From: xxltony@cts.com (Tony Lindsey) Subject: Mac*Chat#096/15-Nov-95 Mac*Chat#096/15-Nov-95 ====================== Welcome to Mac*Chat, the weekly electronic newsletter for everyone interested in using a Macintosh computer professionally, no matter what their situation or profession. See the end of this file for further information, including how to get a free subscription and how to contribute donations to keep Mac*Chat thriving. Any [comments in brackets] are by Tony Lindsey. Topics: Highlights Of This Issue Editor's Notes Power Computing (And Radius) Clone Feedback Tracking-Down Laser Printer Cartridges Faxing Software Publicity For New Web Sites, Continued Publicity For New Web Sites, From The Other Side Managing High Volume Mailing Lists, Continued Legalisms and Information Free Subscriptions To This Newsletter Highlights Of This Issue ------------------------ Since I received so many messages responding to questions in issue #95, I decided to post many of the best answers for a few of the most-popular questions. We hear about Mac clones from the user's standpoint, finding new and used laser printer cartridges, dependable faxing software, really solid advice about publicity for your Web site, and tips for people who get too many e-mailed messages. Editor's Notes -------------- By Tony Lindsey I sure get plenty of e-mail... Lately, for some reason, Shrimmy (the Mac*Chat list manager) and I have been intercepting a LOT of messages aimed at Mac*Chat's mailing-list - Asian musical CD's for sale and the like. It's irritating, but I don't mind deleting such unsolicited junk-mail, as long as our subscribers aren't getting anything unwelcome through this mailing list. ----- As a consultant, my business goes up and down according to some pattern that I can't always predict. During the "up" season, I'm making great gobs of money, and my ability to return or acknowledge Mac*Chat e-mail goes WAY down. As a good example, I've received 811 messages in the last seven days. Some days I have to get up at 3 AM just to try and catch up, and then I have to work on my real job. I take naps during the day to keep fresh. I'd like everybody in Mac*ChatLand to know that I always read _every_ e-mail message, and I feel honored that so many people want to contribute their wisdom. I'm sorry if you haven't gotten properly acknowledged in person. It's nothing personal. ----- I'd like to hear any first-hand stories from folks who have been ripped-off by using their credit-card information over the Internet, or signing-up for an online service. There has been a lot of discussion of **potential** problems with financial transfers. I dislike the idea of contributing to general paranoia, fear, uncertainty and doubt (possibly spread by folks who have security software to sell), but I'm wondering how pervasive the problem really may be. Please, no gossip or hearsay! ----- Claude Errera (the volunteer who maintains the Webified version of Mac*Chat is going to Peru and will be gone for two weeks. He won't be able to get the newest issues up on the web site until after the 26th. Power Computing (And Radius) Clone Feedback ------------------------------------------- [In issue #95, I asked about the Power Computing Macintosh clones - I wanted to know about the day-to-day support and upgradeability...] <800-375-7693><512-258-1350> ----- By Kirk DeCardenas-Kline, Denver, Colorado I bought a Power 100 (equivalent to an Apple 8100/100) in June. It came with 24MB RAM, 4x CD drive, 1GB hard drive and an Apple AV card. With this much computer I haven't yet had to upgrade, but I plan to upgrade in the future. After receiving my computer, I spent some time snooping around inside to see just how easy it would be to upgrade. It looks like it's upgrade options are superior to Apple's computers, in one regard. Instead of having the I/O functions on the motherboard, they reside on a daughtercard. I'm guessing that in the future, someone will develop a replacement I/O daughtercard, with Fast & Wide SCSI or FireWire. The somewhat-large desktop case is about 6" wider than a Quadra 650. This added size gives me more options than a Quadra 650. It allows me to have a floppy drive, a hard drive and a CD-ROM drive installed, and still have room to add another half-height drive. The large box size also makes it easy to access the drives and the RAM. I figured a savings of $800 for mine [over the cost of an equivalent Apple]. It's my understanding that the new 604-based clones, will be like Apple's 604-based machines in that it will allow a processor upgrade without having to swap out the motherboard. (While I'm speaking of the 604-based clones, I should mention that I've been comparing their prices to comparable 604-based Macs. I've found that the clones are about $1000 less expensive than the Macs.) The customer support (including tech support) at Power Computing is un-real. I've sent questions to tech support via e-mail and received a detailed response within 10 hours. I called tech support once and had to hold for about 10 seconds. A couple of weeks ago, I received an unsolicited copy of Avid VideoShop 3.0 (retail $260) in the mail. After some checking, I found out that Power Computing had sent it. They had not included any video-editing software at the time of purchase, and since my computer