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02/02/99 - Tuesday's News:	Current News Page
Carmine's MiM News Feed [links may not work in the future] AppleTIL Updates (TUESDAY.02.02.99)  MOD 42501 Power Macintosh: Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)  MOD 60006 Software Fulfillment Options  MOD 24448 AppleShare IP 6: Using Windows File Sharing Feature  NEW 58264 Power Macintosh G3 (Blue and White): Ghost Monitor When Using PCI Video Cards  NEW 24802 Apple Remote Access: Disconnects After Ten Minutes  NEW 58268 AppleWorks 5.0.3 Updater (Macintosh): Read Me  NEW 58267 Power Macintosh G3 (Blue and White): Connection Issues with FireWire DV Devices  NEW 58269 Power Macintosh G3 (Blue & White): Switching Resolutions Results in Blank Gray Screen  MOD 30894 Mac OS: Energy Saver Troubleshooting  MOD 13628 Disk First Aid: Frequently Asked Questions (2 of 2)  MOD 58265 System 7.5 Version 7.5.3: Available for Download  MOD 58007 iMac: Type of Memory to Order to Upgrade RAM and VRAM  MOD 19516 Disk First Aid: Frequently Asked Questions (1 of 2)  MOD 24803 iMac: Troubleshooting Unreliable Modem Connections  MOD 15460 AppleShare File Sharing: Chart of All Limitations  MOD 24601 Mac OS Extended Format: Volume and File Limits  MOD 58266 AppleWorks 5.0.3 Updater (Windows): Read Me  MOD 72673 WebObjects and the Year 2000  MOD 19293 AppleVision 1710 Display: Technical Specifications  MOD 14449 PowerBook: Resetting Power Manager  MOD 72641 NeXTSTEP And the Year 2000  MOD 28500 PowerBook Discussion Board: Frequently Asked Questions  MOD 72672 OPENSTEP and the Year 2000  MOD 34039 ColorSync 17-inch Display: Technical Specifications  MOD 30460 Apple Studio Display 15" LCD: Technical Specifications (Rev. A & B)  MOD 15085 Apple Multiple Scan 17 Display: Specifications  MOD 58245 Power Macintosh G3 (Blue and White): About the Apple Ultra SCSI PCI Card Infowave Ships USB Printing Solution For Macintosh Computers(R) (Yahoo) Epson Announces the World's Fastest Color Ink Jet Printer - the Epson Stylus Color 900 (Yahoo) Microsoft Accused About Video (Yahoo) NEC Technologies Introduces New High-Resolution Ultra-Portable Projector (Yahoo) Nintendo Clone Released, Yanked (Wired) Flat-panel prices to jump (ZDnet) NASA asks for interplanetary Internet (ZDnet) IBM unveils fastest supercomputer (ZDnet) Frank sent another update to the 3D Game News page that has info on a new 3Dfx tweaker release (non-beta), cool tip to allow you to switch viewports in Unreal, a MythII easter egg page, a new mac game called Nightwalker, Playstation 2000 and a status update on Dave. Andrew Thompson sent word that CNN has a poll [link expired] going on the most popular Super Bowl ad, saying currently the Apple HAL commercial was in the lead. Pat Berry, now forming a USA dealership for Formac sent product info on their affordable, (reportedly) Yosemite compatible PCI SCSI cards: " Formac's full line of PowerRaid SCSI Acceleration cards are finally available in the US through our Formac USA Inc. subsidiary and will be available for shipping in April. The PowerRaid line offers full compatibility with Apples new line of Yosemite, including the ability to boot your Yosemite directly from our PowerRaid and its attached SCSI device. The PowerRaid cards are available in both a single channel or dual-channel to version, Data transfer rates of to 40 MB/s with the single channel PowerRaid I and the dual-channel PowerRaid II card can achieve up to 80 MB/s data transfer rates. Estimate US Pricing will be: PowerRaid I Single Channel $119 PowerRaid II Dual Channel $299 Product features: Bus master card with directly MEMORY ACCESS supports SCSI-1, SCSI-2 and SCSI-3, as well as almost [narrow?-Mike], Wide and Ultra Connectors for 8 and 16 bits of SCSI devices. No Jumpers fully software configurable, SCSI manager 4.3 compatible. " The Yosemite Compatibility page had some comments on these cards, one Yamaha 4416S CDR owner reported the drive was not recognized however. The price is certainly attractive. = 2:00 PM Update = Kent Kalpakjian wrote asking for a comment on 3Dfx's Macintosh SDK (Software development kit) that is said to now include Voodoo2 support. 3Dfx's current Mac SDK page states that 'no drivers [are] included' and that they are to be obtained from the card manufacturer. I mention this as some people may think the SDK has generic drivers included. As noted in last November's post called 'The Truth about the Generic Drivers' dealing with the posting of them to the web, there was supposed to be NDA (non-disclosure agreement) required to obtain Mac Voodoo2 drivers at that time. They may not be available at all anymore after they were leaked to the web. George Kotsopoulos sent a mail indicating compatibility problems with his PowerForce G3/220/110 card and Emagic's Logic Audio Platinum application. He said he cannot run the program for more then 5 or so minutes without getting a 'Bus Error' message and a freeze/crash. He's tried