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In This Issue
TechTool Pro
Internet CleanUp
Adding SCSI
Iomega Bargain
eBay G3 Pismo
February 2004
1
Executive Contact List From the Editor
Well,...its February again. If you aren’t sick of winter yet you soon
Please feel free to contact any of the following individuals if you will be. Please make the effort to get out to the Meetings in 2004.
have comments or questions relating to Macintosh Users East or The February 25th meeting will be an excellent time to start.
Macintosh computing in general.
Small Print
Position/Name Phone# What you are looking at is the latest edition of the Double Click
monthly newsletter from the Macintosh Users East, (MaUsE), a
President Hm: (905) 433-0777 Courtice motley collection of old and new Mac users who reside in Southern
Ontario with a motley collection of old and new Macintosh comput-
Jim Foster Email: jimfoster@mac.com
ers. What more do you need to know ? Oh, yes. This Newsletter
is created by Michael Shaw, Double Click Editor, on an antique
Apple Liaison Hm: (905) 983-9205 Orono Sonnet-powered 800 MHz G4 1997 Daystar Genesis MP 800+
Bruce Cameron Email: rbcameron@rogers.com running OSX v10.2.8.
Treasurer Hm: 905-404-0405 Oshawa Submissions from MausE Club members, ‘though rarer than hens’
John Kettle Email : hjke@pteron.org teeth, are always welcome. Send them to: michael_shaw@sym-
patico.ca. I have never refused a submission yet. There's always
VP Programs Len Clement room for another piece on ANY Mac-related topic and I’ll make
room if there isn’t. I would like your submissions. But I won’t beg.
Web Admin Sean Murphy Apple, Macintosh, and the Apple logo are trademarks of Apple
Computer, Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries. The
Presidential Assistant Gary Moore MaUsE (Macintosh Users East) is an independent user group and
has not been authorized, sponsored, or otherwise approved by
Logistics C. Greaves & M. McCarthy Apple Computer, Inc.
Programs John Babister
The next meeting will be held at Faith
Secretary Helen Alves United Church on Nash Road in
Macintosh Users East [MaUsE] Courtice Ontario,
eMail: mause@mac.com at 7:30 on February 25th, 2004
208 Winona Avenue, Oshawa, Ontario, L1G 3H5 Canada
MaUsE Message Line: 905-433-0777
Double Click
Double Click on the web at:
www.mause.ca
Double Click Editor
Michael Shaw
Hm: (905) 576-2097 Oshawa
Email:
michael_shaw@sympatico.ca
fat_idle_bastard@yahoo.ca
2
TechTool Pro
4
For thos of us using OSX who
have been troubled by prob-
lems with Norton Utilities and
less than overwhelmed by
Drive 10, there is good news
from Micromat. One of the
best Micromat utilities for
Macintosh just became a bit
better. TechTool Pro 4 is a
completely new program, built
from the ground up for Mac
OS X. The program was
completely created in Cocoa,
ensuring maximum perform-
ance and stability in Mac OS
X. The program also features
a new, easy-to-use aqua inter-
face and streamlined window
for easy navigation. The pro-
gram allows you to run select-
ed tests on any one or more of
your multiple hard drives and
multiple systems. In fact the
program can do so many
things that it requires a bit of
study to make sure that you
make it do what you want it to.
There is a whole new set of
possible things to check if you
click on Tools, Suites, Tests,
Performance, or Safety. And
on each of those there are
more choices if the utility can
check hardware and software.
S.M.A.R.T.
TechTool Pro 4 now features a suite of S.M.A.R.T eDrive
tests (Self Monitoring Analysis And Reporting The revolutionary eDrive feature allows you to
Technology). Most modern hard drives now sup- create an invisible emergency volume from your
port this industry standard that employs predictive existing drive. This is a must for users with just
diagnostics and analysis to help foresee a drive one internal hard drive. This new partition is cre-
failure BEFORE it happens. TechTool Pro 4's ated WITHOUT the need to reformat your current
SMART test allows you to automatically monitor drive and allows you to store a spare copy of your
this vital data and be forewarned of impending system, a copy of TechTool Pro and even allows
danger to your data, allowing you to back up crit- you to make room for other utilities you may feel
ical information before disaster strikes. the need of. If you ever have trouble with your
3
main drive, simply restart your computer
and your system will start from your
Emergency Drive giving you immediate
access to the utilities you'll need to
e
attempt to resurrect your main drive.
