I might add that I just sold someone a Mac SE/30 with a hard disk, color printer, keyboard, and mouse for $15. Then my housemate unloaded a Laserjet II on her to get it out of the house. It would make for a pretty crappy internet experience, but you could always log into a shell, and there are free shells sprinkled about the internet.
Not necessarily...an SE/30 can have as much as 128MB of RAM inside of it if you can find 8 rare 16MB 30 pin SIMMs, and 32MB with more common 4mb SIMMs in it. Put a decent HD in the thing, use System 7.5.5 (free as in Free Beer) plus Mode32 to cure the 32 bit uncleanness prob, and you have a very capable machine.
The only limitation to such a machine would be the black-and-white screen. But you only need color for the Web, right? OK, there is a Mac port of Lynx out there for text web surfing, there is Eudora Lite for your email, there is Newswatcher for Usenet, Fetch for FTP, Better Telnet for telnet/SSH, and ircle for IRC. Only ircle is shareware and the cost is a mere $20. MacTCP 2.0.6 and Open Transport 1.1 both come with System 7.5.5, and a good PPP dialer can be had in FreePPP.
The modem port only supports 33.6 modems or slower, but since you aren't using the graphical Web this isn't a big deal.
So for less than $100 one can get an SE/30 like the one you sold up and running on the Web.
Talk about Still useful after all these years !
It might not be *best* but it certainly is shaping up to be the most stable.
I hate to say that. I really do. My heart is with Mozilla. But damn if NS4.x isn't a crashy thing that crashes a lot in Windoze. And it's not very stable under either MacOS or Linux.
I don't trust ActiveX, so I still use Netscape. But IE is way more stable. Hey, if this deal means IE for Linux, so be it. NS is crashy, and the alternatives don't render as well as either of the two.
A region hack for the ATI DVD software/hardware player;
A stable Linux 2.4 kernel;
KDE 2 Gold;
A Handspring Visor with 8MB RAM;
The entire run of "Daria" on DVD with original music intact, including "Is It Fall Yet?";
Enough parts to get my classic Mac collection in full working order, and help to get the work done;
A 1GHz Athlon box with at least 256MB RAM, an ASUS motherboard, a RAID array with at least 50GB worth of IBM HDs, a Plextor 40X Ultra SCSI CD-ROM, a top-end Plextor CD-RW, a 32MB Radeon video card and a 17" flat screen display running Mandrake 7.1 and Windoze2K Pro on a dual boot;
A high-end SDSL pipe -- anything less than T-1 speed will not do -- to plug that bad mofo and all the rest of my machines into;
A bowl of grits partially eaten by Natalie Portman;
And a penis bird in a pear tree!!!
This is a common problem for successful people. Ego's spring from misunderstanding; if you are successful at something and you don't understand the reasons that you are successful, you are primed for developing an inflated ego. Your brain starts trying to understand why you are successful, and the only thing it can come up with is "Well, I must be hot shit!" Once the brain arrives at that conclusion it begins to act to protect that theory, and Ego problems ensue.
It's Robert Anton Wilson's SNAFU principle in action. Communication is only possible between equals. Corporation heads usually get their ego problems because everyone is nodding their heads and saying "yes sir, yes sir" when the boss comes up with an idea, no matter how fscked that idea might be. That's the origin of the "reality distortion field" surrounding very powerful people, be they Bill Gates or Steve Jobs or [insert favorite tech zillionaire here].
What to do about this? I dunno...hierarchy is the essence of the corporation. Maybe that general you mention has the right idea. Perhaps some means of criticizing superiors without identities being known. As long as people are under the threat of punishment for telling the truth, the SNAFU principle will remain in force. And lame ideas and boneheaded mistakes will continue to be made by corporations.
It took them 6 days after the (GTE) truck roll to get my connection straightened out. They promised 768K downstream but delivered only 380K. They would be down for days on end...ok for home users, bad if you are telecommuting from Southern CA to the Silicon Valley and your job depends on your connectivity, you are SOL. One time the outage lasted one whole week.
When I lost the job (damn April stock crash!) I had to discontinue my service. Now that I am back working again I'm getting my DSL back. Hopefully DSLExtreme, a local company in Van Nuys, will be a lot better than my hideous experience with Flashcom.
