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Powerbook Dilemma
WallStreet improvements
Humble request
re: M$ Aurora Project[/url]
Powerbook Dilemma
From Travis Smith
Charles,
I have emailed you multiple times in the past.
Last time I emailed you, I bought a Powerbook 12" for my wife (1GHZ Combo drive). This was to replace her Sony PC (she had Macs previously, but wanted to go back to a PC for software availability -- a long story in its self and a big MISTAKE). I was somewhat distraught because I paid full retail price for the Powerbook. I made a long drive (90 miles one way) to pickup the machine.
Well, she used the 12" for about a month. A nice machine but too slow (she was used to the 2.6GHZ PC). So, I decided to shop around for a 15" Powerbook 1.25GHZ with Superdrive.
I found the best deal through Apple.com for refurbished units $2099.00. This is a $500.00 savings over a new unit. The first time they popped up as being available, I took too long to make my decision and they were GONE! They sell very quickly. A couple days later I noticed they were available again.
I ordered a 15" 1.25GHZ Powerbook with Superdrive 512MB 80G on 2/20/04. I am somewhat picky about a machine and was apprehensive about ordering a refurb. However, the $500 savings lured me in. It took quite some time to deliver due to a fedex mix up. It arrived to my home on 2/28/04.
I opened it up and was somewhat impressed with the packaging and such. The machine looked good. It had a couple of dirty spots that wiped right off (on the feet and on the case).
We sold our old Powerbook on EBAY and the payment came through today. So the 15" is our only home machine now.
Now for the bad news:
My wife called me this afternoon. "There is something wrong with the new computer." she said descriptively (sarcasm intended).
After getting the details from her, I found out that the right shift key isn't working properly on the keyboard. Also, there is an imperfection on the case. The lower part of the case (by the superdrive unit) isn't sealed properly.
So after about 1 hour on the phone with Apple support, they dispatched out a box for return / repair service.
I spoke to about 4 different people. The first person left me with the impression that they might replace the unit since it was only 2 days old. However, this didn't happen. They want to repair it. The keyboard and case repairs are NOT user serviceable.
We shall see how good Apple's customer service is. They told me I would have it back within 5 business days.
Some quick observations on the new PowerBook. It is VERY FAST. I put 1 gig of RAM from Crucial in it. It FLIES. My wife is VERY happy with the speed. The keyboard backlighting feature is also very neat. It does run HOT. It runs much hotter than the 12" Powerbook.
Here is a link to my website with pictures of the unpackaging process for anyone that is interested in seeing a refurb.
http://homepage.mac.com/rsgunther/PhotoAlbum3.html
Sorry about the long ramble. I can keep you updated on the progress if you would like.
Thanks for your ear,
Travis Smith
Hi Travis;
Always good to hear from you, and I'm sorry to learn of your travails with the new 'Book. Something that always intrigues me is what reason a newish machine is refurbished, and how well Apple vets out what was wrong with it. With 15" PowerBooks I would guess that a lot of the refurbs are ones the have had the "white spots" displays replaced, but in this instance I'm wondering if thet bum Shift key might have been the culprit amd not repaired properly or at all.
I expect either of your recent 'Books would seem very fast to me, being as my fastest machines are a 550 MHz G4 and a 700 MHz G3, both with 100 MHz system busses and 640 MB of RAM.
I would be very interested in hearing how this turns out for you.
Charles
WallStreet improvements
From Chris Richardson
Just thought I'd write to let you know of how happy I am with my Wallstreet 300 PDQ. This is my second Wallstreet, the first one was a 292 1st series model which is now being used by my mother. I had thought that there would be little difference between the two machines but the graphics cards are very different with the PDQ being able to use 800/600, 640/480 and 1024/768 directly on the screen. This makes a big difference with games like Tanaka, Nanosur or Bugdom which I like to play. The screen redraws are also much faster than on the first series model.
I upgraded the RAM with a 256 chip meaning that I now have 384 MB working for me. I often run the whole system from a RAM disk. I create a RAM disk of about 160 MB and run the PB with 9.2.2 , I also use your trick of putting the hardisk in the trash so that it runs in total silence.
Last week I sent off for a new Hardisk, the original KGB disk was getting a bit small for my tastes. I studied the disk drive reports at xlr8yourmac.com and decided to get a Fujitsu 30 GB drive which are going cheap over here in Germany. It took about ten minutes to install and when I booted up I thought oh-no it doesn't work because I couldn't hear the drive spinning. Well it was spinning but I could only hear it with my ear stuck straight over it. The drive is fantastic -- it is much faster than the original, it is also roughly half the width and less than half the weight of the old one and seems to draw less power as my Battery indicator shows nearly half an hour more than it used to. So I am well pleased with that.
Another improvement is that I bought the PDQ second hand with a CD and a DVD drive meaning of coarse that I can watch DVDs anywhere but also that it's possible to read CDRW disks which isn't possible with the CD drive. I also managed to find a second hand SCSI CD burner from Yamaha (20 speed) going cheap on the Internet. Toast recognizes it immediately but only allows me to burn at 16 speed I dont know why but its still very fast compared to my old Iomega Zip 650CD which only ran at 4 times (USB). The other good thing about the CD burner is that I can take it out of its enclosure and slot in a IDE Hardrive and be able to mount it with the next restart which is pretty useful too.