Now there's no more need for a imiz s...
Opt Thi
bootable CD or ancillary hard drive for
system drive repair or maintenance. From
MultiTesting
With the power of Mac OS X, TechTool
Pro 4 is now the fastest version of the
program ever made. With Mac OS X's
native multitasking capability, TechTool
Pro 4 can now run its full battery of tests
simultaneously. This means that repair
and maintenance chores that once took
minutes will only take seconds. This also
means that you have to stick around
while the program runs through the tests
once they start, especially if you run
his !
them sequentially on several large hard
drives. It does so many things that it
T
really needs a fast processor and OSX
to perform properly and not bog down. ...To
Optimization
TechTool Pro 4 now offers a new opti-
mization feature for your Mac OS X
drive. The Mac OS X system contains
thousands of files that fragment quickly. TechTool the critical hardware on your system like the CPU,
Pro 4 lets you quickly and safely defragment memory, controllers and even the power supply
these and other files so your system runs reliably that feeds all of these devices. The program can
at its peak. The visuals with the optimization are also check other important aspects of your sys-
very slick, with fragmented files appearing as tem like internet connections, network and even
bubbles in a pale blue fluid. As the defragging some third-party external peripherals. For many
process proceeds the bubbles disappear and the of the suites there is the option to hide the partic-
fluid oozes to fill the holes created. Of course ulars of all of the testing available and just select
“quickly” is a relative term and a large and badly the drive you want to work on and hit the start but-
fragmented hard drive may require the relocation ton. The details of the testing can be hidden or
of many gigabytes of data during optimization. revealed if you set the program to Hide or Show
the details of the tests its running. Showing all of
Volume Repair and Data Recovery the tests allows you to turn any off that you don’t
want to run.
Besides the new features, TechTool Pro 4 also
contains updated versions of its time-tested repair
TechTool Pro 4 is constantly on guard and pro-
and diagnostic features. Like volume repair and
tecting your Mac OS X Macintosh. Its Protection
data recovery, which can save the most important
feature will regularly check your system's health
element of your computer: your data. Like its
at intervals you select.
predecessor, TechTool Pro 4 can also tests all of
4
It can even automatically notify
an administrator by email if any
problems are found.
But with all of its power, TechTool
Pro 4 is still the potentially easi-
est system utility to use. You can
simplify the interface to hide the
options and run a complete sys-
tem check of your computer with
just one mouse click. Or if you
prefer, you can control all tests
individually if you want to target
suspect behavior on one specific
drive. This makes TechTool Pro 4
the utility of choice for both
beginners and experts alike.
The Safety menu allows you to
configure the program to auto-
matically perform special backup
operations to ensure that valu-
able data is not lost. You can set
it up to to automatically save
directory structure information
from your main drive on another
drive where it will be safer in case of
disaster. Saving protection files on
multiple volumes increases your
chances of data recovery or recov-
ery of a damaged drive. The pro-
gram can also run automated diag-
nostics to catch problems before
data corruption occurs.
TechTool Pro 4 has it all: mainte-
nance, protection and repair. If you
are running any version of OSX and
are thinking of buying a disk repair
utility, check out Micromat on the
internet and have a look at TechTool
Pro 4.0.
System Requirements
Macintosh running Mac OS X 10.2
or 10.3 or greater.
CD-ROM or DVD-ROM.
256 Megabytes RAM or higher.
5
January MaUsE John Babister
Meeting
Despite the arctic blasts that kept many at home Lennie Clement, our new Programs Manager,
we had a reasonable turnout for the January brought in his old 400 Mhz G4 PowerBook and
meeting. John Kettle reported that we now have demonstrated how a photograph imported into
fifty active members. Studio Artist can be rendered into a water-colour
painting, charcoal sketch or pen-and-ink drawing.
