II Something
by Clark Hugh Stiles
March 20, 2002 

My friend Dave mentioned on the phone that the G5 Macs must be getting close because the new shower massage iMac uses the G4. Earlier iMacs used the G3. While this isn't exactly the thrill of a lifetime, it shows that Apple is still keeping its technological lead over Wintel. He also mentioned Firewire 2, which is a speed upgrade for Firewire, making Firewire 2 faster than USB 2.0. 

While lurking in the Mac ghetto at CompUSA the other evening I ran into another old Apple II guy, uh, actually a former old Apple II guy who is no longer a guy. She was more like he used to be, and it was fun to listen to her talk about the online gaming she still does, the need for DirectX as her reason for not getting a Mac instead of Wintel, and about the differences between modems. 
Do It In Hardware 
Here's something I'm sure everyone else here already knew, but I did not. In order to use an external modem on an Apple II or Mac it has to be controller based, or otherwise say right on the box that it will work. Good luck finding a new modem that boasts Apple II compatibility though. Anyway, the so-called winmodems are minimally equipped bits of junk that use software based drivers. Thus, internal PCI slot modems tend to be cheap, and likewise tend to not run on PCI slot equipped Macs. Most of the external modems are also software based. 

Having just pried out that GeoPort modem in my dad's machine (the repair house he went to reinstalled another, which is incomprehensible to me), using a software based (microprocessor based, basically) modem doesn't have that much appeal. Having this information is very helpful. MacOS 8.0 installs some kind of file called Generic PC card modem, and I now wonder if that is support for PCI winmodems, or what. 

The latest 56k baud modem standard is V.92, which is a superset of the other 56k standards. An advantage it has is a technique called Quick Connect. If supported by the host system (AOL for example, which has some V.92 nodes here in Grand Rapids Michigan) dialup connections take very little time (about a fourth of normal) to connect. This feature is probably in response to the no-time-flat connection enjoyed by users of broadband. 
Bait and Switch 
Those "two months free" offers from broadband providers (and from AOL) are bogus. The company comes to one's house, installs the hookup, and gives one two months free at $40 a month. But, by the time the first bill comes, for month three, the rates have changed to $48 a month. So, what's the difference between ten months at $48 and twelve months at $40? The only difference I would suggest is a prison term for the three piece suit who devised this deception. Real prison, too, not the country club version. 

II Infinitum! 