Right off the top of my head, I can think of one that would hit the spot: XMMS. I haven't found another MP3 player (including Quicktime) that behaves in any sort of sane fashion for MacOS, let alone a free one.
What on earth for? I can't see any reason to put X on Mac OS. Its' GUI is fantastic, why would you want to replace it (unless you are some wierdo-S&M type hacker (or from attrition:-)))?
Maybe it's because Aqua is less like the classic MacOS interface we have come to know and love and more like...well....NeXTStep.
If I can run KDE2 instead of Aqua, I will be a happy camper. Why? Because I can make KDE behave a whole lot more like my beloved Classic MacOS than fsckn Aqua.
I want my Apple Menu. I want my Control Strip. I want my drive icons on the desktop. Aqua has much more in common with Windoze than the Classic MacOS, what with its "Finder Window" (can you say My Computer?) and its Dock (can you say Taskbar?)
I suspect also that recompiled Linux apps will probably run better on MacOSX than non-carbonated Classic apps.
My parents have a Performa 6116; it has a PPC 601 @66 mhz and a 33 Mhz bus. Running Netscape 3 is quite a task for the poor machine (Netscape 4 is right out:).
I run NS4.05 Standalone on a Performa 460, aka LCIII+. 68030/33MHz. It is slow, (particularly when rendering tables) but it works.
However, my P460 has the max of 36MB RAM...how much RAM does the P6116 have? RAM might make a difference. Both my P460 and that P6116 have FPUs...probably NS4 wouldn't work at all if I hadn't installed a 68882. NS uses FPU math to display graphics, oddly enough.
Of course, I'm one of those insane people who love to show off what old Macs can do, or what old PCs can do with Linux rather than Windoze installed. I don't believe in disposable computers. If you can make a machine usable again, do it and don't throw the thing in a dumpster. Then if you don't personally need the computer, give it to someone who does. Bridge the "digital divide" one person at a time.
A better way would be to have ONE config file that HAD absolutely to be in one particular place, preferably IMHO not in a directory at all (ie. in the root).
Heh, that's funny. Here I was thinking that maybe through some miracle. Courtney Love had a few brain cells to rub together from the content in her speech!
Thanks for posting the Albini article link. It only confirms what I knew already: Courtney Love is and remains a burnt out junkie skank.
families can get hooked up to the internet with a comptuer (sic) that is easy to use and doesn't have shit hardware (like those compaqs they sell at wallmart) for around 800 bucks....
Trouble is, though, Apple has cut some serious corners on their once immaculate quality. The new iMacs are made by GOLDSTAR in Korea. Now if that isn't a schlock house, I don't know what is. Then again, they aren't alone...IBM is now pimping the once mighty Thinkpad name to Acer, and guess what? The A and i Series of Thinkpads are crap.
Apple's hardware used to be the standard other computers were measured by. Why do people collect old Macs? Because they are STILL USEFUL MACHINES. And they were BUILT. People still use IIfxes and SE/30s because they are tough little customers.
Hell, I love my LCIII+ (actually a Performa460, built before Performa = crap) because it is an useful machine that with its FPU installed can actually run Photoshop 3 at a usable speed. It's small...7 pounds for the CPU. It's efficient...uses about as much energy as a table lamp. Maybe I can't play Quake on it or watch Flash movies on it or play MP3s, but I used the thing to build websites up until I got my G3.
The pro-level Macs, the G3s and G4s and Powerbooks, are still made with the kind of craftsmanship that made Apple's bones. But my friend's iMacDV is a total freakin' lemon that requires use in almost a refrigerator environment because The Steve doesn't like case fans. Fsck that.
I can think of two corporations which deserve this, big time: Firestone and Ford.
May I remind folks that this is not the first time Firestone has fscked up...in the 1970s their 500-series tires had the very same delamination problem that their SUV tires do now.
Yeah, but that won't stop us from doing without! "Evil" is also relative here at Slashdot. These are acceptable:
Millions of computers and video cards tossed in landfills every year because "400MHz is yesterday's news" and "the Voodoo 2 is slow crap."
That's not acceptable to me. One thing that needs to be done in the next session of Congress is to make it easier for corporations and even individuals to donate, rather than toss, older but still functional computers.
