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got uMatrix and Bluhell installed, should I install NoScript also
Disable everything in uMatrix. Then enable some things and check again. Check every single element. That's the cool thing with uMatrix. After about half an hour it finally worked for me and is pretty fast.
Much better tho is to use a mail client, be it Thunderbird, Mail, Entourage,...

IMO NoScript does nothing more than uMatrix but is inefficient and doesn't provide as much functionality as uMatrix
 
Disable everything in uMatrix. Then enable some things and check again. Check every single element. That's the cool thing with uMatrix. After about half an hour it finally worked for me and is pretty fast.
Much better tho is to use a mail client, be it Thunderbird, Mail, Entourage,...

IMO NoScript does nothing more than uMatrix but is inefficient and doesn't provide as much functionality as uMatrix

Thanks for the tips, but I will have to slap myself, off course TFF is horribly slow since I'm running a qemu virtual machine with 512Mb RAM eating away all the CPU, need more sleep.
 
Any tips on using Gmail in TFF, even in HTML view it's really slow ?
I got uMatrix and Bluhell installed, should I install NoScript also ?

Gmail is always well behaved in TFF for me - I'm writing this from my 1.33 12" Powerbook, NoScript window is attached.

In simple HTML mode there's not much to block.

Picture 1.png
 
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July 5th, not much to report but some progress with 720p video. With some tweaking to VLC's settings, I'm now able to - probably very, VERY barely! - watch some 720p content, both streamed from YouTube via SMtube, and local Matroska video files, tho with frame skipping.

Screenshot VLC LGR (2) 720p.png

The video in the screenshot being this one here. I think the main tweak I did to VLC's settings has been changing the "Skip frame" and "Skip idct" settings in "Video codecs" -> "FFmpeg" from their defaults to 1, that meaning to skip "B-frames" (whatever exactly they are). I'm pretty sure I haven't changed anything else that might impact performance, I'm still not able to play all 720p videos properly, but it seems to have improved things at least a bit, so that's fine by me!
 
July 5th, not much to report but some progress with 720p video. With some tweaking to VLC's settings, I'm now able to - probably very, VERY barely! - watch some 720p content, both streamed from YouTube via SMtube, and local Matroska video files, tho with frame skipping.

View attachment 707402

The video in the screenshot being this one here. I think the main tweak I did to VLC's settings has been changing the "Skip frame" and "Skip idct" settings in "Video codecs" -> "FFmpeg" from their defaults to 1, that meaning to skip "B-frames" (whatever exactly they are). I'm pretty sure I haven't changed anything else that might impact performance, I'm still not able to play all 720p videos properly, but it seems to have improved things at least a bit, so that's fine by me!

The main one to go for in VLC prefs, is tick "Allow speed tricks" and set "Skip loop filter..." dropdown to All - this will degrade quality but allow best performance on 720P.
Have you tried mplayer too? Sometimes it has the edge over VLC.
 
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The main one to go for in VLC prefs, is tick "Allow speed tricks" and set "Skip loop filter..." dropdown to All - this will degrade quality but allow best performance on 720P.
Have you tried mplayer too? Sometimes it has the edge over VLC.
Already had these two set but it wasn't enough, playback would lag and eventually glitch out. With these skip settings, the lag and most glitches are gone, but it more or less skips every other frame - I don't find it too distracting, but it is noticeable for sure. I have yet to really try mplayer, although I do have a few different builds of it on here.
 
Already had these two set but it wasn't enough, playback would lag and eventually glitch out. With these skip settings, the lag and most glitches are gone, but it more or less skips every other frame - I don't find it too distracting, but it is noticeable for sure. I have yet to really try mplayer, although I do have a few different builds of it on here.

I've just tried the video you referenced on my 1.67 Powerbook, SMTube + VLC gets me 95% CPU, my youtube-dl/mplayer streamer gets me 92% CPU - however, both are dropping frames.

When the hardware struggles like this, I tend to go 480P or 360P or use Coreplayer when possible.

