big icons for item in that folder, small icons, or even no icons at all (my personal choice).
Simply put, that's about the gist of XMenu.
Well, I don't feel like writing up anymore short reviews of these things. Nevertheless, I will do so tomorrow or the day after that. Don't worry, I have many more OS X freeware to throw your way.
Finally, after some time, I've ended up with a Apple Newton 2100 and it is quite nice. I got it relatively cheap, I suppose. On the other hand, it has some cosmetic problems. For instance, the case is in bad shape, not horrible, but not that great. Operations-wise things are just fine. It runs well, and speedy.
About the case, I knew it was going to bad. That is why I've decided to clean it up and paint it some other color. I was thinking either black or white (like this mod). I already posses the instructions for carefully taking the Newton apart, piece by piece. From what I've read, it isn't hard but I'll have to be careful doing it.
I was planning on doing a overclock on it while I was painting the outside. It required a little bit of soldering and a few parts. I've decided not to do this, though. No real need to. It seems more than fast enough for me.
I'll post again when I get some results on...
I updated my B&W G3 to the latest OS version, 10.4.3, today. So far, things are running quite smoothly. In fact, Quartz Extreme-wise things are a bit smoother than they were. Ever since I updated to 10.4, Expose has been 'choppy'. Not as bad as no-Quartz-Extreme-choppy, but choppier than it was under 10.3.9.
Sadly, all was not as good. The new 'live verification' feature of Disk Utility (allows the verfication of the boot volume while running off of it) froze up my computer. It didn't panic or anything but it pretty much froze. I haven't tried again as of yet. I might later on. Of course, that's far from actually being able to repair it while running OS X off of the drive. Having to boot from the install disk is a bother I don't usually bother with. Of course, there aren't any errors found when I do actually bother to. So, no loss there.
News from the interweb says that the x86 variant of OS X in now inline with the PowerPC version.
Ughhh, is it 4 in the morning. Yep. Damn me for waking up late on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I find it hard to get to sleep those nights. I can usually get away with with sleeping late but sometimes it gets me. This is the second Wednesday that this has happened. I don't think I'll be working on my paper today. Luckily, I have around six days to get done with it. Uhhhhh, what was I going to talk about. Oh yea...
You see, I love my little 'ole B&W G3. So, thoughts have recently been entering my head about overclocking its frontside bus; I'm already as far as I can get processor-clock-speed-wise. Sadly, reports of OCing the B&W's frontside bus speed to 133MHz are not good. Also, OCing it to 120MHz is stable but lowers the PCI clock-speed down some.
So, what am I suppose to do. Well, I'm going to add a heatsink to the 'Grackle' chip, the PCI/Memory controller, on the motherboard. It's just asking for a heatsink by the way it looks.
Looking online at FrozenCPU.com, I happened upon some nice little silver chipset heatsinks that would match the inside of the B&W just right. Sadly, they cost money. That was a strike against them in my book. Nevertheless, that wasn't going to stop me. Looking around my room this time, my eyes feel upon an 'ole ixMicro MacRocket that I bought on eBay some time ago. Its heatsink was just the right size; although black in color as opposed to silver. It wouldn't miss it. For one thing, it doesn't work. Secondly, I have no use for it. Despite these points, I would find some way of getting that heatsink off without any damage to the card.
A quick search online gave me the idea I was looking for. Apparently putting the card in the freezer for about an hour would sufficiently weaken the epoxy holding the heatsink to the GPU. Thus, I was able to easily procure the needed heatsink.
Now, I just need some thermal adhesive and a proper way to mount it to the motherboard. Yes, I'll think on that. Oh, I will...
