USB
There are many new USB peripherals available. USB is supposed to support up to 127 devices on a single chain, without conflict, but I have yet to see any USB devices with a passthrough-only USB hubs. Although there are now USB to SCSI and USB to parallel adapters available, I have yet to encounter a SCSI to USB adapter, despite that transfer rates are much higher for SCSI than USB peripherals. In both cases, is there a technical reason for this, or merely a marketing ploy?
TornatoRKR@aol.com

I think you're right, as I have yet to see a USB passthrough on any device. Heck, almost every SCSI device you get today, from a ZIP to a scanner, has more than one SCSI port. Perhaps it's time to investigate...

Being 50
Thanks for mentioning your age in your column. At 46, I felt that at times I may have fallen into the wrong sandbox when I browse some 'zines. I don't know why I get sensitive when I feel certain age groups getting territorial about certain activities. What the hell: some of these computer babies wouldn't know how to act at a Dead concert.

Thanks again
Rett Campbell
rettcampbell@earthlink.net

50th edition
Must write to you and tell you that your efforts are appreciated. I'm a retired senior and have had a Performa 6400/180 for a little over two years before which time, I never used a computer.

It's writings like yours and Tidbits and ATPM that have really helped me to learn so much about this marvelous machine in such a short time. My wife just got a new iMac 333 and I'm trying to stop using it long enough so that she can get on it.

Anyway, thanks again and keep up the good work.

Norm Levin
normxi@aol.com

Norm, it's letters like yours which make doing this so worthwhile. It's funny, but when it comes to computers, age really doesn't matter. I was a full-time Macintosh consultant for a year and a half, and one of my biggest clients was a fellow named Tom. He was 97, and got his first Mac when he was 94.

Every few weeks, he would buy some new hardware or software and call me up to come over and teach him how to use it. (I suspect Tom just wanted someone to come over and play with his new toys with him, which I was happy to do. Not because I was paid, but because Tom was such a nice person.) Two days after Tom died, his son called me needing help packing up his computer. The son, who was in his late 50s, was scared to death of all that computer equipment. So I went over, packed it all up, and as I was leaving, the UPS driver pulled up. Seems Tom had ordered one of the new iMacs. We sent it back, of course, but it really hit home that Tom was gone. Not sure why I'm telling you all this; actually, I never wrote about it before now. Perhaps it's because you stated you're a senior-which many My Mac readers are-and it just got me thinking of Tom...

Thanks for the letter, Norm.

Tim

Re: $3,000 iMac
I would suggest you go with either a Beige or a Blue and White G3. The iMac is intended for low-end users and newbies. Your description of yourself and all the peripherals you need make you sound like more of a power user. Thus, you need more power and expandability, which you will get with a Beige or B&W G3.... bigjim@softcom.net

MacAmalgamation
Just some comments and questions on your nice (dare I say cute?) June '99 MacAmalgamation article:

self-destructive maneuver out of their back pocket (AppleCare?)

What`s wrong with AppleCare?

try to rig a computer

You mean rig a "PC". I am an experienced multi-platform programmer (my main unit is a PowerMac, of course), and I have done "very" 'intimate'-level programming on both Intel (i.e. x86) and Motorola (i.e. 68K) architectures. Trust me, IBM/Microsoft-compatible PCs are definitely "not" computers. They are more like overpumped terminals.

And that's not even just an opinion; it's actually a technical fact. I'll skip over every other place in the article you say 'computer' when you actually mean "PC"; you get the idea.

Doesn't this bother many of Microsoft's clients?

Actually, no, it does not. I have worked in many corporate environments, and many companies are converting from either NetWare or UNIX to Windows NT, despite the fact that NT is "markedly" inferior than either one of those two competitors. The only thing NT really has going for it is Microsloth's backing. The sad fact is that most people are lemmings.

The one that kills me is Windows 98

Interesting, isn't it? Apple knew the time would come back in '84... MS still hasn't gotten the message, at least as of when Win98 was built prior to the pressing of the CDs.

I'm not even going to get into the BIOS updates

Not to mention the "hundreds of thousands" of PCs which "cannot" be updated, either because they do not utilize Flash ROM for their BIOS, or because the necessary provider has gone out of business, and left their former customers stranded.

simply going to take bats, golf clubs, and steel-toed boots

Don`t forget machine guns, welding torches, and axes! (wink)

Followed by a healthy "thud!" as their Wintel box is dropped off that rooftop!

Actually, you would have to wait until the PC hit the ground.

Will Microsoft survive?

Yes, unfortunately. MS is a "very" big dinosaur, and it will take a much bigger comet than Y2K to bring it to extinction. If the DOJ actually succeeds in doing its job, however...

And be glad you have a Mac. Be very glad.

I am. Isn't everyone who does?

And by the way, one of my other passions is Linux. Have you heard about the 'halloween documents'? They are very incriminating of MS's attitude; in their supposedly 'secret' internal communications, they (the MS managers) make it quite clear that their intent is to create a monopoly, rather than to compete fairly.

Regards,