included an AV card, they just sent it (no charge, of course). -------- By Tim Perdue I got a Power 120 from them a bit over a month ago and had a tremendous amount of trouble with it, starting with hardware then once that was solved, I ran into software compatibility problems. Tech support was friendly, but never solved my problems. When the computer was sent back for work, all the did was disable an extension, not telling me that Sound Manager 3.1 was incompatible with their hardware. Also, you cannot run the System 7.5 update on a Power 120 without first hacking it with a patch from Output Enablers (Power won't tell you this, I had to read it on the net). After more than two weeks of haggling their tech people, I finally solved the problem: I downloaded a freeware control panel called "Who am I?", and that solved all my problems. It made my Power 120 think it was an 8100/100 and now everything is dandy. The best URL is 'The Clock Chipping Home Page' Scroll down several screens and you'll see an HREF to download the Output Enablers System 7.5 Update patch, as well as 'Who Am I?', and a blurb on both. Very fast computer -- I swear it's *more* than 20% faster than my real 8100/100. I don't know why, but it just feels like it. All in all, I'm pretty happy, but their tech support could have been a LOT better. They should have been in touch with their engineers, who knew that Sound Manager 3.1 was incompatible. The problem could have been solved in a day or so. In the end, it was my own efforts that made the computer work, not Power Computings. ------- By Manolis Papastefanou, Thessaloniki, Hellas, Greece My company, Escape Information Services, develops and distributes software for the Macintosh. We are also in consulting business. Recently we started suggesting (and selling) Mac clones (both Radius and Power Computing). Our chief developer works on one of the first Power 100s imported in Greece. If you watch only the screen, you can't feel the difference from the original 8100/100. Even the board and chips are all the same. Even the Apple design keyboard. The box is different and unfortunately it shows. If you are used to Macs, you have different standards, I guess. The thing that "hit" me the most was the back side. Very "PC-ish". There is no autoswitching power supply. You have to switch from 110V to 220V using a small switch. So users outside US should be careful. The disk drive is something else that I didn't like. In some cases it's not well put and the disk as it's ejected hits the outside box. But inside there is a lot of space and all the parts are easily accessible. The expected plug'n'play is still there. As people say, what you give is what you get. The money saved is approximately the same with what you mention (about 300 USD - may be a little more), but because here we have problems with the company that imports Apple machines in Greece, there is much more to gain. Quick delivery and the ability to order the machine with the configuration you want. Hard disk, RAM and whether there will be a CD or not can be decided by the buyer upon order. You can also buy a Power Computing with no screen, something that can not be done with Macs down here! As of technical support, we just needed them once. The local distributor replaced our client's machine even though they didn't manage to duplicate the problem when we sent it to them. I know that the company offers free life time technical support and 3 days maximum of waiting, but we haven't tested that yet. As a conclusion, Power Computing is a disguised Macintosh, what we should expect from a Mac clone, I guess. There is absolutely no comparison with the IBM compatibles which you can find even at the grocery's store nowadays. We are very pleased with it, and we suggest it to our clients. But we have to keep in mind that it's not an Apple, with all the pros and cons that this includes. To tell you the truth I like the Radius clone better, but that's another story ;) ------- By I just wanted to make you aware that MacZone (and presumably other vendors) have slashed their price for the Radius 81/110 (a Mac 8100 clone). MacZone: <206-603-2570/800-248-0800> The new price is not in their most recent catalogs, but for $2199 one can get a 110 Mhz PPC 601 Mac with 16 megs of RAM, 730 meg HD, quad-speed CD-ROM, including keyboard and mouse. The kicker is that Radius offers a $200 rebate to the consumer. The machine comes with a system 7.5.1 CD with a couple of hard drive and CD utilities, but no other bundled software. MacZone does include RamDoubler with all CPU purchases. The benchmark tests I have run on my new Radius 81/110 show it to have identical performance characteristics compared to the Mac 8100. [Hmmm - Could this be because Radius is having trouble in the market, and may not be around for long? That's the impression I got from a recent TidBITs, anyway...] ------- By Michael Go I purchased a Power 100 directly from Power Computing a month ago. I've been quite satisfied with it. I got my computer a week after I ordered it via Federal Express. (Power Computing says they make each box to your choice of configurations which takes them a few days.) Somebody called me to confirm the delivery date and another person called me a day after I had received my computer to find out if everything