the pismo is back!

After a couple of months dead, my beloved black Powerbook G3 has made a comeback, after I successfully replaced the power supply board (the one under the trackpad) earlier in the week. It took two failed efforts and various Ebay bits to get there - after the machine died in February I first replaced the power adapter, then the sound/DC board, to no avail. Anyway, it's now working, and what's more the machine started up and the Firefox page I'd had open at the time of breakdown restored itself! This computer was the last of the black G3 notebooks (Pismo, circa 2000) and runs OS 10.4.9 fine - although I think the upcoming 10.5 would be pushing it. It's odd to look at this computer now and think about how things have changed and what makes the G3 Pismo still interesting today. I've got a native Airport card in mine, which means no messy third party cards that stick out the side, although those who value high-speed office networking might find the original Airport's 802.11b standard a little slow. The dual Firewire ports look a little unusual today, given that they reside alongside the dual USB 1.1 ports on the machine's rearside. I guess in 2000 USB 2.0 was only on the horizon and Firewire looked like it'd be the future of interconnectivity - especially to Apple. It certainly has its uses, not the least for fast ad hoc 400Mb/s networking between two Macs. My Firewire CF card reader is also a tad quicker than a similar USB 2.0 unit when tested on a newer machine.

So, I'm back to expounding the pros of not necessarily using the latest, and reading sites like Low End Mac. Mind you, with Photoshop CS3 now in the stores, upgrading my [everyday machine] multimedia-oriented 12" G4 to something MacIntel might be on the cards for sometime in the next year.

Back from a weekend on the road, taking in Norfolk and Birmingham. Two good shows, but I'm still deciding how much of a friend the Yamaha LS9 is.
I was in Great Yarmouth on Saturday, and was expecting something a bit like Blackpool. It turned out to be the case, and this non-Brit was faced with the generous array of `amusement centres'. We sat in a cafe abuzz with 20th century nostalgia on the heaviest wrought-iron chairs I've ever seen.

back from the IOW

Had a nice time on the Isle of Wight at the weekend. We loved the crossing from Lymington to Yarmouth, which seems a much more sedate and low-key trip when compared with sailing from the Southampton or Portsmouth rat race. Once on the island we visited The Needles, which was somewhere I hadn't seen before. The walk up the hill to the old battery and High Down [former] rocket engine test facility was a highlight of the day, complemented by a chairlift ride down to Alum Bay and a boat trip to view The Needles up close.

After that it was on to Wootton Bridge and a few days for a Ship of Fools meet, which was the biggest I'd ever participated in. Pictures on Flickr here

Off to the Isle of Wight for a four day Shipmeet today. We're getting the car ferry from Lymington.
Back Sunday.

sign of the times

A century after the invention of the electric traffic light, it appears that some drivers are yet to get used to the idea of how they work. Ok, perhaps there's a little more to this sign than meets the eye, but there can't be much, given that this is a permanent sign and not just a road works signal where traffic is temporarily restricted to one lane. Picture taken today, at Wimborne Road, Poole.