Oh yeah, speaking of hardware ...

...we're now the proud N^th owners of a Power Mac 7300/180 and an Apple Multiscan 1705 display, which should let the girls play a lot more of their games without having to learn the intricacies of *nix yet or deal with Windows blue-screening all the time.  (Let me state at this point that it really sucks to have your kids know at 6 years age what the BSOD means.  Get your act together, Microsoft.)  Most of the educational games we bought for them will run on both Mac and Windows, but many of those require a Power Mac.

Only problem is, the 1705 monitor appears to have a problem; it has video, sort of, but won't sync to the Mac's video signal.  If I open the front panel to get to the adjustment controls, all six setting-mode indicator LEDs are blinking.  We don't have a working spare Mac-compatible monitor we can connect to it.  (We have one other Mac monitor we could put on it, but it's in bad shape and won't focus sharply.)  If anyone has any suggestions for persuading the monitor to sync, please let us know.

Mac video diagnosis, redux

After doing some hardware-swapping back and forth with compatible PC bits, I believe I have narrowed down the Mac video problem to a bad cable.  (Specifically, I think there's a bad sense pin in the cable that is causing the 7300 to mis-identify the monitor and, accordingly, send it a video signal that's outside its sync range.)  The monitor and the Mac both work fine; I can get 1024x768 on the 1705 Display connected to a PC, and I can get 1024x768 from the Mac on an Apple Multiple Scan 14" Display which is, unfortunately, in such bad shape that it's usable only for testing purposes.  (It's usable when first powered on, but by the time it's been powered on about 15 minutes it's drifted so far out of alignment the screen is unreadable.)  I was also able to verify with the source we got this Mac from that the video cable was, in fact, untested and not known to be in working condition.

So, if we can just get our hands on a good video cable, we have a working Power Mac 7300 and Multiple Scan 1705 Display for the girls.  (Tracking down another Apple Extended Keyboard and a couple of decent Mac-compatible mice would be a help, too.)

Woohoo!

To my considerable surprise, I can get my motorcycle boots on, remaining pin and all.  And it doesn't even hurt!

'Course, I'll bet the bike's battery is still flat ... and oy, does it ever need a thorough cleaning.  (And probably a new chain....)