well, the frenc teacher at my school was getting rid of his powerbook 145 today. we are all packing up, to move inot our new building, so threre are ALOT of boxes everywhere. He is a mac user, though not as much of a freak as I am. well, he mentioned this P 145 to me before, and I was very interested. well, today, I saw it. where, you ask? IN THE TRASH CAN!! I pulled it out, now PS, but I have an extra one lying around. this thing has BOTH legs and PORT DOOR intact, as well as an aftermarket 15 pin monitor port hacked onto the side. well, I want to ask him if I could have it, and I couldnt find him. another teacher said he was getting rid of it because it had personal info on it, but sauggested that I hunt him down and ask him if I could format it in fron of him. (I have a copy of 7.1 lying around. form there I can take it to 7.5.) well, I go out in the parking lot, being told he was at his car. I left the PB145 on the counter while I went to go looking for him BIG MISTAKE. I should have stuck it in my bag, and ran off with it. hell, he didnt want it anymore, and I dont care about personal info. But, I had my PS2 in my bag, and I had very little room. well, I couldnt find him, so I return to the room, thinking he would be there. coorect, he was. So, I spent 10 minutes pleading with him for the book, which was nowhere in sight (not on the counter.) even offering to buy it for however much he wanted, but he refused. he claims it wont boot, but his personal info could still be extracted off there. I told him I could get it working, and format the HD. no budge. so, I sadly walk down the stairs, and walk out the door.
there is some light to the story, dispite it was the last day of school. some of the teachers are still not done packing, so I offered to come back next week and help. they say they need all the help they can get. So, while I am there, I will take a look-see and see if I can find the book. If I cant, I will be saddened. I dont know what day trash is, so it may still be in the building on monday.
So, what's your opinion? -digital 
I find that using capital letters in appropriate places, like the start of sentences, often helps make a post more readable. Also, breaking it up into smaller paragraphs, and possibly using the formatting options instead of writing in all caps for emphasis may help.
The body of your post is intact, the formatting, spelling, and punctuation have just been changed. Though I'll admit that I took out some of your excessive use of the word "well". You also switch tenses several times.
I apologize if I'm being insulting, I just found that very difficult to read.
Get over it. There are plenty other old Macs out there for you to horde.
But as originally written, you can certainly see the emotional content
I would have just grabbed it from the garbage.
It's a bit of a grey area, being inside the school still, but the understanding should be that if I put something in the trash, I give up all rights to it. Good hunting to you, and I hope you can find it in the trash on Monday.
I grab lots of things from the dumpster where I work. There are sensitive things on some hard drives, but my company thinks that throwing a concrete block against the CPU case will somehow destroy the hard drive. Nope. They also smash the monitors once they reach the dumpster, like someone's going to magically be able to read old information off of them. If they really wanted the hard drives destroyed, they should pull them and put a spike through them.
Same goes for your teacher. If he actually gave a damn, he could have pulled the hard drive and given you the rest. Sounds like he's just a bad teacher who can't be bothered making an effort for the kids unless he's getting paid for it.
Hey,
If he threw it in the trash he released all claim to it. You should have just taken it. See the supreme court rulings as regards evidence collected by police from the trash of suspects who discarded whatever into trashbins. There was no need for any conversation. To boot, he was worried about personal information and he tossed it? Typical non-thinking idiot.
sorry man. I was in a hurry to write it, as I I had other things to do. I will try to be more punctual in your presence.
sure, I'll get over with it, if you can find me another rare computer at least 10 years old, with completness, AND an aftermarket hack/modificaton/addon that is within 20 miles of Detroit.
There is a PB 180c WITH completness on ebay, but no hack to it.
-digital
If your school is anything like the schools that I went to way back when, you might want to try a little dumpster diving in the wee hours of the morning.
Chances are good that your school's janitor will have heaved the forsaken PowerBook into the dumpster within a day or two of it having been trashed. Assuming, of course, that your school has a dumpster; all of the schools I attended did.
You might want to pick up a copy of my latest book as well, Dumpster Diving for Fun & Profit... It's available in paperback and hardcover at select bookstores throughout North America.
EDIT: Assuming, of course, your janitor didn't already make a grab at the precious loot for himself already. If this is the case, you may wish to have words with the pesky vermin.
Which brings me to Social Engineering 101...
