davidl@leonardo.intel.com (David D. Levine) (01/06/90)
I just read an article entitled "Newest Macintosh Deserves Honors as First PC
of the 1990s," which was forwarded to me from Compu$erve. It was bylined "By
T.R. Reid, Washington Post Staff Writer," so I assume it first appeared in
the Washington Post.
Reid begins by praising the IIci's speed: "Our resident programmer, Homer
Reid, loaded in the estimable "MathCad" number-crunching program and gave it
a complex function to perform. Our 80386 MS-DOS machine took about six hours
to generate the first five solutions from this function. The Mac IIci
generated 11 solutions within 15 seconds, and would have kept going if the
answers hadn't run past the 14-digit limit of precision." So far, so
good.
"The new Macintosh IIci shows how little regard computer makers
pay to compatibility these days. Apple advertises that its new
computer is compatible with "virtually all Macintosh software." I
didn't find that true. ....
"I found numerous Mac programs that wouldn't run on the IIci. It
was bad enough to get that maddening "bomb" icon, which means the
system has crashed. Even worse, the computer sometimes crashed with a
program disk in the floppy drive. This is bad news, because Apple
forgot to put an "Eject" button on the floppy drive. You're supposed to
eject a disk through system software. But once the system crashes,
there's no way to get the unwanted disk out.
"As a result, when you hit the reset button after a crash, the Mac
sits there complaining about the alien disk in the floppy drive - but
provides no way to eject it. There is no worse feeling in all of
computerdom than the one that comes from sticking a screwdriver inside
your new $9,000 computer to pry a disk from the floppy drive just to
get the machine to boot up.
"The Macintosh IIci, in summary, is an impressive power package
for those who need industrial-strength processing on a desktop. But
its high price and compatibility problems make it an unlikely upgrade
for current Mac owners."
On any other Mac I've used, if there's a floppy in the floppy drive at boot
time, either the machine successfully boots off of the floppy (in which
case you can eject it and reboot) or it puts up the little disk-with-an-X
and ejects it, then boots off the hard disk. Is this a serious flaw in the
IIci, or is this T. R. Reid a bozo who couldn't wait the one second or so
it takes the machine to decide a disk isn't bootable and eject it? (That
mention of "sticking a screwdriver (!!!!) inside" to get the disk out implies
the latter.)
Also, is compatibility as bad as Reid claims? Judging by the lack of
traffic on this net on the subject, the IIci's compatibility seems to be as
good or better than any other new-architecture Mac so far.
- David D. Levine, Intel IMSO Tech Pubs
davidl@leonardo.intel.com
"I take a seven and a half."chuq@Apple.COM (Chuq Von Rospach) (01/06/90)
davidl@leonardo.intel.com (David D. Levine) writes: > "The new Macintosh IIci shows how little regard computer makers > pay to compatibility these days. Apple advertises that its new > computer is compatible with "virtually all Macintosh software." I > didn't find that true. .... > "I found numerous Mac programs that wouldn't run on the IIci. It almost sounds like he infected himself with WDEF. > Even worse, the computer sometimes crashed with a > program disk in the floppy drive. This is bad news, because Apple > forgot to put an "Eject" button on the floppy drive. You're supposed to > eject a disk through system software. But once the system crashes, > there's no way to get the unwanted disk out. Poor guy -- no paperclips handy? Or didn't he read the instructions? > "As a result, when you hit the reset button after a crash, the Mac > sits there complaining about the alien disk in the floppy drive - but > provides no way to eject it. Funny. If the floppy is a boot disk, it should boot. If not, the system should spit it out at him. Certainly does on mine. >Also, is compatibility as bad as Reid claims? Judging by the lack of >traffic on this net on the subject, the IIci's compatibility seems to be as >good or better than any other new-architecture Mac so far. If he was infected with WDEF, he might well have seen some of the crashing problems he complained about. That seems to be the major source of 'compatibility' problems. Of course, being infected with WDEF isn't exactly Apple's fault in this, but... -- Chuq Von Rospach <+> chuq@apple.com <+> [This is myself speaking] Trivia question for the week: What do the following names all have in common? JHenderson, Milo D. Cooper, Clayton Cramer, Oleg Kiselev, Tim Maroney Bob Mosley III, Richard Sexton, Dave Sill, Brad Templeton, Patricia O Tuama.