was okay. Altogether, I think Power Computing's customer service seems to be better than Apple's (perhaps, this may be because they get fewer calls than Apple; I wonder if this will change when their volume revs up). I have e-mailed tech support and they've responded within a day or two. I expect their phone support to be just as responsive. The Power 100 is easy to upgrade. Since all Power Computing computer cases look similar (probably to cut the costs down), I presume that all of them are as easy to open as mine. My Power 100 has a thumb screw at the back. Unscrew it, lift the cover, and you're in the computer innards. The SIMM slots are in direct view with no protuberances that would make their installation an exercise of finger flexibility. I installed extra SIMMs with considerable ease (I still recall how much an adventure installing SIMMs were in the old SE/30s!). The cache slots are also out in the open so that you can also easily add to the standard 256K L2 cache if you wished. My computer came with 5 bays (the tower model has 6 bays). One is taken by the floppy, another by a hard drive, and another by a CD ROM drive. That left an empty front and back bay. I think the front one is available for an internal Zip drive and the back one is for another hard drive. I fiddled with mine and I found out that it wouldn't be hard for a moderately Mac-savvy person to install an extra hard drive with some help from Power Computing personnel (small details like termination, etc.). One novel thing about the back bay is that the top bay swings open when you release a screw so that you can easily reach the bottom bay without too much difficulty. Unlike the 7500 though, the PPC601 is soldered to the motherboard and is not upgradeable. However (and I know I'll be wrong in a year or two), a 100mhz chip will be more than adequate for most tasks! There were only two things that I found the Power 100 lacking. First is the lack of a power outlet for a monitor. Perhaps I've been spoiled by my old IIci automatically powering down my monitor and being a creature of habit, I've found myself forgetting to turn off my monitor (only to discover it days later!). The second is the Power 100's speaker sounds tinny and cheap for my taste. I'm seriously thinking of investing in some external speakers. The internal one certainly doesn't hack it when you're playing an audio CD! Another thing. The Power 100's fan is a trifle loud. Actually, there are two fans: one in the power supply and the other one to cool the CPU. The CPU fan is installed behind the front grille of the AT-style box. You'll *definitely* know there is a fan in your box! All in all though, I'm very satisfied with my Power 100 and would strongly recommend it to anyone looking to purchase a Power Mac. Tracking-Down Laser Printer Cartridges -------------------------------------- By Glenn Kowalski, Washington DC I found it in the MacZone catalog [See above for contact info], although others probably have it too. My Local Apple dealer, Mac Business Solutions <301-330-4074> in Gaithersburg, Maryland has them. Here's some more info that should help--the same cartridge fits a Compaq Pagemarq 15 and 20, Dataproducts LZR 1560, 1580, 2060 and 2080. I got this from the side of the box. I don't know how in the world you've been getting the cartridges for $115! They must be reconditioned. They've always cost over $200 and now they sell "extended capacity" versions for around $300. ------- By Jay Parr, Ontario, Canada I find that most retailers haven't a clue about laser cartridges for anything other than the current models. They are not very helpful. Luckily, I live near a large city, Ottawa Canada, and have found the local cartridge recyclers (we have two) to be the best source of information about cartridges. "These Guys Know Cartridges" and are proud of it! Their view of the situation is not the printer's make and model; it's the laser engine make and model. They really understand interchangeability because that is their bread and butter! Cartridge recycling got a bad name when it started because the people doing it were not able to buy the correct parts and toners. It was a basement and garden shed industry. Today it is a pretty respectable business, they can obtain the correct parts and toner, and the result is a very good product. I suggest you look in your printer manual to determine the make and model of the laser engine (e.g., Canon LBP-LX) and call a recycler. They often sell new cartridges too. ------- By Todd Nagengast, Anchorage, Alaska If done correctly, a recycled toner cartridge yields more higher quality prints than a new one. This is because the imaging drum is replaced, and the toner is allowed to settle, and therefore more can be added. The other plus is that you keep more junk out of land fills, helping the environment. Oh, and don't forget all that money you save! ------ By Tuomas Eerola, Vaasa, Finland AppleLaserWriter Pro810 uses the same engine as the Dataproducts Typhoon 20. ------- By Daniel Walker If I remember properly, the LW 810 was Apple's first fancy 11x17 multiple network-serving printer with the option of dozens of paper bins, communications ports and communications protocols (IPX, LAT, EtherTalk, TCP/IP, etc.). It had a few bugs in its AppleTalk protocol stack that made