TiBook: Day 1
2001.02.01 - I got my PowerBook G4 Wednesday
afternoon, spent a couple hours getting it ready, and shared
my initial impressions 
last
night. Then I got to work moving all my files from my aging SuperMac
S900 (a 1996 model with many upgrades) to the new TiBook - it
took hours.
Moving In
The first rule of moving all your files to a new computer: set up
file sharing on the new computer, log in from the old one, and
then copy. If you do it the other way, it won't copy any active files
(you'd be surprised at how many there are!), the Finder pauses while
you tell it to skip the active file, and you end up having to start
over and do it the right way.
You can improve performance and avoid starting from ground zero
with Copy
Agent, which is smart enough to only copy the files that are not
on the destination drive or have a more recent modification date, but
with over 40,000 files to copy over 10Base-T ethernet, it took a
long, long time.
Then comes the challenge of integrating all those files,
especially the ones from the System Folder, with the files normally
installed on the new computer. I've done just enough of that to be
productive. I'd normally use Marc Moini's Clean-Install
Assistant to bulk strip all non-Apple items from my old System
Folder, wade through the removed files looking for unnecessary
drivers and preferences (e.g., I won't need the drivers for my
ixMicro video card or ixTV card in the TiBook), and then have C-IA
put everything where it belongs in the new System Folder.
Alas, Marc Moini hasn't yet updated Clean-Install Assistant for
Mac OS 9.1, so I'm going to have to spend a lot of time moving these
files manually.
At this point, I have everything from my old SuperMac on the
TiBook, but I don't have everything set up. For instance, I need to
find another piece of AOL Instant
Messenger before I can use it.
Impressions
The keyboard is too dark. It's early in the morning, so I don't
have all the lights on. The PowerBook's screen is gorgeous, but it's
a bit difficult to read the keys. That said, I'm finding the keyboard
very comfortable to type on.
One thing I do each day is track site statistics, copying certain
bits of data from my browser to ClarisWorks spreadsheets (version
4.0v5 runs without a hitch on the new computer and OS). My
resizing trick meant all but one or two of the spreadsheets fit
the screen and didn't have to be resized this morning.
One of the first things I missed is a numeric keypad. I didn't
realize how accustomed I'd become to using it for numeric input, but
I had. Yes, you can coax the PowerBook keyboard into emulating a
numeric keypad, but it just isn't the same - and those numbers are
very small and difficult to read.
I also discovered my new Kensington
optical mouse has a tendency to double-click on the single-click
button, especially when switching from the browser to my ClarisWorks
spreadsheets. I'm fiddling with the MouseWorks settings to see if I
can change that behavior.
Speaking of the mouse, it tracks much better on the TiBook, which
has USB integrated into the design, than it ever did on my SuperMac,
which used a third-party PCI USB card. I'd realized from the start
that the card made my SuperMac a bit more sluggish, but until now I
hadn't realized how much impact it had.
Probably due to both the integrated ATI Rage Mobility graphics
chips and the lack of all those PCI cards and drivers (ixMicro
Ultimate Rez video, Macally USB, ixTV, TurboMax IDE drive controller,
SuperMac E100 [combination 10/100 ethernet and fast/wide
SCSI]), browsing is much better on the TiBook than on my old
SuperMac. It's fast. It's smooth. Those long pauses while loading a
page, scrolling, or switching apps are gone in an instant.
I desperately need to get QuicKeys
5 up and running. I'm used to using F9 for italic type and F10
for bold; I've been doing it for almost nine years and have to remind
myself to use cmd-I and cmd-B. There are other reasons to use
QuicKeys, such as telling it to apply smart quotes in some
applications but retain dumb quotes in others (esp. email and Web
pages).
On the software front, I'm happy to note that SmoothType
runs flawlessly and still provides much nicer onscreen type than
Apple's font smoothing. Another old favorite, MenuChoice,
which I've been using since at least 1993, works perfectly and
provides a nice replacement for Apple Menu Items.
Other freeware control panels I've already added: iMacolor
to replace the icon above the Apple menu, SETI@home,
and PopChar
Lite, which provides a pulldown menu displaying the full
character set for the current font.
