While it definitely helps that I have the maximum of 567 MB of RAM installed, it would choke long before this at 366 MHz. These instructions are courtesy of Mark Sokolovsky, a netizen of LEM’s G3-5 List. You will want to print these out, since they’re not easy commands to remember. Also, where it says ” <something>, there is a space in between ” and <something>. That tripped me up when I first tried this. Anyway, here they are, exactly as he posted them to the list:

(1) Boot by holding down “Cmd” + “Opt” + “O” + “F” keys to enter the OpenFirmware terminal.

(2) Enter the NVRAMRC editor. (<return> shows you should type “return” key)
nvedit <return>

(3) Type following script exactly (including spaces).

” /” select-dev <return>
7efdc44 ” clock-frequency” get-my-property 2drop ! <return>
” /cpus/PowerPC,G4@0″ select-dev <return>
1fca0554 ” clock-frequency” get-my-property 2drop ! <return>
7efdc44 ” bus-frequency” get-my-property 2drop ! <return>
1fbf711 ” timebase-frequency” get-my-property 2drop !

(4) Type “Ctrl” + “C” to exit NVRAMRC editor.

(5) Save the script
nvstore <return>

(6) To enable the NVRAMRC, type this command.
setenv use-nvramrc? true <return>

(7) Reboot with new timebase constant.
reset-all <return>

Use this command to successfully overclock any G-powered PowerPC processor to 533Mhz without soldering. This only works on sub-533Mhz processors. As for PowerPC G3, use PowerPC,750@0 instead of PowerPC,G4@0.

Good luck, and I hope this works for you!

–Matt

So, you’ve been buying equipment, enduring the harsh and sometimes often untruthful sales pitches from Best Buy associates, and you’re now setting it up. Your home theater system is starting to look really good, but how to control the Mac mini at the center of it all? RemotePad does that, and it does it well.

So, what is it? RemotePad is a free and Open Source app which allows you to control a computer running Windows, Linux/UNIX/BSD, or Mac OS X from your iPhone or iPod touch. While not as fancy as, say, Keymote, it gets the job done quite well. So, with no more than 3 seconds of ado, let’s get to the review!

When you start the app, you’re presented with a screen that looks much like this:

The RemotePad Opening Screen

As you can see, it allows you to select a Bonjour/zeroconf server from the list, or type in the IP address or hostname.

Once connected, you are greeted with a descriptive yet simple “Connected!” popup.

Connected!

Then, you get a basic but functional trackpad.

The Trackpad

You can change lots of settings, which is always a plus for me.

Settings Screen #1

Settings Screen #2

Settings Screen #3

Settings Screen #4

As you can see, there are lots of cool settings, my favorite of which is “Pseudo high pass filter”. What it means is that if you hold down your finger while waving it around, the cursor follows. Very cool! Now, the rest of the features are as to be expected, a very functional trackpad, a keyboard, etc. One slight annoyance is that the keyboard doesn’t have ?, ?, ?, etc. Keys.

The Keyboard

So, all in all, RemotePad is very worth a spot on your SpringBoard. You can get it on the App Store, and you can download the server software at the site.

This game is called Glider. You veteran Mac users will know what I’m talking about, whereas most everyone else will just go “what?”. The basic idea is to guide your glider throughout miscellaneous “Houses”. Your glider looks something like this:

A glider.

To control it, you press keys to tilt it back and forth. This moves it in the direction it is tilted. Your objective is to make it through a “house” without losing all of your gliders. If you land on the floor, hit a cabinet, or collide with an enemy, you lose a glider and have to resume the game from the beginning of the room. Now, Glider has gone through many iterations, the earliest being Glider. However, it’s nearly impossible to find copies of the original, so the next version up was Glider 3.12. You can check it out at Macintosh Garden. This was followed by Glider 4.0:

Glider 4.0's Startup Screen.

Glider 4.0 brought a number of changes, including powerups (batteries which allowed you to speed up your glider for a short time) and editable houses.

Room 1 Of Glider 4.0's Default House.

Glider 4.0 was followed by Glider PRO for OS 7+, which was followed by Glider PRO for OS 9 and (drumroll please…) OS X! Luckily, Glider PRO for OS X works perfectly in Rosetta, so it can be played on an Intel Mac too.

Glider PRO's Opening Screen.

