PPC Getting the job done

[bunnspecial]

I mentioned in another thread that I just got finished with a 3-day watch show here local to me.

One of the things that I was strong armed into doing was giving a watch related talk during the show(it's the National Association of Watch and Clock collectors, and we like to have educational programs related to both throughout the show).

My 15" DLSD has become my go-to laptop for Powerpoint work, as the screen area makes getting my thoughts together and working with multiple programs(Photoshop in this case, typically Excel for work-related stuff) in the same window much easier. It's a lot more comfortable to work on than my 13" MBP(although I wouldn't say no to a 15" cMBP hi-res matte screen model ).

The presentation was started on my Quicksilver, and finished up the night before in my hotel room on the DLSD.

My 12" PB was used tethered to my Canon dRebel(in live view mode) to take most of the photos. My entire workflow for this project was almost entirely PPC based.

All said and done, things worked out very well(at least I got several compliments on it).

By the way, with the room set-up, the AlBooks having video out on the right hand side of the computer was a big convenience.

Here's the DLSD at work with some ugly guy rambling on behind it

 

[eyoungren]

Nice to see PowerPC still being relevant – and looking very good doing it!

 

[PowerMac G4 MDD]

Very nice! It's awesome what you were able to accomplish with your PPC Macs.

This definitely helps prove what these machines are still capable of doing. In reality, about 85% of people seem to not NEED a brand new computer, especially students. At my former high school, about 98% of kids who owned computers had new MacBook Pros... and I witnessed many taking horrible care of their laptops. What's worse is that I later saw two kids each with new Retina MacBook Pros. A high-school student doesn't need a new computer---they'd be able to do JUST fine even on a 10-year-old Mac.

It really struck me though, how these kids would thrash their $1,200+ computers. I don't know what kind of parent gives their kid a MacBook Pro and doesn't teach them responsibility first.

 

[gooser]

powermac, this time i totally agree with you.

 

[eyoungren]

Very nice! It's awesome what you were able to accomplish with your PPC Macs.

This definitely helps prove what these machines are still capable of doing. In reality, about 85% of people seem to not NEED a brand new computer, especially students. At my former high school, about 98% of kids who owned computers had new MacBook Pros... and I witnessed many taking horrible care of their laptops. What's worse is that I later saw two kids each with new Retina MacBook Pros. A high-school student doesn't need a new computer---they'd be able to do JUST fine even on a 10-year-old Mac.

It really struck me though, how these kids would thrash their $1,200+ computers. I don't know what kind of parent gives their kid a MacBook Pro and doesn't teach them responsibility first.

My son is 11. He started out at around a year or so pounding on an old PC keyboard I had. I have a picture of him in his bouncer with the keyboard in his lap.

Later on we got him some cheap gizmo thing that looked like a computer from the Goodwill (had to use duct tape to keep the batteries in). He was happy with that until about five when the grandparents bought him on of those V-Tech things. There was some other device too that came around Christmas and got broken rather quickly.

Around then I started taking him to Starbucks. I had managed to get an Airport Card for my old TiBook so that started being a thing for us.

He got his first Mac some time in 2010-2011. An iBook G3 that grandma had given me. It was taken away a few times until he started being careful with it.

Once I knew I could trust him is when he got his own TiBook (1.0Ghz DVI).

His sister has an iBook G4. 1.42Ghz with a 60GB HD and 1.5GB ram. She is expected to do the same - take care of her computer.

Incidentally, neither of my kids have phones. They don't need them. But they've been around computers since they were infants.

 

[gavinstubbs09]

I always wanted a computer when I was younger, and when I was in 1st grade I believe (2002) I was given a Windows 95 HP off my aunt. Apparently it didn't last long when I poured water down the crt frying it. I don't have any memory of this, but it's what my mom said I did!

Years later (Christmas 2008) I was given a Dimension 4550 from my parents, and needless to say, I've owned well over 70 computers since then!!!

And my parents don't pay for my phone, I had to find an iPhone 4 that was off contract and use Altemose's guide to make it work with Page Plus.

 

[PowerMac G4 MDD]

My son is 11. He started out at around a year or so pounding on an old PC keyboard I had. I have a picture of him in his bouncer with the keyboard in his lap.

