Macking 38

System Software for Ancient Macs
Now that Pluses and 512s have been turning up at garage sales and thrift shops, where do you get system software disks for these beasts?
If you have a friend with a more recent Mac and Net access, you can download free disk images from Apple of Systems 6.0.3, 6.0.5, 6.0.7 and 6.0.8, as well as 7.0 and 7.0.1. You can also order disks from them at www.info.apple.com/swupdates. Failing that, try Sun Remarketing, phone 800-821-3221. They have systems all the way back to System 3.2 for the 512. (Thanks, MacAddict.)

Earthlink OK
Since my call in the June column for experiences from Earthlink users, I have had five raves and no rants. This is a very good sign: it is usually the people who have a bad time who make the effort to write about it. The only exception was when one writer learned that Earthlink is owned by Scientologists, he said "Great. Now I gotta find a new ISP."
Actually, although Sky Dayton, the (former?) president and largest stockholder of Earthlink is a Scientologist, it is a publicly traded company and unless you don't want anything to do with a company even remotely or formerly connected to that group, go ahead and give them a try.

New National MacISP
Or, you can put your money in the hands of a new national Internet Service Provider who favors Macs. MacLink, (877) MAC-1984, plans to have local numbers in over 4,000 cities around the world. Right now, they are available in Portland, Salem, Eugene and Medford, and in Arizona in Phoenix and Tucson. Cost is $19.84 (cute, eh?) for unlimited service.

MacWeek is Dead
Most of you have never even seen the limited-circulation magazine MacWeek, but you might have visited their online site. The site will survive, but the magazine is being replaced by eMediaweek, a multi-platform news weekly for people in electronic publishing (web, print and multimedia). The death was, according to Wired, due to the fact that ad sales were down below the point that they could publish profitably; the primary blame was put on Apple killing the clones who were responsible for over half the magazine's ad revenues.
Well, Apple is recovering gangbusters, but it is too late for MacWeek. Into the breach jumps The Mac Report, a weekly magazine available via email in PDF format (or text). Look for a print version to become available in a few months. Meanwhile, your Mac news fix can be supplied by the monthlys Macworld, Mac Home Journal, Mac Today and MacAddict, available at better magazine outlets everywhere.

The NuBus G3 Update
Well, the upgrade cards for NuBus Macs (6100, 7100, 8100) are becoming available and the reports are coming in as to how effective they are. A report on MacTimes discusses the relative speed of different operations and types of cards:

• The processor will scream, but graphics (scrolling, zooming, redraw) will come nowhere near the speed of a stock G3.
• Later Macs, specifically the PCI line, upgrade very well. Their speed is equal or beyond that of a stock G3.
• Cache can be bought as either 512K or 1024K. You can expect just a 12% increase by getting the larger cache, but at 55% more cost. Oddly, some Photoshop filters slow down when using this cache so you would be better off removing or disabling it!

Of course this advice is for power users who can handle ResEdit, know how to make these partitions and the like. Beginners, don't mess around unless you understand every word of the above, or have access to someone who does! But if you are running VPC on your Mac at all, you are advanced somewhat beyond beginner stage anyway. And if you download Snitch or FileTyper, you can get by without ResEdit. Also, you can do this on an external hard drive, which makes it okay to set Startup Disk to that drive (eliminating the need to hold down the shift-option-command-delete keys) because when you are finished working in Windows you can just turn the external drive off and your Mac will restart normally.

DVD Gotcha
If you feed signal from your PowerBook S-Video output port to a TV, the picture looks fine. If you output to a VCR, it gets fuzzy. This is actually a copy-protection trick and it is built in to all DVD drives. But the way around this is to get a SIMA Video CopyMaster, which will correct the image and let you make "perfectly legal copies of DVDs you own."

Dayna bye bye
Thanks to Intel, the company that would be happy if the Mac would just die and go away, any Dayna product you own is now officially obsolete. Intel bought Dayna and dropped all support and further production for their Mac products. I have been following the MacFixIt page with news about the problems with Dayna's ethernet drivers and the fact that NO fix will be forthcoming. Now Farallon, once a competitor, has come to the rescue with a web page that matches Dayna products to Farallon's "best equivalent" Ethernet drivers that should work with the Dayna cards.
You could try hitting the Dayna web page or writing Intel, but it would probably be more productive tossing the equipment into the ocean. Bad as Microsoft is, at least they are willing to provide and support Mac products. To Intel, we are just a bad smell coming from under the couch. If you are a Macker, Intel is the real enemy, which is especially disgusting since Intel was rated second of the 100 best places in Oregon to work, by Oregon Business magazine. I guess it makes sense -- treat your staff like royalty and they will be loyal and productive and do everything they can to kill off any Wintel competition, be it fair or unfair. I have friends who work there, but nevertheless a pox upon Intel's house. When you buy your next Mac, be sure to drop Intel a line and inform them.