Speak to the school's janitor about a missing PowerBook. Tell him/her that you had left your PowerBook behind and were wondering if he had seen it. Tell him/her that a friend of yours thinks he might have saw someone place it in the trash.
well, I went into the school today, and I went into the room, right? well, in the trash, alittle deeper down, was the power supply. didnt see that before. so, I went to the office dooor, knocked, and to my luck, it was UNLOCKED. I immediatly spotted the PB 15 feet away in a box of misc junk. well, I snatched it (he didnt want it anymore, right?) well, I took it to this one room, where I was helping the teacher pack (that is the whole reason I went to school today, because we got out friday). the teacher went to lunch, I tested the comp. doesent boot my ass. the thing started, the backlight went on, and the hard drive spun up. nothing came up on the screen, probibly because of the plug hack, but the plug is so fluch with the system, like a pro installed it. I am about to whip out my torx, and take a look at her insides. she has a few outsied scratches, and the port door's latch is missing, so it doesnt close right. both feet work, and there are no rubbler plugs on the bottom covering the screws. the monitor plug has a torx screw on the top of the module. Also, I hooked the thing up to my LC III's monitor, and nothing came up, so it might be dead. or, itc ould be a dead pram batt, or needs a reset. be back in a bit. oh and sorry to BDub, I dont have time to format this to your liking. -digital
I have been hoping all weekend that you would get it. (praying, whatever you want to think. [guys, please dont slam me on that]) I'm glad it was still there. You got a rare find my friend. Post pics of the modded book (even if you can't get it to boot) I have been waiting all day to see that post from you...
thumbs up dude!!!
[again, please don't slam me guys on how i reacted (and the praying part) on how serious I take this stuff)
iamdigitalman, congratulations!
Or, if you prefer, Conderlations, Elizagerth!
It's nice to see it worked out well for you.
Wouldn't dream of it. Let's raise a glass that another quaint old Mac has been saved from the landfill.
I would take pics, but no working camera. I was going to pick up a CVS 1 time use digit came, cause there is a way to hack it into a perminant digi cam. we shall see, but the monitor plug hack is on the left side, to the left of the left hinge, it has a torx screw on the top, And it LOOKS like this was manufactured, because the "case" the plug is sitting in, is form fitted with the book, and is the same colour as the book. however, it could be the stock part that has been modified, but how would an end user drill a screw hole into plastic so cleanly?
sadly, I cant get it apart. all my torx bits are too big, and all my alen wrenches dont fit either. what size screws were used? If I know, I can buy a driver for it. also, there is no internal modem, just like my PB100. what a great find, eh? I have ahd my PB100 apart, but that thing has generic phillips screws.
I remember a computer show I was at a few months ago, related post here, and there were a ple of old powerbooks that didnt boot. should have bought a couple of them, they were about 10 bucks each. I could have tinkered with them. -digital
I don't have a PB 145 but I have a bunch of PB 140 and PB 150 parts if you're interested. They were going to go to the trash probably this week...
Got case, keyboard, trackball, floppy, 120MB SCSI HD, and all the electronic gizmo's if you or anybody else is interested in this stuff.
I don't anticipate having any need for this stuff in the future.
ok, guys, pics are up on a scrach made page. it's tripod, so there is garbage at the top of the page. here is the URL:
Hello World
sorry about the bad quality, I took them from my friend's webcam, and id doesnt have a light, so I used an ott-lite. also, be gentile, I only have 1.0gb of bandwidth. for some reason, I couldnt get the pics into my applefritter gallery. oh well. enjoy!! -digital
*Wipes tears from eyes*..How could he throw that treasure away! Glad it has a new home!
Saw that on hack-a-day, too
If you get a chance, I'd love to see some good-quality pics of the monitor adapter, and definitely inside, if you get into its guts.
FYI - before I got a torx driver that would fit (torx 10), I ground down a cheap-o jeweller's screwdriver (you know, from those sets of six different sized screwdrivers, usually about a buck-fifty for the set) with a file, and was able to remove the case screws.
there is a pic of the plig on my site (link above), but it doesnt have holgin screws (the ones the screws from the plug screw into.) I think I have a set somewhere around here...
and, yeah I found out it is a T8 is the size, but my smallest it T6 (too small). I also have T15, T20, and T25. think they have T8 torxes at either lowes or home depot? would be great to get this relic working. thanks!! -digital
1. Who gives a crap about punctuation, your post is fine.
2. Your enthusiasm and affection for the old mac was terrific.
3. I have the whole service source CD's from my days at Apple. If you'd like the PDF for that Powerbook, just let me know.
seriously, you may have only a small audience that understands what you did or why, even on this website dedicated to old Macs there were a couple of crappy responses (get over yourselves)
I for one salute you.
dvsjr
ok, I went to my neigberhood Aco hardware, and purchaced a T10 torx screw driver, not thinking it would work. it did!! the monitor assembly came apart, but the screw under the modem slot is holding the case together. all other screws are T10, but this one looks to be T8, as my T6 driver didnt work.
also, when I dismantled the montor assembly, there was the top cover, then the port on a circut board. the board had small wires, white yellow green and one more leading into the system. since I couldnt get the damn thing apart, I cant see how it's hooked up. I will update the site with pics (if) I can get the mac open, otherwise I will get a pic of the monitor plug assembly. goodnight. -digital
Congratulations on your snag. I always had a soft spot for those old 1xx series PowerBooks. Though, my first portable was a PowerBook 180. I sold it whilst in high school and wasn't able to get another until earlier this year when a friend gave it one to me as a gift. My fiancee doesn't really appreciate my affection for the old hardware. My next goal is to find a way to retrofit a modern PowerBook/iBook into a 1xx series enclosure. Yes, I still miss the trackball. As nice as the trackpad has evolved over the years, I'll still take the comfort and joy of the trackball. Trouble is that the external trackballs are such a pain to use. (I use my PowerBook on the go typically).
