[rescue] Re: rescue Digest, Vol 16, Issue 47

[William Enestvedt]

Ross Bernheim wrote, in reply to me:
>
> > These days, a computer with one 600 MHz CPU -- especially an Apple
> > -- seems to qualify as a rescue.
>
> My main computer is a Mac G3 beige desktop with a 400 MHz G4
> processor upgrade, and I would hardly call it a rescue. Runs 10.2.8
> quite well. I don't use it for video, that is what I put together the
> Linux
> boxes for. One of the Linux boxes is an Athelon XP200 and the other
> a Celeron 2 GHz. Both are running Knoppix from the hard disk and
> Kino is used for DV capture, edit and conversion to MPEG for burning
> to DVD.
>
   Tell it, Brother Ross, Testify!
   I wasn't saying that my beloved iMac counts as a rescue to _me_, just
the opposite: I picked it out of everything on the market at the time,
knowing that it would run for years. I could get software I want, as
well as a full shell, and tons of open-source stuff. I'd call it
rescue-proof or future-proof or something (but maybe buying AppleCare
disqualifies me?).
   Good lord, man, I had a PowerBook 1400 on my desk here two years ago
-- next to an idle Windows 98 PC -- for several weeks until I could get
a laptop out of them to run Linuix on. And it took to the campus WLAN
like a duck to water, despite its crummy display and sloooow CPU. The
Windows systems admins all came by to See The Freak, but they stopped
laughing when I logged into my Suns while the PC rebooted (again). :7)
   Come to think of it, that PB is still able to surf the net on my home
wireless link -- and it's eight years old. Try that with a 1996-era
Wintel laptop running a contemporary (for that time) version of Windows.
>
> Rescue is the Mac 7600/132 I use at work for word processing and
> web searching/browsing/research.
>
   Those 7600s were great computers: better case than the x100s, no
straddling-the-PCI/NUBUS-line, cheap, quiet. I know architects who may
still be using them to run MicroStation!
>
> Rescue is the Apple IIGS system sitting on a shelf waiting for
> me to get it up and running. I wonder if I can get it to read
> my original Applesoft cassette before I donate the tape to the
> Computer Musem?
>
   A tape, you say? Hook up your stereo, rip the data to an MP3, and
post it to USENET as a Modonna song -- it'll be archived forever!
-wde
--
Will Enestvedt
UNIX System Administrator
Johnson & Wales University -- Providence, RI