Univers Mac Interactif 53/Univers Mac Interactif - Issue 53.iso/JOURNAUX/mac-chat-080-to-091/mac-chat-089-etx.txt

Internet Message Format | 1995-10-01 | 28KB

From: [e-mail] (Tony Lindsey)
Subject: Mac*Chat#089/14-Sep-95

Mac*Chat#089/14-Sep-95
======================

Welcome to Mac*Chat, the free, weekly electronic newsletter biased
  toward Mac users who are production-oriented professionals.  Other
  Mac users may find many, many items of interest as well.  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.

  Tony Lindsey, <[e-mail]>.
  <http://www.cts.com/browse/xxltony>

  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
  <http://www.ese.ogi.edu/macchat/>

See the end of this file for legalisms and info on how to subscribe.

Any [comments in brackets] are by Tony Lindsey.

Topics:
Highlights Of This Issue
Editor's Notes
Interesting Web Sites
Changing Screen Resolution On The Fly
New Vs. Used Powermacs
Interesting Questions
Women On The Net
Typetamer, Again
Typeindexer
Zip Drives, Spin-Down With Powerbooks
Technical Section Starts... Here
Netscape Palettes - The 256 Colors Of Netscape
Legalisms
Free Subscriptions To This Newsletter

Highlights Of This Issue
------------------------
  We drag together a few top-quality sites to keep on your Web Hot
  List, we hear from the guy who wrote the
  screen-resolution-changing program, the dabate about "maximum
  bang for your PowerMac buck" continues, more good questions are
  asked of Mac*Chat's readers, we find Yet Another Survey
  Concerning Women on the Internet, we hear about two cracking-good
  type-management utilities, two Powerbook users talk about their
  Zip drives, and we hear some definitive advice on making your
  Web-page colors look right on both Macs and PC's.

Editor's Notes
--------------
  By Tony Lindsey <[e-mail]>

  Well, it's true... There really was no issue of Mac*Chat last
  week.  Normally, I prefer to warn everybody if I take some time
  off, but the time kind of snuck past me.  I had to take a few
  "Mental Health" days off.  Nothing serious, just enjoying a few
  days to think about where I want my life to go, spend some
  vacation time with my sweetie, and to win $25 in an amateur Male
  Strip contest - on a moment's whim - during Labor Day Weekend in
  Palm Springs!  (I kept my shorts on).  It was my early
  40th-birthday present to myself.  Is the boy going through
  mid-life crisis, or what? :->

  ------

  Expect a big announcement for next week, and this time I'm not
  just a-woofin'!

Interesting Web Sites
---------------------
  [The following site gives full information about the registered
  Mac User Groups and their online resources, such as Web sites.
  This is a MAJOR-LEAGUE good site!]

  <http://www.ugconnection.org/locator/UGwebpages.html>

  --------

  [I subscribe to NetGuide Magazine, and its Web site is endlessly
  valuable - Check out the back-issues in particular!  They are
  among the very few Web-based guides that really explain WHY you
  should visit a particular site.  Four stars!]

  <http://techweb.cmp.com/net/current/>

  --------

  By Adam Lang, Pennsylvania <[e-mail]>

  A non-commercial site that you should consider posting in
  Mac*Chat:

  The Used Software Exchange (USoX)

http://www.hyperion.com/usox/index.html

  It's a marketplace to buy and sell software of all types and
  platforms. They don't make any money off of any of it... it's
  strictly a public service, free to buyers and sellers alike.  And
  it's great.

  ------

  By Elizabeth Lawler, Louisville, Kentucky <[e-mail]>

  Digital Directions, Guide to New Design Technology, Needs Your
  Input!

  Digital Directions is a magazine for and about people in the
  graphics industry using Macintosh for advertising and design. It
  is intended to provide the latest information about the people,
  techniques and new technologies that are taking Mac-based work
  further and hopefully making our lives easier, or at least more
  interesting.

