"Someone trashed this Bondi Blue iMac G3... can I fix it?"

[TheShortTimer]

A really lovely video and the videographer's lament at the culture of carelessly discarding consumer electronics products parallels with my recent experiences and the discussion it triggered.

Enjoy!

 

[B S Magnet]

A really lovely video and the videographer's lament at the culture of carelessly discarding consumer electronics products parallels with my recent experiences and the discussion it triggered.

Enjoy!

/me sits down, suddenly overwhelmed

Every time I hear her say “BAHN-dee”, I feel a great disturbance from Australia… as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced. I feel something terrible is happening down there.

 

[galgot]

Watched it yesterday. I like her vids, she is fun.
Btw, completely missed that the original Bondi had IrDA .

 

[TheShortTimer]

Watched it yesterday. I like her vids, she is fun.

She certainly is fun. I'm a newcomer to her videos and I've subscribed to her channel on the strength of that video.

Its inspired me to disassemble my iMac G3 to replace the optical drive and flyback transformer.

Btw, completely missed that the original Bondi had IrDA .

Same here.

 

[B S Magnet]

She certainly is fun. I'm a newcomer to her videos and I've subscribed to her channel on the strength of that video.

Its inspired me to disassemble my iMac G3 to replace the optical drive and flyback transformer.



Same here.

It still kind of blows my mind how IrDA made it onto the Titanium G4 of 2001. By that point, most uses for IrDA tended to be between PDAs exchanging contact info and even applications with other PDAs (something I got to do many times back when the PDA was still a thing).

 

[Amethyst1]

It still kind of blows my mind how IrDA made it onto the Titanium G4 of 2001.

That allowed going online on the go using a cellphone — until the IR connection was interrupted. Bluetooth wasn’t quite ready for prime time in 2001.

I’ll check my early 2000s laptops for an IrDA “eye”.

 

[TheShortTimer]

I’ll check my early 2000s laptops for an IrDA “eye”.

My 2001 HP Omnibook 6000 has it.

I never made use of it though.

 

[B S Magnet]

That allowed going online on the go using a cellphone — until the IR connection was interrupted. Bluetooth wasn’t quite ready for prime time in 2001.

I want to say my first mobile phone (which definitely lacked data!) had an IrDA window next to the antenna. This would have been the Nokia 6185 — possibly the most comfortable mobile phone to hold up (with either my hand or shoulder) that I’ve ever had. I don’t really know what on the phone’s system itself would have enabled use of that window.

I’ll check my early 2000s laptops for an IrDA “eye”.

Nice!

 

[Amethyst1]

Nice!

Checked mine: only the Compaq Evo N400c (2001) and Toshiba Portégé 2000 (2002) have IrDA.

I never made use of it though.

I used that a lot to go online using my PDA and Nokia 8210 at a glacial 9.6 kbps and also to beam custom operator logos and ringtones to it. Initially I hogged my dad's laptop for that but he got tired of it and made me buy an IrDA dongle for my PC

I want to say my first mobile phone (which definitely lacked data!) had an IrDA window next to the antenna. This would have been the Nokia 6185 — possibly the most comfortable mobile phone to hold up (with either my hand or shoulder) that I’ve ever had.

That's the legendary 6110 in GSM-land.

I don’t really know what on the phone’s system itself would have enabled use of that window.

The 6110 possibly had some kind of data capability but required software to be installed on the PC to tap into it. And to top it off, the IR window wasn't IrDA-compatible!

But... it had the most important thing: TWO-PLAYER SNAKE!

 

[galgot]

Had to check, my only PC, a Toshiba Satellite 4090XCDT has it too
Gosh, been years since I've fired up this ugly thing.

 

[TheShortTimer]

Had to check, my only PC, a Toshiba Satellite 4090XCDT has it too
Gosh, been years since I've fired up this ugly thing.

This one?

I've seen worse.

 

[B S Magnet]

This one?

I've seen worse.

That’s a laptop for, uh, its moment.

 

[galgot]

This one?

I've seen worse.

Yep ! Same . Now I'm surprised how the case feels "solid".
Would have to try installing BasiliskII on this. If I find the power block again...

 

[galgot]

That’s a laptop for, uh, its moment.

I had the idea to place it next to a Pismo for a minute... but no, it went back in the closet for now

 

[B S Magnet]

I had the idea to place it next to a Pismo for a minute... but no, it went back in the closet for now

Poor thing has a case only a Toshiba could love…

 

[TheShortTimer]

Poor thing has a case only a Toshiba could love…

Ouch!

There was a phase where Toshiba undeniably made questionable styling choices but I prefer the aesthetic of this (the first laptop model that I owned)...

...to some of the stuff that Apple churned out prior to Jobs returning and saving the day.

(Watch the flaming commence!)

 

[galgot]

Ouch!

There was a phase where Toshiba undeniably made questionable styling choices but I prefer the aesthetic of this (the first laptop model that I owned)...

...to some of the stuff that Apple churned out prior to Jobs returning and saving the day.

(Watch the flaming commence!)