Later on we got him some cheap gizmo thing that looked like a computer from the Goodwill (had to use duct tape to keep the batteries in). He was happy with that until about five when the grandparents bought him on of those V-Tech things. There was some other device too that came around Christmas and got broken rather quickly.

Around then I started taking him to Starbucks. I had managed to get an Airport Card for my old TiBook so that started being a thing for us.

He got his first Mac some time in 2010-2011. An iBook G3 that grandma had given me. It was taken away a few times until he started being careful with it.

Once I knew I could trust him is when he got his own TiBook (1.0Ghz DVI).

His sister has an iBook G4. 1.42Ghz with a 60GB HD and 1.5GB ram. She is expected to do the same - take care of her computer.

Incidentally, neither of my kids have phones. They don't need them. But they've been around computers since they were infants.

I have an early memory of clicking on random things on some old PowerMac, which my mom had been borrowing from her boss at the time... he never took it back (cr@ppy c1996 PowerMac), so we had it sitting there for some years. Our first computer was this trashy Compaq tower with a large CRT monitor. I shared it with my brother in 2001/2002, and we played various game titles on it. We got rid of it in 2003, and for a year or so we didn't have a computer.

In 2004, we went Mac again (and haven't gone back since). My brother and I were lucky enough to each receive our own, brand-new, 2004 iMac G5s. We got the base 17" models, and my parents later purchased two 20" models for themselves. They are obviously desktops, so they weren't going anywhere, but we still knew to take care of them and not touch the screen, etc. I had mine until 2010 when I got a 20" iMac G5 iSight, which was a hand-me-down from my parents. In around 2012, my dad handed-down his 2009 base MacBook Pro 13" to me, and that was my first Intel Mac ever. It still looks brand new (other than minor things like keyboard wear), and I give it a detailing (deep cleaning) on occasion.

Going for everything in general, my dad has usually and subtly taught us to take care of our things, whether it be our belongings, the car, the house, etc. It really shows when a kid hasn't been taught these things; I have witnessed kids who thrash their belongings, don't care about the interior of their parents' car (spilling food/drinks, scuffing the seats, etc.), and don't value their living space. For myself, it has gotten to the point where I am more careful about some of these things than my parents are. In the past, I have spent hours washing, vacuuming, and fully detailing my favorite cars of ours.

Anyway, once you let a kid learn to respect things, it turns into common sense for them, and they apply their knowledge and good habits towards everything else. It's not just about telling a kid not to do something---it's also about the right attitude towards it. In other words, one doesn't have to blatantly drill their children on how to show respect, etc. Respect for one's possessions is something I cannot stress enough, and it makes me annoyed whenever I see someone toss their electronic device around like its a heavily-used 3-ring binder.

And as for phones, I am still not fond of them. I got one in around 2010 for safety reasons and to be reached at school, etc. It's easy to regulate phone usage if your kids already know how to take care of a computer. Although it's a bit antiquated, a flip-phone is a safe place to start. I glare at my little cousin, who has gone through, like, two iPods and is on his second iPhone. Even if he did take care of them, an elementary-school child does NOT need an iPhone. I think the most gut-wrenching thing was when his mom gave him her old laptop. It's a 2007 15" MacBook Pro, and he destroyed it (cosmetically-speaking) *sigh*

 

[bunnspecial]

I'm a bit older than some of the regulars here(and younger than some of the others).

My first computer experience was with my dad's Tandy 1000 in about 1990-1992(I was 2 or 3) after he'd upgraded to a 386. As he moved through a progression of 486, then a Cyrix 6x86 and several other computers(he was an AMD fan back in the day when they actually had a competitive edge over Intel), I got his hand-me-downs. I kept most of the old ones, and learned the insides and outs of them.

I thought I was big stuff when I had an ATX based computer, as most of my previous experience had been AT motherboards. I remember being given a box full of 486 and Pentium 1 boards, and cooked my first one when I hooked the PSU up wrong. AT boards-for whatever reason-split the PSU into separate connectors-and after smoking the first board had "black to black" branded into my head forever.

In any case, except for the stuff that was bought or given to me explicitly for my education, I learned very quickly to be careful with my stuff. I was given a Compaq Armada 4130T laptop(a few years old at the time, with a Pentium mobile 133mhz processor and I think 48mb of RAM) to use at school. I was the only one at the time who had one, and was incredibly careful with the thing. I can remember chaining it to a belt loop during class changes with a Kensington lock . I probably went overboard, but wanted to make ABSOLUTELY SURE that I kept hold of that thing. Although my cMBP has a Kensington slot, I'm not even sure the current rMBPs have them.

