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Recycled Computing

bio: "I was born on a far distant planet, which exploded when my father found out. Making my escape in a rented spacecraft, I found my way to Earth where I was raised by Earth parents. Trying to pretend to be a normal Earthling; I went to school, got married, and had three children.

"I am still waiting for my super powers to develop.

"Actually, I have led a rather ordinary life with interests in analog photography, philosophy and using personal computers to pretend to write a best seller while wasting time updating software, fixing disk permissions, and the like. My first computer was an Apple IIc, and I still own (and use) a sage iMac G3 DV. Just recently I have been recycling a Pismo Powerbook G3 and have been thinking about converting my record collection (kids, that's an audio media before cassette tapes and CDs) to AAC files. Anything to avoid writing.

"I am, of course, a promoter of using vintage computers to accomplish simple, ordinary tasks. I blame my father, naturally. My father lived through the Great Depression and, as a result, I lived through it as well. Our first television was given to us - it was the size of a washer or dryer. The screen was about as large as a big paperback book. It had tubes (kids, they used those back in the day when dinosaurs ruled the earth), and I thought my father was going to have a heart attack when the man in the electronics store told me that they no longer made vacuum tubes and that they were being replaced with transistors. My father went out and bought a transistor television (black and white, since 'you don't really need color, you can imagine colors'; which served us into the 1970s when my brother just couldn't align the picture tube anymore. My dad bought a black and white portable.

"Long after my brother and I had left home, my father bought a color wide-screen TV. When I discovered this while visiting, I turned to my wife and said, 'Honey, back the van up to the door, I'm taking that television!'"

