Let me share some incredible news. I read in June MacWorld magazine that
Open Transport increased download times by between 50-90%. I couldn't
believe it, so I tried to install it on my Performa 5200 (603e chip). It
wouldn't install, saying that OT was not supported on this cpu. This was
the straw that broke my mac back. Not only do performa's not have 16 bit
stereo sound IN (you can't record sound in 16 bit, only 8 bit), but they
don't support speech recognition. Why have a PowerPC chip if it won't do
these processor-intensive tasks?! I would guess that most people don't
know these things, and maybe they aren't concerned of these unsupportable
upgrades. Caveat Emptor.
So, to run these things, including Open Transport, I went out over the
weekend and bought a Power Macintosh 7200/75 for $999. For the price, this
is an amazing machine. Suffice it to say that this is a TRUE Power
Macintosh, ie. 16 bit sound IN, Speech Recognition (Geo-Port support), and
OPen Transport. Back to my original thoughts. Instead of using MacTCP,
apple users can use Open Transport. The tech specs are not important.
What happened however, is astounding, at least to me! On my first file
download, Real Audio 2.0.2, the entire download speed was 3.2k, an amazing
1k faster than any complete download time I had ever achieved with a 28.8
modem. Usual downloads were 2.2k at best.
So, if anyone has a 601or 604 chip, I would highly recommend Open Transport
instead of MacTCP as your connection protocol.
Brad
Brad Pearl, M.Ed. bpearl@airmail.net
Spanish and Computer Plano Independent School District
Literacy Teacher Texas (214) 519-8886 x6271
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