Contemplating...

...whether I should upgrade my PowerBook G4 (12", 1GHz) to Mac OS X Leopard 10.5. I currently have the original 40GB HDD installed, so perhaps I should upgrade that first (given Leopard requires 9GB to install). The G3s I have will all stay at 10.4 for the time being. They are all sub-500MHz so I don't think any amount of hacking will make 10.5 worthwhile on them.

For the record, I don't think Apple making the minimum processor required for Leopard to be an 867MHz G4 is unfair. And I have lots of old Macs that can run 10.4 :)

Edit: I will probably wait for 10.5.1 to come out.

Frog season has started in Dampier

Saw my first frog of the season on Saturday, peaking up at me from the drain in the sink in my room. It was a Desert Tree Frog (Litoria rubella), similar to this.

New Toys

Picked up a 3rd generation 20GB iPod for $140. It is in near-mint condition with good battery life. Will be useful for backing up photos as well (I am only using 2GB for songs at the moment).

Also have a 12" 500MHz G3 iBook coming - it will need some repairs but will hopefully be functional soon.

Lastly, my B&W G3 PowerMac (350MHz) is finally setup with 512MB of RAM, 40GB internal HDD, 250GB USB2.0 external HDD and a FireWire external dual layer DVD burner. This is now the backup server for all of our photos and other documents.

Ballpoint pen marks on LCD monitors...

...can be removed with Isopropyl alcohol and a little bit of effort. The sterilizing pads you can buy at the pharmacy do the job nicely. Thanks to Kylie for sourcing the pads and Cameron for providing the pen marks...

Added to the collection...

• PowerMac 9500/132 with broken power supply (but with stacks of RAM, 18GB hard drive, Sony SCSI CD-RW drive and two PCI graphics cards);
• Two 20" Apple CRT monitors (both work well - if you would like one let me know);
• Another PowerBook 100 for parts (non-booting complete unit in very good condition).

I am in the process of building a "hot rod" PowerMac 7500. Full details soon...

Breaks the monotony...

The plane I flew to Karratha on recently had to circle for 15 minutes or so waiting for fog over the airport to clear. When the pilot first tried landing the fog was so thick we had to pull out. If we couldn't land on the second try we were going to fly to Port Hedland for re-fueling...