10 August 2002

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Countdown to AppleExpo Paris

**NEW** APPLE POWERBOOK G4 667MHz/512MB/COMBO This is a BRAND NEW (in origianal un-openebed box) Apple Titanium Powerbook G4 Notebook! Features Include: · 667MHz POWER PC G4 · 512MB SDRAM MEMORY-1 SO DIMMS · 30GB Ultra ATA Hard Drive · Slot-loading combo DVD-ROM/CD-RW drive · DVD (read) 8x / CD (read) 24x / CD (write) 8x / CD (re-write) 8x · Built-in 10/100/1000Base-T Ethernet · Built-in 56K Data/fax modem (+factory-installed AirPort) **** + Origianl (unopened) MS Office:mac 2001 **** Includes: Modem cable, power adapter, S-Video to composite adapter, DVI to VGA adapter, Mac OS X v10.1, Mac OS 9.2, QuickTime 5, iMovie 2, iTunes 2, iPhoto, Mac OS X Mail, & more 512MB of PC133 SDRAM 15.2" TFT display and ATI Mobility Radeon 7500 graphics card with 32MB of DDR SDRAM Manufacturers Warranty- One year parts, and one year labor For more detailed specs, please check the manufacturers site. RETAIL PRICE: $2994.00 (+MS Office $450). **** FREE 2-DAY AIR SHIPPING (US only) **** I accept PayPal (preffered) or Cashier's Check.

7 August 2002 - Pete,

Should I start with the bad news?

Yesterday I checked PayPal to see how I could load some moola into my account from a credit card -- and it's soooooo convoluted -- easy enough to transfer funds from a bank account though --

problem was I don't have that much in my checking account -- PLUS it would take 3-5 business days, and actually that was a tad long for both of us to wait -- and quite frankly I can't wait to see the new plaything!

Then as I was checking PayPal out, I get an unsolicited email from some gal who said she saw that I was interested in powerbooks, how she had one on eBay but was fed up with bidders with zero feedback who turn out to be deadbeats (incidentally, it's sort of strange -- a high % of those bidding on powerbooks are apparent newcomers with zilcho feedback!) She had an 800 MHz model that she would let me have for 1k simply because she saw my feedback and really needed the money for the kids -- kewl story, anyway. So I suggested that she tell me what the number on her powerbook auction was so I could see the thing, and if she had a pic of the thing at her place that I could see.

OK, I think both of us can sort of imagine that she never replied back -- plus, I checked her screen name, and she is not registered with ebutt -- not a real surprise!

OK, so I had such a headache that I couldn't sleep -- trying to find where I would get so much cash was sort of the problem. Didn't even eat anything yesterday, and finally had a plate of seafood salad, cottage cheese and an avocado at about 6am this morning, when I started wrapping a bunch of stuff for my eBay winners -- all the time trying to figure out the financial part of the deal.

OK, come 9am the packing was finished, and it was time to do the bookkeeping. I don't know which checks cleared the bank and didn't know what the balance was -- checked online but the system was down. Called on the phone and the same story. So much for modern technology!

I resorted to looking at my little index cards that I have for the damn credit cards that I am trying to pay off. Between them lowering my credit line every couple months and not knowing what was still available, I just threw in the towel.

Grabbed 2 credit cards that seemed like likely candidates, and packed the trusty Festiva with the bin of stuff for the post office, and the paper with your name and address on it -- headed out and got to the bank. Waited in the usual long line and when I got to the freekin window saying I wanted to deposit some money from 2 credit cards, the dumb twit says I have to get in the other line for the service people at the desks! By this time I was reviewing my options -- maybe the Fates were telling me that this whole thing was totally crazy, that I didn't need the freekin laptop and I would never get to the Paris MacExpo after all!

Fell asleep in the chair. Some gal who looked like an amazon woke me up and said to follow her -- GAWD, like I had a choice! OK, what do I want -- put some $$ from 2 credit cards in my account and a I needed a cashier's check or money order. Would that be a cash advance? I don't know, are there other options? NO! Then why ask me in the first freekin place?

