Second Annual Winter PowerPC Challenge! January 1-8, 2018

[AL1630]

I was out of town the last couple days, so I wasn't able to participate until now. I'm ready to do the rest of the challenge though! I'm typing this on my iBook G4 to start it off. Also, my windows laptop is acting up too, so until I get that fixed I'll only have to avoid using my mac pro. Hopefully that makes this a bit easier!

 

[eyoungren]

Still using PowerMac/Book G4s, iBook G3s/G4s and PowerMac G5s since 2003…

There's a G3 server in the mix now…

No idea what day this counts as…

 

[macgeek18]

Still using PowerMac/Book G4s, iBook G3s/G4s and PowerMac G5s since 2003…

There's a G3 server in the mix now…

No idea what day this counts as…

I can see myself using my G5 a lot more once I get my max set of RAM in and figure out why my SSD is not being seen by it. I also love the foot heater it provides.

 

[LightBulbFun]

Figured id post an update

unfortunately for me, theres a big house re-arrange going on that basically screwed my entire PPC challenge plans up. I have been doing a LOT of work (cleaning out entire rooms, disassembling re-assembling bunk beds etc) which means I just dont have the time/energy to take part right now

but the re-arrange should give me more space for even More Macs

 

[AphoticD]

Figured id post an update

unfortunately for me, theres a big house re-arrange going on that basically screwed my entire PPC challenge plans up. I have been doing a LOT of work (cleaning out entire rooms, disassembling re-assembling bunk beds etc) which means I just dont have the time/energy to take part right now

but the re-arrange should give me more space for even More Macs

A good chance to pull out all the machines to take stock of what you've got and give them a cleanup. Just don't let anyone declutter your collection

 

[ApplesDotCom101]

For the last 2 days i forgot that the PowerPC challenge was happening!
yesterday i checked the PowerPC forums and saw the the challenge was on!
so i shut down all my non PowerPC machines and reorganized my setup.
and here we are today doing the challenge with no issues.
also made a rule that i can only use my iPhone 4S for taking pics and uploading them to google drive.

Day 1 & 2
forgot about challenge, started preparing for day 3.

Day 3
today has been a great day with my PowerPC Macs, watched YouTube on my G5 while doing school work on my G4's
only had to have 1 keyboard & mouse thanks to teleport, had to update TenFourFox on my G4's. (haven't booted them up in a while)
after a few kernel panics found out that my Motu Ultra lite mk4 works in Garage Band 3 (made for version 8 and above). so now i can practice my music homework as well (wew). Gonna watch a few more youtube vids then go to bed.

Hope all of you are having a happy new year!

Typed on my Dual 1.8 power mac G5

 

[pet84rik]

Hello guys, so I also participate in this challenge, but in a different way than in the summer. Of course, I need to use Windows PC at work, but at home (right now) I am typing this on my PowerBook G4. That change is in the OS used for this challenge. I am using an OpenBSD this time, since it works, I have a lot of GNU software and it works slightly better than MacOS in terms of multimedia. There is not that much of a new content for me on YouTube (luckily), so I am able to survive with youtube-dl and mpv. Also, dillo is super handy on this kind of machine. I know that websites are looking ugly, but it is faster than any modern browser.

So in general, I do not have any issues with thich challenge - for me, that means only 2 more days since I will be at work for the whole weekend plus Friaday.
Good luck to others

 

[skinniezinho]

Day 2
In between trips I didn't had much time to use the Powerbook, but I already had some glitches:
tried to download Jdownloader (I believe it won't work, I remember it not working a few years ago on my iBook g3), it was hosted on mega, the website loaded but stopped at 99%, this on tenfourfox, I waited and no download. Anyone have a solution for mega?
And also for Jdownloader or similar download app on 10.4?
Other than that the Powerbook has been performing flawlessly, and PPC Media Center has become a valuable tool for youtube and other video sites.
Also decided to try tenfourbox for hangouts, it seems a little better!

Day 3 (today)

Decided to bring the Powerbook to work (University). It connected to the Eduroam Wifi which is nice.
I had to copy my documents from dropbox to the powerbook (seeing that dropbox is unsupported I didn't even tried to install it) using a pendrive and start working on it.
I had 2 pdfs that I couldn't open neither with preview nor with skim, but Tenfourfox can open it (from download location).After installing the latest adobe reader for ppc (9.5.5, you need to install 9.4.0 and all the updates till 9.5.5 available here ) I was able to read those pdfs.
Also some .docx documents won't open with Word 2008. Apparently OpenOffice 4.0.6.2 opens them. This also made me think that next time I create some document I will create with the maximum compability possible, for anyone that needs to open it.
This challenge is useful not only for the sake of using powerpc macs but also to change thinking habbits, at least for me.

 

[doggoli]

Day 2

Day 2 was pretty good as well, i did the usual things (watch videos, listen to music using Spotify...etc) , but i wanted to make it more interesting. So for no particular reason i downloaded a copy of Windows 98 and installed it in Virtual PC 7. I always thought that virtual machines on os x would need a powerful G5/G4, but my single core iBook handled the VM very well... In the evening my friend invited me over for a Quake III LAN party, i brought my iBook over and had an absolute blast playing. The Mobility Radeon 9200 isn't a bad card after all . Quake III ran with a stable 125 FPS.