Currently there is a disincentive for corporations to donate or resell aging computers. Make it so that a donation of computers to a refurbisher (like Goodwill, for instance) will return a tax writeof of 100% of original value of the old computers, and we will be able to kiss the Digital Divide goodbye!
Also, require computer manufacturers to take old machines in trade, and then give them a similar donation tax writeoff to send the computers to a refurbisher.
Hell, if people want absolute, typographic control, we as web producers should say "Want it to look exactly like the page? Let's do it one of two ways: a.PDF of the document or a.GIF."
Because that's the only way to get a page absolutely correct and looking like a brochure. In both cases, however, you sacrifice speed of download.
HTML is not exact. The corporate identity weenies have to Get Over It and understand that this is the case. Maybe when XML is understood completely cross-platform, there might be a little more precision. Still and all, it probably won't be exact even then.
The death of the Netscape 216 palette is actually A Good Thing. This is a completely new ballgame, a new medium, with new rules and new standards. Anyone who can't grok this doesn't deserve to be out here in Cyberspace.
Yes! Now we're on to something; Meld these Robocup teams with the sawbladed, chainweilding, tougher than nails battlebots, put them under rules of the NHL and you've got a great new violent sport which people can get into. Not sure if the ice is REALLY necessary, but I understand the challenge.
But he is clearly doing His work here on Earth; he is taking us a step closer to His Kingdom.
KDE and GNOME are on the same team (that is, the team of open source desktop environments.)
Gnome has been in the team of Freedom since the start; heaven, it started because KDE was *not* on this team. KDE has clearly shown through their actions that they have not entered this team. So when RMS says "Go Gnome!", he's saying "Go Freedom!"
Your use of the term "open source" gives you away, anyway, as somebody who values authority over freedom. The Kingdom of God does not tolerate authority, as Christ himself reveals:
"The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them, and those who exercise authority over them are called `benefactors'.
But not so among you; on the contrary, he who is greatest among you, let him be as the younger, and he who governs as he who serves", Luke 24:25-26.
OK, lemme get this straight here. You have placed the FSF and GNOME literally "on the side of the Angels," which puts KDE into another camp altogether. The one with the horns, the tail and the pitchfork.
Fsck, man! I've never even heard Mac loyalists come up with such an apocalyptic scenario!
You need to take a good look at what you just wrote, dude. Fighting jihads amongst ourselves is only going to play into the hands of Redmond. Lemme do my Sinead O'Connor impersonation and remind everyone to "fight the real enemy."
/me holds up, and rips in two, a pic of Bill Gates.
Imagine what whould happen if RICO could be applied to MS! Among other things RICO allows for the confiscation of land, buildings, money, etc. from the perpetrator.
Well, I can think of some bitchen riverfront property in the Seattle area that would make Uncle Sam a very pretty penny if RICO was applied to a particular software tycoon...
I'm pretty tired of seeing the McDonald's coffee lawsuit bandied around as an example of a frivolous suit.
It was anything but. The woman received third degree burns, spent over a week in the hospital, and had to
undergo several skin grafts.
Well, if the woman hadn't put the hot cup of coffee between her fsckn LEGS she wouldn't have been burnt, would she?
When did your momma teach you about hot things boiling on the stove? I suspect you were 2 years old or less. Steaming hot coffee, much like steaming hot grits, will BURN YOU if you drop it on your crotch.
Class action lawsuits have their place, but certainly they are being abused big time. I am still undecided about whether or not the M$ action is a good thing or overkill.
To give an example of where a class action suit is merited, however, look at Firestone. They dragged their feet when they had their SECOND, not first tire scandal (remember Firestone 500 tires?) a good, stiff, expensive class action suit is justice. People fsckn DIED because of their inaction.
Trying to see both sides as usual,
Ms. Geek (not MS Geek, folks)
...I just wish he'd designed something after the Apple ][...
Actually a lot of the original Mac has his fingerprints on it...the most long-lived Woz contribution to Mac survived up until Gossamer (the Beige G3). It's the SWIM chip, which is the floppy drive controller. SWIM stands for Super Woz Integrated Machine.
Woz is a class act. It would be nice if his supreme hardware hacking skillz could still be tapped, but he seems more than happy being a teacher and a dad and a man of leisure.
