Posts from — January 2009

Today is the 25th anniversary of the Macintosh computer, so in honor of this historic day (ok, historic to me), So I decided to put together this list of the many different Macintosh computers that I have owned over the years.

First off, is the Macintosh SE, which was introduced in March of 1987, and originally had two floppy drives, one megabyte of RAM, and a 9 inch Black and white monitor. The model that we had was the upgraded version with an SuperDrive (FDHD) floppy drive, an internal 20 megabyte hard drive, and one megabyte of RAM. We later upgraded the RAM to 4 Megabytes, and added an external SyQuest cartridge based external hard drive, as well as eventually an external CD-ROM drive and Zip Drive.

Click here for the full specs from Lowendmac.com

Next came the Performa 5200/75 TV. Which might be a little hard to find out there, but yeah, we had one. The most interesting thing about this particular computer was that it had a built in NTSC tuner, so the entire computer became a television when needed. It also could function as a CD Player, considering that it actually contained a built in CD-ROM drive as well. This computer originally released in April of 1995, this was a long overdue upgrade for us considering how long we had stuck it out with the SE. Click here for the full specs

Around about the same time came my first Powerbook, which was also my first computer that was completely my own. Unfortunately this computer happened to be the Powerbook 190cs, much slower than the 5200 that we had at home. This computer I continued to use for the first two years of college as well. This model was introduced in August of 1995. Kind of amazing to think that I was actually using this computer actively up until the summer of 1999, when I got my next computer. Click here for the full specs 

During the summer after my freshman year of college (1999), I finally saved up enough money to buy a “real” computer, and bought the PowerMac G3 Blue and White, otherwise known as “Yosemite” the original specs of this machine, it had a 350Mhz G3 processor, 64Mb of RAM, and a 6 gig hard drive. This machine was such a good machine however, that It still is running as my home backup server, though it has been upgraded quite a bit. Currently this machine has a 550Mhz G4 processor, 1.25Gb of RAM, and several hard drives totaling over 250Gigs of hard drive space. Still an excellent machine, and still running almost ten years later. Click here for full specs from www.lowendmac.com

This machine was Alina’s first Mac During College, and in fact is still running at her mothers house and used daily for email and web surfing. Based upon the original iMac, this is the iMac DV SE (Digital video, Special edition) which came with a built in DVD Drive, as well as a unique graphite case. First introduced in July of 2000. Click here for full specs.

This next machine was the Powerbook 3400c, which when it was introduced in Febuary of 1997 was the fastest laptop in the world. While we were living in Vermont, I bought two of these, one for my parents and one for myself second hand from someone who specializes in refurbished older Mac laptops. I used it for a couple of years, as this was something to use to replace my venerable 190cs that had continued as my primary laptop for many years past its useful life. This machine is currently sitting in a closet waiting to get resurrected, as the PRAM battery is dead, the screen refuses to stay in one color mode, and for some reason it is stuck with the caps-lock in the on position. Click here for full specs.

During our final year in Vermont (2003), we finally decided to buy a new computer for Alina, (though I get to use it on occasion. This being our first major purchase together. The Powerbook G4 12inch was and still is Apple’s smallest full featured laptop produced, it weighs under 5 pounds and yet has a 1ghz processor 1.25gigs of RAM, and a DVD burner. An excellent computer, this laptop is still going strong, despite several nocks and scrapes. The G4 12inch was introduced in August of 2003. Click here for full specs from www.lowendmac.com 

I’m not really sure if this counts as a Mac of mine, however my parents had an iBook G3 for several years, which was mostly destroyed in a house fire in 2003, I rescued the iBook, replaced the melted keyboard, and continued to use it for an additional 3 years, burn marks and all. Unfortunately this computer was one of many that suffered from the infamous iBook motherboard failure problems, and died finally due to those problems, and not damage suffered by the fire. Click here for full specs. 

