SCO needs to get its rear in gear on these guys. I smell big settlement time.
Archive for July, 2008
A Unix Ware Violation!
Thursday, July 31st, 2008iPhone 3G Proves the Economy is Going Strong!
Wednesday, July 16th, 2008The iPhone 3G launch and all of its surrounding hype with 3+ hour lines shows that despite what analysts and economists say about the state of our economy, we don’t need people to work or save their money to pay their gasoline bills or mortgages. Everything is just fine.
The Power Mac G4 and booting Mac OS 9
Wednesday, July 2nd, 2008I bought a Power Mac G4 (2003) the day after they were discontinued in June 2004. My main reason is that it was the only model of Mac (at the time) that would hold 4 hard disks and 2 DVD drives internally. A secondary reason is that it was the last CPU Apple sold capable of booting directly into Mac OS 9. I’m not an old-school Mac graphic designer, but I figured it might be useful to have that ability at some point in the future.
The unit came with OS 9 on the hard drive, I believe, but since I formatted the hard drive first thing, it never had the chance to boot OS 9. Well, today, I finally did.
Why the hell, might you ask, am I looking to boot an OS that was discontinued almost 7 years ago? The answer is slightly complex, actually. I’ve got a metric crapton of old Apple system floppy images that I want to test and verify. Operating system images, actually. No problem, you say. Well, early Apple systems used a file system called the Macintosh File System, or MFS. Problem is, MFS is not supported in Apple’s OSes beginning with Mac OS 8, and even System 7.5 cannot format a disk as MFS. This leads to problems.
I’m having a bitch of a time getting software like Basilisk II and SheepShaver to work right on OS X 10.5.4 on my MacBook Pro. I do seem to remember, though, that there were some good Mac Plus or Mac II emulators that ran under OS 9, which is where the trusty old G4 tower comes in. I’m going to work on that soon. I’ve already got 9.2.2 installed on an external FireWire HD, which isn’t so crazy until you realize that this 7 year old OS is installed on a 2.5″ portable drive that stores 160GB. I don’t think that 160GB drives were readily available at that point in time, but I could be wrong.
Anyways, this is my kind of computing nostalgia. I could try MFSLives, but I’m kinda up for the challenge. Any advice from you, my loyal readers?
Why I Hate Most Apple Users
Tuesday, July 1st, 2008Maybe that statement is a little extreme, but here’s the gist of it.
The PowerBook G4 Titanium (the one that takes the original AirPort card) was announced in January 2001 and discontinued in September 2003 when the Aluminium PowerBook 15″ was released. The AirPort card for said Titanium G4 was discontinued in mid-2004 and is located under the bottom shield. This guy, after finding out his “normal tools” won’t work to open his Titanium G4 (note to douche: a Torx wrench is not a non-standard tool) goes to an Apple retail store assuming “we can take care of it” means “we will work on your 4-7 year old computer for free.” Maybe I’m wrong, but most places won’t work on 4-7 year old equipment for free.
Upon arriving at the Genius Bar, said douche is frustrated to find out he has to pay $30 to get it installed. Again, maybe I’m wrong, but most computer places won’t even install equipment you buy online and take to them to install. They can’t guarantee its function, let alone the function of a product that was discontinued 4 years ago. Last I checked, many of the PowerBook G4 Titanium models are legally vintage which means Apple doesn’t even provide parts for those models outside of the state of California! What if technician broke a pin or something? He’d be up Shit’s Creek with rapids right down the way if that happened.
So douche didn’t pay the $30 out of general principle, but felt the need to order his Torx T8 from Taiwan, which probably cost about as much as that install fee did anyways. Never mind the fact that every Home Depot I have been to probably carries Torx wrenches, and never mind the fact that I have a set of Craftsman tools that (I believe) has a T8 in it. No, that would have made the comic not so fun.
(BTW, the 99¢ Only Stores here in Southern California have Torx driver bits most of the time.)
Way to bitch out Apple for not supporting your old hardware for free, asshole.