Here is a Screenshot of the Windows 98 vm running with the CPU usage monitor next to it
(This screenshot was taken with WebKit idling in the background, and Spotify playing music foreground on the other display :O )

 

[doggoli]

Does anyone know a standalone SoundCloud application for PowerPC?

 

[1042686]

I didnt officially join the challenge but on day one I had to use my elcap 1,1 macpro to back up/restore my wife's new iphone8+.

Oopsie

Uhh Day two I literally worked all day, so didnt sit down to any of my macs - just surfing my 11.2.1 Iphone 6s in between breaks.

Oopsie

And then on the third day life was good. Posting from my Quicksilver PMG4 with my new coffee cup jamming out to "and you will know us by the trail of dead" at unapologetic facemelter volume levels. For my limited DD uses, this little beast still works well.

and I'm pretty sure I'd still be able to pay my taxes on it if I needed to.

[doublepost=1514997124][/doublepost]

Does anyone know a standalone SoundCloud application for PowerPC?

Is that something you could put into a foxbox maybe?

http://tenfourfox.blogspot.com/2015/11/tenfourfoxbox-because-its-time-to-think.html

 

[macgeek18]

I'm stuck using this for 8 hours a day at work. And our wifi is enterprise grade so my PPC macs can't connect to our wifi.

 

[eyoungren]

I'm stuck using this for 8 hours a day at work. And our wifi is enterprise grade so my PPC macs can't connect to our wifi.

Would you be allowed to run an ethernet cable from your PC to your Mac and use internet sharing?

 

[Gamer9430]

Day 2 Continued:

Not much else to say about day 2 from my post yesterday. I got my 12in PowerBook out and running once again. I had not used it in awhile, and the last time I had used it, half the screen was darker than the other for about 10 minutes until it warmed up, semi fixing it. Anyway, upon taking it out yesterday, that problem seems to have gone away. I also tried to watch some youtube on my 15in SLSD, but with the latest YouTube design update, it wasnt a great experience. I will have to try again with PPCMediaCenter as i remember having good luck with that. I then had work later on for the rest of my night. I then came home to watch some YouTube on my iPad 1 once again. I was quickly disgusted by the actions of Logan Paul (EDIT: Wrote Jake, his brother, by mistake... hard to differentiate between the two idiots), watching the open letters to him from several big YouTubers. Disgusted with humanity, I went to sleep.

Day 3 (As of writing): Spent the morning using my SLSD for various web browsing tasks. I was doing some research on parts I would need to convert an early 08 MacBook Air to a Late 08/Mid 09 MacBook Air, much like my Early 2008 to Early 2009 MacBook conversion. Upon seeing the need for several parts that defeats the purpose of buying an early 08 just to convert it for roughly the same price based off whats around on eBay (unlike the dirt cheap conversion of the early 08 MB), i decided to hold off for now. I also was listening to music on spotify, which worked without a hitch, and talking in my group chat via Jabber in iChat. Battery has held up quite well on the SLSD, lasting me for about a 2:30 run time. I wanted to try and kill it, to cycle the battery having not been used in awhile, so this works out well. Anyway, its finally about to die, so Day 3 to be continued later or tomorrow

 

[macgeek18]

Would you be allowed to run an ethernet cable from your PC to your Mac and use internet sharing?

Nope. No personal machines on the internal network. We have an internal LAN and internal wifi and external wifi that employees can use.

 

[eyoungren]

Nope. No personal machines on the internal network. We have an internal LAN and internal wifi and external wifi that employees can use.

That's a bummer.

 

[benwild_33]

So I've been using my Powerbook G4 17" for any web surfing over the last couple of days, it's been doing ok. I'll admit I've been on my Mac Pro to play some PUBG with friends a couple of times though. I want to tidy up some salesforce apex code for work before it gets deployed next week. At work I use a Windows 10 machine with Eclipse for writing any code and deploying it and Notepad++ on the side for anything else. I'm struggling to find anything I can use on my Powerbook.

For anyone that isn't familiar with salesforce, it uses a language called Apex which is basically Java, I don't intend on getting Eclipse with the Force.com IDE working on the powerbook but it would be nice to have something like Notepad++ that will do the automatic colour coding of the code to make it a bit easier. Anyone got any recommendations? This 1680x1050 screen is perfect for working on code.

 

[mmphosis]

A blog update, Day 2 ...

http://hoop-la.ca/powerpc/2018/#penguin

 

[eyoungren]

For anyone that isn't familiar with salesforce, it uses a language called Apex which is basically Java, I don't intend on getting Eclipse with the Force.com IDE working on the powerbook but it would be nice to have something like Notepad++ that will do the automatic colour coding of the code to make it a bit easier. Anyone got any recommendations? This 1680x1050 screen is perfect for working on code.