Replacing the Hard Drive in a Clamshell iBook, 2009.11.19. Yes, it is one of the most difficult Apple notebooks to disassemble and reassemble, but a 10 GB hard drive just will not do.
Macintosh Remote Control with Chicken of the VNC, 2009.10.06. Sometimes you want to or need to control another Mac remotely. The free Chicken of the VNC program is a great tool for doing exactly that.
Upgrading a Pismo PowerBook with a Slot-load Drive Salvaged from an iBook, 2009.10.01. Starting with a spare DVD-ROM module and the SuperDrive from a G4 iBook, the author ended up with a SuperDrive in his Pismo PowerBook.
Why the 20" iMac Is Perfect for Home or School, 2009.09.29. The aluminum iMac has plenty of power and screen space, yet it's small enough and light enough to tote from place to place.
Windows Woes: A Lesson from Boot Camp, 2009.09.21. Getting Windows installed, running, and activated is more work than this Mac user bargained for. Learn from his mistakes.
Yes, iTunes 9 Will (Mostly) Run on G3 Macs, 2009.09.16. Apple says iTunes 9 requires a 1 GHz G4 for standard video, but many iTunes features work just fine on a 500 MHz G3 Mac.
Kodachrome, the Olympus Pen, and the New 'Digital Pen', 2009.09.14. Kodachrome was the gold standard in slide films, and Olympus Pen SLRs were a great way to shoot it. The new Olympus E-P1 harks back to that legacy.
Blue Clamshell iBook Ready for Action, 2009.09.03. Introduced nine years ago, the first iBook with FireWire is sturdy, a decent performer, and looks like no other laptop.
School Year Means Clamshell iBook and Aluminum iMac, 2009.08.24. John Hatchett is getting a brand new 20" iMac at work - but the hand-me-down Clamshell iBook has him really excited.
Nerd-vana? School Network Means Installing Windows on a MacBook, 2009.08.10. "My son is going off to college this fall. The campus intranet requires Windows as an operating system."
You Might Be a Computer Geek If..., 2009.06.17. 20 signs that you just might possibly be a computer geek.
More Power to Go: Snow Leopard, Safari 4, the iPhone, and the Internet, 2009.06.16. Last week's WWDC points to a future that is smaller and leaves behind Apple's legacy PowerPC hardware.
Salvaging Parts from a Dead iBook, 2009.05.26. With a broken power plug, the iBook was unusable - but the RAM, hard drive, and optical drive can live on.
Choosing My Next Low-end Desktop Mac, 2009.05.19. The recently deceased iBook G4 was going to take up desktop duty. Now the options are a G4 iMac, 17" PowerBook, Power Mac G4, and Power Mac G5.
iBook Death, Skype on iTouch, and 3G MacBook Touch Rumors, 2009.05.15. The iBook G4 has reached its end, Skype is now available for the iPod touch, and indicators point to a 10" touchscreen MacBook.
The AC Power Adapter Blues, 2009.05.11. Between cell phones, notebook computers, and other devices, we're going to bury the world in power adapters.
The iBook Can't Replace the Hard Drive Blues, 2009.04.28. Replacing the hard drive in a Pismo PowerBook or polycarbonate MacBook is easy. But those iBooks are another thing entirely.
iBooks on TV, Hard Drive Swaps, and Using an iBook as a Desktop, 2009.02.23. More in using iVoice III with a 1G iPod touch, moving hard drives between 'Books, and why it makes sense to use a notebook as a desktop computer.
How to Use a 1G iPod touch as a WiFi Phone, 2009.02.18. All you need is a 1G iPod touch with 2.2 software, a microphone for it, the Fring app, and a Skype account.
What's More Practical, a Netbook or an iPod touch?, 2009.02.12. While the netbook has a larger screen and a real keyboard, those things make it much less likely to be taken everywhere than an iPod touch or iPhone.
Using New Tech with Old Tech, 2009.02.05. Yes, you can use a 2000 iMac, a Pismo, a G4 iBook, an iPod touch, and several new MacBooks together quite nicely.
iPod touch and Pismo: Perfect Together, 2009.01.21. With a USB 2.0 card and Tiger, a 9-year-old Pismo PowerBook works beautifully with a new iPod touch.
Old Macs in the New Economy, 2008.11.25. "We are the kings of making our computers last, last, and last some more."
Backing Up Your G3 PowerBook Quickly and Easily, 2008.10.27. Who needs Leopard and Time Machine? With an expansion bay hard drive and the right software, you can have a bootable clone ready for use.
Taking Apart a Tray-Loading iMac, 2008.09.29. There are a few tricks to getting into a tray tray-loading iMac, whether it's to upgrade the computer or strip it for parts.
Taking Apart a PowerBook G3 (Lombard or Pismo) Battery, 2008.09.24. Step by step instructions for opening up a Lombard/Pismo battery to get to the lithium-ion cells inside.
Reconfiguring and Repurposing a Power Mac G4, 2008.09.18. These 1999 'Sawtooth' Power Macs would be perfect for the science lab with more RAM, bigger hard drives, and a newer version of Mac OS X.
There's Still a Place for G3 Macs in the Age of Leopard, 2008.09.09. Whether it's a sage iMac or a Pismo PowerBook, G3 Macs can be very productive with Mac OS X 10.4 'Tiger'.
iPod touch or Cowon A3: What's a Mac User to Choose?, 2008.08.25. For Internet access and integration with the Mac, the iPod touch is the way to go. But for media recording and playback, the Cowon has it all over the iPod.
Mac Booty Rescued from Davy Jones' Locker, 2008.08.11. New iMacs at school means the older PowerPC Macs get redistributed - and the oldest Macs are abandoned.
I Want a Mobile Phone, Walkie-Talkie, and VOIP Phone in a Single Device, 2008.08.05. Some cell phones provide two-way radio, Voice over IP is a reality, but so far nothing seems to offer all three services in one device.
Bumps in the road for G3 Macs, 2008.07.28. MobileMe wouldn't synch with the Pismo, and Skype's software refused to install, but both problems were solved.
Low end photography in the digital age, 2008.07.09. "If you can repurpose older computers, you can certainly use older cameras in a new universe."
Wouldn't life be great with an iSlate?, 2008.07.04. PDAs and smartphones are too small for some tasks, full-fledged Tablet PCs are overkill, and ebook readers are too limited. Apple has the tech to own this niche.
The Mac Future: Snow Leopard, MobileMe, and the iPhone/iPod touch, 2008.07.01. Apple will leave the PowerPC behind with OS X 10.6 while expanding the Mac's presence on the Internet and in your hand.
Xubuntu on Pismo: It works, but it's not as easy as the Mac OS, 2008.06.16. Linux runs well enough on this old PowerBook G3, but something as simple as switching to another WiFi network can trip you up.
Getting Xubuntu Linux up and running on your aging Mac, 2008.06.04. It took some doing, but the author's Pismo can now boot into Mac OS 9, OS X, and Xubuntu Linux."
Tools for getting your vinyl records into iTunes, 2008.05.28. The old LPs longed to be played, but how do you use your old record player with your Mac?
Up-to-date or low-end, we need technology in our schools, 2008.05.14. Modern computers are great educational tools, but sometimes less distracting options (like no Internet) make more sense.
A very Pismo Christmas in April, 2008.04.30. Everyone maintaining a vintage Mac should have a parts donor, and sometimes the parts machine may have upgrades for your old Mac.
Apple QuickTake digicam found, but how can you use it?, 2008.04.10. The old IT guy never threw away anything, the new IT guy found a QuickTake 150 while cleaning, and it won't work with modern Macs.
Designing a better laptop: Look to the past, 2008.03.27. Modern Apple notebooks have less expansion and upgrade options than G3 PowerBooks from a decade ago.
Stupid Pismo tricks, 2008 edition, 2008.03.24. Six uses for the weight saving device and how to use the Pismo as a DVD player.
The Mac vs. PC debate, 2008.03.06. The debate has been raging since 1984, and the simple truth is that both types of computers do the same kind of thing, just a bit differently.
Power your recycled laptop with a rebuilt battery, 2008.02.20. Old notebook computers usually mean old batteries that may be dead or on their last legs. You can buy a replacement battery, or you can have your old battery rebuilt.
Recycle old computers by repurposing them, not retiring them, 2008.02.15. Old computers, especially Macs, may have a lot of life in them when we're done using them. What if we reused them for those who otherwise would have no acces to computers?
Could a wireless dock be in the MacBook Air's future?, 2008.02.11. The MacBook Air is too limited in terms of connectivity, but what if Apple thought outside the box and created a MacBook Dock that connected by WiFi?
MacBook Air: What do you do when there's no WiFi?, 2008.01.22. Every modern PowerBook had ethernet and a modem, but how do you connect the MacBook Air when there's no WiFi service?
This old Pismo, 2008.01.08. Tips on upgrading a used Pismo for better performance under Mac OS X.
It all started with an Apple IIc, 2007.12.19. The first computer was an Apple IIc, followed by some MS-DOS computers - and then discovery of the Macintosh.
Why I can't buy an iPhone, and what I did about it, 2007.12.07. Thanks to Apple's exclusive iPhone deal with AT&T and no local AT&T wireless coverage, the author had to find a different solution.
The Swiss Army knife of notebook Macs, 2007.12.06. The 2000 Pismo was the high point of PowerBook design and flexibility with a great keyboard, expandsion bays, two PC Card slots, and a wonderful curvaceous design.

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