Macking 15

Bits & Drips
Interested in Macs in the science community? Check out the MacSciTech web page. These are people (serious Macheads) with facts, figures and real world experience who can help, plus some studies on how well Macs fit into science and engineering.
Imagina, a local Internet Service Provider, is offering internet service based on Apple Remote Access. They have one of the nicest home pages I have seen any business run. If this ARA access system runs as well as they say, this could be THE hot place for Mackers to get their Internet access. (Thanks, Glenn Laubaugh).
Is it Mac Envy? Whatever, one of the privileges of living in Australia and not being Microsoft is you are free to steal the entire look and feel of the Mac and give it away as freeware for Wintel users. This email recently arrived with the details:
"Here is the home for a fascinating hack. It puts up what amounts to an honest-to-goodness, for sure, Mac menu bar at the top of the screen. Special|Shutdown and Special|Restart do just what they should. Click on the help button and you'll get Windows help. Apple|Control Panel gets you a pop-up menu of the Control Panels. Special|Eject Disk... popped out my CD-ROM drive. Apple|About This Macintosh identifies my Mac as running Windows 95, having 32 Mb, the whole deal. It's great."
You'd think the richest company in the world could afford a shareware license for one of their most public products, right? Here is what a Netizen found when he viewed a copy of their little animated "click here" button (in Microsoft Internet Exploiter):
"This GIF file was assembled with GIF Construction Set from Alchemy Mindworks, Inc., PO Box 500, Beeton, Ontario, Canada. This comment block will not appear in files created with a registered version of GIF Construction Set."
Nice, huh? Alchemy Mindworks should get something out of this, at least an advert that says, "We're So Good, Microsoft Steals Our Software." (Thanks, Bruce Baugh and Alan Olsen.)

In a recent column I came down a little to hard on Aaron, the shareware extension by Greg Landweber and Edward Voas that gives your Finder windows the look of Copland. It is the only Apple-condoned extension to mimic the look of the new OS, and while not supported by Apple, it is supported by the authors (for those who pay the fee) and updated often enough that problems should be temporary. At this writing the current version is 1.5 and I will be giving it another try. (Note: I did install it after this went to press and it ran fine for a couple of weeks with no problems on my 7100/80 under 7.5.3. I removed it because I preferred other window modification tricks instead.)
My report last time was based on the fact that I had conflicts that were resolved by removing it, and five of my clients were also having similar problems on different Macs. As always, when using funware like this, be prepared to toss anything that causes grief.

Get your 7200 yet?
Lots of people have. Thanks to Apple's dumping them at fire-sale prices, almost all of my new installs are 7200s. I have been seeing a few problems, but nothing serious. Here is a little advice for people with these new systems:
Get ahold of the Updater CD to 7.5.2 version 2.0 that Apple was giving away all during spring. It is somewhat hard to find now, but check with your user group and stores and the Net to see if there are any used copies floating about. Also get the Rev 2 updater to that CD (a two-floppy set) because it contains last-minute revisions that pertain to all of the PCI Macs. If you don't have one of those, or a 5300/2300/190 PowerBook, you don't need the revision. Since a lot of the 7200s sat around in warehouses, they all ship with the older 7.5.2 software (including the troublesome early versions of Open Transport) they need to be updated right away. Free up some space on your HD by trashing QuickDraw GX, which you don't need. Only a couple of applications support it and you will be in trouble if you just install it without a specific need. It's in Apple Extras folder, and should you ever want it later, it's on the System CD. Also avoid the Desktop Printing extension (and accompanying helpers) because while it is a great idea, it is poorly implemented and a cause of odd crashes and failed print attempts for many users. It is also useless unless you are on a network with several printers, or have two of your own (LaserWriter and color inkjet, for instance). If you do have such a setup, try it but beware!
Look in the Extensions Manager for the 7200 Graphics Accelerator and disable. It has been the cause of freezing in some Quark documents using background printing. And it doesn't seem to speed anything up.
Get rid of the Startup Enabler that is part of the Rev.2 install. It has also been the cause of problems for some users. Always turn off Macintosh Easy Open (MEO) until you develop a need for it. A few programs on some PCI Macs need it running, but it is mostly a cause of errors and desktop rebuilds at every Restart.
Buy a Level 2 Cache from the Chip Merchant. A 256K cache should cost less than $149 and will give you a 30% increase in speed. (A 1-meg cache will cost a lot more but add only 10-15% more speed.) Also set the RAM Cache in the Memory control panel to 512K unless you have only 8 megs RAM. These caches speed up operations that would otherwise repeatedly hit the disk for system calls. RAM, of course, is at least 1,000 times faster than disk access.
Apple has finally assembled all these updates on a single 7.5.3 CD, which they will sell for $49 (list $99) to anyone who already owns 7.5. I think it is worth it because it makes reinstalling your system a lot easier, should you need to. Otherwise you install with the older CD, then immediately Update, then the Rev.2 Update. Lots of work. And don't forget to turn off MEO.
If you received a bundled copy of MacLink Plus for Easy Open, and need it because you do a lot of Mac to Wintel data translation, get the update to the full-featured desktop version of MacLink Plus. The bundled version requires MEO but the full-featured version lets you drop a bunch of files on it and the translation is performed automatically, in a batch. Great program for those who do a lot of conversions.
And last, throw away those eWorld folders sitting on a lot of recent machines besides the 7200: eWorld is history.

