Lanora Mueller Photography

views of the human condition and other wonders of the world

The Mansion Bed and Breakfast, West Dundee, Illinois

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Built in 1907, The Mansion Bed and Breakfast was formerly the residence of iron baron John Fierk.
Built in 1907, The Mansion Bed and Breakfast was formerly the residence of iron baron John Fierke.

Terracotta medallion, former Fox Theatre building, Aurora, Illinois

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terracotta fox medallion, old Fox Theater building, Aurora, Illinois

For more information about architectural terracotta, see the Friends of Terracotta database.

In faithful memory of my $5995.00 PowerBook 5300ce

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Ten Rules for Buying Apple Products (from iLounge via Lifehacker)

To quote Rule 8:

Beware of First-Generation/Revision A Models. Despite the rush of immediate purchases Apple experiences with every new product launch, the company’s products routinely suffer from “revision A,” “first-generation,” or “early adopter” bugs. Part of this is due to the cutting-edge technologies and designs it uses; another part is due to the secrecy-obsessed, quiet pre-release testing it employs. As frog design founder Hartmut Esslinger told Businessweek magazine recently, “Apple innovates in big ways and small ways, and if they don’t get it right, they innovate again.”

When the 24" iMac was announced a short while ago, I started to get the upgrade itch in a bad way. After some soul-searching cost-benefit analysis, I decided to purchase a refurbished 17" PowerBook G4 from Apple.com as a desktop replacement that I can rely on for photoediting at home and on the road. It shipped yesterday.

I’m anxious to get all my current image files, documents, and programs on one machine. At the moment, my digital assets are spread among a  hand-me-down iBook G3 800  running OS X  10.3.9, a 450 Dual Processor G4 tower that I just upgraded to 10.4, an HP desktop running Windows XP Professional, and a decrepit Sony Vaio notebook with no battery, also running Windows XP Pro, that I seem to have left wherever I was using it last. (I’m certain it’s around here somewhere.) I’ve lost count of the various external hard drives connected to the various machines for backup and  working storage.

With a 120 GB drive and the potential to run WinXP under Virtual PC, at least in the short-term, the new PowerBook will be a huge improvement over my current arrangement.

I did lose some sleep over the choice. The MacBooks and MacBook Pros are glamorous alternatives to the PowerBook, despite the recent reports of their tendency to fall asleep and never wake up.

Why did I choose the discontinued model?

Well, stay tuned for the next installment, in which I’ll tell you all about my glamorous new 5300ce. That was the first PowerBook I purchased as a early adopter back in 1995 at full list price of $5995.00.

My husband uses it now to play solitaire while watching the History Channel.

Follow-up: Take a look at another remembrance of the 5300: "The PowerBook 5300 Turns 11: A Reminiscence" on lowendmac.com, http://www.lowendmac.com/misc/06/0828.html