reducing the card speed, minimizing extensions etc. with no luck (a 604E card works fine). He did note that he is not running with a cache dimm installed, which according to the feedback on the PF/7500 tips page is often a requirement with that PF G3/7500 combination readers say. The FAQ also notes this in question 31 dealing with PF G3 compatibility issues. Ryan Grimes sent a note on using Playstation controllers with the Mac: " The Joyport will be available in USB soon I think. If not I've got the old ADB version that will allow you plug Playstation controllers into it and use them. There's even a new patch that will allow the Dual shock controllers. I just picked a dual shock controller up last night and will try it out tonight with VGS. The website for this info is www.kernel.com Ryan T. Grimes " = 12:00 PM Update = CVGS: Last night I finally got a chance to install Connectix's Virtual Game Station (from an actual original CD of the product). As noted here but contrary to many other web site reports - my non-Sony DVD drive worked fine. Crash Bandicott 3 ran well on the system, but I need to get a USB controller, as the keyboard was awkward to use in the game. I've gotten suggestions on controllers and adapters to try (one from http://www.kernel.com even allows using a Playstation controller). Derrick A. Yamaura wrote with before/after performance notes on his PB 1400 Vimage G3 CPU upgrade. " Hi Mike, Just thought I'd drop you a line and tell you that I installed a Vimage VpowerPB G3/233 in my PowerBook 1400. MacBench 5.0 scores as follows: 1400/117 1400/G3/233 -------- ----------- CPU: 121 701 FPU- 128 777 FPU+ 162 990 (FPU- = without LibMotoSH; FPU+ = with LibMotoSH) Quite a performance increase, wouldn't you say? Also, at the same time, I installed a single-layer 48MB RAM module from NewerRAM (to fit under a NewerTech ViewPOWR 1400/16 card in the expansion slot), and an IBM Travelstar 4GT 4.0GB HD. My 1400's service life has been markedly extended by these upgrades. Sincerely, Derrick A. Yamaura Consulting Archaeologist Creekside Resources Inc. " (NOTE: Vimage later went out of the CPU upgrade business.) IBM 9516 LCD Display: Several readers wrote to ask about the 16 inch IBM LCD display I mentioned in yesterday's news. The one I have is a refurbished 9516B (stealth gray [blue/black to me]) I'm running it at 1280x1024, as the autoexpansion (stretches lower res to full screen) text does not look very good at lower resolutions. This evaluation unit was the last refurbished unit that the seller had, priced at $1199, (plus $139 for a 4 yr warranty). The best price I've seen on a new IBM 9516 is $1699, often $1799. Here is my list of Pros/Cons (since this is a refurb that at least two other people used, I'm not sure that this particular model is typical of a brand new display). Pros: Good brightness/sharpness. The screen makes any notebook TFT look drab by comparison. High quality BNC cable with ferrites included Good selection of display controls (via menu) Currently the most affordable of the larger (>15 inch) LCD displays Great space saver. I never want to buy a tube monitor again if I can help it. No health hazards like CRT monitors Nice adjustable stand Cons: Loud fan. This surprised me, as my (store demo sale) IBM 14 inch LCD is totally quiet. The fan in this 9516 is louder than the one in the Yosemite. DVD movies show vertical bars when very bright explosions, etc. are shown (and during some very high delta frames). I don't remember seeing that on the PB G3. May be due to the analog to digital converter (notebooks have all digital controller/displays) No Mac setup disk (there were over half dozen setup disks with it for win/9x/NT, Unix, Solaris, etc.). The built-in auto-setup function worked well however, although auto black-level tests failed (there is also a manual adjustment). Surprisingly heavy for a flat panel, but this helps stability (don't want it falling over/off the desk!) Expensive repair parts - the small rear plastic cable cover was cracked and IBM's current replacement cost was $56.25. No tech support or other phone number in the manual. According to the manual, it's FCC class A rated only - that means it is certified for business (not residential) use. Possibly the manual is not up to date but this is something to check before buying. A CRT (tube) display is still better for graphic professionals that demand high color accuracy, wider viewing angle, etc. Speaking of LCD displays, I hear the new Rev B Apple LCD Studio display may not have the autoexpansion feature (auto full screen scaling of lower resolutions). Maybe that is why it costs $200 less than the original rev A model. Quake Networking/LAN Tutorial: Ruffin Bailey sent part 1 of a guide to Setting up your own Quake LAN for network multiplayer action. Check out Macs Only! has a review of the Phase 5 Power Booster G3 366 MHz ZIF Card for the beige Apple PowerMac G3s, minitowers or desktops. See the review for