Jim Foster opened the agenda with Club He also spoke on the process of re-rendering
Business as usual and then John Babister gave a video frame by frame and then presented some
brief spoken presentation and slide show on the QuickTime movies for us that showed parts of a
data merge abilities of Microsoft Word on his few of the video clips he has been transforming
eMac. He showed how information from data (roto-scoping) using some of the paint features
bases could be imported into Word and used by available in Studio Artist 2.0 and he described the
the merge manager to automatically create per- rendering times required to achieve various
sonalized group emails, programs, invitations, movie effects.
invoices, and reports. For those of us with
Microsoft Word it was a fascinating display.
Lennie Clement
6
Notice to MaUsE Members
Our MaUsE web archive of back- issues of the Double Click
is missing the April 2002 issue.
If any MaUsE-keteers happen to have a copy
please email < michael_shaw@sympatico.ca > and I will
contact you to arrange a transfer so this missing issue
can be posted to our website.
Unfortunately
some of the
cached data left aban-
doned on your computer is the type
that can accumulate into a real backlog of tiny
files that will slow down your utilities every time
you fix up or defrag your hard drive. Thousands of
tiny cache files can add up to megs of lost stor-
age.
Internet Cleanup Back when the internet was newer and we only
Many internet websites and browsers store stuff had 14.4, 28.8, 36k and 56K dial-up connections
(cookies) on your hard drive to make it easier for it was really handy to save web pages in cache to
them to operate efficiently when you return to the enable them to be re-loaded more quickly when
site. These sites that drop cookies are not the recalled but now that we have high-speed DSL
worst websites you’ll encounter. Some websites and cable access you may find that your pages
actually do a lot more than just that and a few web probably load faster as a fresh download than
sites behave in ways that are absolutely offensive they do from your hard drive so using a big stor-
and objectionable. I suspect everyone has been age of web pages is no longer the benefit it once
brutalized at some point by pornographic pop-up was.
ads and banners that load up in series in front of
totally unrelated desired data. Sometimes break- Luckily there is a solution to many internet prob-
ing the connection is the only way to stop them. lems called Internet Cleanup. This program has a
set of utilities that can affect the way
that webpages and websites perform
and behave on your screen and it has
a method for tracking down and eradi-
cating the cache files, cookies and
hidden data that many websites like to
bury deep on your hard drive. Using
Internet Cleanup you can launch the
Internet Cache Finder utility that will
locate all cached files from Netscape,
Explorer, Safari, or any other web
browser. If thats all this program did it
would be worth having but it does a
7
whole lot more. As you can
see from the application win-
dow this program also has a
NetBlockade utility that you
can configure to stifle those
banners and pop-up ads
before they get a chance to
hog your bandwidth with ads
for products and services
that you don’t want.
The Secure Delete utility is a
document shredder for per-
manently disposing of any
potentially sensitive down-
loaded documents, movies,
pictures or data that you do
not want left on your hard
drive for others to see.
Invoices, credit card pay-
ments, banking transactions
and other financial dealings
can be erased if others have
access to your computer.
SpyAlert searches out and
informs the user of the pres-
ence of potentially invasive
scripts that may reduce the
security of your connection
and system. it can recognize
the type of software that can
be tailored to invade your pri-
vacy and compromise your
data.
Web Cache Files Remover is the best of the lot.
Cookie Tosser seeks out the tiny and sometimes When you use this utility you can get evidence of
not so tiny files that websites can secretly place just how insidious out of sight files can be. This
on your computer so that their own data can be utility rounds up all of the cache files on your hard
stored by you for their convenience. Sometimes drives, wherever they are and no matter which
you need cookies for sites that you return to often web browser has hidden them, and presents
or navigate to willingly, but you don’t want cookies them with a list of their name and size. Many of
from sites that you’ll never see again or linked your cache files may be only 4 or 8 k and not
sites that you went to accidentally. much to worry over, but some may be 50k or
more and once you get several thousand of these
Internet History Files Remover removes the hidden files on your hard drive you can expect
files that web browsers maintain that indicate any hard drive searches, defrag processes, and
where you went ten minutes ago, earlier today, drive utilities to slow right down when they have to
yesterday, the day before that and all last week. go through your cache files. Make sure that you
either manually delete internet cache files if you
8
can find them or run an
application like this one to
track them down and root
them out.
I’m pretty careful about
this sort of thing but after a
couple of days of surfing I
ran this utility and found
that Safari had squirreled
away 1,770 items and
filled a total of 32.4
megabytes of hard drive
space. All selected files
were moved to the Trash
and the hard drive space
was returned to me.
