02/19/98 News: (For the current days news see the main www.xlr8yourmac.com daily news page)
- PC World has an article about 3Com (aka US Robotics) having the first shipping V.90 modems (the new 56K universal standard). Upgrades (flash bios) for existing USR X2 owners are said to be free.
Bios upgrades are said to be available at the end of the month, and I'm glad to hear that
the V.90 will be backward compatible with X2 so you can still connect at higher rates until your ISP is upgraded.
- Macworld Japan News: Masato Ogawa
sends some news and URLs about Macworld Japan (japanese pages - but the
photos are nice). He will be going there tomorrow and will send more news from the
show:
http://www.watch.impress.co.jp/pc/docs/article/980218/g3up3.jpg
http://www.watch.impress.co.jp/pc/docs/article/980218/macexpo1.htm
"
Again, Impress (a publishing company, and recently a leading internet
publisher) reports from "Internet Watch" and "PC Watch".
According to those reports, Keynotes from Apple are basically same as
SF Expo. The booth area is shrinked into a half of the past (before,
the Expo. uses all the area of this convention center).
Anyway, you can see Interware's 1400 G3 acc. (the first URL). IE 4.0
localized in Japanese is released and Microsoft gives its CD-ROM freely.
[Note: "acc" means accelerator card-Mike]
Looking around the web world in Japan, I got some more reports about
the Expo.:
First 2400 acc. by Newer Tech. Two Japanese distributors show the
card running...
http://biztech.nikkeibp.co.jp/biztech/biz.cgi/report2/br980219110.html
According to the article, the 2400 acc. card in SF Expo. was just a
mock-up, is it true? [yes, I hear it was a fake-Mike] Here in Tokyo, a
distributer Arcpoint got the workable model just before 20H of the
show in Wednesday and installed it. You can touch the machine. The
card running is 240MHz/512KB, but all the spec. the Arcpoint was told
is tentative. The final spec. depends on the heat and the power
consumption.
And the another issue is how to install it as it is far difficult to
install by user nor shop. Both distributors is working to resolve this.
In this article, there is a some interesting statistics. 2400 is
bought mainly (almost definitely) in Japan and about 60,000 sold.
Second 1400 acc. by Interware.
http://biztech.nikkeibp.co.jp/biztech/biz.cgi/report2/br980219111.html
233MHz/512KB/117MHz aroud 140,000yen ($1 = 126 yen)
It powered 1400 faster by 3 times in CPU power and 2 times in Video
rendering, Interware says. Will be released in April.
Interware says it is no different with 2400 acc. than 1400 to make.
But to install the card in 2400 is far difficult than 1400, Intereware
is seeking the solution.
OS 8.1 for Japanese has been released just on 18 Feb. the opening
day of the Tokyo Expo. It's about 30 days after the US 8.1, so
something amazing and happy.
CD-ROM containing the core updater is bundled with most of the Mac
Magazines issued in these days. Note, in Japan, most of the computer
magazines bundle CD-ROM every month in these years. This is intended
to increase the subcription of the Magazines and helps relatively poor
servers and narrow bandwidth of the internet in Japan. (In Japan,
magazines are mainly sold in bookstore, not the regular subscription)
Apple Japan also set the ftp server for updaters. Bootable CD-ROM
for OS 8.1 distribution will be announced later this month in detail.
AND, at the keynote speech in the Tokyo Expo., Peter Hoddie told he
will try to release QT 3.0 for Japanese in 7 days after US version.
Jobs didn't come, gave us the video message.
Microsoft announced it is working with Office 98 for Mac in Japanese
to release in this summer and demoed it in the keynote session.
As for digital sitll camera, Fujifilm's new Mega Pixel model
FinePix 700 (1.5million pixels) comes the first show.
report:
http://www.watch.impress.co.jp/pc/docs/article/980203/fujifilm.htm
news release in Japanese:
http://www.fujifilm.co.jp/news_r/nrj322.html
Fujifilm home page in Japanese:
http://www.fujifilm.co.jp/news_r/nrj322.html
(English home page doesn't contain FinePix information, maybe because
the model is announced only in Japan).< BR>
Field test report (first and fast impression):
http://www.watch.impress.co.jp/pc/docs/article/980209/fp700.htm
"
Thanks Masato!
- As I reported here on Monday, there is a settlement in the Class-Action Warranty
Lawsuit against Iomega. News.com has an story on the suit today.
