Although this isn't a Mac or Computer related post, in the spirit of Thanksgiving I urge everyone to vist the site below to help those less fortunate than ourselves:

" Quite clever of the UN to do this. Go to the Hunger Site at the UN. All you do is click a button and somewhere in the world some hungry person gets a meal to eat, at no cost to you. The food is paid for by corporate sponsors. All you do is go to the site and click. But you're only allowed one click per day. So spread the word to others. http://www.thehungersite.com

Happy Thanksgiving,
your daily reader Tom A.-Taugher "

Problems w/MS Office 98 OS 9 Updates: [Update - the installer has been revised by Microsoft and works fine now based on 11/26/99 download version] John Guarde reported the new MS Office updater failed to recognize his installed version. The update addresses the following issues with OS 9:

This Microsoft Office 98 Updater addresses two issues: creating and editing charts in Microsoft Excel and Graph on Apple's Macintosh OS 9.0, and printing from PowerPoint to an Epson 740 printer via the USB port.

New 3dfx Drivers Test Results: The Game News page has an update with my FPS tests in games with the new Voodoo2 and Voodoo3 drivers. Also there is report from a Beige G3 owner with dual monitor setup (Voodoo3 and onboard video).

I promised some test results today, but Powerlogix requested that I wait for a production version of the Z-Force card before publishing results. The one I had received last month was an early hand-built version and there apparently were some minor changes in the final design. The production version of the Z-force should arrive today they said.

Several readers noted that the Apple Store estimated delivery times have been reduced dramatically recently, perhaps indicating that G4 CPU supply is improving.

New Proformance3 Drivers: Formac has a new 5.6.2b8 GA control panel beta to at: http://www.formac.com/public/updates/beta/Graphics/. I welcome reports on how these work with OpenGL 1.1.2 in games and in apps. like Lightwave 3D.

DV Tips for Older Macs: This reader notes he sees higher performance with OS 8.1 with his PowerCenter Pro:

" Mike,
I wanted to pass along to you some information that I discovered in trying to get my PowerCenter Pro to handle Digital Video via Firewire. Digital Origin was less than helpful when I called for technical support (to be honest, they were very good with contacting me and trying to solve my problem, but when they heard what type of Mac I have, their only solution was to buy a new machine).

To make a long story short, if your readers are trying to use an older PowerMac (with the limited PCI bus bandwidth [Note - the Powercenter Pro's lack of interleaved RAM support also hurts-Mike]) to do DV work, they should stick with Mac OS 8.1 and the stock apple hard-disk drivers. I had made the mistake of upgrading many of my computer components at once, which made it tough to determine what was hindering my ability to use DV via Firewire. The DV worked when I had the stock processor, onboard ATI Rage II video and Mac OS 8.1 . After countless hours of work, I finally was able to get everything working properly using OS 8.1 and its associated apple drivers. I tried all sorts of combinations of Mac OS (8.1 through 8.6) with different HD drivers, removing various cards/components to no avail. I finally tried using 8.1 with its drivers, and to my surprise, it worked!

I am not sure what you will do with this information but I thought I would pass it along.

My set-up is as follows;
PowerCenter Pro w/ XLR8 ZIF carrier
(G3 366/183 @ 60mhz bus - Motorola processor)
Initio Miles UW SCSI PCI card
Stock IBM 2 gig drive (on internal slow SCSI)
Barracuda 9 gig on UW SCSI bus
Voodoo3 2000 video card
Digital Origin Firewire card w/ MotoDV
144 mb ram
OS 8.1 w/ stock drivers

Now that my video capabilities are working again, this system is great! The G3 will run at 400/200 @ 50mhz bus speed, but I figure that with everything working properly now, there is no need for that extra bit of speed at this point.

Jonathan Clay
Carpi & Clay "

There have been reports and I've seen personally many cases where specific apps tests show increased completion times with later OS versions. And in my G4 Sawtooth tests, OS 9.0 wasn't as fast as 8.6 in tests like Infini-D. There were also reports of lower application performance back when 8.6 was released. But don't forget that often new OS versions install new extensions and may change other settings that could affect performance. For other Powercenter Pro tips see my review.

