eMail page My Mac #15, July 1996

RE: Will Apple Be Sold?

I whole heartedly agree. Who cares if Apple will be sold! I own a Power Computing PowerCurve 120. What a machine. But what makes it a Mac? The MacOS.

As long as the hardware side does not get in the way of the OS, I am content to have Apple make (the) systems. But if it continues to be in the way, Apple should drop it and aggressively hunt down and license other manufacturers to do it for them and the market.

I truly hope and pray, by the way, that the currently circulating rumors around Gateway 2000 and Apple come true. Even though Gateway 2000 makes schlocky Wintel systems, they sell a lot of them. Aaannnnddd, other vendors such as Compaq and Dell would then look seriously at doing MacOS systems. Then Apple can cruise and forget the hardware business.

God Bless,
Timothy A. Malloroy

Gateway 2000 and Mac? Humm….

Oscar Response

Hi Tim,

Just started reading My Mac #14. Looks great. Gets bigger and better with every issue. ; ) Hope you make a bundle eventually. You deserve some compensation for all this hard work!

I have the Oscar extension. He sings “Oh, I love trash…” and comes out of the trash can when you empty the trash. Trouble is, it froze the 7100. Other trouble is that young children love to see and hear Oscar, so are tempted to throw away anything they can find to put in the trash!!! It is on the LCIII running 7.1 Upgrade 3.0 and works fine. Last summer, I went looking for it hoping there was a new version, but couldn’t even find the one I already had anywhere on aol or the internet. A friend gave it to me years ago. It is freeware. My guess is that it is incompatible with System 7.5, or some part of it. I plan to upgrade the LCIII to 7.5 when the memory arrives. I suppose that will be the end of Oscar.

I can send it to you, but I doubt you’ll be able to test it on your new machine.

Mary

I was reading My Mac Issue #14 and am responding to John Sadler. I have a copy of Oscar the Grouch that I am attaching. Please forward on. Also, tell him all you do is drop him in the extension folder and reboot. When you put something into the trash and empty the trash, he sings “I Love Trash”. If you do it again, he sings, “I Love It Because It’s Trash”.He’s a cute little bugger!

Sandy Wills

Sandy and Mary were only a handful of the letters received on John Sadlers request for “The Grouch”. Seems many people had it, and decided to send it to me, as I did not print Johns email address. Good thing, too! I got over twenty copies sent to me:-) Felt like Christmas in the Robertson household! (And Mike van Lammeren and Phil Statham even sent me a “Belching Grouch”, which burps every three empties.)

So many other people wrote in saying they, too, had old Oscar, and would be willing to send me or John a copy. And I also got a few letters from readers who became curious about it themselves after reading the letter, so I decided to do a review of it in this issue, and it will be included in this month’s “My Mac Deluxe”.

Naming your Mac

I see from your latest issue of My Mac that you make mention of why we Mac owners name our computers. I have found this to be a expression of our personal psyche (our personality)

As for myself, I found that I have changed my computers hard drive numerous of times based on the mood I am in. When I first heard of people naming their computers, I thought to myself that these people need some professional help ASAP! But now that I look at it, I see that naming one’s computer, gives the computer a personality and a purpose of being there.

As of present my internal 2 gig HD is named Jeeves, and my two external 1 gig HD’s are respectfully named Arthur and Simon.

In the past,I have named my internal HD with the names of Sigmond, Carl, etc.

As you might have noticed I am very interested in the psychological aspects of things. I am majoring in Clinical Psychology and am making a goal of getting my PhD in Psychology.

Respectfully Yours
Jason Larson
JLarson254@aol.com

A Tight Fit!

I have Oscar the grouch – the one that you’re looking for. I love it and would be only too happy to share it. Ask your reader to send me email and I’ll email it to him. If you want it I can send it to you as well. Just let me know: raga@the-wire.com

This is my third My Mac issue. The other two have fitted on a 1.4MB floppy. However, #14 won’t fit! Please tell me how I can get this onto a floppy, as that’s how I store my files.

Cheers,
Ketan Michael Vakil

P.S. I too have an LC. I can’t let go of it. My kids won’t let me let go of it. So I know how you feel about Speedy!! Aren’t they great machines?

To save files larger than 1.44 MB in size, use “Stuffit Lite” to “Segment” the file. Here are the steps:

1. Open “Stuffit Lite” (Or Stuffit Deluxe, if you have it) and select “Segmenting” from the Translate menu. Here you choose either “Join” or “Segment”. For what you want to do, choose “Segment”

2. When the window opens, choose “High Density Desk” and the file you want to segment. (In this case, My Mac #14, June 1996).