The PDQ also came with USB and Firewire CardBus cards so I can connect up to virtually any sort of gadget that I might need.
So I am very happy with my old Powerbook. I don't want to use OS X and 9.2.2 is probably faster for the sort of things that I do anyway.
Keep up the good work Charles
from
Chris Richardson
Hi Chris;
Sounds like a great, nicely tricked-out WallStreet. I still like my old 233 MHz unit, but yours would be much nicer. Too bad Apple dropped OS X support for the WallStreet. I imagine Panther would run very nicely on a 300 MHz WallStreet, although you're correct in your surmise that OS 9.2.2 is still faster.
Thanks for the interesting report. I love to hear of people getting good service from old 'Books.
Charles
Humble request
From Ladislav Pazdera
Hi Charles.
I just read your article which is just two years old, refering to Liquid Ledger, as the financial solution for Mac.
I am just ordinary user, who would like to manage his personal finance and is searching for the appropriate application. I have to admit that I tried several apps in last days which I downloaded, however, I was not satisfied.
Would you still recommend LL, even after 2 years using it? Is there any better alternative, just in your personal opinion? I would be very much indebted if you may share your experience with me, it would prevent me from loosing time and money, maybe data too. Best regards,
Lad.
Ladislav Pazdera, MD
The Neurocenter Caregroup
Czech Republic
Hi Lad;
I haven't checked out Liquid Ledger first hand since I wrote that review a couple of years back, but the program has been updated many times since then and should be much improved over what was already very good.
Here's the latest update information on Liquid Ledger for the version 1.3 upgrade released last week:
Liquid Ledger 1.3 Personal Finance Solution
Are you frustrated by other products that seem to corrupt your data every other Tuesday? Then you’re sure to find the dependability of Liquid Ledger very refreshing!
From the smallest corporations to the largest, double-entry accounting is the time-proven system for measuring financial activity. It’s also the system woven into the design of Liquid Ledger, so you can rest assured that your financial data is always accurate and reliable.
Let’s face it, keeping track of your finances is a chore, and you’re looking for something to make it all easier. There haven’t been a lot of alternatives for the Mac and you really want something that works seamlessly with Mac OS X. Wouldn’t it be great if someone came along and delivered just the solution you’ve been looking for?
Liquid Ledger is a modern personal finance solution designed to deliver the best that Mac OS X has to offer. Whether you’re simply looking to balance your chequebook or to manage the finances for an entire household, you’ll find Liquid Ledger to be a refreshing and exciting new way to manage your money.
Setting up a new document is easy. Simply enter opening balances for your bank and credit card accounts and you’re ready to start recording new activity. If you’re making the switch to Liquid Ledger from another application, you can create a new Liquid Ledger document by importing financial data from a Quicken Interchange Format (QIF) file. In a matter of minutes, your financial data will be up-to-date and ready to go.
Find Those Costly Expenses
What you really want to know is, “how can Liquid Ledger help me save money?” — and we’re glad you asked! Liquid Ledger makes it easy to track income and expenses and summarise them as a pie chart or table. And with a host of time-saving features like transaction auto-completion and the ability to import account activity from financial institutions, you’ll be able to find, and eliminate, those costly expenses with almost no effort at all.
Compelling User Interface Design
Liquid Ledger was designed exclusively for Mac OS X, and its interface takes full advantage of everything the Aqua look-and-feel has to offer. With a customisable workflow, silky-smooth behaviour, gorgeous icons, and meticulous attention to detail, Liquid Ledger is sure to become one of your favourite reasons for using Mac OS X.
Built for Mac OS X…and the Future
Liquid Ledger is built on the native Cocoa framework of Mac OS X, which gives you the piece of mind that it will be ready to grow with future versions of the Mac OS. With its robust accounting engine, a data model that can handle large amounts of financial activity, and a road map of continuous product development, Liquid Ledger will help you manage your finances for many years to come.
New in this version:
• Liquid Ledger 1.3 introduces a new set of tools for interactively summarising financial activity; it adds performance improvements that support documents with tens of thousands of transactions; and, it offers a new Setup Assistant to help those switching from Quicken or Microsoft Money more easily migrate their financial data. In addition, transactions can now be copied directly to the clipboard and pasted to a spreadsheet application for further analysis.
System Requirements
Any system running Mac OS X 10.1 or later. Panther users must have at least Liquid Ledger 1.2.1 installed.
Single-User License: US$45 (includes free upgrade to Liquid Ledger 2)
Liquid Ledger offers a 30-day, no-hassle, moneyback guarantee.
For more information, visit:
http://www.liquidledger.com/
Charles
re: M$ Aurora Project
http://www.applelinks.com/pm/comments.php?id=826_0_1_0_C
From BearyandBow
If Microsoft thinks information sharing is so important, why don't they release information about how to interface with Windows programs and provide open source programmers with driver information? This will lead to the freedom of information more than giving away confidential personal data.
Hi B&B;
I don't think Microsoft is really interested in freedom of information.
Charles
***
Charles W. Moore
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