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| Author |
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| 25 new of 193 responses total. |
scott
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response 166 of 193:
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Jul 1 16:14 UTC 2001 |
Maybe they'll hang onto them for warranty replacements. I doubt the storage
space will be that great, and they do have to free up their dealers'
investment so they can push the next generation. Still, seems like a rather
quick obselesence for a neat case design.
Supposedly Apple ground up and landfilled an excess of Newtons a few years
ago when they were pushing the next generation product.
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rcurl
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response 167 of 193:
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Jul 1 18:22 UTC 2001 |
Yes, *everyone* still listing them advertise the CD-DVD/20G/64M G4 Cubes
they have for ca. $1300. Some offer "free" upgrade to 128M - for $30
"professional" installation - (or you can buy the upgrade for $40 and
install it yourself). Competition seems extremely constrained, but then
these versions are reported to not be selling very well, so I can see not
much impetus to compete.
I don't suppose Earthlink has any way around Ameritech saying DSL can't
be used in my exchange because of the current wiring.
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rcurl
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response 168 of 193:
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Jul 2 16:53 UTC 2001 |
I've decided to get a G4 Cube (with the "free" 128 M upgrade) as the
simplest solution to my need for more memory and speed. I'll still run it
in parallel with the 7200 during the transition. (This ought to involve
some elements of schizophrenia...) It was suggested I can just switch the
single VGA monitor, but I'd like to check that there is no problem with
doing that "live": is it OK? A big addition to the pile of 6-foot cables,
of course....
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gull
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response 169 of 193:
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Jul 2 23:11 UTC 2001 |
Switching a monitor with the machine running shouldn't hurt anything, but if
you boot a machine without a monitor connected it'll likely get confused
about what kind of monitor it's connected to.
I don't recommend hot-plugging keyboards or mice, though.
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rcurl
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response 170 of 193:
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Jul 2 23:27 UTC 2001 |
Thanks...I have therefore ordered VGA A/B switch and cables too - I
can't wait to PLUG & PLAY.
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prp
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response 171 of 193:
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Jul 5 20:10 UTC 2001 |
When I checked a while back, the 734-995 branch office had DSL available.
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rcurl
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response 172 of 193:
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Jul 6 05:42 UTC 2001 |
They said it had to be within 12 (cable) miles of a station. I thought
that that could hardly be a limit, but the point seems to be that it
isn't the exchange that matters alone, but the nature of the lines
from the station (distance, and perhaps other factors). They need to
add a repeater, or some such.
My order for the G4 Cube has gone into the back-ordered, perhaps within
30 days, loop. This would seem to be part of whatever is the mysterious
manipulations going on about the Cubes, which no one seems willing to
be up-front about.
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gull
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response 173 of 193:
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Jul 6 14:49 UTC 2001 |
Re #172: There are actually a number of restrictions on who can get DSL.
The length limit is one of them. It's possible for all the DSL "slots" at
an exchange to fill up -- they assume that not *everyone* will want DSL, and
provision accordingly. If there are any amplifiers or loading coils on your
line, DSL won't work. Also, if you live in a neighborhood that's fed by
fiber that's then converted to copper before going to your home, you're out
of luck -- it has to be copper all the way to the CO.
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rcurl
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response 174 of 193:
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Jul 7 17:10 UTC 2001 |
Now this - received from the big-time catalog vendor from whom I had
ordered the G4 Cube:
"Regrettably, the product ordered, POWER MAC G4 CUBE 450MHZ/64MB RAM/20GB
HD/DVD/56K, is no longer available through our company. Despite our
efforts, we were unable to obtain adequate supplies of this product to
fulfill our recent demand. Please be advised that you were not charged
for this product."
I've asked them what is "going on".
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rcurl
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response 175 of 193:
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Jul 7 17:36 UTC 2001 |
Even later news - from yesterday. Apple has discontinued Cube.
http://www.insanely-great.com/news/01/contentfeed.html?2001/07/06/13/451350
85
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prp
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response 176 of 193:
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Jul 9 21:39 UTC 2001 |
Apple Puts Power Mac G4 Cube on Ice
CUPERTINO, California July 3, 2001 Apple today announced that it
will suspend production of the Power Mac* G4 Cube indefinitely. The
company said there is a small chance it will reintroduce an upgraded
model of the unique computer in the future, but that there are no
plans to do so at this time.
