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11/20/98 - Friday's News:	Click for Current News Page
SCA HD Adapters Feedback: Kathryn Jenkins wrote with a observation on SCA adapters (not verified personally - these are her observations/comments): " Just a comment on the "Granite Digital" SCA adapters sold by Granite, MacGurus, and others. I bought two of them, and they work well, as far as I can tell. However, it appears to me that about the only thing Granite did here was to put their logo on a sheet of instructions for the "CSC Fastcache™ SCA Adapter Module" (title of instruction sheet) and put the adapter and the xeroxed instructions into a Granite-labelled bag. Corporate Systems Center (CSC, www.corpsys.com) sells what appears to be this very adapter for $39. Granite charges $59. Should I ever need one of these devices in the future, you can bet I'm not going to spend $20 for a Granite logo. Kathryn Jenkins " = 4:30 PM Update = As noted below Connectix has a Speed Doubler 8.1.2 update page (512K Bin Updater file) available with many fixes for use with OS 8.5, Kensington's v5 startup extension and other improvements too numerous to list. Carmine's (MiM) News Feed AppleTIL Updates (Friday:11/20/98)  Mac OS: Cannot Disable RAM Disk  Disk Copy 6.3 Scripts: Read Me  Disk Copy 6.3: Quick Reference  Disk Copy 6.1.3 Quick Reference  Disk Copy 6.3: -50 Error When Making Image of CD or Hard Drive  WebObjects Compatibility Guide  EOF and Multithreaded Applications Speed Doubler 8.1.2 update (Connectix) MacMarket SCA Cheetah Drive Advisory: Rod Paine of ASTEC sent an Advisory on the SCA interface drives on sale at MacMarket. Rod states the drives he bought have Unisys firmware and can't be formatted by Apple drive setup for instance. Read his comments for more details. Rod also sent a Graph of performance using FWB HDT 2.5.3 with a pair of these drives configured as a 2-drive RAID 0 stripe set (Remus Raid Software) connected to an Adaptec 2940UW SCSI card (300MHz G3 CPU system). I always warn readers on SCA interface drives (often noted in the model number), as they require adapters which, if not well made can lead to termination and other problems. More on Mac Leggo Mindstorms: David Jellinek writes with more info: " Just wanted to let you know that there is a Lego Mindstorms for the Mac. There is a different, slightly more complex language, based on a Lego for schools. check out www.lego.com/dacta. You buy the Lego kit, a mac cord and the mac language separately. its like an extra $50. Salon Daily had some articles on it, and I think they said it worked fine David Jellinek " I think this is related to the link I posted in my first Mindstorms comments some time back. Another Memory Leak/PPP config Tip: " From one of your readers, on today's [yesterday's] news: Unchecking the load only when needed box in tcp/ip will also fix the memory problem. However, you have to restart the computer and every time to boot, your computer will try to connect and then you will have to stay connected to continue getting this benefit. Actually, you don't have to be connected all the time, at least I was able to keep this from happening with my setup. After disabling the "Load on when needed" option in the TCP/IP control panel, you need to go into the PPP control panel (aka Remote Access in OS 8.5) and select Options-->Protocol. Then disable the "Connect automatically when starting TCP/IP applications" checkbox. That's it! Tony Aguila TLC Graphics" Several readers replied in response to the rumored 'new fix' for the problematic PowerBook G3 13.3" screens in yesterday's news that the the 13.3" screens have been dropped from the current PB line. More on Orange Micro PCfx card fit issues: " I installed it, I I took a metal-saw and removed a piece of the Adaptec Board, the PCfx card fits perfectly now. You were right, it needs the pci slot next to it free, it will not fit if there are already two PCI cards in the desktop. Performance is so so, Carmageddon II demo doesn't even give me a single frame per second. Testdrive 4, Ultimate Race Pro run poorly. I'll do some more testing and let you know the results. There is no way to install Win'98 if you do not have the OM Easy Install CD, after entering the registration code of '98 I get an error, illegal instruction or something like that. I called tech-support again and they will send me a copy FOR FREE!!!! Am I happy with my newest toy? No, at least not yet, it seems the card will run faster with '98 so as soon as I get the Easy install I'll sent you some results. Rob Huigsloot Update: He replied to my questions of DirectX and Riva driver installs: I did install directx6, Riva drivers are dated 31-8-98 so those are not really old. A utility called SiSoft Sandra says the graphics bios is very old but of course there is no flashrom...I'll check for newer drivers this weekend. FPU is dramaticaly slow 73 MFLOPS (whatever that means) [Million Floating Point Operations per Second-Mike] about the same performance as a 75Mhz Pentium which has 84 MFLOPS [AMD and Cyrix FPU speed has always been much slower per MHz than Intel's, a major reason why I never liked them. He later replied this has the 200Mhz IDT WinChip C6, which I know nothing about.