Picture 3.jpg
 
Well, day 4 of the challenge is about done! Yesterday, I watched some YouTube on my PowerBook G4 15" 1.67 GHz, hung out with friends and family, and played some Pokémon LeafGreen on my GameBoy Advance SP before falling asleep.

Today, I imported some camcorder footage (had to do a bit of a workaround to get it to import; I stuck the memory stick back into a point and shoot camera and imported it via a USB cable to iPhoto, then imported it into iMovie) from the other day at my grandparent's house with my family and began editing it down. I checked and replied to a few emails using Leopard's Mail app as well. I also went to Goodwill and found not 1, but 2 Apple Mighty Mouse(s) for $2 each! Turns out they're actually slightly different models, they changed the side squeeze sensor color from a grey to white in 2007. The more you know! I also got ahold of my Pokémon Silver and a few other games that were at my dad's house and the screwdriver for opening them, and opened up and replaced the battery in my Silver so it'll now save! I started that game as well, and plan to play a bit more as the week goes on, probably on my Game Boy Color or Pocket after tomorrow. :)

So far, I'm having a lot of fun using these older computers for day to day tasks, and it's cool to see you guys are too!
 
So on another disk I set up Ubuntu 16.04. It's working but I'm having issues with MacOnLinux and QEMU.

So, with QEMU, I installed it using apt. It worked but it always said that nothing was bootable. I tried a physical CD as well as a panther and tiger image. I also tried compiling qemu from source but that's no change for the better, it just sits at a black screen now when I try to boot it.

I've gotten MacOnLinux to the point where the penguin is hugging the apple and there's a spinner, but I can't anymore. Also it wouldn't get past that anyway. Now, almost as soon as the spinner shows, this happens:
Code:
$ sudo startmol -X --cdboot
Mac-on-Linux 0.9.73-SVN [Apr 27 2014 19:21]
Copyright (C) 1997-2004 Samuel Rydh
Starting MOL session 1
Removing stale lockfile /var/local/mol/lock/mol-1
*******************************************************
* Measuring the timebase frequency.
* This will take about 5 seconds
*******************************************************
    01FC9EF6
    01FC9EED
    01FC9EF5
    01FC9EFE
    01FC9EFF
*******************************************************
* Adding 'timebase_frequency: 0x01FC9EED' to
* /etc/mol/session.map will prevent this delay
*******************************************************
KVM mapped 00000000 - 0x80000000 to 0x40000000 flags 0
Unknown processor id (0000).
Running in PowerPC 750 mode, -2048 MB RAM
Timebase: 33.33 MHz, Bus: 1000.00 MHz, Clock: 2000 MHz
Using USB mouse on /dev/input/mice
Could not open '/var/local/mol/x11.kbd'
Video driver(s): [xvideo] 

     640* 480, depth 8,32   { 0.0 } Hz
     800* 600, depth 8,32   { 0.0 } Hz
    1024* 768, depth 8,32   { 0.0 } Hz
    1152* 864, depth 8,32   { 0.0 } Hz
    1280*1024, depth 8,32   { 0.0 } Hz
    1440* 960, depth 8,32   { 0.0 } Hz
    1600*1024, depth 8,32   { 0.0 } Hz
    1600*1200, depth 8,32   { 0.0 } Hz
    1680*1050, depth 8,32   { 0.0 } Hz


Available Disks:
    CD    /dev/cdrom       CD/DVD         <read-only>   ------ BOOT1

SCSI devices:
    [SCSI auto-probing disabled]

    SCSI  /dev/cdrom       [CDROM/DVD driver]

KVM mapped 0x81000000 - 0x81753000 to 0xf7217000 flags 38

>> ==================================================
>> MacOS X Boot Loader 0.9.73-SVN
>> Candidate boot volume: /mol-scsi/disk@0:2
>> /mol-scsi/disk@0:2,\mach_kernel (4313028 bytes)
mol: malloc.c:3722: _int_malloc: Assertion `(unsigned long) (size) >= (unsigned long) (nb)' failed.

edit: I have once again gotten it to show the penguin hugging apple logo and spinner again but it just sits there spinning and never boots... Is there a way to boot mol in verbose?
 
