Jan.Adams@f444.n161.z1.FIDONET.ORG (Jan Adams) (10/20/90)
Subject: ANTI-APARTHEID NEWSPAPER. . . MAC IIci CONFIGURATION
1. We are an anti-apartheid organisation and we are proposing
to purchase the following equipment and to use it to compose
semi-weekly tabloid newspaper 32 pages in length:
3 x MAC IIci, 80 Mb Hard Drive, Estended keyboard
3 x Daystar Fastcache IIci CPU cards
2 x RasterOps Clearvue 19" mono monitors with cards
1 x RasterOps 19" colour monitor
1 x RasterOps 708 8-bit driver card for colour monitor
1 x Colour Video Accelerator Card
1 x Microtec 300z 256 greyscale/colour scanner
1 x Varityper VT600W laser printer (A3/Tabloid size)
Does anyone have any comments about the overall
configuration, any experiences of problems with this equipment or
any suggestions of improvements within the same overall budget?
2. Does anyone hae any tips or comments about the use of the
Daystar Fastcache IIci cards? Are there any incompatibility
problems with any major DTP applications?
3. Similarly with the Accelerator for the RasterOps 8 bit video
card. I heard a rumour that there are problems when using this
card with Aldus Illustrator's preview function. Does anybody know
anything about this?
4. I also heard that users of IIci machines ahve encountered some
problems with SCSI devices. Can someone summarize the problems
along with any solutions?
5. What are the advantages of a 650 Mb Sony Optical Disc Backup
System over a Syquest Drive, apart from capacity? Are there any
disadvantages other than cost?
6. Does anyone have any experiences (positive or negative) of the
Nutmeg 19 or Sampo Office Pro II 19" mono screens as alternatives
to RasterOps Clearvue?
7. Currently we input news copy on a suite of PC clones and
transfer the stories one by one via floppies to a single AT
networked to our Macs with TOPS. Clearly we want to network our
PCs, but are reluctant to include them all in the TOPS network
for fear of slowing it down. Is there a good (and not too
expensive) way to network the AT to our other PCs as a file
serve, whilst keeping it on the TOPS network and therefore
accessible from our Macs?
Thanks for any and all responses!
--
Jan Adams - via FidoNet node 1:125/777
UUCP: ...!uunet!hoptoad!fidogate!161!444!Jan.Adams
INTERNET: Jan.Adams@f444.n161.z1.FIDONET.ORGclouds@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu (Kathy Strong) (11/01/90)
In article <8053.2720203B@fidogate.FIDONET.ORG> Jan.Adams@f444.n161.z1.FIDONET.ORG (Jan Adams) writes: > >1. We are an anti-apartheid organisation and we are proposing >to purchase the following equipment and to use it to compose >semi-weekly tabloid newspaper 32 pages in length: > > 3 x MAC IIci, 80 Mb Hard Drive, Estended keyboard > 3 x Daystar Fastcache IIci CPU cards > 2 x RasterOps Clearvue 19" mono monitors with cards > 1 x RasterOps 19" colour monitor > 1 x RasterOps 708 8-bit driver card for colour monitor > 1 x Colour Video Accelerator Card > 1 x Microtec 300z 256 greyscale/colour scanner > 1 x Varityper VT600W laser printer (A3/Tabloid size) > > Does anyone have any comments about the overall >configuration, any experiences of problems with this equipment or >any suggestions of improvements within the same overall budget? > [ other questions deleted] Wow, you sound like a WELL-FUNDED organization... You didn't indicated whether your material will come mostly from outside sources or from staff writers, but if it's the latter, you might want to consider that you will be spending a lot more time writing and editing stories than you will doing layout. Take the money for one of those ci's and buy a couple of lower-end machines instead--you'll reduce the standing-in-line-for-a-computer, which is one of the most frustrating experiences in the world... I'm also not clear about why the color monitor and accelerator, unless you're doing four-color work--in which case a 600dpi printer will probably be inadequate. Even though I'm about to move up to a color Mac myself (from my trusty souped-up SE), I honestly feel that color is mostly a "gee-whiz" item rather than a "must" for people who are doing print-oriented work. (Me? A growing percentage of my work is slides/presentations/illustration.) Look into the Microteck 300ZS<--note the S. It's the 300Z, plus SCSI port, plus "special editions" (read: somewhat limited) of, I believe, ImageStudio and ColorStudio. Price is about the same as the older model. And speaking of software... I didn't see any on your list. :-) I hope that's just because you were focusing on hardware questions, and not because you're going to try to get by with "Joe's copy of PageMaker." All of the above recommendations are based on four years of experience as a DTP freelancer and consultant, specializing in systems for small newspapers and magazines. Let me stress again: the number-one comment I heard from small presses after they'd been up and running a month was "We need more writers' workstations!" You sound fairly knowledgeable about things Mac-ish, so you probably won't need to hear that the number-one comment during the first issue was "We should have trained a month before we tried this in production!" Oh, about the Daystar ci cache... I have no experience with it myself, but the owner of one of the Austin Lino service bureaus just installed them on his ci's and he's been raving about how great they are. Presumably that means no conflicts with the usual DTP/illustration software--PageMaker, Quark, Word, Illustrator, Freehand, etc. etc. --Kathy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Kathy Strong : "Welcome to FUBAR Corp., where there's (Clouds moving slowly) : never enough time to do a job right, clouds@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu : but always enough time to do it over."
