P.S. Speaking of that PowerBook, a few weeks ago I dug it out and reinstalled SimCity 2000 to show that game to my 11 year old nephew. (Yes, he liked it and we had fun!)
But man, playing around with that system, you realize how much things have changed under the hood without us noticing! It’s crazy how incompatible those systems have become with the modern Internet. On Mac OS 9, it’s now nearly impossible to use the web, even to download from vintage software archives, because they all use HTTPS, and modern HTTPS uses encryption standards that didn’t exist then, so they literally cannot connect. Even the last Mac OS X (10.4) that runs on that system can’t download anything, the Safari (and IE 5) in it can’t connect, for the same reason. There’s a special version of Firefox for PPC Macs that can connect. That works great for the vintage software archives, but trying to browse the modern web shows you just how batshit crazy insanely CPU intensive modern websites are. (And that special Firefox doesn’t work with modern ad/tracker blocker extensions, so the 400MHz CPU has to take the full brunt of the dozens of pieces of JavaScript bullshit on most sites.)
So then, OK, I’ll download on my modern Mac and copy things over... well, can’t do it via LAN, again, no mutual protocols (in a default OS config on each end). OK, well, I’ve got a USB floppy drive! Nope, Mac OS X shed the ability to write to Mac-formatted floppies over 10 years ago. What does work is external hard disks (the PowerBook has USB 1.1 and FireWire 400, the modern MacBook has USB 3 and Thunderbolt, and my Mac Pro has USB 3 and FireWire 400/800) and Zip.
Which brings me to my “what’s your latest purchase”: I scored a USB Zip 250 drive. (Has the PCMCIA adapter card, too, but that’s PC-only and unneeded on my USB-capable PowerBook anyway.) Since I have an internal Zip 100 module for the PowerBook, and my original SCSI Zip 100 drive, too, Zip 100 is the
only format I have that
all of my computers can read and write! Most of my computers have optical drives, but not my oldest vintage Mac (external CD—ROM drive got disposed of ages ago
![Sad :(](https://www.eevblog.com/forum/Smileys/default/xsad.gif.pagespeed.ic.L3FGyzQrjB.png)
), and the optical drives in the remaining vintage computers are starting to fail, having trouble with marginal discs of any kind, be they burned or stamped.
On the bright side, maybe I’ve just been good about storage, but I have yet to encounter a single failed floppy or Zip disk, and my old CD-R data archives also seem to be flawlessly preserved. (It’s all been migrated to HDD with separate backups, but still!)
I’ve also been assembling a “new” hifi system from what’s basically Sony’s last real lines of pure audio gear, all QS series from around 2000ish. So far, I’ve snagged a tape deck (TC-KB920, the last deck they ever made. Sadly I damaged some of the electronics while trying to repair a failed potentiometer, so I still need to do repairs on it. I picked up a cheap donor deck with a dead transport and damaged housing but intact electronics as a source for unobtanium ICs so I should be good), an MDS-JB930 MiniDisc deck (Sony’s penultimate MiniDisc deck), and a CDP-XB930 CD player (Sony’s last pure CD player in the 900 series — all the later ones were SACD, and don’t support Control AII bus for system automation). The last two I got lucky on and got for a song, about $90 each, far less than they’re selling for, and they’re in absolutely mint condition!
![Cheesy :D](https://www.eevblog.com/forum/Smileys/default/xcheesy.gif.pagespeed.ic.KPzuH4J-TG.png)
I also bought (and still need to pick up) a CDP-XB740 CD player, which is truly Sony’s last pure CD player, but which should support CD-RW playback, too. I got it for a whopping $40! No idea why nobody bid it up more, got lucky I guess!
So I still need to get the tape deck fixed, as well as pick up a matching receiver or amp. Modern amps have at best one tape input/output, so it has to be a matching late-90’s model that has two, one for tape and one for MiniDisc. And of course another set of speakers. Most likely, the XB740 will end up connected to the home cinema, while the rest will become a stereo for the bedroom, where I currently must use the Mac Pro for music playback. (Speakers are good, but the Mac Pro pumps out a lot of heat, so using it just as a music player is silly.)
I also got a portable HiMD recorder and a tape Walkman a bit better than my old one (I replaced the belts in both). I still love MiniDisc; those damned magneto-optical discs are just indestructible!