FTWILSON@pucc.Princeton.EDU (Frederick Todd Wilson) (05/03/89)
Some people might call this little tid-bit of info trivial, but I think it's pretty important. It was written in the Mac the Knife section of MacWeek some time ago that Apple had discontinued work on an init that would allow SuperDrive (FDHD) users to open MS/DOS disks directly from the Finder (Desktop). MK wondered why. Well, this week's Mac Week explains in it's coverage of the Apple external SuperDrive. Apparently, Dayna manufactures such an init and it will be bundled with the SuperDrive. Apparently, it will allow users to access MS/DOS and OS/2 disks without having to use Apple's FileExchange. Essentially, this brings the Mac one step closer to interoperability. Being able to open MS-DOS files from compatible Mac software (i.e. MS Word) may now be possible. Anyone with real experience with this? Tx. F. Todd Wilson. "My opinions are my own. Besides, who'd want 'em?"
vogelei@nmtsun.nmt.edu (Todd Vogelei) (05/03/89)
Now that we have these Duper Disks that will read anything in the whole wide PC/mac world, does anybody know of a plan to put a PC in a NUBUS slot so you can maybe click on a PC icon and toggle control to the PC card thus giving you access to the Hellish world of PC-dom? (With some command line command to get you back to the happy kingdom of mac?) They don't have to run at "the same time" (although having a PC window that you could drop in and out of via multifinder would be TOO COOL!) Ok this may be heresy but hey, I'm an engineer. And its a PC world out there in engineer land and ya gotta stay compatible with the company system. Buying a mac was a serious risk but I think I made the right choice for now. But the pressure is strong and if there's one of those cards out there, it could make my life a whole lot easier. Todd vogelei@nmtsun
pweent@spanglebaby.cc.umich.edu (05/04/89)
In article <2543@nmtsun.nmt.edu> vogelei@nmtsun.nmt.edu (Todd Vogelei) writes: > >Now that we have these Duper Disks that will read anything in the whole >wide PC/mac world, does anybody know of a plan to put a PC in a NUBUS >slot so you can maybe click on a PC icon and toggle control to the PC >card thus giving you access to the Hellish world of PC-dom? (With some >command line command to get you back to the happy kingdom of mac?) Try the Mac285 from AST. It takes up 2 slots, but it lets you run IBM AT software in a window at AT speed (for the most part).
FTWILSON@pucc.Princeton.EDU (Frederick Todd Wilson) (05/04/89)
In article <2543@nmtsun.nmt.edu>, vogelei@nmtsun.nmt.edu (Todd Vogelei) writes: > >Now that we have these Duper Disks that will read anything in the whole >wide PC/mac world, does anybody know of a plan to put a PC in a NUBUS >slot so you can maybe click on a PC icon and toggle control to the PC >card thus giving you access to the Hellish world of PC-dom? Maybe I'm missing just what you're after, but it sounds like you're after a product that's been out for about two years now, AST's Mac 286 card. (This stuff was just recently bought by some company from AST, I don't remember who, though...) The card is essentially a 286 on a NuBus card. I'm not sure just how advanced the card got, but software from Insignia called SoftPC allows you to run almost ANY PC software on the Mac, even in a MultiFinder window. The latest version of this can read directly from the SuperDrive. These are the two products I'd suggest you look into. F. Todd Wilson Apple Student Consultant, Princeton University AppleLink: ST0161 "These are my own opinions and nobody else's. Besides, who'd want 'em?"
mithomas@bsu-cs.bsu.edu (Michael Thomas Niehaus) (05/05/89)
In article <8197@pucc.Princeton.EDU>, FTWILSON@pucc.Princeton.EDU (Frederick Todd Wilson) writes: > >Now that we have these Duper Disks that will read anything in the whole > >wide PC/mac world, does anybody know of a plan to put a PC in a NUBUS > >slot so you can maybe click on a PC icon and toggle control to the PC > >card thus giving you access to the Hellish world of PC-dom? > > Maybe I'm missing just what you're after, but it sounds like you're after > a product that's been out for about two years now, AST's Mac 286 card. > (This stuff was just recently bought by some company from AST, I don't > remember who, though...) The card is essentially a 286 on a NuBus card. And it works very nicely. I have used these cards extensively over the past couple of years. Originally, they were a real pain in the rear since the screen update was so slow. But now with version two of the software, the screen updates are very good. If I remember right, the Mac286 runs at 12MHz and has 1MB of memory on board; it doesn't use the Macs memory for anything except the video drivers and I/O drivers. Speaking of video, the Mac286 software supports monochrome, Hercules, and CGA graphics. You can set up a hard drive on your Mac's hard drive, or you can use any network drive. A virtual drive is also available to treat a Macintosh folder as an MS-DOS drive making file transfers painless. And of course, external 5.25" drives are supported. The last time I saw a price for the Mac286 board, it was somewhere around $1000. The Mac86 board is available for the SE for about $550. The only problems I know of with this the packaging that it comes in: there is no static protection. We have found that on the average, one out of every three sets of boards that we receive is bad. We send them back to the company and receive replacements in a couple of weeks, though. Maybe that will change with a new company. I knew that AST was trying to sell off its Macintosh products, but I hadn't heard who bought them. If anyone knows this, let me know. > I'm not sure just how advanced the card got, but software from Insignia > called SoftPC allows you to run almost ANY PC software on the Mac, even in > a MultiFinder window. The latest version of this can read directly from the > SuperDrive. Someone mentioned that the educational price for this package was somewhere around $160. Where can I find out more about this? I haven't ever seen any mention about an education program (but then again, I haven't been really looking for that long). > F. Todd Wilson > Apple Student Consultant, Princeton University -Michael -- Michael Niehaus UUCP: <backbones>!{iuvax,pur-ee}!bsu-cs!mithomas Apple Student Rep ARPA: mithomas@bsu-cs.bsu.edu Ball State University AppleLink: ST0374 (from UUCP: st0374@applelink.apple.com)