Advice on protection for Powerbook G3

kane · January 6, 2004 5:27PM

What protective "skin" would you advice me to get for my newly (ahem!) purchased Powerbook G3 Pismo? I would like something that is slim like a "Second skin" but that doesn't seem to be available for my Pismo. Or does the Second Skin for iBook 14" fit on my computer? Does anyone know? Any other suggestions?

murbot · January 7, 2004 10:51AM

Damn, I wish I had my digital camera with me right now. For my Pismo I am using a cheap little $5 backpack with zero protection, and I have a black pillowcase set inside it. I drop the Pismo into the pillowcase, fold the top over, zip her up, and go. Pretty ghetto.

(until I get off my fanny and get a decent bag)

cosmonut · January 7, 2004 11:26AM

KANE, the closest thing is going to be to buy a "sleeve" that you can put it in.

kane · January 7, 2004 6:03PM

Big thanks to murbot and CosmoNut!

Murbot, I haven't actually recieved my Pismo yet. How does Panther work on your Pismo? I'm fearing that it will be really slow because it doesn't support QE. Are my fears motivated?

kane · January 7, 2004 6:05PM

What kind of "sleeve" would you recommend KosmoNut?

murbot · January 7, 2004 6:37PM

Actually, it's really good. I don't have any issues with it at all. I don't do video editing or anything like that on it though.

For internet/email, writing, iTunes, light Photoshop, it's just fine. I'm totally digging the dual battery thing for sure.

dawgfather · January 7, 2004 7:43PM

I'd have to agree with Murbot. I'm pleasantly surprised by my pismo with Panther. Considering I started with the beta of OS X in the day. The speed is dramatically better than those days.

I also have a dual ghz machine, and to be honest for browsing and email, and basic stuff. i don't mind the pismo at all.

curiousuburb · January 7, 2004 7:57PM

Bubble wrap.

Cheap, replaceable, and entertainment value on its own.

cosmonut · January 8, 2004 12:38AM

Quote:

Originally posted by KANE

What kind of "sleeve" would you recommend KosmoNut?

Um...I don't know. I don't actually HAVE one. Try doing a search for "Powerbook sleeve" and see where that gets you.

And I never got past 9.2.2 on my Pismo before buying my current sweetness (1.25Ghz 15" Powerbook w/ Superdrive). For that I have a full business attache' bag with a removable notebook computer sleeve that came with it. It's pretty cool.

Sorry I couldn't help you more.

\

murbot · January 8, 2004 12:57AM

I started using the original box today. The Pismo sits in the styrofoam insert, and the power adapter sits in the little accesory box above it, along with a few CDs and such.

As long as I keep my eyes up so that I never catch a glimpse of the box, it's like I'm carrying a big briefcase. I feel important. This is important, because I'll look like a freaking retard to anyone who sees me carrying it more than a couple of days in a row.

Do I care?

Yeah, right.

*sigh* must... shop.. for... bag.

curiousuburb · January 8, 2004 2:54AM

for full Canadian protection, carry it in a Hockey Bag...

comes with full chemical theft protection system :eek:

<searches for molson stinky hockey bag tv ad >

kane · January 8, 2004 4:07AM

Dual battery? Does the Pismo allow for two batteries at the same time? Yikes. Well it's a good way to uppen the weight if one wants it to double as home gym equipment I guess...

Another question then gentlemen. The Powerbook that I bought used comes in the following configuration:

500MHz G3, 20GB HDD, 256MB RAM, DVD

Now I will be using it for mostly the things you mention Murbot, surfing, writing and very light image-editing (I write image-editing because although Photoshop may be the defacto standard I have decided not to call it Photoshopping since that automatically excludes other developers who might be doing a just as fine work on their software, or better, than Adobe. Actually when I think about it, it is actually the image-editing equivalent of web surfers calling that Internet Exploring... Yuck! Fight the power!

). Well anyway, I was thinking about pulling out a single stick of 128MB RAM and replace it with a 512MB stick instead, adding up to a total of 640MB. That would cost about $140 so now I am wondering, with this old machine, will it be worth the money spent? Will I see considerable speed differences in X and 9 when upping the RAM or will this machine not benefit much from it? As always your feedback is greatly appreciated!

[EDIT: 200th post, yay!]

kane · January 8, 2004 1:42PM

[Insert shameless bump to attract Murbot's attention...]

dawgfather · January 8, 2004 2:12PM

Definitely buy more ram.... I have 384mb and it runs pretty good. I think it's worth the cost since OSX eats ram up all by itself. i have one of these cases and it's served me well

http://www.targus.com/us/product_details.asp?sku=CTM300

murbot · January 8, 2004 2:23PM

If shelling out that kind of coin isn't going to cause you too much hardship, I'd do it.

Just a little session downloading some porn, emailing party directions to buddies, listening to Slayer in iTunes, sending "I'm sorry" iCards to your wife, and iChatting with your mistress will eat up that 384MB of RAM faster than you can say Jack Robinson.

kane · January 8, 2004 6:41PM

First impressions of "new" Powerbook: Nice little fella. Bright screen. Not so good as the one on my friends 1GHz Tibook but still quite acceptable. It takes a little while getting used to having always used a CRT-screen before. The image was a lot better with the CRT but this is nuch easier on the eyes and head. The new computer is a little noisy though. It's fan appears to be running all the time. Is this normal for a Pismo 500?

Also if I may be so bold to point your attention to my help request in the Genious Bar, any input there would be great.

murbot · January 8, 2004 6:45PM

I'd bet that's your hard drive. At this age they tend to get a bit noisy. I've yet to hear my fan come on...

kane · January 8, 2004 7:02PM

Really?? That's great if it is so. I could simply replace it then... But I am not sure. Do you also have a 500MHz one? Maybe the fan isn't needed if you are running the 400MHz version? It sounds really wierd... Wheeeeee... Irritating as hell...

kane · January 8, 2004 7:03PM

Is there no way to put the harddrive to sleep and see if that is what's causing the noise?

murbot · January 8, 2004 7:11PM

Set it to "put hard drive to sleep when possible" in your Energy Saver prefs and wait a bit. I'm not sure how long it takes to spin down, probably 5-10 minutes.

kane · January 8, 2004 7:53PM

I have kept the computer running now for 15 minutes and only having the Finder running and yet the harddrive won't spin down. Is there no way to "force" the disk into submission?

Advice on protection for Powerbook G3

Comments