PC_RETRO » pshapiro

Older Mac Laptop Still Very Useful

pshapiro — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 17:34:18 +0000

I was intrigued to note that PCRetro is selling an older Mac laptop, the iBook G3 (500 MHz), for the very reasonable price of $99. This computer still has a lot of possible life in it, but you do have to do a bit of work to put it to best use. The iBook comes shipped with Mac OS 9.2, and to put it to best use you need to install Mac OS 10.3 or Mac OS 10.4. (This laptop will not run Mac OS 10.5 or higher.) The CD installs for these operating systems can be purchased on eBay and elsewhere. You also need to install more RAM (memory) to use this computer with Mac OS 10.3 or 10.4. I’d suggest adding 256 MB of RAM. One good source is the mail-order company named Data Memory Systems which sells this memory for $16.

The RAM on an iBook installs underneath the keyboard. With Mac OS 10.4 installed, this iBook can run the very latest version of Firefox, an excellent web browser. Note, though, that the 10 GB hard drive on this particular laptop would not leave you much room for music or video files. This laptop would be ideal for a student to use for word processing and web surfing.

Another use of this laptop is as spare parts for an existing iBook G3 (12-inch screen) laptop that you already own. In case that laptop’s motherboard were to fail, you could swap the hard drive and memory into on-site replacement.

Phil Shapiro

The blogger works at the Takoma Park Maryland Library and can be reached at pshapiro@his.com

Sending computers to Africa

pshapiro — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 14:44:32 +0000

Many immigrants here in the DC-area dream of sending computers back to their family, friends and neighbors in their home country. A friend of mine here in Takoma Park, Yacouba Sanogo, asked me for help in sending 10 computers back to his home country of Burkina Faso. For less than half the price of a single new iMac computer, I helped this person buy 10 Windows XP computers to send back home. The total cost? Less than $500 from PCRetro.

Not only that. When I went to the PCRetro store in Beltsville, each one of those 10 computers was booted up to make sure it was in excellent working condition. Laura Ambrusko, the store manager, could not have been more helpful. These computers came complete with keyboard, mice and power cords, too.

What worked especially well for my friend is that these computers are all fairly small and light (sometimes called “small form factor”), so the shipping charges he’ll incur will be less burdensome. He won’t be shipping monitors to Africa. The recipients of this donation of computers will need to find monitors themselves.

All in all, I’m very grateful that PCRetro does the work they do. Somewhere in Africa some family that I will never meet will be using a computer that I picked up from the PCRetro store in Beltsville. If I had the time and money I would accompany these computers to Africa and sit down beside the recipients to give them a tour of their computers. I don’t have the time and money to do so, but I can imagine making that trip. For me, that’s reward enough.

Phil Shapiro

(The blogger works as the public geek at the Takoma Park Maryland Library and is an adjunct professor of education at American University, where he teaches a graduate class in educational technology. He can be reached at pshapiro@his.com)

Previous blog postings

Maximizing the User of Your Computer

Affordable Computers Go Well with Free Software

Affordable Computers Go Well With Free Software

pshapiro — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 14:47:19 +0000

If you buy an affordable computer from PCRetro.com, you might think that your next step is to go buy some software for the computer. Not so fast! There is excellent free software for many different purposes that you can use on your computer. Today I’d like to tell you about some fun logic puzzles, SYA Sokoban, that I helped design. These puzzles can be used by children as young as kindergarten, yet the more difficult versions of the puzzles are well-suited for adults. The Sokoban puzzles were originally invented in Japan in the early 1980’s. “Sokoban” means “warehouse keeper.” Your job as the warehouse keeper is to push heavy boxes around the screen to move them to the storage area. Since the boxes are so heavy you can only push one box at a time. In case you accidentally push a box into a corner, you can undo your move.

You can download SYA Sokoban from here. This software is available for Linux, Macintosh and Windows. I’ve created a screencast, a narrated explanation about playing the puzzles, that you can view right on the same web site. To play the “Simple Sokoban” puzzles I designed, press the letter “c” after you start SYA Sokoban. Then use the down arrow on your keyboard to scroll down to Simple Sokoban – Phil Shapiro.

After you have progressed thru the 60 puzzles I designed, you will have some excellent strategies for solving the more difficult Sokoban puzzles. I designed my puzzles to help youth and adults develop confidence in solving Sokoban puzzles. It’s sometime fun to solve these puzzles together with friends and families. Don’t you love it when you reach that “Aha! I got it!” moment?

Children who develop an appetite for solving these kinds of multi-step puzzles will have a much easier time with high school algebra, geometry and calculus. Students might even find that the math they learn at school is easier than the puzzles they solve at home for fun.

And in case you might be interested, here is an article I wrote about the educational value of the Sokoban logic puzzles. I wrote this article almost 20 years ago. If you develop a real fondness for solving Sokoban puzzles, you’ll be happy to hear that there are many places on the web where you can play these puzzles for free. Just search for: “Sokoban Java” to find versions of Sokoban to play on the web. Some of these can be quite difficult, though. I’m proud to say that the free SYA Sokoban puzzles are the best Sokoban puzzles I know of.

And I need to give credit where credit is due. David Joffe is the programmer who created the SYA Sokoban puzzles. He deserves a lot of credit. I had a much lesser role in designing the Simple Sokoban puzzles.

Phil Shapiro

(Phil can be reached at pshapiro@his.com He works at the Takoma Park Maryland Library during the day and teaches a graduate class in educational technology at American University in the evenings.)