Why PowerPC Upgrades May Be a Waste of Money, How to Make Sure You Don't Miss System Updates, and Ways to Speed Up Backups.
Christopher Breen and Bob Levitus
Stepping on the Accelerator
Question:
I'd like to upgrade my Performa 637CD to a PowerPC. Unfortunately, the only upgrade I've seen for it is the PowerCard 601, from DayStar, which runs at 66 MHz. I'd like faster speed.
Should I purchase the 601 or wait and see if DayStar comes out with a 604-based upgrade?
Brandon A. Duhamel
Woodside, NY
CHRIS: At around $650, the PowerCard 601 is tempting -- you get low-end Power Mac performance for half the price of the real thing. Or for about $100 more, you can go with the faster upgrade Apple predicted would be out at the beginning of '96 -- the 100-MHz 5300/6300 Logic Board Upgrade. It uses a 603e chip. Or wait for a 604-based upgrade (no word on when one may be available, if ever). I'm going to suggest another and -- oddly enough for me -- more expensive alternative: Buy a new Mac.
Even though I was a happy DayStar customer in my 680x0 days, I wouldn't dream of jumping a 680x0 Mac to a Power Mac through acceleration now, unless:
1. I had a decorative lunch box full of money invested in RAM
for my current machine that I couldn't reuse in a Power Mac.
2. I owned a slew of NuBus cards that weren't supported by the
new Power Macs.
3. I absolutely needed a Power Mac to play Marathon 2: Durandal
and was so short of funds that I couldn't justify the expense of
a new machine.
I'm not knocking DayStar. The company goes to the ends of the earth to make its accelerators compatible with current software and hardware. But there are just too many cool things on current Power Macs that an accelerator doesn't provide -- GeoPort, Fast SCSI-2, and PCI, for instance. And although DayStar has a generous upgrade policy, the daughterboards in some of the latest Power Macs will make upgrading significantly easier -- and presumably less expensive -- than in the past.
Recycling Floppies
Question:
The fate of the planet is in our hands. Please tell me where I can send my floppies for recycling.
Jim Hoffman
Herndon, KS
BOB: If the floppies aren't damaged, donate them to your favorite user groups, which are always in need of disks for their libraries and BBSs (bulletin-board systems). You can get a list of user groups from Apple (800-538-9696, ext. 500). Or donate them to any place that uses floppies, such as a school, copy shop, or computer-rental store.
However, if you've thrown those floppies into boxes because they've failed at one time or another, donating them to charity may be more cruel than kind. They're bound to fail again soon. Instead, drop the floppies off at a recyclery -- you know, where you take glass bottles and soda cans. I found several in the Yellow Pages that accept floppy disks.
CHRIS: Wait. Before you let a recyclery have at them, think about all the handy uses for floppies around the home. For instance, they make great coasters, can be used in lieu of matchbooks to prop up uneven table legs, and look just dandy when arrayed on a mobile. Perhaps the best use is to tack sharp pieces of tin to the corners and use them as Ninja death stars.
Get with the System Updates
Question:
Software publishers always tell you when a software upgrade becomes available. Why doesn't Apple? I hear that the System 7.5.1 upgrade, with its bug fixes and enhancements, has been out for a while now. Where do I get it, and how can I make sure I don't miss out on future upgrades?
Dirk Mockingbird
Carmel, CA
BOB: Apple will be happy to notify you of software upgrades and updates as long as you have an e-mail address. All you have to do is subscribe to the Apple Software Updates mailing list, by sending an e-mail message to swupdates@thing2.info.appl .com. In the body of the message, type subscribe and your name; for example, I'd type subscribe Bob LeVitus. You know you've been added to the list when you receive an automated reply. From then on, whenever Apple issues an update or an upgrade, you can expect to receive a cheerful little e-mail message telling you so. If you don't have e-mail, you can call Apple (800-769-2775) to get the software on disk for only the cost of shipping -- about $10.
CHRIS: Of course, because we're typing these words some months before they actually appear in print, an update to this update may now be available. That's why it's important to get on the updates mailing list.
Speaking of helpful mailing lists, Apple produces a ton of them -- by subscribing, you can get items ranging from press releases to the fact-packed Information Alley (a newsletter of Mac tips). In order to get the Apple Mailing Lists list, send e-mail to info@thing2.info.apple.com and type listinfo in the subject of the message.
Breakneck Backups
Question:
To my surprise and complete joy, when I got a SyQuest 88 last spring I also got a new feature called Smart Replace. I don't know where it came from, but it made backing up much faster by copying only files that I had modified since my last backup.