I have been using my 12 inch and 15 inch powerbook all week without any major issues. I also bagged a 17 inch 1.33 Ghz powerbook on ebay which arrived at the weekend. It was listed for parts/not working, but I thought I would take a chance. It wouldn't do anything except charge the battery when it arrived, but I worked that someone had put the keyboard ribbon cable connector in wrong and once that was sorted out it powered on fine.
Unfortunately the LCD is damaged in one corner and the DVD drive wont read disks. I have seen a 1.5 ghz 17 on ebay (also non working), is the screen and DVD drive compatible with the 1.33 if I buy it as a donor for the now working Powerbook?
 
Unfortunately the LCD is damaged in one corner and the DVD drive wont read disks. I have seen a 1.5 ghz 17 on ebay (also non working), is the screen and DVD drive compatible with the 1.33 if I buy it as a donor for the now working Powerbook?
Yes, they are compatible.

Most, if not all parts of the 17" models are compatible from the 1.0 to 1.67. What is NOT compatible are some parts from the 1.67 HD-DLSD and the rest.

Apple changed the connector to the logicboard for the 1.67 HD-DLSD screen.
 
So on another disk I set up Ubuntu 16.04. It's working but I'm having issues with MacOnLinux and QEMU.

So, with QEMU, I installed it using apt. It worked but it always said that nothing was bootable. I tried a physical CD as well as a panther and tiger image. I also tried compiling qemu from source but that's no change for the better, it just sits at a black screen now when I try to boot it.

I've gotten MacOnLinux to the point where the penguin is hugging the apple and there's a spinner, but I can't anymore. Also it wouldn't get past that anyway. Now, almost as soon as the spinner shows, this happens:
Code:
$ sudo startmol -X --cdboot
Mac-on-Linux 0.9.73-SVN [Apr 27 2014 19:21]
Copyright (C) 1997-2004 Samuel Rydh
Starting MOL session 1
Removing stale lockfile /var/local/mol/lock/mol-1
*******************************************************
* Measuring the timebase frequency.
* This will take about 5 seconds
*******************************************************
    01FC9EF6
    01FC9EED
    01FC9EF5
    01FC9EFE
    01FC9EFF
*******************************************************
* Adding 'timebase_frequency: 0x01FC9EED' to
* /etc/mol/session.map will prevent this delay
*******************************************************
KVM mapped 00000000 - 0x80000000 to 0x40000000 flags 0
Unknown processor id (0000).
Running in PowerPC 750 mode, -2048 MB RAM
Timebase: 33.33 MHz, Bus: 1000.00 MHz, Clock: 2000 MHz
Using USB mouse on /dev/input/mice
Could not open '/var/local/mol/x11.kbd'
Video driver(s): [xvideo]

     640* 480, depth 8,32   { 0.0 } Hz
     800* 600, depth 8,32   { 0.0 } Hz
    1024* 768, depth 8,32   { 0.0 } Hz
    1152* 864, depth 8,32   { 0.0 } Hz
    1280*1024, depth 8,32   { 0.0 } Hz
    1440* 960, depth 8,32   { 0.0 } Hz
    1600*1024, depth 8,32   { 0.0 } Hz
    1600*1200, depth 8,32   { 0.0 } Hz
    1680*1050, depth 8,32   { 0.0 } Hz


Available Disks:
    CD    /dev/cdrom       CD/DVD         <read-only>   ------ BOOT1

SCSI devices:
    [SCSI auto-probing disabled]

    SCSI  /dev/cdrom       [CDROM/DVD driver]

KVM mapped 0x81000000 - 0x81753000 to 0xf7217000 flags 38

>> ==================================================
>> MacOS X Boot Loader 0.9.73-SVN
>> Candidate boot volume: /mol-scsi/disk@0:2
>> /mol-scsi/disk@0:2,\mach_kernel (4313028 bytes)
mol: malloc.c:3722: _int_malloc: Assertion `(unsigned long) (size) >= (unsigned long) (nb)' failed.

edit: I have once again gotten it to show the penguin hugging apple logo and spinner again but it just sits there spinning and never boots... Is there a way to boot mol in verbose?