What's the difference between a cashier's check and a money order? I want to pay for something so that the dude has immediate access to the cash. Well, there's the money order and the cashier's check (duh, I figured that out already!). Which is better for what I want it for? The cashier's check. OK, so I hand her the paper with all your data on it -- but no, she takes out a sheet from one of those post-it pads -- like postage stamp-sized! Never saw them that small -- and begins to write. Name? Pete Smith. How much? 2200. What's it for? Something I'm buying on eBay, it's right here on the sheet -- take it with you. She keeps fondling that stamp-sized hunk of paper! No, she doesn't need my sheet.

OK, so she disappears. Big picture window to look out of -- some dopey gardener, illegal-alien type, using a blower around the cars and trying the door handles as he goes. Not much of a surprise -- a couple weeks ago as I was leaving, some big Mr.T-like black dude comes over and asks me if I wanted a designer watch with diamond bezel -- cheap -- $120! I checked it out and I had seen way better pseudo ROLEX Presidentials at the flea market for $60 -- with the usual red seal and all the documentation and box! While I was looking at it another black dude gets out of a car and comes over to look at the watch -- and bought it for $35!!

OK, so I get tired watching the guy doing the same areas with the leaf blower and fell asleep in the chair. Amazon bangs on table to wake me up. Gave me cashier's check and credit cards back, and a pen to sign CC thingy. Pen point kept flopping all over and I couldn't write with the thing -- which she somehow noticed, and gave me another one. Signed the thing and asked if I have to sign the check somewhere. No, just write my name on it and what it was I was buying. I left.

Now onto the post office. Small line, and the TV was on, as usual. Bush talking about financial stuff -- everything BUT how he and Cheney were connected with the Enron and other shady deals. I don't have a TV at home, so I even watch the stupid commercials when I am there! Maybe it's the camera angle or something, but why do I always get the impression that Shrub is a retard?

OK, while she is doing my load of packages, I ask what I have to do to get the check to you overnight. She said I needed some kind of an express envelope -- GAWD, it is enormous -- and I told her! OK, so put the thing in a priority thingy and put that in the monster envelope -- then came the dumb label with all the data, including phone numbers and all. OMG! It cost me almost $14 to send the thing! I asked her who I have to sue if you don't get it tomorrow -- she just looked at me sort of strange.

OK, so now to the good news. It is on its way to you as I type!

OK, so I guess now you know what you were interested in -- plus a couple side details.

Can't wait to see the thang. Thanks again,

Sonny

8 August 2002 - Sonny,

Wow, what a note... If this web-thing doesn't work out for you maybe you should consider becoming a writer.

Anyway, glad you got the money off - I'll be looking for it tomorow and will ship your new laptop out immediately. Sorry, but I don't have any additional Apple software (we are almost 100% Windows), but I have a bunch of DVD's - got a favorite movie? Your laptop is an astounding DVD player (think about that long flight to Paris).

Thanks again for reacting so quickly - I hope you enjoy your new toy!

Pete

9 August 2002 - I checked the FedEx tracking number and the thing was loaded on a truck for delivery at just past 07h today at a facility perhaps 5 miles from where I live -- I could have walked it here by now, hobbling along with my cane!

I had not slept all night trying to figure out why my Cube was acting really strange -- it was extremely slow and would just shut down when I pressed the G-spot.

Well, about 15h the door bell rings and there it was, finally! Amazing what overnight delivery can do!

Con mucho cuidado I unpacked all the stuff, not really knowing what to expect. I was like a kid opening a Christmas gift -- at least like I was when I was a kid (and still am!) -- unwrapped very carefully, saved the nice paper + minty fresh box, looked at the windup sports car made in England, with functional steering, shift and all, wound it up once to see it in action -- then wrapped it up again and stashed it somewhere! 30+ years later I sold it to a toy collector for over 120 clams!