Taco HTML?

I know the name indicates HTML which is not the code you're using but it might work. IDK. All that came to mine.

 

[benwild_33]

Taco HTML?

I know the name indicates HTML which is not the code you're using but it might work. IDK. All that came to mine.

Just given it a try but unfortunately it seems to be HTML only as it shows up properly with HTML code but my apex code loses it's indentation when pasted in and has no colour coding.

 

[eyoungren]

Just given it a try but unfortunately it seems to be HTML only as it shows up properly with HTML code but my apex code loses it's indentation when pasted in and has no colour coding.

Yeah, sorry. It was the only thing I know of that colors code. Was hoping it might work but apparently it does not.

 

[Lastic]

Yeah, sorry. It was the only thing I know of that colors code. Was hoping it might work but apparently it does not.

TextWrangler might be worth a try ?
[doublepost=1515014481][/doublepost]Day 3

So I got up this morning at 5:30 AM like every working day and wanted to take the 14" iBook with me today BUT
it won't fit my backpack (which normally holds my MBp 15" or Thinkpad X220 12") so instead of scratching it or tearing apart my backpack trying to make it fit , I settled on taking the 12" iBook with me.

Still at home, I had it connected to my WiFI so Automatic 2 could download new series from ShowRSS to watch during the
train commute.

So running Coreplayer on "Better Performance" or it will start to glitch and stutter, the iBook's video-card clearly ain't
the same as on the 12" Powerbook.
At the same time I'm trying to start a virtual Juniper router using qemu (384Mb RAM) and have TFF-FP5b opened to check this forum.

Sufficient to say that I could watch the entire episode of Fresh Off the Boat but the qemu VM never got started in my 40 minute train ride.

End of the working day, train commute back to home.

Again on "Better Performance" , looked up a video on SMTube , playing it back with Coreplayer whilst again trying to
get the qemu VM started in my 40 minute train ride.

Stopped Qemu , looked up another video via SMTube , playing it in Coreplayer whilst Automatic 2 pulled in a new show,
downloading it with uTorrent , WiFi from my 4G Personal Hotspot iPhone 5c in a moving train

Went to eat at my parents and came back around 20:00.

Decided to startup the iBook 12" , iBook 14" , Powerbook G4 12" (all on charger and thus Highest Performance) and the G5 to simultanously start ( as only running task ) the Qemu VM I've been trying earlier to see which one would start up first.

And the winner is ... 9:25 minutes with 384Mb RAM allocated to the VM

I tried again later on the G5 with the maximum RAM I can assign to Qemu , 1024 Mb and it started in 5 minutes.

The iBook 12" had a crashing VM after 6:25 so it won also by crashing first

The iBook 14" and Powerbook G4 12" both had started completely after 20 minutes , altough the iBook 14" has a 3 times faster mSATA SSD versus the PATA SSD in the PB. Guess in emulation disk speeds don't matter.

iBook 14" logically still has more RAM free from it's 1.5 GB RAM

vs the 1.25 GB RAM in the Powerbook G4 12"

Today's observations :

• the iBook 12" clearly isn't made for my multi-tasking (2 or tasks) habits so altough it has a brand new NewerTech battery I seriously think of selling it after the challenge
  
• All PPC's have an issue with connecting to known WiFi networks, but it looks worse on the iBooks.
  Does anybody know why I always have to reboot or first connect via cable and then try again the WiFi ?
• I do really prefer the iBook keyboards vs the Powerbook 12" one, maybe it's the more chicklet feel or spacing of the keys
• I'm no longer used to carrying a bulky laptop in my backpack, altough an 12" iBook isn't that heavy, I did feel the difference today
• a 14" iBook with mini-DVI/DP and a higher resolution screen or more PPI would have been my dream PPC laptop.
  I hope the NewerTech battery that I bought in the US for it arrives still this week, it has been in transfer (read customs) since the 20th.

In the meantime I found another backpack which fits the 14" so tomorrow's train commute will be the 14".
Signing off for today , enjoy your PPC's !

 

[Lastic]

Just given it a try but unfortunately it seems to be HTML only as it shows up properly with HTML code but my apex code loses it's indentation when pasted in and has no colour coding.

My TextWrangler suggestion is also not the solution, VIM or EMACS in Terminal ? Maybe BBedit if it exists on PPC.
[doublepost=1515015807][/doublepost]

A blog update, Day 2 ...

http://hoop-la.ca/powerpc/2018/#penguin

Here you go :

http://www.oldapps.com/mac/utorrent.php?old_utorrent=9954

 

[Camacorn]

Okay, so we are on Day 3 of the challenge, and so far everything is going according to plan, however I have to bend the rules a little bit, and do some work on my MacBook, as TenFourFox can't properly render some of the web design that I am working on. I am having a boatload of fun playing Yoot Tower on the iMac G3 in OS 9.2.2 as well!

Still trying to find a processor upgrade for this Cube as well, would love to continue to use it after this challenge is over.

 

[1042686]

Did you buy your cube or imacg3 at Kmart?