Ask Jacob

It will be hard to bump up the iCab speed because modern websites are resource hungry. You may get some better performance by making sure that your application is reserving as much RAM as you can afford to give it. Here is a link to the Apple’s instructions on assigning application RAM in OS 9.

1. Quit the application if it is open.

2. Locate and click once on the desired application icon on your Macintosh hard disk (not the icon in the Launcher or an alias to the application).

3. Choose Get Info from the File menu.

4. Make sure the Kind: is application program and not folder, alias, or document. If it does not say application program, there is no Memory Requirements area.

5. Select Memory from the Show pop-up menu.

6. Increase the amount of memory allocated to the application in the Preferred Size box by 25 to 50 percent. (Example: change 1000 K to 1500 K)

7. Close the Get Info window.

As for a future upgrade, you will probably want to consider two key elements. Are you willing to buy new applications and do you own any FireWire devices? If you have OS 9-based applications that you must bring over because you do not want to upgrade the software, then you should focus on a used computer with Mac OS 10.4 Tiger installed. This does not include general applications like email clients, web browsers, and basic iLife applications. Those kind of applications will come on a new system, but if you have software that was never written for OS X, then you need to have the Classic application support that is in Mac OS 10.4 but missing from Mac OS 10.5 Tiger.

If you are willing to leap fully into the modern Mac OS and applications, then definitely the new Unibody Macbooks will be right for you and should last you for many years. Unless you need an ultra light computer, PowerMax.com steer clear of the MacBook Air and look at the mid-range MacBooks. They are heavier but will have more processor power and storage. The MacBook and MacBook Air both don’t have FireWire, so if you have a FireWire-based device you will need to look at a MacBook Pro.

Hope this helps
Jacob

The LCII came with a 40MB or 80MB hard drive and many of those older drives just do not hold up well over time. Fifteen years is a long time to keep spinning the same steel platter. You could be lucky and just need to reinstall the Mac OS. It will take Mac OS 7.0.1 to 7.5.5 and you can find system updates for that computer at Apple’s Older Software Downloads page.

If you do not have a copy of the Mac OS for your system, you can download system 7.5.3 from Apple’s Index Of Older Systems and put them on Floppy disks. Here are some good instructions on making boot floppies from OS X.

Hope this helps, If the drive is dead you will have some issues finding a suitable replacement, but it can be done.

Classic can often be installed from the original install discs that came with your computer. If your computer came with OS 10.4, there was a “Classic” installer on one of the Gray labeled discs. You did not need to boot up from those disks, just run the installer. Once installed you just need to double click on your old application and Classic will start. You can also install OS 9 on another drive and then use the Classic section in System Preferences to set that drive as your Classic source.

Note, if you upgrade to Leopard, Classic will stop working.

An alternative to running the Classic environment is to dual boot your system. When you have a PowerPC-based Mac, like you do, that is pre-Airport Extreme, you have options for running older applications. You can use Classic, which runs OS 9 and OS 9 applications in a virtual computer contained in Mac OS X. This lets you use both OS X and OS 9 applications side-by-side each other.

Dual booting lets you start the computer in OS 9 or OS X. Both versions of the operating system live on the same drive but you can only use one at a time. This is less convenient but lets you run many hardware specific applications that could fail in the Classic OS 9 environment. Try it in Classic but do not be afraid if it does not work for you. You can always boot the computer up in OS 9 via the Startup Disk system preference and try booted up in OS 9. It will likely work one way or another.

Printing in Classic has many problems because it is an emulated environment, but not in a traditional way. There is a good chance this will not work and also any new printer you buy may not have OS 9 print drivers; even HP, which are still great printers. In those situations you have another option. Open Chooser from the Classic Apple Menu. If you do not see the rainbow-colored Classic Apple menu, just start an OS 9 application and it will appear. In the left side of the Chooser window double click on LaserWriter 8 and close the window. Now when you go to print from your OS 9 applications you will get the LaserWriter 8 Print screen. Change the Destination pulldown menu to “File” and then the Format pulldown menu to “EPS Mac Standard Preview.” Click on the Save button and save the EPS file to your desktop. The Preview application that is included in OS X will open that EPS and let you print it from there. It is an extra step but works with 90% of the hard Classic printing jobs I encounter.

