Apple Peforma 6200

[Derick Centeno]

Hi James:
Sloopy is correct regarding his comments on the Performa; you may wish 
to follow our exchange on this list.

An enterprising engineering student could take it upon himself to turn 
a potentially unworkable project around to his advantage.  You could 
write your own C code for the kernel, build your own Nubus driver, 
compile that kernel and you would have then a very specific kernel for 
that machine.  It's not impossible, we are talking about Linux after 
all; Linux will run on anything.  The problem has been of course that 
the state of most public schools in the US is such that they are 
stronger on anything but serious science and/or math.

James, you don't have to be an engineering student to get this done.  
The discipline from such training would be helpful, of course, but you 
could do this on your own.  If your teachers were well grounded in 
science, physics and electronics that would be great -- but even if all 
you have available is a part-time librarian/clerk or a local library 
open twice a week -- this can still get done.

The difficulty is really about how much you really want the features 
you are looking for to exist where you are.  Linux is very much about a 
"build it yourself" attitude; waiting for "someone else" to write or do 
it doesn't always work as a plan.  Every program is not available for 
everybody to do whatever they envision doing; however the foundation 
for building whatever anyone could possibly want from a computer IS 
within Linux and the computer languages it uses.

Perhaps it would be helpful to consider Linux like, the childhood game 
of Lego blocks.  It is up to you what shape these blocks have 
eventually after you put them together.  In that sense, programming in 
Linux -- whether drivers, applications or kernels -- is very much the 
same.  This is a lot for any newbie, but for someone with determination 
and focus it is not a major limitation.  This is the kind of effort 
very much worth recognition as a scientific project good for students 
at all levels and worthy of the educational staff to support.  Once you 
do it, and if you succeed, your school will have a useful tool it can 
pass on for use with and by other students.  That alone could be a 
powerful incentive.  In my opinion, successful completion of even one 
project akin to this is worthy of some sort of academic recognition.  
Of course, a

Included here is an observation regarding old systems from the point of 
view of power consumption:

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Eric Dunbar <eric.dunbar at gmail.com>
> Date: January 7, 2006 8:58:48 AM EST
> To: Yellow Dog Linux General Discussion List 
> <yellowdog-general at lists.terrasoftsolutions.com>,	rbthomas55 at pobox.com
> Cc: Subject: Re: [ydl-gen] Re: 4 old macs
> Reply-To: Yellow Dog Linux General Discussion List 
> <yellowdog-general at lists.terrasoftsolutions.com>
>
> Hi, just a plug for my favourite distributed computing project,
> Folding at Home, http://folding.stanford.edu/ (Unlike SETI Folding at Home
> has a number of publications to its name... though, I guess SETI was
> the grand-daddy of the distributed computing projects :-)
>
> Anyway, just a comment about the economics of running all these "old"
> computers, and it's something about which I am conflicted (the
> environmental damage of producing computers/disposing of them vs. the
> environmental damage of the electricity used by them).
>
> Four "old style" (hardware energy efficiency), Old World, and one
> NuBus Mac (6500s are PCI, right?) running 24/7 chew up a lot of
> energy. For the sake of argument (and, simplicity of calculation ;-),
> let's assume each uses 100 W/h. That's 400 W/h.
>
> Per day that's 24 h x 400 W/h = 9.6 kWh. Per year (365.25 d) that's
> 3506.4 kWh. At $0.10/kWh that's $350.64.
>
> Let's assume subsidised power (most electricity is (and is fossil
> fuel-produced) since the environmental costs aren't paid by
> coal/fossil fuel producers or electricity users, but are "paid" by all
> through the "tradgedy of the commons") at $0.075/kWh (very realistic
> price in NA) and that's $262.98/a.
>
> If you were to replace all four computers with one that'd be $65.75
> and you'd save $197.24/a on the other three.
>
> For $200 USD you can pick yourself up a 400-500 MHz G4 on eBay (not
> shipped, granted), and it would do everything... run Seti faster than
> all of the OldWorld Macs together (or Folding at Home :-) :-) :-), act as
> a server, DHCP server, firewall and wouldn't require BootX fiddling.
>
> If your box is a dedicated DHCP server, it's far more economical to
> purchase a cheap router (you can get them for $10 or $20 US). My
> wireless/wired router (which will consume more power than a wired
> router only) costs $10/a at $0.075/kWH if I assume that it draws the
> MAXIMUM 16 W its powersupply is rated for (it's doubtful it does) vs.
> my estimated $65.75 for a 100 W desktop.
>
> Anyway, that's my environmental-economics post for the day. It's a
> tragedy that "reuse" isn't always the best option in computers :-( :-(
> (especially when you consider how damaging it is to produce them and
> dispose of them).
>
> Eric.