Incidentally, I have a good friend who I've had since my elementary school days and with whom I also share a lot of interests. He's also a chemist by training(albeit a computational chemist, not a wet lab chemist), tinkers with computers in his spare time(mostly newer stuff, although I did give him a Quicksilver that he's had a lot of fun with), and is big into guns and reloading ammunition. One of the things you have in reloading are things called "shell plates", which snap into your press and have the correct cut out for the rim of the cartridge you are reloading. He told me that he'd bought a set of shell plates, something which I also did a while back. He further proceeded to tell me that he has to go by trial and error to find the right one. Since he and I bought the same set, I asked him about the little cardboard card that came packed neatly packed in the lid which lists(quite literally) every conceivable caliber and its corresponding plate number. His response was "you know I can't keep up with paper stuff like that." This blew my mind since he'd blown $40 bucks on the set, and the paper is not only useful but you actually have to make an effort to remove it. That-to me-falls into "not taking care of stuff." Still, I can't say anything, as it's his $40 and not mine.

And, on the original topic-even though I could have easily done this all on Intel Macs, it was actually very gratifying to me to be able to do this on a series of PPC Macs. Something that I've noticed since switching to Macs is that the Intel Mac version of EOSUtilities(which tethers/remote controls my dSLR from the computer) seems to be a very poorly coded. Even from new, it would run one core in the i5 in my MBP up to near 100%, run the fans full blast, and make the bottom of the computer hot enough to fry an egg, and I could watch the battery percentage tick off the minutes I was using the program. By contrast, the PPC version of the program(the CD which came with my camera, bought in 2010, was universal) is perfectly useable even on my TiBook(although USB 1.1 slows things down a bit) and is less resource intensive than programs like Tenfourfox and Leopard Webkit.

 

[thewap]

Very nice! It's awesome what you were able to accomplish with your PPC Macs.

This definitely helps prove what these machines are still capable of doing. In reality, about 85% of people seem to not NEED a brand new computer, especially students. At my former high school, about 98% of kids who owned computers had new MacBook Pros... and I witnessed many taking horrible care of their laptops. What's worse is that I later saw two kids each with new Retina MacBook Pros. A high-school student doesn't need a new computer---they'd be able to do JUST fine even on a 10-year-old Mac.

It really struck me though, how these kids would thrash their $1,200+ computers. I don't know what kind of parent gives their kid a MacBook Pro and doesn't teach them responsibility first.

Awesome using the PPC for the presentation. Kids might scoff at the sight of the PPC while trashing their status $$$ macbook pros given to them by their parents. My daughter was like that until her pro died a miserable death. Begging for another one I refused and told her to buy her own, as she was a big girl now and should have taken care of it like I constantly told her. (which got me a *whatever* response every time).

To her credit she worked (in desperation) until she could afford to buy one herself on the secondary market . To this day she has kept it super clean and maintained.. since she had to pay for it, things have changed..

 

[eyoungren]

I'm a bit older than some of the regulars here(and younger than some of the others).

My first computer experience was with my dad's Tandy 1000 in about 1990-1992(I was 2 or 3) after he'd upgraded to a 386. As he moved through a progression of 486, then a Cyrix 6x86 and several other computers(he was an AMD fan back in the day when they actually had a competitive edge over Intel), I got his hand-me-downs. I kept most of the old ones, and learned the insides and outs of them.

I thought I was big stuff when I had an ATX based computer, as most of my previous experience had been AT motherboards. I remember being given a box full of 486 and Pentium 1 boards, and cooked my first one when I hooked the PSU up wrong. AT boards-for whatever reason-split the PSU into separate connectors-and after smoking the first board had "black to black" branded into my head forever.

In any case, except for the stuff that was bought or given to me explicitly for my education, I learned very quickly to be careful with my stuff. I was given a Compaq Armada 4130T laptop(a few years old at the time, with a Pentium mobile 133mhz processor and I think 48mb of RAM) to use at school. I was the only one at the time who had one, and was incredibly careful with the thing. I can remember chaining it to a belt loop during class changes with a Kensington lock . I probably went overboard, but wanted to make ABSOLUTELY SURE that I kept hold of that thing. Although my cMBP has a Kensington slot, I'm not even sure the current rMBPs have them.

