Tech Help

In the early 1990s this was my computer, an IBM PC Convertible. The operating system was DOS 3 on floppy disk.

It was the first commercial computer to use the 3.25″ floppies – replacing the previous 5.5″ floppies.

This was the first computer of mine that went on the internet with a 300 baud dial-up modem.

I created my first internet art work – a text based piece. In 1990, I was introduced to the internet by a friend named Lynn, who showed me Peacenet and other Usenet groups. I decided to take this laptop to the Stein Valley Festival that was being held in Boundary Bay. Lynn was hosting a table for peace at the event, so I went with her and her Japanese friend. While the Japanese woman made origami cranes to give away and Lynn handed out pamphlets, I collected messages for peace and tried to explain to the participants that the messages would travel to Japan on the internet. As soon as I arrived home, Lynn used her account and I was able to post the messages to the Hiroshima Nagasaki Peace project group.   

There were no websites then as Mosaic, the first browser I used,  was not yet introduced. The internet was completely democratic because my text looked the same as text written by the richest person on my tiny screen. It was all about content, not presentation.

The screen only displays monochrome – not colour.  

 

 

A top view with the handle extended.

 

 

 

 

 

I removed the battery when I put the computer into storage. It fits in the compartment on the back.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The charger takes a regular 3 prong plug  that I did not put in the photo.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I was lucky to have the clip on adapter that came in a separate box with instructions. this attachment added weight and size, but allowed use of a regular serial port printer.

 

Even then, few printers worked with a parallel port connection. I realize I should have taken a photo of the other side of the adapter with the serial port!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I still have all the manuals and instructional materials that came with the computer.

The colourful cardboard box is full of DOS information and the small blue manual has several parts.

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Adobe Flash player no longer supports computers built with the Power PC chip although there are many of these machines in use, still serving their owners reliably. This morning I received a call from a G4 Power book Mac owner running Leopard OSX 5.8, he called because of an error message that insisted he upgrade his flash player. When he tried to upgrade, he found the new version did not support his chip or operating system.

One of the reasons I started writing this blog is that I act as a help desk for many of my friends, so I searched for a solution and found Elmedia Player, a free download on Cnet. Elmedia Player, from Eltima Software, is more than a player, it also helps you organize media files using an iTunes type of interface.  The Pro version also allows you to download and copy internet hosted media files, but there is a cost for this functionality.

Please note — anything after this content is an ad and I do not endorse the product or even know what it is.

My friend reports the free version is working on his notebook for Flash (flv) playback. The website claims El Media Player supports playback of FLV, SWF, XAP (Silverlight), RM and RV (Real), AVI, MOV, MP4, and many other formats.

These older computers are still functional and the push to constantly upgrade by Adobe and other companies can be resisted. Keep your faithful computer out of the landfill as long as possible. I am keeping older computer hardware functional using a combination of these types of helper programs and/or converting to the Ubuntu operating system.

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I want to dedicate this site exclusively to the technical details behind my daily work. This includes the Live More Lightly Project and Sound+Light+Motion, my own sites and work and many other projects that I am working on.  To increase the focus of the site, content will be constrained to contain all of the technical details of my computer/technology/opensource project development.

It is still in the setting up stage, but I hope that I will be able to provide some interesting content. I also plan to have the experts who give me Tech Help post here as they are specialists in their particular area and can have some helpful information. Read more…

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