The gameplay is identical to that of Glider 4.0 but for 4 things: Helium, Rubber Bands, 9 room view, and the fact that to win, you have to collect stars instead of make it to the end. 9 room view does what it says. It allows you to see 9 rooms at a time, which is very helpful in large houses.

Slumberland's Opening Screen In 9 Room View.

Slumberland.

Slumberland's Second Room.

Glider PRO comes with 2 houses: Slumberland and Demo House. I suggest playing Demo House to get a feel for things before trying to go all out and beat Slumberland.

So, you ask, “Where can I get this amazing game?” Well, the game’s author has been so kind as to release it as freeware, and it is now available (along with Glider 4.0) for OS 9 and OS X at: http://homepage.mac.com/calhoun/Glider%20PRO.html

If you want more houses, there are excellent archives at: http://www.sterlingstudiosinc.com/GliderPro/index.html and http://www.sacredsoftware.net/GliderPRO/GliderPRO.xhtml

I suggest you take a look sometime.

Anyway, thanks for reading, Matt.

So, emulation. Here are a few questions you might have right about now.

What is it?

Well, Emulation is the process/concept of a software program pretending to be a piece of hardware. For example, Mini vMac emulates, AKA pretends to be, a Macintosh Plus with 4MB of RAM.

Why do I want/need it?

Well, I can tell you why you might need it. If, say, you were to find a box of floppy disks from your original Macintosh with important data on them, and you sent them to be converted to disk images, you wouldn’t be able to read those disk images on your Mac without something that can read MFS. Enter the emulator! Mini vMac, running System 6.0.8, would be very capable of reading those disk images. As for why you might want it, if you ever owned a Super Nintendo Entertainment System, or SNES, and miss the fun of playing Super Mario World, fear not! SNES emulators, combined with a gamepad or just your keyboard, can solve this problem! There are lots of other emulators out there, such as Catakig, Basilisk II, SheepShaver, DOSBox, Einstein, Frodo, KEGS, SNES9x, and many more.

Cool! Now where can I get an emulator?

There are a bunch of places, such as Pure Mac’s Emulators Page and MacScene’s Emulation Page, although the latter is more of a discussion board. Also a quick Google search will turn up the more legally-gray-area’d parts of emulation (hint-hint, nudge-nudge, *COUGH* ROMs *COUGH*) so you should be able to get a complete emulator set up. I’ll write a future post on how to set an emulator up.

Today I’ll be talking about some neat and useful things you can do with the old PowerBook or iBook you have sitting in your “Macs I Used To Use But Didn’t Have The Heart To Get Rid Of” closet/shed/bin/etc.

Use #1: Alarm Clock

This is a great one if your ‘Book has a completely dead battery. There’s an app called “Alarm Clock 2” from http://www.robbiehanson.com/alarmclock/index.html which allows you to use your Mac running Tiger to function as an iTunes enabled alarm clock with multiple schedules, customizable volume, and lots more! Best of all, it’s free! If your ‘Book is running OS 9 or even as low as System 6, there’s a less frilly but still useful app called BluClock available at http://www.blufiresoftware.com/prod/bc/index.html for free as well.

Use #2: Twitter

Yes, Twitter. If you have to be tweeting constantly, you could get a good Twitter client for whatever version of the OS you’re running (a few good ones are: Grackle68k for System 6-OS 9 Macs at http://www.retards.org/projects/grackle68k/, Twitterrific for Tiger+ at http://iconfactory.com/software/twitterrific, and any client that you like), and set it in the kitchen, by your bed, near the couch, etc. so you can tweet about every movement you make.

Use #3: RSS

No, RSS isn’t dead, and a good RSS client can really make an older machine useful again. Most blogs have an RSS feed, so you can read them to varying extents without having to specifically open a browser. If you’re running Tiger, NetNewsWire is excellent http://www.newsgator.com/Individuals/NetNewsWire/ Endo is very nice too: http://infinite-sushi.com/software/endo/. If you’re running OS 8 or 9, BottomFeeder ought to make you happy: http://www.cincomsmalltalk.com/BottomFeeder/.

Use #4: Light Browsing

For light browsing, I’d recommend Processor-Optimized Camino for OS X at http://www.rpm-mozilla.org.uk/builds/camino/, and for OS 7.5- OS 9 I’d recommend iCab at http://www.icab.de/dl.php.

Thanks to everyone who helped me get on the team, especially Stu!

–Matt