  The magazine was originally intended for the Louisville, KY,
  graphics community, but because a printed version required a lot
  of overhead and time I did not have, I uploaded an electronic
  version to:

http://iglou.com/eblawler/directions/directions.html

  --------

  By Eric Taylor <[e-mail]>

  <http://www.rtd.com/~taylore>

  For some really inspired tips on building web sites and on design
  in general, check out Dave Siegel's home page (particularly the
  Web Wonk section). His home page can be found at

  <http://www.dsiegel.com>

  (after a quick trip through the Casbah or the Vestibule).

  --------

  By John Labovitz <[e-mail]>

  [The following is a great site for scoping-out electronic
  newsletters like Mac*Chat.]

  You can obtain the full e-zine-list from:

  <http://www.meer.net/~johnl/e-zine-list/>
  <gopher.etext.org: Zines/e-zine-list>
  <ftp.etext.org: /pub/Zines/e-zine-list>

  The www version is the most interactive and useful version.  the
  gopher & ftp versions are simply text files, but are useful
  nonetheless.  If you can't use any of the archives, ask me to
  email you a copy.

Changing Screen Resolution On The Fly
-------------------------------------
  By Steve Lemke <[e-mail]>
  <http://research.radius.com/Lemke/Steve.html>

  In response to Mac*Chat#088/01-Sep-95...

  PLEASE NOTE:  The Dynamic Desktop(TM) control panel (aka
  "RadiusWare" software) is *NOT* FREE!  The software is licensed
  SOLELY for use by Radius customers.

  It is included with Radius displays and Radius graphics cards.
  Updates to Dynamic Desktop (and other Radius software) are
  provided on the internet at ftp.radius.com as a service to Radius
  customers.

  When someone asks me "What is the difference between a Radius
  display and a [Apple, Sony, NEC, etc.]?", my answer is usually of
  the form "Among other things (support, quality, etc.), Radius
  offers nifty software 'extras' like Dynamic Desktop with its
  Pop-up bit-depth and resolution switcher".

  As a final note, Dynamic Desktop resolution and depth switching
  is written, tested, and supported for Radius displays and
  interfaces only.

  -----

  It's not THAT big of a deal (to me personally) and I hope I
  didn't sound rude or snotty... Given the audience and
  distribution of Mac*Chat, just I wanted to make sure that it was
  clear that it is not FREE.

  You certainly didn't case ME any problems.  Hell, I might not
  have even noticed it, except that I usually perk up when I hear
  things like "resolution switching" and stuff like that.

  Way back when, I wanted to make my own version (shareware or
  something like that) of a stand-alone bit-depth and resolution
  switcher, but just never had the time to do it.  I've never been
  that impressed with any of the other stuff out there in the
  public domain/shareware arena, and even Apple's new control strip
  stuff modules are only so-so.

  Anyway, thanks for mentioning Dynamic Desktop.  It's nice to see
  that people like it enough to write in about it.

  Thanks,

  Steve Lemke (co-author of Dynamic Desktop)

  Any opinions expressed are _mine_, and may not be shared by
  Radius Inc.
  Radius questions? <http://www.radius.com/> or
  mailto:[e-mail]

New Vs. Used Powermacs
----------------------
  By Bill Rausch, Richland, WA <[e-mail] >

  I just purchased a "factory refurbished with 90 day Apple
  warranty" from MacZone [contact info below in the TypeTamer
  section] for $1399. It is a Performa 6115CD (60mhz PowerPC, 8 meg
  RAM, 350 meg HD, 2x CD, 15" Apple multiscan monitor w/stereo
  speakers, and keyboard). Included was System 7.5, At Ease, etc.
  plus Claris Works 2.1. I upgraded the ClarisWorks to 4.0 for ~$40
  after rebate.

  I am delighted with the system, and saved several hundred
  dollars. I have bought refurbished peripherals before from
  reputable outfits but never a whole system. I will certainly
  consider taking this route again.

  [Speaking from recent personal experience, if _I_ had a PowerMac
  of any kind, I'd pack it full of RAM and add SpeedDoubler.
  Yowsa!  A real RAM hog, but so FAST!  I tried it on my friend's
  6100 and was deeply, deeply impressed - It really made it seem
  faster than a 9500 at times.  It certainly made a less-so-trendy,
  inexpensive 6100 seem like a lot more bang for the buck.]