special pricing offers on the Phase 5 upgrades. More G3 V.90 Modem Updater Problems: Another problem report: " hi- just another note on less than stellar performance after flashing my gv/56 with the new v.90. while connection speed is definitely improved, my real world frustration has never been higher. the connection, while slow, was at least reliable before the upgrade. since upgrading, i now successfully connect 1 out 5 times. the other times i get a message which says 'remote side not responding properly' or, even more frustrating, it will tell me that it has successfully established a connection (albeit at an 'unknown rate') only to refuse to actually connect to any url's before disconnecting remote access on me 10 seconds later. at least when it's up it's up. it's just annoying to have to go through 5 minutes of redailing everytime i go on line. seriously, i'd be a sheep without a shepherd if it wasn't for your work on xlr8yourmac. keep the faith. ranen " I suggested the reader tip on reflashing the 56K Flex version as one reader noted in yesterday's news. One other reader reported he could not flash his internal G3 modem with the update, he said it aborted at about 15% through the progress bar with an error message that it was not the proper modem. Now he's stuck with a useless model, and noted Apple may not replace it under warranty. I think I remember some early reports of PC 56Flex modems (off brands usually) being damaged during flashing of the first release of the V.90 upgrades last year. AutoCache Beta Feedback: Reader comments on the latest beta from Powerlogix noted in yesterday's news: " Using the new PowerLogix AutoCache 1.0.2b1, the Mac Gravis Firebird Joystick Background Application (BA) extension will crash as it attempts to autoload a game control set after launching a game application (flight sim in my case). There are two workarounds I've found that work. One is to replace the new AutoCache with G3 Cache Control 1.4.1. The other is to disable the Firebird BA and 'manually configure' the Firebird INIT with the desired control set using the Firebird setup application. This conflict did not occur with the previous AutoCache beta. A detailed bug report has been sent to PowerLogix. Lee Graham " " Hey Mike, Just tried out the new Autocache 1.0b2 from PowerLogix in the beast here (9500/G3). Worked fine, until I noticed I had reset my memory prefs and was running with VM on - turned VM off and got freeze during boot, just after the Autocache 1.0b2 extension loads and runs it's checks. Turned VM back on - No Freeze! Go figure! [he has a]PowerLogix 275/275 (Set to 300/300) 1MB - The first AutoCache extension worked fine with it. Also note that this enables the cache in LinuxPPC if you use the BootX booting method. M. Lamoureaux " MacUser UK has a more favorable review of the XLR8 400 G3 upgrade than did MacWorld in their recent G3 upgrade article. Other Net News: Apple's Road Ahead Part 3: The Case for Client-Server Sacrifices for the Revolution (MacOpinion) 3D to Drive Demand for Pentium III (PCWorld) MP3 (Audio) Portals Debut from Diamond and Lycos (PCWorld) Yesterday's News Summary Buy Virtual Game Station Online at Connectix Massive Carmine's TIL update and news feed Fresh Gear poll on new G3 opinions More V.90 update problem reports from readers Yosemite Performance page has OpenGL/LW 3D sample Autocache latest beta feedback Gaming news page updated, interesting link to comments on Voodoo2 drivers Quantum 3D lowers pricing on dual Voodoo2 card to $349 Comments on Voodoo2 passthru video quality on LCD monitor at high res MacGurus rebuttal to Macworld's G3 upgrade article PF G3 ZIF report of 500MHz+ via voltage modification Escape from the dark side reader commentary Industry insider comments on new B&W G3 Reader comments on compat. issues and drive heights on B&W G3 B&W G3 G3/400 not stable at 450MHz reader says More reader comments on CVGS/Sony Suit Macsonly CVGS watch page Other net news Summary of prev. days news For other recent site news/features links, see the Recent Site Features page. Note: Before sending tech support related questions please check the Freq. Asked Questions, Site Contents, CPU Card reviews/articles, SCSI reviews articles, Graphics card reviews, Tips/Misc, Message Boards and Help pages - in many cases the answers to your questions are there and they have far more detail than I can list in an email. For Apple G3 system info - see the G3-ZONE. For links on recent articles, see the Recent Features page. Please try the Men in Mac Help page as an alternative on requests for tech support to help me be able to spend more time on reviews. Thanks. Make a Difference: Be the Difference Randy Mita, Brad Lau and I came up with a new slogan and theme for Mac advocacy - "Make a Difference: Be the Difference". We're asking that all Mac owners take advantage of every opportunity to let others know the Mac advantage. It's a grass-roots approach that will surely help.