[thelist] apple laptops (was "iBooks, etc.")

[Jonathon Isaac Swiderski]

Nice thing about my PowerBook -- when not needed, the HDD spins down, as does
the fan.  If I'm just sitting there typing for a long stretch of time, it can
get absolutely silent but for the tap-tap of the keys.  It's a beautiful thing.

Not-so-nice thing about my PowerBook -- when that fan stops & it gets quiet, it
gets warm.  Really warm.  And fast.  It hasn't gotten untouchable, but it can
get uncomfortable to hold in your lap . . .

(PB G3, 300MHz, used, for the record.  A little slow sometimes, but I've
probably just gotten used to the 2GHz machines at work. . . I don't use OS X
(machine couldn't handle it), so I can't speak to the apps.)

Be careful if you go used.  Not just for the usual warnings about getting taken,
but some machines as recent as a G3-300 such as my own may not have USB, and
ADB-USB converters are damned difficult to find.  (ADB is the old Mac mouse/kbd
port.  Looks kinda like a PS/2 port, but it's not.)  Also, while Apple says OSX
is supported for machines as old as second-gen PB-G3 Series machines, mine had
enough trouble with it (crashed occasionally.  said it couldn't find system
folder on a couple occasions) i dropped back to OS9, with which I'm pretty
happy.

--
Jonathon Isaac Swiderski      jswiders at cs.oberlin.edu
    900 barton dr. \\ ann arbor mi 48105-1232 usa

   "What we have to learn to do we learn by doing"
    -- Aristotle, Ethica Nicomachea II (c 325 BC)