Dec 88 Mousehole
Volume Number: 4
Issue Number: 12
Column Tag: Mouseholé Report
Apple Price Increases 
By Rusty Hodge, Contributing Editor, Mousehole BBS SysOP
Because this is the international edition, we thought we’ originally planned to
translate the entire article into Japanese. However, since MacTutor doesn’t have the
Kanjii fonts for the LaserWriter, it was decided just to pretend that the column was
translated into Japanese and back to English again (like the rest of the magazine was!).
From: wayne (Wayne Correia, Cupertino, CA)
Subject: Re: New Hardware
The Mac //x is a 16 Mhz. 68030 with a 68882 math coprocessor. The new floppy
drive and SWIM chip (Super Woz Integrated Machine) allows the reading and writing
of Mac formatted 400k/800k/1.44mb disks, 800k Apple ProDos, 720k/1.44mb IBM
formatted disks. The logic board is available as an upgrade for a little over $2000 and
the drive and SWIM chip upgrade is available for $599.00 The 68030 has built-in
memory management, so a 68851 PMMU is not required for A/UX operation. The base
machine also comes with 4 Meg RAM on the motherboard, and room for 4 more. The
ROMS are now mounted on an Apple ROM-SIMM board that plugs into a SIMM socket
where the old 28 pin DIP ROMS used to be. Also, If you are only interested in the 1.44
drive, you can just buy the drive kit which installs in any Mac II. I have had one of
these on my desk for about two months, and the //x is VERY compatible with Mac
applications!
From: wildman (Randy Saunders, Upland, CA)
Subject: Getting Turned Down for developership
Yes it does seem the rule is “Will you be selling something at ComputerLand in 24
months”. Nothing against ComputerLand, but I have always chaffed at this particularly
dumb rule of Apple’s. If you do contract programming as a consulting engineer it
seems they think developership is above you. It doesn’t matter if you have contracts
with the US Government (the world’s biggest computer buyer) Apple doesn’t think you
are serious.
If you aren’t trying to eek out your existence selling software to “the rest of us” then
they will do everything within their power to stand in your way. Never mind that the
people I consult with buy the brand of computer I say the software I wrote for them
runs on, period, no other factors come into the matter. I can only guess it is a hold
over from the Jobs days when Apple saw itself making the next great electric toaster
and thought that every home would have one. With the new and increased price of a Mac
II, this camper just doesn’t see the sense in it.
My comment is, no matter what stupid things Apple does, if you just stand by and
they’ll do something stupider soon. Thanx to good people in the Mac community (the
folks on MouseHole in particular) support from Apple is just not the kind of thing
you’ve got to have. Its easier to live without them than put up with their bulloney.
[Of all the questions on the Apple Developer Question form, the only one that they
seem to pay attention to is “Will your product be on the market within the next 24
months?”. If you answer no to that, you’ll become a “Mailing List Class” developer,
which means you’ll get tech notes and newsletters, but nothing much more. - Rusty]
From: andyc (Andy Cohen, Walnut, CA)
Subject: Problem with Floppy reliability tests
The problem with doing a floppy disk reliability study is that the manufacturers
change their quality control over time. The good ones start to go bad and the bad ones
start to get better until after a year or two any ratings made are totally invalid.
From: billd (Bill Dugan, Huntington Beach, CA)
Subject: nVIR
We made the acquaintance of the nVIR virus recently at UC Irvine’s school newspaper.
Referenced by (2):