harrow@exodus.dec.com.UUCP (06/16/87)
Copyright, 1987, Jeffrey R. Harrow
(I think I'll write an article based on this...)
Well, It finally arrived, my new Mac ][.
I'll be following up with a more detailed article once things
settle down, but I thought I'd share some first impressions as
well as pose a couple of questions:
It's significantly more effort to set it up than the 'ol Macs.
Not surprising, of course, but I did have to carefully follow the
setup instructions so as not be mess up unfamiliar hardware. As
usual, it goes together very well. The internal design is very
clean and uncluttered.
As my Apple monitor (color) is still a month or so away, I was
able to borrow a NEC JC-1401P3A Multisync monitor and, thanks to
the help of Joel West and others on the net, came up with the
pinouts for the Mac ][ video board's male DB15 connector so that
I could make the cable to the NEC monitor. For all of you who
need this, the following worked just fine:
NEC male DB9 Mac ][ male DB15
------------- ----------------
1 Red 2
2 Grn 5
3 Blue 9
6,7,8,9 Ground 1
That's all that's required (of course it should be shielded
cable, with the shield tied to ground at each end.
Although the NEC monitor specs. a maximum vertical scan rate of
62 Hz and the Mac ][ uses about 67 Hz, it synced up just fine
with some range left over on the vertical hold control. The
picture is completely stable, although there is some waviness in
the vertical boarders (stable, but not quite straight).
Convergence is just fine. However, I do not believe that the
text is crisp enough to make me happy if I were looking at it for
hours on end (who me?). I've heard that Apple's monitor is
better in this department; we'll see.
My Mac-Plus has a non-SCSI HD20 on it, so I could not directly
connect it to the Mac ][ (no external drive port). Hence, I used
my HFS Backup set of floppys. I was EXTREMELY impressed in how
fast the Mac ][ ate those floppys; about one every 45 seconds
while restoring them to the internal 40 Megabyte disk. I
couldn't even get into reading the manual it was so fast!
As advertised, Apple did NOT blast us out with color. If the
video card is set at 16 colors, the Apple symbol is in color, and
the cute little stylized Mac on the startup screen IS in color,
but that's about it. However, if you have CricketDraw,
CricketGraph, or one of a few other programs that correctly
implemented the Imagewriter 16-color stuff, you WILL get to do
some on-screen color drawing, and it looks GOOD, even in 16-color
mode! You can even put such into the Scrapbook and it will show
up in color.
Anyway, a much more detailed list of what works and what doesn't
in a day or so; I've filled up quite a few sheets on my pad.
Sound:
When you boot, you get a very pleasing "chime". However, the
sounds that the control panel let you choose for your beep don't
include that nice chime, and indeed sound a bit much (a monkey,
funny sounds, etc.). Anyone know how to make that boot-chime the
"beep"? (Note, Soundinit and BeepInit don't work on the Mac ][!)
Has anyone upgraded the memory on their Mac ][? I've got 4 extra
256K SIMs and it appears that I have to remove the internal hard
drive to mount them. Is it as easy as pulling the 2 connectors
and removing the 2 end screws, then tilting the drive up and out?
Any special considerations while installing the extra memory?
Well, I could go on for hours, but perhaps tomorrow. Of course
as with all good serials, I should end on a cliff hanger. This
thing is FAST! How fast you ask? Well, I sat back down at my
Plus to type this note (it was connected to the modem) and I
REALLY noticed the difference. For example, return to the Finder
is only about 2-3 seconds on a half-full 40 megabyte disk, and
this is without Keeper (which does not work, but isn't missed)!
Happy Macing.
Jeff Harrow
Work address:
ARPAnet: HARROW%EXODUS.DEC@decwrl.ARPA
Usenet: decwrl!exodus.dec.com!harrow or
{allegra,Shasta,decvax}!decwrl!dec-rhea!dec-exodus!harrow
Easynet: EXODUS::HARROW
Telephone: (617)264-5128
USPS: Digital Equipment Corp.