Hope that helps. In regards to the game recommendations, a desire for continued employment has kept me from discovering such things. I have know many people who have Dashboard Widgets that will give you your Mac mini-game fix. http://www.apple.com/downloads/dashboard/

Unfortunately, if the diagnosis is correct and your logic-board is no longer working correctly, then it is an extremely expensive repair.

Sometimes even faulty equipment can still work under light loads. I have my father’s old iMac on life support just for his writing and emailing. He uses his much newer MacBook for all his big projects.

It may be a good idea to get your iBook reinstalled from the factory-restore DVDs. Then use the iBook for only classroom work. If you do not migrate data, it may continue to work. You may also want to get a second opinion about the logic board. Just like with medicine, fails-positives happen.

And, um, next time… buy a used Mac from PowerMax… we provide a 90-day warranty and more (including answers to questions). But I’m guessing you’ve kinda figured that out by now.

There is a little command you can type into the Terminal that will restart your dock. Anything that is minimized on it will be kicked off. First, open the Terminal application, it is in your Utilities folder that is in the Applications folder. When Terminal is open, type this text: “killall Dock” without the quotation marks. Press the return key and your Dock should disappear for a moment. When it comes back up you should have nothing on it except saved shortcuts, the trash, and applications.

The Leopard upgrade is often smooth, having done it on a dozen or so systems myself I can attest to that. I would, however, recommend that you buy an external drive and clone your system onto it. Use carbon Copy Cloner to make your clone.

www.bombich.com/software/ccc.html

After you have a good clone of your computer’s hard drive, you can then upgrade your system to Leopard. If you encounter any problems, format the internal hard drive and install Leopard on the empty drive. Then use the Migration Assistant -which runs when you first start up Leopard- to pull the data from the cloned system you made on the external drive. Once you have everything running smoothly, you can format that external drive and turn it into your Time Machine drive.

Hope that helps… and you are going to love Leopard.

Missing items from the list view when those items are still on your computer is a strange problem. I have seen the Mac OS fail to draw all items in a list but that will always leave a big white space where the items are supposed to be. That problem is often fixed by using the scroll-bar on the right to move the blank space in and out of view. You may have to shrink the window so that only a portion of the list is visible. Then you can scroll up and down.

It sounds like you are having a different problem than what I have described above. In your case I would expect that it could be a file permissions problem. To fix file permissions go to Disk Utility in your Utilities folder. Select your hard drive and then click on the Repair Disk Permissions button under the First Aid tab. After it is done running, restart your Mac and see if you still have the same problems.

After that, if some items are still missing, make sure that you have not inadvertently moved your missing applications to a folder inside the Applications folder. I have seen some cases were half the applications were in the Office 2004 folder and a turned down triangle in one view would show everything but in another window the folder was not expanded to show everything.

I think you were right to suspect that the file extension is at the root of your problem. The change to using filename extensions in OS X created some controversy among Mac users because extensions aren’t needed in OS 9. We have seen many great things out of OS X, but one tradeoff is that we now need to think about filename extensions. For Appleworks files it should be the same as the old ClarisWorks extension: ….CWK. So when you’re saving files from OS 9 applications, make sure to include the file extension. One nice use of filename extensions is that you can easily change what application is associated with that extension in OS X. Hold down the “Option” key and click on a file and select “Get Info” from the pop-out menu. Use the “Open with:” section to change the default application and then click on the Change All button. Now, for example, all your .cwk files will open in Appleworks.

Using filename extensions and telling OS X what application the extension is for should fix your problem. Good luck

Not all OS discs are made alike. Some of the versions of OS 9 are only for use in Classic and others are only equipped to support specific hardware. Starting with Mac OS X 10.2, Apple did not provide a separate OS 9 install disc as part of the software included with new computers. OS 9 had to be installed as part of the restore or separate install. It may be that your iMac OS 9 is not a full version but instead a version intended to be used mostly through OS X Classic. If that is the case then you are going to have troubles. A good test is to try launching “SimpleText” to see if that OS 9 Application works. If SimpleText works then the base part of OS 9 is functioning. At that point it is just a matter of troubleshooting your extensions and trying to repair them. It may be better and faster to buy a used retail copy of OS 9. The good news is that any version of OS 9 will run on a B&W G3 tower. Just perform a clean install of the retail OS 9 and you should be fine.

There are many Mac options for filling out PDF forms. Adobe has the most advanced support for PDF editing. There are Mac versions of Acrobat Standard and Professional. Adobe has trial versions of both. There is also an application called PDFpen. I have not used this, but it looks like it will work for what you want to do, and they offer a free demo so you can try it out.

