A Win For Great Design and Frugality

The very poorly lit picture I texted to Amanda showing my accomplishment

We recently moved our wireless access point from my former office (now Zander’s room until we redecorate it for Roman) to the family room so it could be in closer proximity to where we spend most of our time when we are online. The upside is the iPad and laptop have better reception and the XBOX and DVR can now be hard wired to the internet. (Thanks John for handling the cabling!) The downside to this move was that our 8 year old iMac G5 (nickname: Manzana Blanca) that didn’t come with a wifi card installed (and hadn’t needed one until now) was relegated to being a stand-alone machine. The G5 is our digital hub for music and photos so it needs to be online.

Last night while shopping for a suitable USB wifi card I saw in forums that people had hit-or-miss experiences with G5′s and USB wifi cards and they advised to use an AirPort card in the built-in slot for best results. A quick Google search showed me I could buy one off Amazon or eBay for around $30 bucks. In the description I saw that these cards were compatible with G3, G4 or G5 machines. *Light Bulb*.  We had bought Amanda an old G4 Macbook that she used until the hard drive demonstrated what the sound of metal scraping against metal is like. A quick removal of the keyboard and eureka! An AirPort Extreme card! But, would it fit in the G5?

I flipped the iMac on it’s front and loosened three screws (seriously, Macs are the best designed machines) and immediately saw the slot for the AirPort card and it was the same size. Rear panel back on, power up.

G5: “I’ve found an AirPort card, would you like to use it?”
Me: “Yes, yes I would.”

Done.

It felt good to ‘use what we got’ – A mantra Amanda and I often recite in our continued endeavor of Gazelle Intensity. Also, this episode was also an example of how great design of products pays dividends years later.  I challenge anyone to show me an almost 8 year old Windows machine that is in such good shape as our little Manzanita.