Tag: Retrocomputing

Installing Mac OS Leopard On The PowerBook G4 – The Hard Way

In my last article I went into somewhat excessive detail on my recently purchased PowerBook G4. The machine was quite “used and abused” and was running an install of MacOS X 10.4 Tiger which was somewhat broken. Also broken on the machine was the Superdrive, which eliminated my ability to actually reinstall Tiger, or upgrade […]

An Unexpected Entry Into The World Of The Macintosh – Part 4 – So, What Can I Do With The G5?

In the previous article, I went over the gist of how I fixed a small problem with my “new” PowerMac G5 – the lack of a boot chime. After a few days of really working with the machine and trying to figure out the reason, I would find out it was really something as simple […]

An Unexpected Entry Into The World Of The Macintosh – Part 3 – Repairing The Power Mac G5

At this point in our story I had a Power Mac G5, the last of the Power PC based Macintosh computers, in my possession. It worked but with a quirk in that it didn’t make the traditional “boot chime” that (until recently) all Macintosh computers had. This bugged me enough that I set out to […]

An American Look At The BBC Computer Literacy Project – The Battle Plan

In what can only be described as an example of insanity, I mentioned previously my intentions to cover the BBC archive of television programming from the BBC Computer Literacy Project of the early and mid 80’s, and at this stage I think I’m ready to begin tackling this mighty challenge. The BBC archive of programing […]

Coming Soon: An American Look At The BBC Computer Literacy Project

The 1980’s was an amazing time for computer technology – this was the time frame the concept of the microcomputer came into its own, bringing the ability to own a fully functional computer system into the average home. Computers however are strange machines, compared to what we normally have around our houses. Everything else we […]

Bits And Bytes – Program 12: What Next?

This is it – the final episode of the 1983 TV Ontario series “Bits and Bytes.” It’s been 11 episodes introducing the basic concepts of computer usage in 1983. This is an interesting one – it focuses on the future of computing, both logistically and practically. Things like people sitting for far too long at […]

“Useful To Boot” – The Anthem For Obsolete Technology

A few months back while browsing YouTube, I found a video of a segment from the game “Sam & Max” where the two titular characters are in a support group style meeting for obsolete electronics. The group, known as the Computer Obsolescence Prevention Society, or C.O.P.S is a quirky little group, made up of an […]