Why I still use an old PowerPC Mac • Hacker News Board

Re: Why I still use an old PowerPC Mac

#191

Post by dan_hawkins » Mon, Aug 03, 2020, 2:07 PM UTC

specialist wrote: post #145

emersonrsantos wrote: post #55

George R.R. Martin uses Wordstar 4.0 on DOS to write the Game of Thrones novels, he saves his work on floppy disks. Of course, he has a second computer for email and web browsing.

5 1⁄4" floppies in the year 2020? I'd be sweating. I assume he's saving multiple copies. Still have painful memories of using Fastback, a DOS based backup software. Sitting there feeding floppies into a drive. Stacks of floppies. Twice. Praying the data would restore. Part of my innovative file sharing solution, aka SneakerNet.

~90% of my 5.25" floppies written between 1992 and 1995 are readable (verified 2 years ago.) As for my CD-R collection from 1999-2005 ~50% got problems reading everything from it.

Re: Why I still use an old PowerPC Mac

#192

Post by Causality1 » Mon, Aug 03, 2020, 2:08 PM UTC

KozmoNau7 wrote: post #137

Causality1 wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Aside from being pin-compatible is there a reason CF is more suitable for an OS volume than SD?

CF cards do wear leveling, which makes them much better suited as hard drive replacements than SD cards or USB sticks. It's the solution for people who want to play around with old computers without having to rely on old and probably flaky hard drives.

I have to point out that while wear leveling isn't in the SD spec, many manufacturers like SanDisk do include wear leveling in their controllers.

Re: Why I still use an old PowerPC Mac

#193

Post by geocrasher » Mon, Aug 03, 2020, 2:10 PM UTC

II2II wrote: post #112

dkdbejwi383 wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> George R.R. Martin uses Wordstar 4.0 on DOS to write [citation needed] the Game of Thrones novels

There was a bit of a fuss over it a few years back. You can find mention of it in the Wikipedia article on Wordstar.[0] Robert J. Sawyer maintains a page on using Wordstar on modern computers.[1] Authors have been seeking ways to avoid distractions for decades, and it goes well beyond pervasive connectivity. Sometimes the very features that aid them in their work can also hinder them. For example: computers vastly si…

Oh my goodness- yes. I have to shut my eyes and just write. I come back and edit later. It works, and also keeps me 100% distraction free if that's what's needed.

Re: Why I still use an old PowerPC Mac

#194

Post by Lex-2008 » Mon, Aug 03, 2020, 2:11 PM UTC

aww_dang wrote: post #73

mkeeter wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you seen the MNT Reform? https://mntre.com/media/reform_md/2020-05-08-the-much-more-p... It's not as powerful as most modern laptops (uses an iMX8 SOM, rather than an x86 CPU), but it's got a full keyboard, trackball (!), replaceable batteries, etc.

This deserves a discussion on the front page.

someone posted: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24034502

Re: Why I still use an old PowerPC Mac

#195

Post by Wandfarbe » Mon, Aug 03, 2020, 2:13 PM UTC

"I have a completly outdated system with internet connectivity because i'm not using what an average user is doing at all and now i'm writing an article about it"

I have upgraded from a X220 to a X390 for a single reason: YouTube Videos, which i like to watch on my laptop, started to put the x220 under high load.

I'm just not writing an Article about it.

Ah and one generic reason for not having something with is 20 years old: You do wanna have security updates.

Re: Why I still use an old PowerPC Mac

#196

Post by anthk » Mon, Aug 03, 2020, 2:15 PM UTC

Wandfarbe wrote: post #195

"I have a completly outdated system with internet connectivity because i'm not using what an average user is doing at all and now i'm writing an article about it" I have upgraded from a X220 to a X390 for a single reason: YouTube Videos, which i like to watch on my laptop, started to put the x220 under high load. I'm just not writing an Article about it. Ah and one generic reason for not having something with is 20 y…

> started to put the x220 under high load.

invidio.us, mpv + youtube-dl, smplayer...

Re: Why I still use an old PowerPC Mac

#197

Post by dwild » Mon, Aug 03, 2020, 2:22 PM UTC

RalfWausE wrote: post #122

Why 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 more than a tool, it's multiple tools. No one argue about using an older typewriter, if it still does the job, but if you were to require 1000 copies, well that typewriter will seems a bit outdated and you may need a tool provided by a newer typewriter (like a digital one connected to an external printer).

Buying that adapter and floppy emulator cost more than a whole used computer. I guarantee you, if you just do what that Atari 520ST can do, it will "just works" too ;).

I can't guarantee anything about any others tools that a computer provide, like Teams, but lets be honest, if someone that do everything he needs on an Atari 520ST were to use theses tools, it seems like it wouldn't be by choice.

By the way, using older tools is certainly not a controversial opinion on here, you will find plenty that still works using terminals, vi, etc...

Re: Why I still use an old PowerPC Mac

#198

Post by mrweasel » Mon, Aug 03, 2020, 2:24 PM UTC

fps_doug wrote: post #147

RalfWausE wrote: post #122

Why 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…

colleague is using Windows Phone to "prevent distraction". He says the only usable app left is Mail.

That’s kinda funny that he only have Mail left. I avoid configurering email my phone to minimize distractions... and stress.

Re: Why I still use an old PowerPC Mac

#199

Post by anthk » Mon, Aug 03, 2020, 2:25 PM UTC

einr wrote: post #111

bfuclusion wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A 386 w/5mb of ram. Or at least it was when I was doing so in 1995. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIRC

I see your 386 and raise you an 8088 at 4.77 MHz and 256K of RAM (or less, I'm not sure what the actual requirements of ircjr is if you want to push it): http://www.brutman.com/mTCP/IRCjr.html Really, it's just text, it doesn't matter. Literally any general purpose computer will run IRC if it can do TCP/IP and someone bothers to write a client.

Add Gopher to that stack too, with Gopherus.

Re: Why I still use an old PowerPC Mac

#200

Post by DJHenk » Mon, Aug 03, 2020, 2:28 PM UTC

toadi wrote: post #61

because I didn't have a lot of money I was working on a 486 when pentiums were the normal. I used a pentium when most where on pentium 3. thank god for linux to make my computers workable. Mail: mutt, Editor: vim, actually most like newsgroups, irc, .. all had cli clients. Only netscape was run in a very lightweight window manager like blackbox. good thing about that in my teens is that I learned a shit load about co…

My personal anecdote about this is the time I was a student and a room mate and I were doing the same assignment that involved creating a program for some statistical simulation. I had a 486, he had just gotten a brand new blazing fast pentium of the first generation. Compiling and running the simulation took eight minutes on my computer, three seconds on his.

And in the end we started and finished around the same time. Because while he was iterating quickly, continuously changing something and running it again, I just sat in front my monitor contemplating the problem and my solution. When I finally got the chance to update my program, I was able to make a big, significant change.

Lesson learned: it is not the computer time that is important, but the thinking time. And thinking time is spent best in big blocks, not in tiny slivers.