The 15-year old who started the suit commented: "I'm glad Iomega is finally going to add tech support," he said. "But as it stands, Iomega hasn't helped me very much. It's a
company that doesn't really care about its customers."
News.com also have a story about Apple wooing the Japanese market.
- MacIPX/Warcraft Update:Thomas P. Andre finally got the mixed network games running:
"Switching between the two MacIPX drivers forces the Ethernet driver to
load. You should see a Node # listed in the MacIPX window if everything
is working. You can ignore the "unable to load AppleTalk driver"
message.
Make sure both machines are set up to use Frame Type 802.3 This is the
only frame type Warcraft II will recognize. This is probably why the
game isn't showing up on the macintosh."
Needless to say, I have no idea how to check, if the PC-Compatible is set
to ethernet 802.3. So still, it didn't work to get the G3 to see the
other players. So I tried something else. I switched the IPX setting
on the G3 contrary to blizzard suggestion to Always Auto-Configure Frame
Type and Ethernet 802.2 (this is the same setting on the 7600/132, it
also can't connect to the PC with ethernet 802.3) and it did work. All
three computers (G3/266, 7600/132 and PC-Compatible) see each other in
the game, and can play against each other. Don't know why Blizzard
says, it only works with ethernet 802.3 setting, for some reason in my
case it is the opposite. I'm sure the update (IPX) was necessary.
"
I wrote back to him on how to check what frame type the PC is using,
and how to change it if necessary:
Here's how to check or change Ethernet Frame types on the PC.
IF DOS/Win3.1 - look for a "net.cfg" file on the PC, it's often in
a NWCLIENT or other network card directory. Look at the autoexec.bat
file which will usually list the network drivers directory in the path
statement or will call network drivers as a tip to where the file is (or just search for it).
The "net.cfg" is a text file that contains the frame type, address and IRQ
for the installed network card. You can view/modify the file with Edit, Edlin
or any word processor that can save ASCII text files.
IF Win95 - rightclick on "Network Neighborhood" icon and select
properties, then click on the IPX Protocol driver for the
network card in the list. With the IPX driver selected, click
the "properties" button, then click the
"Advanced IPX" tab - the frame type is listed there in a
drop down menu. Just below that is a radio button that
allows limiting to only certain frame types if you desire
(rather than allowing primary and secondary ones).
Since you're running fine I'd not mess with it, but
this is a way to tell what frame type the PC is configured for.
This info may come in handy in the future.
- New G3 Speed Record: Mike "the Boss" has reached new heights in G3 acceleration, and
here's the proof:
(he sent an screenshot showing 333mhz CPU speed w/83mhz bus speed)
"
new speed-record! (i think it wasn't a new revision of the CPU-board, the
difference was only that it came from an IBM plant, instead of motorola's.
I can't clockchip the motorolas as high as the IBM's)
"
- PowerComputing Power Supplies: As I expected, it appears the Power Computing machines use a standard PC ATX power supply (I suspect the G3 may be as well, but I have to verify this).
I had told Alexander Lapeyre about PC Power & Cooling, who IMHO makes the finest Power Supplies on
the PC market and he bought one for his PowerCC machine. He has a few comments about a Micropolis drive as well:
"
Months ago you recommended PC Power and Cooling as a source for quiet power
supplies (for a PowerCenter 150). I went ahead and purchased their ATX 275
Silencer at @$135.00. The unit fit perfectly, is much quieter, and the
scheduled startup finally works (set via the Energy Saver control
panel-never worked consistently from day one with the original power
supply). Before the computer would try to startup but didn't seem to get
enough "juice." By the way, the old unit had a frozen fan (yikes!). Although
the PowerComputing units have a high wattage output, the above two problems
make me very suspicious of their quality. Thanks for pointing me toward PC
Power and Cooling. By the way, they have a nice website at
www.pcpowercooling.com. Unfortunately my Micropolis 4GB AV hard drive is a
LOUD hard drive.
Interesting note regarding Micropolis hard drives. In Los Angeles, a
electronics superstore called Fry's was selling the Micropolis 9GB #3150
Ultra SCSI (wide) for $449.00. A great deal, when coupled with the optional
$69.00 2 year no questions asked warranty (offered through Fry's). Guess
what, the drive failed out of the box, the read/write armatures would just
make this loud clicking noise three or four times in quick succession, and
the then the LED would just blink on and off over again (manual says
blinking LED without connection to SCSI chain is an indicator of drive
failure). Very surprising considering the drive was packaged in a nice foam
carrier within the box. I would caution people buying Micropolis hard drives
a great prices to make sure they can return them if they are defective (an
extended warranty might be a good idea too).
