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ATPM 4.10
October 1998

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Because it Works

Just got the current issue, and Robert Paul Leitao says that his “...PowerMac 7200/90 is no longer adequate....” Before everyone thinks they need a 200+ MHz machine, I have a PowerMac 7200/75 that I use to build and maintain my Website http://www.theblackmarket.com. I got 32 MB of RAM, RAM Doubler 8, and am running 7.5.2 (Why? Because it works, that’s why.) It is still more than adequate. Just one dude’s opinion. Keep up the good work.

T.J. Mahaffey
Tygriffin@aol.com

Thanks for writing. The 7200 series Macintoshes are very nice machines. My 7200/90 is now in full-time use (9 hours per day, 5 days per week) at a client’s office where it’s handling all of the company’s accounting functions.

My comments referred to the fact that purchasing a new iMac was a more attractive option for me than replacing the 7200's 500 megabyte hard drive, 4X CD-ROM and adding additional RAM. The iMac also came with an internal 56k modem which my kids are using to access the Web. One really cool thing about Macs is that they stay in service much longer than Wintel boxes. I’d love to compare the continued smooth running of the 7200/90 with any Windows-based computer of the same vintage.

Rob

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Thank You, Claire!

First ever time reading ATPM! Followed a link from the Evangelist. It’s classy, clean, and well-designed. The range of articles and information were refreshing (having been a former art teacher, graphic artist—before computers, and an avowed Mac enthusiast)!

I was really impressed with the ability to “save” just one page (article) without having to download the entire magazine. Even the “Format this page for printing” button on the bottom of an article impressed me—first time I have seen this on an e-zine! I also found the article about Disk Copy very informative as I have been one of the masses using it only to make a copy, and did not realize some of the other features.

Another thing which I like, as a “single parent” with limited resources plugging away on my outdated 6116 and a slower modem, was that the pages loaded pretty quickly, not cluttered with lots of graphics ,and fit my 13" inch monitor (oh for a 21" inch monitor!). The banner ads took the longest to load on each page! (but that is a necessity I understand) Last, but not least, the cover art work this issue really appealed to the artist in me—it had the fresh look of having just been done with pen, colored and pencils and a watercolor wash! Refreshing from all those “slick” graphic illustrations usually seen on the web! Kudos and keep up the great work. I am an ATPM fan from now on!

Claire Daccurso Latham
cdaccy@snh-lond.mv.com

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Disk Copy—Not Just For Floppies

I have two other uses for DiskCopy. One is to create a master disk image here at work. I setup a hard drive with the exact System and software configuration that I will use for all the Macs of a particular type, and then make a Disk Copy image of it. I save this on an external hard drive. Then, whenever someone mucks up their system software, I just wipe their drive and dump the contents of the saved image onto their disk. I have to enter the file sharing name and setup a couple of their applications, but it’s a heck of a lot quicker than trying to do a clean system install.

The other use is a pseudo-disk for the Netscape Navigator cache. I create a 6 MB read/write disk image and have it mount at startup. Then I tell Navigator to use it for its cache files. This keeps directory corruption to a minimum, and I don’t experience the crashing that I’ve heard so many surfers suffer.

That’s how I do it on This Particular Mac.

Stephen J. Kayner
kayners@htan.org

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BeOS Release 3 Review

I just finished formatting my BeOS partitions as HFS. Sound bad? Not really. I just haven’t found good use for BeOS yet. I just wanted to let you know that, even though I’d love to support a start-up company with great ideas like Be, I cannot.

On my G3 there are two OS’. One’s the MacOS, of course. The other is Linux-pmac, which runs like a charm. I’d say it’s much faster than BeOS will ever get, and it handles 200 simultaneous FTP users without the slightest problem—you can even work on it without noticing much of the network traffic.

I just wanted to suggest trying linux-pmac. A ton of applications are available for it, and you can compile your own from the x86-linux world easily.

Ramon Cahenzli
rca@spin.ch

More information is available at http://www.linuxppc.org. —MT

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Adaptec DirectCD Review

It only makes sense that intuitive drag-and-drop for erasure of CD-RW files be available on Macintosh, months after its presence on Windows—after all, Apple had drag-and-drop long before Windows!

I wrote to Adaptec, but they are strangely silent on existence of DirectCD 2.0 functionality for Macintosh. Lack of this feature alone prevents me from buying the product, so I’m sticking with Toast.

retiarius@cfcl.com

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New ATPM Reader

Just got your last issue and liked it very much, copied and printed the bit about Photoshop since we are just now learning how to use it. I scanned the whole issue and think you have a good thing here since reviews about particular Mac products are needed by truly independent people.

My wife and I have just bought two G3 computers, one a portable (PowerBook), an Epson color printer (poster size), a scanner, really a whole new office. We had a terrible time getting started not knowing that much about control panels and extensions. Every bit of software we installed virtually required technical support from Microsoft (Office 98), Adobe (PageMaker, Photoshop, Illustrator), Apple, Epson, and others. We are not amateurs, having used for the last 10 years or more a wide variety of different Mac products/machines.

Frustrations ran high since we were also trying to keep our contract work going while setting up the office. I am an expert on robotic answering systems. The best service we got from any company purporting to help was that from EarthLink, an Internet Service Provider. Many companies have great people but the repetitious robotic phone systems are just dumb. Some of them actually have deadends. If I have to hear another repeat about the someone listening in to keep up the service quality I will go nuts. Maybe this could be by passed with a known sound bite like they used for the old air raid warning drills on TV.

Bill Olkowski
wolkowski@earthlink.net

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We’d love to hear your thoughts about our publication. We always welcome your comments, criticisms, suggestions, and praise at editor@atpm.com. Or, if you have an opinion or announcement about the Macintosh platform in general, that’s ok too.

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