  -------

  By Gimli <[e-mail]>

  Regarding Mac*Chat#088:

  One big thing is to ask the new manufacturers (Power Computing,
  Radius etc.) about their upgrade policy. I've pretty much
  upgraded my Mac every 1.5 to 2 years since my first SE to the
  8100/80 I use now. One thing that I have never done is to do a
  logic board upgrade as pricing from Apple has been quite
  prohibitive for me to do so. I'm sure you've noticed that in many
  cases, purchasing a new machine is the only option as often to
  upgrade, a new case style is needed e.g. you can't upgrade a Q700
  to a PPC (except for the upgrade card).

  The main reason for wanting upgrades is the required resources to
  do so. In many cases the person doing an upgrade will sell their
  current system first. This is fine up until they no longer have a
  machine to use. This is a major bummer as I have experienced this
  a couple of times. Also, many are unable to actually order their
  new system until they've sold the old giving extra down time as
  Apple have been known to go into back-order situations etc. etc.

  Secondly, which is more important, many of those people who do
  this more than likely won't have the storage (hard drive, tape,
  syquest etc.) to put their data during the transition. I have
  consistently over 500Mb of data used (in approx. 6-7,000 files)
  on my drive. If I didn't have a tape backup unit then I'd be up
  s*** street!! Still, Its not real fun having to backup, install
  an minimum system on the new machine, restore all of your old
  stuff then do the required updating. You can spend a couple of
  days doing this. I know I have!!

  Wouldn't it be nice if all I have to do is run a system update
  and update only those items that are required.

  One of the other big issues is warranty. Say I wish to upgrade my
  8100 to the new 8500 (given that there is/will be one) the only
  parts that are covered by a 1 year warranty are the components
  that are replaced. This is the only drawback to the upgrade that
  I can think of. But, if you consider new machines, you might want
  to think about the warranty period as I know that a PPC logic
  board replacement outside of warranty is not real cheap. I don't
  know whether this is still the case but at one time it was
  cheaper to buy a 13" monitor than to replace a damaged CRT. I
  must admit though, I was getting educational pricing at the time,
  but still. . . .

  An other question would be to ask about the 68K emulator. Are
  they all using the same emulator or are they allowed to come up
  with their own? As many applications have not PPC versions
  available then this can be a determining factor. An example of
  this is Adobe Photoshop. Version 3.0.x is PPC native but many of
  the filter are still 68K. If I am a graphic artist which
  manipulates 30Mb file all day and which constantly requires a
  specific filter which is 68K, then the emulator speed will make a
  big difference to the cost effectiveness of the machine.

  Sorry about asking more questions than answering them but I know
  that many people don't stop to ask the important questions.
  Especially as a computer can often cost more than the car they
  drive. Its happened to me twice. This makes a computer in at
  least the top 5 major purchases that one will can make. How often
  does one spend $2,000 and up on any one purchase? Speaking for
  myself, my computer system is the second most valuable asset I
  have, second only to my home (actually, the bank owns my home but
  they let me think that I do :) )

  There's one thing that still amazes me about the computing
  industry in general is that 95% of the time the reason for having
  the computer in the first place is forgotten. Its to make your
  life easier. I've seen many cases where this is definitely not
  the case. So many times I have seen consultants tell clients to
  consider the computer before considering its application. How
  many times have we seen people buy systems that are far too
  powerful for their requirements but worse still, doesn't do what
  they bought it for. I generally tell people to answer these three
  questions in order when purchasing systems

  1. What do I want (or possible want) to do with it now and in the
  near future.

  2. How much can I spend/How much can I make by purchasing this
  computer (a compromise between both these is more often than not
  required but the latter is often ignored making the former appear
  worse than it really is)

  3. Can I buy a particular system and satisfy both Q1 & 2 at the
  same time?

Interesting Questions
---------------------
  By  Andrew Duncan, Bondi Junction, AUSTRALIA)
<[e-mail]>

  I am appealing to Mac*Chat for some help in locating an update to
  LaserMerge, a utility from MindGate that merges electronic
  letterheads with paper when printing. A client of mine has
  version 1.01 and this appears to be incompatible with Apple's
  LaserWriter driver 8.x, and no resellers in Australia know
  anything about it and I haven't had any help from the Mac.apps
  Usenet group.