A wise man said "thou hast no right but to do thy Will" and dammit, Woz is doing exactly that. Rock on, Woz!
Slashdot Mirror
Not necessarily...an SE/30 can have as much as 128MB of RAM inside of it if you can find 8 rare 16MB 30 pin SIMMs, and 32MB with more common 4mb SIMMs in it. Put a decent HD in the thing, use System 7.5.5 (free as in Free Beer) plus Mode32 to cure the 32 bit uncleanness prob, and you have a very capable machine.
The only limitation to such a machine would be the black-and-white screen. But you only need color for the Web, right? OK, there is a Mac port of Lynx out there for text web surfing, there is Eudora Lite for your email, there is Newswatcher for Usenet, Fetch for FTP, Better Telnet for telnet/SSH, and ircle for IRC. Only ircle is shareware and the cost is a mere $20. MacTCP 2.0.6 and Open Transport 1.1 both come with System 7.5.5, and a good PPP dialer can be had in FreePPP.
The modem port only supports 33.6 modems or slower, but since you aren't using the graphical Web this isn't a big deal.
So for less than $100 one can get an SE/30 like the one you sold up and running on the Web. Talk about Still useful after all these years !
It might not be *best* but it certainly is shaping up to be the most stable.
I hate to say that. I really do. My heart is with Mozilla. But damn if NS4.x isn't a crashy thing that crashes a lot in Windoze. And it's not very stable under either MacOS or Linux.
I don't trust ActiveX, so I still use Netscape. But IE is way more stable. Hey, if this deal means IE for Linux, so be it. NS is crashy, and the alternatives don't render as well as either of the two.
It's Ms. Geek, not MS Geek, btw...
I finally got to see this damn site at work under NT...it crashed both Netscape and IE on my Mac G3. Coincidence? Chance? Or could it be....Satan?
--.\\-H--
A region hack for the ATI DVD software/hardware player;
A stable Linux 2.4 kernel;
KDE 2 Gold;
A Handspring Visor with 8MB RAM;
The entire run of "Daria" on DVD with original music intact, including "Is It Fall Yet?";
Enough parts to get my classic Mac collection in full working order, and help to get the work done;
A 1GHz Athlon box with at least 256MB RAM, an ASUS motherboard, a RAID array with at least 50GB worth of IBM HDs, a Plextor 40X Ultra SCSI CD-ROM, a top-end Plextor CD-RW, a 32MB Radeon video card and a 17" flat screen display running Mandrake 7.1 and Windoze2K Pro on a dual boot;
A high-end SDSL pipe -- anything less than T-1 speed will not do -- to plug that bad mofo and all the rest of my machines into;
A bowl of grits partially eaten by Natalie Portman;
And a penis bird in a pear tree!!!
When you get in a position of power and success you lose contact with reality; the main part of what you are doing is working so well that you begin to believe that you have uncovered the 'secret to life' ©Microsoft Inc. 1980 - 2000), and that therefore, everything you are doing is right. What is so dangerous for Gates is that he literally has billions of reasons to think he has everything figured out.
This is a common problem for successful people. Ego's spring from misunderstanding; if you are successful at something and you don't understand the reasons that you are successful, you are primed for developing an inflated ego. Your brain starts trying to understand why you are successful, and the only thing it can come up with is "Well, I must be hot shit!" Once the brain arrives at that conclusion it begins to act to protect that theory, and Ego problems ensue.
It's Robert Anton Wilson's SNAFU principle in action. Communication is only possible between equals. Corporation heads usually get their ego problems because everyone is nodding their heads and saying "yes sir, yes sir" when the boss comes up with an idea, no matter how fscked that idea might be. That's the origin of the "reality distortion field" surrounding very powerful people, be they Bill Gates or Steve Jobs or [insert favorite tech zillionaire here].
What to do about this? I dunno...hierarchy is the essence of the corporation. Maybe that general you mention has the right idea. Perhaps some means of criticizing superiors without identities being known. As long as people are under the threat of punishment for telling the truth, the SNAFU principle will remain in force. And lame ideas and boneheaded mistakes will continue to be made by corporations.
Run, don't walk from Flashcom.