On the other hand, my nieces and nephews just rip the wrapping paper off -- so I have resorted to using newspaper to wrap their stuff for the last few years -- why bother with all the little extra details is all they want is quicky satisfaction? Does it matter anyway in the cosmic scheme of things?

If you follow my latest YES news, you would have noted that a sculptor recently repaired a bronze of a Catalan dancer that the cats had knocked over years ago and the tenuous partial bolt that sort of held it upright to the base broke off. Well, he is now back on his marble dance platform, which is not exactly the plaza in front of the Generalitat in Barcelona, but he seemed amazed at the sheer elegance of the TiBook. That smallish thingy on the right is the power adapter used to charge the battery -- hey, it even has fold-out thingys to keep the cord rolled up nice and neat!

OK, so now I am bubbling over with excitement -- the cats only saw me for a few minutes in the last 30 hours -- I had not had more than cheesecake and coffee to keep my stomach from growling, in all that time and now had to set up the thang.

I partitioned the hard drive into two volumes, put OS 9.2.2 on the larger one and OSX on the smaller third. Why did I create a separate partition for OSX? I find that the UNIX underpinning is like an octopus, and has its tentacles in everything else on the hard drive -- even if you do not want it to sort-of network itself so thoroughly! Whether the separate volumes eliminate what I found somewhat annoying is an unknown -- maybe it can sneak its way to the other partition somehow and begin its domination all over again?? And Jaguar? Is it a stand alone, or does it have to go on the partition with OSX? Off the cuff I would put it with OSX.

I loaded some of the software I use for pic processing, set the time and all that stuff -- and got online for the first time with the powerbook! It was a snap -- always was when it came to goodies made by Apple!

Now I read somewhere that there is a PC slot that takes memory cards such as the FlashCards I use with my digital camera. That would be neat because then I would not have to use the SanDisk card reader I use with the Cube -- so much simpler, and simpler is always better! OK, so I take the card out of the Nikon and try to put it in the slot on the left. Holy shit, the slot is way too big and if I just push the card in it would just get lost! Hmmmmm What to do?

Oh, but when I had the Kodak Digital Science DC50 I remember that I got a Picture Card Adapter to be able to use the smaller flash cards (never used it though) -- now where did I stash the thing? WOW, right in a box less than 3 feet from where I am sitting, and it is still in the unopened packaging it came in -- hey, there are many things sitting on or under my desk that were plopped there several years ago and may have slightly changed relative positional coordinates since then! (the © date on the box is 1997 -- I must have gotten my first digital camera about that time and have never gone back to the 3 SLRs I still have) OK, let me see if this works -- WOWSERS! It works perfectly! So, now with my desk top cluttered with instructions, packaging, coffee and aspirin, I immediately started processing the new pics using the 3 apps I use to get them down to more or less how I want them to be -- the Cube is in the top left background, and still sports the original protective plastic with its white lower tab over the Apple logo on the front!

You may note the card adapter just to the left at keyboard level, that shiny metal thingy with the Kodak-yellow label -- just about opposite to where the PC slot is located -- actually the slot almost looks like a vent, and if one does not read the nice instruction book that comes with the G4, they might not even know it were there -- unless they read and understood the readily available online and package specs.

Can you see that monster screen? It is so absolutely spectacular -- and I did watch the beginning of a kewl DVD movie that Pete sent along with the other stuff -- SESSION 9 -- sort of similar but in a much larger setting (a sprawling abandoned nut house somewhere in New England) than The Blair Witch Project. Incidently, I was using the mouse from the Cube instead of the trackpad/button -- and for home use an external keyboard might be helpful.

The TiBook screen (below), at 15.2" (diagonal) TFT active-matrix LCD display is seemingly a lot wider and a lot sharper than the old model 15" (diagonal) TFT active-matrix LCD Studio Display (above) which came with my early version Cube. The native resolution of the former is 1152 x 768, while that of the latter is 1024 x 768. The powerbook screen may appear so much wider simply because it is formatted more in a landscape design than the one I use with the Cube, which is just a tiny bit taller. The extra 0.2" really makes a noticeable difference!

