Uh, if all you need is to write documents on an air-gapped machine, it seems like practically anything would do the job. Any Mac of any age whatsoever, a typewriter ...
Teeeechnically yes. But the barriers to file transfer get larger the farther back you go. I have two old Macs that I use for writing: a 1985 Mac SE 2/40, and a PowerBook G4 1.67ghz. The SE is indeed pretty thoroughly cut off from the world, but this also means that if you want to get your data off the drive, you have very limited options to do so. In my case it means using an SD card-based floppy emulator, writing to…
Why I still use an old PowerPC Mac
151–160 of 262 posts
Re: Why I still use an old PowerPC Mac
#152Ah yes, the "computer as glorified typewriter" blog post. Needless to say, I think these appeal to people because:
Encourage consumption (of old/novelty hardware)
Promise of "productivity" (the holy grail for hn commenters)
A pip on your shoulder for being different/special
Deflect from the hard problems internet addiction and procrastination, to "hey do this instead"
Re: Why I still use an old PowerPC Mac
#153Why not use old(er) Systems when they fulfill your needs? A computer is a tool, such as a typewriter, printing press, paintbrush or hammer. Would anyone argue about the age of a typewriter or hammer if its in good working condition? In fact, i am using an Atari 520ST as my main computer since my laptop died a while ago. It started as an experiment, but now "it just works". I got network connectivity, email and (limit…
>A computer is a tool, such as a hammer. Would anyone argue about the age of a hammer if its in good working condition?
The computer is not a tool ‚such as a hammer‘, since the progress in computer innovation obviously outpaces the progress in hammer innovation.
It is all about the features, not the age. You are definitely not crazy for using whatever tool you enjoy using, though.
Re: Why I still use an old PowerPC Mac
#154Why not use old(er) Systems when they fulfill your needs? A computer is a tool, such as a typewriter, printing press, paintbrush or hammer. Would anyone argue about the age of a typewriter or hammer if its in good working condition? In fact, i am using an Atari 520ST as my main computer since my laptop died a while ago. It started as an experiment, but now "it just works". I got network connectivity, email and (limit…
I'm a hobby writer, and as a professional developer also I have a large retro- collection, and one of the things I love most about having a selection of machines to choose from, is that I can write my stories and ideas in peace - no Internet, no distractions.
The Olivetti M10 is a dream for when the ideas need to flow. I can't get anywhere near as much text written on my modern MBP, as I can in an hour on an Oric Atmos. These machines are great for my productivity.
Of course, I still take my MBP with me everywhere I go. ;) But when I'm in my home office, and need to write .. the older machines are great.
Re: Why I still use an old PowerPC Mac
#155Earlier quoted context omitted.
a lot of phones have this sort of tethering disabled by carriers, who then sell "internet access dongles" as an add-on.
How do they do it? How does carrier actually know that traffic is coming from tethered device rather than phone itself?
The carrier can inspect TTL (or hop limit in IPv6) values which decrease with every hop, so TTL at the point your packet reaches the carrier is typically lower when you are tethering.
Of course it is easy to circumvent by changing TTL on the terhered device from 64 to 65 or something like that, but I guess the solution is esoteric enough that carriers still make money doing crap like this.
Re: Why I still use an old PowerPC Mac
#156Earlier quoted context omitted.
a lot of phones have this sort of tethering disabled by carriers, who then sell "internet access dongles" as an add-on.
How do they do it? How does carrier actually know that traffic is coming from tethered device rather than phone itself?
in iOS the whole "mobile hotspot" feature can be disabled in carrier-locked phones.
Re: Why I still use an old PowerPC Mac
#157Earlier quoted context omitted.
a lot of phones have this sort of tethering disabled by carriers, who then sell "internet access dongles" as an add-on.
This sounds like 2012 to me... And even then, with a rooted phone, you could tether as you pleased. I recall using barnacle wifi tether back when my phone didn't offer it natively. Another way of using it on Android, is to use USB tethering, while your mobile phone is connected to a Wi-Fi access point. That has worked pretty well for me, I sometimes even use that together with a computer to create a wired network fro…
> And even then, with a rooted phone
Yes, obviously I'm talking about carrier-locked phones (typically sold with contracts). A lot of (most?) never even unlock their phone, let alone jailbreak.
Re: Why I still use an old PowerPC Mac
#158Las week I brougth an old G4 the poped up in the marked. A rare thing to occour here, since they where super expensive when new. I paid something like 20 bucks for it. It came with a busted ide hard drive, but no worries. I went online and brought an ide to sd card adapter, and will now install Tiger in it. I don't spect to take any serious workload, but It will problably be fine to run Starcraft and Diablo II in it.…
You'd be better off with a CF to IDE adapter. SD really isn't well suited to be a main OS volume. Or just get a SATA to IDE adapter.
good to know. But is really a temporary solution until I think in a way to use it.In the end I wanna find a way to adapt and 128gb ssd in it.
Re: Why I still use an old PowerPC Mac
#159new web browser for PowerPC Mac: http://www.floodgap.com/software/tenfourfox/ new OS for PowerPC Mac: https://voidlinux-ppc.org/ or, a new PowerPC computer: https://www.talospace.com/
I use OpenBSD on a G4 iBook and it's not too bad
Re: Why I still use an old PowerPC Mac
#160> Of course, it goes without saying that my ancient iBook can’t run Slack Out of interest, I wonder what the minimum spec to run an IRC client is?
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