folta@tove.umd.edu (Wayne Folta) (01/07/90)
"I just read an article entitled "Newest Macintosh Deserves Honors as First PC "of the 1990s," which was forwarded to me from Compu$erve. It was bylined "By "T.R. Reid, Washington Post Staff Writer," so I assume it first appeared in "the Washington Post. " "Reid begins by praising the IIci's speed: "Our resident programmer, Homer "Reid, loaded in the estimable "MathCad" number-crunching program and gave it "a complex function to perform. Our 80386 MS-DOS machine took about six hours "to generate the first five solutions from this function. The Mac IIci "generated 11 solutions within 15 seconds, and would have kept going if the "answers hadn't run past the 14-digit limit of precision." So far, so "good. Actually not. I wrote that he has a real problem here. The Mac IIci is fast, but not 1600 times faster than a 386. His DOS MathCad must have a bug. " "I found numerous Mac programs that wouldn't run on the IIci. It " was bad enough to get that maddening "bomb" icon, which means the " system has crashed. Even worse, the computer sometimes crashed with a " program disk in the floppy drive. This is bad news, because Apple " forgot to put an "Eject" button on the floppy drive. You're supposed to " eject a disk through system software. But once the system crashes, " there's no way to get the unwanted disk out. " "As a result, when you hit the reset button after a crash, the Mac " sits there complaining about the alien disk in the floppy drive - but " provides no way to eject it. There is no worse feeling in all of " computerdom than the one that comes from sticking a screwdriver inside " your new $9,000 computer to pry a disk from the floppy drive just to " get the machine to boot up. I wrote about this, too. I believe that he loaded diskettes infected with the WDEF virus. This virus crashes IIci's upon diskette insertion. He might not have noticed it on another Mac, but the virus writer broke the IM rules, and paid for it on the IIci. He also ignores two other ways to eject the diskette: 1) the insert-paperclip hole next to the drive; and 2) hold down the mouse button on reboot. I'de like to see if he responds. His classification as the IIci as the fastest PC ever made is pretty nice, though. (FLAME PROTECTOR ON. Please have mercy on me... He is talking PCs, and not "workstations", and the IIci is darn fast--matching 50MHz Mac II accelerators in MacWorld tests...) -- Wayne Folta (folta@cs.umd.edu 128.8.128.8)
folta@tove.umd.edu (Wayne Folta) (01/07/90)
>I'de like to see if he responds. His classification as the IIci as the >fastest PC ever made is pretty nice, though. ^^^^^^^^^ NO NO NO!! I just dug the article out of the trash and he said: " This mighty Mac is the fastest personal computer I have ever tried." A thousand pardons, please. Sorry Mister Reid. -- Wayne Folta (folta@cs.umd.edu 128.8.128.8)
ostroff@oswego.Oswego.EDU (Boyd Ostroff) (01/08/90)
In article <774@gandalf.littlei.UUCP> davidl@leonardo.intel.com (David D. Levine) writes: >On any other Mac I've used, if there's a floppy in the floppy drive at boot >time, either the machine successfully boots off of the floppy (in which >case you can eject it and reboot) or it puts up the little disk-with-an-X >and ejects it, then boots off the hard disk. On all the macs that I regularly use (512E, Plus, II) if you turn the computer off, hold down the mouse button and then turn it back on the disk will eject *before* the machine tries to boot. Isn't this also the case with the IIci? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Boyd Ostroff, Technical Director ||||||| System Administrator, "The CallBoard" Theatre Department, SUNY Oswego ||||||| Serving the performing arts since 1986 (315) 341-2987 ||||||| (315) 947-6414 300/1200/2400 baud 8N1 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ostroff@oswego.Oswego.EDU ...!rutgers!rochester!kodak!gizzmo!cboard!ostroff
halam@umnd-cpe-cola.d.umn.edu (hasseen alam) (01/09/90)
In article <774@gandalf.littlei.UUCP> davidl@leonardo.intel.com (David D. Levine) writes: >I just read an article entitled "Newest Macintosh Deserves Honors as First PC >of the 1990s," which was forwarded to me from Compu$erve. It was bylined "By >T.R. Reid, Washington Post Staff Writer," so I assume it first appeared in >the Washington Post. > > "I found numerous Mac programs that wouldn't run on the IIci. It > was bad enough to get that maddening "bomb" icon, which means the > system has crashed. Even worse, the computer sometimes crashed with a > program disk in the floppy drive. This is bad news, because Apple > forgot to put an "Eject" button on the floppy drive. You're supposed to > eject a disk through system software. But once the system crashes, > there's no way to get the unwanted disk out. > > provides no way to eject it. There is no worse feeling in all of > computerdom than the one that comes from sticking a screwdriver inside > your new $9,000 computer to pry a disk from the floppy drive just to > get the machine to boot up. > > >On any other Mac I've used, if there's a floppy in the floppy drive at boot >time, either the machine successfully boots off of the floppy (in which >case you can eject it and reboot) or it puts up the little disk-with-an-X >and ejects it, then boots off the hard disk. Is this a serious flaw in the >IIci, or is this T. R. Reid a bozo who couldn't wait the one second or so > I seriously wonder if this T. R. Reid used a Mac long enough. I have got my IIci about a week back. All the applications that I tried so far worked fine. I just bought Tetris (color) and it works well too. My MS Word 4.0, Excel 2.2, MacPaint 2.0, and everything else worked just fine. I prefer "Merit over Might", my IIci does spit out any non-system disk if I try to boot from it. Eventhough I did not encounter the problem, I am pretty sure that if you keep the mouse pressed during bootup, it will spit out any floppy (system or not). A I guess T. R. Reid found the screw driver (one of his power tools to tighten his own screws) and started poking with it. Eventhough there is no eject button it still has the small hole which you can use to insert a paper clip to eject a floppy, if worse come to the worst. I feel like sharing one of my favoure quotes here.... " TEHY WHO CAN DO, THEY WHO CAN'T TEACH, AND THEY WHO ONLY THINK THEY CAN CRITICIZE. " Haseen. PS: please believe what you see, not see what you believe....
kevind@pogo.WV.TEK.COM (Kevin Draz) (01/11/90)
>> forgot to put an "Eject" button on the floppy drive. You're supposed to >> eject a disk through system software. But once the system crashes, >> there's no way to get the unwanted disk out. Hold down the mouse button during power-on. Automatically ejects the disk, whether it has a system or not. This has been around every since the 128K, I think. -- ---- kevind@pogo.wv.tek.com Tektronix Color Printers Technical Support