There was a provision with
Netscape and Explorer
under previous Mac oper-
ating systems to preset the
size and location of the
cache in the application
preferences and it could
be found easily in the
Netscape Preferences
Folder in the System
Folder and emptied easily
after or before each web-
surfing session but new
OSX users may have a
hard time tracking down the places
that OSX puts stuff. An application
like Internet Cleanup can help track
down the junk that your web-browser
creates and eradicate it before it
becomes a problem.
9
Adding SCSI
The item you see pictured at
the right is a SCSI PCI inter-
face card. Some PCI cards are
huge but this one is only about
5 inches wide and fits into
A
every Mac that can accept PCI
cards. This card was originally
installed in a PCI computer that
did not have a built-in SCSI
bus and there were very few
PCI-based Macintosh comput-
ers that needed this. All of the
high-end PCI Apple computers
were known for having SCSI
because it was one of the
prime difference between
Apple computers and others:
PCs used the cheaper ATE /
IDE interface and peripherals
while Macs had the more B
expensive and superior SCSI
interface and peripherals.
Some of the cheaper Mac clones were available If you find yourself in need of one of these cards
without on-board SCSI and came with SCSI PCI you can probably pick one up cheaply on eBay or
interface cards. I think that this card shipped as the Low End Mac SWAP List. Adaptec is a very
OEM in a Radius clone. common brand, possibly the most common. Make
sur that you get one thats Mac-compatible and
In the past few years Apple has been making PCI don’t buy one with powers and abilities that you’ll
interface computers without SCSI interface. never use. There are lots of different SCSI inter-
Because of this you may find that when you buy faces and SCSI types. Don’t waste your money
your next new or newer Mac there will be no port on high density fast and wide SCSI if your system
to plug your SCSI stuff into. This can be a real and peripherals are the old SCSI-1 type.
pain if you happen to have a lot of money invest-
ed in SCSI peripherals, like external hard drives, Any SCSI card you buy used should have a port
CD burners, scanners or removable devices. common to your own equipment OR come with an
adapter or cable that will accept your ordinary 25-
I picked up this Adaptec SCSI card for Irma's pin SCSI cable connector or Centronics 50 con-
B&W G3 tower, one of the Mac models that could nector. Cables can cost more than cards.
have had a SCSI bus but didn't. By
installing it into one of the PCI slots I
get TWO benefits: I can install anoth-
er hard drive on the inside of the
computer (See "A") by plugging a rib-
bon cable into the 50-pin internal
SCSI connector and I can also plug
in a bunch of external SCSI devices
to the port outside the computer (See
"B").
10
N.B.: SCSI rules apply. Give each SCSI device
Old Iomega SCSI its own SCSI address, TERMINATE the last
device, NEVER connect or disconnect any SCSI
Jaz 2.0 Gig device while your Mac is running, and always
And while we’re on the topic of SCSI cards and turn on power to SCSI externals BEFORE turning
external SCSI devices, here’s a bit of information on your Mac.
for those of us still using Systems 7, 8, and 9 on
your Mac IIs, Quadras and PowerPCs. If you are In both systems the Iomega carts showed up on
still getting by with your 1, 2 or 4 gig hard the Desktop as a 2-gig hard drives and I was able
drive.there is a cheap way to radically increase to copy files to and from them and then pop them
your storage. out of the drive using the Eject Disk command. If
you only have one or two gigs of internal storage
Now that SCSI is officially dead at Apple and are running out of hard drive space in your
Computers there is a wealth of good used sec- old Mac check out SCSI removables 0n eBay for
ond-hand SCSI stuff available on eBay and the a cheap but elegant solution.
Low End Mac SWAP List. A
few weeks ago I was given a
pair of external SCSI drives
with three removable biscuits
for each by a Mac user who
has no need of this old tech-
nology.
He gave me a SyQuest with
three 135-Meg cartridges
and an Iomega Jaz with
three 2.0 gig disks. Just to
see if the worked I went onto
the internet and downloaded
Iomegaware software (for
OS9.1 and for OSX) and
installed it. I shut the system
down, connected the Iomega
drive to the SCSI bus on my
old PCI Mac Clone and fired
it up first into OSX Jaguar
and then into OS9.1.