One of those should work but there are many more available; a quick Google search showed dozens. Let me know if you need further suggestions.

Dot Mac has an effective Spam filter that catches much of the Spam sent daily. The problem is no matter how clever Apple is at filtering Spam, the senders of Spam are determined to get it to you. Their persistence is impossible to counter 100% of the time, and every so often they find a new way around Apple’s guard. What you are seeing could be the temporary success of the spammers. They will likely soon be caught and stopped, but it may take some action on your part as well. On the Dot Mac servers there are plenty of known Spam lists and special “intelligent” filters to look for Spam-like attributes. Mail that gets past those filters is then sent to your computer but not necessarily to you. Within the “Mail” application is additional Spam filtering tools. In the Mail Preferences is a “Junk Mail” section. There you can turn on filtering by checking the checkbox next to “Enable Junk mail filtering.” Work with the default settings for a little while and work to train the filters. “Mail” will learn about what you consider Spam and will start taking care of it automatically for you.

The reality is that we all get Spam, tons of it. Dot Mac just has been taking good care of it for the most part, but they can’t get it all the time. So lend Apple a hand and soon they will beat back the slimy Spammers. That is until Spammers find a new attack.

OS 9 Comments are not viewable in OS X 10.4. Apple has implemented "Spotlight Comments" in OS X 10.4 and they are stored in different ways. There are free and Shareware utilities that will move OS 9 Comments to OS X. Comment Synch is one that I have heard good things about.

I have seen this problem many times before when OS X was new. An iMac loses connection to its built-in screen most often when you upgrade to OS X without first installing the firmware update. It could be that the firmware did not install on your system or was installed improperly. The fix can be as simple as reinstalling the firmware. From this link you can find all available firmware that you need to install OS X. Here is the specific link for your iMac’s firmware. Please follow the directions on this page point by point. You will have to download and run this update from OS 9. At the end of this process, you should see a message that says your computer’s firmware has been successfully updated to version 4.1.9. You may see a message saying that the firmware is up-to-date and will not run. If you see that message then your only other "Home Remedy" would be to zap your PRAM. To zap your PRAM, start up the computer holding down the "Apple," "Option," "P," and "R" keys. Let the iMac chime four times before you let go of the keys.

Macs introduced after the beginning of 2003 will not boot into Mac OS 9. They are OS X computers only and will only run OS 9 programs through the OS 9 emulator called Classic, which is part of OS X. A new iMac G5 will still come with Classic on discs but it will not be installed. However, you are right to wonder if your husband’s survey software will work in Classic. Some software does not run in Classic at all, or runs poorly, although other programs work well. See if you can find a friend’s computer with OS X and Classic to test it on. If it will run in Classic then you are just in time. As Apple switches all Macs to Intel processors your options to run OS 9 applications are disappearing. Intel-based Macs will not run Classic at all. Find the fastest PowerPC based system that will run that application because this will be the last upgrade for your husband’s application. Don’t fear if Classic doesn’t work for you, PowerMax still has many OS 9 booting computers just for people in your husband’s position.

This is a common question, particularly among PowerMax customers. PowerMax is one of the only places anyone can buy an OS 9 booting computer that have warranties, so we get people in your position calling every day. The bad news is that Intel Macs will not run classic applications at all. OS 9 is officially unsupported from Apple on Intel systems. The reason for this has to do with how the two emulators work. Classic was a component of OS X and not a stand-alone application. Rosetta is the same kind of OS component as Classic. In order for OS 9 applications to have worked on Intel Macs, a user would have to run Classic as part of OS X for the Power PC inside of OS X for Intel, which just isn’t realistic. The other option would have been for Apple to create a different emulator for Classic altogether, but they are no longer willing to support that level of older software.

The lack of Classic is going to be a problem for you and many others, so you’re not alone. The solution I have for you is basically what you suggested. What I would recommend is using two computers. Buy the best computer that you can find that will boot into OS 9. Install only your “Must Have” applications on it and keep that old system in the best working order possible. Then do everything else on your newer systems. Living a split digital life will not be overly convenient, but it’s going to be the best solution apart from finding a new program to replace your old one.

