Strawberryland Forum

Google's fault.

But understood. Going back into vacation mode.

Well....

We didn't want you to leave again. But, your choice.

And I didn't intend to hurt your feelings either. I was simply irked and concerned about your well-being.

I'm about to go on another overnight stay somewhere, and this time, I'm taking Pumpkin along for internet-based stuff. I want to see how he does as a laptop replacement.

I'm wondering about Greta's future now. May have to shake up my PC setup once again to make her useful, but that is still just an idea.

Well, here I am, typing a post here with Pumpkin. And....

It's a bit cumbersome as his keyboard is small and shifted to the right, making touch typing tough. Perhaps I will get used to it, but who knows?

So in the end, Pumpkin is a fine, fast Android tablet. But as a laptop replacement, he sort of lacks in function and usefulness. He's powerful enough to browse websites, but that keyboard... too small and too cumbersome. If I was able to turn the touchpad off, it wouldn't be so bad.

On future trips, I shall take Greta. I'm more comfortable using a familiar laptop PC with an actual keyboard. Apologies to Pumpkin, but it proves my point that Android tablets won't completely replace full-size laptops at this point. With Microsoft Surface and the various Windows tablets, it's getting there.

Keeping this thread alive. Without David, it's tough. Anyway....

On eBay, I found a PowerMac G4 MDD... a dual 867mhz G4 unit with 512mb RAM and apparently a 20gb HDD, according to the description. The OSX version appears to be either Panther or Tiger, with full install disc set along with an iLife install DVD. I bid on it for $99, and no one else placed bids. It should arrive at my door either today or Saturday.

I shall recoup the funds by selling my Mac Mini to a Mac store soon. I know I flipped-flopped on the issue, but I believe someone else could make better use of a Mid-2011 Mac Mini. I'm now more interested in pre-2006 Macs as evidenced by the G4. Once it arrives, I will get full specs and screenshots posted here, and what my ultimate plans for it are.

I always wanted to have a pre-Intel Mac, but then again I'm more or less stuck with having to emulate it on my rig.

The PowerMac G4 MDD is all set up...



Specs: Dual PowerPC 7455 CPUs at 867mhz each
512MB RAM
60GB HDD
Nvidia GeForce 4 MX AGP video card with ADC and DVI outputs

Mac OS X version is 10.3. I later applied the 10.3.9 combo patch downloaded from Apple to an external FAT-formatted mp3 player. Necessary since connecting my NTFS external HDD before updating resulted in a kernel panic. The 10.3.9 update introduced proper NTFS read support. The PowerMac also has no AirPort card or Wifi, and the seller stated the ethernet port was fried. I wonder if it's just a config issue as the seller also stated the HDD was only 20GB when it is in fact 60gb, but I digress...

The name I chose: Pammy.

I'm still deciding on what Pammy's ultimate purpose shall be besides being the Mac. She needs a few upgrades, such as a full 2GB RAM, a larger hard disk, swapping out the GeForce 4 MX with a Radeon 9000 Pro, and possibly upgrading to OS X 10.4 Tiger. I need to wait and see how useful 10.3.9 is. I also intend on getting her an AirPort Extreme card, which can easily be found on eBay.

Whoever had this before knows how to take care of Macs. The inside is relatively free of dust, and the external case only has a few minor scratches. The plastic film protecting the mirror-like drive doors was still attached even. All the original restore discs and documentation were present. The restore discs are 10.2 Jaguar, but I need those to get Classic Environment set up. There was also a mutli-disc carrier thing that had CD-R copies of OS X 10.3 as well as programs like PhotoStudio X, Stuffit Deluxe, and various fonts.

As mentioned earlier, I will see how 10.3.9 works out in terms of usefulness. I can't rule out an upgrade to 10.4 in the future since I believe TenFourFox requires that, and several other downloads I found only list 10.4 as a minimum OS. I did find FFView, an excellent image viewer that puts Preview to shame as well as an older version of VLC and Divx codec.

Pammy is finalized. I just now need to focus on acquiring the various upgrades outlined in the previous post.

Oh, she also needs a new system battery.

I like how iTunes 3 is fast and responsive compared to the modern iTunes. Proves that newer isn't always better... unless you use the iTunes music store.