rss...the comforting persuasion of despair... - Ellis Peters, An Excellent Mystery
Computer
2009, September 07
Snow Leopard upgrade preparation
Snow Leopard brings another reason for the G3 iBook.
On July 2, I made the change from Tiger (OS X 10.4) to Leopard (OS X 10.5). This involved learning about Spotlight, which I did not like, and disabled, and Time Machine, which I also did not like. So a new back up routine had to be established with Carbon Copy Cloner and a new way to find files, EasyFind. SpotLight and Time Machine made large database file in the deep recesses of the unix system; so did FileVault, which I also turned off. Gigs and gigs of space were used by all these databases, which did not serve a useful purpose for me.
Another big change was the elimination of Adobe Photoshop. I have converted to the open source program Gimp. So there has been a lot of learning going on, and getting accustomed to new routines.
With Snow Leopard, Apple has given me another reason for keeping the G3 iBook on the network. OS X 10.6 has dropped AppleTalk as a way to connect to printers. So I must keep the driver for my beloved LaserWriter 4/600 PS on the G3, then turn on Printer Sharing to allow the computers on the network to print from the LaserWriter.
I have had this printer twelve years, it is workhorse that never gives me any trouble. Refill cartridges are available on-line, and I will run this printer as long as possible.
I will always need a pre-Intel Mac computer to run Panther for QuickTime 6.5. The printer driver works through OS X 10.5, but since the G3 iBook is right there for QT, I will use it for the printer driver too.
Hopefully, Snow Leopard will be at about 10.6.3 by January 2010 and will have some bugs fixed, so I can upgrade without pain. Perhaps the change to Snow Leopard will not be as drastic as the change to Leopard; at least the whole change will have been divided into two parts.
2008, July 31
Two Computers
Two computers replace one
GarageBand did not work for me—no experience with sequencers and all the tutorials start at a level over my head. I'm sure a youngster could come in here and show me how to do what I need done very quickly, but I am not able to figure it out for myself.
So I got an original iBook to run Panther and QuickTime 6.5 with Jeux, the organ SoundFont so I can make my conversions of a midi file to a QuickTime file with the capablilty to assign instruments to the channels. With an eight month old intel MacBook to run the big programs on Tiger, I will be in business again sooner rather than later.
So the computer problem is solved; now to tackle the rehab for the back injury.
2008, July 04
Death of a Mac
Logic board failure.
Suddenly, with no warning, the G5 has died. I really loved that Mac and now it is just parts, waiting to be disposed of. It will be replaced by a used MacBook from eBay. Not the same, but a very usable tool.
I got a MacBook for my daughter last year and am very impressed by it, so I don't think the transition will be too painful. She is graciously letting me use it for essentials, but it isn't reasonable to load on all my music software.
Of course, it means that there will be a suspension of the revision for a few weeks. It also means a change in the work habits and flow. I don't think QuickTime Pro 6.5 will work on the Intel system, so I may have to switch to GarageBand to make instrument choices for my files. This will entail a learning curve. I hope to have everything back up and running by the end of July.
2006, December 02
More Macs in my Life
After the Classic, there have been more Macs in my life.
After I outgrew the Mac Classic in 1994, I upgraded to a refurbished LCIII, with a color monitor. This was a big step; I remembered a woman doing a MacDraw tutorial had said, you should always get a color monitor because it is so much easier on the eyes. I thought, Oh, no, I'm not a computer person, so I don't need to spend that kind of money. Well, here I was 3 and a half years later, a computer person. And she was right. On the LCIII I learned html and put up my first web page, the first version of jsbchorales.net, on March 31, 1996. I did not have storage for the ftp files so they were stored on a server at a college in Texas, thanks to Henry Howey. I covered a lot of territory on that little computer. My daughter used it while studying for her Masters degree, then it was given away.
Eventually I outgrew the LCIII after I had upgraded the RAMM, put in a new hard drive (750MB - so huge) and installed a floating point processor. This computer was connected by an AppleTalk network to a printer and another computer. I had phone lines running all over the place, mostly held in place over the doors with masking tape. Not so aesthetic, but effective.
In April 1997. I moved to a Very Large Computer, the PowerMac 9600, with a 4GB hard drive and 128MB of RAMM. This seemed so large I couldn't imagine that I would ever need another computer. I could run FrameMaker and any other program I wanted. I seemed to have arrived at the top of the world; I didn't yet appreciate how fast change happened in the computer world.
And of course, a new operating system was around the corner, OS X in March, 2001. So while I continued running my main programs on the 9600, in December 2001 I got a Mac iBook to start learning OS X and more about ethernet networking, web serving and databases.
Then in 2003 the new G5 PowerMac was introduced. I fell in love all over again and had to have one. So I gave away the 9600 which for all practical purposes I had stopped using and bought the G5.
Open, the G5 is as beautiful as the outside. It is easy to upgrade and easy to clean.
Three years ago this was the ultimate machine, with a 250GB hard drive and a GB of RAMM, and two 2Ghz processors. I expect to use it in some capacity the rest of my life. Here I make web pages, mess with MySQL, phpMyAdmin, Gallery, and work with music files.