RCube owners love their Cubes, but most customers decided to buy our
powerful Power Mac G4 minitowers instead,S said Philip Schiller,
AppleUs vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing.
The Power Mac G4 Cube, at less than one fourth the size of most PCs,
represented an entirely new class of computer delivering high
performance in an eight-inch cube suspended in a stunning crystal-
clear enclosure.
From Apple Press Release 2001.07.03
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rcurl
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response 177 of 193:
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Jul 10 01:11 UTC 2001 |
There is a Cube users mailinglist - which I've joined. They don't seem
to be talking about the end of the Cube - probably because they already
have theirs. Mostly they talk about how to interface it with their
iAirport, etc.
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gull
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response 178 of 193:
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Jul 10 13:40 UTC 2001 |
I thought there were some serious problems with the cube design. One of the
most glaring was that the cables -- even the ones that you're supposed to be
able to hot-plug, like USB -- were on the bottom where you couldn't get at
them without turning off the machine and turning it over. This also meant
that if you used a non-Apple monitor with an adapter, there was no room for
the adapter. The touch-sensitive power switch was also a poorly-thought-out
gimmick. From what I've heard it was extremely easy to turn off the machine
by accident because the lightest brush would trigger the switch.
To me te Cube seemed like a marketing gimmick, about as "revolutionary" as
making a phone shaped like a Corvette and then selling it to car nuts.
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rcurl
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response 179 of 193:
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Jul 10 15:58 UTC 2001 |
In part, yes. But it is also an efficient shape - it has the least area
for the volume of a parallelpiped. I want one because I can put it
on my computer table and use in parallel with an old desktop, which I
could not do with another desktop.
The cube has an ordinary VGA monitor connector too.
I haven't seen anything (yes) that says you have to turn off the machine
to turn it over. It doesn't have a fan and uses natural convection for
heat removal, so you would not want to leave it on its side too long.
The power switch does appear to be a possible problem - although no one
on the Cube mailinglist is grousing about it.
The funny thing is, despite the hot-pluggability of USB, I never hot
plug USB devices. I'd rather have a hub and just have them all connected.
I think this is an extremely minor convenience of USB. USB has other
more serious problems - like, power requirements of devices.
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gull
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response 180 of 193:
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Jul 10 18:58 UTC 2001 |
Re #179: You should *never* physically move any computer with a hard
disk while it's running, much less turn it over. It's very hard on the
hard disk bearings, due to the gyroscope effect of the spinning
platters. It can also cause a head crash.
And yeah, I've heard that USB power requirements are a problem.
Specifically, some USB ADSL modems draw so much power that you
literally cannot daisychain anything else with them.
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rcurl
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response 181 of 193:
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Jul 11 06:01 UTC 2001 |
Good point on moving HDs, but think of all the laptops that get moved
around when they are on. I never had a problem with one due to that
(though I admit that I didn't try to juggle or twirl it).
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n8nxf
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response 182 of 193:
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Jul 11 12:20 UTC 2001 |
Is that bearing stuff still true today? I can see it with the large diameter,
massive disks of years / decades ago but it's much less of an issue with the
3.5" low mass drives of today. I would not be too concerned of it, especially
if you do it gently and don't slam it around. I've done it countless times
without incident.
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gull
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response 183 of 193:
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Jul 11 13:04 UTC 2001 |
Maybe it's not true today, but why take chances? Laptop drives park the
heads between accesses to help prevent head crashes. (On my Toshiba you can
hear it; there's a very audible "clunk" when the drive hasn't been accessed
for about two seconds, as the heads park and lock into place. I still
managed to cause a head crash by dropping it with the drive running, one
day, though.)
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rcurl
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response 184 of 193:
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Jul 11 18:27 UTC 2001 |
Well, we're not talking about CLUMSY people..... 8^}
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rcurl
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response 185 of 193:
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Jul 19 16:22 UTC 2001 |
I discovered that my old PowerMac 7200, with which this thread started,
has been reading this item in Grex, got very upset about the thought of
being put into retirement, if not replaced, and died. It crashed on the
weekend. Many hours later, I have ascertained it is an intermittant,
possible heat related, hardware problem, not the usual HD problems. To
learn all this, I went all the way to reinitialize the HD, and reload OS
8.6. It still freezes, sometimes on bootup, sometimes on just installing
software, sometimes for no apparent reason. Bummer.