- iantm
i wanted to do something like that. how do you make the one time use cameras permanent? could you give me a link for the hackaday one.
The main site is down due to bandwidth overload...but there are a few mirrors set up:
http://myweb.nmu.edu/~tstrothe/PV2mods/PV2mods.htm
http://www.file-mirrors.info/PV2mods.htm
http://www.davidworden.com/PV2/PV2mods.htm
The spelling was fairly good in this one, we can work on sentence structure in another thread
I'm glad to here that you were able to save the pb. Some people just don't value old hardware. I frequently ask friends for old hardware and most of the time they simply give me odd looks and the like. Some people just don't understand. *sigh*
We've got a local story that may have far reaching implications for this kind of thing. This blog has a blurb about a local TV station that took a computer left on the curbside for trash pickup and the legal battle they are in to use info on the drive in a news story. If things go wrong with the case, it may be illegal to do certain things with other's trash. I hipe it mearly turns out that one is simply required to wipe offending info from a computer BEFORE you tarsh it. Personal responsibility, after all. What if it were patient records that were set out in the trash in hardcopy, instead of the electronic versions on the computer? Much of the argument would go out the window.
Patient records left at the curb . . . wow! I never found anything that interesting!
Fact is, I can't recall I ever picked a 'puter from the trash that did have its HD erased! There's always a few minutes of entertainment to be found poking through folks confidential records and documents, before I wipe the drive myself. I reckon they're lucky it was me who salvaged their castoff computer rather than someone with rather fewer scruples.
dan k
Oh yeah. I live in a college town, and I always go dumpster diving at the end of each term... So many people just toss out perfectly good stuff so they don't have to rent a trailer or truck to get it home. It's not uncommon to find desks, chairs, lamps, even entire beds in the dumpsters around campus. Computers are rarer, and most PCs, but I still look for them, they can be stripped for parts... And I've NEVER found a wiped hard drive. They're always full of papers, job applications, pictures, chat logs... porn... Sometimes even credit card info!
However, I'm a nice guy. I send them an e-mail, telling them what happened. Hopefully scare them a bit by telling them everything I know about them. I tell them to be smarter in the future, and then I reformat the drive.
There are some stupid people out there.
When I saw they were throwing out 2 macs at my school. It was about 2 or 3 years ago and I saw then in the art room piled up with a sign "please put out with the rubbish" on the top, I asked about them but I was refused and they were too heavy to get myself, they were only a PM4400/160 and a 6200 so it wasn't all that bad, but the 4400 had 9.2, a usb card and an epson stylus colour printer and the 6200 had a Stylewriter II. They both had scanners (I forget which types) and big monitors. My mum and dad refused to let me get them (I'd need a car to get them home) for some reason. Soon after I was given a 4400 and a few weeks ago a 6200, so now I think about it, I don't really mind it, but it was destressing to see them in that pile. :(.
At my school, us geeks get very close to the tech dept, and they give the old cpu's and stuff to us.
...but I had some time tonite, so I ripped the peast apart, and transplanted the brain (Hard drive) into my PB100. turns out, it is an IBM, manufactured in 1997, with firmware from 1996, according to the lable. not only that, it is really IDE. that's right. IDE. it has a board piggybacked on the bottom that converts it to SCSI. pretty neat.
but even better, I booted off it, and there is NO personal info. only a copy of Risk black and white, Sim City 1.4, ClarisWorks 4.0, and that's it. all in all it takes less than 30mb on the drive, leaving over 980mb free.
I am going to format it, place the rails from the 40mb quantim go drive on it, and transfer all the stuff from the oringal HDD somehow.
oh, I dont know the system, because I booted from a floppy, as when I was tring to boot from the HDD, it would display a smiling mac for a few seconds, then a dialog box would come up, telling me the SSW was created using the minimal option for another machine (PB145) and it wouldnt work on my machine.
so, watcha think? not a bad score from a dead machine.
now I have a maxxed out PB100 with 8mb of ram and a 1gb HDD. now all I need are a screen without a blotch, a port door, a working battery, and the left riser foot.
-digital
That computer really sounds heavily modded. If you ever need to get rid of it, send me a message. I could probably find out how the mods work.
You can put up to an 8 gig IDE/ATA drive on those converters apparently.