Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!watmath!att!att!linac!pacific.mps.ohio-state.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!usc!cs.utexas.edu!ut-emx!ccwf.cc.utexas.edu!clouds
From: clouds@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu (Kathy Strong)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.hardware
Subject: Re: Anti-Apartheid Newspaper Needs Advice
Message-ID: <39000@ut-emx.uucp>
Date: 1 Nov 90 14:11:40 GMT
References: <8053.2720203B@fidogate.FIDONET.ORG>
Sender: news@ut-emx.uucp
Reply-To: clouds@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu (Kathy Strong)
Lines: 68

In article <8053.2720203B@fidogate.FIDONET.ORG> Jan.Adams@f444.n161.z1.FIDONET.ORG (Jan Adams) writes:
> 
>1.   We are an anti-apartheid organisation and we are proposing
>to purchase the following equipment and to use it to compose
>semi-weekly tabloid newspaper 32 pages in length:
> 
>     3 x MAC IIci, 80 Mb Hard Drive, Estended keyboard
>     3 x Daystar Fastcache IIci CPU cards
>     2 x RasterOps Clearvue 19" mono monitors with cards
>     1 x RasterOps 19" colour monitor
>     1 x RasterOps 708 8-bit driver card for colour monitor
>     1 x Colour Video Accelerator Card
>     1 x Microtec 300z 256 greyscale/colour scanner
>     1 x Varityper VT600W laser printer (A3/Tabloid size)
> 
>     Does anyone have any comments about the overall
>configuration, any experiences of problems with this equipment or
>any suggestions of improvements within the same overall budget?
> 
[ other questions deleted]

Wow, you sound like a WELL-FUNDED organization... You didn't indicated whether
your material will come mostly from outside sources or from staff writers, but
if it's the latter, you might want to consider that you will be spending a
lot more time writing and editing stories than you will doing layout. Take
the money for one of those ci's and buy a couple of lower-end machines 
instead--you'll reduce the standing-in-line-for-a-computer, which is one of
the most frustrating experiences in the world...

I'm also not clear about why the color monitor and accelerator, unless you're
doing four-color work--in which case a 600dpi printer will probably be
inadequate. Even though I'm about to move up to a color Mac myself (from
my trusty souped-up SE), I honestly feel that color is mostly a "gee-whiz"
item rather than a "must" for people who are doing print-oriented work.
(Me? A growing percentage of my work is slides/presentations/illustration.)

Look into the Microteck 300ZS<--note the S. It's the 300Z, plus SCSI port,
plus "special editions" (read: somewhat limited) of, I believe, ImageStudio
and ColorStudio. Price is about the same as the older model.

And speaking of software... I didn't see any on your list. :-)  I hope
that's just because you were focusing on hardware questions, and not
because you're going to try to get by with "Joe's copy of PageMaker."


All of the above recommendations are based on four years of experience as a
DTP freelancer and consultant, specializing in systems for small newspapers
and magazines. Let me stress again: the number-one comment I heard from
small presses after they'd been up and running a month was "We need more
writers' workstations!"  You sound fairly knowledgeable about things Mac-ish,
so you probably won't need to hear that the number-one comment during the
first issue was "We should have trained a month before we tried this in
production!"


Oh, about the Daystar ci cache... I have no experience with it myself, but
the owner of one of the Austin Lino service bureaus just installed them on
his ci's and he's been raving about how great they are. Presumably that means
no conflicts with the usual DTP/illustration software--PageMaker, Quark, 
Word, Illustrator, Freehand, etc. etc.

--Kathy


 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
   Kathy Strong               :  "Welcome to FUBAR Corp., where there's  
  (Clouds moving slowly)      :   never enough time to do a job right,   
   clouds@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu  :   but always enough time to do it over."