Best Low End Macs, Religious Computer Wars, Email Diversity, and StarMax 3000 Questions

We haven't done a Miscellaneous Ramblings Mailbag for a while, so I thought I should catch up with recent correspondence.

• The Best Low End Macs
• Re: 'Religious Computer Wars Revisited'
• Religion and the Mac PC
• Re: Will Mac OS X Mail end email diversity?
• StarMax 3000
• StarMax 3000 Ethernet Question

Re: The Best Low End Macs

From Barrett Benton

Dear CWM,

Great article (The Best Low Budget Macs) - especially so since I've been going through enormous changes with my setup at home and on the go.

Due to economic factors (politesse for "have to pay off other stuff before even thinking about more shiny new stuff), I had to keep my sights below the G3 line for the time being. Fortunately, I didn't have to stay well below that line any longer.

About two months ago I came across a flyer from someone selling a Power Mac 7600/132 for $100. At first I thought this was either a serious typo or possibly someone trying to quickly unload ill-gotten goods, but it turned out to be a legit offer, which amazed me - 80 MB RAM, original 1 GB HD, internal Zip drive, keyboard, original mouse, and Kensington TurboMouse 3. I had planned to slog on through with my 7200/120, which wasn't terrible, but I was wishing I could run through my Photoshop files just a tad faster. Now I can almost rip through them with the 7600 (with a little help from a 200 MHz 604e pull I picked up very cheaply). And, of course, whenever I get the urge for a G3/G4 fix, the tab will be much lower than with the 7200.

Unfortunately, this put the onus on my somewhat frail and overstressed PB Duo 2300c. About two years ago I put together a fairly killer Duo system around this PB with the intention of making it my Main Axe (to borrow an Ihnatkoism) for everything I did on a Mac - I had gone the two-Mac route before (Quadra 840AV/PowerBook 160) before, but after trashing the 'Book due to a failing shoulder strap on my carry case, I decided I wanted it all on one machine. And, with the 2300c, I did have it all, and loved it -until I got my first film scanner, CD burner, and Epson Stylus Photo 1200 printer.

Suddenly, everything was taking longer to do, because I was doing more things than before. I didn't care much about multimedia, and still don't, but reasonably swift scans of my negatives and slides was and is important, as well as printing. The scanning problem was mostly solved by getting a faster film scanner, but printing the resulting image file literally choked the Duo - I was essentially thrashing the system within a few inches of its life (printing out a 13"x19" print meant clicking Print at 10.30 at night and saying "See ya in the morning").

When I came across the Power Mac 7200 for an attractive price, I thought, "Well, I could use it as a print server." That idea was short-lived when the person selling the 7200 told me he was also selling a clean 17" Apple Multiscan for a screamingly cheap price. I was working with two 15" monitors on the Duo system (Apple multiscan and their old greyscale Portrait), so I was backsliding, if you will, to the two-Mac model, but it seemed unavoidable.

When the 7600 came along, the 7200 was passed on to my girlfriend, who is quite happy with the extra power and capacity. Meanwhile, the Duo was struggling, with a slipping hinge clutch and flaky speaker cable to add insult to injury. The obvious answer was a new(er) PB, but what? Cost-wise, a G3-anything was out of the question. A 5300 was essentially a Duo with ports and PC slots, but no performance boost. The 1400 looked promising (especially with a G3 upgrade later on), but had barely more RAM capacity than my 2300's already maxed-out 56 MB (yes, you can run Photoshop 5 on it if you're careful, but it's real work), and that slow system bus - ouch. Briefly looked at a 2400, but have you checked out battery prices for that baby (that is, when you can find 'em)? Scary.

That left the 3400c. Frankly, I wasn't looking forward to lugging a full-on 'Book again, even though the payback comes in having to lug fewer accessories and dongles (Ethernet, CD-ROM, video-out, etc., all built-in). And the thought of that 12.1-inch active-matrix screen in thousands of colors - but the cost? Especially since I wanted the max, 240 MHz and a 3 gig drive.

It came in a PowerBook Central posting. Someone had what I wanted for well under $600! More good luck came in the way of a freelance client who inherited a pair of non-working 5300s, which I've offered to try and make one working 5300 out of. Both had floppy drives in their bays, and since I'm sacrificing one 'Book to make the other work, I now have a floppy for the 3400 (which came with only the 12x CD-ROM).

So, everything has worked out - I have more than enough power at home and on the go, and with ethernet tethering the two at home (didn't know how fast 10Base-T really was until I had two fast machines networked), everything from Photoshop to my DSL 'Net experience is marvy.

Sorry about the article-length post, but I'm just this happy with this pair. Keep up the great work.

Best,
Barrett

Hi Barrett

Thanks for the interesting letter. I always enjoy getting chronicles like this about how other people work out the omnipresent performance vs. cost dilemma. Sounds like you have hit the sweet spot for the present.

I'll warn you, though; once you cross the threshold into G3/G4 speed, it's pretty tough to go back!

Charles

Re: 'Religious Computer Wars Revisited'

From John Solorzano

I enjoyed your column (Religious Computer Wars Revisited) very much! In particular, I enjoyed being reminded of Umberto Eco's notions about platform acolytes and the nature of the doctrinal differences between them. For some time, and until very recently, I worked at Catholic University in Washington DC, a community which routinely insists on being addressed by its full, official name: "The Catholic University of America." Note the insistent initial article, "THE."

Not so different from the Mac community's (also sometimes cantankerous?) insistence in the importance and gravity inherent in the details, perhaps?

And perhaps another shared trait is the breezy implicit dismissal of misguided contenders.

