Stinky Cigars & Brandy

Hello,

Welcome to the stinky cigars & brandy course of my virtual dinner party, in which we discuss the more esoteric matters, while beginning to digest our meal. Enjoy,

Coz

Subject: Coz on The Matrix

> How would I go along in making an error log for you to 
> view and see what the f*%k is wrong with my machine? If 
> you could tell me how I will do it and send to you. 

Next time you crash into MacsBug, type 'stdlog' (without the apostrophes) and hit Return or Enter. Watch all the cool stuff whiz by. If the text was green and glowed, you would think you are Keannu Reeves looking at the Matrix code. When it closes the log, type 'set menubar' and have some ascii gui fun. When you get tired of this, type 'es' to go to the Finder. Save work in any open applications. If you crash back into MacsBug again, type 'rs' for re-start. After the reset of your system, you will find a standard log on your desktop. Read it carefully, because we are going to talk about it.

Coz

Subject: Coz thinks about a Quadra 610

> I was wondering something, you never, ever give a strait 
> answer, why? Which one is better, when I look at the 
> specs the 610 seems better but its only better if my ram 
> will work in it. Will it or will it not? The hard drives 
> are the same, and there both the same speed, but the 610 
> has the fpu. But if I take the processor and put it into 
> mine then my Peforma will have the fpu, make sense? Just
> give me a strait answer on what would be best to do. 

'Better' is a very subjective label; I like to think of things as different, rather than better or worse, at least as much as possible. An FPU, or math coprocessor, is of very limited value,* IMNSHO, and is only utilized by applications specifically written to take advantage of it. Some examples of this are Lotus 1-2-3, 3-D Rendering programs, and some bit map editors. A very few games will take advantage, but all, or almost all, that I have found, also have a non-FPU version. These items will also run, although much more slowly, using an FPU emulator, at least one of which is freeware, IIRC. So, if you do a lot of big time number crunching, 3-D rendering, or playing around with bit map editors, you might want an FPU. If you just have a vague idea that an FPU will solve a lot of problems with your box, you are very wrong. You do not need it for general computer foolin' around.

If you want a better experience with your computer, get a 1.2 GB internal drive for it, update your system to OS 8.1, score a v.90 modem, bump up your RAM, and ditch AOL. It may be 'better' for you, as an artist, accountant, and/or PhotoSlop guru, to have an FPU, but for a regular guy like me, I don't need it. It is, ultimately, your decision. What is best for you may not be best for me, although it would be nice to be able to blame the Coz, somewhere down the road, for your bad decision, if you make one. ;-)

Coz

*Some list members will argue with this; I wish them luck.

Subject: Re: 193k SimpleText File?!

> That a one page SimpleText file would turn up on Get Info
> as a 193k file would certainly seem to indicate that the
> drive has been improperly formatted wouldn't it? The 
> same file copied to floppy and read off the same computer
> reads 2k. 

I don't think that the drive is improperly formatted; it's properly formatted as HFS. Why don't you drag all your SimpleText documents to a scrapbook file? An alternative would be to partition the drive, or if external (or non-startup volume) reformat as HFS+.

Coz

Subject: Re: Zip zappes from Z to A.

> Hi Joe,
> When you open the window ('map?'), look just above the 
> scroll bar, for a triangle consisting of three lines and 
> a dot at the apex. Click this triangle to reverse the 
> order of the sort (z-a to a-z, and vice versa). I hope I 
> understood your question correctly, and that this will 
> set your mind at ease. Nothing is amiss, you have 
> discovered a feature unknown to you, up to this point. 
> Enjoy, 
> 
> Coz

Hai Coz,

You did understand my question correctly! Problem has gone. Thanks a lot for the superfast solution. I saw this triangle before but never realised the reason of presence or the meaning of this triangle. I'll try to find out more now. Perhaps you have a tip about where to start studying this phenomenon? And please don't worry, I'm to old for letting my mind not being at ease. But the discovering of features unknown to me, just as you remarked very well, will do wake up my curiosity. Being a scorpion and not a cat, I believe it's not necessary to be afraid for that.

To explain my, undoubtedly crooked, English a bit: I wanted to say: After double-clicking an icon you will see what I call a "window". (In the menubar under "view" sorted "by name".). An item with a to-the-right-pointing triangle before is a "map" or "folder" and an item without is a file. I realise that this must be a not-correct way of expression in English. I'll appreciate to get informed about the correct ones. Again thanks and best regards,

Joe.

Subject: Coz on Doyle

> I've never heard of Lestrade. Can you tell me what that is?

Hi Chris,

In the canon of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Lestrade is a reappearing character in the many short stories and novels. Scotland Yard, at the time, typified inductive reasoning, whereas Sherlock typified deductive reasoning. Holmes thought the yard a bit old fashioned, and of Lestrade as 'promising.' Lestrade is a 68k application which can utilize Sherlock plug-ins.

Coz

Subject: Cozmo on Multithreading

> multithreading actually means and does something

Actually, it has been evolving quite nicely since System 7.1; I believe I dropped Thread Manager 1.0 into my System Folder in about 1992. WarCraft II, for example, couldn't get along without it, not to mention the copying of files, in the background, to different locations in OS 8.1. It is a wonderful feature, but it must be programmed for though, and it took a lot of codies a long time to catch on to what it was, and how to use it. Multithreading is somewhat like multitasking, but within a specific application; for example, Finder, and WarCraft II. The 68040 is ideally suited for this sort of thing, because of its piping and internal caches. Even so, the first Thread Manager ran on a 68020.

Coz

Subject: TomeViewer

> I am using OS 8.1 on my Quadra 800 and PowerBook 2400c. I
> have the CD ROM for 8.1 and need to extract just the 
> remote access portion from the CD. I need to put RA onto 
> a 1.44 floppy to input into the 2400c which as yet has no
> other input device than a floppy drive and currently has
> a corrupted RA. Any suggestions? Someone suggested I use
> Tomeviewer to extract it (RA) as a separate file. With 
> Tomeviewer, I can view each of the separate files but 
> what would I do next? 

As with any data, you need to select it before you can manipulate it. After selection, push the button, do a command-e (for extract), or command-i (for info).

Coz

Subject: TomeViewer as installer?

> Could I use it to install 8.0 on a quad using a G3 
> installer (on the 8.0 installer) ?
> George

I would suppose that you could, and that you might face several difficulties. First, the G3 CD may, or may not, be short on 68k code; and second, if there is plenty of 68k code there, you must ascertain what, exactly, to install, and thirdly, you should then weed out the PPC code. Given those caveats, you should be able to do it.

Coz

If you are feeling less bold, perhaps you could connect an external to the G3, and attempt to do a 68k install on that, followed by a transfer to your Quad by sneakernet or other conventional networking methodologies.

{]=- In Conclusion -=[}

I hope you enjoyed the stinky cigars & brandy. I'd like to thank my Mom, my List Mom, LCS and The Complete Mac for their many services, over the years. I'd like to thank Dan Sheridan. And last, but certainly far from least, those readers who took the time to write.

Cozmo