September 2005

September 2005
Apple Liaison Hm: (905) 983-9205 Orono
Bruce Cameron Email: [email protected]
Treasurer Hm: 905-404-0405 Oshawa
John Kettle Email : [email protected]
Publicity Director and Jolly Good Fellow
Jim Danabie
MaUsE Club Booster and Jolly Good Fellow
Stan Wild
Logistics Email: [email protected]
C. Greaves & M. McCarthy
Secretary Email: [email protected]
Helen Alves
Macintosh Users East [MaUsE]
eMail: [email protected]
208 Winona Avenue, Oshawa, Ontario, L1G 3H5
MaUsE Message Line: 905-433-0777
Double Click
Double Click on the web at: www.mause.ca
Double Click Editor: Michael Shaw
Hm: (905) 576-2097 Oshawa
Email: [email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
Submissions from MaUsE Club members, although rarer than
living, breathing mastodons, are always welcome. Send them
to me either at: <[email protected]> if they are
just text messages or at <[email protected]> if there are
files or pictures attached. I have never refused a submission
yet. Thereʼs always room for another piece on ANY Mac-related topic and Iʼll make room if there isnʼt. I would like your
submissions. But I wonʼt beg.
Henry Street
New Whitby
Public
Library
Apple, Macintosh, and the Apple logo are trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries.
The MaUsE (Macintosh Users East) is an independent user
group and has not been authorized, sponsored, or otherwise
approved by Apple Computer, Inc.
King Street
Free Parking
Notice
The MaUsE Meeting in September will be held at
7:30 P.M. in Whitby, Ontario, at the New Whitby
Public Library on the corner of Henry Street and
Dundas Street (Highway #2).
Henry Street is four streets west of the four
corners in Whitby and FREE parking is available
after 6:00 P.M. just south of the nearby Scotia
Bank. Be there or be square.
(Highway #2)
President Hm: (905) 263-4167 Solina
Jim Foster Email: [email protected]
The next meeting
will be held at the
new Whitby Public
Library in Whitby,
Ontario, at 7:30 on
Sept. 28th, 2005
!!!!!!!!
Scotia
Bank
Center Street
Dundas Street West
Please feel free to contact any of the following individuals if you have comments or questions relating to Macintosh Users East or Macintosh computing in general.
What you are looking at is the September 2005 edition of
the Double Click monthly newsletter from the Macintosh
Users East, (MaUsE), a motley collection of old and new
Mac users who reside in Southern Ontario with a motley
collection of old and new Macintosh computers. What more
do you need to know ? This newsletter is created more or
less single-handed by Michael Shaw, Double Click Editor,
on his Sonnet- powered personal PCI Macs. He uses mostly
a G4 Power Macintosh 9600/800 and an antique 800 MHz
G4 Daystar Genesis Macintosh clone. The rest of the Double
Click support staff are a 500 MHz G3 PowerTower Pro, and
the “new boy,” a white 1 GHz G4 iBook. An antique Kodak
Digital Science DC40 and new Kodak DX7590 are used for
all pictures. Back issues can be downloaded from the <www.
mause.ca> website for a laugh.
Colborne Street
Executive Contact List
PowerLogix PCI 500 MHz
G3 Processor Upgrade
I swore off upgrading old abandoned 604e-powered
computers but things donʼt always happen the way I expect them to. I know that I probably mentioned in a recent Double Click that I had received a PowerTower Pro
225 from one of the fellows I work with for the princely
sum of $1.00. Ironically there was a time a few years
ago when I would have gladly given a weekʼs pay for
one of these towers, one
of the best PowerComputing MacClones ever designed and this one was in
almost perfect condition,
complete with all plastic
parts in place, a genuine
Apple keyboard, Apple
ADB mouse and Apple AV monitor. In terms of expandability this computer with its six PCI slots matches the
PowerPC 9600 and Daystar Genesis. The only difference
between the logic board on the PowerTower Pro 225 and
the Daystar Genesis and genuine Apple 9600 is that the
PT Pro has 8 DIMM slots instead of 12, and so will only
accept 1 gig of RAM instead of 1.5 gig when loaded up
with 128-meg DIMMs. The one I picked up came with
a really sharp Apple monitor with built-in speakers and
had been upgraded to 256 megs of RAM, a big improvement over the 64 Megs it originally shipped with (for the
turned out, the damaged part was just a corner of the little
princely sum of only US $4,695.00 !!).
threaded clip that holds the heat sink onto the processor
chip. I figured that I could cobble something together to
At about the same time I asked on the Low End Mac
replace the original so I sent him the money and the card
SWAP List for information about a MaxPowr G3 card
arrived in a few days.
and received a reply from a Lister in Colorado who had
another item that he thought I might be interested in: a
While the card was in transit from Colorado the seller
500 MHz PowerLogix G3 card (see the picture below)
emailed me to say that he has been contacted by Powerwith a “broken” heat sink. Since it was broken he offered
Logix and they were sending him another little threaded
it to me for the incredibly low cost of only $25.00. As it
collar for the heat sink for FREE so he sent that to me as
well.
