2185 One thing that Leopard has done for me is that it got me experimenting with using reduced processor speed in the Energy Saver Preference panel to try and keep my PowerBook's raucous cooling fans quiet. It's an almost absurdly simple workaround, and it works pretty well. Most of the time I don't notice any speed slowdown, and set at "Reduced," the G4 PowerBook runs in the 38° to 47° range when warmed up and working fairly steadily (ie: online and surfing or emailing). I should add that we've been having an uncharacteristically bitter cold snap here in Nova Scotia for the past week or so.

Switching to Automatic, which is supposed to adjust processor speed according to demand, bumps up the operating temperature a few degrees to the high 40s low 50s range when "cruising" at routine tasks, but still staying comfortably below the fan cut-in threshold of 58.5° most of the time, although the temp. will spike up and the fans cut in when demand on the processor is heavy, such as when using dictation software or, oddly (at least to me), when sending and receiving email with Eudora 6.2.4, which is not a happy camper running in Leopard.

With the setting of "Highest," the temperature cycles up and down between 54° and 60° at about one-minute intervals.

Cutting to the chase, reducing the processor speed makes using Leopard a lot more pleasant on this machine. I just have to remember to crank it up before using iListen dictation software, which is very sluggish a Reduced speed.

In fact, I like the effect of this "fix" so much that I've started employing it in Tiger as well. Interestingly, Tiger 10.4.11 seems to run a bit hotter than Leopard when "Reduced" is selected, but triggers the fans far less frequently when running at the "Highest" setting. There must be calibration differences I guess.

For me, running at reduced processor power makes Leopard a much easier cat to get along with. At the system's default "Highest" setting the relentless fan cycling was driving me to distraction (and back to Tiger), so to some degree this workaround makes me a lot more inclined to use Leopard. I'm now intensely curious as to whether it will work as well with Intel Mac notebooks. This workaround is not available for all Mac models. For example, it's not supported with my G4 upgraded Pismo PowerBooks, but they don't need it anyway since their fans virtually never activate.

It's not all sweetness and light, however. Email performance still sucks big-time in Leopard - slow and cranky or non-functional. I can download POP 3 email with reasonable reliability (although it comes down slower than when using Tiger), but sending anything more than short messages, even on the SMTP servers that still work (some refuse to), is glacially slow and attachments - fugetaboudit. I'm obliged to resort to Gmail's Webmail interface for that. It's also erratic and inconsistent. Last evening, Gmail was working tolerably well in Leopard, however, today it's slowed to the pace of continental drift in downloading via POP 3 in Eudora, while my Applelinks and MacOpinion mail, and even stuff from my ISP account are coming down fine. I can only speculate that the confluence of a slow dial-up connection, Gmail's SSL requirement, and something in Leopard's conversationwith the Internet is constipating things. Tiresome.

I hasten to note here that I'm using the exact same software, identical settings, and the same Eudora Folder on the same PowerBook with the same internal modem over the same connection with both systems (installed on separate hard drive partitions), so the only difference is the systems themselves.

The other big hardship for me with Leopard remains the lack of Windowshade X compatibility, but at least I anticipate that Unsanity Software is hard at work on that. For more information and discussion of that topic, see:
http://unsanity.org/archives/haxies/leopard.php

I fear Eudora is a dead duck with Leopard (at least as long as I'm stuck on dialup - it works somewhat better on broadband), which leaves me in a quandary as to my email operations. I'm pinning my hopes provisionally on the an announcement from Infinity Data Systems that they are working on a *real* Eudora successor that will be true to the Eudora tradition and experience.

And presumably Leopard compatibility.

For more information, visit:
http://www.infinitydatasystems.com/products/odysseus/index.html



Charles W. Moore

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