There are several ways a program can auto-start in OS X. One way is to place an application in the StartupItems folder that is in your main Library folder. However, the more common way applications auto-start is through a user preference. Go to the System Preferences and click on Accounts. Select your user account and click on the "Login items" tab. You will probably see PageMaker in the list of auto-starting applications. Click on PageMaker to highlight, and then use the "-" button to remove it from the list. That’s it, PageMaker should only start when you want it to. Often you can add or remove login items from the Dock. If you click and hold on an application’s dock icon, a menu will appear. One of the options is "Open At Login" and selecting it will cause that application to auto-start next time you restart. An auto-starting application will have a check mark next to the "Open At Login" menu item.

Bell South must be a little confused. There was never a version of OS 9.2.3, the highest was 9.2.2. Here is a link to all the free downloads of OS 9 available:

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=75288

The problem you may have is that OS 9.1 is the highest OS you can install on a Pre-G3 Mac.
Here is a link to Apple’s OS 8 and OS 9 compatibility chart:

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=25114

The difference between Mac OS 9.1 and 9.2.2 is not too significant, I think you could update to OS 9.1 and use their software without any problems.

The question of whether you need an OS 9 System folder on your OS X computer depends on what software you use. The OS 9 System Folder is installed on some OS X Macs so that the “Classic” environment will work. Classic will allow Power PC-based Macs to use OS 9 applications in OS X. This is particularly helpful for longtime Mac users who have old programs that were never rewritten for OS X. I still use one or two and so keep Classic on my computer just for them. If you do not have any old applications, then you can safely remove the “Applications (Mac OS 9)” and “System Folder” from your computer.

An OS 9 System Folder is not always easy to remove because the OS X operating system actively references it as part of Classic. The easy way of removing it is to go into the System Folder and moving the file “Finder” to the trash. Then you need to restart the computer. After the computer has restarted you can move the whole System Folder to the trash. Most likely you will have to enter your Admin user name and password to make that move. I would discourage you from emptying the trash for a week or so until you know that you don’t need Classic for any of your applications.

Hope that works well for you.

I had a similar problem with my favorite CAD software. Claris CAD was the first CAD program I learned, and I still can whip together blueprints in that program faster then any other. I even kept an old Mac SE around to run the program because Claris CAD worked so poorly in OS 8.6 and up. As it turned out, when I started using OS X full time, I fired up Claris CAD in the Classic environment and it ran beautifully. I have to make Disk Images of floppy disks to save documents to, but other than that, this old application works great in OS X. To print I have to get creative and generate an EPS file and then convert that with an OS X application but it sill works. I would bet it could work for your lumber program as well. You are going to need a new computer because I think that Performa has sung its last song. A G4 iMac would be a good choice and would hold up over the years.

I hope that could work for you but if not, we do still have CRT monitors that can connect with adapters to the older Macs.

With the class you are taking, you have a definite need for an Intel-based Mac, but your current use of OS 9 applications will make that an expensive move. An Intel Mac would allow you to work with Explorer 6 through Parallels, but OS 9 applications are not supported on Intel Macs. I have seen people get Classic applications working on Intel Macs, but I wouldn’t recommend the hacking method they use for the programs from which you make your living.

Because Microsoft discontinued Internet Explorer for the Mac before it reached version 6, you are only able to use it on an Intel Mac by running Windows through Parallels or Boot Camp. However the class you are taking may only request Internet Explorer 6 so that all students have a common browser to view their work. It may be ok for you to test most of your web design work with the cross-platform browser Firefox, and then do your final preview in Internet Explorer from a fellow student’s computer or the library’s computers.

Without Internet Explorer in the way, you could then just buy a Previously Owned Mac that can run OS 9 Classic and OS X 10.4. That would allow you to use your old applications and slowly start buying Universal versions of software to replace your old programs. Then when all your software is transitioned to new Universal software, you can trade in the PowerPC-based Mac and buy a new Intel-based Mac.

Hope that gives you some ideas.

I hear this question often because many printer companies no longer provide support for Mac OS 9 on new printers. There is, however, a work around. HP and some other network printers support OS 9 computers over the network, although they do not say so. That means you can buy an HP printer with built in networking support and add the printer in OS 9 as a Generic Postscript printer. HP printers with an “n” in the model number will be a networked printer. Not all of them support Postscript printing and the ones that do tend to cost more, somewhere in the $300 to $500 range. Two printers that I have heard work well with OS 9 are the LaserJet 1320n and P2015n. Call into our sales line for up-to-date pricing and availability (800.844.3599).