Mail stop: BXB1-2/E02
85 Swanson Road
Boxboro, MA 01719dwb@apple.UUCP (06/17/87)
In article <10396@decwrl.DEC.COM> harrow@exodus.dec.com (Jeff Harrow, NCSE BXB1-2/E02 DTN=293-5128) writes: >Has anyone upgraded the memory on their Mac ][? I've got 4 extra >256K SIMs and it appears that I have to remove the internal hard >drive to mount them. Is it as easy as pulling the 2 connectors >and removing the 2 end screws, then tilting the drive up and out? >Any special considerations while installing the extra memory? Remove the three screws holding down the drive platform on the entire right side of the box and lift it out of the way. Just removing the harddisk platform itself won't get you anywhere. -- David W. Berry dwb@well.uucp dwb@Delphi dwb@apple.com 293-0752@408.MaBell
jww@sdcsvax.UCSD.EDU (Joel West) (06/23/87)
I'm about to make a cable (based on my own spec :-) ) so I'll certainly
find out...As far as I can tell, NO ONE outside Apple has seen
the real (non-prototype) Apple monitors so 1 month is probably
overly optimistic for anyone to get one. I decided that it was
probably worth the wait so I'm only renting, not buying a substitute
monitor.
I sure wish someone had an alternate sound to supplement the std.
four: beep, boing, monkey, kling-klang. Most of those are not
suitable for a standard alert error: I WANT A GONG (as in the
Chinese variety.)
--
Joel West
{ucbvax,ihnp4}!sdcsvax!jww or jww@sdcsvax.ucsd.edugrayson@cartan.Berkeley.EDU (Matthew Grayson) (06/23/87)
In article <3355@sdcsvax.UCSD.EDU> jww@sdcsvax.UCSD.EDU (Joel West) writes: > >I sure wish someone had an alternate sound to supplement the std. >four: beep, boing, monkey, kling-klang. Most of those are not >suitable for a standard alert error: I WANT A GONG (as in the >Chinese variety.) >-- The sounds you want are stored in resources of type 'snd ' in the System. Each resource, except for the simple beep, consists of a 42 byte header followed by a standard SoundCap digitized sound file. An application called SoundWave, a successor to SoundCap, can store SoundFiles as resources. Unfortunately, you have to go in by hand with FEdit to change the resource type and add the header. Luckily, SoundWave is extensible. I wrote a code resource which saves the current sound as a SysBeep 'snd '. You add the 'snd ' to your system, and POOF! it appears in the control panel. Anyway, if you don't have SoundWave, and you can change data to resources comfortably, then use the following header 0001 0001 0005 0000 0000 0001 8051 0000 0000 0014 0000 0000 XXXX XXXX 2b77 45d2 0000 0000 0000 0000 003c The XXXX XXXX is the length of the Post-header part of the resource. Usually, the first 2 bytes are zeros. For a better look, examine the 'snd ' resources with ResEdit. You'll see what's happening. The two sounds which I have added as SysBeeps are HAL's "I'm sorry, Dave..", and Don Giovanni's final scream as he's dragged off to hell (Fischer-Dieskau). Have Fun, Matt
mrh@Shasta.STANFORD.EDU (Marc Hannah) (06/25/87)
In article <1157@cartan.Berkeley.EDU>, grayson@cartan.Berkeley.EDU (Matthew Grayson) writes: > In article <3355@sdcsvax.UCSD.EDU> jww@sdcsvax.UCSD.EDU (Joel West) writes: > Luckily, SoundWave is extensible. I wrote a code resource which > saves the current sound as a SysBeep 'snd '. You add the 'snd ' to your > Matt Your Soundwave extension sounds great. It would be great if you could post it. If you don't know how to do so or don't have the time, then as a former moderator of info-mac I can do it for you. Just send me the HQX file and a short bit on how to use it and I'll be happy to post it to info-mac and mod.mac.binaries. I know I'd like to play with it and I'm sure there are others! David Gelphman
fnf@mcdsun.UUCP (Fred Fish) (06/28/87)
In article <3355@sdcsvax.UCSD.EDU> jww@sdcsvax.UCSD.EDU (Joel West) writes: >I sure wish someone had an alternate sound to supplement the std. >four: beep, boing, monkey, kling-klang. Most of those are not Me too; minor documentation nit, if you read the section of the manual carefully that talks about the alternate sounds, the picture of the menu shows sounds that are different than the actual software shipped. -Fred (I want my Unix) -- = Drug tests; just say *NO*! = Fred Fish Motorola Computer Division, 3013 S 52nd St, Tempe, Az 85282 USA = seismo!noao!mcdsun!fnf (602) 4 M> Rit