32by32 - Macintosh History from the 1980s

BMUG Meeting minutes – 09/10/87

Acta document

BMUG Meeting 9/10/87

Bill Atkinson on Computer Show on TV next Tues

Computer centre on Franklin in Oakland – Apple Dealer

1924 Franklin

MacCharlie / DaynaFile – often not as good as getting a PC clone

Stock Tips

Q: Experience with DASCH External RAMdisk?

A: Not recommended. Add internal RAM or external SCSI drive.

Q: 3 floppy drives (or more) on an SE?

A: You’ve gotta rewrite the system software and hardware to go beyond 3, up to 16.

Q: Most recent MazZap?

A: 5.0.

A: They just announced the update from 4.54

Q: Is there a program to take advantage of the function keys on the Apple Distended Keyboard?

A: Yes, QuickKeysâ„¢, from CE Software, $95. Out next week.

Q: Can you hook 2 Mac’s together with SCSI?

A: Yes, IF you can change the SCSI address of the MAC. Good luck!

Talk to APDA and NCR for technical information.

Q: Any Mac II’s broke?

A: Yes, and no dealers have any parts. Scholar’s Workstation has 2 motherboards in stock.

Q: Where’s best buy on SIMM chips?

A: Dove is backordered 3 weeks. M.A.C. has some in stock: $70/SIMM for Mac II; backordered on SE & Plus. There will be a squeeze on ’em soon.

A: 150 ñs chip won’t work on the Mac II. 511002’s will work on the Plus.

Q: Where to sell chips AFTER upgrade (256K SIMMs, 150 ñs)?

A: Good luck!

Q: Will 100’s work?

A: Yes, anywhere, if they fit.

A: 1 meg parts are 10 times as expensive as 256K parts.

Q: What printers besides ImageWriter II work on SE?

A: None besides LaserWriter work well. ImageWriter LQ looks very nice; who knows when it will be out.

A: Panasonic 1080 imitates the IW I perfectly but is very slow and produces a slightly smaller image

A: Toshiba 341 with ToshStart from SofStyle works but is slow except on draft.

A: Nearly anything with a serial port will work in draft mode only.

A: HyperCard may not work except on ImageWriter or LaserWriter

Q: What’s a good laser price?

A: 10 cents a page or less, $5/hr or less.

A: There’s lots of competition among local places.

Q: HyperCard with MacServe?

A: Make sure there’s enough memory

Q: HyperCard on networks?

A: It should. Remember that all stacks are opened Read/Write, always.

[ long discussion about memory upgrades, accelerators, hard drive interfaces, and the like ]

A: A few SuperMac technical support people left. A couple went ot work for Jasmine.

Q: Some sort of BMUG member discount on Cirrus drives?

A: Nobody’s heard.

Q: Has anybody used the new CMS drives? Special track-caching technology makes ‘em fast? Does it interfere with operation?

A: They claim to do more error-checking than other drives. “The fastest 80-meg drive for the Mac”

A: Douglas Electronics selling Avatex 2400 modems for $240. Fully Hayes-compatible.

Q: Problems with Stepping Out w/New Sys/F shutdown?

A: Yes, there are. Try Berkeley Systems Design.

A: Yes, an upgrade is available

A: Stepping Out gives you a software large-screen to scroll on. Very helpful in graphics and DT Pub.

Q: New Laser Prep with MultiFinder?

A: Yes, but you can use the old or new ones with different ones.

A: Yes, along with lots of other goodies.

A: It wants 2-4 megabytes. It will work on 1 megabyte, but 1.5 applications are required.

A: It should be available here, according to MacWeek.

Q: Mac II monitors?

A: Sony is much like Apple. PCPC is dimmer.