  I was wondering if any Mac*Chat readers are using a later version
  of LaserMerge and whether it is compatible or not with Apple's
  LaserWriter 8.x driver? Failing that, an email address or URL for
  MindGate would be greatly appreciated.

  -------

  By George M Harris, Philadelphia <[e-mail]>

  I'm wondering if anyone has done a comparison between these two
  drives, as I'm preparing to buy a backup system in a few weeks.  The
  Syquest appears to be slightly cheaper per megabyte, and is significantly
  faster. On the other hand, the Zip comes w/ backup software.  Any
  other comparisons?

  ------

  By Tony Salcedo <[e-mail]>

  The Win95 vs. Mac OS debates have been running rampant with the
  recent release of MS Windows 95.  While I am heavily biased
  toward the Mac, at work I use Windows and unix machines (I am an
  electrical engineer). At home we have a Centris 610 which my wife
  uses for her desktop publishing business.

  My question is this, will Apple File Exchange be able to
  understand the long filenames from a Windows 95 formatted disk?
  I have not seen this issues addressed anywhere, so I was
  wondering if you, your colleagues or clients have any information
  about how Mac's will handle the long filenames on Win 95
  formatted disks?

Women On The Net
----------------
  By Al Rubottom <[e-mail]>

  This squib may be of interest. I haven't been able to gopher to
  it, since I'm ill-equipped at my desktop...

  Cherchez La Femme

  How many women are there on the Net? That seems to be one of the
  most popular marketing questions about the Internet. Conventional
  wisdom (including our own Netsurfer reader surveys) seem to
  indicate that the Internet population is 90% male and 10% female.
  Matrix, though, claims this ratio is closer to 2:1, and will sell
  you a report to prove it. Take a look at the summary at

  <gopher://akasha.tic.com:70/00/survey/ids/demo.412>

  and see what you think.

Typetamer, Again
----------------
  By alan (a.r.) quirt <[e-mail]>

  I used Lycos and found a pointer with the old address of Well
  Connected Mac. Updated the URL and sure enough there's the
  contact info:

  <http://www.macfaq.com/vendor/software/508.html>

  The email address for Impossible Software is <[e-mail]>.

  Please let us all know if their one and only product turns out to
  be useful. It sounds as if it might be.

  -----

  By Al Seltzer, editor "CHOMPbytes" <[e-mail]>

  The following article is from the Aug. 1995 Issue of
  "CHOMPbytes," CHOMP MUG Newsletter follows. (CHampions of the Mac
  Proletariat (CHOMP) is a registered Apple User Group that meets
  at 7:00 pm the 4th Thursday of each month (except earlier in
  month during Nov./Dec. holiday period) on the Cal Poly Pomona
  campus. CHOMP is a volunteer-run, nonprofit club serving the
  Inland Empire and East San Gabriel Valley in southern California.

  TypeTamer 1.0.6, from Impossible Software, Irvine, Calif.;
  714/470-4800; is a useful application that offers a variety of
  ways to make life easier for those of us with large-and
  ever-growing-font collections.  This versatile font utility
  provides information on installed fonts and simplifies tasks such
  as typing special characters and reselecting fonts from the menu.
  Need to identify font versions or view character sets from within
  documents and applications? You won't find much faster
  classification than that provided by TypeTamer. It scans a
  document and appends a list of all the fonts contained in the
  document to the Font menu. This list flags appearances of
  multiple versions of the same font, whose subtle differences
  might be tricky to see. The program also displays installed fonts
  in hierarchical menus grouped by definable collections. Moving
  the arrow pointer over PostScript or TrueType icons, which appear
  alongside font names, displays each font's character set.

