Twoey! IIe! Tooeeeee!

You may be asking, “What? Twoey? What are you talking about?!?!” I can explain. When I was in fifth grade (last year), we did reports on famous Americans. I got Steve Wozniak. I barely knew who Steve Wozniak was, so I did some research. He was co-founder of Apple with his friend Steve Jobs. He designed the Apple I, II, and III, and built the Apple I.

Back to my report. For my report, I really wanted to have an Apple II. I managed to get a non-working one to show for my report, then I had to give it back. I still wanted one of my own. That was almost a year ago, and just a few days ago, an Apple IIe arrived. I had bought it on eBay a few days before.

It included the IIe, a Disk II floppy (really!) drive and its manual, some software, and the original manual for the IIe. The eBay listing said that it was from 1983, but the motherboard said 1982. We had an old monitor out in the garage that my dad said he used with his Apple II. Turns out I heard him wrong, and the monitor was for a Mac II, not an Apple II. Oops!

The hookup for a monitor on the computer is the same as a standard TV video cable, but we didn’t think it would work with our modern (sort of…) TV. It worked! I played a few games, then turned it off. I put it in my room with the monitor for display and another Disk II I had bought for $5 at Weirdstuff in Sunnyvale.

The picture below shows it on display. The monitor is the one that doesn’t work with it (the only one I have). The Disk II on top is the one I had. Enjoy!

Click here to view picture

Where’s my Camera? and the September 9th Event

I still have the first generation iPod Touch. I never bothered to upgrade to the second generation. The only new feature was a built-in speaker. Big deal! So when I heard about the September 9th Apple event, and the chance of a new iPod Touch with camera, I got really excited. I really wanted an iPod Touch with a camera! The day of the event came, and I couldn’t wait to see what had happened. My teacher let me use a computer in class (PC) to look it up. I was amazed at what I saw. Here are the facts:

iPod Touch:

• Larger sizes: The third generation only comes in 32gb and 64gb sizes. The 8gb model is still the second generation. There’s no 16gb model.

• Faster processor: Games play faster. What else is there to say?

• Voice memos: You can now use the iPhone earbuds with microphone. They are included with the iPod Touch.

• Bluetooth 2.1: Faster Bluetooth

• NO CAMERA!!!

iPod Nano:

• VIDEO CAMERA!!! Video, but no still photos. Cool video effects.

• Larger screen: 2.2 inches (diagonal).

• FM radio: FM radio tuner with pause.

Other stuff:

• iPhone OS 3.1: Rearrange icons from within iTunes.

• iTunes 9: Interface changes. Home sharing.

I hope you found this interesting. Sorry about the big gap between posts.

Polling: Favorite Mouse

What is your favorite mouse? Do you have a special mouse, or do you use the one that came with your computer? Do you like one? Two? Scroll wheel? Scroll ball? Post a comment with your choice!

Comments close May 15, then I will post my favorite mice.

My Favorite Mice:

3. Apple USB Pro Mouse

This was Apple’s mouse before they introduced the Mighty Mouse. It is shaped just like the Mighty Mouse, but it’s clear and has only one button. They no longer make this mouse.

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2. Apple USB Mighty Mouse

Most people know what this one is. It has two buttons with a scroll ball in the middle, which allows for 360˚ scrolling and is also a button. Squeeze the mouse to activate the fourth button.

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1. Things Remembered Silver-Plated Mouse

This mouse has a more traditional mouse shape. My dad won this one and it has his name engraved in the back.

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PowerBooks in the Smithsonian?!

A few weeks ago, my family was on vacation in Washington D.C. from California. These PowerBooks were in the Smithsonian National Museum of American History.

First up, a PowerBook G3 Lombard or Pismo found in the glass cases right as you walk in. It was used on a TV show.

Next up, we have a titanium PowerBook G4 used to edit video by an NBC cameraman during the Gulf War. You will find this computer in the war exhibit.

Enjoy! Sorry about the long silence.