3. Next, you need to select where you want to save the first part of the file to. (Insert a Floppy now, or save to desktop or document.) This will start the segmenting process. A file under 2MB will segment twice. The larger the file, the more segmented pieces you will have. Each will be followed by a number, telling you what piece of the file it is. (My Mac #14, June ’96 .sit1)

4. When that is done, it will then move onto saving segment #2. Again, save to your desktop, or insert the next floppy disk.

5. All done! You have successfully segmented your file! Of course, to join and open that file, simply insert the first part, double click it, and follow the on screen directions. Another nice feature is that you can also make the segmented file a “Self Extracting File”, meaning that any other Mac can open it, even if that computer does not have Stuffit installed. Great if you are taking your Floppies on the road!

CD-ROM Virus

Please send me the Text Only version of My Mac in future. Although I enjoy the graphics, etc. it makes the transfer time excessively long. (Remember that here in the UK, we have to pay for all calls, including local ones).

While reading your comments about the MacUser CD, you might like to know what happened here. MacUser UK had a splash on the cover saying “The Best Cover CD Ever”. It contains quite a lot of good stuff but… The system 7.5 Update 2 was the US version instead of the localized UK version. To make matters even worse, one of the files on the CD was infected with a virus!
So, perhaps the wait for the official Apple disc was worthwhile?

Thanks for an interesting and informative magazine.

Yours,
David Rauch

After I got the above letter from David, I wrote back with some questions about the infected CD ROMS. He write back…

The infected program on the MacUser CD was called >Blah Blah Blah, It’s QTVR< and it was infected with the MDBF A virus. According to Disinfectant this is a non-malicious virus, though it can cause damage to system files.

Before you include this in My Mac, you should know that MacUser UK has responded very well, in my opinion, to their error. First of all, there was quite a lot of publicity on the Internet, both in UK Mac newsgroups and also in Comp Sys Mac Announce. Secondly, the CD was removed from copies of the magazine in the shops, and replaced with a sticker quoting a free phone number to call for a replacement. Subscribers received the new CD (with the UK version of the System 7 updater and uninfected files) with the next issue – and remember that MacUser UK is published every fortnight.

The main points that I am making are, first, that MacUser UK made a mistake and have done everything that they could to repair/avoid further damage to their readers’ machines. Secondly, by the time the next My Mac appears, there will have been three issues of MacUser, so this will appear to be very old news!

I look forward to the next issue of My Mac. If there is anything that I can do to help, please feel free to ask.

All the best,
David Rauch

Thanks, David, for the information. Now, before everyone starts wondering if they, too, have an infected CD of 7.5 Update 2, please be aware that it was a UK localized problem, and that none of the US shipped CD’s were infected.

Question on Graphics

Hi,
I just wanted to say how much I enjoy your ezine. It is by far the best Mac publication I’ve ever read. It’s like the Consumer Reports of Mac soft and hardware. Pete Miner is an absolute riot! Also, I wonder if you could answer a question about www graphics. I have two pages posted, http://www.iconn.net/aiki25/, and a martial arts page that is linked to my home page. My question is regarding why my server has trouble posting my graphics without running them through Paint Shop Pro (PC). As you probably have guessed, my server, http://www.iconn.net, is PC/Windows based. Although they are extremely helpful, they can’t seem to help me in this case, except to run the gif’s through this paint program. They say something about “Mac Headers,” and I know this has something to do with the code, but I don’t know what to do. They always apologize for being “Mac Idiots.”

Anyway, maybe you know what I should do or maybe you can print this letter, it’s possible someone else knows. Thanx very much and keep up the great work.
Peace,
Joe =^)

Anyone with an answer can write to Joe by visiting him home page. (A little plug for you, Joe!)
In Reponse to virusxxzxx

Dear Tim,

I had to write in a response to that insulting creep, virusxxzxx@aol.com, who wrote (in “eMail Page”) “your review of Global Village modems must have been totally paid for by Global Village.” Obviously, he/she has a private agenda, because if it were a genuine disagreement with the review, founded on facts, he/she would not have felt the need to accuse you & _My Mac_ staff of unethical conduct–nor would he/she have had to resort to name-calling, the lowest form of argument: GV “IS A PIECE OF CRAP” (in caps, no less).

I myself have both a Supra 14.4 (for my Mac IIci) & a Global Village Platinum 28.8 (for my PowerWave 604/132). Although I haven’t had any difficulties with either, the FAXstf software that came with the Supra has many problems. The fax software on the GV is excellent. Among the mailing lists to which I subscribe, posted opinions & problems –including those from Apple staff–support my experience.

