I wandered in the intervening years. I became a NeXT addict just after it was fashionable and just before the color machines arrived. I wouldn't have fished a IIfx out of a dumpster, let alone one of the machines hawked at Sears or one of their wretched StyleWriter serial printers. Even now, Apple still can't let go of that era. I typed 'stylewriter' above and my iPad autocorrected it for me. I would have disavowed all knowledge.
I moved to Ted Ts'o's boot/root 2-floppy linux distribution when that was the mode and stayed on that wagon for some time. I drifted back to Apple only after OS X shipped from the factory on a machine. Mine was a late 2001 iBook. I think I went back just for reliable wake/sleep and for the internal WiFi.
The clean lines and reliable hardware of the iBook may have pushed me back into the pool, but I had already dipped a toe. Apple's AirPort was amazing. I got one of the original graphite base stations not long after their release and used it together with Lucent Orinoco cards in Linux machines. The Mac-only configuration was a turn-off but a third party client was available. Several contemporary accounts dinged Apple for rebadging the Lucent RG1000 access point or for the relatively primitive KarlBridge software.
Those reviewers missed both the biggest upsides and the biggest downside of the graphite. The biggest upsides were that it was a straight rebadge of someone else's concept and therefore was not encumbered with a pile of hopeless AppleTalk garbage. It worked with just about any client and any 802.11b card. The biggest downside was that Apple took somebody else's concept and removed the ventilation. Apple's access point appears to have actually used the same motherboard as the Lucent unit. An analogous product from HP did the same. Search for 'airport graphite bad capacitor' and you'll get thousands of hits on articles or posts about repairing bad capacitors in these units. Search for 'rg 1000 bad capacitor' and the closest you get is a link to an article that talks about repairing blown caps in the Apple version of this product!
The Apple version of this product probably outsold the Lucent version and it certainly sold better to the individuals likely to repair their own devices but I don't think this is the only explanation for this disparity. I can only find one useful link anywhere to a user who is in any way dissatisfied with the reliability of the RG 1000. I suspect that the RG 1000 had a better thermal story that Apple didn't copy. Even though they share a motherboard, the Apple packaging is radically different.
What does this have to do with the ancient history of Apple products? Many of them since the ][+ have been plagued with overheating problems. Examples include the Apple III, the Macintosh 128k, the Power Mac G4 Cube, several models of iMac and Mac Mini, and many Apple accessories. My own experience with modern Apple towers is that some huge portion of the total cabinet volume is consumed by fans and heatsinks. These machines have never overheated on me.
I'm sure they have learned that there are three types of quiet computers: passively cooled computers, computers cooled with slow turning fans, and dead computers. They have a line of machines to cover every corner of this market. Quiet is a core part of their brand identity in exactly the same way that visual simplicity is. I truly admire their commitment to quiet -- just not the part where it pushes past a commitment to correct functioning. This product philosophy extends to their peripherals and accessories as well.
Today's ewaste item is the last of my 802.11g Apple Airport Express base stations.
For a few years, I popped these the way some people pop Chiclets gum. I think I lost four to overheating in three years -- all in locations with good airflow. I kept replacing them only because a seamless AirTunes (now AirPlay) experience was available nowhere else.
My own luck is better with the newer 802.11n units. I have no experience with the very newest units that resemble the second generation Apple TV. My original graphite base station did die of bad capacitors. I replaced them and the unit worked for several more years. I tossed it only when I gave up my last modem in 2004 -- sadly too long ago to merit an ewaste entry of its own.
Here's a Kickstarter idea for the intrepid: As soon as Apple announces a new passively cooled device, introduce a designer heatsink to match.
The clean lines and reliable hardware of the iBook may have pushed me back into the pool, but I had already dipped a toe. Apple's AirPort was amazing. I got one of the original graphite base stations not long after their release and used it together with Lucent Orinoco cards in Linux machines. The Mac-only configuration was a turn-off but a third party client was available. Several contemporary accounts dinged Apple for rebadging the Lucent RG1000 access point or for the relatively primitive KarlBridge software.
Those reviewers missed both the biggest upsides and the biggest downside of the graphite. The biggest upsides were that it was a straight rebadge of someone else's concept and therefore was not encumbered with a pile of hopeless AppleTalk garbage. It worked with just about any client and any 802.11b card. The biggest downside was that Apple took somebody else's concept and removed the ventilation. Apple's access point appears to have actually used the same motherboard as the Lucent unit. An analogous product from HP did the same. Search for 'airport graphite bad capacitor' and you'll get thousands of hits on articles or posts about repairing bad capacitors in these units. Search for 'rg 1000 bad capacitor' and the closest you get is a link to an article that talks about repairing blown caps in the Apple version of this product!
The Apple version of this product probably outsold the Lucent version and it certainly sold better to the individuals likely to repair their own devices but I don't think this is the only explanation for this disparity. I can only find one useful link anywhere to a user who is in any way dissatisfied with the reliability of the RG 1000. I suspect that the RG 1000 had a better thermal story that Apple didn't copy. Even though they share a motherboard, the Apple packaging is radically different.
What does this have to do with the ancient history of Apple products? Many of them since the ][+ have been plagued with overheating problems. Examples include the Apple III, the Macintosh 128k, the Power Mac G4 Cube, several models of iMac and Mac Mini, and many Apple accessories. My own experience with modern Apple towers is that some huge portion of the total cabinet volume is consumed by fans and heatsinks. These machines have never overheated on me.
I'm sure they have learned that there are three types of quiet computers: passively cooled computers, computers cooled with slow turning fans, and dead computers. They have a line of machines to cover every corner of this market. Quiet is a core part of their brand identity in exactly the same way that visual simplicity is. I truly admire their commitment to quiet -- just not the part where it pushes past a commitment to correct functioning. This product philosophy extends to their peripherals and accessories as well.
Today's ewaste item is the last of my 802.11g Apple Airport Express base stations.
For a few years, I popped these the way some people pop Chiclets gum. I think I lost four to overheating in three years -- all in locations with good airflow. I kept replacing them only because a seamless AirTunes (now AirPlay) experience was available nowhere else.
My own luck is better with the newer 802.11n units. I have no experience with the very newest units that resemble the second generation Apple TV. My original graphite base station did die of bad capacitors. I replaced them and the unit worked for several more years. I tossed it only when I gave up my last modem in 2004 -- sadly too long ago to merit an ewaste entry of its own.
Here's a Kickstarter idea for the intrepid: As soon as Apple announces a new passively cooled device, introduce a designer heatsink to match.
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| A bright future on Kickstarter Image credit ebay seller 'fiatinc' Used without permission |
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