EvangeList Digest Thursday, April 30 1998 Volume 01 : Number 1170
In this issue:
Job - Web Design in NYC Tidbit - VocalWriter 1.0 - Make your Mac Sing (Review) Tidbit - Virtual PC 2.0 vs. SoftWindows 95 5.0 Job - 3-D Graphics Programmer (Tucson, Az) Followup & ;-) - Toasted (and Stuck!) Bunny Suit Doll Tidbit - Illuminating Insights Going From Mac to Win95 (Temporarily)
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Date: Wed, 29 Apr 1998 02:06:31 -0000 From: EvangeList <evangelist@apple.com> Subject: Job - Web Design in NYC
This job announcement is from:
Dave Wakeman, <dave@boylesoftware.com>
Boyle Software Is looking for web designers who would like to work in a casual and flexible environment In The Big Apple. You should have experience in some, if not all of the following apps; Photoshop, Illustrator, BBedit and any of the standard web production apps and services. Some of our designers even fancy themselves good JavaScript and AppleScripters.
The position(s) is hourly paid, in the $20-$45 range. If you're interested, please reply with your particulars to:
Dave Wakeman <dave@boylesoftware.com>
Find us on the WEB at: <http://www.boylesoftware.com>
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Date: Wed, 29 Apr 1998 02:06:17 -0000 From: EvangeList <evangelist@apple.com> Subject: Tidbit - VocalWriter 1.0 - Make your Mac Sing (Review)
This tidbit is from:
Julian Harris, <macos.guide@miningco.com>
"But forget basic sequencying -- the most amazing thing with VocalWriter is that you can make your Mac sing!"
VocalWriter is an innovative, Mac-only program. This week I review VocalWriter with sound clips, screen dumps and links to the fully-featured demo.
<http://www.miningco.com>
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Date: Wed, 29 Apr 1998 02:06:30 -0000 From: EvangeList <evangelist@apple.com> Subject: Tidbit - Virtual PC 2.0 vs. SoftWindows 95 5.0
This tidbit is from:
ZMac1, <ZMac1@aol.com>
MacWindows has published a special report on the lastest version of PC emulators for Mac: Virtual PC 2.0 vs. SoftWindows 95 5.0. You can find the report with test results at:
<http://www.macwindows.com/windata2.html>
So which is the faster way to run Windows 95 on your Mac? It depends on your Mac. SoftWindows 95 5.0 is still the fastest PC emulotor for PowerPC 60X Macs. But on G3 processors, the new Virtual PC has caught up to SoftWindows in overall performance. However, even on G3 neither of the latest emulators comes close to Orange Micro's hardware solution. Both emulators also offer hot, new features.
John Rizzo editor and webmaster MacWindows, the Web site for Macintosh-Windows Integration Solutions <http://www.macwindows.com/>
Large Engineering Corporation is looking for a 3-D Graphics Programmer in Tucson Arizona. The applicant will be responsible for the development of OpenGL 3-D graphics on the Mac, SGI, and SUN. This development application is required to be scalable from large workstations to PowerBooks using GLUT and TCP connections for communication with the user and other applications. This will require a person who has a sound working knowledge of C++ (OpenGL experience a plus).
A degree in CS, Math, Engineering, or Physics is required.
Email interest or resume to <mlwalker@mail.hac.com>
As a follow-up to the recent posting about the tremendous response to the Public Access Software "Toasted" Bunny Suit image, I thought I'd let the Evangelistas know just how well-received our own little jab at the Intel guys has been.
We modified the actual, official Intel dolls and included a set of iridescent pins and an instruction book to give frustrated computer users a voodoo doll to take out their frustrations on. These "PINTEL" guys were originally developed as unique giveaways to select clients last Christmas, but in light of recent "hot" television ads, we couldn't resist sending special "Smokin' Upgrades" -- complete with references to the Apple "Toast" ad and a pack of "SSSmokin'!" matches -- to Steve Jobs and other prominent folks in the Mac community.
The response has been phenomenal -- we've had inquiries from all over the country, and one of the little fellas has even shown up on a Web site: <http://www.drmaconline.com/uhadtoask.html> It's gratifying to find so many people (Mac and PC users alike, BTW) with a good sense of humor who "get it." Our only regret is that we can't/won't sell them! (We've told all who inquire that we request that a charitable contribution be made to the Leukemia Society or Diabetes Research in lieu of payment.)
From the "instruction book":
"PINTEL" - brought to you by your friends at Wilson-Lewis-Wilson Design. (Not affiliated with any company who stands to make one red cent from this. It's a labor of love!)
