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This article appeared in the December 2001 issue of the Louisville Computer News. It was written by Lee Larson.
Here are answers to a few questions that have appeared in my e-mail box over the last few weeks.
Should I upgrade to Mac OS X?
Until October my answer would have been "If you have to ask, then you probably shouldn't." That's because all the releases before version 10.1 were really beta test versions only pushed out the door because when Stevie J says "ship it," Apple breaks out the shrink-wrap machines. Mac OS X version 10.1--X.1 for short--is finally the real thing. It's fast, reliable and gorgeous.
Now, the correct answer is probably "What can you live without?"
Here's an example of what I mean. My Mac usage includes two G4 towers--one in my office and one at home.
The machine in my office has been running OS X almost exclusively for over a year. Thanks to a better than average familiarity with Unix, I've been able to nurse it through the peculiarities within several of the late beta versions and the original 10.0. It was sometimes frustrating, but it was possible because the only non-Apple peripherals attached are a MacAlley iKey keyboard to replace the dreadful Apple keyboard that shipped with the machine and a connector for doing USB syncing of my Handspring Visor. To my surprise, Mac OS X has worked perfectly with both since at least the 10.0 release. All the software I normally use was either carbonized early, or works well under Classic mode.
The G4 at home is a different story. There's a whole bunch of non-Apple stuff attached, and much of it didn't work at all with OS X until just recently, and some of it may never work. For example, my Lexmark Z52 printer and HP 5370C scanner were finally supported late this Fall. The CDR drive is usable via a downloadable public beta version of Toast. But, my second video card, an ATI Xclaim VR with the television attachment is not supported. In fact, Mac OS X will not even boot when the video card is in the machine, and even if it did, the television features would not work because the tuner software won't run under X.
So, my answer to the question "What would you have to do without?" is "Baseball on my second monitor during the summer." That's too high a price to pay, and I remain with Mac OS 9.2.1. Now that we're into that long, dark night between the World Series and spring training, I may reconsider.
Other roadblocks might include RAM and software.
X.1 is pretty RAM hungry. After some experimentation, it seems that the sweet spot for RAM is at 384 megabytes. Under 384 it does a lot of paging to the hard drive; over 384 and you don't notice any paging delays. It just keeps getting better as RAM is added. I've never heard anyone complain about having too much RAM.
On the software side, you should check to make sure the software you want to use is supported. Apple has done an amazing job in this regard; almost every Classic program runs flawlessly in the Classic mode of X.1. But, there are exceptions. These exceptions are usually programs that have to talk directly to a non-Apple peripheral device, such as a scanner or a printer. This is because Unix has different rules about how peripherals are treated, and Classic programs usually don't obey those rules. The best way to find out if your device is supported is to check out the manufacturer's Web site.
I want to connect my Mac to the Linux server at work. Can this be done?
Of course! There are plenty of options, depending on the version of Mac OS you are using and the software on the server.
The most straightforward way is to turn the Linux machine into an Appleshare/IP server. This is done by installing an open source package called Netatalk (sourceforge.net/projects/netatalk) that can be compiled for many versions of Unix. After it's installed, machines running the classic Mac OS should have no trouble mounting shared volumes. With Mac OS X, make sure you're running at least X.1 and Netatalk version 1.5, because earlier versions of Mac OS X have some show-stopping problems with Netatalk.
If you're unwilling to add Netatalk to the Linux machine, check to see if it's already running Samba. If so, SMB client software such as DAVE (www.thursby.com) can talk to it from Mac OS 9. Under Mac OS X, the built-in SMB capabilities will let you talk to it without adding additional software.
Finally, Linux usually supports NFS file sharing. With Mac OS 9, the software MacNFS (www.thursby.com) should let you mount remote NFS volumes. Mac OS X has NFS built in because of its BSD Unix roots. Anyone going this route under OS X should check out the program NFSManager (www.bresink.de/osx/NFSManager.html) to avoid the byzantine mysteries of NetInfo.
In the above, I assumed you were talking about merely file sharing. Another way to connect is with X-windows. (Don't confuse this with Mac OS X. X-Windows is with an ex and Mac OS X is with a ten.) Using your Mac as an X-windows terminal gives a graphical environment to run programs on the remote machine and see the results locally.
In the upside-down world of X-windows, the local machine is called the display server and the remote machine is called the client.
There are at least two packages that can turn your Mac OS X machine into an X-windows display server. Xtools from Tenon Systems (www.tenon.com) is a commercial package that's easy to set up and works really well. For those wanting a challenge, there's the XonX freeware port of the standard XFree86 to Mac OS X (mrcla.com/XonX). When installing XonX, be sure to check out the rootless Oroboros window manager (julia.et.ic.ac.uk/adrian/software/oroborosx/).
How can I turn some VHS tapes into QuickTime movies?
There are many professional shops that will do it for a price. Just go to Google, type in "VHS to QuickTime" and you'll see a few dozen.
But, you probably want to do it yourself. What you need is a digital media converter that can take input from your VHS player and digitize it for output to the FireWire port on the back of your Mac as well as software to convert the digital video to QuickTime.
The Sony Media Converter does the VHS to FireWire translation, and is available for about $300. (Note that Sony's name for FireWire is i-Link.) Many of the digital camcorders can also convert NTSC and PAL to FireWire, but they cost a lot more. For example, my Sony TRV-320 does a fine job converting NTSC to digital video.
Apple's iMovie software is hard to beat for converting digital video to QuickTime (www.apple.com/imovie). Remember to have a lot of hard drive space ready because video always uses more space than you expect.
If all you're trying to do is convert the tapes into a computer readable format, you might consider burning the files to VCD instead of QuickTime. This way, you can watch them on your computer and on most DVD players. Toast Titanium (www.roxio.com) allows you to burn VCDs straight from iMovie. You can watch VCDs on your Mac with MacVCD (www.mireth.com).
Be aware that after it's all done, you might be disappointed. Most people don't realize how low the resolution on a standard TV really is. VHS is only recorded at a resolution of 300x360 pixels with a weird aspect ratio, while SVHS is somewhat better at perhaps 440x360. This fills less than a quarter of most computer screens.
Can I synchronize my Palm under Mac OS X?
My Palm OS handheld is a Handspring Visor, and it syncs just fine under X.1 through the USB port. The Palm software only runs under Classic mode, and it appears to work best if I'm in the Mac OS X Finder when starting the sync. The Palm Desktop 2.6.3 software works perfectly under Classic mode. Palm has promised to get a native version of their software out for Mac OS X by the end of 2001.
Because of the holidays, there will be no LCS meeting in December. The normal meeting schedule will resume in January.
The Louisville Computer Society meets on the fourth Tuesday of the month from 7:00-9:00 P.M. at Pitt Academy, 4605 Poplar Level Road, at the intersection of Poplar Level Road and Gilmore Lane. Everyone is welcome to attend. For more information, on the Web go to www.aye.net/~lcs, or e-mail lcs@aye.net.
The LCS also sponsors an e-mail discussion list devoted to Macintosh topics. To join, send e-mail containing only the words "subscribe macgroup" to majordomo@erdos.math.louisville.edu.
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