Miscellaneous Ramblings

Miscellaneous Ramblings Mailbag

Why Choose OS 9 Today?, OS 9 WiFi Security, Mousing with Parkinson's, and More

Charles Moore - 2008.08.06 - Tip Jar

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Why Choose Mac OS 9 Today?

From Stephen:

Dear Charles Moore,

While I love Mac OS 9 and have fond memories of using it back in its time, I've noticed that since installing my old copy onto a laptop running SheepShaver it's been surprisingly difficult to get Mac OS 9 programs with the features that I'm now used to in current programs.

If you don't need too much functionality, it'll work perfectly, but having seen it from the outside in 2008 I've discovered that I now use it as a minimal typing engine that I use when I don't want to be distracted by the various toys I've set up on my more modern operating system and as a way of accessing games from my childhood that are not available on the Intel architecture.

The original mailer asks about security, which to me seems to indicate it is better to move to a system which is still being currently updated rather than one from the turn of the century. He also mentions maintenance as a reason not to use Windows, which I do not understand; he knows and uses Windows already and must know the tricks that will get XP/Vista to fly through the undemanding tasks they will be asked to do. However, since he is prepared to support a second computer on another operating system it also seems strange to jump in at the deep end and chose an older, unsupported system over the supported and currently updated version. I have not used Mac OS 9 since 2001, and I discovered that going back to it was familiar and nostalgic but not immediate, the differences that came from emulating it aside, and I cannot imagine that it would be as natural as a more familiar system

I'm interested to know the reasons that Seth has for settling on OS 9 for his mother; it's an unusual choice for a first system in 2008.

Stephen

Hi Stephen,

Yes, I really wouldn't be a happy camper using OS 9 these days. Too limiting compared with OS X, especially browsers. I've been surprised at how little I miss Classic Mode on my PowerBook G4 since upgrading to Leopard last fall.

My wife switched to Tiger (on a 700 MHz iBook G3) from OS X 10.2.2 (on a 233 MHz WallStreet) last fall, the last holdout in our house.

I'll always have a warm regard for the Classic Mac OS. I loved it in its day. However, that day has passed in the context of using it for a front line OS.

Charles

WiFi Security for Mac OS 9

From Alex:

Hi Charles,

This is an answer to Seth's question about WLAN and WiFi security for OS 9:

I used to use a Lucent WaveLAN/Orinoco Gold (actually, it was a "Silver" card upgraded to "Gold", which gives 128-bit encryption instead of 64-bit) and a Dell TrueMobile 1150 (rebranded version of the same card) with OS 8.6/9.x and WEP-WiFi. Those cards can probably found very cheap on eBay.

There are instructions available:

The driver is probably available here:

However, I would advise against the whole idea for two reasons:

  1. WEP is not considered secure any more. It is very easy to hack. You should use a newer standard, which AFAIK is not possible w/ OS 9.
  2. Given the ever-increasing amount of hard-to-handle JavaScript/AJAX in web sites these days, a browser as old as the only browsers available for OS 9 is severely outdated, even when you only look at browsing. Plus, there is a severe lack of up-to date plugins for multimedia content or even newer PDFs.

Another factor is OS 9's tendency to pause, freeze, or crash when browsing. Several years ago (when Jaguar was brand-new) I tried to get my father on a OS 9 machine, and he didn't like it at all. I'd rather use Panther or Tiger, especially for someone who never used a Mac and might get frustrated with a sub-par web experience.

Regards,
Alex

Hi Alex,

Thanks for the tips, links, and advice.

Charles

UJ-845b into a Pismo

From Jeff:

I have recently purchased a UJ-845b and was wanting to know if you feel that the install is just an enclosure swap and installing PatchBurn, or is there more I should know?

I would like it to act as much like a factory unit as I can do disc burn and iTunes are not workarounds

Jeff

Thanks for your help

Hi Jeff,

My knowledge is well short of being encyclopedic on this topic, but the UJ-825 Panasonic drives in the SuperDrives I have in my Pismos work just fine in Tiger with PatchBurn installed. I can't think of anything more offhand that I can tell you.

Charles

Mousing with Parkinson's

From Elaine following up on Tricking Out Your Notebook:

Hi Charles,

Wow, didn't expect such a long response nor explanation, but having several friends with Fibro, I know well how its pain inhibits movement. I have major osteoarthritis in my thumbs that's slowly spreading to my other fingers and find that not having to move my hand from the keyboard-keypad is the least painful of my choices. In fact I'm writing on my lap "as we speak," sitting next to Jim who is watching a movie on TV that I've already seen.

He has been battling Parkinson's Disease for the past 15 years but never had been able to work a trackpad or trackball and barely managed a mouse, even before his PD blossomed. His salvation is the Contour RollerMouse that we bought for him in 2001 and is still going strong. Though a hefty $200, then and still, it allows control to move the cursor as no other input device has, especially as his PD progresses. If I'm not mistaken, I first learned about it from one of your columns way back then and probably wrote to you back then to say thanks if it was from you....

At least my soon-to-be 69 year old memory still works: while searching for something else, I found a PDF of your article that I saved. Interesting that your peripheral neuropathy turns out to be Fibro. Not sure which is worse....

Elaine

Hi Elaine,

Sorry to hear about the osteoarthritis and Parkinson's. My grandmother had the latter.

I indeed have a Contour RollerMouse, and it's a very neat rig. Using it never became intuitive for me, but I can appreciate that for some folks it would be just what the doctor ordered - perhaps literally in some cases.

With pointing devices, it's very much what works for you.

Fibromyalgia is a sort of grab-bag diagnosis and a syndrome rather than a species of disease. I should have said peripheral neuritis, I think. Whatever, it hurts a lot.

Charles

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Charles Moore has been a freelance journalist since 1987 and writing for Mac websites since May 1998. His The Road Warrior column is a regular feature on MacOpinion, and he is a news editor and columnist at Applelinks.com.

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