The New G3 and the Bugs: it's not a WHO Summit

By Pete Rhinehardt

I was struck recently by the simplicity of the original Volkswagen Beetle. They were clunky cars that just couldn't be killed. Heck, I remember going with my dad to the grocery store, strolling down the hardware aisle and getting spare parts for ours. Well, this past Easter dinner at the folk's house, we heard the glorious stories of how Grandpa saved a buck. After his Bug rusted through, to keep it on the road, he used banding wire to hold the thing together. Like wrapping a package, he had one band just a little ahead of the doors, and one going the length of the car. When the wipers died, he drilled a couple of holes, welded a couple of bars and voilà! Instant hand operated wipers. I'm not quite sure how he replaced the passenger seat with a Boston Rocker and still passed inspections.

Simple, efficient, easy to use and cheap to keep. Not unlike those first Macs. The initial cost might have been steep, but they were solid machines and they were fun to play with.

I picked up the last five Mac Pluses from our school library last year. They were blinkers; their screens only flashed on once in a while with a tilt or a whack. These clunkers had served their time well, running all day for several years, but now was the time for retirement to a landfill. Not so! I scooped them up, took them apart, hoping to rejuvenate them one last time. Their video connections had been resoldered so many times to the point that the boards were discolored and bubbled. By accident, I discovered that by drilling a hole in the upper left corner toward the back, you can screw in a machine screw that presses on the circuit board safely. Then, you literally tweak your screen back to life. Oh, Tim Allen would have been grunting that day. So, I returned all 5 to working status. I drilled holes in the tops to vent the heat, added RAM to bring them all up to 4mb each and networked them. A couple are still running today, kids pounding away at them.

Of course, you've seen the new Bugs. Who hasn't? Volkswagen must be spending a fortune on advertising. It's working too. There's a black market for Bug sales and the Boomers seem to be all over them like fly paper. They are cute, aren't they? The new Beetles come with all the things you wanted, just like the new PowerPC G3 computers. Apple builds to order now, taking its cue from Power Computing's sales strategies. And they have smartened up by making a single logicboard, Gossamer, for all configurations high and low. Apple is getting away from making a dozen different computers that run up costs and passes these savings on to you.

Things aren't quite the same for the Beetle. You get more for the price than the original Bug, but Volkswagen is still selling nostalgia. Don't bother looking for anything nostalgic about the new G3s. Apple left the past behind with System 8 and 8.1. The new G3s continue that trend and they do it cheap, too. Starting price for the new PowerBook G3 is $2299. It's got punch too, sporting a 233mhz third generation risc chip, 66mhz bus speed, a12.1 inch screen, and you pick your RAM. And this is the low end. Listen to the grunting.

Did you see where Volkswagen is buying Rolls Royce? All those kit cars in the 70s that slapped a Rolls front end on a Bug might not look so ridiculous today. Now, if we can get Mr. Steve Jobs to continue his masterful work on the turn-around of Apple, perhaps this Rolls company might be able to buy out a few people'sā computers. Just imagine the grunting.

Pete Rhinehardt is an elementary school teacher in rural Maine. He fights his wife and and young son for time on the Mac, and does his part to convert the heathen and nonbelievers for Mac salvation.

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February 09, 2010