11
CD-ROM
New Drive Terminology An optical drive that can read CD and CD-R
If you are as confused as I am about all of these media. It cannot write to anything, nor can it typi-
different types of drives that can be put into Apple cally read CD-RW, DVD, or DVD-R
computers then keep this list for reference. The
new G4 and G5 towers ordered from on-line CD-R
Apple sellers and off the Apple store site can be An optical drive that can burn CD-R media. It
customized to come with your choice of optical cannot read or write CD-RW or DVD/DVD-R. CD-
drives so make sure that you order the one that R can be recorded in one or many sessions.
will do what you want it to. Its a lot more expen-
sive to buy new internal or external peripheral
CD-RW
drives later on if you find that you need the capa-
An optical drive that can burn CD-R media in sin-
bility and neglected to get the right drive built-in
gle or multiple sessions using Roxio's Toast soft-
when you ordered your new Macintosh.
ware or iTunes software from Apple. In addition,
this drive can re-write to CD-RW media using
Optical drives are usually about 5.25 inches Roxio's Toast software or Apple's Disk Burner
wide with a narrow slot or drawer in the front and software. In the new OS 10.1, you can burn right
take flat very thin shiny round disks like CDs, usu- from the finder! This drive will also read regular
ally labeled or printed on one side. Sixteen of the CD's for software installation, music, games, etc.
disks make up a pile about one inch high. They This drive will not play DVD movies or burn DVD
are stamped out of plastic sheets and have no movies onto DVD disks.
moving internal parts. They must be handled and
stored carefully to avoid scratches and surface DVD-ROM
damage from dust and grit. An optical drive that can read DVD disks and play
DVD movies through Quicktime or iMovie. Can
Magnetic drives are either the non-removable not write to any type of disk, but can read CD or
type, like the SCSI or ATA hard drive in your CPU CD-R.
or else, like the Iomega on the page previous to
this one, take thick square or rectangular remov- DVD-RAM
able plastic cartridges, about half the size of a An optical drive that uses a special type of DVD
pack of cigarettes. These cartridges have fragile technology that is usually held in a special
internal mechanical diskette like case. May be rewritable. Cannot
components that are write DVD-R or CD-R/CD-RW, but can usually
prone to failure. read all of these formats.
Hard drive DVD-R
The fundamental drive. An optical drive that can read DVD disks and play
It is magnetic and non- DVD movies as ell as CD and CD-R. It can also
removable. They are record to a DVD-R disk.
compact and heavy.
Every Mac has at least
Combo-drive
one.
An optical drive that can read DVD and CD disks,
as well as burning CD-R and CD-RW media.
Zip, Jaz, Superdisk
Magnetic drives made by Iomega. Each type
Superdrive
stores different amount of data on a different type
An optical drive that can read DVD and CD disks,
of media. Any could be appropriate for a variety of
as well as burning CD-R, CD-RW, and DVD-R
uses.
media.
12
February
2004
Executive
Meeting
The MaUsE Exec met
on the evening of
February 5th at the
home of Michael
Shaw. Helen Alves
took the minutes.
John Kettle presented
us with the the
Treasurers Report.
We went over the min-
utes of the last Exec
Meeting, discussed
attendance issues
and the numbers of
club members who
appear to rely on the
Double Click to keep
them informed of the
date and agenda for
coming meetings. We
talked about various
ways we could con-
tact the membership
to remind them about
meetings and Jim
Foster presented us
with samples and
designs for post card
that could be sent out
to the entire member-
ship prior to the
scheduled MausE
meetings as a meeting reminder.It was noted that (a.k.a. Dot Mac) and more Photoshop Elements
we had 24 out of 50 members attend the last 2.0 tricks will be featured and in March there will
meeting before Christmas 2003 but only 15 out of be discussion of several examples of ecommerce
50 MaUsE members made it to the January 2004 including PayPal.com and eBay.com.
meeting last month.
