Barney also sent updates to the Other Net News/TILs/Software Updates list for today (see bottom of news page for listing).

More on OS X Retail SCSI Card Support: Bill Chin (a friend and OS X Guru) wrote with more info on the issue of support for retail SCSI cards in OS X:

"Also, in regards to SCSI controller support in Mac OS X, it'll be up to 3rd party vendors to create the appropriate drivers. Apple recently posted the the first cut of the new Kernel Extension Development Kit (KDK) with the new IOKit for Mac OS X DP3 which is available to all Select and Premiere Apple Developer Connection members. See the ADC Technical MacOS X page here: http://developer.apple.com/macosx/index.html

Also, the Classic Compatibility Environment 3.1 Release Notes are also linked on that page. It's an interesting read, not so much for the current limitations (which is similar to the current MacOS.app in Mac OS X Server), but the statements about what will be there soon.
..Bill"

A reader wrote his Adaptec 2930U worked fine with OS X DP3, but that was a model that Apple offered as an OEM card. The earlier reader post on problems was with a 2940UW (retail) card which is a model never offered as a BTO card. To my knowledge, Apple has offered 2906, 2930, 2940U2B (not the U2W retail card, which may or many not work), ATTO ExpressPCI (OEM version) and Jackhammer card options in their Beige G3 and later systems over the years.

The installing RedHat Linux under Virtual PC has an update (at the bottom) with another reader's install guide. He commented he had a very easy install under VPC.

RedHat Linux Install Guide: Matt Snider sent a guide to installing RedHat Linux under Virtual PC. I've added this link to the FAQ's OS and How-To sections for future reference.

Final Cut Pro/Pismo Firewire Capture Issues: In reply to my question in yesterday's news regarding capture and print to video compatibility with the new firewire notebooks, Mike Mihalik of Lacie wrote some owners are reporting problems with this combo (at least with only 128MB of RAM):

"Please see the following threads over on www.2-pop.com
http://www.2-pop.com/cgi/boards/finalcut/index.cgi?read=25178

This is the start of a thread regarding some tests done this week. Be sure to read EVERYTHING - the rants, the caveats, the next step.

Simple answer that PB/500 + FW drive + 128MB memory is a no-go at the present time. More tests will be done next week with more memory.
Mike Mihalik
LaCie"

There's a lot of replies there on the subject, one in particular that noted 256MB RAM (128MB allocated to FCP) seemed ok. There's also a note that using a Ratoc Firewire card in the new PB didn't help (may need a driver update).

MaxPowr Beta/RamDoubler 9 Tip: Tom Koons sent an update that he seems to have found a workarond for the RD 9 conflict with the latest MaxPowr PDS card software:

"I seem to have found a fix for my issue with RamDoubler 9 and the beta MaxPower PDS 1.1b4 driver. The MaxPower extension has 2 spaces in front of it to make it load very early during startup. I removed one space which let the EM Extension load before it and now RD9 will work fine. No idea why but its working :)
Thanks, Tom "

OS X DP3/Retail Adaptec Cards: After a post here on PCI controller support in OS X (limited to models Apple originally offered as OEM options) a reader replied his retail 2940UW card hangs at boot with OS X DP3.

"This is true. I've got OS X DP3 and a retail Adaptec Card (2940UW). OS X hangs on boot if the card is installed. Apple's Dev area did give me a work around, but I haven't used it yet.

I got a response from Apple Dev to pretty much not expect support... I dunno if that's permanent, or just for DP3. "

The original post was a reminder to those running retail SCSI cards and IDE PCI controllers that OS X would likely not support them (unless the vendor of the card provided some patch).

Reminder on Sony Spressa USB/iLink CDR Patch: In case anyone missed the past post on this (info is now in the FAQ's CDR topic area):

"Mike:
...I'm not sure if this has been covered yet or not, I have seen a lot of talk about the USB/Firewire CDR/CD-RW drives and the iMac/G4 machines within the past month. I checked the Charismac Homepage on a hunch the other day, and although they are a little ambigious about it, they do have a patch for their "hotplug" extension for Discribe which allows the Sony Spressa (Firewire, in this case) drives to work with the iMac DV models. The drive now even works with retrospect 4.1 (although it wants to use the CDR media, not the RW for the storage set.) Charismac states that they have no solution for the iMac/G4 issues at one instance (I guess it's a general CYA note), then they claim you need to download the new hotplug patch to make it work, so it took me a while of reading their site to figure out what it was I needed to download. But it does work now. Just thought I'd mention it in case it hadn't been brought up yet.
Chris Hough"

See the Sony Spressa help page at Charismac for more details. (The link to the driver/hotplug update seems the same as the one originally posted in the FAQ.) One reader reported there's a firmware update for the drives, but you have to send the drive back to Sony to have it installed.

New Mac OS ROM Versions: Engene Chan replied to a post in yesterday's news on new G4s having speculative processing enabled and sent info on the ROM versions:

" The Mac OS 9.0.2 systems have Mac OS ROM 3.5 installed. There's also a system resource called PowerPC Enabler that I have never seen before.
Eugene Chan"

Previous Macs had ROM v3.2.1 (part of OS 9 Audio Update 1.3).