Mac 911: Intel iMac

My 2-year-old baby sister grabbed a CD or DVD off my desk and smashed it into the optical drive of my iMac. We pushed it the rest of the way in, thinking we could then eject it. That didn’t work, and the disk became stuck. It would not eject the disk. We tried all sorts of ways to get it out, but ended up making an appointment at the Apple Store. That’s where I am now. I’ll let you know what happens.

UPDATE: The people at the Apple Store couldn’t eject it either. They are going to replace the optical drive. It is under warranty for another three weeks. My iPod Touch and my Powerbook Wallstreet are my computers now.

InsideR Secrets: iBook G3

Today’s InsideR Secrets photo is of an iBook G3 with the keyboard pulled up. Click text to view.

Mac 911: MacBook Pro

My dad has a MacBook Pro and the screen suddenly went black. He tried hooking up a projector and the projector was blank. He got an appointment at the Apple Store and that’s where I am now. The Apple guy was amazed by the problem and tried everything we did. He zapped the PRAM and hooked up a monitor, with nothing happening. Luckily, the computer was able to do a Time Machine backup last night, so if the drive fails he’s safe. They are going to have to send the computer in and have it fixed. I will say what happens later.

UPDATE: We got the machine back and it seems to be working fine. I will let you know if something interesting happens. Stay tuned for the Christmas special.

Mac 911: iBook G3

My school has two identical iBook G3 700mhz laptops. The PTA uses QuickBooks Pro for their accounting, and they wanted to know if this iBook could run it. I took the iBook home to see if it could and install an old version we had lying around. I booted the thing into 9.2.2. because I was better with 9 than with 10, and the computer crashed. I tried everything. I hooked it up to my iMac as a FireWire drive, tried to boot it off the system on a 10 CD, and then, as a last try, tried my 9 disk. Mac OS 9 was able to fix the hard drive and get the machine to boot off it. We are now going to erase the hard drive and reinstall Mac OS X. By the way, we backed up the computer before erasing it. It erased quickly and then installed Mac OS. It booted up fine, ran software update, and now we are putting it through some tests. I will post again if anything interesting happens. Have a Mac repair story? Post a comment!

Best First Mac For Kids?

What do you think is the best first Mac for a younger kid? I found an article on ECT News about Mac vs. Windows, though the article ended up talking about what Macs are best.

Their choices, in order, were Mac Mini, iMac, and MacBook. They suggested Mac Mini because it is portable for house and car. My thought was that means the computer is easier to drop, and requires an extra monitor. Mac Mini in the car? Yah, I guess if you had a TV screen in the back of your car, but it still seems a little weird.

How about the MacBook. It also has the disadvantage of being small and lightweight. It is good because it is portable and doesn’t require extra monitor.

Now for the final choice, the iMac. This was my favorite choice because it is heavy, so you can’t carry it around and drop it. It also has a disadvantage because it isn’t portable, it weighs a lot and takes up lots of desk space.

What do you think? Post a comment with your choice.

USB Video Game Controller?

Review of USB Overdrive X

Do you have an old USB video game controller laying around? I had two old controllers laying around and some games I wanted the joysticks for. If the controllers are old, you can’t use their software. I was very annoyed with how few programs are out there. I did manage to find one program though. A program called USB Overdrive X. USB Overdrive lets you program all the buttons on your controller separately. If you push a button it will show you which button you are pushing and lets you give it a key command. It works very well on my iMac Intel Core 2 Duo. You can tell it to program the controller for just one program or all programs.

Difficulty rating (one being easy, five being hard): 2

Price: $20.00, free demo has no limits.

Where: http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/13443

New Use For GPS

Are you looking for something to do outside this summer? If you have a handheld GPS (global positioning system) you can do a new sport called Geocaching. Geocaching is a sport where one player takes their GPS unit and hides a little container with a log book to sign. They save the latitude and longitude coordinates on their GPS and post it on www.geocaching.com. Other cachers can now put the coordinates into their GPS and go find the container and sign the log. It is lots of fun to do, go check it out.

Fun rating: 5

Where: www.geocaching.com, explained at www.geocaching.com/about