Great site, great advice!
"
I've used PC Power & Cooling products for years in building servers and repairing PCs (my personal home-brew's always use them)- they are the finest products of their kind (Power Supplies, CPU Coolers (PC Fan/Heatsinks) and Enclosures). Although they are considered
high-priced in the PC world, they're worth it and compared to some of Apple's prices on supplies they are very reasonable IMHO.
- Quantum Atlas II Tip Your normally should not have this problem if you take my advice and leave all jumpers as shipped except termination (enabled if the last drive on the cable, disabled otherwise) and SCSI ID. However one reader said he had a problem with the drive being ready on a cold boot and I suspected he'd removed the "delay spindle start" jumper. That was the case as he later wrote:
"
You were right about the "delay spindle start" jumper, I pulled it of by
accident, I put it back on and voila.
"
- More Micropolis 4345WAV Feedback: It seems these drives are not performing as well
as their specs indicate. Thomas P. Andre (another MacWorks customer) who initially blamed the 2940 controller for the low performance of the drive, but found out later that was not the problem. He writes:
"
I just read on you page the comments from: "Martin Kaufman finds out
his performance issues with MacWork's Micropolis 4345WAV (4GB Wide AV
SCSI w/2MB Buffer) was not due to the 2940UW card after all:
" I had reported to you problems with my Adaptec
2940UW showing up as SCSI-2 and only getting 10 MB transfer rates
(original post with your comments
below). I got the Initio 9100UW card and got very
similar results. I found the Initio card to be slightly better.
It seems my Adaptec card worked like it should, but I
just thought I would get better results with my Micropolis 4345WAV."
I could not say it any better. I just got my Initio 9100UW which
replaced my Adaptc 2940UW for my Micropolis 4345WAV hard drive. Results
are very similar and my HD still shows up as being a SCSI II Drive
(FWB's HDT 2.5). I don't think I could have done anything wrong this
time (and I think I did nothing wrong with my 2940UW setup), since there
is nothing you can change on the Initio card setup (there is no setup,
as a matter of fact).
"
I'm thankful I didn't buy one after all. Good thing MacWorks never did return my email
asking about them - they did me a favor ;-)
- 3DFX Cooling Fan A reader wrote me about a page posted by the Flyman (who's written here before) regarding getting a 3Dfx Cool fan to fit/work in a 8500. The problem is normally
the CPU latch that covers the PCI card slots and the fact Apple does not use screws to secure PCI cards in most older towers (the G3MT does use screws though). µµµ wrote:
"
http://www.sirius.com/~flyman/tweaking.html
This is the addy for the fan review. 3Dfxcool.com has also linked to
the site for Mac support. The guy who runs that site knows nothing
about Macs! He said that some 200 e-mails a day come from Mac users and
he's sending them all my way?! Yikes! Would you ever think about
starting a message board for 3Dfx?
"
I'd thought of making a 3Dfx only message board, but I think the current video card forum
is fine for now. That may change with the final release of the 3DFx enabled VPC 2.0 and RealPC
however.
- Apple PDF Manuals available: Peter Koplan sent info about Adobe Acrobat versions of Apple product manuals being available:
"
Apple has recently posted Acrobat PDF format versions of manuals for
almost all of its products. However, as pointed out by Shiro Wilde: "The
filenames are very cryptic, and are named with the product codes (for
the manuals, not the machines they refer to) as the prefix, but it's
still possible to find manuals for individual machines. They cover all
the current Power Macs, and most of the obsolete Power Macs and
Performas of the past. Once again, Apple has mentioned a non-shipping
product on page 1 of a file for G3 Minitowers. They mention the G3
Minitower is available with a 275MHz Processor with 79 MHz bus.
ftp://ftp.info.apple.com/Apple.Support.Area/Manuals/
"
My tech document provided with the G3MT lists that speed as well.
- Apple G3 Audio input Issues: Several ATI VR owners are reporting problems with lack of Audio during video capture. ATI responded to my reporting the problem:
"
Thanks for asking here is the situation:
Currently, there is problem with the Power Mac G3 and all third-party
capture cards which prevents audio capture through a third-party card.
ATI's developers have spoken with Apple and Apple has acknowledged the
problem as theirs and offered the following response:
This is a known problem which has resulted from a conflict between the
sound input driver and QuickTime and a fix is currently being worked on.