Unfortunately, since installing System 7.5, I've lost that feature. Where did it go, and how do I get it back?
Kenneth R. Anderson
Hilton Head Island, SC
BOB: I'm not sure where it went, but I know how you can get back that capability. This type of feature is available in components of at least two commercial products. For instance, you'll find it in the Speed Copy component of Connectix's Speed Doubler; it's called Speed Replace. The CopyDoubler component of Symantec's Norton Disk Doubler Pro has something similar, but it's called Fast Replace (see figure 1).
Figure 1 - Copying files faster is part of the purpose of such utilities as Norton Disk Doubler Pro, which features Fast Replace.
Both Fast Replace and Speed Replace do just what you've been missing -- selective backups, copying only those files you've modified. But if I were forced to choose between one and the other, I'd go with CopyDoubler, because it has a feature I couldn't do without -- it backs up folders automatically several times a day. I would not discount Speed Doubler, however, if your highest priority were speeding up a PowerPC machine. (Disclaimer: I installed it only a couple weeks ago, but so far so good.)
CHRIS: I also think Speed Doubler is the bee's knees for goosing my PowerPC speed, but for copying, I would go with CopyDoubler or take a look at Desktop SpeedBoost, a component of Aladdin's Desktop Tools. Desktop SpeedBoost doesn't perform scheduled copies, as CopyDoubler does, but in most other ways, the two products are comparable. Plus Desktop SpeedBoost comes with Desktop Viewer, an intensely swingin' utility that allows you to view -- and sometimes edit -- a variety of files. Why endure Photoshop's long startup process when you just want to peek at a TIFF file?
Virtual Receptionist
Question:
Is there a way of setting up a Performa 475 or a Power Mac 6100 to receive faxes and modem communications, unsupervised, over the same telephone line? I can set my Global Village TelePort Gold fax modem to receive either faxes or modem communications, but not both.
Howard Smithline
Somers, CT
BOB: It is possible to get fax and modem transmissions on the same line, but not with the modem you're using. The only way to get what you're asking for is to shell out some dough on new hardware. For instance, you can buy a Global Village TelePort Platinum modem, which comes with software that can discriminate between voice and fax and between fax and ARA.
Another option is to get a ComShare 750 (available from APS for around $120). It automatically routes not only fax and modem calls to the proper devices but also forwards calls to an answering machine and lets you use your phone, all on the same line. Unfortunately, this device requires that your phone, answering machine, fax, and modem be separate devices, which you plug into jacks on the ComShare 750 (see figure 2).
Figure 2 - Limited to one phone line but still need to receive faxes, modem communications, and phone calls? The ComShare 750 can reroute those calls to the proper devices as long as they're separate devices.
CHRIS: My suggestions also involve spending some money:
You've got two computers? Buy another modem for the computer lacking same, install another phone line, and use one number for a dedicated fax line and the other for data.
Or pick up an Apple GeoPort Telecom Adapter (estimated street price, $130), and attach it to your Power Mac. The GeoPort adapter supports a feature called intelligent answering -- the software attempts to detect the kind of call coming in (voice, fax, or data) and route it to the proper application. Your TelePort Gold supports only the "moron answering standard," which requires that you choose in advance which type of calls your modem will accept.
If the GeoPort software can make out a fax or data tone, it routes the call to an appropriate application (one you've set to auto-answer). If the software can't identify the call, it routes it to the type of application you've set for unidentified calls -- a telephony application such as Cypress Research's MegaPhone, for example, which is bundled with the GeoPort adapter.
Captured by Quicktime
Question:
I've heard that the best full-screen capture rates you can get when you copy a movie from videotape to your Mac are around 15 to 20 frames per second (as opposed to 30 fps when you play a videotape on a VCR).
If that's true, then how are the makers of movies such as Addams Family Values using Macs to create special effects? Obviously they've found a way to get the full 30 fps into the Mac. What's their secret? What kind of hardware, software, and processor would I need?
Chris McSorley
Converse, TX
BOB: This subject could fill an entire bookshelf. Here's the short answer: You need at least $20,000 worth of software and hardware to get broadcast-quality Mac video. For hardware, you need a Quadra 800 or a faster machine; at least 32 MB of RAM; several gigabytes of hard-disk space; and a high-end video-digitizing system, such as one from Truevision, Radius, or Data Translation. State-of-the-art equipment lets you import and export video at rates of up to 30 fps.
The lower numbers you've been hearing -- 15 to 20 fps (and that's not full-screen, by the way) -- are what you get by using an Apple AV card or a low-priced video digitizer such as the Radius Spigot 2 Tape (estimated street price, $600) and a midrange Mac -- say, a Quadra 630.