And Finally we arrive at my current Mac. I am currently the proud owner of a 2007 MacBook Pro 15inch, 2.2Ghz, 2gigs of RAM and 160gig internal hard drive, with a Dual Layer DVD+-R Drive. This was the first laptop by Apple to incorporate LED technology into the display, which is much brighter and clearer than previous laptop models. Although the new unibody MacBooks are interesting, I am quite happy with this computer for the time being. Click here for full specs from www.lowendmac.com. 

So after my many years of owning macs, I am hoping there will be many more to come in the future. 

So it’s still a bit interesting, every time I hear the words “President Obama” I can’t help but think that I can’t believe that it actually happened. I can’t believe how lucky we are to have a real president for once. I have made a commitment to be much more involved with our government and what it is doing. Here is the first of Obama’s weekly address’s which are posted over at www.whitehouse.gov If you haven’t gotten a chance to check out the new White House website, I would highly recommend checking it out. There is a ton of information available.

The only other thing that I would really like to find a better way to watch or at the least listen to every day is the daily white house press briefing, which is available from C-Span however, I’m still not sure what the rules are as far as re-posting c-span material, and I would like to find a way to get the audio direct from the source, and be able to use it as I see fit.

According to multiple news outlets, it appears that Senator Kennedy just had a Seizure during the luncheon for President Barack Obama, and has been removed from the room. ABC news just showed an ambulance leave the capitol building, but I am not sure that it contained the senator. President Obama mentioned that he was thinking about Kennedy and his family, and a prayer was offered for him. More information to come. No-one at this moment knows about his condition. (3:03pm ET)

7 minutes ago

WASHINGTON (AP) — Sens. Robert C. Byrd, D-W.Va., and Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., have been taken from an inauguration luncheon for President Barack Obama.

A Capitol police officer stood up at the luncheon and said medical attention was needed.

The Above was published just a few moments ago by the associated press.

The most recent is that the above about Senator Byrd, might not be true. Also reported on ABC right now is that Senator Kennedy is awake, and doing better, but has been taken by ambulance from the capitol building to a hospital, and that Senator Kerry was with him as he was taken to the Ambulance and has now left the Capitol as well. (3:14pm ET)

UPDATE The following is an excerpt from reuters that was posted at 3:17pm ET

Television networks reported that Kennedy’s convulsions started after fellow Sen. Robert Byrd, 91, a West Virginia Democrat, also suffered a medical issue and was taken out of the room. His office later said he was fine.

Updated at 3:31pm ET

UPDATE: The following was posted just a bit ago on usatoday.com 

Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., just said that Kennedy “had a seizure and he’s on his way to the hospital,” USA TODAY’s Kathy Kiely reports.

Kerry told Kathy that Byrd was helped from the room because he became upset about what was happening to his friend — Kennedy. Byrd is otherwise fine, Kerry said.

Updated at 3:36pm ET

What an amazing moment. I am so happy that the moment has finally come. Here is the video of the Inauguration in case you missed it, and the transcript of Obama’s speech.

Link to the official transcript of Obama inaugural address

CNN Video of the actual swearing in. http://1url.cc/054da9

Inaugural Address from MSNBC. http://1url.cc/480b2d

I am still stuck in NY on the Madoff Stakeout, but I figured I’d post some links to how you can watch the Inaguration live on the internet if you are stuck with no TV today.

link to C-SPAN live via windows media: http://1url.cc/cbb2b5

link to C-Span live via real meda: http://1url.cc/dce1c6

link to NBC news live video (embedded): http://1url.cc/02db97

link to CBS news live video (embedded): http://1url.cc/dd4544

Fox news Live video (embedded): http://1url.cc/aa876d

CNN Live video (embedded): http://1url.cc/d757a6

BBC News live video coverage: http://1url.cc/3c1553

Ustream.tv live stream: http://1url.cc/187d3c

Check back on this post for updates, I’ll be adding more links as I find them.

-Ken

The links above are going through a link shortening service I have set up http://1url.cc/ so that you don’t have to copy the huge original links when sharing them. feel free to use the service, shorter than other popular link shortening services!