A quick look on the internet (www.everymac.com)
shows data on the PowerLogix 500 MHz G3 card and
lists its price in late 1999 as US $800.00 so US $25.00
is certainly a good price. Between these two really neat
finds I have constructed for my Mother a 500 MHz 6slot PCI G3 computer that will run OS9.1 or OSX and
connect to the internet through a Sympatico high-speed
DSL modem. (This computer will replace her PPC7600
with the bad logic board. The total cost to me was comparable to the cost of two medium pizzas, double cheese,
no anchovies).
One thing that distinguishes PowerLogix upgrades from
Sonnet upgrades is that PowerLogix cards have a control
application (CPU Director) and a little red box with a set
of about a dozen tiny dipper switches that can be used to
set the internal bus speed and a multiplier factor so the
card can be played with to customise the way the card speeds up the computer. On the
back of the card is a chart that shows the possible dipper switch locations so the user
can speed up or slow down the processor on the card. The label on the card indicates
that this card is rated for 500 MHz and I set the jumpers for a Bus Speed of 50 MHz
times a multiplier ratio of 10X to achieve this result. Iʼm going to use the computer for
a while at this speed to make sure it is stable before I start to play with it. If it behaves
I will use the dippers to speed it up even more.
up or slow down the speed of
the L2 cache as well. I set
cache speed at a ratio of 5:2 to
achieve 200 MHz but it can be
set at several higher or lower ratios, like 2:1 to speed the cache
access up to 250 MHz. The
500 MHz G3 processor with 1
Megabyte of cache running at
200 MHz is a big improvement
over the 225 MHz 604e with
512 Kilobytes of cache running
at 45 MHz and the performance
of all operations and processes
has benefitted noticeably. I like this upgrade so much I may shuffle it into one of the
Daystar Genesis boxes.
Some computers may not be stable with these settings so the user has the option of
slowing the G3 processor by picking a lower multiplier ratio. For example, if a computer has a Bus Speed of 40 or 45 MHz and wonʼt run properly at 400 or 450 MHz with
the ratio set at 10X then the multiplier ratio can be set at 8X to yield a processor speed
of only 320 or 360 MHz. However, it is also possible that the computer will run comfortably if the Bus Speed is raised to 50, 52.5, 55, or even 60 MHz. The dipper switches
give the card the ability to be changed experimentally to find the fastest stable speed
at which the computer will run. It is entirely possible with some PowerMacs and Mac
clones to use this PowerLogix card to set the bus speed at 60 MHz with a multiplier ratio of 10X to achieve a G3 speed of up to 600 MHz. If I find that this computer is stable In this issue I have written about two processor upgrade projects, a Sonnet 1,000 MHz
at 500 MHz Iʼll try raising it to 525 and then 550 MHz to see if it will accept the boost. G4 and a PowerLogix 500 MHz G3. They both work but this PowerLogix one was
certainly more interesting because of the settings I can play with.
Maybe thats why this card cost about a thousand Canadian dollars five years ago.
The PowerLogix CPU Director software associated with this card can be used to speed
BeLight Softwareʼs
Swift Publisher
Jim Foster brought BeLight Software to my attention a few weeks ago
and I got in touch with
them about possibly donating a couple of copies of one
of their excellent programs to our group so we could use
one for a raffle prize. I was sent permission to download
TWO copies of Swift Publisher. The only problem with
downloading the software is that the software is available as a download with 800 high-quality images but if
it is purchased on CD it comes with about three times
as many images. Other than that the versions are identical. Whoever wins the raffle will get to download Swift
Publisher from the <www.BeLightsoft.com> website
and be given his or her own personal registration code
by MaUsE to unlock and fully enable the downloaded
version. There is no doubt that staying in touch with
your customers and group members is important for you.
Publishing good looking and informative documents
for business, social and home activities becomes easy.
Swift Publisher is an excellent Macintosh page layout
application for designing and printing colorful flyers,
newsletters, brochures, letterheads, etc. Great choice of
templates inspires your creativity and a variety of editing
tools lets you quickly apply it.
What Swift Publisher can do for you:
• Weekly newsletters to brighten up your MUG or any
other society activities.
• Fantastic flyers for hand out.
• Brochures, which are a great source
of promoting your service at the Expo.
• Nice catalogs to describe your products and services.
• and much more...
Key Features:
Thousands of images and designs : up to 23.000 high
quality images, 100 unique masks and about 60 professionally designed templates (flyers, brochures, letterheads, newsletters, catalogs, etc.) is what you need for
creating high-impact documents. Insert images in many
supported formats — TIFF, JPEG, GIF, PDF, EPS or apply your iPhoto pictures using iPhoto integration.