I seem to be unable to find a working wiki for MoL
http://mac-on-linux.sourceforge.net/wiki/
, never used it myself, I would suggest the manpages or --help

Qemu on Debian/Ubuntu PPC never worked for me that's why I keep running OS X 10.5.8 .

Still no luck with qemu on OS X via Macports?
 
I seem to be unable to find a working wiki for MoL
http://mac-on-linux.sourceforge.net/wiki/
, never used it myself, I would suggest the manpages or --help

Qemu on Debian/Ubuntu PPC never worked for me that's why I keep running OS X 10.5.8 .

Still no luck with qemu on OS X via Macports?
QEMU is working fine for me by the use of what you said. Sorry for not updating, I've been messing with Linux a bunch lol. Thank you!
 
Day 6

Downloaded the ISO's for Fedora 24 Everything PPC64 and Fedora 24 Server PPC64 and burned it them for the G5 today (Day 7)
, first time I burned them on my Powerbook G4 , it still burns CD's :)

I copied some config stuff from my Lubuntu install on the other PB G4 to help JeffBai troubleshoot my AOSC install.
Installed Hexchat on Lubuntu , checked out the IRC AOSC forum but didn't find Jeff (Mingchong) there and didn't want to bother
other people at 2:35 AM Chinese Time :)
Send my pastebin stuff over via Gmail using Firefox 45 on Lubuntu.

Also tried to install XChat Aqua on OS X 10.5 but it fails to connect to freenode IRC, didn't bother to troubleshoot further.

Received a text from a colleague that WhatsApp was available on Windows so decided to try and install it on :
  1. Fedora 25 Server PowerMac G5 , basically it's a plugin to Pidgin but it only exists on x86 architecture
  2. Ubuntu Mate 16.04 on the Dualboot (AOSC OS) PB G4 but nothing anymore in the repositories since Debian/Ubuntu abonded
    PPC
The Whatsapp plugin also needs your password which if you ever activated it on your phone via the registration SMS is unknown and you basically have to sniff your Whatsapp traffic in order to get it , if you feel up to it to read about it (WON'T WORK ON PPC)

https://github.com/davidgfnet/whatsapp-purple
[doublepost=1499409291][/doublepost]
QEMU is working fine for me by the use of what you said. Sorry for not updating, I've been messing with Linux a bunch lol. Thank you!

This might be usefull info , have a look here
https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...owerpc-virtual-machine.1939653/#post-22947617
 
Yes, they are compatible.

Most, if not all parts of the 17" models are compatible from the 1.0 to 1.67. What is NOT compatible are some parts from the 1.67 HD-DLSD and the rest.

Apple changed the connector to the logicboard for the 1.67 HD-DLSD screen.

Thanks!
 
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Despite, say, the 720p semi-success, I gave and am posting this from my Windows 7 PC.

For one, I think I'm the wrong person for the challenge. What do I do on my PC? Thinking about it, mostly it's browsing the internet, watching videos (both online and offline), playing games (native and emulated ones) and some hobbyist programming.

The first one works resonably well on my G4, the second is harder (with 480p being the limit but YT often serving 360p instead, with SMtube & VLC anyway), the third depends on the games and emulators but is also doable overall, or up to early-/mid-2000s software anyway, while the last depends on your programming language of choice - mine is C#, which has Mono, but my attempts at getting that up and running failed even before the challenge.

I'm basically not doing anything challenging, or things that are too challenging or impossible for the G4, period. Add the system's terribly loud operating noise to me being prone to headaches, well... well.

That said, I still really like my Power Mac and I've grown to like OS X. That's not to say I hated either, otherwise I never would've even started with the challenge, but my appreciation of them, of some OS features, etc. has certainly gone up. And even if it doesn't do ex. HD video playback as well as my (semi-)modern PC, it's still really amazing that it can do it at all - I remember when my PC some 5 years ago struggled with certain kinds of HD video (10-bit H.264?), while I had this much older G4 play some 720p content almost flawlessly.

All that said, I failed the challenge, but it has left an impression on me. A positive one, of course.
 
