dave@etsu.CMI.COM (David Halonen) (10/25/89)
I had the opportunity to use the new Mac Portable in a classroom setting, in place of scribbling on a piece of paper. Consider this a very crude usability report. The class was in a auditorium type room with the cascading levels of semi-cicular desks. The room seats about 80 people. The portable I had was equipped with 2M RAM, and a 40M disk. I used MacWrite II to take my notes. Although MacDraw II was opened, I didn't use it. My impressions: I like being able to take notes electronically. I can say that for just typing text, this machine works well. I didn't get a chance to try and take sketching or drawing type notes. Therefore, I'm not sure if MacDraw or MacPaint will work fast enuf for this environment. The Portable fit well on the desk. It took up all of the room in front of me, but was able to rest my wrists on the edge of the desk for support. No problems for me here. Other people impressions: The noise bothered some people. There are two sources of noise, the keyboard and the hard disk. The keyboard *MUST* be made quieter. During my note-taking, I learned to type quietly, as to reduce the amount of noise. This sacrificed the quantity of text I could enter. When the disk spun up, people took note of this also, but I'm of the impression that they quickly blocked this noise out. However, the disk stops spinning after awhile and it will usually spin up again. For entering text, once the MacWrite was loaded, I could type and scroll without the disk having to be spinning. However, when I tried to cut and paste, the disk had to spin up. Remember I had MultiFinder, MacDraw and MacWrite all running, with zero free space left over. Summary: Once the keyboards are quiet, I don't think the spinning of the disk will bother anybody any more that those wrist watches that sound off there alarms. Has anybody been shot for having their alarm go off in class yet? The reason I mention the keyboards is that people could hear me typing two and three rows away. But I was the only person with a computer in the class. Once everyone can afford these(hah!), the noise will be deafening. Also, the class was an operating systems class, so at least the techno-weinees(sp?) get to enjoy the obtrusiveness of it first! Comments?
rewing@Apple.COM (Richard Ewing) (10/25/89)
From one fellow Portable user to another (IUm typing on one now), I have at least one suggestion to help you keep the portable quiet. USE THE RANDISK!!! With a program the size of MacWrite II, you may not be able to afford it, but give it a try. Also, MS Word is configurable to run the program and data file completely out of ram so it wonUt hit the disk. Suggestion number 2: type quieter (I know, a lame suggestion, but I couldnUt resist! :-) --Rick Ewing Apple Atlanta -- __________________________________________________________________________ |Disclaimer: Segmentation Fault: Core Dumped. | | | |Internet: REWING@APPLE.COM-----------------------Rick Ewing | |ApplelinkPE & MacNet Soon!------------------Apple Computer, Inc. | |Applelink: EWING--------------------100 Ashford Center North, Suite 100 | |Compu$erve: [76474,1732]--------------------Atlanta, GA 30338 | |GENIE: R.EWING1--------------------------TalkNet: (404) 393-9358 | |USENET: {amdahl,decwrl,sun,unisoft}!apple!rewing | ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^