Other things of quick note --

sure, I could have gotten an iBook -- they are cheaper -- and plastic, but I have a general aversion to plastic in things which I might buy if there is a metal model available -- as well as those tacky plastic flowers, spoons and plates at world-class eateries/airlines (Iberia is/was one of the last to employ metal, and china, if I recall correctly -- and they probably still do) -- and I should not even mention those plastic palm trees at motels along the Jersey shore! [gag]

I did not find it excessively warm/hot to the touch when operating. Even the recharger seemed cooler than some others I use.

the sound is not all that audible, even with all the controls set to max, even in iTunes; but using earphones which may be attached at the left bring it in loud and clear, no problem.

I wondered what the light white, barely visible apple logo was on a black screen -- then it dawned on me that the apple on the top of the case is actually a cut out, and the light shines through from the back! Duh!

It is also way kewl how it sort of sleeps when you close the case and immediately pops back to your last screen when the cover is flipped up!

I plugged my external hard drive into the powerbook using FireWire, and the three volumes popped right up on the screen. Transferred some stuff I use from there and still have some tweaking to do.

Initially, I looked all over the back for the ports and all -- DUH! They are behind a not especially intuitive flip-down panel!

msft OFFICE:mac 2001 will stay in its original wrapping until I decide if I really want to use it for anything. Even though all my really old apps do exactly what I want them to do, I may try it eventually.

That neato recharger is kewl as hell -- small, the prongs of the plug fold flat for storage, it has some flip-out thingys that serve to stash the rolled cord neatly -- and on the G4 side, at the plug on the rear right, it glows a sort of yellow when charging and turns green when the battery is fully charged! Plus I love that charge indicator located right on the Control Strip that I keep tucked away at the bottom of the screen.

It is absolutely amazing what they stuffed into this ultra-thin puter -- a mere 1" thick, which is thinner than many paper/hardback books I have! -- and OSX works like a charm, way better than on the Cube! It might be due to having the entire thing on CD and not as those annoying and time-consuming telephone / modem downloads? The advanced architecture probably helps a lot too.

Oh, yes, I am also really excited to try out the CDW (burning/writing CDs) thing -- then I shall hopefully find the time to churn out CDs with all kinds of kewl stuff on them to share with friends.

So now I have a faster, way better upgrade to my early model Cube, and once I get an AirPort card for the Cube, I shall probably use the powerbook as my home work puter (and try networking for the first time), once I get a new mousie for it, and a keyboard. If I ever get to travel to Spain, I would need a good, secure carrying case -- and could hopefully update my latest news with pics right from there! Now that would be fun! Pete also sent me 2 sets of SmartDisk G4 Powerbook airline adapters cables just in case, between red wine and cognac, I might want to work on my travel report while in flight! I always did sort of like techy stuff -- the last time I went to the Canaries, some four years ago, I had to try out the newly installed flight-to-ground telephone and called Bernar in Trenton while I was near the Azores, just to see if it really worked! Nah, the connection sucked! He heard me but I could not hear a word he said!

Oh, incidently, I also received today my VISITOR / VISITEUR pass to the Apple Expo in Paris, which takes place from 10-14 September 2002! It was sort of an experimental exercise applying for the visitor pass -- I was checking to compare how the Europeans and Americans administratively/commercially/logistically handle such things. At this point, relative to a simple visitor's pass, the French win hands down!