Tech Support Terror Tales, Part II
Which End of the Stream are You On?
Note to Web readers: From here on down is mostly a repeat of last month's column (Macking 14) because the printed version did not include this part. So if you just finished 14 you can stop now and go on to 16 unless you want to scan for subtle differences contained herein.
Last month I wrote about the problems of getting support from Iomega, and suggested that they contract with a 3rd party company to handle those duties. Well, Stream International, formerly known as Corporate Software, is just such a company that contracts with many producers, including Netscape, Adobe, Now Software, and Microsoft (Win95), to provide tech support. (Add to the list: Berkeley Systems' After Dark and all their other products; CompuServe, Hewett-Packard, Symantec, Palindrome, Total Entertainment Network, Merril/Lynch.) Their employees are forbidden to divulge the fact that the caller is not talking to the actual company they thought they called. But Mackers calling in about any of these products are indeed going to wind up in the Stream.
Now this could be a win/win situation for all involved, because a company can get a large, well-trained and experienced team of supporters who have familiarity not only in their products but many others and who are aware of interactions and conflicts. Companies can get all of this for a fee much lower than trying to hire those people themselves. It's a nice theory.
But in practice, Stream engages in truly idiotic behaviors, like telling their people that they have two weeks to become intimately familiar with programs like Director, many times while they have to take phone calls for other products. Other times a new hire will just be thrown to the phones without any familiarity in the product they are supposed to be supporting! There is a set of stock answers that they are expected to give the caller (as opposed to actually trying to deal with the problem) which assumes that the caller is an idiot who is not capable of even beginning to do their own debugging and testing before giving up and calling for help. While in many cases, the caller is a clueless idiot who needs to be told to check to see if the cord is plugged in or the software is actually installed on their drive, it is insulting to assume in advance that every caller is like this. Far better to assume intelligence, uncommon sense and experience and work your way down from there. But a Stream employee risks being fired if they try too hard to help a caller, and the calls can be monitored by a supervisor at any time. Quoting one: "Unfortunately, this is very accurate. Stream has managed to take a profession and reduce it to a factory shop. Give them time, and they may end up successfully introducing unions into the high-tech industry." But a better story came in from another:"Mention that some upper management thought it would be more effective if you pay 2 people 20 hours of overtime/wk each, then hiring another person. Or as long as there are people willing to work as a temp, there's no need to hire someone.
(rant mode)
I call it Streamnomics -- the theory that as long as the supply of labor(1) is greater than demand(2) _AND_ the flow of incoming employees(3) is greater then or equal to the flow of out-going(4) employees, AND the service level(5) is within contract, everything is fine.
(1) Anyone who can answer the phone, with or without any technical skills.
(2) A level that is determined some 9 months earlier and does not reflect current trends.
(3) Regular and temps
(4) Regular only
(5) Number of calls answered in the first 3 minutes
Some might question the logic of this theory (yes, I know there are many holes in it). Such as (4), temp employees do not have any impact in staffing models, but do count in the number of techs answering the phone. Another, (5), is not influenced by wrong answers (due to improper training), call-backs (didn't have answer, 'I only take messages, someone will call you back,' 'you need to call MS on that.')"
I hear many stories like these from the ever-growing legion of ex-Stream employees about life in hell and the latest insanities. Is it any wonder that Stream is always hiring? You could run a rather large generator off of the turnover in that company, a place that seems to make Dilbert sound like an optimist. (To be fair, one friend who works there says he likes it -see below-, but is glad he does not work on the CompuServe team, cutting back because CIS is pulling out.) Stream also hires a lot of temps, many of whom aren't trained at all.
(Note: I received a well-reasoned response from a friend who works there, who contradicts most of the charges cited here and in Macking 16. I stand by both columns, except for some minor rewrites here that mistakenly gave the impression that the problem was with the employees and not the management. Read the response as well as this column, but remember that everything I have written was given to me by sources from within and without Stream, and I continue to get mail thanking me for the exposé. This paragraph has been copied from part II of the article in Macking 16.)