it nearly impossible to connect to COPS' PServe print spooler (that was an interesting few days of fruitless debugging.) The engine for that monster also went in a machine made by Dataproducts (not too popular a name in the PostScript biz, but very well-known for their line- printers and minicomputer connectivity). I don't know if DP manufactured the print engine for Xerox or vice versa. Faxing Software --------------- [In issue #95, Brian Hydesmith asked for faxing software that wasn't problematic. I got a large amount of e-mail praising Global Village faxmodems. Personally, I stopped using fax software with my Supra because I couldn't stand the bugginess, and I thought EVERY brand was the same.] By Jay Parr, Ontario, Canada I know exactly what you mean about 'fussy'. Stay away from Delrina. I am still trying to get my money refunded from those guys. Their software is a Windows design ported to a Mac and is very disappointing (it still ain't a Mac). There is only one real solution. Buy a Global Village fax/modem. The best Mac fax software comes in the box. It is a wonderful product designed and written for their modems and the Mac. Unfortunately, it is not designed to run with other modems but neither is Faxcilitate. It is a seemingly expensive approach but you, or some of your clients, are likely thinking of upgrading your fax/modem anyways. You will never regret the decision. I smile every time I send or receive a fax. The s/w is so ssmmooootthh, what a delight after struggling with about four other fax packages. ------- By Garry Margolis Amen regarding FaxSTF. It came with my Supra 14.4 modem and I struggled with various versions of it for quite some time. Street price on GV TelePort Platinums in Los Angeles is below $200 now. Publicity For New Web Sites, Continued -------------------------------------- [In issue #94, I mentioned a few sites that will help you get publicity for your Web site...] By Peter Morgan Other sites for distributing the message: Pointers to Pointers links to several fee and free announcement sites: Eric Ward's NetPOST(tm) lists your site in about 70 directories, search engines, etc. for a fee, on a basis that's customized for the specific sites; send e-mail message to: netpost@netpost.com A site that lists a couple hundred directory-style sites where your site can be listed (but you have to visit each one) is at: or Publicity For New Web Sites, From The Other Side ------------------------------------------------ [I saw this posting in the Internet Marketing mailing list, and received permission to re-post it. I feel it's important to work WITH the people who are doing you the courtesy of listing your Web page, like Ted.] By Ted Resnick Regarding getting listed in the various Internet search engines and directories, I can tell you what things look like from here at The McKinley. We, and the others directory services are getting hundreds, if not thousands of submissions a day, and for us, the kicker is that we have humans (myself included) who not only confirm the address, but also spend time rating the site. It is a frustrating fact that no search engine or directory will catch up with the backlog of all the sites that are "out there," but here are some comments that I can offer after talking with our feedback editor about this recent thread. First and foremost, include the CORRECT URL in all submissions and correspondence. You would be surprised how many times we receive an address that no longer exists, is misspelled, or has no URL listed in the first place. Although there is a convenience factor to "Submit It" and other placement services, most search tools have their own idiosyncratic requests. For example, we not only will list your entry and our review, but we also have fields for keywords, audience types, mailing address, etc. The upshot is that it may be to you advantage to list with each search engine directly, as they may have more than the minimum fields of just a URL. As the list has seen other folks confirm this, your entry will probably be considered faster if you follow up with a message to the feedback editor or administrative person (the email address is usually on the submission form.) If you write in, remember that we are human and that we are working as quickly as we can, so letters to the effect of 'why don't you get off your butt and list us...' are not very productive. In addition to our submission form, we also get sites from our Web Robot, scanning other media sources, and word of mouth. An interesting challenge is to avoid duplicating sites. Therefore, you should not resubmit sites using the form. The best way to find out what happened is to write to our feedback editor. A distinction between Yahoo/Webcrawler/Infoseek and directories like The McKinley and Point Communications is that the latter has an emphasis on evaluating sites for content. In response to public opinion and internal research, The McKinley has revamped our ratings criteria. It is now much harder to receive a 4-star evaluation. Given this fact, and the always increasing number of submissions, you stand the best chance of being reviewed if your site actually has quality content and design. I tend to ignore sites that have huge areas that are 'under construction' or are primarily 'business card sites' I would expand this