Note to the Intel lawyers: Please don't sue us! We've done this all in good fun, with no malice intended toward any parties, regardless of their race, creed, color, religion, national origin, sexual preference or operating system (well, more or less). We're not even selling them; we're giving a select few to some special folks we know will really appreciate this parody. And besides, we have no money anyway! We spent it all on these dolls! So, please lighten up and let us have some "fun inside." Interested parties may contact: The Grand Parody Poobah, Wilson-Lewis-Wilson Design, 812 Berkley Court, Palm Harbor, FL 34684 / 813.785.4386 / <http://www.wlwdesign.com>
Thanks to all for their kind comments and wonderful reaction to our work!
Bill Wilson Wilson-Lewis-Wilson Design
P.S. Pentium and BunnyPeople are registered trademarks of Intel Corporation. :-)
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Date: Wed, 29 Apr 1998 02:06:19 -0000 From: EvangeList <evangelist@apple.com> Subject: Tidbit - Illuminating Insights Going From Mac to Win95 (Temporarily)
This tidbit is from:
Lethargy <lethargy@usa.net>
I use both a Macintosh Quadra and a Pentium computer at home, however my parents only use the Macintosh. Recently our AppleVision 1710av monitor went in for repair and they were forced to use my Pentium for sending and receiving email. There is at least *some* similarity between the MacOS and Windows 95 so I figured it wouldn't be too bad... but as I watched them in action I noticed a couple of things (and they were only using Eudora Light, not Windows Explorer, mind you):
* My parents constantly pressed the right mouse button instead of the left. The single button Macintosh mouse encourages you to place only your index finger on the top of your mouse. On a two-button mouse, this single finger falls - you guessed it - directly over the right mouse button. They felt uncomfortable placing two fingers on top of the mouse.
* They were constantly bringing background windows to the foreground. I eventually realised that they were trying to use the scroll bars! Scroll bars of background windows in Windows 95 do not dim out or disappear as they do in the MacOS (imagine that) - only the title bar dims. So they were constantly clicking the scroll bars of background windows instead of foreground windows.
* They would inadvertedly press the "Insert" key and whatever they typed at the cursor would replace what was already there. This confused them since the Macintosh does not have a "Insert/Replace" mode.
* My mother did not know how to get accent characters and bullets. When I told her that she had to hold down Alt and type "0149" on the keypad to get a bullet instead of typing Option-8, and hold down Alt and type "0233" to get , instead of typing Option-E-e, she was aghast. Of course, there is always the Character Map program, but the letters are tiny and finding the special character you're looking for is like playing "Where's Waldo". Not to mention that the equivalent Key Caps on the Macintosh gives you a visual representation of the keyboard which helps you to remember which keys to press the next time.
* They kept pressing Alt-Z instead of Control-Z for Undo. The Alt key is positioned right where the Command key is on a Macintosh. Also, the position of the Control key on Windows computers makes you stretch your fingers more to perform keyboard shortcuts. And now that *all* PC keyboards come with that handy-dandy Windows key getting in your way, performing something like Control-Alt-2 is a bigger pain-in-the-wrist than before. Can you say "Twister"?
Of course I've noticed a couple of things myself:
* There isn't a decent Note Pad for Windows 95. The one that comes with Windows is just a basic text editor. I want one that lets me keep pages of information, like a real note pad, and automatically saves the information when I close it (just like the Macintosh). I did check on the internet for one, but they were all over 1 megabyte compressed! No wonder Dell and Gateway are shipping their systems with 6-gigabyte and larger disk drives.
* There is no keyboard shortcut for creating a new folder as in the MacOS. Where you would normally press Command-N, you now have to right click, go to the *bottom* of the pop up menu, click on "New", move the cursor to the submenu and click on "Folder". Thanks Microsoft.
* There is no keyboard shortcut for getting information about a file or folder. Also the "Properties" command (equivalent of Get Info) is at the *bottom* of both the File menu and the pop up menu.
* Renaming a file on the Macintosh is easy - click on the name of an icon and it highlights it or, highlight an icon and press Return. But in Windows, you have to highlight the icon first, *then* click on the name before you can change it. And don't press Enter thinking it'll highlight the name for you - it'll launch the icon.
* When you choose the "View: Details" command in Windows and "Arrange by Name" it sticks all the folders at the top alphabetically and all the files at the bottom alphabetically. As a matter of fact, no matter how you "Arrange" the window, Windows 95 puts all the folders at the top of the window.