I didn't "win" the e-bay auction for a Cube, and now need more power and
resources than the Cube alone offers, so I checked out prices of a 466
MHz G4 Tower on the web (ca. $1579-1599 including a "free" 128 M
additional RAM). I decided UM Comp Sales was as good as any, so went
there yesterday. I am first told that Apple has disontinued the 466 MHz
G4, and that the "low end" is the 533 MHz G4, which is selling for
ca. $2000. Or was: Apple yesterday reduced the price of the 533 MHz G4
to $1148. What a rollercoaster! So, that will be my new computer.
Anyone interested in a flaky PowerMac 7200? I expect I will only remove
the ATI and USB PCI boards, and maybe the pityful 1.2 G HD, and scrap the
rest. Still, it was a good machine, and I'm only sorry I wasn't kinder in
giving it the news, and perhaps offering better retirement benefits.
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n8nxf
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response 186 of 193:
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Jul 20 11:43 UTC 2001 |
That's too bad, Rane. I might be able to use the memory out of it. We have
a 7600/132 that I just added a 4-port USB card too. (For downloading images
from a digital camera.) The digital editing software wants more memory than
I have (48M) unless I turn on virtual memory.
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rcurl
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response 187 of 193:
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Jul 20 16:39 UTC 2001 |
You'd have to check on the memory parameters - the 7200 has a non-Apple
motherboard. I'll check into that when the time comes, but I'm keeping
it until I start setting up the new machine, as once in a while I
can make use of the peripherals, such as the SCSI ZIP drive.
The roller-coaster story continues. After ordering the 533 G4 I discovered
that a built in 56K modem was an option, which I had overlooked. This
happened because, while it is included in the *public* model, it is not in
the *educational* model. That price above is also the *educational* price
for students and faculty, for which I qualify. Anyway, since it was only
two days after ordering it, I telephoned Apple to see if I could change
the order to include the 56K modem. The Apple salesperson had my order up
on his screen, but insisted the 533 G4 had been *discontinued* and I had
to order the 733 MHz model anyway, if I wanted to add anything to the
order. We went around on this for some time, with him insisting the 533
MHz G4 was no longer offered on the Apple Stores web page, and my telling
him I had just looked at it and it was there. Eventually I asked him if he
was looking at the *Education* Apple Stores web page. He did not know this
existed, found it, and sure enough the 533 G4 is still available under the
education program! Whew! So I was able to upgrade the order....... I
wonder what it will be next.
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rcurl
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response 188 of 193:
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Aug 22 01:29 UTC 2001 |
What was next was that the 533 G4 was delivered and put into a locked
storage room (probably by my ticked off PowerMac 7200) and neither I
nor any office staff were told. I found it two weeks later, but now
all is well. It is a very nice machine. [Still missing, however, is
the "free" printer that was ostensibly sent separately - FEDEX says
it arrived, but no clue where it is.]
Installing software required another use for an obsolete PC. One application
is on 3 3.5 inch diskettes, for which the G4 has no drive. A new external
USB floppy drive solved that, but one of the disks was a 700 KB disk, which
new floppy drives can't read. To the rescue came an obsolete PowerBook 145,
with which I could copy that 700 KB disk to a 1.4 MB disk. I better keep
my Zenith 150, with its 5.4" drives, around longer......
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dtk
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response 189 of 193:
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Jan 12 16:10 UTC 2013 |
I'll give you a dollar for it, if you do not stipulate that it cannot be
used for target practice (I am so rusty, I hope I can still hit the
broad side of an 8088 at 100 meters).
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arthurp
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response 190 of 193:
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Aug 28 04:27 UTC 2013 |
Ah, the best use for a Tranzeo. .22 short cricket with irons at 100m.
You can do that all day before it is too disintegrated. And it really
feels good to shoot those damn things.
I'm sure Tranzeo means nothing to y'all but shooting them is a fine
memory for me...
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