to a general rule of not announcing your site too early. It is annoying to the user if they get to your site, and you do not deliver the information or features that are promised. Of course, we also go back to re-review sites to make sure that they still exist and to see if they still merit their original reviews. But that takes time too, so the better your site is when you submit it, the more likely a flattering review will stay there. The reverse is also true. Someone asked about the ordering of the results page. For the most part, the sites with the closest word matches to search criteria will come up first. So the more specific a user's search, the better the result. We also have an advanced search menu that allows the user to focus searches, (i.e., only pick from a particular umbrella category or a minimum of 3 stars.) Finally, we are experimenting with expanding our "Unrated Sites Section" to address the backlog as well. I will post an update to the list when appropriate... Please forgive the length of this post, and I hope that my points are helpful. I am sure that there are other factors involved, especially with so many individual search engines to list with, but I think that this information should be applicable to most of them. Ted Resnick, Senior Writer The McKinley Group Authors of the Magellan Internet Directory & 1996 McKinley Internet Yellow Pages Managing High Volume Mailing Lists, Continued --------------------------------------------- By Jim Carr, Los Angeles, CA I have found the best way to handle busy mailing lists (Mac-L and info-Mac are often 50 items a day) is to get them in digest format. My incoming mail arrives as a digest via a quickmail gateway and my Mac beeps me when mail arrives--about half is interoffice and needs quick attention so its running most of the time. (I can send via Eudora but not receive because we run SMTP but not POP on our server.) If its a digest, I save as text or extract enclosed file (depending on size) and dump it into an "incoming" folder. I could do the same thing if I was downloading a digest from a server which was storing them in an in basket for a dial-up user. When I have time to read my digests, I use Mail Converter (I have version 2.1a1), a Mac freeware program available at usual sites which converts everything in the incoming folder and dumps them into Eudora. (I don't know about a PC equivalent) Each digest becomes its own mailbox. I can sort them anyway freeware Eudora can, usually by subject. I can easily delete those subjects or senders within digest I don't care for and the rest is nicely threaded. Eudora's command-R addresses reply to sender and picks up correct subject. I can save or delete each message in digest individually. I also like digests because it cuts way down on individual number of pieces in mailbox (I don't have any sorting running on incoming box) and the lower volume makes it much easier to find important stuff. Its nice that many mailing lists allow either option, so everybody can be happy. Legalisms and Information ------------------------- Copyright 1989-1995 Tony Lindsey. Whole issues of Mac*Chat may be copied freely, provided that all copies are left intact and unedited. Small excerpts of Mac*Chat may be reproduced for personal use or by nonprofit groups (such as Mac User Groups) or for other non-commercial publications if full credit is given. Please contact the editor for any other publication requests. This newsletter is intended purely as entertainment and free information. No profit has been made from any of these opinions. Time passes, so accuracy may diminish. Publication, product, and company names may be registered trademarks of their companies. ----- This file is formatted as setext, which can be read on any text reader. I'd enjoy hearing your feedback and suggestions. Unfortunately, due to the massive numbers of messages I get every day, I can't guarantee a personal reply. Send all such messages to: Tony Lindsey, . 3401-A55 Adams Avenue San Diego, CA 92116-2429 Tips from readers are gratefully accepted. Please write them in a user-friendly way, and if you are mentioning an Internet site, please include a paragraph explaining why others should visit it. Financial donations are gratefully accepted, to help defray the costs of putting-out one of the fastest-growing newsletters on earth. For more information, send e-mail to , with "Donations" in the Subject line. Mac*Chat back-issues may be found within any Info-Mac ftp archive at /info-mac/per/chat and read with any Web browser at Free Subscriptions To This Newsletter ------------------------------------- You may subscribe to Mac*Chat by sending e-mail to: The Subject line is ignored, so it can say anything. In the body of the message include the following line: SUBSCRIBE MACCHAT Your full name As an example: SUBSCRIBE MACCHAT Juliana Tarlton You will receive a nice long message explaining acceptance of your subscription, how to end it (if desired) and general listserv info. You will then automatically receive Mac*Chat in your e-mail box, for free, every week. ============== ____ ================================================== Tony Lindsey \ _/__ Free, weekly e-mailed Mac-oriented newsletter Mac*Chat Editor \X / ================= \/ =================================================