Our First Macintosh

We bought a used iMac G3 (450MHz, 128MB RAM, OS X 10.1) from a friend. It was a good price, and we thought it would be a great way to sink our teeth into a Macintosh (at least in a way beyong what we’ve been exposed to by supporting them). I also thought it might be nice for testing web pages and other stuff. It runs pretty well, albeit a bit slow. I think we might throw some more memory in it. It’s a pretty nifty little machine.

Some may remember that I actually started on Apple’s back in the day. Apple IIe’s in grade school, and my first computer was an Apple IIgs, which offered a finder very similar to earlier versions of Mac OS (but was somewhat useless without a hard drive at the time). I switched over to the IBM-compatibles because BBSs were the big craze and anyone who was anyone with a BBS ran it on a DOS machine. Plus, Mac OS prior to X were simply dreadful, in my opinion. Since then I’ve used Windows, Linux, and OS/2, but have always sheepishly come back to Windows. Perhaps this time will be different. I like the BSD core OS X has, and I’m looking forward to the new Mactel machines.

June 21st, 2005  Uncategorized   Tags: apple, Computers, imac, toys, more...

Keep Your Computer Safe

Every year more and more more and more malware goes around trying to wreak havoc on your computer. Here are some tools to help keep you safe:

• SpamBayes – A free spam filter plugin for Microsoft Outlook and IMAP/POP-compliant mail servers.
• Adaware – A popular spyware detection and removal tool for Windows.
• Spybot Search & Destroy – An alternative to Adaware. Now includes spyware removal, Internet Explorer integration, and real-time protection.
• Windows XP Service Pack 2 – If you don’t have a hardware firewall, the next best thing is the excellent free firewall included with Service Pack 2. Also comes with popup blocking.
• SpywareBlaster – Proactively blocks spyware, adware, browser hijackers, and dialers from being installed on your computer.
• AVG Anti-virus – A free antivirus program from Grisoft, including updated definitions.

May 30th, 2004  Software   Tags: antivirus, Computers, malware, microsoft, Software, spam, spyware, more...