Advanced page layout
Flow text from column to column or to another page entirely. Adjustable layout guides are convenient for precise object placement. Text Wrap feature will be helpful if you need to combine graphics and text on a page.
Take advantage of rotating each page of your multi-page
document on a fly. Switching between Background and
Foreground layers enables you to create and edit complicated designs.
ent types of documents (flyers, letterheads, brochures,
newsletters, catalogs, etc).
• 23.000+ impressive images (about 800 — in download
edition).
• More than 100 unique masks, as well as the ability to
use custom image as a mask.
• Smart shapes with controllable behavior.
• iPhoto integration.
• Export your work to TIFF, JPEG and PDF (shadows
remain if sent to a print shop).
• Apply Mac OS X Tiger Core Image filters to your images.
Simple to use
Swift Publisher makes page layout process fun, easy and
intuitive. Choose one of ready-made templates, use a
set of editing tools to control transparency, tiling, apply
masks and fills, crop images, and enjoy the result. Want
to share your stunning documents? Export them to PDF,
TIFF and JPEG.
Program Features
Publishing software should have a wide choice of professionally made designs and advanced editing capabilities.
Swift Publisher not only provides you with all this, but
also makes page layout process pleasant and easy.
Graphics
• About 60 professionally designed templates for differ-
Easy Graphics and Text Editing
• Control transparency, rotate and fill text blocks with
colors.
• Tint, tile, control transparency and rotate images.
• Flexible control over text block to change spacing and
size.
• Use Check Spelling to avoid misprints.
• Make use of adjustable shadows.
• Insert images in many supported formats — TIFF,
JPEG, GIF, PDF, EPS and more.
• Image cropping allows you to crop images to remove
the parts you donʼt like.
• Apply unique styles to text and paragraphs.
• Smart guides help to align objects in respect to each
Powerful Publishing Tools
• Flow text from column to column or to another page other.
• Assistant lets you preview and select the design you
entirely.
• Take advantage of wrapping the text around the object like.
• Edit chosen template as you wish.
in real time.
• Adjustable layout guides are used for precise object
This BeLight Software Swift Publisher program is a fulplacement.
• Take control over line and character spacing and para- ly-featured application with enough clip art and bright
ideas presented as templates to keep any home publisher
graph indention.
• Background and Foreground layers help to create and happy. The ability to pull your own iPhoto images (and
other pictures from any clip art collection you might aledit advanced designs.
• Support for multi-page documents with the ability to ready have) and use in the bright and professional layouts
will make Swift Publisher a valuable tool that will help
rotate each page on a fly.
you prepare colourful and effective personal customised
• Create a text list with a variety of bullets.
documents. You may never buy another Christmas card
again !
I will not write a great deal
about MailChimp in this
issue because I intend to
demonstrate it at one of
our meetings in the Fall.
When that happens one of
you MaUsErs will get an
opportunity to win a FREE
subscription to MailChimp
with at least 500 Chimp
credits. If that doesnʼt ex- All you need to know about MailChimp for now is there is a Mac-friendly website on
cite you, check your pulse: the internet where you can go and be presented with a page with five empty boxes in it.
Filling in the boxes is easy and MailChimp offers helpful hints, previews, and advice
you might be dead.
for each step of the process.
Before you Sign In to the MailChimp site and set up your email “campaign” there you
can gather together a list of who you want to send your emails to, the text portion of
your message, and compile your hypertext markup language (if you happen to know
some HTML). Once you open the MailChimp windows all you have to do is copy and
paste your information into the five boxes, set preferences like deciding when you want
the messages sent out and MailChimp does the rest.
The result of this exercise is colourful emails that you can send out in bulk to members
of a club or group with pictures and text. The MailChimp program will keep track of
all of the messages it sends and let you know if any are returned as undeliverable. With
a bit of practice and a set of clip art images it is possible to send emails like the spam
ones that you receive from professional commercial ventures but with your content and
only to the people that you want to target.
Anyway, youʼll hear more about MailChimp at the September or October MaUsE
Meeting and one lucky winner will get a 500-message trial version to play with.
Upgrading a G4
AGP Graphics Tower
Ever since I started editing the Double Click I have tried
to put something into it on a regular basis about which
used Macs are the best ones to buy cheaply and upgrade.
Recently I acquired one of the better bargain G4 tower
Macs and have been looking at what it takes to make it a
contender. The G4 tower I got was the last incarnation of
the model Apple called the “AGP Graphics.” It got this
name because it was the first G4 tower model that used
the superior AGP graphic interface. Previous models
were equipped with the old-style PCI graphics interface.