wnn@ornl.gov (Wolfgang N. Naegeli) (11/08/90)
In article <8053.2720203B@fidogate.FIDONET.ORG> Jan.Adams@f444.n161.z1.FIDONET.ORG (Jan Adams) writes: > Thanks for any and all responses! Well, I tried to send this by e-mail, but it came back as undeliverable. I hope they will be able to see it here, but I doubt it. Does anyone know a way to send to them? Here is what I got back: > This mail message is undeliverable. > (Probably to or from system 'fidogate') > It was sent to you or by you. > Sorry for the inconvenience. > > Sincerely, > lll-winken!uucp ############################################# I am using a Mac IIci with DayStar FastCache card, 8MB of RAM, System 6.0.7, and some 45 INITs and CDEVs. I have had no compatibility problems other than with the Shiva NetModem and the Dayna DOS Mounter software, both of which were fixed with free upgrades. I would recommend you look into the Ehman/Cutting Edge 105 ADB keyboard and the DataDesk SwitchBoard. Both of which, I think, are much better than the Apple Extended Keyboard. I use a E-Machines Z-21 QuickView monochrome monitor. The nice thing about it is that you can interactively switch screen resolution from the keyboard or a menu selection between 36, 40, 72, and 80 dpi. This does not require the software to redraw the screen, so it's almost instantaneous. It has quite a bit more screen area, too, than a 19" monitor. In addition, it supports a larger virtual screen with hardware panning, i.e. when the cursor hits the edge of the physical screen, the picture shifts over very smoothly. This is particularly nice when having a lot of stuff on the pasteboard and keeping tools palettes open, while working on a large-format publication. I am using Design Studio from Letraset, which I think is the most versatile DTP package available right now on the Mac. You may want to look into DTI's SpeedView Tabloid monitor, which is a 19" or 21" monitor in portrait orientation, available both in grey scale and monochrome versions from Digital Technology International. I have only seen the ads, never seen one in real life. In my experience, there is nothing better than TOPS for a mixed network of PCs and Macs. PhoneNet type cabling with TurboNet ST self-terminating connectors from NuvoTech works best. We have got several such networks. If you only do file transfers and printing over the network, but no heavy server-based computing (i.e. running applications of the server or opening documents that reside on a server rather than copying them to the local harddisk first), you should not be concerned about having 12-15 Macs or PCs on a LocalTalk/PhoneNet network. If you want to isolate the PC's traffic from the Mac's, you can put a NuvoTech TurboBridge between them. You can have two AppleTalk zones and keep all local traffic on one side of the bridge from affecting the local traffic on the other side. I hope this helps. Best wishes in your endeavours! Wolfgang N. Naegeli Internet: wnn@ornl.gov Bitnet: wnn@ornlstc Phone: 615-574-6143 Fax: 615-574-6141 (MacFax) QuickMail (QM-QM): Wolfgang Naegeli @ 615-574-4510 Snail: Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN 37831-6206