Is this an example of that human, warm traditional Old World charm/mystique or just that the organizers are not as commercially greedy as those of the NY Expo, for which I would have had to pay just to get in the door? If quality/life-enriching knowledge and education of any kind are only reserved for those who can afford to pay for it, it is no wonder that some countries/cities/school systems seem statistically much better educated than others. Business is business! Too bad the others do not offer an unconditional warrenty on their products! They would have been out of business long ago! One did not have to pay a cent for this visitor's pass, and they had the expense of mailing it to all those who requested one online! Of course one has to calculate into the equation the flight, room and board (even at a Youth Hostal or cheapy pensión) -- but the total cost would probably still be less than what one might spend at Disney World during the same time interval! And somehow I prefer the real European flavour of Paris (or just about any Euro/foreign destination) more than the gaudy over hyped/priced fantasy world of a major theme park in the USA. Amusement rides I can get on the boardwalk at Wildwood-By-The-Sea -- and probably cheaper! And the New Jersey beaches are virtually unrivaled by those just about anywhere else in the world. YES, maybe I do think different! And NO, I very rarely, if ever, fantasize!

NO, I do not currently have any concrete/virtual plans whatsoever for attending the Paris Apple Expo -- this was just a test. Had this to be a real news item, I would have uploaded it onto AppleBytes directly from Paris on my new TiBook! Do not hold your breath.

14 August 2002 - Something seemed to lurk in the back of my little mind -- what is the freekin power cord for, and where the hell does one plug it in to the powerbook? Today I was slightly more rested than when I wrote the above and got the cord out again. I did notice that the recharging unit seemed to have what looked like a smallish rectangular mold line in an odd place (for a mold line) -- you can see it just to the left of the plug, which I extended from its flat storage position --

	power adaptor/recharging unit, below power plug with that funny-looking head, above vintage Breyers Ice Cream wooden ruler with brass guide insert along top end -- for scale you may also note the clear plastic protective cover for the plug that attaches to the TiBook, just to the left of the rolled cord on the white square thing; I find this useful to keep the contact clean and would like to find something similar for the ends of my FireWire and USB cables when not in use
	so I carefully pushed and pulled the plug part and, as might be expected, it separated from the power adapter! And there was just what was needed to attach the power cord. I never was the brightest crayon in the box! duh! incidently, the older model powerbooks had what they sometimes call the yoyo adapter/recharger, larger, round and somewhat less convenient to use/stash, although I think the cord actually retracted into the unit
	so here you can see the power supply/battery charger set up to simply plug the TiBook into any outlet, and now yet even more distant with the combined length of both cables -- it can be soooooo convenient. although I think I glanced over the instructions, I must have missed the details on how to do this simple conversion procedure, even though there are a couple diagrams. I retracted the adapter's plug into its housing, where it usually is when stored.

Would I recommend that someone get themselves a TiBook? SHIT, yes! Even if you do not travel a lot, it makes for a fabulous compact desktop puter. It has loads of disk space for whatever you do (mine has 30gigs, while the Cube has 20), and if you are into video clips and high size file stuff, the addition of an external hard drive would be useful to stash the files on.

Hey, did I really have an urgent need to upgrade my Cube? NOT AT ALL -- the Cube HD is only about 8% full at this point, and it would probably serve me for what I use it for at least another 5 years! From the above notes, you may see some of the main reasons why I acquired it -- some of them unknown/not completely understood when I got the thing! Yes, not even worrying about what new enhancements may/will eventually appear in the Powerbook line, I am one really happy camper with this one!

Now I should be good for at least another year before I even hallucinate about upgrading (which, incidently, I seem to have been doing on an almost yearly schedule!). About the only exciting things on the theoretical immediate horizon that I might really like to have are HyperTransport and the new faster USB and FireWire standards (which should probably be available in early 2003) -- and, of course, Jaguar!

31 December 2005 -- In updating I changed the font size of this page, and I think I should add links to the first trip that I made using this kewl laptop -- it is a somewhat rambling saga of places I visited, people I met and things I did in France and Spain in 2002 -- although I would have liked to go back to my place in Tenerife at least once a year, unfortunately I never seem to have the financial resources to do that and have not been back since that marvelous trip over three years ago.

	Apple Expo - Paris
	Paris - General
	Tenerife - Canary Islands

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Contributors :

Apple Titanium G4 Powerbook, Pete from Texas, Sonny in New Jersey

Editor/Webmaster - Sonny

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