  If type identification is your primary goal, TypeTamer will
  definitely do the trick. This font-management utility provides a
  good set of tools for managing fonts and checking font
  information. TypeTamer, which (among its many other capabilities)
  groups fonts into families, allowing you to choose styles and
  weights from a submenu. Not only does TypeTamer shorten the Font
  menu, it offers several tricks for working more efficiently with
  fonts. For example, the program's SpeedFonts feature lets you
  type the first few letters of a font's name to zip to that font
  in the menu. And the TopFonts feature places the names of the
  fonts used in a document at the top of the Font menu, allowing
  you to quickly select a font.

  The program is an ideal companion for those using a word
  processor, illustrating or desktop publishing application. It
  contains eight main features: Find Fonts, TopFonts, Font Icon,
  Display Character Set, Find & Insert Special Character, Custom
  Font Categories, Hierarchical Font Menu and SpeedFonts. TypeTamer
  places an icon beside each font in the menu, showing whether it's
  a PostScript (including Multiple Master), TrueType, or bitmap
  font. (This information is handy if you've forgotten to install
  the printer-font component of a PostScript font; the bitmap icon
  will appear next to the font's name, indicating that it won't
  print correctly.) Place the pointer on an icon to display a
  font's character set; upper- and lowercase letters are the
  default, but you can customize the sample text. TypeTamer shows
  sample text in three point sizes, which you can also change.

  Can't remember which keystroke combination you press for the
  copyright symbol? TypeTamer can display a font's special
  characters, allowing you to simply point to a character to insert
  it in a document, rather than typing random shift-option
  combinations or opening Key Caps to find the proper combination.
  Finally, TypeTamer lets you create your own font categories for
  the Font menu. If you're a designer, for example, you might want
  to place all your sans-serif fonts together. Or you could place
  all pictorial or symbol fonts in one category, or perhaps divide
  fonts up by vendor. (A font can appear in more than one
  category.) Whatever categories you choose, you can add or delete
  fonts at any time. The 2/95 edition of the Printing Industries of
  America (PIA) newsletter, EPS Decisions, stated, "TypeTamer is
  quite simply one of the best font management tools seen in a long
  time. [It] offers capabilities...in a much slicker and less
  troublesome interface." TypeTamer needs at least System 7.0 and
  4MB of RAM; best to turn off the Modern Memory Manager when using
  a PowerMac.

  Yes, there are other packages that manage fonts. In fact,
  Rascal Software demo'd their TypeBook at our General Meeting of
  2/23/95. And, of course there's also MenuFonts from Dubl-Click.
  So, as usual, you pays your money and takes your choice; just
  don't forget to do your homework and check with fellow CHOMPers
  as to their comments and opinions-that's a major benefit of
  belonging to a User Group! (Also, don't forget that sometimes it
  is not a bad idea to have more than one program covering the same
  area, if you are in need of features available in one but not the
  other.)

  Impossible Software was at CHOMP's 8/24/95 General Meeting and
  demo'd TypeTamer to an impressed audience. We had approx. 60
  attendees that evening [while some other computer users were
  lining up at Egghead, etc. waiting for midnight to purchase Win
  '95]. The vendor sold approx. a dozen copies of TypeTamer to
  CHOMPers at $39.95 each as a MUG special-after one lucky member
  won a copy in the raffle. It's $46.98 from MacZone
  (206-603-2570/800-248-0800)

  <http://www.maczone.com/maczone>

Typeindexer
-----------
  By <[e-mail]>

  TypeIndexer allows Macintosh users to catalog and print samples
  from all PostScript fonts stored on any live media, without
  having to install the fonts or open them.

  TypeIndexer will automatically search an entire drive and find
  all PostScript fonts stored in any location (folders,
  sub-folders) or, you may limit the search by selecting only the
  fonts for which you need samples.

  A master index of any font list may be exported as a tab
  delimited file containing the following information: screen name,
  file name, file path, family name, full name, file creator,
  weight, version and notice. Imported into a database program this
  information can be used to search and organize font libraries.

