Many folks want to get memory chips. Well, you can get them from many places, for various prices. The cheapest I've seen recently are from CDA Computer Sales (Call (800) 526-5313). 256K sets are $29, and 1 Meg sets are $79. It says they are for GS-RAM Ultra and GS-RAM Plus, but hey, they're just chips. If you have a card that can only hold 1 or 2 Meg, it is probably based on 256K increments. If it holds 2 to 8 Meg, it is based on 1 Meg increments. Check your manual. (Note to CompuServe users: you can order chips online in the Electronic Mall!)
ONE-DRIVE-SYSTEM OWNERS!
Can't quite afford another 3.5" drive? If you have a card that can hold more than a megabyte of memory, you can get another meg (see above) and set up an 800K RAM (random access memory) disk in your Control Panel (to get there: simply press Open-Apple-Control-ESC). Now reboot, click on the "RAM5" RAMdisk and choose "Initialize" from the Disk menu. Now drag your System.Disk Icon onto the RAM5 icon. GS/OS will ask you, "Replace the contents of "RAM5" with the contents of "System.Disk?" Do this. When it is done, go to your Control Panel to the Slots menu, and in it set "Startup Slot" to "RAM disk." Go back to the Finder, quit, and choose Restart. Now GS/OS will boot out of your RAM disk, and it will work like lightning! You can have Softdisk G-S in your drive, GS/OS in your RAM disk, and at 1/3 the cost of a new 3.5" drive!
The only danger is programs that trash memory can write into the RAM disk. If you have a game that says it "runs in 512K," I wouldn't try putting it in the RAM disk and trying to run it there. Games that run in 512K usually just trash lower memory, which is where the RAM disk will probably reside!
And when you get a little bit more money, you can get a memory-saver card, like Applied Engineering's RamKeeper, and make a ROM (read-only memory) disk. Perform the same procedure as above, and when you turn on your computer, the ROM disk will still hold GS/OS, even though the power has been off! Will it boot fast? It will probably be done by the time your monitor is fully warmed up!
And if you don't know, Applied Engineering has introduced a 3.5" drive for $279. This beats Apple's $429 price, huh? (Even at Apple developer prices, we can't get it cheaper!) I don't often recommend third-party drives, but AE is a sturdy company with a good reputation.
---- Professor Know-it-all
FONTASTIC
The font style of the Report Card is neat and attractive. Can I copy the font into the font folder of SuperFonts or Multiscribe GS? And why won't this font underline?
William L. Osteen, Jr.
Knoxville, TN
Well, William, this font is called Shaston and it is built into your GS. You can copy Shaston 16 from your system disk if you'd like. The "We want to know what you think!" is Shaston with the Outline style.
Onscreen, the Shaston font will not underline. However, it will be underlined when you print it out. This is because there is not enough room for underlining between lines of characters the way the Shaston font is defined. Ah, well.
---- Professor Know-it-all
ART TO ART
I'm sure I'm not alone in finding that the new clip art prints half height on my ImageWriter II. Will it do the same thing when I import it into AppleWorks or BeagleWrite GS?
Sandra Stern
West Orange, NJ
Go into Page Setup in the file menu, and turn off Compressed printing. When doing art, you can do it for normal printing or for compressed printing. It all depends on what you want to use it for.
---- Professor Know-it-all
FROM SOUP TO NUTS, NOW JUST NUTS
Grape-Nuts cereal does not contain grapes nor nuts. What's the deal?
Shawn Quick
Alexander Grape and Arnold Nuts had a dream. No, actually, there was a Grape-Nuts company a long time ago, and only their cereal was successful, so the name has continued. Another example: the Xerox computer isn't a xerox machine.
