From Our Readers

Ah, floppies. We all need to remember those big ol' 5" ones. See any of those drives lately? Why not? Because they're useless now. So Apple made the transition. Forced the issue. Superdisk is floppy-compatible. So it solves this problem, and ups the ante with 100 times the storage.

A school? They can network, say, 12 in a class and buy one superdrive for all. Saves $. Like a printer, most floppies are idle most of the time. Why have many?

Best,
Michael Edelstein kiowavt@ricochet.net

My comments regarding your recent iMac Talk Article from the June '98 My Mac Magazine.

At first blush, I was really ready to see Apple thrash the equivalently priced PCs. However, as time passed, and as Apple refused to give more information about the machine, I became and am still concerned that we will not get what we really want.

Is it a beauty? Looks like it could be. Even more hopefully, it will get rid of a lot of stuff floating around on my desk - what with there being no SCSI's, exterior hard drives, exterior modems, ad nauseum.

However, where is the floppy drive? I have got too much "stuff" simply to reformat all of my floppies to CD ROM - how about that expense?

What about the lightweight modem? Right now, with this old clunker of a Performa 475, I have a 56K modem. Do I really want to step down?

I'd really like a 100 MB Zip drive - like the one in the 6500/275. Why can't I have one?

Last but not least - what kind of printer and what cost - will we be able to use with the iMac?

Answer these concerns and you bet, I'm still very much interested.

Henry W. Bateman websc@calweb.com

Hmm... initial opinion, "totally worthless as a home machine". No floppy, no non-Ethernet printer, no SCSI. Typical Jobs, harking all the way back to the first 128K Mac. (No fan, no slots, no color capability, no hard drive, no RAM expansion...)

On later reflection... useful in some limited cases as a home machine. My father, for example, could get by with it just fine, -IF- we could get his software installed on it. He uses AOL for email, and plays Castle Wolfenstein. (He'd probably move up to Doom, etc., if he had something faster than a Centris 610.) No printer, no floppies, just a couple of reference CDs and some old game CDs my daughter took over there to have something to play with. But given the fact that he has stuff on his internal drive he'd want to transfer... HOW??? And USB devices, floppies or printers, may be great, but that's something else to buy. The "home Internet box" -should- be an "all-in-one" package.

For my home? Forget it. I've got monitors, AppleTalk printers, PCI cards, external Syquest, CD-R, a scanner... even my daughter's Mac has an external Syquest on it, and I'm not about to replace all that just to save $300 over a G3/233 desktop!

The real "hot spot" for this machine is schools and businesses. Places with Ethernet networks in place, network servers to do backups or software installs, -other- Macs available to hook stuff to, etc. But for those places, I've got to question even -having- a CD-ROM and modem in it! Seems like an unnecessary expense. I've been looking real hard at a new PowerBook G3 as a way to get a Mac into work. (Windoze '95 sucks.)

But if I can convince management to let me buy and bring in a Mac of -any- sort, the iMac would be ideal, and would save me over $2K vs. a PowerBook! I can cut a CD-R at home if I need to transfer big files, and email little ones...

I'm still not at all sure that the market is there for the iMac as configured. The machine looks great, and -if- the USB peripherals are all in place by August, everything will be wonderful for new buyers. If they aren't, I see a lot of unhappy customers returning iMacs the first time they buy software that comes on a floppy. We'll see.

Bill BMichael@aol.com

You know what needs to change on the iMac for Educational use and to satisfy those wanting external storage? The CD-ROM. All that is needed is for a form factor available with a CD-Rewritable CD-ROM (CD-R). I wonder if the thought of thousands of these sold could convince a supplier to offer them at an OEM price that would meet the needs of lower pricing. Imagine the student could have all of their projects on the CD instead of a few files on several disks. CD-R people will need to sell a lot of these to recoup their investment and may never do it if they don't move soon before DVD technology pushes them aside.

Just as I was thinking about this storage dilemma I also recall that off-line storage is available to purchase on the net. This solution would certainly require the ethernet ADSL or similar connectivity. This would be an iMac Internet solution. Also many School Boards have servers that could handle this as well. These solutions would provide the needed backup solution for critical data.