For one thing, they shipped with 128 Megs of RAM
and relatively slow PPC7400 G4 processors running at
350, 400, 450 and 500 MHz. They shipped with builtin FireWire and USB ports but the USB was USB 1.0
(limited to 12 Mb/s transfer rate) instead of the newer
USB 2.0 (capable of 480 Mb/s). What this means is that
an iPod or any newer digital camera cannot be used with
the AGP G4 tower models. And they shipped with only
one internal hard drive, up to 27 Gigabytes depending on
which AGP model you find. The slower models shipped
with truly puny hard drives and none of them shipped
with enough RAM. All of these deficiencies can be easily
rectified to make the G4 AGP tower a real keeper.
cents plus postage. If you find a likely USB card on eBay
make sure that it is Macintosh compliant, USB 2.0, and
uses a VT-6212 chip on it.
• Speed: That leaves just the processor. This can be a real
bargain or not, depending on timing. A search on the internet will bring up processor upgrades from at least four
companies that will replace your old G4 AGP processor
with either a dual or single G4 processor card with G4
chip or chips running at 1.0, 1.1, 1.2, 1.33, 1.42, 1.5, 1.6
or 1.8 Ghz.
Until recently there was not a great deal of choice in
G4 upgrades for AGP Macs and so the prices were very
high. Now there are four companies with a wide range
of upgrades and the pricing for processor cards is very
competitive As faster cards hit the market the price of
relatively slower cards drops in response. For example,
when 1,000 MHz G4 upgrades first came onto the market
a few years ago they were priced at about US $700.00
($900.00 Canadian). Since then the cost has dropped
drastically and now there are at least two 1,000 MHz G4
processor upgrade cards for these and other G4 towers
priced at under US $200.00 ($250.00 Canadian).
• Memory: The first thing to cure is the RAM shortage.
Iʼm not suggesting that you run The early AGP Graphics has an internal bus speed (like
the B&W G3 towers) of 100 MHz and therefore uses
out and buy one of these things
PC100 RAM. PC100 RAM is cheap and plentiful so
there is no problem boosting the RAM to make this comjust to upgrade it...
puter more useful. I put in a couple of extra 256 PC100
Meg DIMMs. Later G4 towers use PC133 RAM to suit
Iʼm not suggesting that you run out and buy one of these their faster 133 MHz internal bus speed, but this type is
things just to upgrade it. What I am suggesting is that if cheap as well.
you already have one of these models and are thinking
that it is hopelessly outclassed by the new fast G4 and G5 • Storage: The cost of a bigger hard drive is negligiGigaDesigns has quickly
Macs, you should be aware that with a minimal outlay ble now that the cost of drives and controller cards has
established itself as one
you can easily improve the performance of your old AGP dropped. Just as computers have gotten faster and smartof the best upgrade manuGraphics tower to extend its life for a few more years. So er in the past few years so too have hard drives improved.
facturers in the Mac marwhat is it that makes the early “AGP Graphics” G4 tow- The new SMART drives are bigger, faster, cheaper, run ket. Their products are quite new, and they have been
ers such bargains ?
cooler, and have built-in cache features that will really in business less than 6 months now, but donʼt let that
speed up your computing experience. I left keep you from considering their product, they are excelthe 27-Gig drive in as Master and put in a lent, judging by the many happy owners responses at
cheap Maxtor 120 Gig EIDE Slave hard XLR8YourMac!
drive that was on sale at FutureShop.
Other World Computing has
• USB 2.0: Here is a no-brainer. I went on
been serving the Mac comeBay and found Macintosh-compatible
munity since 1988 and this is
USB 2.0 PCI cards going for an opening
our first processor upgrade for
bid of US $0.99. The Seller had a bunch AGP Macintosh systems. The OWC Mercury Extreme
of them so I bought one, for ninety-nine raises the bar for the competition by bringing to market
the fastest AGP processor upgrade to date at 1.33GHz.
Another big plus over 2 of the 3 competitors is itʼs integrated fan & heat sink - no need to reuse a heat sink
that was never intended to be used with a much faster
processor. Combining the latest technology, top-quality
components, and a heat sink engineered from the beginning to keep everything running cool, the OWC Mercury
Extreme is a very solid upgrade.
