More free Macs!

Ever fancied an Apple Macintosh to play with? Know anyone you think might like one? Please pass word of this around!

I've just rescued a clutch of old Macs from the skip. All can be supplied with keyboards, mice, monitors - 12" or 14" is the best you're going to get, I'm afraid - power leads and printer/network cables if you want them.

3 are old Motorola 680x0 Macs. These will run up to MacOS 8.1, which is the version I'd recommend, if they have enough RAM - 32MB or more. I'm not currently sure of how much RAM or disk space they've got, but I'll find out soon. If they're short, I can probably supply some extra for free, too.

I have 2 Performa 475s, the last of the low-profile LC series. Quite fast little machines for their time. These should have 160MB disks; at least 1 has some extra RAM. No CD nor room for an internal one but they'll drive an external SCSI CD - I may be able to supply 1 or 2 of these and Mac drivers for it too, although I could do with a fiver or so for the cables, if so.

Then there's a Mac IIsi. Spec unknown. This is only a 68030 so strictly it's meant to be limited to System 7.6.1 - a pretty good OS, actually, and Internet-capable - but there is a hack to get 8.1 on there.

All will, if you desire, be supplied wiped & reinstalled with the latest appropriate version of MacOS, drivers and some free apps.

Finally, some PowerPC Macs:

A PowerMac 7100. I'm not specifying the speed 'cos we're not sure, but I'm fairly sure this has a G3 accelerator inside, so possibly up to 233MHz or more. Memory, we think, is reasonable - 1 or 2 hundred meg or so - but this machine, alas, is based on the NuBus architecture so cannot run Mac OS X. It will run Linux or NetBSD, though.

To go with this, I also have a 21" mono monitor and accompanying graphics card, plus an Ethernet card if you fancy making it into a router or something. (It has onboard Ethernet.) Normally the machine uses system RAM for video memory so using the graphics card will give you more RAM and a slight speed increase - but you'll lose colour. Alternatively, get a VGA convertor plug and run two desktops, a big mono one and a small colour one.

Finally, a PowerMac 6100/66. Again no idea currently of RAM or disk space. This can also be upgraded with a G3 and so on but it requires special parts and isn't generally worth it. I can probably supply more RAM and a secondary hard disk though.

These last 2 machines will run MacOS 9.1 - effectively the last version - and I'll supply them wiped and installed with some free applications and so on.

For now, they must be collected from Mitcham, Surrey, but by next month I should be able to deliver in the London area.

THHGTTG, Tertiary Phase

Took a break from writing to go downstairs, tune in to Radio 4 - a very rare thing for me - and listen to the first broadcast of the first new episode in about a quarter of a century of the Hitch-hiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

You know, for all that I'm a serious fan, not to say obsessed, have just about every extant version I can get, from albums to tapes to DVDs to Radio Scripts to the books in English plus American, Spanish, French, German and Norwegian editions, this is something I've never done in my life before.

But the radio version is, really, definitive. And the first I heard it was in class, at the end of a term at Kingswood School, where our rather radical, cheerful young English teacher used to play us BBC Radio adaptations of famous works of English Literature in a double lesson once a week. Since, at 12yo, most of the class were barely literate, it was an effective way of forcing it into them.

At the end of one term, there wasn't enough time to start a new play. "So," he said, "I'll play you a bit of this. It's just been on the radio and I thought it was really funny. You might like it." His expression said that most of us wouldn't, but I, as the class's sole reader, might, as my Dr Who-fan mate might.

I LOLed. I FOCLed. I even ROFLed.

That really doesn't happen very often, in real life.

I had an advance order in for the 1st edition of the 1st book at my local W H Smiths. I was there for it the day it came in.

I knew to the day, months in advance, when the 1st TV programme was due, and I was there, glued to it. I remember seeing the sun rising over a pastoral English landscape so well. That was, I believe, 23y ago.

But I've never heard it on the radio, where it was meant to be, for the first time before.

And it was good. Damned good. I laughed delightedly at some bits, yet others were wonderfully fresh.

It's an excellent adaptation. I think DNA would approve. He'd change it beyond recognition, then scale back his plans dramatically 'cos it'd all be horribly late and he'd be about to miss the deadline, but I think he'd be pleased.