The FireWire 800 Mirrored Drive Door (MDD) G4 has most of the same features as the first generation MDD G4s. Of course it has an added FireWire 800 port, but it also can take Airport Extreme cards instead of the slower original Airport cards. Also, it is quieter than the first generation MDD G4 towers. The biggest difference is that the FireWire 800 MDD G4s do not boot into OS 9. The original MDD was the last computer to allow booting into OS 9. That makes them the fastest OS 9 booting G4s and consequently they are a little more expensive than the OS X only version with FireWire 800. No G4 tower came with USB 2.0 native. A PCI USB card would have to be used.

Dual Boot is a generic computer term for a system setup and capable of natively running two different operating systems. In the case of PowerPC Macs, Dual Boot means that you can start up the computer in both Mac OS 9 or Mac OS X. Not all Macs can boot OS 9 and OS X. Most newer PowerPC Macs will only boot into OS X and any older application that needs to run in OS 9 will have to be run in emulation through the Classic environment. Some software does not run well in Classic so some people will need a Dual Boot Mac to run their application natively.

The B&W G3 will work well with Mac OS 10.3, but you may want to add extra RAM. Another 256 MB would put you at a good level. 10.4 Tiger is even a possibility for you (http://www.apple.com/macosx/upgrade/requirements.html) but unless you have a DVD drive you will also need to request a CD installer package after you buy Tiger. The form can be found here (Tiger Media Exchange Form). Your B&W computer is not going to be screaming fast in OS X, but it should get you working on basic tasks like web browsing.

I bought a Gamepad similar to the one you are looking at two years back and have tried it with many games. Even though it is “supported” by the Mac, it still has not worked worth a damn. The games have to have support for the controllers for it to work, and many Mac games do not support these Logitech Precision Gamepads. Most of the USB gamepads support InputSprocket games, so your games may work with it even though it is not technically supported.The best advice is to see what other users of your specific games are using and see if you can pick up one of those controllers.

There are few things to keep in mind when working with this new Mirrored Drive Door G4. The first thing is that all hard drives installed into this G4 must be set for “Cable Select.” It will take up to four hard drives, and all have to be “cable select” and the plug at the end of the PATA cable has to be used if only one drive is going to be on the cable. When you format drives for this computer you must make sure that they are formatted with OS 9 support. A good way to make sure a disk will support OS 9 is to format it from OS 9. So boot up from the backup and format the internal drive that you want to have OS 9 on. Then install 9.2.2 on it. Missing the OS 9 disk support is probably what’s causing your booting problems. You can put the old drive that worked on the 400 MHz G4 into the new MDD G4 but it will have to have the latest version of OS 9 installed on it.PowerMax has a good stock of original Airport cards. You can find them here: (http://www.powermax.com/product/Used_Airport_Card/a-51540.html) and they will work in both versions of the Mac OS that you use.As for salvage, we tend not to have much use for those computers for parts. We would be happy to recycle it for you but you may find that you can donate it to someone who does not need an ethernet jack.

I think you may have accidentally turned on a Universal Access feature, and that’s what is causing your problems. Go to the System Preferences and click on Universal Access. Now click on the mouse tab and turn off “Mouse Keys.” Unless you use Universal Access you should make sure all settings are marked as “off.”Hope that solves it.

Installing OS 9 can happen a few different ways depending on what version of OS your computer came with. If your computer originally had Mac OS X 10.2 or later on it, then you can Install OS 9 Classic the same as installing an application. It should be included on one of the restore/install DVDs that came with your iMac. Most often it is part of the second DVD or on a CD of its own. Someplace on the disc it will say that it includes Classic or OS 9. You do not need to boot-up the computer from the disc, just put it in and look for the installer. It is often best to install OS 9 after OS X, so you are on the right track. You will have to find the specific version of OS 9 that came with your computer because most retail versions of OS 9 will not install properly on an iMac 17″.

Hope that gets your classic running.

Macs introduced after the beginning of 2003 will not boot into Mac OS 9. They are OS X computers only and will only run OS 9 programs through the OS 9 emulator called Classic, which is part of OS X. A new iMac G5 will still come with Classic on discs but it will not be installed. However, you are right to wonder if your husband’s survey software will work in Classic. Some software does not run in Classic at all, or runs poorly, although other programs work well. See if you can find a friend’s computer with OS X and Classic to test it on. If it will run in Classic then you are just in time. As Apple switches all Macs to Intel processors your options to run OS 9 applications are disappearing. Intel-based Macs will not run Classic at all. Find the fastest PowerPC based system that will run that application because this will be the last upgrade for your husband’s application. Don’t fear if Classic doesn’t work for you, PowerMax still has many OS 9 booting computers just for people in your husband’s position.

