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Rotate Display On Wallstreet PowerBook?

Submitted by davintosh on June 6, 2008 - 4:38pm. Development & Software Hacks

I've finally convinced my wife to give up her paper wall calendar in favor of using the calendar feature in Entourage, and am planning on putting an old Wallstreet at the stand-up desk in the kitchen (she was about this resistant when I tried to convince her to get an internet connection and email; now she can't survive without it.) Now I'm trying to figure out how best to mount the PowerBook so it's easily accessible but not in the way.

I found a post on Instructables (link) where a guy made brackets to attach a laptop upside down to the bottom of an upper cabinet. The display swings down for use, but it required something extra to rotate the displayed image. I'd like to do the same with the PowerBook, but I haven't been able to come up with a way to rotate the display on it.

The PowerBook is currently running 10.2, and the rotate display dohickey in the Displays Preference Panel was introduced with 10.4. Even if I hacked 10.4 to run on it, that feature is still disabled on PowerBooks -- won't work on my Aluminum G4 PowerBook at all.

So, the question is, is there a hack or 3rd party bit of software that can do this for me?

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eeun's picture

Semi-helpful: Yes, there is,

Submitted by eeun on June 6, 2008 - 9:46pm.

Semi-helpful: Yes, there is, though for the life of me I can't remember what it's called or find it in a Google search.
I remember trying it with my G3 iMac.
Edit: MacPortrait, though it seems to be a commercial product. Through my fuzzy memory I seem to recall a post by jt years ago that linked to a legit download of it...possibly bundled with Radius software or some such...

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davintosh's picture

Re: Semi-helpful: Yes, there is,

Submitted by davintosh on June 7, 2008 - 1:01am.
eeun wrote:
Semi-helpful: Yes, there is, though for the life of me I can't remember what it's called or find it in a Google search.
I remember trying it with my G3 iMac.
Edit: MacPortrait, though it seems to be a commercial product. Through my fuzzy memory I seem to recall a post by jt years ago that linked to a legit download of it...possibly bundled with Radius software or some such...

Hmmm... MacPortrait seems to have been abandoned with the advent of OS X. Bummer; that's something I'd pay for if it worked.

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dankephoto's picture

abandonware

Submitted by dankephoto on June 7, 2008 - 3:28am.

MacPortrait is exactly what you'd want if you were running a classic MOS. Sadly it's not possible to buy (though it can be found on the web if you know what to look for.)

Might not be terribly difficult to flip the LCD itself inside the display, I forget what the inside to a WS display looks like tho. Obviously you can't lengthen the LVDS cable, but you can stretch out the backlight wires easily.

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davintosh's picture

Flipping the LCD

Submitted by davintosh on June 7, 2008 - 4:06am.

I had thought of flipping the LCD, but the last few hardware hacks I've tried haven't ended well, so I'm a little gunshy. I had thought to get an external display and just use a standard wall mount on it, but since the spousal unit still isn't convinced of the veracity of this plan, I'm trying to keep cash expenditures at a minimum (hence the use of a slightly underpowered laptop that I have on hand). Also, OS X is a must, as part of the justification for this project is so that she can use Quicken without heading to the basement rec room and the mini.

Another thing that may work is to use one of the under-cabinet cookbook holders for the machine; pull the slide out & down, flip up the screen, and it's rockin'. The only thing I don't like about that is that when deployed, the screen is in the way of the door. Hmmm.

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Jon's picture

Maybe install the ATi drivers

Submitted by Jon on June 8, 2008 - 3:31am.

Maybe install the ATi drivers? ISTR that working to do rotation on my iBook back on 10.2 or so.

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themike's picture

What about simply mounting it

Submitted by themike on June 8, 2008 - 2:16pm.

What about simply mounting it to the inside of the cabinet door? So when you open the cabinet, there is instant access to the machine.
Does the Display open all the way, so machine can lay flat?

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davintosh's picture

Hmmm...

Submitted by davintosh on June 8, 2008 - 4:54pm.

Hadn't thought of that. Not sure if it'll work though because the upper cabinet is a little higher than standard, plus you'd have the body of the laptop below the display, so it'd be even higher. Then the laptop would have to fit between the uprights on that door. But I'll take some measurements to see if that'll work.

I'm also going to take a stab at installing the ATI drivers as Jon suggested. That might do the trick too.

Thanks!

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