I have installed and used G3 and G4 processor upgrade
cards over the years from Sonnet, PowerLogix and MaxPowr in at least half-a-dozen Macintosh models over the
past six years and have found the Sonnet cards the simplest to use and generally very dependable. Some of the
other cards have dip switches and software to configure
them and have to be set up differently for different G4
AGP models but Sonnet G4 upgrades have “auto-sensing” and can set themselves without user-operated dips
PowerLogix was the first by recognising the computer type and bus speeds they
company to really start operate in.
shipping “fast” upgrades
for the AGP systems. Back in August, 2002 we were de- Features of the Sonnet processor upgrade:
lighted to receive our first upgrades that really made it • 1.0 GHz (933MHz running at 1.0 GHz) Motorola
worthwhile to extend the life of your AGP system, the PowerPC G4 745x processor
PowerForce Series 100 cards. The latest PowerForce • 2MB speedy L3 cache
cards are available in both single and dual processors, the • Simple installation*
lineup from PowerLogix is sure to kick start your system • Supports Mac OS 9.2 through Mac OS X (OS 9.2.1
back to top notch performance. And I did mention they or 9.2.2 may be required to perform Apple firmware upmake the only DUAL PROCESSOR upgrades for these dates)
systems? Itʼs no surprise that they are at the top of the • Maximize performance for a fraction of the price of a
pack in these speed tests - at a price, of course.
new system
• No software, switches, or jumpers
Sonnet Technologies is the old- • Auto-configures to host system
est, and one of the most respected companies in the Macintosh The Sonnet Encore/ST G4 processor upgrade card can
industry. Their acceleration accelerate the performance of your Power Mac G4 with
products have always been rock solid performers, and significant speed gains over your original processor!
their slogan is quite apt - “Simply Fast”. With any of With an Encore/ST G4 installed, your system will fully
their Encore/ST upgrades, your AGP system will truly be exploit todayʼs industry-leading applications, and will
up to speed, with a minimum of hassle.
easily handle OS Xʼs increased processing demands. Designed with 256K on-chip L2 cache running at full proAfter checking out the rela- cessor speed, and 2MB Double Data Rate L3 cache, the
tive merits of several dif- Encore/ST G4 delivers the ultimate in processing power
ferent Sonnet, GigaDesign, to your compatible computer for a small fraction of the
PowerLogix and OWC price of a new system.
processor upgrade cards
I decided on buying the No drivers needed, no updates to receive, the Encore/ST
1,000 MHz Sonnet Encore / ST G4 processor upgrade G4 is compatible with your existing hardware, software,
card from 1click2computing, but more of that later.
RAM, and peripherals. The Encore/ST G4 is 100% OS X
compatible, and supports from Mac OS 8.6.
Installation is straightforward. Shut down the computer
and give it twenty minutes or so to cool off. Unplug everything and touch the metal card covers at the back of
the computer to drain off any static charge. Open the G4
tower by lifting the latch and flopping down the side of
the case. Locate the Apple G4 processor and remove the
heat sink by pulling down and out on the clips with a
pair of needle-nose pliers. The heat sink will come off
easily once the clips are released. Remove the three exposed screws that hold the processor card down and lift
it straight up off the logic board. Set the Apple G4 processor card, screws and heat sink aside someplace out of
the way. Open up the staticfree Sonnet bag and take out
the Encore/ST processor
upgrade card. Remove the
plastic protector from the
bottom of the Sonnet card
and use it to protect the same
electronic connector on the
original Apple card that has
been removed. To install the
new card line it up carefully
with the three screw holes
and push down evenly to
connect the electronic connector. It really isnʼt very
hard. The longest and hardest part of the
job is the waiting twenty minutes for the
CPU to cool down.
Tighten the three screws to lock the new
card in place but donʼt overtighten
them. The upgrade card only weighs
a few ounces so it doesnʼt need to be
nailed down.
For some upgrade cards it is necessary
to re-install the Apple G4 heat sink, clips and all, but the Sonnet card comes with its
own heat sink with a fan built into it. The OWC and Sonnet cards look very similar
except for the colour of the heat sink. OWC cards are yellow and all Sonnet cards
have distinctive purple heat sinks.
Encore/ST G4 processor upgrades do not cause sleep issues in computers that
support sleep with the original processor installed. If a computer does experience sleep issues with the original processor installed, installing an Encore/ST
upgrade is unlikely to change that condition. In the very rare instance where a
computer begins to have sleep issues after an Encore/ST upgrade is installed, the
problem is isolated to that specific card and can be resolved by replacing it.
Sonnet processor upgrade cards are available from a large number of sources but
I did not want to order one from an American source because shipping can be a
problem. Especially if the American source ships to Canada via
UPS GROUND. In order to find a
local source I went to the Sonnet
website and navigated to their list
of international re-sellers. There
are a bunch of local companies
here in Ontario that stock the full
line of Sonnet upgrades, including but not limited to MacWarehouse and Carbon Computing but
I discovered that when it comes to
computer upgrades it really helps to shop around.
I found the EXACT same new Sonnet Encore /ST SG4-1000-2M at five different Canadian sellers for $507.00, $499.95, $306.78, $279.00 and $256.00 !
I decided to buy for $256.45 from 1click2computers. They are a Canadian company
and they have reasonable shipping charges. The card took a couple of days to arrive
and works like a charm. See www1click2computers.com for more great prices.