Other Execs in attendance on February 5th were
Len Clement and John Babister indicated the Gary Moore, Bruce Cameron, John Fields and
schedule of presentations planned for the next Michael Shaw.
several meetings, including the meeting on
February 25th and March 24th. This month .Mac
13
eBay PB G3
2000 (Pismo)
G3/500 and the G3/400 models, A.K.A. the
PowerBook 2000 (Pismo) and also called the
PowerBook Firewire or just the Pismo.. The same
model has the distinction of being the first
PowerBook with Firewire. As you can see from
the pictures the Pismo has a black plastic exteri-
or, not silver, white like new G3 and G4
PowerBooks do. Externally it resembles the pre-
vious PowerBook models.
I dedicated the first week of February to picking
up a portable Mac off the eBay auction site. What i found a possible Pismo on eBay and I bid what I
I wanted was a portable G3 Mac, in the 400 to thought was a reasonable amount: $600.00 US
500 Mhz range with a DVD player in it and at least for one that looked good. It was the 500 Mhz
one USB port so I could connect the old LaCie model with 256 MB of RAM and the 20 gig HD.
USB CD burner I have to it. I figured on paying The listing said that it had been used gently and
about a thousand dollars (Canadian) for what I looked to be in excellent condition. I watched that
wanted. Naturally I started my shopping on eBay auction go from my $600 US to $760 US and I did
just to see what there was and what prices they not bid again. That was just more than I wanted to
were commanding. spend for a used PowerBook in California.. (On
top of that $760.00 US would be at least $40.00
What I found were a bunch of REALLY excellent US for FedEx shipping, $10.00 US for insurance,
used G3 PowerBooks on eBay. The models that something for those pesky Customs people and
suited my requirements in just about every a bunch more for Ontario taxes). I decided to wait
respect (pictured above) were the PowerBook a bit and look at more different ones to see if I
could find one here in Canada or at
a local re-seller like CPUsed.
The next Pismo that caught my eye
looked even better ! It seems that
PowerLogix made a pair of
upgrade kits exclusively for the
Pismo. The deal was that you
removed and sent your processor
card to PoweLogix via FedEx and
they would modify it and test it and
send it back to you with your 400 or
500 MHz G3 processor replaced
with a 500 MHz G4 processor or a
14
900 Mhz G3
Processor
Upgrade
Card
much faster G3 processor capable of run-
ning at 900 Mhz. The software package with
PowerBooks and read about them on the internet
the upgrade includes an amazing control applica-
the more I liked them. The 2000 PowerBook G3
tion that allows you to set the G3 processor’s vari-
signaled a significant change from previous G3
able speed manually to anywhere from 300 to 900
models , although these changes were not neces-
Mhz so you can slow it down to 300 or 400 Mhz
sarily apparent on the surface, since Apple chose
when doing word processing or to prolong battery
to use the same form factor as Lombard (1999)
life and then speed it up to 900 Mhz when running
PowerBook G3's. Pismo PowerBooks included
graphics intensive applications and video editing
faster G3 processors, a 100MHz system bus (as
software. The upgrade is pricey so there aren’t
opposed to 66MHz on Lombard models), two
many of these Pismo Powerbooks around with
FireWire ports, and built-in AirPort technology.
the upgrade and they almost never appear on
These machines represented the pinnacle of G3
eBay.
technology and were the fastest portables on the
planet when introduced. Meant to be used as a
One of these 900 Mhz Pismos did appear with a
desktop replacement, Pismo models were really
“Buy It Now” price of only $799.00 US. After
the first portable Macs capable of doing anything
watching the 500 Mhz model go for $760.00 US I
that their desktop counterparts could do. With
emailed the seller quickly for details about this
larger screens, more powerful processors, and
one. When I went back to the auction site an hour
greater expansion capabilities, Pismo
later with the intention of grabbing the
PowerBooks were also marketed as the profes-
PowerLogix-upgraded 900 Mhz Pismo I found
sional alternative to the consumer-focused
that some other bidder with the same idea had
iBooks - although for a $1000 premium over the
beat me to it.I wuz ROBBED !
iBook. There was certainly enough there to justify
the difference in price. In February 2000 Apple
The more I looked at these 500 MHz G3 Pismo
brought out the PowerBook G3/400 with a sticker
price of $2,500.00 US. They were a big hit, espe-
cially at that price in spite of having only 64 MB of
RAM and a 6-gig HD. In September 2000, Apple
introduced the greatly improved Revision 'B'
PowerBook G3 2000 models. The only obvious
difference between the original Revision 'A'
Pismo models was the inclusion of 10 GB (with
400MHz models) and 20 GB (with 500MHz mod-
els) hard drives, but there were other improve-
ments like more RAM and larger faster cache.