Networking
The thing I find most frustrating right now is having to choose
between being connected to my cable modem or my home network. My
SuperMac had two ethernet ports, so I ran TCP/IP for the Net on one,
AppleTalk for the home network on the other. This is incentive to
either get that Hawking router working or set up IPNetRouter
on one of my older computers.
More
I dug up my QuicKeys serial number, so that's up and running just
fine. I've reinstalled AOL Instant Messenger, but I get a database
error message every time I launch it.
I've moved a few more files around and run Disk Warrior on all
partitions. I tried to run Plus Optimizer on the main hard drive, but
it's going to take much too long to do during the day. Maybe I'll run
it a bed time and give it all the time it needs.
I've hooked the TiBook up to my 19" Optiquest monitor, which is
nicely mirroring everything I'm doing.
I really need to do something about screen color; it simply
doesn't have the same rich colors I see on my monitor. I recall
someone released a profile that worked with the iBook and recent
PowerBooks. Need to do some research. I know I linked to it once upon
a time, but I can't find it.
BTW, this thing is hot. I have the back propped up about
1/2" to improve air circulation, and the bottom is uncomfortably hot.
In fact, the fan just kicked in for the first time. If you have the
back of the TiBook propped up, it's a very loud fan, but if it's flat
on the desk, it's much quieter. Interesting. Apple probably designed
it that way. They do recommend using it on a flat surface for proper
airflow (thanks, Dave!), but I find typing more comfortable with the
back propped up. Time to look into a tilted flat surface.
I've had the TiBook flat on the desk for several minutes; the
bottom really does feel cooler. I'm looking for a utility that will
measure CPU temperature, but the only one I've tried reported a
constant 33°F for two hours (metric folk, that's just one degree
above freezing). I know that isn't right.
Performance
It's fast. That's a combination of a 400 MHz CPU, 200 MHz 1 MB
backside cache, 100 MHz motherboard, very good graphics chip, and
decent hard drive.
Of course, I had to run MacBench 5 and Speedometer 4. The MacBench
CPU score is 1225 (22.5% faster than the Beige
Power Mac G3/300). My Yikes! G4/400
at work scored 1314, which is about 7% faster. The FPU score for the
TiBook is 1505, a bit higher than the 1473 score of the 400 MHz
Yikes! and over 50% faster then the Beige G3/300. The hard drive
scores 1377 - 38% faster than the Beige G3 and quite a feat for a
laptop!
On the Speedometer 4 side, the CPU scores 30.5 times as fast as a
Quadra 605. By way of comparison, my SuperMac
S900 with a G3/333 card scores 25.2 and the 400
MHz Pismo scored 28.2. On the math front, the TiBook scores 1120,
which beats the S900's 891 and Pismo's 1016. Disk performance rates
3.26, which edges out Pismo (3.24) and surpasses my old SuperMac
(2.95).
I don't have graphics scores. Speedometer won't test Macs without
1-bit video and MacBench requires a CD that I've misplaced.
Subjectively, I'm impressed. This is more than I was used to and
makes a nice upgrade from the G4/400 at my old job and the 1996
designed SuperMac S900.
I hope to have more tomorrow, after I've had a chance to work with
some of my other applications.
The TiBook Reports
- TiBook Report #7: Zap!, 2/16/01. Great
laptop, but there's this pesky problem with static
electricity....
- TiBook Report #6, 2/8/01. Is the
PowerBook G4 really a desktop replacement? Also, more comments on
DVD playback.
- TiBook Report #5, 2/6/01. Heat
reduction with CoolPad, burning CDs, DVD tips, and more.
- TiBook Report #4, 2/5/01. Battery life,
SETI performance, and more on heat.
- TiBook: Day 2, 2/2/01. Internet
connection update, more on heat, brief benchmark discussion.
- TiBook: Day 1, 2//01. More impressions
from my first day with a PowerBook G4.
- First Impressions: TiBook, 1/31/01.
Stop the presses - I got my PowerBook G4 this afternoon.
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Go to the 'Book Page.