Thirdly, if iMacs are on a network then only one or two devices such as Zip, SyQuest, or Imagine would be necessary to support several Macs if portable storage were the demanded storage medium. Not one on each machine, which would offer another cost saving venture. Also, if you wanted to migrate your storage to another type of device you need only add those instead of upgrading every machine. For example, the Orb may become the device of the future.

durnford rxd@easyInternet.net

Dear My Mac Gang:

I find your e-zine refreshing and an excellent mirror of the Mac community. Tim, Russ and the crew are my type of people. Your articles and columns are timely, interesting and instilled with just the right dash of personality.

Here is my response to your request for feedback on Apples upcoming iMac. Sorry it's so long. Guess I'm a wannabe writer for My Mac.

You can't look at the iMac without suddenly feeling good all over. That's how it was when I saw my wife for the first time. Whamo! It was in-love, man, at first sight.

Parallels

Sensuous curves, attractive translucent skin, and that beautiful bright face. How can you not love her? But could I afford her? I just laid out three Gs for the G3 MT and I was cash strapped. You know how it is. But she was soooo cool. Cute. Cuddly. She beckoned me with that soft aquamarine glow that seemed to surround her. She was wearing tight designer jeans and a USB ONLY label peeked out from her right cheek back pocket. Head of the class sexy man! If I don't make my move those other guys ogling her will muscle in to make the connection. I walked up quickly almost falling over my own feet . "I bet you move in pretty fast company huh?" I said stupidly. I was so awed by that aura that I couldn't get my thoughts and my mouth to work in unison.

"I don't mean you're fast like "fast", but fast like groovy." I said quickly trying to correct myself. I was digging myself faster and deeper into a stupid hole and I couldn't stop myself. She just sat demurely a slight hum coming from somewhere deep inside her.

Oh no, I thought, now I've done it. She's pulling a Marge Simpson and growling her displeasure. But wait, that wasn't a growl-it was a hum. More like she was content. Like she was happy. Like she likes me. My insides started to feel mushy and a warm fuzzy sensation started to run through me. I'm not kidding! It started in my big toe and ran up my body as far as my Adam's apple. I gulped. Man, I was shaking. She didn't say a word but I saw as clear as a bell, a big, bold, beautiful, "Hello" on her face.

Think I'm hallucinating? Think I'm on pot? Think I'm nuts? Well think different, pal. Maybe she didn't come right out and say it. But if I had to get a second job to get the dough to take her out of that store within a store and bring her home, I'd do it.

When we're home in our room we will chat, chat, chat. It is said that the intercourse of the millennium will be the Internet. Well, that's fine for some. My sweetie and I will do the Internet and we'll interrelate like peas in a pod. I love my OS (ole sweetie). We were made for each other. She's a great cook and her menu outdoes any French chef by a mile. She is great around the house but one thing she won't do is Windows, 'cause that's a pain and I back her up 100%.

Bottom line, my girl is immaculate and the apple of my eye. Nuff said? I ain't no farmer in the dell. No compact car for me. I don't play cards so an ace or jack don't mean much to me. Companies with alphabet-soup names don't cut it with me either. What is important to my lifestyle is elegance, productivity, and someone who is easy to understand, and my ole sweetie has all those. Gee, three things that matter to me-plus children and animals love her. She's not afraid of mice and handles a set of keys like a bank teller.

My OS and I have been married for almost forty years and even though we have had our ups and downs, there is no one that can replace or displace her. Oh and by the way, we also have a daughter Essie, 30 years old. Gets her looks from her mom but her humour from me. So any of you folks surfing the net, you be sure to pass by and drop us a line. We always like visitors, electronic or otherwise, and we guarantee you a warm welcome. Coffee's brewing, the rocker's rockin' and there's a shady patch on the front porch to cool away the summer heat. If you prefer we can use the parlor. That's our chat room, remember?

Y'all come by eh, for some hospitality, northern style!

Ralph J. Luciani luckylu@ican.net

We would still like to hear what you have to say about not only the iMac, but any other product. Having a bad time with a hardware or software company? Let us know! We may be able to help! Had a great experience with a company, or a really helpful tech support person? Let us know that, too! So what ever you are doing the next time you sign online, send some email to publisher@mymac.comwith your thoughts, ideas, or a simple hi!