It took them 6 days after the (GTE) truck roll to get my connection straightened out. They promised 768K downstream but delivered only 380K. They would be down for days on end...ok for home users, bad if you are telecommuting from Southern CA to the Silicon Valley and your job depends on your connectivity, you are SOL. One time the outage lasted one whole week.
When I lost the job (damn April stock crash!) I had to discontinue my service. Now that I am back working again I'm getting my DSL back. Hopefully DSLExtreme, a local company in Van Nuys, will be a lot better than my hideous experience with Flashcom.
I wouldn't wish Flashcom on my worst enemy.
Ever tried SoundApp?
--.\\<-H--
Prevailing price on eBay for Rev A and Rev B "Bondi" iMacs is pretty much in the $400 ballpark.
No excuses, folks!
--.\\-H--
Maybe it's because Aqua is less like the classic MacOS interface we have come to know and love and more like...well....NeXTStep.
If I can run KDE2 instead of Aqua, I will be a happy camper. Why? Because I can make KDE behave a whole lot more like my beloved Classic MacOS than fsckn Aqua.
I want my Apple Menu. I want my Control Strip. I want my drive icons on the desktop. Aqua has much more in common with Windoze than the Classic MacOS, what with its "Finder Window" (can you say My Computer?) and its Dock (can you say Taskbar?)
I suspect also that recompiled Linux apps will probably run better on MacOSX than non-carbonated Classic apps.
MacOS 7.5.3 forever! ;-)
--.\\<-H--
I run NS4.05 Standalone on a Performa 460, aka LCIII+. 68030/33MHz. It is slow, (particularly when rendering tables) but it works.
However, my P460 has the max of 36MB RAM...how much RAM does the P6116 have? RAM might make a difference. Both my P460 and that P6116 have FPUs...probably NS4 wouldn't work at all if I hadn't installed a 68882. NS uses FPU math to display graphics, oddly enough.
Of course, I'm one of those insane people who love to show off what old Macs can do, or what old PCs can do with Linux rather than Windoze installed. I don't believe in disposable computers. If you can make a machine usable again, do it and don't throw the thing in a dumpster. Then if you don't personally need the computer, give it to someone who does. Bridge the "digital divide" one person at a time.
Sounds suspiciously like the Windoze registry.
Mod this one DOWN big time.
--.\\-H--
Heh, that's funny. Here I was thinking that maybe through some miracle. Courtney Love had a few brain cells to rub together from the content in her speech!
Thanks for posting the Albini article link. It only confirms what I knew already: Courtney Love is and remains a burnt out junkie skank.
LOL! Very, very true. Let us not forget that a lot of the FUD that came out during the "death watch" days for Apple came straight from InHell.
It's truly lovely to see AMD eat InHell's lunch with the Gigahertz war and all. ;-)
--\\<-H--
Trouble is, though, Apple has cut some serious corners on their once immaculate quality. The new iMacs are made by GOLDSTAR in Korea. Now if that isn't a schlock house, I don't know what is. Then again, they aren't alone...IBM is now pimping the once mighty Thinkpad name to Acer, and guess what? The A and i Series of Thinkpads are crap.
Apple's hardware used to be the standard other computers were measured by. Why do people collect old Macs? Because they are STILL USEFUL MACHINES. And they were BUILT. People still use IIfxes and SE/30s because they are tough little customers.
Hell, I love my LCIII+ (actually a Performa460, built before Performa = crap) because it is an useful machine that with its FPU installed can actually run Photoshop 3 at a usable speed. It's small...7 pounds for the CPU. It's efficient...uses about as much energy as a table lamp. Maybe I can't play Quake on it or watch Flash movies on it or play MP3s, but I used the thing to build websites up until I got my G3.
The pro-level Macs, the G3s and G4s and Powerbooks, are still made with the kind of craftsmanship that made Apple's bones. But my friend's iMacDV is a total freakin' lemon that requires use in almost a refrigerator environment because The Steve doesn't like case fans. Fsck that.
--.\\<-H--
I can think of two corporations which deserve this, big time: Firestone and Ford.
May I remind folks that this is not the first time Firestone has fscked up...in the 1970s their 500-series tires had the very same delamination problem that their SUV tires do now.