Microsoft Bashes of the Month (an occasional feature)
Windows NT cripples Navy missile ship (from MacOS Rumors)
Slashdot is reporting that the Navy missile ship Yorktown has been repeatedly crippled and needed to be towed in to shore when Windows NT, which powers its "Smart Ship" systems, failed -- repeatedly. See the report on Government News GCN 7/13. Have you noticed that this story, which is all over the Net, has barely been noticed by any mainstream newspaper? If it weren't Microsoft, this would be headlines and Senators would be calling for an investigation. The things some people will put up with just so they can be "friends of Bill."
From Phil Russell in Mouse Droppings - For those who still choose to believe that Microsoft is not the enemy, this exact quote from the Microsoft Office '98 Tour document:
"The Outlook Mac client is designed for people who need more time to migrate away from the Mac platform. We now offer a Mac client that will interoperate well with Win32 Outlook and has some visual and user interface similarities to lower training time later when the user switches to Win32."

FrontPage gotcha
A confusing command in Microsoft Corp.'s FrontPage 98 could cause users to delete the entire contents of their hard drive - including the operating system - although the company knows of only one person who's been affected so far.
The full story may still be available on MSNBC, but don't count on it.
The worst part is Microsoft's response: "Microsoft is not posting any patch for the problem because it's not a programming glitch."

Tell Your Stylist
This announcement is from Bill Zelman at PowerMed: "Our company has released SalonTRAK salon management software for Macintosh. Point-of-sale entry made easy, SalonTRAK keeps track of your clients, sales of products and services with just a few simple screens. So easy in fact, you can use this software as soon as it's installed. A blizzard of reporting options keep you completely informed about your business. With its highly intuitive interface, full feature set and straightforward design, SalonTRAK is the software you'll want to use every day."
PowerMed Corporation's voice phone: (716) 798-9344.

Uncontrolled Control Strip
from Chris Breen, Tipworld: Apple reports a glitch that may occur with Mac OS 8.0 and 8.1 when the QuickTime Preferences file goes bad--the Control Strip might vanish even though the Control Strip control panel claims the Strip is present and accounted for. This same funky preferences file may cause the QuickTime Settings control panel to complain via error message and quit when you try to launch it.
And what do we do with errant preferences files? Right, we give 'em the bum's rush by tossing them into the Trash. On restart a new, and hopefully functional, QuickTime Preferences file will be created and your Control Strip will reappear. And don't forget to reopen QuickTime Settings control panel and disable CD-ROM AutoPlay to help block the AutoStart worm.

Annoying QuickTime 3 Advert
If you are sick of that dialog box that prompts you to order the pro version of QT 3.0 every time you launch a movie or use it to view a JPEG, here is how to get rid of it.
Open the Date and Time panel. Set the year to 2001. Close the panel. Launch the Movie Player. Click the usual Later button (I call it the F*ck Off button). Then quit the program. Reopen Date and Time and return to 1998. From now on, the annoying dialog box will not appear. If you are still using QT3 in 2001 you will have to repeat this process using 2005 or so. But my bet is by then you will have upgraded and the next version will have its own annoying reminder.

PowerBook Backlog
Two reasons for the backlog in G3 PowerBook orders: Production errors on the flat-panel displays by one of Apple's contractors, and the fact that the logic board is almost identical to the iMac's, allowing the same production facilities to produce both. Apple wanted enough iMacs available on release to satisfy demand, so the PowerBook gets left back a bit.
Distribution for PBs is uneven, though, so if you call all the retailers you can find, one of them should have one available. Don't expect any discounts, but the word is that the shortage will be over soon. If you don't want the latest and greatest, I have seen an online ad for 3400s at MacResQ for only $1699! Check with those guys for some great prices on used and refurbished equipment.

Bad Windows virus
(Pay attention, you multi-platform people!) You thought we Mackers finally hit a form of parity thanks to the AutoStart worm? From Macintouch, here is another menace for Windozers to face:
"The CIH virus is a severe new threat to Windows computers. If the flash-BIOS is write-enabled, and most modern computers have a writable flash-BIOS, the overwriting renders the machine UNUSABLE because it will no longer boot. Any hardware damage caused by the virus is not covered under manufacturers' warranties. At the same time, the disk partition information is destroyed."
Nope, Macs do not have a write-enabled BIOS, so we are safe, for now.

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.)