Mac N64 Emulator Gets New Name/Features:

"Hi Mike!
Just wanted to let you know that the most promising Nintendo 64 emulator for the Mac, Mac1964 has been renamed Sixty-Force and the new version 0.5.0 is out. For the first time, it emulates sound (although, still rather immature). Graphics emulation for Mario 64 is almost perfect, and the compatibility list is likely to have grown (since it now can play Star Fox pretty well, where in the previous version Star Fox wouldn't even boot). Check it out!
Sincerely,
Satoru Murata "

Get the update at http://mac1964.gerrit.net/main.html.

The Stella9000 Review posted yesterday has a correction on pricing. The original price listed was for Studio9000, which is all four koblo apps bundled together. Thad says the price for Stella9000 alone should be about the cost of the Vibra and Stella, which is approx. $170. He's awaiting a reply from Koblo for firm pricing.

If you missed last night's 10PM news update, both OWC and Bottom Line now have site specials (under $100) on G3/G4 128MB SDRAM dimms.

The Owner's CPU Upgrade Reviews and Mac Game/Video card Performance searchable databases were updated at midnight last night.

Other Net News:

News
• AQUA: Amelio speaks (Macworld UK)
• DRAM spot, contract price gap grows (the register)
• View From The Bunker: Apple's OS X Is A Unix-Mac Attack
• Sleek, Sexy and Portable Apple PowerBook and Sony Vaio notebook are fast and multimedia savvy but they aren't cheap
• High-speed access prices tumbling
• New Rebates for Epson Mac printers
• IBM demos voice apps for Palms (Computerworld)
• Desktop Video For all? (Dvorak bags iMovie)
• Lightwave 3D v6 shipping now (PC) - (a reader says he ordered the Mac v6 and was told it would ship next week).
• Hands on with Ferazel's Wand (MacGaming.com)
• Intel's 1-GHz PIII Edges AMD's Athlon (PCWorld)

  Software Updates:

• Voice power pro updated.
• Gerry's ICQ
• File Buddy
• Director 8
• Distant Suns v5.1.1 adds support for SETI v2.

  TILS

• iBook, PowerBook (FireWire): Issue With Preserve Memory Contents On Sleep
• PowerBook (FireWire): Issue With Target Disk Mode
• iMac DV: Final Cut Pro 1.2 Not Currently Supported
• iMovie: Importing Non-DV QuickTime Movies
• PowerBook G3 Series (Bronze Keyboard): No Sound When Modem Dials Out
• Mac OS: Matching Mac OS ROM File To Mac OS Version
• Final Cut Pro 1.2.1: Truncated Serial Number
• LaserWriter 8500: Arial Font Substitution Issue
• Click here for complete list of updated TILs

The recent features page also lists articles posted (most recent first) as does the sidebar links here. The site topics pages (systems, cpu upgrades, etc. - see top and sidebar links on this page) also are places to check as well as the FAQ.

Wednesday's News Summary

• More $99/128MB SDRAM Sales
• Stella9000 Review (Audio)
• New G4/500s Have Speculative Processing Enabled?
• Comment on Toast 4 & Ricoh DVD/CDRW
• ATI to Unveil 'Revolutionary' 3D Graphics Technology
• 3dfx at GDC
• Update on Ricoh DVD/CDRW Combo Drive in Macs
• iSub Owner Solves Audio CD Skipping
• iSub Raves
• Ramdoubler 9/PDS Maxpowr 1.1b4 Conflict?
• IBM Solved G4 Higher Speed Production Problems?
• Early Sawtooth/DVD Player 2.1 Report
• Final Cut Pro & Firewire PBs
• Owner's CPU Upgrade Reviews and Mac Game/Video card Performance searchable databases updated.
• Other Net News/TILs/Software Updates

Tuesday's News Summary

• DVD Player 2.1 Patch Site Tips
• Another TurboMax AV Performance Report
• TurboMax 1.7.4 Update Improves Performance
• iSub Audio CD Skipping Report
• PCI IDE Card Support in OS X
• Wanted: More Ricoh DVD/CDRW Combo Reports
• More PCI Bus Errors Feedback
• GLQuake 0.5 Tip
• Quake3 Skinning Tutorial
• MacSense XRouter with DSL Support
• Owner's CPU Upgrade Reviews and Mac Game/Video card Performance searchable databases updated.

Monday's News Summary

• TurboMax 1.7.4 Firmware Available
• Quake3 Point Release 116M
• Pismo Battery Sale Ended
• Bottom Line on Turbomax Support/Firmware Updates
• IDE RAID Performance Tests
• Owner Comments on TurboMax/Older Mac A/V Performance
• PCI Bus Errors Feedback
• Testing Wallstreet DVD Decoder Card in Pismo
• Pismo HD Whine - Toshiba Drive Related?
• Rage128 & Flash Tip

For links to older news pages see the Archives page.

The recent features page has a lists reviews/articles you may have missed.

For a guide to finding answers to questions - see my Site Guide page.

Considering a CPU Upgrade? Search the CPU Upgrade Owner's Survey results and search for owner reports by Mac model and/or card brand. The current database has more than 3,300+ reports and growing.