I hope all is well. While browsing Version Tracker looking for a
couple of utilities, I stumbled across a little application that may
help out with the duplicate Epson printer in your Print Center on
your TiBook (if you haven't already resolved it. I'm referring to the
ESP 870 that had me stumped). This shareware app is called Print
Center Repair (v 2.0.5) and it is a utility that will let you
do several things in regard to printing, notably in your case,
getting rid of the driver for your printer that is preinstalled with
OS X. Hopefully, this can get you back to one copy of the Epson
in Print Center.
Thanks for the tip. I downloaded the program. It looks very
useful if you're having printer problems. I
was able to remove both Epson entries from the Print Center before
I ran it - go figure - and clicking the button (gray in the
screen shot) deleted all of my Epson drivers. Good thing I
was simply able to copy them from my other driver.
At this point I'm down to a single driver for my Epson printer,
but I still find it frustrating that there's no easy way to know
once you've created the entry which one is the newer driver
from Epson and which is the one that came with OS X. At least
with only one now - and one I made sure to create with the more
recent drivers - I don't have that worry any longer.
HyperCard and AppleScript are two Apple technologies I've
played with a bit but never found the time to master. From the
sound of things, the project in question seems to involve a
database, so I don't think a scripting language would do the
job.
We ran an article about Runtime Revolution last summer, and I'd
completely forgotten about it until you wrote. I'm guessing that
SuperCard is probably going to provide the easiest transition from
HyperCard to a native OS X program, but some of the other programs
you suggest may produce better tools.
I think that's about the best analysis I can imagine ;-)
At least we still have choices! I've downloaded the updated MacPython
as well, because there's a FrameMaker scripting/programming interface
being worked on that's based on Python. If I ever have any spare time
(!) I might look at that, too.
FrameMaker - now you've got my interest! I worked for a
publishing house, and the default design program was Quark XPress.
Problem was, Quark couldn't handle footnotes, so we had FrameMaker
for "academic" and other titles that used footnotes. That became
my specialty, and I got to the point where I hated going back to
Quark. FrameMaker is a wonderful, if not well known or
appreciated, program.
I just read your The Low End Mac Mailbag column from 2003.05.14.
There was a brief comment about the value of flashing a PC ATI Radeon
7000 to be used on a Mac instead. Since I don't play games or
anything, I found that the R7000/AGP would be a perfect replacement
for the now a bit old ATI Rage AGP card to get full Quartz Extreme
acceleration.
Buying a $60 R7000 and flashing it for Mac beats buying a Mac
edition GeForce 4 MX for $180. But how do I do it?
Where can I find the files I need? Should I flash it from a PC or
a Mac?
Please advise!
First, you need access to a PC - at least that's my
understanding of it. I've never done it, but to the best of my
knowledge it can only be done in a Windows PC.
Then you need the Mac files that will be written to the flash
memory (hence the term flashing) on the card.
I'm sure there's info out there on doing this, but a quick Google
search hasn't turned up anything helpful. Maybe a reader will
supply the necessary information or links.
We should note here that the beige
G3 with the Rev. A ROM does not support slave drives. It
cannot boot from them in any version of the Mac OS, cannot see
them when running the classic Mac OS, and can only access them
when booted in OS X. Because of this significant limitation,
although the beige G3 is generally considered a very good buy, the
Rev. A model is considered a Road Apple.
I purchased 4 of these machines (Rev. A) to create an OS X
cluster and maxed the memory (768 MB), added IDE 40 GB hard drive,
and 400 [MHz] ZIF processor upgrade.
The only thing that I still wanted to do was to add a second
drive. It was my understanding that one couldn't add the second drive
on these machines.
"...and can only access them when booted in OS X."
You seem to be saying here that one can add the drives and
actually use them. I wouldn't care about booting from them; I would
only want the 2nd drive for additional "scratch" storage.
Is that possible? Please forgive if I've totally misunderstood
what you are saying, as I might have misinterpreted the info about
the beige machine. In fact, I didn't realized the Rev. A slave drive
issue until after purchasing the machines. People are selling the
Rev. C ROMs on eBay
for "way too much" to warrant replacing the ROMs.
I would really like to sort this out. I'm not an admin or hardware
guy, just scientific programming.
Yes, the beige G3 with Rev. A ROMs can see and use slave
drives, but it cannot boot from them. The biggest reason I
consider this a serious enough limitation to mention on the site
is that until now there have been no powerful third-party disk
utilities that ran natively under OS X, so you'd have to boot
in OS 9 to use Disk Warrior, TechTool, etc.