Incidentally, I have a good friend who I've had since my elementary school days and with whom I also share a lot of interests. He's also a chemist by training(albeit a computational chemist, not a wet lab chemist), tinkers with computers in his spare time(mostly newer stuff, although I did give him a Quicksilver that he's had a lot of fun with), and is big into guns and reloading ammunition. One of the things you have in reloading are things called "shell plates", which snap into your press and have the correct cut out for the rim of the cartridge you are reloading. He told me that he'd bought a set of shell plates, something which I also did a while back. He further proceeded to tell me that he has to go by trial and error to find the right one. Since he and I bought the same set, I asked him about the little cardboard card that came packed neatly packed in the lid which lists(quite literally) every conceivable caliber and its corresponding plate number. His response was "you know I can't keep up with paper stuff like that." This blew my mind since he'd blown $40 bucks on the set, and the paper is not only useful but you actually have to make an effort to remove it. That-to me-falls into "not taking care of stuff." Still, I can't say anything, as it's his $40 and not mine.

And, on the original topic-even though I could have easily done this all on Intel Macs, it was actually very gratifying to me to be able to do this on a series of PPC Macs. Something that I've noticed since switching to Macs is that the Intel Mac version of EOSUtilities(which tethers/remote controls my dSLR from the computer) seems to be a very poorly coded. Even from new, it would run one core in the i5 in my MBP up to near 100%, run the fans full blast, and make the bottom of the computer hot enough to fry an egg, and I could watch the battery percentage tick off the minutes I was using the program. By contrast, the PPC version of the program(the CD which came with my camera, bought in 2010, was universal) is perfectly useable even on my TiBook(although USB 1.1 slows things down a bit) and is less resource intensive than programs like Tenfourfox and Leopard Webkit.

I guess I qualify as one of the one's that is older then you then.

My first computer was a TRS-80, bought for my sister and I in 1980.

Commodore 64 in summer 1984.
Commodore 128 in mid 1989. Ran a BBS on these two Commodores during my highschool years.

First 286 in early 1990. This is when I made the switch from Commodore into the real world of computing.

486 in 1992. AMD 586 in 1995 (homebuilt). Generic Pentium MMX in 1997.

TiBook 400 in December 2001. The rest is history.

 

[Anonymous Freak]

As for the "computers for your kids"...

One MAJOR problem with giving kids (especially teenagers/college kids) much older computers are the security risks. Every time my college kid comes home, I spend an hour cleaning crapware off his computer. And it has a modern Windows and security software on it. I can't imagine what it would be like if he still had XP.

For younger kids, with little-to-no internet access, an older Windows XP or PowerPC OS X would probably work fine. But then you have to ask what the purpose of the computer is, since the internet is a large portion of the usefulness of a computer nowadays.

My daughter is a "tween," and has grown up with "her own" computer. A friend gave her an old 'clamshell' iBook when she was 2, which she used for ultra-simple learning games, all the way through early-reading games. Then she moved to an iMac G4 and got to use (heavily restricted) internet a little, including educational (mostly Flash) online games.

Finally, she moved to a MacBook Pro (2007/Santa Rosa) when my wife upgraded to an Air. Well, she just revealed that she has spilled a sugary drink on it a few weeks ago, and hid it. Of course, it's toast, the sugar having seeped onto the motherboard and caused problems.

So, needless to say, she's not getting a replacement computer for a while.

 

[Jessica Lares]

Ehh, kids will always break computers. My dad brought home lots of desktops and laptops from school that had logic board problems, and these were machines running Windows 95.

But it's the same thing with everything in general. My brother broke his iPod Touch, his iPhone 5C three times, and has already subjected his iPhone 6 to several drops.

I always dropped my cameras and iPods.

 

[Altemose]

Ehh, kids will always break computers. My dad brought home lots of desktops and laptops from school that had logic board problems, and these were machines running Windows 95.

But it's the same thing with everything in general. My brother broke his iPod Touch, his iPhone 5C three times, and has already subjected his iPhone 6 to several drops.

I always dropped my cameras and iPods.

I wouldn't go that far. My mid-2012 MacBook Pro looks almost mint aside from some pitting on the edge of the palm rest that is due to sweat reacting with aluminum. I am 16 and take good care of all of my things.