"
On reader reported problmes in a UMax S900 - which ATI says should not be affected and if fact they say the S900 was their demo machine for the VR model.
- If you use a PC at work, or share files with them take a look at TransMac by Acute Systems.
TransMac is a Windows utility that can read, write, and format Macintosh high density diskettes, CD-ROMs, and SCSI drives (including SyQuest, Bernoulli, Zip, optical, hard drives, and more). Features include support for long filenames, deleting and copying directory trees, multi-session CD-ROM support and keeping or refreshing file dates between copying. There may be similar commercial utilities out there - but this one is shareware with a $64 registration fee. They also have a utility called Refont/Wrefont, which converts Macintosh Truetype and PostScript Type1 fonts to PC format. The shareware version (Refont) runs under DOS. The registered version (Wrefont) runs under Windows
($24 registration fee). I'm downloading a copy of TransMac today to give it a try at work on the
WinHozed 95 machine.
- Alternate Mac OS links: David Hartwell sent in some URLs I'd not seen before (I don't get out a lot lately though, even on the Net ;-):
Thanks David! I've added them to my Links Page.
- Thrustmaster Mac News: Although I've not heard it personally, some say there have been rumors about Thrustmaster dropping their Mac product line. Thankfully that's not true according to Benson Yeh's mail containing Thrustmaster's comments on the subject:
"
I am sending this to your great Web site, in case you've been informed
of a rumor regarding Thrustmaster...
Date: Tue, 17 Feb 1998 15:54 -0800
From: Info Account info@thrustmaster.com
To: yeh@tuna.net
Subject: RE: mac support
Hi Benson,
Those are INDEED Rumors. There is NO truth to them at all. For this
reason alone I despise the Usenets: WAY too much Gossip, and way too
little Facts. The following is the Truth about Macs:
1. We at ThrustMaster recently (Dec 1996) released our Mac O/S
Version of the Formula T2 Wheel for Driving Sims.
2. We not long ago upgraded the springs and potentiometers for the
Mac Version of the FCS to provide even more precision in use with MAC
Sims/Games.
3. While it is true that Production has halted on the Mac WCS, there
is a good reason for it. We have lost our source for some internal (and
crucial) parts, (& Please note: that without these, the WCS will NOT
function in the MAC environment). While the New design is being
pondered and Tested, there will be a "Shortage" of the WCS for Mac, that is
entirely unavoidable.
4. As to the New Elite RCS and whether or not they will work with the
MAC system: They at present do not. We are working on a fix for this.
Because the Elite RCS Replaces the Original RCS, this means there is
also a Shortage of RCS for MAC.
5. As MAC/Apple changes some Facets of it's operations, so are we
doing so. Mac HQ has hinted repeatedly that they MAY go to Universal Serial
Buss connections for their Products as well, eliminating almost
entirely the Barrier between PC & MAC Peripherals, such as Printers, Scanners,
Joysticks, etc. We are also looking into this.
We have far from 'Abandoned' Mac Support. Please pass this on to your
friends in MAC-Dom.
John Jewkes, CSS
ThrustMaster, INC.
Order Entry Admin.
"
Good news. I'm a big fan of their T2 Wheels, back when I actually had TIME to play games :-)
- Voodoo 2 on the Mac: Since I'm getting a lot of mail on this subject lately, I thought I'd post my reply to Jay Brewer that may answer some readers questions as well.
"
1. Are any Voodoo 2 cards currently compatible with the drivers from
Techworks?
Nobody knows at the moment. The cards are not out yet but I'll have one as soon
as they ship for the PC and will test it in the Macs here for compatibility.
Old Games will work says 3dfx (on the PC anyway), but will the drivers?
If they do the 2nd texture chip may not be used, but at least if it
worked we could use the card while we wait for Voodoo2 drivers.
2. If they are would Voodoo 2 be compatible with the REALPC Update from
insignia that supports 3DFX?
That will be an easier option I think - as the PC cards will come with PC software
that you can install - get it? Native PC DOS/Win95 Voodoo 2 drivers will have to
ship with the PC card. I'd bet those drivers could be installed in
RealPC or VPC to provide support - if the card works in the mac
PCI at all (I'm betting it will since the older designs were compatible).
"
I'm hoping to have a 12MB Voodoo 2 card before the solder is cool on the first shipping
production cards - possibly a pair for scan line interlacing. Quake 2 at 1024x768/60+ fps would be nice.
.
Yesterday's News
Please keep this site alive by supporting my
Sponsors
|
