Ask Jacob

This is an interesting transition time for EVDO in which most offerings are only PCMCIA components. But Intel Mac users are not without options. One of the best places to go for EVDO information is a partner of PowerMax’s called EVDOinfo.com. They are Mac-loving resellers of both Sprint and Verizon EVDO services. If you have a MacBook Pro you can find ExpressCard units for both Verizon and Sprint wireless broadband. As time goes on more of the manufacturers of EVDO cards will make ExpressCard units instead of PCMCIA cards. That does not help MacBook users because like the iBook and 12″ PowerBooks, the Intel MacBooks have no expansion slots. Luckily MacBook users now have an option to get the Sprint EVDO service. There is a new USB EVDO modem made by Franklin that will automatically connect to Intel Macs with 10.4.7 or higher. This new USB modem is due to ship at the end of the month. Apple has built in support for EVDO in Intel Macs and EVDOinfo.com will help with all that Apple will not.That should get you connected.Jacob Loeb

John this is a great project and it is the first time I have heard of a school doing this. The adapter’s power outpoint for white G3 iBooks is 45W 24V 1.875A. The power threshold that an iBook will take is hard to determine. Wattage is not an issue because the iBook will only consume the power it needs. You are going to want to keep the charge below 3 Amp. I would suggest using a car fuse to protect the iBooks in addition to the voltage regulator. The specks are the same for G4 iBooks but instead it has a 2.7A output. I have run G3 iBooks with G4 iBook power adapters and have seen no negative effects. So if the output is capped at 2.7A or 3.0A you will probably be in good shape.I hope this helps with your project. Please send me some pictures and updates on the success of your experiment.Jacob Loeb

A flashing folder indicates that your Mac can’t find a bootable system. When you hold down the Option key on startup most modern Macs will show a Boot loader. That is the blue screen with the two buttons you described. If you had a good hard drive with an OS installed, it would be displayed there as a button to click on. You should also be able to see any retail OS X install discs or Restore discs if it was in the optical drive. The OS install disc needs to have been released after the original sale date of your G4 in order to boot it. If you know the OS install discs will boot your computer but it does not show up in the boot loader then you may have a problem with the PATA bus.A way to test the hardware is by using a bootable FireWire drive. Most people do not have access to one but if you have another Mac with a current OS then you can use that. Boot up your good Mac holding down the “T” key. When the screen shows a blue background with a yellow FireWire symbol then you can connect the two Macs with a 6 pin FireWire cable. Reboot the sick Mac with the Option key held down. In the boot loader, select the good Mac’s hard drive and press the forward arrow. When you get to a desktop you will be able to use Disk Utility to locate and fix the internal hard drive. If you cannot see the drive it would indicate a hardware failure and either the hard drive needs to be replaced or more serious service work needs to be done.I hope this gets you closer to reviving your G4.Jacob Loeb

From the looks of your repair log it looks like LaCie Drive is failing. Your data is not necessarily lost. I would recommend you try Disk Warrior to repair that volume. Many times Disk Warrior can repair a volume when all other utilities have failed. (http://www.powermax.com/product/Disk_Warrior_For_OSX/ms-132119.html) You could try moving the drive to another computer but if your data is not backed up any other place I would not risk trying to fix it many times with Apple’s Disk Utility. Once with Disk Warrior should do it. After you recover the data move it off that drive and reformat the drive before using it again. If it has always been a problematic drive you may want to contact LaCie about getting a replacement.

A FireWire network could be just the thing to make your two computers work together quickly. You are going to need at least Mac OS 10.3 or higher on each system to do this. Both computers are gong to need to have FireWire ports that are connected by a FireWire cable for each computer do the following: Go to “System Preferences” under the blue Apple menu and click on Network. Under the “Show” pull-down menu choose “Network Port Configurations.” Uncheck every checkbox except “Built-In-FireWire.” If Built-In-FireWire is not an option you are going to click on the “New” button. From there create a name of Built-In-FireWire and choose Built-In-FireWire from the “Port” pull-down. Click OK and then back in the network section click “Apply Now.” If you connect to the Internet with these computers you may have to leave some checkboxes checked for the appropriate connection. When Built-In FireWire is not the only checked port you are going to want to drag Built-In FireWire to the top of the Port Configurations list. Now go back to the Systems Preferences main window and select Sharing. Check the checkbox next to “Personal File Sharing.” Head back to the Network preferences and select from the Show pull-down menu “Built-In-FireWire.” Change the TCP/IP setting from “Using DHCP” to “Manually.” Under IP address enter on one computer an IP of 10.0.1.2 and on the other computer use 10.0.1.3 as the IP address. Click Apply Now and close the window. From the Finder click on the Go menu and select connect to server. Enter the IP address of the opposite computer in the Server Address text field and click on Connect. You will need to enter the User name and password for the computer you are connecting to when prompted. Select the other computer’s hard drive and now you can get files from that computer at FireWire speeds.

The display controls for an iMac’s LCD are software controlled. You access those controls through the “Displays” section of System Preferences. The backlight brightness is adjusted from a slider underneath the resolutions section. You can set the screen back to its default color settings under the “Color” tab. Then click on the Profile that says it is for your iMac. Next to the Profile list is a “Calibrate” button that will help you to adjust color, luminance, and white-point but your Spyder should take care of all those settings. I hope this gets you back in tune with your color.

MS word files are cross-platform compatible. That will apply to the template files as well. You are going to want to use the most current version of Word for the Mac, but the templates you create in the Mac version of Microsoft Word will be compatible with the PC version of Word. The template can be locked down and password protected.Hopefully that will work for your clients.Jacob Loeb

Some G5 towers had problems with waking from sleep or inactivity. The single processor 1.8 G5 had a problem like you described. It was fixed by running this firmware update. http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/powermacg5late2004firmwareupdatev11.html This update will only run on 1.8 G5 towers, but other G5 firmware updates could help your problem if you don’t have a 1.8 G5. Search Apple’s support download section for firmware updates that work on your system.Let me know if that helps.Jacob Loeb

The best way to move forward with your genealogy work is to upgrade to an OS X native application. You are in luck that your old program saved your data in the Personal Ancestral File (PAF) format. That is still the standard file format for genealogy programs and the replacement program I would recommend, Reunion 8, supports it. (http://www.powermax.com/product/Reunion_8_for_Mac_OSX/ms-125358.html) After moving your data file from the Cube to your new iMac, you will be able import that data into Reunion 8. It works on Intel and PowerPC Macs and should last you through many more upgrades into the future.That should get you back to work. Good luck.Jacob Loeb

BillI honestly have not been a strong supporter of Norton or McAfee products. They do offer virus protection and Spyware-vulnerability scanning, but their benefits have never outweighed the problems they cause. Mac OS X 10.3.9 has a great firewall built in, and the best protection is to be connected to the Internet through a network router. If you have a wired router or a wireless base station you are going to be safe and the OS X firewall will be more protection on top of that. My recommendation would be to turn off the firewall and other active parts of Norton and turn on the OS X firewall in the “Sharing” System Preferences.To keep using Norton’s firewall you are going to need to go into the preferences and adjust your notification levels. It sounds like it is notifying you about every application’s attempt to connect to the Internet. You are going to need to tell Norton that your applications are allowed outbound connections.Hope that helpsJacob Loeb