Month: November 2016

I Bought a Classic iBook G3 Clamshell Laptop

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One of the guys at work has been talking about some of the old computers he’s been buying and reconfiguring or restoring to get working. It’s fascinating to talk to him about it partly because he’s very passionate around the topic. Also it’s something that I have thought about doing with one or two computers but never had the space or time to want to do it.

I’m finding it very funny that for some time now I have wanted a classic iBook G3 Clamshell laptop circa 1999. I never owned one however they always did look pretty cool. I personally did not get into Max until the G4 around 2002. I’ve also wanted a lampshade iMac. For some reason I keep thinking about the 15 inch version although the 17 inch is better and the same physical footprint. I owned a 20 inch version of that computer and loved it. I was reminded of my desire to want the iMac when I was at my sister-in-law’s I saw that she had one and she commented about oh that old thing or something like that. I told her I’m jealous since I actually want one.

The final straw for me was when my friend was talking about how he bought and restored and upgraded the G3 iBook. I started asking questions around how we found a good one and how much it costs. He gave me a bunch of pointers on what to look for on eBay and I started to search. The prices weren’t too bad however I was surprised that a 18-year-old computer was worth even that much. It goes to show you that this particular model was in demand. I found a blue G3 that had its internals upgraded to slightly better variant that did not come in blue. It also had an SSD instead of an IDE hard drive. Even had a new power brick.

I was ex cited get the laptop however when I got it I realized there was something wrong with it. The LCD backlight was out. The seller on eBay was extremely accommodating and I sent back the laptop. He fixed it and send it back to me. I had a choice of a full refund or options on a different model but after I got the laptop it was in perfect shape other than the backlight and one hairline crack in the case. The crack was visible in the auction pictures even though I didn’t see it myself the first time. The computer was still functionally fine with the crack and he barely noticed it so I was happy to keep this particular computer if he could get the LCD to work. Thankfully he was and shipped it back the same day he got it after fixing it.

The girls wanted to play with it. Originally that was my idea to get it working with some educational software for the girls to use. Now that I have it however not so sure I want them playing with a vintage laptop. Just because it’s so cool I don’t want them to break it. It’s very heavy I’m not sure other than the LCD if they could break it but I don’t want to chance it. I do have a few use cases in mind for it.

My friend needs to own up and take responsibility for all the money I spent since knowingly or not he gave me the idea to go out and buy this laptop. I was just following is very bad/very good footsteps regarding vintage computers.

Dual Monitors

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Now that the girls are in school full time when the opportunity arises unable to work from home more often. Sometimes it’s a necessity because of the girls being in school and the need to drop off and pick them up in the same day if MC cannot for some reason. Other times it’s just general convenience. Being able to do that has posed new challenges for me. I used to have to hide in my bedroom with a laptop so no matter what I did I was not comfortable. Now I can go to my desk however I don’t like sitting in front of the laptop screen all day. It was a big production to reconfigure my monitor so I can plug my laptop into it to work. My solution was second 27″ monitor so I can have two computers running at the same time.

This configuration solves another challenge I had since I wanted to run a Linux desktop in tandem with my Mac mini. Or sometimes plug raspberry pi into monitoring my desk and work on. With my Apple Cinema Display I’m unable to do any of that since it has the thunderbolt display adapter that limits what computers I can use on it. Amazon had a good deal on a 27 inch Dell monitor. It’s basically the 27 inch variant of the 24 inch monitors I have at work. They’re pretty good so I was confident in buying a larger 27 inch.

Even I measured before I bought it that both 27 inch displays will fit I have very little room on my desk  with both computers set up. Functionally speaking the set up does exactly what I wanted it to. I put my desktop and the cable run for the laptop to a shelf on my desk so I save surface area. When I’m not using my work laptop I can plug my MacBook or a Lenox computer into the second set up. I’m contemplating buying and building a Lenox desktop however  I don’t have the time for that project just yet with a few other projects I have still going on at home.

The W Sisters and Stories About The Letters A & T

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At the time of writing this post over the past few days I’ve gone to both T and A’s school orientations for the year. At both girls orientation their teachers talked about things they would be doing and learning. T’s teacher talked a bit about what she would need to be able to do at the end of the class A’s teacher talked about the alphabet and I thought of a few things from the past that the girls have learned that I thought were funny and wanted to write down.

The details are vague over time. That’s why I want to start writing this stuff down sooner however while I still remember it at all here we go.

T when she started to learn her letters first would identify the letter T. It’s not really that surprising since whenever we would point out the T we would identify that it’s the first letter in her name, T. After a while she started to see it and then repeat T for me. To this day she still identify T in that way. Nowadays she’s able to identify all of her letters however I find it funny that that’s how she remembers.

With A I can’t remember if she first remembered the letter a or the letter T It’s no surprise that she was able to identify T almost as easily as she was able to identify a because of her big sister Even though I find it funny her that T would say “T for me” Amelio would identify “A is for A” With A she’s not quite there knowing all letters. One challenge I’ve noticed in identifying how much A knows is when you ask her question it’s almost like she’s deliberately not giving you the right answer. She does know several of her letters.

One of the things T needs to learn to do in pre-k is right her name. I know that our babysitter was spending time with her tracing letters of the alphabet. And then letting her free-form right letters of the alphabet. Hopefully that extra help will give her leg up. Of course like she really needs a leg up in pre-k.

While on stories about letters and numbers one thing I remember recently is that there is a book we read at bedtime about a boy named Oliver and his birthday party. It’s a counting book and each page has an kit coming and then going. At the bottom there is all the kids lined up and has you do a simple math problem when someone’s added or removed from the group. Most of the time when we read the book T insists on every page to count up all the kids to get to the right number. She still hasn’t figured out subtraction since when kids are leaving she counts out all the kids +1 since she does not realize that it’s subtraction instead of addition problem. I tried to explain it however I don’t think she understands the concept yet. On the other hand she does realize that there’s only one kid left at the end. Math was never my strong suit.

This amalgamation of stories isn’t as funny as some of the other ones I’ve written recently however it was topical in my mind and I wanted to write it down I have several other ideas I need to find time to sit and write about. At present I’m writing this article on 9 September and it is likely to be scheduled to post On 12 October so I have a little bit of time before need to write out a few more posts.