nrunyon%peruvian.utah.edu@cs.utah.edu (The Third Bard) (12/10/90)
8/16, the programmers magazine for the Apple II has just got a major facelift (kinda). It seems that the publishers of a2-Central and Areil got together and have now combined. 8/16 will no longer be avaliable in paper format, but instead will be disk only. It is now under the name 8/16-Central. It more or less looks like 8/16 on disk, so I do not think it really has lost anything. Unfortunatly, for those of us who subscribe to the paper issue because of price (or other reasons) will now have to pay the $69 yearly fee for the disk version if we want to continue subscribing. Grant, I think 8/16 is very good, but I don't know if I can fork out $70 a year. Well, I still have three months to get the money, but it does seem to be just too much. Neil - ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Neil M. Runyon |Apple IIgs ROM 1 Woz Machine, 1.75 Megs RAM, University of Utah - CS Dept | 62.5 Meg Hard Drive, 4 Speakers, and a Sony. nrunyon@peruvian.utah.edu |
alfter@uns-helios.nevada.edu (SCOTT ALFTER) (12/10/90)
In article <1990Dec9.142340.19164@hellgate.utah.edu> nrunyon%peruvian.utah.edu@cs.utah.edu (The Third Bard) writes: > Unfortunatly, for those of us who subscribe to the paper issue because >of price (or other reasons) will now have to pay the $69 yearly fee for the >disk version if we want to continue subscribing. Grant, I think 8/16 is >very good, but I don't know if I can fork out $70 a year. Well, I still >have three months to get the money, but it does seem to be just too much. Add to that the fact that they'll only put it out on 3.5" disks. I'm sure they'll lose some subscribers because of it. The very least they could do would be to send issues on multiple 5.25" disks, but the folks at A2-Central don't seem to know what 5.25" disks are. For memory hogs such as the Mac and IIGS, 3.5" disks may be appropriate, but you really don't need them with an 8-bit system. Assuming that I don't decide to just save up for a 386SX system, the upgrade priorities I've set for my system (enhanced IIe, DataLink 2400, RamWorks III w/1 meg installed) look something like this: 1) Zip Chip 2) SCSI HD 3) 3.5" drive There just isn't much to justify the expense of a 3.5" drive on an 8-bit Apple II system. (Possibly for HD backup, but you can pack stuff away with ShrinkIt before saving to lots of 5.25" disks--and ShrinkIt should run considerably faster with a Zip Chip installed.) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scott Alfter _/_ / v \ Apple II: Internet: alfter@uns-helios.nevada.edu ( ( the power to be your best! GEnie: S.ALFTER \_^_/
msuacm@plains.NoDak.edu (MSU ACM Student Chapter) (12/10/90)
This isn't a flame!!! I got my 3.5" external Laser drive and card used for $170... seen 'em here for a lot less. It's not that expensive for the laser card and drive to justify it's purchase. There are just some things that won't be squeezed onto 5.25's that easily. I use Appleworks 3.0 and I'd say that it'd be a pain to have to swap disks for the big dictionary the 3.5 version has. I archive some of my old stuff with shrinkit and store it on my disks. 5.25's simply don't hold that much, compare 280 blocks with 1600!!! Just about 6 times as much. Granted my old //e is just that, but at least with a 3.5 I still feel a little better than the old XT user with the 5.25 regular density drives. :^) I agree that 8/16 should put out 5.25 versions as well. I hope they don't go after A2-Central next! Eric Ondler <msuacm@plains.nodak.edu>
ART100@psuvm.psu.edu (Andy Tefft) (12/11/90)
I now have to wonder what I ever did without my Unidisk 3.5 on my //c. I got it used for about $125 and it's my only external drive. I agree that a hard drive would probably be better, but I figure 800k at a time is plenty (140k is not), and you get unlimited storage with a floppy drive (in 140k or 800k chunks) as long as you keep buying disks. Just adding up the 3.5" disks i have on hand, I have at least 24 megs of storage available at a cost of less than $6 per meg, which goes down as I buy blank disks (if I buy another 50 disks at $.50 each, the cost will go down to about $4/meg). That's pretty economical. I haven't wished for a hard drive since getting the Unidisk. It wouldn't be much faster on my //c (from what I've heard), and with 800k per disk I rarely fill up a disk before I want to (I don't have too many to keep track of, and don't have any files that are > 800k although some are > 140k). Enough justification? For me and my //c, it is.
matthew@pro-sherwood.cts.com (Matthew McGehrin) (12/13/90)
In-Reply-To: message from msuacm@plains.NoDak.edu > I archive some of my old stuff with shrinkit and store > it on my disks. 5.25's simply don't hold that much, compare 280 blocks > with 1600!!! Just about 6 times as much. Granted my old //e is just > that, but at least with a 3.5 I still feel a little better than the old > XT user with the 5.25 regular density drives. :^) This is exactly what I use mine fore. It's a compact format. I can store maybe 6 or 8 programs on a disk. Packed tight with shrinkit. I have backups of all my 5.25" disks. Also it makes life easier with appleworks, and timeworks loaded. Another thing, is its nice for downloading or uploading, i can do batch uploads/download at 1600 blocks at a time, instead of 280. -- matthew ProLine : matthew@pro-sherwood | Pro-Sherwood Internet: matthew@pro-sherwood.cts.com | <NJNEW> 233-6278 (PCP) UUCP: crash!pro-sherwood!matthew | -- NJ:USA -- ARPA: crash!pro-sherwood!matthew@nosc.mil | or 1201-233-6278 (AT&T)