-Mike]. CPU is 375 MIPS which is a little faster than a P133 at 340MIPS. That might explain why games that need a 166Pentium run very slooowwwwww. I really hope the EasyInstall cd will come in soon. " FutureCOP Status: Chris Conway, FutureCOP programmer wrote me that the final version will be shipping in the next few days. See our FutureCOP Review of the demo version for tips, info and 3dfx/software mode screenshots. Since it's a hybrid game, make sure you indicate you bought it for the Mac when you register it. Electronic Arts does not often make a Mac game - let them that we want more. More Memory Leak Tools/Tips: Reader replies to the ongoing notes on memory leaks in the last few days news: " Hey there Mike , First another thank you for all the hard work on the site. It really makes a difference to a lot of us. Here is a tool that is useful but can be put to use for evil as well as good. NetAdmins betware. To quit the finder use "Memory Mapper 1.5." This utility displays all alocated ram as well as allow you to send a quit event to any process which can recieve it...i.e. the Finder. No Force quit, no lengthy DFA to go through. Very small RAM footprint itself. Not sure where I found it but I may have heard about it on this site or in the forums! Jeremy L., Composer/Technologist ¡Viva la Macintosh! " Thanks to all the readers that sent links to download Memory Mapper 1.5 (also here are Apple FTP and MIT archives alternates. " Hi, Mike! For Netscape memory leak tip, how about this? You can quit Finder safely (I think) with AppleScript: tell application "Finder" quit end tell Masato Ogawa Tokyo, Japan. This 'quit the finder' trick was used for RealPC/VirtualPC (noted in a Tips page article some time ago). I think there is a script file linked there (this script would need editing for other use as it is written for use with VPC or RealPC if I remember correctly). 3Dfx Message Board: Response to the new design 3DFx Hardware/Software Forum first day has been good. If you've not checked it out please do. There are several interesting threads there now. More on LCDfx Chip: I mailed 3Dfx for more info on the LCDfx chip noted in the recent news and their reply indicates it's not for notebooks (major disappointment) " the chip is designed to work with 3Dfx graphics chips to support LCD flat panel displays. It's not designed for mobile applications. " Leggo Mindstorms/Virtual PC: In response to the post in yesterday's news Connectix wrote: " Lego Mindstorms does not with with Virtual PC at this time. Connectix is looking into a fix for this. -- C. Lee Graham Technical Support Specialist www.connectix.com " A reader sent info on how the programming works: "Mike, The LEGO Mindstorm uses IR to transmit data from a PC to its unit. Therefore, even you have VPC or RealPC, and makes the software run. The IR transmitter still cannot be connected to the Macs. Harry Teng" Maybe a PowerBook with its IR Port could be made to work? Today's Unreal News has some neat tips on the awesome DmWicked Map (flying piano!), MacMagic Rave tips, more problem reports on the Generic Voodoo 2 drivers and more good stuff than I can even summarize here. Check it out. Yesterday's News Summary New 3DFx Hardware/Software Forum (User message Board) Comments on MC announced Voodoo 3 Play, Inc. announced 3D app. Amorphium More on OS 8.x Memory Leak Unofficial Netscape FAQ Leggo Mindstorms update Vargas says he will not do a Voodoo II tweaker Info on FWB's Hard Disk Toolkit 3.0 Carmine's TIL Updates and News Feeds (links from the let) Unreal News page updated PowerWindows 2.04/Stuffit 5.0 compat. notes New report of PowerBook 13.3" screen repair method Best guess delivery on Rage128 and Banshee cards More on PCfx fit problems in G3 Desktop 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. News and guest reviews that don't require a reply are always welcome. I hope to catch up in the next few weeks. Thanks. Looking for past articles? Check the menu frame topics links (CPU Cards, SCSI, Graphics Cards, Systems) under the logo above or in the menu frame below or check the Recent Features page. 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.