How dare you... A PowerBook 3400c is 3,3Kg of pure streamlined elegance. 😁

 

[B S Magnet]

Ouch!

There was a phase where Toshiba undeniably made questionable styling choices but I prefer the aesthetic of this (the first laptop model that I owned)...

...to some of the stuff that Apple churned out prior to Jobs returning and saving the day.

(Watch the flaming commence!)

I feel, were one to make a line graph of how good design ebbed and flowed between, say, 1984 and 2002, it would reveal a bell curve in which, from about 1993 to about 1998, good design hit kind of a nadir as the mid ’90s repudiated the decade before (as all decades/generations do, I suppose), but it wouldn’t be until the end up the ’90s that the next generation/decade finally found a groove in what came to be called an “organic” style.

This Toshiba Satellite embraces everything about that nadir in mid ’90s design. And, also controversially, Apple was also not immune to this: the Power Mac 6100’s case, for one, looked nothing like the Frog Design platinum aesthetic carried by Apple after 1986, and it didn’t really look like anything whilst not looking simple and clean, either; some of the very early PowerPC PowerBooks also had that ponderous design thing going on, too. The design nadir of the mid ’90s was a time of teething pains.

 

[m1maverick]

The 6110 possibly had some kind of data capability but required software to be installed on the PC to tap into it. And to top it off, the IR window wasn't IrDA-compatible!

My very first mobile phone. 30 minutes of talk time included with the monthly plan, can't recall what the overage per minute charge was.

 

[mectojic]

I too was recommended this video and thought it was excellent. Seems her channel is mostly about Linux, but the appearance of PPC Macs and her appreciation and care for them is very welcome.

We need more content like this on Youtube – telling the story of how vintage Macs are saved and repurposed.

 

[TheShortTimer]

My very first mobile phone. 30 minutes of talk time included with the monthly plan, can't recall what the overage per minute charge was.

View attachment 2180316

This was my dad's first one between 1992-1994...

...till he replaced it with the far more compact M301.

I too was recommended this video and thought it was excellent. Seems her channel is mostly about Linux, but the appearance of PPC Macs and her appreciation and care for them is very welcome.

Agreed.

We need more content like this on Youtube – telling the story of how vintage Macs are saved and repurposed.

Perhaps we within this forum should take up such a mantle. After all, we're the perfect candidates to do so...

 

[DearthnVader]

This was my dad's first one between 1992-1994...

...till he replaced it with the far more compact M301.

Agreed.



Perhaps we within this forum should take up such a mantle. After all, we're the perfect candidates to do so...

Gack, I had some Bell South monstrosity back then, about 1994. I think the plan was $350 a month for 30 min. of peak, and I forget the off peak and weekends, or the overage rates.

 

[B S Magnet]

This was my dad's first one between 1992-1994...

In 1993 and 1994, when I worked for an office supply chain, I programmed a couple of these bricks (and, I think, one early flip phone, see below) for customers who came in and bought them off the floor (so to speak: they’d bring a product card to the cash, matching the product we kept in management’s booth). Motorola and/or the carrier supplied binders with step-by-step instructions for the reseller to key in the info to activate a unit.

What I remember is how long, complicated, slow, and convoluted it was to do this. It was literal keying in long strings of numbers (like what I guess would be IMEI or equivalent), strings for the carrier ID, and so on. And those poor displays couldn’t show all the digits in a long string, so screwing things up required starting over.

It was not fun, absolutely nothing like setting up a new device now, and at the time, left me thinking mobile phones would always be a business/luxury item. Of course, fast-forward to late 2000…

 

[Amethyst1]

It was literal keying in long strings of numbers (like what I guess would be IMEI or equivalent), strings for the carrier ID, and so on. And those poor displays couldn’t show all the digits in a long string, so screwing things up required starting over.

This reminds me of the process of removing an old Nokia's SIM lock, which boils down to entering a long string of numbers and symbols but at least you can see it all on the display.

It was not fun, absolutely nothing like setting up a new device now, and at the time, left me thinking mobile phones would always be a business/luxury item.

It was the same with home computers. They went from "Punch in your own source code" to WIMP.

 

[DearthnVader]

In 1993 and 1994, when I worked for an office supply chain, I programmed a couple of these bricks (and, I think, one early flip phone, see below) for customers who came in and bought them off the floor (so to speak: they’d bring a product card to the cash, matching the product we kept in management’s booth). Motorola and/or the carrier supplied binders with step-by-step instructions for the reseller to key in the info to activate a unit.

What I remember is how long, complicated, slow, and convoluted it was to do this. It was literal keying in long strings of numbers (like what I guess would be IMEI or equivalent), strings for the carrier ID, and so on. And those poor displays couldn’t show all the digits in a long string, so screwing things up required starting over.

It was not fun, absolutely nothing like setting up a new device now, and at the time, left me thinking mobile phones would always be a business/luxury item. Of course, fast-forward to late 2000…

That looks a lot like the first cell phone I had, but with Bell South where the MOTO logo is.

Almost seem like a dream now it was so long ago, not just like another lifetime but not even the same universe the way the tech has changed.