My PowerBook
G3 froze up Friday morning. When I restarted it didn't recognize the
hard disk. I'd seen this before so I didn't panic. When I got home
(after a day of getting almost nothing done because I had no computer)
I was able to hook it up to my PowerBook G4 and run Disk Utility on it.
Lots of errors and I had to run the Fix Disk routing a couple of times
to catch everything it could find.
When you get down to it though the PowerBook G3 is too slow and doesn't
have enough memory -- 640 MB is still not enough to run Mac OS X 10.3
and a few applications. So I gave in and ordered a PowerBook G4 17". It
has a 1.3 GHz G4 and it'll have 2 GB RAM and an 80 GB 5400 RPM hard
drive. I also ordered a backpack to hold the PowerBook because I'm
pretty sure it won't fit in my current backpack.
It came out to like $4400 with tax. Put it on my credit card and I will
pay that off slowly over the next two years plus. It's 9.5% interest
which is better than an Apple Loan. Once I realized that the payment is
only $135 or so per month to pay it off in three years, I figured that
I could afford that since my computer budget is $200 a month. Just
won't be able to buy random software.
My plan is to use the old PowerBook G4 as a server because the G4
desktop I currently have has only 256 MB and it uses it all up after a
couple of days. The Desktop is also in fairly good working order (the
CD-ROM drive doesn't seem to work) so maybe I can sell it. Actually I
will sell it, just depends on how much money I get for it. The
PowerBook G3 will be used as a print server since I can't see the
printer from the DHCP network.
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The other
project I'm going to do is upgrade my DSL connection. I checked with
Speakeasy.net and now they don't offer SDSL to my location. Probably
because it really is too far away. That leaves ADSL (however tenuous a
connection that will be) and a T1 line. With the new computer, a
fractional T1 line is just way too expensive. So I'm going to get a
1.5/768 ADSL line and hope it's somehow more reliable from Speakeasy
and their DSL provider (probably Covad).
To be safe I should get a second phone line, then install the second
DSL circuit. And if it works then I can cancel the first line including
phone service. Of course then I have to change my phone numbers but
it's not as if I haven't done that before. Still, it is a bit expensive
to do it that way and it takes a lot of time.
Come to think of it, that's just too much trouble. I'll just kill my
current DSL account and order the new one. If it can't support the
speeds, I can downgrade to their base 1.5/256 which costs almost the
same as my current DSL. I'm pretty sure I can get higher then 128kb
upstream since that seems to be rate limited by SBC, so I'm sure even
Speakeasy's cheapest account will provide me with faster upload speeds.
We played D&D yesterday. Big fight against four Slaads and their
human mind-controlled minions. Most of the party was there and we were
very ready to fight. It was actually quite cool as our magic defenses
protected us from Slay Living and other bad spells. Unfortunately there
are another dozen in their keep along with the mind-control artifact.
So next time we have an even bigger fight.
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