Why is my G3 iBook draining the battery so quickly?

I've a thread going on this at the Apple discussion site. My G3 iBook is sucking down my new battery. Recent changes include:

1. a new hard drive (15GB -> 40GB) with expert disassembly.
2. changed LAN encryption from WEP (pathetic) to WPA 1.
3. restored OS image using Carbon Copy Cloner.

Things I've tried include:

1. Reset PMU.
2. Zap PRAM.
3. Repair permissions (no problems, this never seems to work)
4. Deleted the .plist for power management.

Here's part of the recent thread. Comments welcome!

Apple - Discussions - Power drain after drive upgrade?

I did some research and the drive power demand increases typically measure out at about 2%. Sometimes newer faster drives consume less power than older slower drives!

I could imagine that Panther might have some trouble with optimizing sleep on some of the newer complex drives (which are really full-fledged computers with databases, operating systems, algorithms,etc) -- if I can't figure out anything else I'm going to upgrade the iBook to Tiger. (I hear it works pretty well if you disable Spotlight and maybe the widgets.)

More interestingly now I'm focusing on WPA wireless encryption. I changed my LAN's encrytpion from (so broken) WEP to WPA around the time of the drive switch. I notice the G3 iBook doesn't support WPA 2 (10.3.9, latest version AirPort) -- makes me wonder if there's a CPU math constraint that the G3 can't meet. That in turn makes me wonder how well the vector-less G3 actually does with WPA. If the CPU is churning that would increase heat, turn on fans, etc.

I'm going to install some tool for CPU resource utilization and study what's happening with WPA, the compare to WEP.

Update: this is a very interesting evaluation of encryption and performance, but not particularly looking at power consumption.

Update: Using OS X's monitor tool and the freeware (forget name) dashboard app I can see my iBook CPU is working quite hard to do web page access. I'm suspicious that WPA is a bit much for a 600MHz G3. Too bad -- since it works very well with XP SP2.

Removing those cursed Microsoft Windows toolbars -- removing COM and other Add-Ins

I updated an old post on removing Add-Ins like Adobe Acrobat and Yahoo Desktop Search from Outlook and other apps: Gordon's Tech: Removing those cursed Microsoft Windows toolbars. The way to do this in Outlook is particularly obscure. Sorry -- you have to read through the updates to get the latest story.

OS X synchronizatioin utility

FOR neXtSoft QuickSync Folder and Device Synchronization Utility. AutoSync folders, great for iPods, hand helds, PowerBooks, Jump Drives and Networks Including .mac, Windows Networks and ftp

Microsoft had a sync facility in Windows 98, 2K and probably still has it in XP (maybe 95)? I tried it once but never trusted it. People have trouble implementing sync. This sounds a bit sympler; I wonder if it uses the psync source.

QuickSync is the easy folder sync utility for PowerBook and hand held owners. QuickSync can be used with jump drives, Hand helds, iPods or users of any other device that mounts as a drive on your desktop. This application can be used to keep your mp3 collection or important files up to date. QuickSync features Single or Bi-direction sync, automatic sync which detects devices as they are plugged in, the syncronizes the selected folders automaticaly. QuickSync is drag and drop aware, easy to use and cost effective.

Encyclopedia Britannica Dashboard widget and firefox search plugin

Encyclopdia Britannica Technical Support

Next thing you know the freight trains will sprout rocket engines. Britannica gets sexy (in a geekish sort of way) with widgets and firefox search plugins. I guess I'll have to reenable Dashboard on my iMac.

The amazing thing, however, is that their new RSS feed has over 150 bloglines subscribers. Wow.

I'd mostly forgotten I pay Britannica each month for their service. It's kind of been a charitable act. Maybe they're actually thinking about how they could be useful. Or maybe Google has agreed to buy them ...

The official way to move an iTunes library

iTunes: Moving your iTunes Music folder

I've done this in the past and it's worked quite well.

JIWIRE: Wi-Fi Hotspot Finder, Product Reviews, and Industry News

Wi-Fi Hotspot Finder, Product Reviews, and Industry News

I came because of their neat jiwire widget, but then remembered my iBook still runs Panther (though with the new 40GB drive it could run Tiger ...). Very interesting directory service though!

Where are the wireless speakers?

I want to send music (including AAC and AAC/FairPlay music) from iTunes to a speaker set in the kitchen and a speaker set in the dining room. At first I thought I'd install a shallow receiver in the dining room bookcase, attach an AirPort Express, and drive the speakers from their (there are wires in place from that spot to the kitchen). I'm having trouble, though, finding a shallow enough receiver ...

Where are the wireless speakers? | News.blog | CNET News.com

July 26, 2005 3:42 PM PDT
Where are the wireless speakers?

If the technology industry is so wonderful, how come it can't resolve one of the prime headaches of home entertainment: speaker wires? It's a question that has bedeviled many interior designers.

It turns out it's a basic problem of electrical engineering, according to a representative from Samsung's home theater department. Speakers need an amplifier, and amplifiers need a wire for power. Sending electricity through the air isn't realistic, and batteries die. Some have made speakers that receive audio tracks via radio signals from the amp, but the quality is iffy and the speaker needs to be plugged into the wall anyway.

Looks like I may need to run wires to the basement stereo ...

Update 10/10/05: After 2 months of research, phone calls, consultation, collaboration and unanswered queries I think I've found the big piece of the puzzle.