I found the EXACT same
new Sonnet Encore /ST
SG4-1000-2M at five different Canadian sellers for
$507.00, $499.95, $306.78
$279.00 and $256.45 !
All of the AGP G4 Graphics upgrade cards are
physically similar in terms of their appearance,
size and shape. The G4 tower computers they
fit into are for the most part similarly identical. Installation in the PowerMac G4 Cube is
different because there is not enough clearance in the Cube CPU to allow the heat sink to
fit. Processor upgrade cards for the Cube are
a special order and its best to leave upgrading
this model to authorised Apple technicians.
These Encore/ST Sonnet upgrade card fit many different
G4 models, but only if they have AGP graphics. This
type of processor card is not for the first series of B&W
G3 and early graphite G4 towers that came with slower
PCI video cards. In terms of performance boost the 1
GHz G4 card I bought was actually one of the slowest
AGP Graphics cards available. For a lot more money
I could have purchased a card with a much faster processor (up to 1.8 GHz) or even multiple processors, but
since the computer I was upgrading was one of the relatively early Sawtooth AGP G4 towers and only ran at
500 MHz I figured that simply doubling the processor
speed from the original 500 MHz to 1,000 MHz was
enough of an upgrade. For what this computer will be
used for it would be silly to pay a great deal of money to
turn it into a real speed demon.
As you can see from the pictures, the distinctive Encore
/ST Sonnet purple heat sink is similar to the original
Apple equipment but the heat sink is not removable. Instead of clips there are four screws placed on the four
corners of the card and the three hold-down screws are
contained under the heat sink. There are 3 holes in the
heat sink to allow access to the 3 screw heads during
installation. Another obvious difference is the built-in
fan to improve cooling of the faster chip. The fan is absolutely silent. The third difference between the OEM
and Encore/ST Sonnet cards is not as obvious. There is
a 256 k cache running at 1,000 MHz and a big 2 meg
Double Data Rate 250 MHz L3 cache on the underside
of the Sonnet card that improve the way the card handles
instructions.
Compatible Macintosh Models:
• Power Mac G4 (AGP Graphics)
• Power Mac G4 (Gigabit Ethernet)
• Power Mac G4 (Digital Audio)
• Power Mac G4 (QuickSilver 2001)
• Macintosh Server G4
• Power Mac G4 Cube
According to Sonnet, their Encore/ST G4 upgrades are
100% compatible with Apple hardware, software, RAM,
and peripherals. They are certified to be 100% OS X
compatible, and support all operating systems from Mac
OS 9.2 through OS X Version 10.4 (Tiger). In a competitive market with consumer internet access no company
can afford to bring a product to market that does not
perform as advertised. All of the products mentioned in
this article are manufactured under strict quality controls
but it is possible to get a card that does not perform as
specified just as it is possible to buy any faulty device of
any type from any manufacturer.
So far I have bought five Sonnet upgrades. With this Encore/ST upgrade my experience with Sonnet processor
upgrade cards continues to be excellent.
September 24th Social
Report: Bad News
and Good News
I have never published a joke in the Double Click in all
my years at the helm but the recent MaUsE Social reminds me of one I heard recently. Iʼm sure youʼve heard
this old joke on the internet but I think it deserves one
more telling.
An elderly, frail patient returns to the doctor to get the
results from a thorough battery of tests. The doctor says,
“Well, there is bad news and there is good news. The
bad news is that you are dying of at least three or four
incurable diseases and you will die horribly within six
months, guaranteed.”
The patient asks, “And what is the good news?”
The doctor smiles and says, ”You see my new receptionist at the front desk, the pretty one with the great boobs?
Well, Iʼm screwing her!”
I had hoped to fill up at least a couple of pages of this
issue with great photos of the madding crowds of past,
present and future MaUsE members milling and thronging in droves to our MaUsE Social event which was held
on the evening of the fourth Wednesday in September at
our new meeting location at the Whitby Central Library.
Just as the photos are conspicuously absent from this issue the expected crowds were conspicuous by their absence from the Social. People stayed away in droves!
To coin a phrase, we were underwhelmed. Thats the bad
news. The MaUsE Executive showed up in force but
the public let us down. For myself I really didnʼt care.
Even without the public I felt I was in exalted company.
We had Jim, Jim, Bruce, John, Helen, Hugh, Stan, (of
course), Timʼs cookies, Helen Alveʼs excellent chocolate
chip cookies and coffee. The room works very well and
weʼll soon be in it for the September Meeting.
8th and delivered to my home on August 12th. I received
an email on August 29th (about two and a half weeks after I received the 512 meg media card) with a UPS tracking number that enabled me to find out when it had been
sent and received.
When I received the media card but no camera on August
12th I checked my TigerDirect order number and found
that the camera had been put on a back-order. These cameras were such a good deal that TigerDirect sold more of
them at that price than Kodak could supply so I had to
wait until August 30th to receive mine from Kodak.
