Re: Tiger Learning Computer

[Shawn Beattie <shawn@beattie.net>]

> Wait, are you saying that 80 columns is readable on a TV?  That would
> indeed be impressive.
>

It was readable on my TV...better than what I remember seeing when I 
plugged my //c into the TV.  Could it be that Tiger outputs true NTSC 
whereas (from what I have read) the //e and //c just provide somthing 
close to NTSC?

I did not see any problem with mixed-mode high res graphics, whereas 
mixed-mode high-res text looks all purple and green (like Barney :) on 
a //e or //c and TV.

> * Appleworks 4.3 is pretty unusable because of the poor keyboard, 19K
>   desktop, inability to run UltraMacros (not enough memory), lack of a
>   clock, and inability to save settings (because of ROMdisk).  The
>   TimeOut Paint program doesn't seem to recognize the mouse, or it just
>   locks up.  Choosing other Timeout menu items just returns a
>   "UltraMacros must be enabled" message.
> 
> Have you tried to plug the AppleWorks cart into one slot and the RAM
> cart into another?  AppleWorks will usually make use of slot based
> RAM expansion cards.  It seems that the RAM cart, except for being
> battery backed, is essentially a slinky RAM card in cart form.  When
> AppleWorks has access to it, it should use it as desktop RAM, provided
> you don't format it first.  If you use the computer again, give this
> method a try.  There has to be a reason they put v4.3 on the cart.
> If the Tiger really is stuck with just 128K and the RAM cart does
> nothing but provide a RAM disk, I would expect them to use v3.0 of
> AppleWorks.
> 

Yes, I tried that.  That configuration is pretty much mandatory since 
your only read/write storage device is the RAM cart.  And if Appleworks 
used it as desktop memory, you would have no place to save your files.  
But it doesn't, so you're stuck with 19K and no Ultramacros.  I was 
wondering why they didn't use AW 3.0 and figured that Scantron Quality 
may not have the rights to distribute V3.0 since that version was done 
by Claris.  But it would make a bit more sense.

Anyway, like I mentioned in the review, Appleworks is useless on this
machine anyway because of the terrible keyboard.