Beware of Strange SCSI
Pinnacle Micro makes a line of magneto-optical drives, an alternative cartridge format (to Zip and SyQuest) that uses optical technology and can hold more data than the standard magneto-only. But beware: some models, notably their Tahoe 230, used the smaller SCSI-2 port because the drive is too small, according to Pinnacle, to fit the standard 25-pin ports used in the Zip, Jaz and the back of every desktop Mac since the Plus.
That begs the question, why did they not design a case large enough to use a standard plug instead of an incompatible one? A new user would have no way of knowing that they were buying something that could cause them trouble unless there were a large red label on the front: "Warning: Non-Standard SCSI Plug. Beware!" Quoth Monty Python: "Sales would plummet!"
None of the other Pinnacle products use the odd plug, but there are a lot of these 230s around and one could turn up for sale at a local used outlet, looking like a bargain. If you are shopping for any external SCSI device, make sure it uses the industry-standard 50-pin sockets or, at least, the 25-pinners used on the back of the Mac, and the Zip/Jaz drives. Where you are liable to find these odd birds is in products ported from the Wintel side, where standards are many and diverse, or handheld scanners and special controllers. 50-pin Centronics: ask for it by name.

Microsoft Bash of the Month
Have you been lusting after one of those supercool Timex DataLink watches? The ones that let you keep your contacts on your computer and download the data via a strobing pattern on the screen? Been wondering why it is taking them so long to come out with a Mac version, which should be a simple port and a profit-maker, given Mackers' tendency to buy cool add-ons? Well we are probably going to have to wait forever because guess who wrote the software, under contract with Timex.
As usual, Microsoft can't do anything right: the software displays an image of the watch face and the time, but when the transfer is finished, and the automatic correction of the Timex clock chip complete, the watch is still eight seconds off.
Oh, and my programmer friend who showed me the watch was busy writing scripts for the Windows NT server. He tells me that it is very poorly designed compared to the Netscape server (let alone a proper UNIX system); the MIME type settings are almost impossible to configure and he just told the client to dump NT for Linux. "Microsoft -- Nothing but NT promises." (his sigline)

URL of the Month
(from an Apple press release via MacWay)
Apple Computer Launches Small Business Website into Cyberspace
SMALL BUSINESS WEEK, WASHINGTON, DC.--June 4, 1996--Underscoring its commitment to the small business market, Apple Computer recently launched an innovative home page aimed at small businesses seeking information and assistance for running and growing their businesses. A few keystrokes to the new website address transports the small business professional into an online expanse of helpful resources provided by Apple: information on product and technologies from Apple and third-parties, tips, hotlinks and access points aimed specifically at small business professionals.

No Microsoft products were used in the production of this column.

email mp at moonmac dot com. (I took out the mailto link because that's how the spammers find me.)