mcli@ur-tut.UUCP (Maurice Ling) (01/12/88)
Hello y'all,
Here's the latest from the Magic Sac Newsletter. If you would like to be
included in the emailing, send me your email address (BITNET, UUCP, or
Internet). The way this works is, you send all your contributions to me,
then, I will put it in the newsletter. About once a month, I will summarize
and post to USENET.
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Date: Tue, 1 Dec 87 14:02:14 EST
From: rocksanne!xrxns!toml@xerox12.arpa (Tom Love)
Message-Id: <8712011902.AA07607@xerox12.ARPA>
To: mcli@xrxns.arpa
Subject: for the digest
Status: R
just got your digest 2.2, here are two more questions:
how can i get hard disk 20? (is it apple proprietary, PD, purchasable,
out of print, or what?)
and
does anyone have macbeep? if so, can you post/mail it?
thanks.
tom love
rochester!rocksanne!xrxns!toml
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Date: Wed, 2 Dec 87 13:47:32 EST
From: Ravi Subrahmanyan <rochester!rutgers!mcnc.org!ravi>
Message-Id: <8712021847.AA16167@alvin.mcnc.org>
To: mcli
Status: R
Here's something I picked up on CIS, Dave Small says the version of software
shipping with the Translator One (version 5.4) supports HFS. He also said
that they haven't decided upon the upgrade policy for non-Translator owners
yet, so to give them a week or so to settle down (and recover from the
Translator trauma, I'm sure) and figure out what to do next.
-ravi
>From: rowley@ORVILLE.NAS.NASA.GOV (Karl Rowley)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Magic Sac works/doesn't work update
Message-ID: <8712101753.AA15437@orville.nas.nasa.gov>
Date: 10 Dec 87 17:53:25 GMT
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The ARPA Internet
Lines: 27
I have tried some more software with the Magic Sac.
Here is an updated list of software that seems to work with the Sac:
Finder 6.0
System 4.2
MacWrite 4.6
MacDraft 1.2a (although I have heard of problems with MacDraft)
MacDraw 1.9.5
Microsoft Excel 1.03 and 1.04
Microsoft Word 3.01
Versaterm 2.3
Binhex 5.0
MacPaint
LightSpeed C 1.02
Software that does not work:
Red Ryder 9.2
New Scrapbook DA (crashes at random times)
MacWrite 4.5 (use MacWrite 4.6 instead)
CricketDraw (requires 128K ROMs)
Hypercard 1.01 (needs 128K ROMs)
Multifinder
Does anyone have the Transverter, and would they care to comment on it?
Karl Rowley
Usenet: {hplabs,ucbvax,lll-crg}!ames!orville!rowley
Arpanet: rowley@orville.nas.nasa.gov
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Date: Sun, 6 Dec 87 04:16 EST
From: "Roger Marks, 2-4354" <MARKS%BERNS@VENUS.YCC.YALE.EDU>
Subject: Translator is here
To: mcli@tut.cc.rochester.edu
X-Vms-To: VENUS::IN%"mcli@tut.cc.rochester.edu"
Status: R
Maurice,
I got my Translator and thought I'd send you what I sent to Dave at CIS.
By the way, HD20 is on Macserve and Infomac as UTILITY-RAM-BASED-HFS.HQX.
'Lator,
Roger.
Dave,
I thought I ought to send out some preliminary comments on the new stuff. This
may be kind of confused, because I'm just starting out with not only the
translator but also Magic 5 and HFS as well.
First of all, the packaging is very nice. Makes friendly (and tasty)
impression.
First, about Sac 5. The manual says that there's no RAM cache in 828K mode.
But something is definitely faster. Used to be, if you had a file selector box
and kept hitting "Drive," it would poll a disk each time. It took so long that
I got in the habit of yanking out any disk I wasn't using. But now, the lists
pop up out of RAM somewhere. It's nifty. And another thing. When I open a
15 page document in my word processor, the whole thing is in RAM; I can go to
any part of it, and it pops up without a disk access, which never happended
before. Is this some sort of cache? Since I have no hard disk, this is the
main difference I see in 5.
Oh, except HFS. I got HD20 to work, and it's pretty much fun. It feels a lot
more like a Mac this way. A couple of problems, though. One, I can't get it
to boot with 4.0/5.4. It just crashes. It will boot with 3.2/5.3;
then you can switch to 4.0/5.4. Which is all right, but not exactly the optimum
. I definitely do not like 3.2/5.3, so I need to switch.
The other problem is that I'm having a little trouble with RamStart in HFS.
Well, it works, but HFS seems to be picky about what folder the system files are
in, which conflicts with the RamStart notion that you put files you want to copy
in one folder. The solution would be to use the RamStart scripts, but I find
that they bring the Mac (and me) down. So, the question: Have you (anybody?)
gotten scripts to work with RamStart. I'll admit, this is kind of a silly
issue; I don't need an HFS startup disk, but as you say in the manual, pushing
the outer limits, breaking the sound barrier, et.al. I mean, who's going to
use Finder 4.1 just because it works?
The Translator: easy to install, nice long cables, but the LED is too bright. (
I'm a tough customer). Oh, yeah: it works. Although, to be frank, I'm a little
disappointed that it's kind of slow. I mean, I realize that it has to be slower
on Mac disks than Magic disks, and, like you say, it's intended only for import
and export. The disappointing thing is that I was hoping to rid my world of the
Mac/Magic disk duality, get rid of all my Magic disks and all those labels,
and simplify my life. Instead, I've got Mac/Magic, 1s/2s, and MFS/HFS (I don't
even want to THIMK about GEMDOS). But I guess I'll learn to cope; after all, I
learned how to use long distance and airlines in the 1980's. Anyhow, it does
work, and will come in quite handy.
Oh, one more thing. When I was first trying out the 'lator yesterday, I was get
ting some real weird noises out of the disks drives, particularly the inner one,
which has always been raucous. This was particularly true with Magic disks.
Mac disks make another noise, but it's kind of a gentle flutter. This was more
spastic. But today, it seems to be quiet again.
OK, that's all. I'll be sure to let you if anything interesting happens when I
try out some of the formatters, copiers, what not. Quite a relief to have the
thing in hand (a relief for both of us, no doubt).
Cheers,
*Roger
**********
I have the Magic Beep program and the Driver 4.33 update now, thanks to Jon
Dunn. If you are interested, I will send it to you.
later,
Maurice
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