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From: hundt@samadams.princeton.edu (Tom Hundt)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.hardware
Subject: PC user gets his just desserts (Fat Mac) and has lotsa questions
Message-ID: <4168@rossignol.Princeton.EDU>
Date: 1 Nov 90 17:39:39 GMT
Sender: news@cs.Princeton.EDU
Organization: Princeton University
Lines: 56

Hi,

I'm a PC/Unix user who's recently been given an entree into the Mac
world, in the form of an ancient "original" Mac, with the 512k
upgrade ("Fat Mac", I guess it's called).  Predictably, I have a
zillion questions, and would *really* appreciate some answers...
(technical == great)  The basic question being, "What can be done
with it?"

Mac models: Confusion here.  "Classic" Mac seems to refer to the
latest model! What are the important differences between:
"original" Mac, Classic, SE, Plus, IIe, and Extra Crispy.  PC
Warehouse refers to Mac 512KE and 512E in their catalog: is this
what I have? (Seems to me I need a ROM upgrade.  Is this
possible?  Where to get new ones to swap out?)

How to do you tell what version a System is? My Finders seem to
be 1.1 (pretty funny, I know) and 4.1 (more reasonable).  What is
the latest version that will run on my machine? (Seems that 6.0.7
won't even *fit* on a 400k floppy! :-)

Adding a hard disk -- what are possibilities?  HyperDrive?  There
is no SCSI port; can it be added? 

Can I put in an 800k floppy drive?

Printers: does anybody use something like an Epson with a Mac?

What's the pinout of the serial ports on back (printer, modem)? 
I'd like to construct a serial cable.

What is FDHD?  (File system format?)

What are the possibilities for using a PC to store files, as sort
of a file server?  Easiest way to transfer?

Downloading: Mac seems to use a format called StuffIt and BinHex. 
Do you need anything else (e.g., to move stuff into various forks
of a file?) (PCs just require a file to be downloaded, then
possibly converted from ASCII to binary, then possibly
de-archived/uncompressed.  Is there anything special needed for
Mac executables?) What are some standard FTP sites for Mac?


Any and all answers/advice/warnings would be really appreciated. 
Right now, the machine is serving as an entertainment device for
guests to my apartment -- it's a lot more compact than a real
Missile Command machine.  I'd like to make real use of it.

Thanks,

-Tom Hundt


  Thomas Hundt // hundt@samadams.princeton.edu // hundt@occlusal.rutgers.edu
    201/539-4054 h // 201/326-6935 w // 19 Max Dr #7B, Morristown NJ 07960