The good news is that I finally found a source for the Kodak EasyShare DX7590 five megapixel digital camera
that I wrote about back in the April 2005 Double Click.
At that time the camera cost US $500.00 (about $600.00
Canadian) and the charging base cost another hundred
dollars or so. The camera comes with a 32-meg internal
storage card. I looked at the DZ7590 camera at Best Buy
and Henryʼs camera store in the OC and almost bought
one from Henryʼs. The price for this model has remained
stable and they are still overpriced on eBay. Then I did
a search on the internet early in August and found that
(through TigerDirect in Toronto) Kodak was selling
some fully guaranteed refurbished Kodak DX7590 EasyShare cameras (with the EasyShare camera charging
dock INCLUDED) for only $404.00 Canadian, (about
US $325.00).
I got on the telephone to the TigerDirect store in Toronto as quick as I could and ordered a Kodak DX7590
EasyShare camera and a similarly discounted 512 Meg
Ultra SD internal storage media card on August 4th. TigerDirect sent me a confirmation email listing the TigerDirect Order Number and thanking me for the business.
The media card was sent out right away (as in instantly)
but delivery was given over to UPS. The 512 meg media
card was shipped from somewhere in the States August
Since I pre-ordered from a Canadian company I did not
get stuck with the usual hideous UPS GROUND inspection charges for international shipping.
So there you have the good news and the bad news. The
MaUsE Social was a bust but I bought a Kodak DX7590
EasyShare camera at a really great price.
Check out TigerDirect on the internet for great deals in
electronic toys from a Canadian company.
Speed Startup
Are you still using some version of OS8 or OS9 ??? Hereʼs an interesting utility for
those of us who are still doing classic computing on antique computers.
Two of my favourite PCI PowerMacs are running multiple pre-OSX systems on multiple hard drives. The first really big difference between OSX and the early systems is
the time it takes for the computers to run through the startup sequences and tests.
A while ago I won a copy of Mac Care Unit on eBay for a couple of dollars and the
Seller threw in a FREE Casady & Green Speed Startup CD. I tried it out and I was
delighted with it. I have installed Speed Startup on both PowerMac computers and the
“before and after” difference is amazing. When I installed the program it offered me a
choice of Settings to control the way the program operates and restarted the
computers twice to demonstrate the worst and best times it could achieve.
Since both computers have about a gigabyte of 60ns and 70ns 5-volt DIMMs
the disabling of the memory checks made the biggest improvement. The
monitor screens now light up almost instantly after the MacOS Startup
chime and the utility has shaved 94 seconds off the startup time of one computer and 97 seconds off the startup time of the other.
As you can see from the picture here the program installer gives you a control panel that lists three ways that your startup can be charged.
The most time wasted during startup is the time your computer takes to
verify that your RAM is properly seated and that all of it reads OK. If you
have a 200 MHz PowerMac with a 604e processor and a gig or so of RAM
in it your computer may take over a minute just to check the integrity of the
RAM DIMMs each time you start up. Each DIMM has sixteen or more transistor chips on it and every chip on every DIMM must be checked in order
before the startup can proceed. RAM chips do come loose or go bad, but
not very often. In all of my experience I have never had a memory module
fail during normal use. If all of your RAM DIMMs were OK the past 1,000
times you fired up your Mac it is not likely to ever fail so using Speed Startup to turn
off the startup memory testing is not a bad idea. Every time your computer starts up
it does a component check to make sure that everything you need to run is physically
present. If the check determines that there is no hard drive, or no ROM chip, or no
RAM, the startup does not proceed. If any of these or any other important components
are present but cables or connectors have come loose they will not be seen and the
startup will not proceed.
The other features of the program are nice as well. I donʼt know how Speed Startup
does it but speeds up the way windows open and close by accelerating the Finderʼs
zoom animator and speeds up the way icons appear during Startup by remembering
and preloading some of the information it stores from previous startups. With this
program installed I certainly donʼt have time to make a coffee or a phone call while
waiting for a Desktop to appear !
New From Apple
The Toronto Star Business Section ran a short piece about a couple of new
Apple products Steve Jobs announced in San Francisco this month.
One of them was a Motorola portable cell phone called the iPhone that
comes with iTunes software and can store podcasts and up to 100 songs.
Its like having an iPod Shuffle right inside your telephone. Rogers Wireless is scheduled to launch the iPhone in Canada by mid to late September.
We have a NEW MEETING PLACE for the MaUsE Club and will be starting off the Fall 2005
MaUsE Session with the September 28th Meeting at this new location. Use this map to find the
Meeting. It is centrally located in Whitby right on the corner
of Henry Street and Highway #2, just a few blocks north of the
Henry Street High School where we used to meet.