That's not acceptable to me. One thing that needs to be done in the next session of Congress is to make it easier for corporations and even individuals to donate, rather than toss, older but still functional computers.
Currently there is a disincentive for corporations to donate or resell aging computers. Make it so that a donation of computers to a refurbisher (like Goodwill, for instance) will return a tax writeof of 100% of original value of the old computers, and we will be able to kiss the Digital Divide goodbye!
Also, require computer manufacturers to take old machines in trade, and then give them a similar donation tax writeoff to send the computers to a refurbisher.
That's my idea...harebrained as it might be.
More often than not, as many shareholders are people with stock-based IRAs or 401Ks as big shots.
The stock runup of the 1990s actually brought a lot more families and working people into the shareholder class than you might think.
Hey, I'm a webserf at a little Dotcom, and even *I* have stock!
Hell, if people want absolute, typographic control, we as web producers should say "Want it to look exactly like the page? Let's do it one of two ways: a .PDF of the document or a .GIF."
Because that's the only way to get a page absolutely correct and looking like a brochure. In both cases, however, you sacrifice speed of download.
HTML is not exact. The corporate identity weenies have to Get Over It and understand that this is the case. Maybe when XML is understood completely cross-platform, there might be a little more precision. Still and all, it probably won't be exact even then.
The death of the Netscape 216 palette is actually A Good Thing. This is a completely new ballgame, a new medium, with new rules and new standards. Anyone who can't grok this doesn't deserve to be out here in Cyberspace.
Huh huh huh huh...that would be cool..
KDE and GNOME are on the same team (that is, the team of open source desktop environments.)
Gnome has been in the team of Freedom since the start; heaven, it started because KDE was *not* on this team. KDE has clearly shown through their actions that they have not entered this team. So when RMS says "Go Gnome!", he's saying "Go Freedom!"
Your use of the term "open source" gives you away, anyway, as somebody who values authority over freedom. The Kingdom of God does not tolerate authority, as Christ himself reveals:
"The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them, and those who exercise authority over them are called `benefactors'.
But not so among you; on the contrary, he who is greatest among you, let him be as the younger, and he who governs as he who serves", Luke 24:25-26.
OK, lemme get this straight here. You have placed the FSF and GNOME literally "on the side of the Angels," which puts KDE into another camp altogether. The one with the horns, the tail and the pitchfork.
Fsck, man! I've never even heard Mac loyalists come up with such an apocalyptic scenario!
You need to take a good look at what you just wrote, dude. Fighting jihads amongst ourselves is only going to play into the hands of Redmond. Lemme do my Sinead O'Connor impersonation and remind everyone to "fight the real enemy."
--.\\<-H--
Well, I can think of some bitchen riverfront property in the Seattle area that would make Uncle Sam a very pretty penny if RICO was applied to a particular software tycoon...
Well, if the woman hadn't put the hot cup of coffee between her fsckn LEGS she wouldn't have been burnt, would she?
When did your momma teach you about hot things boiling on the stove? I suspect you were 2 years old or less. Steaming hot coffee, much like steaming hot grits, will BURN YOU if you drop it on your crotch.
Class action lawsuits have their place, but certainly they are being abused big time. I am still undecided about whether or not the M$ action is a good thing or overkill.
To give an example of where a class action suit is merited, however, look at Firestone. They dragged their feet when they had their SECOND, not first tire scandal (remember Firestone 500 tires?) a good, stiff, expensive class action suit is justice. People fsckn DIED because of their inaction.
Trying to see both sides as usual, Ms. Geek (not MS Geek, folks)
Actually a lot of the original Mac has his fingerprints on it...the most long-lived Woz contribution to Mac survived up until Gossamer (the Beige G3). It's the SWIM chip, which is the floppy drive controller. SWIM stands for Super Woz Integrated Machine.
Woz is a class act. It would be nice if his supreme hardware hacking skillz could still be tapped, but he seems more than happy being a teacher and a dad and a man of leisure.
A wise man said "thou hast no right but to do thy Will" and dammit, Woz is doing exactly that. Rock on, Woz!
Where??? Where????
I have definite iMovie envy with my "Fisher-Price" (Blue & White, Yosemite) G3.
Post the URL!!!
Or email me!!!
Thanks!!!