Delving too deeply into such patterns and analogues is risky (and it is probably apt that you cite Ecco's "Foucault's Pendulum" in your column). I would say, however, that Microsoft's assumption of divine right seems to me non-denominational - rather, it unfortunately smacks of the institutional arrogance shared by too many denominations and religious practitioners throughout the ages, and it is therefore not exclusive to any particular expression of faith.

**** 

Odessa Elliott wrote: "Steve Jobs has a messianic complex that does him no personal good and that almost wrecked Apple - and might wreck Apple again. One might say he's a Pentecostalism, relying on the Holy Spirit for 'gifts,' esp. since the epiphany given him as to solving the 'bitmapping' problem."

Without signing on to the preceding assessment of Steve Jobs personality, I would say that the term used most commonly for the Catholic brand of Pentecostalism is probably most apt: Steve's really a "Charismatic".

****

Again, thank you for your entertaining column. I have long enjoyed your rich contributions to the Mac community!

John Solorzano

Religion and the Mac PC

From Thomas Eberhard:

Apple won the concept, the GUIs of Win 9x is more similar to a Mac than to a Win 3.11. Microsoft won the market and the money.

Apple have gotten help from Linux in an indirect way. Linux is something that is perceived to be cool that MS can not kill like OS/2 (that nobody cared much about despite having IBM behind it). Something that hurt Apple is the perception that MS is the standard and nothing else is worth working with or learning.

About the religious overtones both in Mac, PC, and between the various Unix variants, I find them incomprehensible. I am an atheist in this regard as well :-)

I have a cousin that is religious and a Win NT administrator. I shocked him by saying that I think Christianity, Judaism, and Islam is more or less identical. They all believe in a god called "God."

They all believe in the ultimate day of resurrection and judgment. They all expect a prophet: For the Christians and Muslims, they have arrived and departed, and the Jews are still waiting. Compare the difference between these and say Hinduism, Shinto, or Buddhism, and it really looks as stupid as Unix geeks who go hopping mad over if TCP should be stream or socket implemented.

Computers are like cars. Any solution can be well or poorly implemented be it front wheel drive back wheel drive or 4/6 or 8 cylinder. Claiming that a sport car must have at least 8 cylinders is pointless. Not only is the Porche 611 with 6 cylinders and several Lotus cars with only 4 cylinders excellent cars there are several "sports cars" with 8 cylinders or more that was really bad cars for other reasons.

It all boils down to good implementation and marketing as perceived value is more important than real value. Apple have done nice implementations of PC stuff like IDE disks PCI cards and USB they should take from Win GUI any useful idea and implement it as well or even better than MS does.

When I got a computer in 92 it was Hellcats and Mac OS 7.1 instead of DOS 6 with Win 3.1 taped on top that got me to buy a Mac even if I got a LCII instead of a 40 MHz 386. Had I started 3 years later and had Win 95 and DOOM etc. I might have gone to the other side who knows, and it is really not a big deal either.

Thomas

Hi Thomas

As an amateur theologian, I can assure you that the differences among the various religions you cite are considerably more profound than you suggest.

I think you mean Porsche 911.

Thanks for your comments,

Charles

Re: Will Mac OS X Mail End Email Diversity?

From Jeff Hellige

Hello,

I read your article (Will Mac OS X Mail end email diversity?) concerning Mac OS X Mail with interest. I've been testing Mac OS X for nearly a week now and really like it, with the exception of the fact that it will no longer connect to file servers that Mac OS 9.1 and below will happily connect to. Apple's answer to this is to modify the configuration of the servers themselves, but one can imagine how few network administrators of mixed LAN's like mine (Macs, NT, Novell, Win95/98) will actually be willing to go this route. Let's just say that, since the servers worked fine before and continue to do so with the other clients, the servers will remain as-is, meaning OS X will not be able to be used on our various b/w G3s and graphite G4s.

As for Mail, it should be remembered that nearly every version of Unix ships with it's own included email client - after all, networking and email have always been an integral part of UNIX. NeXTstep/OpenStep also included their own Mail application, and, since OS X is a direct descendant of those operating systems, it stands to reason that it would include an improved version of that application. I'm a big fan of Eudora and have used it for quite a long time on both Mac and Windows platforms, but I think that Mail is a nice basic email application. Certainly nicer than Outlook and it's proprietary Exchange server format that forces you to only use Outlook. Outlook is also very inconsistent between versions and platforms as far as data format, settings and capabilities, unlike Eudora.

Take care
Jeff

StarMax 3000

From Mark Chally

You know, that ailing StarMax has a 5 year warranty.

Yes, he got in under the wire, but still thinks it's time for an upgrade.

Charles

StarMax 3000 Ethernet Question

From Michael T. Baxter

Hi, I'm a network admin, and I have a Motorola StarMax 3000/160 which appears to have a bad NIC. Otherwise the computer is fine. I was wondering, could you tell me where I can buy an ethernet board, and, if possible, a restore CD that will work with one of these machines? I want to not only replace the bad NIC but also erase the HD and setup the computer with a clean configuration again. Is it possible to do this without a software restore CD?

Thanks for your time,
Mike

Hi Mike,

The ethernet board I'm not sure about. You've got lots of PCI slots, so probably a PCI board would be the best bet, and available from a number of sources.

As for the hard drive reformatting, just use Drive Setup on the Mac OS install CD. I would suggest upgrading to at least OS 8.6, but essentially any version that supports this machine will do the job.

Small Dog Electronics is currently selling OS 9.1 for $95.00.

Charles