laptops

[Kim Cascone <kim@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

if you are planning on buying a used Apple latop I would suggest looking
into the 500MHz iBooks...I have a Pismo and although it is a nice machine
the audio out jack is not mechanically secure...it WILL FAIL...mine got fuct
and I ended up having to replace to power/audio board which was not
cheap...also, it took a spill and the case got messed up which was also not
cheap to fix...the Pismo is not road worthy...if you do a lot of performing
and travelling it is not worth risking having something terrible and
expensive happening to it...

my iBook on the other hand is a rugged little beastie...my iBook is way more
road worthy; the audio jack is more secure; it is lighter weight than the
Pismo and does everything my Pismo does (I run Max/MSP/Jitter)...so this
spring I'm making my iBook my touring machine and demoting my Pismo to a
desk job...

the only problem I've had with my iBook is with the USB audio...for some
reason when I have audio playing via USB and transfer files to another
machine via Airport the USB audio stops playing...so I have to do the
plug/unplug USB connector dance...I haven't tested this empirically as it
just happened the other day and just madly clicked and unplugged until
things got working again...

but so far I am very happy with it...

I found mine on eBay for $800 USD...I'm sure you can find them for that
price or cheaper since they have a new line out and are discounting older
machines...

my iBook running Max/MSP makes for a lean, mean, fighting machine! ;)

good luck!
KIM 

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