Reasons to get (or not) a PowerBook Nowadays

I've been lusting for a PowerBook, maybe even a 17" one, so I've written a little list of the pros and cons:

Pro:

• An ultra sexy and amazing aluminum body

Cons:

• PPC (so, not a lot of software)
• No Virtualization (!!!!)
• Small amount of RAM
• IDE hard disk drives
• Lousy battery life

Death Of A Thinkpad Battery

The battery of my beloved T430 died yesterday...

It was performing A Ok last week, giving between 3 to 5 hours of juice, but yesterday it wouldn’t "charge" beyond 52%, and I say "charge" because it really doesn't charge at all, if I unplug it, the lappie shuts off...

 No matter what trick or tweak I've try, the thing is just dead...
Anyways, I have this little baby since April 2013, it had to happen someday, the only surprise is just how sudden the whole thing of dying was...
This is the second laptop battery that goes South on me...

Gotta Love Technology! ;)

Trantor take a bow

The little silver baby went out the door... It was after all because of that little piece of aluminum that this strange thing called Oesediez started 4 years ago...
Hopefully it will serve great to its new master.

Now I have only one Apple left, the mighty Thor!

Getting rid of the Apples

I'm in the process of selling my Apple boxes.
I have already sold Balrog, a 12" PowerBook; but now is time let Trantor and Thor go...
I was looking forward or maybe, looking for, a Compaq, but I guess I'll go for one of those new Thinkpads.

Su Mystery Theater (21)

And today it was the turn to update Trantor... No problems at all so far.

Samba copy sucks

Today copied a few isos from a Windows 2K box to Trantor, via Samba share on the PowerBook, boy that sucks...

Sunday de-gunk & HDD bump

It was yet another episode of the weekend de-gunk around here...
This time my beloved PowerBook got the cleaning ax, and on top of that, I have upgraded the HDD form the stock 80 GB, to a new 160 GB one.

  

No problem at all opening it up, and replacing the HDD, the "scariest" part of the whole process is pulling the HDD connector from the Logic Board, other than that, the thing it is a picnic.

More battery problems

This is a new one... Or actually, no.

I've had my share of battery problems before, but this is the first one with the robust Compaq beast Tango...
The problems I had were with the original battery that came with my 15" PowerBook beauty... (link 1, link 2, link 3, link 4).

Well, I say fuck it, let that battery bleed the Linux death of laptop batteries.
BTW, here is some information on howto disable that pop on Ubuntu:

Question about "your battery has very low capacity" warning

Su Mystery Theater (17)

This weekend it is shaping to be an update install fest.
Now it has been turn for my beloved Trantor, the 15" PowerBook Box of Glory, the Last and The Mightiest of the Great PPC Boxes.
No problems at all after the install and a reboot.

Su Mystery Theater (14)

On August 19th, installed all the updates that were available for on my beloved Trantor.
There were exactly the same I have installed on Thor last week; no problems at all after the install.

Su Mystery Theater (11)

Installed a bunch of updates on Trantor.
No problems at all after a few customary reboots.

SU Mystery Theater (6)

Update time for my beloved Trantor.
A bunch of updates, since I haven't used it till I got back from my vacations.

D.O.A.

Unfortunately, my "new" Apple monitor didn't make it thru the return home.

The screen cracked, bad, and the rear supporting leg got snapped too, even tho, it was packed like a baby to withstand a nuclear explosion, it simple moved to a better place.

A real, and total bummer... Didn't even had time to use it with Thor, with whom the match was made in heaven.

Trantor takes a bow

Indeed, vacations are over (but the effing summer is not even aware of that... Weather in Bs. As. is -as usually is- a complete piece of crap)

The little laptop that could, my beloved Trantor, took once again a hell of a beating, going from here to there and here again, luckily, the small metal chunk still holds it like a super champ.

Now Trantor might rest for a while, but it is time for Thor to rise again.

Vacation hardware (II)

More vacation sex hardware.
My beloved Trantor, the PowerBook Beast, hooked to a kindly gifted Apple monitor.

To my surprise, life is good at 1024 x 768!

Vacation hardware

Another journey of traveling Trantor begins...
And the first step is replacing this dreadful mouse I got, with this hotness, for me, regarding mouses, cable is where is at.

Yes, my vacation time has started.

Update time for Trantor

Applied the Software Updates that I installed on Thor to Trantor.
No problems whatsoever.

More Power(book) problems (II)

The thing with the AC Power Adapter keeps going South, I'm afraid.
Last night, the cable started to smoke, and smell like hell, so I have to unplugged it, and use the AC Power Adapter from my late and dead iBook, for what I read, it is perfectly safe to use an iBook AC Power Adapter with, or on, a PowerBook, but if the PB's batt gets totally drained, this AC won't charge, since it delivers less wattage.

Anyways, at least I still can use the PB.

Damn DLink & AirPort

Today armed myself with strength, and decided to give it another shot at getting Trantor, my PowerBook beauty, to connect to my DLink 614+ wireless router.
Failed again.

This is the second time that I invest a lot of hours onto this problem.

What a royal PITA this thing is, no matter what I try, even leaving the router wide open does not work (the PBs AirPort does work, as I' able to connect to other networks)
I have followed the advice I found on these 2 Apple Forum posts, to no avail.

- Apple airport card does not connect to encrypted network
- Getting your d link 714P+ to work, dont buy a new router quite yet!
- Airport Will Not Connect at Home -- But Connects Elsewhere !!??!!

The worst part is that Tango, the Windows Vista Queen of the house has no problem whatsoever to connect to the same DLink (and other wireless networks, of course)

More Power(book) problems

Lately I have been using Trantor, my PowerBook, mostly for DVD burning (as I'm ripping on Tango, the Compaq laptop, simply because it is 3 years newer and faster).

Trantor seems to be a little shaken these days, a bit slow during boots, to name one... Also, the AC power adaptor it is starting to bust my chops, the usual ("usual" God damn) problem with the cable (link 1, link 2).

So, it looks like I'll have to get a power adapter sometime in the future (like this one: Newer Technology 65W AC Power Adapter, not even drunk another Apple one), right now it is working, but, I have to bend the cable so the same adapter sits on top of the cable. I prefer to spend some 60 bucks, than rpy open the effing thing, and end up burning the department in the near future :D

Once again (link 1, link 2), the PowerBook has power related problems, the whole thing is a bastard, this laptop doesn't have 3 years as of today, I'm more and more convinced that Apple hardware was designed "for suburbia use", and in any case, as a sole machine.

Is really a piece of crap when the hardware starts to fail, specially, expensive one ;) , you loose confindence on the whole thing.