Now that OS X disk utilities are starting to ship, there's less
reason to avoid the Rev. A machines for use with OS X - but
we still want to be sure users know that they won't be able to see
slave drives unless they're using X.
I've got a B&W G3 with all
the memory, hard drives, and PCI cards I need. Is there an advantage
to the CoreCrib over a simple processor upgrade?
The G4 processor supports a higher speed memory access mode
that only works on a motherboard that supports it. Because of
this, we consider the "Yikes!" Power Mac G4 a Road
Apple - it's essentially a B&W G3 with a G4 processor in
the ZIF socket. It's not a bad system, but it was unnecessarily
compromised, since Power Macs with the new motherboard that
supported faster memory access were announced at the same time as
the Yikes!
The CoreCrib uses a motherboard specifically designed for a G4, so
you'd gain the improved memory access speed. You'll also benefit
from an AGP video card, which has a much faster bus than the PCI
video on your B&W G3. If you're running OS X - or plan
to - this will give you access to Quartz Extreme graphics
acceleration.
You should be able to move everything over to the CoreCrib,
although you'll probably want to invest in an AGP video card. You
should be able to get in for under $500 plus whatever CPU speed
you choose - and probably get $150-200 for your stripped G3 with
the old G3 CPU and original video card.
If you do this, let us know what you think of the CoreCrib. And
let me know if you decide to sell the stripped B&W G3 (unless
it's a Rev. 1 motherboard). It would make a great replacement for
some of our older servers that are unsupported under
OS X.
No Combo Drive G3 iMac
David Sindt writes:
Thanks for your recent article concerning upgrade-options
for slot-loading iMacs. There was a significant error, however,
that I noticed in this particular article and others in the past. The
slot-loading iMacs were never available with a Combo drive option.
CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, and CD-RW drives were the only options.
Hard to believe that any Mac that was so recently in the
product line wasn't available with a Combo drive, but you're
right. I've updated the article to correct the error.
Claris Home Page
Adam Bewsey writes:
I read your page daily and recently added LEM to my "toolbar
favorites." (I know you need support), I use a 333
Lombard, and your site keeps me focused on what I have and it's
greatness vs that lust for all Apples weekly new releases. I can't
keep up anymore.
That said, I saw the post re: availability
of Claris Home Page, and I wondered did you say you still use to
create some of your LEM site. I'm looking for an entry level Web page
design program, and I used HomePage once in a Adult Ed class. Is it
still viable?
I know you said it lacked some of the more up-to-date technology.
I know you're extremely busy, but I was just curious.
Thanks so much for your hard work and great site. You really help
me out.
I've been using Claris Home Page 3.0 since 1997, and I used
1.0 and 2.0 before it. It's easy and efficient. It's far from
up-to-date in terms of supporting current HTML standards, but it
does create HTML code that seems to display correctly in every
browser out there. Unless you want to do hand coding or are
prepared to spend several hundred dollars, there's not a better
deal for the Mac webmaster. It's not perfect, but it's good
enough.
The CoreCrib allows Mac users to do something Apple hasn't let
us do since the era of the Mac IIci - buy a bare bones computer
and build it the way we want it. Believe me, when I worked at
ComputerLand of Grand Rapids, we sold a lot of SEs, SE/30s, IIcxs,
IIcis, and other Macs that we ordered in the minimum floppy-only
configuration and upgraded with RAM and third-party hard drives
for our customers.
But you were starting with a working system supported by Apple,
with the OS and processor included.
The CoreCrib isn't competing with the essentially unexpandable
eMac, iMac, or iBook. It's intended for the Mac user who wants
expansion options, and depending on how much can be moved older
from an existing Mac, the cost of a CoreCrib can range from under
US$400 to over US$1,200. It's not for everyone, but I believe
there is a market for this box.
There's a market for anything, but you were describing it as
something for the bargain hunter. And you're still using unreasonable
prices.
You can't put together a system for $400, unless you're just
getting rid of your old case; you need everything else from the old
system to get that price. That's $400 for a new case.
And building it up yourself if you don't already have the parts
just doesn't make sense. Your collection of used parts ended up
costing as much as CoreCrib's basic 800 MHz system. Buying new parts
at retail would push it up even higher - into the range where a new
faster Mac that'll take even faster processors would be more
cost-effective.
Where it makes more sense is at the other end of the market, where
you're looking at a loaded box with more room for expansion than
Apple's machines allow.
It's a high end, not a Low End Mac.