I should also note that those Apple staff posting on various mailing lists (virusxxzxx@aol.com claims to work at Apple tech support) are honest enough to always state that their opinions & advice are their own, not necessarily those of Apple. Interestingly enough, virusxxzxx@aol.com–whose online name I find rather strange–suggests he/she does speak on behalf of Apple: e.g. “Everyone I know at Apple . . .”

Publishing virusxxzxx’s e-mail speaks well for _My Mac_, but e-mail containing unfounded accusations & name-calling only reveal the intellectual poverty & dearth of logic & valid arguments of the sender.

A My Mac reader

I decided not to post the address of the above reader, as I do not want to have a email “flame war” started. Suffice it to say, I respect both the opinion of the above reader, and Virusxxxx.

Mail Order Hero’s

Tim:

Sorry to disagree with you but you’re way off base on this one. (Eying a new Mac-My Mac #14, June 1996) I bought a Power Computing machine (PowerWave 604/150), and had a minor problem with assembly I had hoped to correct over the phone. The folks at Power Computing were real concerned about the problem, shipped me a _new_ identical unit, allowed me a couple weeks to convert the system, and paid to have my old machine sent back. I was left with a new machine. Not only did I not have to live without a Mac, for awhile I had two!

> But with the rapid increase in processor
> speeds as of late,(200MHz by this
> Christmas!)

… and by the way, who do you think will be delivering such machines by Christmas? Hint: It won’t be your local dealer.

I think you ought to reconsider how you paint the clone/mail order industry. No doubt there can be problems, but there are outstanding opportunities for those that look.

Ted Van Duyn

Sounds like Power Computing did right by you! Good for them! I am glad to hear some people are happy with mail order. (It also sounds like PC even went the extra mile for you! Hats off to Power Computing!)

However, as a customer of not a few mail order businesses, I can relate to the good and bad of customer service. I had ordered memory from a mail order business only to have them send me the wrong item. When I returned it, they stated first that the chip had been installed, and was found to be damaged. (By me!). After I proved it had never been opened, they then said I would have to pay for shipping and handling again, as it was my fault they sent the wrong chip.

Them :”Well, this IS what you ordered. A 4MB, 30 Pin chip.”
Me: “No, I ordered 4Mb worth of memory, two 2MB 30 pin chips”

And it went on and on until I finally said to hell with it and got my money back. (And THEN they tried to charge me a 10% restocking fee! The optimal word here is “TRY”)

So, while I am happy you had a good experience with Power Computing, as I am sure others have had similar experiences with other mail order businesses, I would still highly recommend people to first try and buy something local, and save mail order as a last result.

-Tim

Time for My Mac News?

I am in the middle of reading your June issue and had to stop to tell you how wonderful your publication is!! I have received and read your previous issues and am totally impressed with the information I have gotten!! From the new price rates for AOL starting in July to the mistake Apple made in regards to obtaining 7.5.3 on CD (I also receive MacUser and am very upset that I didn’t receive it with my home subscription!!) It’s a pleasure to have such a valuable source of information available to us Macintosh owners. Keep up the great work!!!!

Karen Priore

After Karen’s letter, I decided to ask some other readers if My Mac should report more “news” type of stories, or keep it to a minimum as we have in the past. What do you think? Would you like to see a “News” type page every month in My Mac?

New Mac Woes

Tim,

I’ve been reading “My Mac” for quite a while now, and have really enjoyed watching its transformation. You’re doing a great job!

I just had to finally write, though, when I read your article about purchasing your second computer. I’m going through the exact same thing. I bought an LCIII four years ago and just replaced it with a Performa 6300CD too. I had the two connected for a few weeks to transfer files, etc., and my trusted friend looked so forlorn next to the newer, larger machine!

As of last month, it now has a new home though with my sister and her family. Their first computer. (I even left an issue of “My Mac” on it for her to check out!)

One problem with the new computer. It has an Apple MultipleScan 15″ monitor, and two weeks ago, the color faded out. (It can still show color, but really dark.) I called Apple and they said they have been having problems with this monitor and have set up a repair program. Someone would be calling me in a week or so. Well, its been two weeks and I’m still waiting and working in 256 grays here! A little frustrating with a brand new machine. Have you heard of this problem with this monitor?

Again, thanks for all of the information and entertainment!

Vix

From the June 6th. edition of Information Alley (with MUCH thanks to Russ for pointing it out to me): Known problem: Sudden or intermittent change in the video monitor’s hue because of a particular cable. Apple will contact you either by phone or by mail with information about the repair program. If for any reason you do not hear from Apple by mail or phone by June 21, 1996, please call Apple toll-free at 1-800-SOS-APPL or contact your local service provider. So, it does indeed sound as if this is a common problem, though you are the first person to bring it to my attention:-) I would contact Apple once again ASAP.