CHRIS: No one is suggesting, of course, that you buy this equipment yourself. We're in the multimedia age now, and video service bureaus are starting to pop up across the land like mushrooms on a cow pie.
If you intend to go the service-bureau route -- and yes, it is expensive (to the tune of $70 to $100 per minute of video) -- simply edit your QuickTime movies at home by using a program such as Adobe Premiere, generate an Edit Decision List (this EDL contains a list of all the cuts and transitions in your movie), and pass the whole mess off to the pros.
In a matter of days, you'll have not only a beautiful movie that plays just as fast as your Mac will allow but also a substantial hole in your bank account.
Your Saving Grace
Question:
With alarming frequency, I continue to make the same mistake -- I modify a document and then inadvertently hit Command-S when what I meant to do was a Save As. Naturally this wipes out my original document. Is there any way I can recover the original?
Bob Ralston
Granada Hills, CA
CHRIS: I've done the same thing more often than I care to admit, so I can well imagine the muttered expletives wafting across your work space. For your benefit and mine, I've searched high and low for a utility that creates a recoverable buffer file for old documents, and I've come up with zilch. (But gee, what a swell idea for some enterprising shareware author.) Therefore, we must move from recovery to prophylaxis.
The first and easier solution is to save your documents as stationery files whenever you close them. When you open them, a copy of the file appears, ready for work, while your original remains tucked safely away. Of course, not all applications support stationery files, which is why I've devised a dual-purpose QuicKey: (1) It offers you a chance to back out of hasty decisions, and (2) it's so annoying that after a week of use, you'll never make the mistake again. If you install this QuicKey, whenever you press Command-S, a pesky dialog box will pop up and warn you that you may be doing a bad thing (see figure 3).
Figure 3 - This annoying message, generated by a custom QuicKey, will either help you, by making sure you don't lose your originals, or cure you of the habit of saving over files you need, by driving you mad.
BOB: I'd just use Copy Doubler's automatic copy feature to back up important folders every few hours.
CHRIS: I've tossed a copy of the QuicKey -- Safety Net -- onto ZD Net/Mac (see end of article) and MacUser's Web site (http://www.zdnet.com/~macuser/).
Bob LeVitus is the author of more than a dozen computer books. He's currently director of evangelism for Power Computing. Christopher Breen recently coauthored The Macintosh Bible Guide to Games, published by Peachpit Press.
You can find the QuicKey referenced in this article in the MacUser and ZD Net/Mac areas on CompuServe and eWorld. See How to Reach Us for instructions on accessing ZD Net/Mac.
Tips: Monitors
Plug and Pray
Expect trouble if your monitor ever gets separated from the adapter cable or dongle (an adapter that goes on the end of a standard PC cable) it came with. Without an appropriate adapter, you can inadvertently set your graphics card to a resolution the monitor can't support, which can wreak havoc with your hardware. That's what happened during graphics-card testing in MacUser Labs. We ended up with a blank screen that took two knowledgeable technicians over an hour to fix.
Mac users wouldn't run into this problem if it weren't for the fact that most monitors cater to PC users and don't come with the capability to interpret Apple's sense codes (a scheme that enables a monitor to communicate to a Mac at startup which resolutions it can support). But there are fixes if you get in the same bind we did. The one to use depends on whether you have a NuBus Mac or a PCI Mac.
On NuBus Macs, you can easily clear out the invalid choice by restarting your Mac and holding down Shift-Option-P-R to "zap" the parameter RAM (PRAM). Moving your graphics card to a different NuBus slot also lets the Mac "forget" the invalid setting.
Not so on PCI Power Macs. System 7.5.2, which ships with the new models, stores information about graphics-card settings in the Display Preferences file, in the system's Preferences folder. Moving a card to a different PCI slot doesn't help -- the Display Preferences file can track the card wherever it moves. Nor does zapping PRAM do the trick until you delete Display Preferences. Here's how to do it:
If you have a 7200, 7500, or 8500, you can plug your monitor into its built-in graphics port (so you can see your screen), restart, delete the Display Preferences file, and reconnect the monitor to your graphics card. Restart again, zapping the PRAM this time.
The 9500 requires a different tack. Since it has no built-in graphics port, you have to zap the PRAM while restarting your Mac from your System Install CD or Disk Tools floppy disk -- neither of which contains the offending Display Preferences file. Then you can delete the Display Preferences file from the System Folder of your startup hard disk and restart again, this time from your hard disk.
Henry Bortman
MacUser Technical Director
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