Time to Move On

[maffoo]

neofree wrote:

Looking at Macs under $100 on eBay. Most are G3 300-400Mhz.  Are these worth anything?  Could I convert an AVI to DVD with it?

Yep, they're worth somewhere between $0 and $100  :-D (Sorry, couldn't resist!)

Those Macs should be able to convert AVI to DVD with something like FFMpegX, as long as they run OS X 10.3 or higher (I think G3s can, can't be bothered to look it up though.)

You might want to hold off though. There was an article on Low End Mac recently that suggested that the price of G4s is going to plummet now the Intel transition is underway.

Alternatively, why not get a Mac Mini? The PPC version isn't exactly a powerhouse, but it's not too shabby at video encoding (and certainly better than those G3s!)

[maffoo]

I think all this talk about windows boxes being instantly swamped with insidious programmes within seconds of plugging in the ethernet is just bluster.  I would be fascinated to be proven wrong though and I`m not fussed about having to reinstall windows if necessary...

A few years back I'd just reinstalled XP for some reason, connected to the Internet to download some security updates (I think I needed to get updates for my firewall and anti-virus as well.) Within 10 minutes I had a virus. I think it was "mydoom" (it was the one that brings up a message telling you that you have 60 seconds before the computer reboots with no way to stop it - barely enough time to find a solution!)