Rick Hansen might disagree with you. He's got
a B&W G3 and is considering moving to the next level. He could
get by with just a CoreCrib and a G4 CPU. And someone with a
Sawtooth G4 who found the
limited number of drive bays limiting could migrate for just the
cost of the CoreCrib itself.
You're right that having Core build a system is competitive with
building your own if you don't already have some of the parts, but
I don't recall the ready built systems being listed on the site
when I wrote the article. For someone who doesn't want to spend
$1,500 for a new single processor 1 GHz G4, being able to
build exactly the system they want or need starting with the
CoreCrib is a viable option.
The CoreCrib isn't competing at the very bottom end, which is
where the eMac live. It's definitely a hobbyist machine intended
for someone who might want several CD burners, doesn't need the
latest CPU speed, etc. It's an affordable way to acquire a very
expandable computer, especially for someone who already has a Mac,
hard drive, media drive, and copy of the Mac OS.
Screen Captures from DVD
Scott Brown
I read your article on HyperCard and your possible future eMac
purchase.
My two cents re: Hypercard and OS X. It does indeed run in
Classic, and frankly, I will always have at least one machine
that can run it, either in OS 7/8/9x or in the Classic mode. Why?
Because there is no other product that combines ease of use, power,
and speed of development like HC.
Yes, there are far more powerful programs (such as Metacard,
etc.), but they have the large learning curve that HC does not. I
just have no desire to invest a few hours in learning them if HC does
everything I need. Besides, I have built quite a few stacks that
handle personal chores quite well, and I don't want to deal with the
conversion/re-writes at this point.
A sort of super-QuickTime was supposed to be the next iteration of
HC, but that project died. I think it would be smart of Apple to
bring the product back, make it OS X native, etc., but I don't
expect that to happen any time soon.
On to the DVD screen capture issue. Ambrosia SW has a product that
does that pretty well: Snapz
Pro X. I haven't tried it myself, but I've heard good things
about it, and the Ambrosia site states that you can capture stills or
movies from a DVD as long as you have an nVidia or Quartz Extreme
capable ATI card.
Oh, you can also record your own QT flicks, plus do the usual
screen captures of various needs. Free demo for download.
As long as HyperCard works for you, I'm not going to suggest
you switch. I still use Claris Emailer and Home Page, two
wonderful applications that will never be available for OS X.
Ditto for Mizer, a practically ancient HTML compression program,
and BBEdit Lite 4.6, which does exactly what I want for free -
unlike the current X-native version. Photoshop 5.5 does everything
I need, so I don't anticipate spending the money for 7.0. And I
use FileMaker Pro 3.0 rarely enough that I can't see spending
money to upgrade it, either. (Ditto for MS Word 5.1a.)
Three cheers for the classic environment, which lets us keep using
our old Mac apps as long as it makes sense to keep using them!
Next time I want to try a screen capture from a DVD, I'll download
the demo version of Snapz Pro X and try it out. Some day I'd like
to have the time to write some more reviews for Digital-Views.com,
but the site is essentially in stasis at present.
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Dan Knight has been publishing Low
End Mac since April 1997. Mailbag columns come from email responses to his Mac Musings, Mac Daniel, Online Tech Journal, and other columns on the site.
Wouldn't life be great with an iSlate?, John Hatchett, Recycled Computing, 07.04.
PDAs and smartphones are too small for some tasks, full-fledged Tablet PCs are overkill, and ebook readers are too limited. Apple has the tech to own this niche.
Mac of the Day: Blue & White Power Mac G3, Jan. 1999 - The most colorful Power Mac introduced an innovative 'drawbridge' enclosure.
List of the Day: SuperMacs is for those using Umax SuperMac clones.
July 6 in LEM history: 00: 3 user accelerators - 01: SCSI and FireWire Disk Mode - Stick with the Mac - Computers for college - 05: Optimizing OS X performance - Return of the bumper snicker - 06: Can consumer MacBook replace 2 PowerBooks and a ThinkPad? - Vintage Macs with System 6 run circles around 3 GHz Windows PC - Run Windows apps without Windows
The Macintosh Portable started a notebook revolution, Carl Nygren, Classic Macs in the Intel Age, 07.03.
Before Apple introduced the Mac Portable, notebook computers were text-based and ran MS-DOS. Ever since, graphical interfaces have been the norm for laptops.
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I
was able to remove both Epson entries from the Print Center before
I ran it - go figure - and clicking the button (gray in the
screen shot) deleted all of my Epson drivers. Good thing I
was simply able to copy them from my other driver.