15
Both models shared the same configuration in
terms of ports
Ports
• 2 USB
• Stereo in
• Stereo out
• Video out
• S-video out
• 2 FireWire
• IR
• 2 expansion bays
The later model retailed for $3,500.00US and was • 1 PC card slots
still considered a good value at that price. And • Ethernet
here it is four years after the Pismo was intro- • Internal 56k modem
duced and they still command about 25% of their • Internal AirPort slot
retail value when put up for bids on ebay.
Display
PowerBook G3/500 •14.1" TFT XGA active matrix at 1024x768 reso-
500MHz PowerPC G3 processor lution, able to display varying resolutions.
1MB backside L2 cache
System Speed 100 Mhz Weight
Backside Bus Speed 200 Mhz 5.9 lbs.
128MB standard RAM, maximum 512MB
Available 12 or 20 GB hard drives With the PowerBook 2000 Pismo, Apple finally
DVD-ROM drive dropped its HDI 30 SCSI port and replaced it with
56k internal modem the far more useful 2 FireWire ports. The 500 Mhz
No floppy drive PowerBook Pismo was the last of the G3
PowerBooks before the advent of the G4 models
PowerBook G3/400 and it is a superb machine. The Pismo has power
400MHz PowerPC G3 processor and inbuilt connectivity to easily handle anything
1MB backside L2 cache 2004 can throw at it. I regret missing out on the
System Speed 100 Mhz 900 Mhz Pismo but I will continue to haunt eBay .
Backside Bus 160 Mhz Someday I may pick one up, but not now. When I
64MB standard RAM, maximum 512MB missed out on the Pismo I suddenly thought bet-
Available 6.0 or 10 GB hard drives ter of spending $799.00 US plus shipping on a 4-
DVD-ROM drive year old PowerBook. So I bought something else
56k internal modem right from Apple instead. I’ll tell you about it in next
No standard floppy drive month’s Double Click.
16
Bad Mouse Tails
We bought Laura a brand new G4 eMac for
school when she went to University last Fall. The
only problem with it is the Apple Pro Mouse. It
died very soon after she started using it. The Pro rings that hold the top of the mouse on.if you are
mouse is the large white oval flat one you see in careful you mat get them off without puncturing
the pictures. Some are white and some are black. your thumb. Once the two oval rings are removed
None of them is cheap. I have a dead black USB you can see how the two halves Separate.
mouse just like it except for the
colour. Very few ADB mice have
croaked in our house over the past
eight years but the most expensive
USB ones just don’t last. I went onto
the internet to find out why. This is
what I found out:
It is possible to peel a mouse but very
hard on them. Since the mouse is
dead anyway you can’t hurt it so
there’s no reason not to try to fix a
broken Apple Pro Mouse. It just
requires a bit of patience and dexter-
ity.
First lay the mouse on its back and
remove the white and black plastic
When you take clear plastic shell off and the bot-
tom apart you can see how the tail is connected
to the mouse. There is a clear plastic “strain relief
that absorb only some of the shock of twisting and
bending where the tail joins on. Not the best
design obviously.
When you remove the clear plastic strain relief
with diagonal cutters you will find that the cable
inside it has been held too firmly at this point and
the wires have been pinched by it and bent too
sharply for the tail to manage flexibility without
damage. The wires are unnaturally distorted at
this point and the tiny wires are bent sharply
17
where the copper strands have separated
inside the plastic insulation. This is the
design problem that must be addressed in
order to get the mouse up and running
again.
Once the clear plastic strain relief is
removed the frayed wires inside it can be
carefully repaired. The wires are tiny but the
damaged wire section must be cut out and
the strands soldered together to make the
mouse functional.again.
Naturally this type of repair voids your war-
ranty but if you ever do come across one of
these expensive Apple Pro
USB Mice in need of a tail job it
will probably be free so nothing
ventured, nothing gained. it
may take you an hour to fix up
a mouse and it may tax your
patience and dexterity, but the
effort will be rewarded when
your little USB rodent comes
miraculously back to life.
Or, if still under waranty, you
could sent it back to Apple for a
replacement...
18
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