This is a common problem for the later model G4 computers. They will only boot off a Mac OS 9.2.2 CD and no other version will work, not even 9.2.1. The bigger problem there is that Apple never made a 9.2.2 CD that you could buy. They only came with new computers. The fastest way for you to get OS 9.2.2 on your G4 computer is to purchase the original CD pack that came with that computer.

There is another way to get your copy of OS 9.1 on your computer but it’s complicated. You will need another Mac that has Mac OS 9 on it and a working original FireWire port (This cannot be done with a B&W G3 tower). Also you are going to need a 6 to 6 Pin FireWire cable, the kind that you would use to connect a FireWire Hard drive to your computer.

Boot up the Mirrored Door G4 with the “T” key held down. This will put the computer into Target disk mode and display a big yellow FireWire symbol on a blue screen. Now connect the two Macs with a FireWire cable and boot your second Mac from the OS 9 CD by holding down the “C” key. When your second Mac boots fully of the OS 9 install CD you should see both the hard drive of the second Mac and the Hard drive of the Mirrored Door G4. Run the installer and install OS 9 on the Mirrored Door G4’s hard drive. When the installation is done, restart the second Mac and hold down the “Option” Key. The boot loader will appear and you can select the Mirrored Door G4’s hard drive. Click on the right arrow button to boot off the selected drive. When you boot up, you can update the OS to Mac OS 9.2.2 from software update. You may have to upgrade several times to get to 9.2.2 but after you do you just need to restart both computers without the FireWire Cable. You now should be able to boot into OS 9 or X on the Mirrored Door G4 and Classic should now work within OS X.

Not all Fonts are transferable from OS X to OS 9. Fonts that have the “.FFIL,” “.TTF,” or “.LWFN” can work in both OS 9 and X. Other font packages like “.OTF” fonts won’t work in OS 9. All you will need to do is copy the fonts you want over to “/System Folder/Fonts/” from the “/Library/Fonts/” folder. If you hold down the “Option” key when dragging the fonts over you’ll make copies of them instead of just moving the fonts to a new place.

That should get your fonts in order.

You are eventually going to want to upgrade your print layout program, but there should be no urgent need to upgrade. What you should do in the immediate future is get “Classic” installed on your eMac. Modern PowerPC Macs can utilize OS 9 programs through a special emulation of OS 9 called Classic. You will need to find your copy of Classic, which in not pre-installed by Apple. The installer is on one of the grey DVDs that came with your computer. Most often, Classic is on the second DVD and the DVD will have “Includes Mac OS 9.2″ printed in small text in the upper right hand corner of the disc. On the disc will be an item named “Install Mac OS 9 System Support.” Double click on it and select your language. After you have finished installing Classic, you can put in your PageMaker install disc. Then run the installer to install the program on your eMac. After that you will be able to use PageMaker just as you do on your old computer.

Let me know if that works for you… but you will need to look at transitioning to InDesign or Quark for true native OS X speed. But at least this will buy you some time before you switch.

This is a common question, particularly among PowerMax customers. PowerMax is one of the only places anyone can buy an OS 9 booting Apple computer that have warranties, so we get people in your position calling every day. The bad news is that Intel Macs will not run classic applications at all. OS 9 is officially unsupported from Apple on Intel systems. The reason for this has to do with how the two emulators work. Classic was a component of OS X and not a stand-alone application. Rosetta is the same kind of OS component as Classic. In order for OS 9 applications to have worked on Intel Macs, a user would have to run Classic as part of OS X for the Power PC inside of OS X for Intel, which just isn’t realistic. The other option would have been for Apple to create a different emulator for Classic altogether, but they are no longer willing to support that level of older software.

The lack of Classic is going to be a problem for you and many others, so you’re not alone. The solution I have for you is basically what you suggested. What I would recommend is using two computers. Buy the best computer that you can find that will boot into OS 9. Install only your “Must Have” applications on it and keep that old system in the best working order possible. Then do everything else on your newer systems. Living a split digital life will not be overly convenient, but it’s going to be the best solution apart from finding a new program to replace your old one.