  TypeIndexer occupies only 325 K of disk space and can process an
  unlimited number of files.
  Requires: Macintosh,System 6.0.7 or higher, any PostScript Printer
  Suggested Retail Pricing: $49.95 - Includes 26 Type 1 Postscript
  Fonts

  A demo of TypeIndexer is located at

  <http://www-chem.ucdavis.edu/mac/v13/IMp95-13.html#item17>

Zip Drives, Spin-Down With Powerbooks
-------------------------------------
  By David J. Chou, Framingham, Massachusetts <[e-mail]>

  Responding to your entry in a recent Mac*Chat about PowerBook
  hard drive not spinning down when connected to an Iomega Zip
  drive.

  My PB520c with System 7.5 spins down just fine while connected to
  a Zipper. Works with/without a zip disk inserted.  I do not use
  the CPU from Connectix.

  -------

  By [e-mail] (Toby Baden)

  I use a PB520 with an Iomega ZIP drive.  The auto spin down is
  disabled, and when one uses the control strip to spin down the
  drive, it starts to slow for about a 10th of a second, then
  starts up again.

  I get this behaviour with Apple's standard disk drivers, HDT
  tools, and Iomega's drivers.

  A friend of mine has problems using his zip drive with his
  6100/60. His SCSI chain has several devices and they don't
  reliably mount when the zip drive is present.  To reliability
  mount all devices, it's best to start (or restart) the computer
  with a disk in the zip drive.

  We figure the problem is with an incomplete implementation of
  SCSI on the zip drives part.

  A depowered zip drive in the SCSI chain works as though it was
  not there.

Technical Section Starts... Here
--------------------------------

Netscape Palettes - The 256 Colors Of Netscape
----------------------------------------------
  By [e-mail] (Craig Miller)

  There is a GIF which has the non-dithered colors of Netscape in
  it. If you load the GIF file in Photoshop or another similar
  program, you will have the palette which Netscape uses. You can
  then save the pallet, and use it on other files.

  Here is the URL to the GIF:

  http://www.phoenix.net/~jacobson/rgb.html

  ---------

  By [e-mail] (Stephen E. Marinick)

  Hi Tony. I've received lots of responses to the Mac*Chat letter
  and finally figured out that indeed Netscape does not have any
  palette-switching capability. It uses the default system palette
  of the operating system it is running on. If images are optimized
  for the Mac system palette, they will display at 8-bits without
  any dithering. Of course the Windows OS opens up another entire
  problem. I've found that many of my images look so bad when
  reduced to the Windows palette that they're almost useless.

  The most popular strategy seems to be to dither the images to a
  custom (adaptive) 8-bit palette, then let Netscape dither them on
  both Mac and Windows machines. This produces pretty good results
  - I think it's how Netscape did the images on its own home page.
  It also allows for higher-quality images on systems with more
  video depth - if the system has 16 or 24-bit video, there will be
  no dithering. Hopefully with the popularity of Windows95, and the
  low price of video cards, more individuals will have 16-bit color
  capability, and this won't be such a problem.

  For the time being I am experimenting with JPEG images, which
  also allow a "sliding scale" of image quality, depending on the
  system displaying them. Some images seem to work well with JPEG,
  others look better as 8-bit GIFs - you'll have to experiment with
  the images in question to find out.

  Thanks again to all the Mac*Chat readers who volunteered their
  information.

Legalisms
---------

Copyright 1989-1995 Tony Lindsey. Nonprofit groups (such as Mac
  User Groups) or other non-commercial publications) are welcome
  to use any part of the Mac*Chat newsletters if full credit is
  given.  All others will need to contact me.

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.

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.

Free Subscriptions To This Newsletter
-------------------------------------
You may subscribe to Mac*Chat by sending e-mail to:

         [e-mail]

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        SUBSCRIBE MACCHAT Your full name

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============== ____ ==================================================
Tony Lindsey   \ _/__  Free, weekly e-mailed Mac-oriented newsletter
Mac*Chat Editor \X  / <[e-mail]> <http://www.cts.com/~xxltony/>
================= \/ =================================================