* Windows has no real provision for storing icon positions. It only remembers the last few windows that you've moved the icons to absolute positions within the window. So in Windows you wouldn't want to arrange your desktop the way lots of Mac users arrange it - with icons along the edges of the desktop. Because one day you might start up your machine and find all the icons "Arranged by Name", Windows style, in the left hand side of the desktop. Also starting up the computer in Safe Mode effectively destroys all your precious icon locations when next you start up in Normal Mode. Nothing like that happens when you start a Mac with extensions off.
* Speaking of which, it's easy to turn individual extensions and control panels on and off using Extensions Manager, as well as installing and removing them. In Win95 it's very hard to isolate memory resident (equivalent of Extensions) software conflicts. You can't disable individual memory resident programs. However you do get the choice of starting up with barely nothing (Safe Mode). And pray that your Windows program comes with an uninstaller. Mac users love to laugh when they hear of these uninstallers - "You need a program to remove a program? Hahaha! Good one! What happens when you need to remove the program that removes the programs? Get another program? Hahaha!"
* Windows has no provision for showing you the total size of the contents of a folder without getting *each and every* folder's "Properties". Mac users have the "Calculate folder sizes" option for seeing the size of all the folders at a glance.
* There is no easy way to get a screenshot in Windows without downloading a shareware package (example Screen Thief). Other than than you have to press "Print Screen", go to Paintbrush, create a new full screen document and press paste. And if you're running in 16 bit colour or higher, you have to save in 24 bit BMP format, which yields files *bigger* than 1 megabyte. Mac users just press Command-Shift-3. Oh, and did I mention that full screen full colour Macintosh PICT images are typically 200 kilobytes? I am beginning to see why so many PC's come with Zip drives standard now.
* When you put a folder into the Recycle Bin, it puts the *individual files* in there and does not preserve the folder structure. In the Macintosh the folder structure is preserved so that if we change our mind we can yank the whole folder out of there. Not so in Windows. Speaking of the Recycle Bin, if you're not careful setting the Recycle Bin reserved space, it will start deleting files even before you select "Empty Recycle Bin". And compared with the Macintosh it takes forever to move files to the Recycle Bin and forever to delete them.
* The Control-F keyboard in Windows only works if you have a Windows Explorer window open. That is, if you're on the desktop and feel like looking for a file, you *have* to use the Start menu: Find files or folders command. Also the Find command is very inefficient. My Macintosh Quadra is supposedly 10 times slower than this Pentium yet it finds files by name on multiple volumes in 2 - 4 seconds. By contrast the Pentium machine takes over 10 seconds to do a similar search on a *single* volume. Even after caching the directory structure in RAM, subsequent searches take over 5 seconds. I can't wait to see Apple's V-Twin Find file in operation.
* The Taskbar is a terrible implementation... really. Once you have more than 5 windows open you can't see the name of the buttons. It forces you to stretch the Taskbar upwards or downwards, eating up screen real estate, or click on each of the buttons at random until you find the window you're looking for. Plus, a program like Netscape or Internet Explorer puts a button on the taskbar for each and every "document" it opens. So if you have 4 Netscape windows open, that's 4 buttons on the taskbar. This is unlike the MacOS application menu which only lists the programs - you then select whatever "document" you want from the Window menu.
* Microsoft really messed up when they decided to program the Windows Registry. It isn't easy to remove every trace of a program in the registry the same way Mac users chunk a program's preferences into the Trash. Also I have already damaged my entire registry once when the RAM I installed turned out to be defective. And, I have heard many other stories about other Windows users who had to reinstall Windows 95 and every single program when their registry went bye bye.
* And, last but not least, Apple has, in my opinion, the best Text-to-Speech software out there. Also has very good Speech Recognition. Windows 95 does not come with either one.
By the way I have found that the fastest way to shut up a stubborn ignorant Windows user is to turn on the Macintosh, say "Computer: Hello!" and the computer says "Hello, Welcome to Macintosh" right back at me. Then I turn on the video camera and say "Computer: open Video Monitor" and focus the video camera on the stubborn Windows user's face. Then I say "Computer: Copy, open Word, Computer: Paste, Computer: Print" <big grin> Of course, I only then drop the big bombshell and tell them that it's a 5 year old Macintosh AV machine - then I say "Computer, Dial 911" - - nah, just kidding on that last part ;-)
Lethargy Francis
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End of EvangeList Digest V1 #1170 *********************************