(For Pentium-infested PC Users:)
Meets on the 2nd Thursday of each
month
at Faith United Church
1778 Nash Road, Courtice
www.durhampc-usersclub.on.ca
MaUsE Executive
Report for September
The Exec meeting took place on the evening of September 7th at the home of Michael Shaw. It was attended
by the Two Jimmies, (Foster and Danabie), Hugh Amos,
Helen Alves, Stan Wild, Chris Greaves, Bruce Cameron,
Michael Shaw, and John Kettle. It was a better turnout
than we usually get. We discussed the August MaUsE
Social that everyone else in the Club neglected to go
to, issues regarding our Club DotMac account and dedicated MaUsE phone line, and the up-coming MaUsE
Executive Elections, scheduled for later on this month.
Expect to receive several email reminders from Jim
Foster about the next MaUsE Meeting, scheduled for
September 28th at the NEW Whitby Library location.
See the map on page two of this issue if you are unsure
of the location. Its easier to get to than the Church in
Courtice and we would appreciate having an audience.
What we DONʼT want is for people to show up at the
Faith Church in Courtice because they were unaware of
the move.
The Agenda for the September Meeting will be two presentations from me on Swift Publisher and Zizasoft
DuplicateHunter software. There will be raffles
for copies of both of these excellent programs and
other items at the end of the Meeting. Eligibility to
win raffle prizes will be restricted to paid-up MaUsE
Members. Jim Foster present one of several OSX
utilities he has been using.
The photos on this page were taken with my NEW
Kodak DX7590 digital camera. Ansel Adams I aint,
but you should be able to recognise your Executives
hard at work.
Apple iPod nano
The Apple iPod nano (2 GB, 4 GB), is Appleʼs
smallest “full featured” entrant in the MP3
player market to date. The iPod nano features a
PortalPlayer PP5021C system on a chip (dual 80
MHz ARM 7TDMI processors?), 2.0 GB or 4.0
GB of Flash Memory, a proprietary “dock” USB
2.0 port (will charge, but not sync via Firewire),
and a standard headphone jack (no TV out support) on the bottom of the player. The iPod nano
sports an “impossibly small” 3.5 inch tall, 1.6
inch wide, and 0.27 inch thick “iBook white” or
jet black and stainless steel case with a 1.5 inch
16-bit color 176x132 (.168-mm dot pitch) “blue
white” backlit LCD display. Like the iPod mini
(2nd Generation), that the iPod nano replaces,
navigation is provided by a small “ClickWheel”,
which places pressure sensitive navigation buttons underneath the scroll wheel. However, the similarities between the iPod mini and iPod nano end with the “Clickwheel”,
as the software and feature set, with some notable exceptions, are more similar to the
iPod “Color Display” models. Like the iPod photo/Color models, the iPod nano has
software that uses color for all interface elements and applications, the “Myriad” font,
and supports viewing photographs. However, the iPod nano lacks video out, and as a
result, can display photographs on the internal display “loaded” from a computer, but
cannot display photographs on a television or projector. The iPod nano also does not
support the iPod Camera Connector or third-party solutions, so photos cannot be transferred from a camera either. However, in addition to the calendar, contacts, and notes
software from previous models, the iPod nano includes additional software functionality, such as a “Screen Lock” security feature, a stopwatch, and a “world clock”. The
iPod nano uses “solid state” Flash Memory, and as a result, cannot skip, and can hold
approximately 500 or 1000 songs (on the 2.0 GB and 4.0 GB versions respectively in
128-Kbps AAC format), up to 25,000 “iPod nano-viewable” photographs, and other
file types for transport to another computer. The battery provides up to 14 hours of
music playback and up to 4 hours of photo slideshows with music. Please note that the
iPod nano is technically not a ʻMacʼ, as it does not operate the MacOS. The Mac-compatible models, however, require the use of a Mac with built-in USB (USB 2.0 recommended) and MacOS X 10.3.4 or later. The Windows-compatible models require a PC
running Windows 2000 w/ Service Pack 4 or later or Windows XP Home or Pro w/
Service Pack 2 or later, and support for USB (USB 2.0 recommended).
NOTICE to All Past &
Present MaUsE Members
The people who have been looking after your
interests at the MaUsE Club have put a lot of
effort into moving the location of the MaUsE
Meetings from the Courtice location to the
new centrally located Whitby Public Library
at the corner of Highway #2 and Henry Street. We now
have a much smaller and intimate room with much better
acoustics. If its been a while since you have been out to a
Meeting this is a perfect opportunity to get back into the
swing. If you can make it to the September 28th MaUsE
Meeting we would love to see some strange faces. Not
that your faces are strange, per se, but many of them have
been seen far too seldom to be familiar enough. Check
your email for more info or go to : <www.mause.ca>