Regarding the Mac Portable, Kai, it could be that a lot of folks who owned them are no longer among the living. I remember the heyday with
Dan The Apple Mac Man on EBAY selling Portables left and right for what was then considered to be premium pricing. Boy was I wrong! Today, EBAY prices are out of this world! The more outrageous the pricing, the few people that are interested in buying.
I also know the bulk of the online discussion about the Portable is stashed away in that other forum which shall not be named. Every time I Google, that other forum comes up. No surprises. It’s been around longer, and they still have the largest member base of any vintage Mac forum. (Naturally, we need to change that by attracting more people to this forum.) I’ve not posted in that other forum since July 2021 and that’s not going to change, but getting the info flowing on our vastly superior forum is the goal, of course. And when replies are slow here, I won’t lie, I immediately hop on over to FaceBook’s Vintage Apple Macintosh Enthusiasts group, where I sometimes get a reply within minutes. Not always, but often. However, sometimes the best replies happen here on TinkerDifferent. You never know which platform will yield the fastest or the best answer, but I prefer TD over FB any day of the week. TD is great for long posts, inline pics, PDF files — light years ahead of FB. But a lot of people are on FB, so I tap into those Groups at times when I’m in a hurry, which is most of the time.
The more I use my Portable, the more I realize that the info I need is not found anywhere online. Most people tend to talk about bad caps and problems resulting from that, as well as display problems or bad batteries. Bad hybrids too. These days, so many people have a Portable that is in disrepair, they can’t actually use the thing. It’s terribly unfortunate.
Thanks to Thomas Andrews of Amiga of Rochester, I have a usable machine. It was not only recapped, but bad traces and bad Vias galore were repaired by Thomas. I chose him over myself to do the job because I asked if he had experience doing multiple 5126 machines and he said yes. I have zero experience with that machine. When you have a Mac Portable, it’s smart to go with an experienced person. Also, because I don’t have a working battery, I purchased a Battery Eliminator from Androda, which is great, but with some caveats I’ve only recently discovered (such as, it acts as a full battery but not as a wall socket AC adapter charging a virtual battery).
But even though my Backlit Portable is working, there are numerous surprises, many of which I’ve been reporting here in TD lately. Without a doubt, the Macintosh Portable is one of THE MOST fiddly vintage Macs I have ever used. It’s absolutely brilliant, but so frustrating at times. And because I only have the one, I have no means to compare. Imagine if you only had a single SE or a single SE/30 in your collection, Kai. I think we’d all go mad. But since these are too rate and pricey to own more than one, that’s where sharing info comes into play, and that’s what makes this forum so important. It’s that feedback I’ve been desperately trying to get. So perhaps we should talk about my “desperation.”
It's true that I am extremely demanding. I don’t hide that. However, I am most demanding on myself first. I am significantly less demanding on everyone else. But even though I am not nearly as demanding on others as I am my own self, I tend to be more demanding than most.
For example, I demand that I, James Wages, respond to all incoming PMs, emails, Skype, iMessage, etc. within 24 hours as a hard rule, but typically I push myself to reply either immediately or within 1 hour. If I am away from home and see on my iPhone that I cannot supply the person with the files or research they require, I will either defer replying or better, tell them why I cannot send the files or research immediately, and that I will be on it shortly.
When you factor YouTube into this (and yes, I reply to every single comment in some form), I’m a busy guy. Most YouTubers don’t bother responding to all comments or even a tiny fraction thereof; but then, I’m not a full time YouTuber. I’ve actually been too busy with family, job, and replying to everyone that I’ve not released a video on a few months, and it’s beginning to worry me! Then again, my wife and I are in the midst of a home move, so I’ve got that excuse too, however a sorry an excuse that may be. Sometimes, I wish I were Superman. No. Scratch that. Flash. I want to go so fast time is almost at a standstill!
The reason I am so demanding on myself is because: (1) it’s my personality, and (2) I’ve lived in Japan 30 years. Japan demands a lot from people when it comes to satisfying the needs of others, and it has helped shape me over the years. On top of that, my personality is such that I want to do to others (e.g., give then super-fast replies) so that they in turn will hopefully reciprocate. I know they won’t respond as fast as I do, and that’s okay. (When they respond as fast as I do, I am pleasantly shocked.) But I do prod people for fun and for productivity. Why prod? To provoke a fight? To piss off others? Absolutely not. It’s because I myself need prodding at times. I do accidentally let an email or a commenter slip under my radar because my 53-year-old aging brain isn’t 100% as sharp as it used to be. Maybe it got zapped into the SPAM folder and I hadn’t noticed. So when the person who pushed me for an answer replies again to prod me, I actually am both grateful and apologetic at the same time. Grateful because they caught my attention finally. And apologetic because I demand near perfection of myself. (Yes, I’ve had a duodenal ulcer in the past. It goes with the territory.)
Even though I do unto others as I would have them do unto me (both good and bad), I realize not everyone is on the same race track I’m on. And again, that’s okay. Please just read my posts with an eye to who I am. I love my fellow man. I wish nobody any harm. I try to be nice in my own way. I want us all to get along.
BUT!
I also realize I can’t please everyone. Indeed, the more you say or type, the higher the risk someone will be offended, even if but slightly. At some point, you have to be decisive and just do things regardless of risk or complaint. And that is what I do. Be gentle, but within realistic limits. If all we did was cater to the emotional needs or to the delicate sensitivities of others, we’d spend all our time on that and not get much work done. One of the hardest things in life is in getting along with others, but we must get work done regardless of that.
The older I become, the more I understand about Steve Jobs’ personality, and how he wasn’t as bad a person as some have made him out to be. He was a man on a mission, going at high speed. In many ways, I’m like that.
Maybe what I just explained won’t please everyone, and maybe some folks out there will think I’m a terrible guy. But the world is very diverse. People are so very different. I think it will all work out just fine in the end if we all are just a bit more understanding of each other, realizing that other people often say or do things we would never say or do ourselves. Sometimes I say things I consider normal but which others consider rude. Even so, I press on. I try to afford my neighbor more freedom than I afford myself. That tends to work rather well when both sides reciprocate that liberty, but there are occasional bumps in the road.
Popeye said it best: I am what I am and that’s all that I am.
With that said, I never demanded a reply from anyone in this thread. I was seriously hopeful, and was on the edge of my seat with anticipation, and I let a little of that show itself in my last post. But I actually try to be transparent so I’m not one kind of person to one guy but then an entirely different person to somebody else. In the end, I found how to get the DA widget I asked about and then provided steps so others could more easily figure it out. I provided detailed steps because that is what I love to receive from others, whenever I need help.
I wish everyone a fantastic day!
James