Reader Request: Bootable IDE CDRs? A reader read my FAQ's CDRom topic area comments on IDE CDRs but noted there was no mention if the IDE CDR was bootable (which brands of CDR drives are bootable in Beige/B&W G3 Macs). If you're running an IDE CDR in a Beige/B&W G3/Yikes, etc. and can answer this question please contact me with drive/system specifics. Thanks. [Update - see Friday's news for reports on what worked and the MP3 issue with one brand. The FAQ CDRom section has been updated with new info on this topic as well]

OS 9/PCMCIA Card Compatibility: Bob Friede wrote that several folks are reporting problems with PCMCIA cards after updating to OS 9. Nikon Coolpix 100 owners have reported they had problems that required reverting to OS 8.6.

New 3Dfx Voodoo2/Voodoo3 Driver Feedback: The new drivers for Voodoo3 and Voodoo2 cards released last night (see yesterday's news) seem to work well overall. I ran tests with them in RainBow Six, Quake3 Demo, Q3test 1.08, Quake2 and Unreal last night. I did see some problems with cursor trails with the Voodoo2 (SLI) X24 card here in Rainbow Six, but otherwise they worked well. Has anyone tested these in dual monitor mode? There are some comments on problems in that configuration (Voodoo3) but not sure how common it is.
Remember to disable Mesa3dfxEngine and the OpenGL ATI Renderer extension with the new drivers (and don't use MesaSettings). For Quake2 the multitexturing refgl.lib update may also cause problems (I used my Quake2 clean install normally used with Rage128 cards and it worked fine). One X-plane user wrote that the Voodoo2 drivers had problems with that game with the 3dfx OpenGL extension, but that reverting back to Mesa worked fine (disable the 3dfx OpenGL extension and enable Mesa).

Upgrade Related Software Updates:

• Sonnet Cresendo v1.4 CPU upgrade software. Version 1.4 adds support for Encore G4 cards and enhanced Mac OS 9 compatibility for Crescendo G3/NuBus cards.
• Glidehack v1.2 - Added support for Voodoo3 screen captures.

For a blast from the past see what was on the front page news here one year ago.

Tuesday's News Summary

• 3Dfx Voodoo2/Voodoo3 Updated Drivers w/OpenGL
• Update from FirmTek on Mac IDE Cards
• Quake3 Performance Tweaking (game news page)
• XLR8 G4/400Z Review updated for Photoshop 5.5: Athlon 600MHz vs G4
• Promise IDE Controllers -comments on Mac Support
• USB Video/Keyboard/Mouse Switcher
• Game News page updated with Quake3 FOV Tip and other tweaks
• Rainbow Six Gamers Wanted

Monday's News Summary

• iBook #1 U.S. Consumer Portable
• Game News Updated
• USB Mouse Axis Problems
• Alsoft Software Updates
• OWC Copper G3/450 ZIF Upgrade
• Update on XLR8 G4 Upgrade Memory Bandwidth
• XLR8 G4/400Z Review
• Sonnet and XLR8 Lower CPU Upgrade Prices
• 3Dfx Hires ATI Programmer
• PowerBase G4 Upgrade
• Miles U2W/Sawtooth Tip
• Quake3 Demo Texture Loading Tip
• Quake3 Arena Goes Gold
• Mac Game/Video Card Performance Database Updated
• Getting Answers Faster

Weekend's News Summary

• USB 1.3.5/VR 128 Tip
• Updated ORB Tools 1.2.6
• Newer Tech Lowers Prices
• Thanks To Readers
• Airport User Comments and Tips on Setup
• 3Dfx Driver Update Soon?

Friday's News Summary

-Freq Asked Questions

Check Apple's Software Updates
(especially their Recent Updates)

Apple TIL Updates

Apple Forums