This post comes to you from an Apple PowerBook G4 400 "Titanium" laptop computer that I put in service in 2001. The "G4" refers to the PowerPC "G4" CPU. This computer is now over 20 years old.

It has a whopping 640 MB of RAM and 10 GB of hard disk space.

It runs OS X 10.3.9 "Panther" and can also run System 9.2 in parallel.

It does not support the more modern Wi-Fi security standards (stops at WEP) so I have to hook it up to Ethernet to get it onto the Internet.

It still works with WTF (obviously) but can no longer work with Piano World Forums or TNCR (those websites require newer security standards not required by WTF).

Anyway, I was clearing out some old stuff in the basement and saw this old laptop sitting there. Figure I would power it up and see what happens. Happy to see that it still works!

I'd be even more impressed if you were still using an A pple II-E...

I had a Mac IIsi sitting in the basement for many years.

Back in 1992 I had developed a database app for my benevolent employer. Four years ago someone asked me if I still had a copy of it. I did, but it would only run on a database program on an early 1990s Mac. I got my old Mac IIsi out of the box and set it up. As soon as I plugged it in, the fan started running. I tried a few things to shut it off and get it to boot properly. Nope. I took the cover off. It turned out that the battery that kept the clock running while it was unplugged had disintegrated and leaked battery goop all over the motherboard and many important bits were corroded.

Sad!

I hauled it off to the e-waste center.


I also have an IBM PC Convertible, their original laptop. It has a non-backlit LCD CGA display and two 720K 3.5" floppy drives. The battery for it is quite dead, but if I plug it in to the external power supply, it boots right up. I don't remember if I ever had a modem for it, but it would have been 1200 baud. I doubt there is any dial-up ISP service anymore. Maybe someone, somewhere has a 1200 baud modem that will answer and connect to a text-only BBS or something.

I gave away all of my other pre-Windoze IBM hardware a couple years ago. It was two carloads for the kid who hauled it off. There was an original 5-slot PC and three PC-XTs in the pile and several of their original monochrome monitors, all in working order.

So, Ax, I'll see your 640MB of RAM and 10GB disk. My first PC has 640KB of RAM and a 10MB hard drive. And we never thought we'd fill that thing up. My camera makes images that are 20MB.

I loved DOS 2.1. It was pretty darned bulletproof.