So after a full week of restricting my use to my PowerPC Mac's, iPhone 3GS and iPad 1 I am happy to say that I have been able to do almost everything I normally would (just a bit slower). The only thing I haven't been able to do is sync my Apple Watch (still wearing this as I need a watch) activity. I have been using Leopard Webkit as my browser of choice and its been pretty quick, but it does bring the battery life of my Powerbook down by quite a bit when browsing modern web sites.
 
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Hi, sorry I haven't been updating as much. I've installed Tiger on the other disk I have in the machine. Tiger almost feels more feature complete compared to Leopard with age. I can still use VLC, TenFourFox, etc. on Tiger and I can also use Classic. Most CLI tools are also working on Tiger through tigerbrew so Leopard doesn't have much of an advantage there. It also seems to be way faster even though Leopard is on a SSD and Tiger is on a HDD for me. I tried putting a 128 GB SanDisk SSD instead of the HDD but the machine didn't recognize it. I guess it's just the weird issue that G5s have where some only work in a certain bay because I have a 512 GB SSD working fine in the top bay.

Anyways, before someone replies and grills me, yes I know Leopard has more updated software from Apple and other devs, I'm just saying for my use case it almost seems better.

I really want a Quad machine now after doing this challenge, that would be insane... I'm already really impressed with the PCI-X G5 (2x2.0 GHz) that only has 2.5 GB of DDR RAM so a Quad would be a site to behold for sure...
 
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Well, here we are, the last day of the challenge. Unfortunately, this week has been kinda crazy and I haven't had the time I wanted to to spend using my PowerPC Macs. Granted, it was a lot of fun! I got to see what I can (and can't easily) do using these, see what works for me as a capable computer for smaller tasks like checking Twitter or updating my website, and realize that wow, I really miss having my iCloud data synced on my MacBook, always readily there for me when I need it. :p

Today I took out my PowerBook G4 (I was going to use the newly acquired G3 iBook, but it doesn't seem to have it installed by default...) and my family's iSight camera and the little mount for it, and took some photos with it. With the right lighting, it still takes decent photos even by today's "selfie camera" standards, I think!

I think I'm going to unofficially continue this challenge into the coming weeks. I'll definitely take my MacBook back out, and use it to sync my iPods that are patiently waiting for it in a few days. :) But I do want to see what other PowerPC Macs I can use on a regular basis, and considering my needs, I'm sure nearly all of them will suffice. I didn't get a chance this week to play with my new Titanium PowerBook G4 (The SSD is shipped! Soon!), any of my iMac G3s, or my PowerBook G3s, nor did I get to play with my somewhat new Mac Mini G4 or watch any DVDs on any of them (I really want to lay on my bed and tilt my bedside iMac G4 over to watch a movie on that...), so those tasks I'll definitely keep pushing the boundaries of what I can use them for.

What I did learn, however, is that I really don't like the keyboard on the aluminum PowerBook G4s as much as I thought or remembered. I keep pushing the wrong keys. :p

Now, to log off for the night and play some Pokémon Silver on my Game Boy Advance SP. :)
 
It's July 9th for me now so the challenge is over. I'm back on my PC. (I don't really like Macs as much past the PPC era...) The challenge was fun, now I really wanna get a quad machine... One thing I noticed is that Dropbox seems to take a ton of CPU power and even stopped VLC from streaming 720p video properly for me, so if anyone notices slowdown that could be why. I got rid of it and my problems were solved.
 
Day 5
Nothing much to report, typical day.

Day 6
Sim Racing league night, so mainly on the gaming PC. Downloaded the YouTube broadcast stream in 480p via QuickTime Enabler and watched it back just fine.

Day 7

interesting problem tonight - needed to test a couple of Windows Server apps. Fired up the VMware ESXi test box, discovered that the newer HTML 5 web browser client works fine via TFF. Mission successful using a PowerPC client. Sorta! :D

I'll mainly be going back to my rMBP. The 15" PB DSD will remain in regular use I'm sure. Having installed uMatrix at @eyoungren 's suggestion it helps with a lot of modern sites.
 
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