15 Years Ago Motorola Unveiled the PowerPC G3 Low End Mac, 2/6/12. The G3 was a huge performance leap for Macintosh. My first experience with one was in 1999: a NewerTech PowerBook 1400 G3 processor upgrade. My 'Book more than doubled in speed, ran Mac OS 9 (and MkLinux) with ease, and had increased battery life, too.

Steve Jobs Didn't Believe in Macs for Business. But Here They Are Caleb Garling, Wired, 2/1/12. This is an interesting article about Dale Fuller, the man at Apple who had our backs when we tried to sneak our PowerBooks into Windows-centric work settings back in the '90s.

Cadmium Spill In Chinese River Threatens Water Supply for Over 1 Million People Jaymi Heimbuch, Tree Hugger, 1/30/12. That great new laptop or gadget you crave was assembled in some country far, far away... on purpose. And, you probably don't want to know how it was actually made. Bratwurst is like that, too.

Apple Promises To Not Let Its $97 Billion In Cash “Burn A Hole” In Its Pocket Alex Heath, Cult of Mac, 1/24/12. It's incredible that Apple is sitting on this huge pile of cash while still trying to justify its abhorrent labor practices in China. They could double those workers' wages, even onshore some production jobs like Samsung does, and not even blink, financially.

Celebrating Supply Chain Slavery Pete Abilla, Schmulla, 1/23/12. Apple's exploitation of Chinese workers is being justified by playing to our desire to have that great new MacBook, iPhone, or iPad at a bargain price. I have no doubt that consumers (of cotton) before the Civil War were making the same argument about actual slavery.

Apple’s Sweatshop Problem: 16 Hour Days, ~70 Cents An Hour Henry Blodget, Yahoo.com, 1/20/12. Excuse me, Apple fanboys, does anyone amongst you have a social conscience anymore?

Saying Good-bye to Inkjet Printers Dan Knight, Low End Mac, 1/18/12. This is a good overview of Macintosh printing history. The biggest problem for old Mac users when heading out to buy a new printer, though, is the increasing lack of PowerPC support. You'll have to do some scrounging to find one that works for you. Or, you might run across a used one at Goodwill that will work just fine.

Microsoft probes mass suicide threat at China plant CNN, 1/11/12. This is the same Foxconn, of course, that makes Apple's low-end laptops and gadgets. The tech giants could be fair to their workers and still make ginormous profits. Maybe they could even "onshore" some of those production jobs again... ya think?

The Siren Call of PC Laptop Prices Revisited Charles Moore, Low End Mac, 1/9/12. Change is always hard, Charles. Move on... maybe to an open-source OS? Linux will run just fine on most of the Low End Macs you use, as well as on the cheap PC laptops you crave.

The Siren Call of PC Laptop Prices Charles Moore, Low End Mac, 1/3/12. Charles points out that one of the main arguments against the Mac in the perpetual Mac/PC wars, that they cost too much, still applies. It's hard to justify buying a chic new Apple laptop, especially when one knows that it will be "obsolete" in just a few short years.

2011's top stories: Mac OS X Lion Lilly Walker, MacWorldUK, 1/2/12. With the release of OS X Lion, Apple has obviously decided to dump the unprofitable idea of supporting its older kit. They prefer that you buy a new computer, which is required to effectively run "the world's most advanced" operating system?