Second Sight just arrived

[mcafee@umich.edu (Sean McAfee)]

I came home today to find my Second Sight card waiting at the door.  Joy!

My two cents:

Installation went pretty much okay.  I would have preferred a little more
detail in the paragraph which described how to move a Zip board from slot 3 to
slot 1 for a ROM 01 GS.  It took me about five minutes to figure out exactly
what was required.  Also, the instructions stopped rather abruptly at the
point where the card is placed into the slot--nothing about choosing a slot
opening in the back panel, attaching the video cable, or the final step of
putting the cover back on.  This is no doubt self-evident to more experienced
hands, but I've only ever installed a handful of cards, and the complete
description would have been more reassuring.

The graphics:  Wow!

In the short time I've been using the card (about twenty minutes), I have only
one complaint.  I really, really don't care for the IBM-style character set.
Is there any possibility of a ROM upgrade with the traditional Apple-style
characters?  I could learn to live with it, I suppose, but it's kind of like
having your sweetie get a facelift and looking like that homely girl you dated
for a while and then dumped.  Same person underneath, but...Ugh.

One other thing I just noticed:  Changes to the display's Border Color have no
effect on the screen's border, which remains black.  What's up with that?

One final note:  The first time I booted the computer after installing the
card, I heard a beep when the "boot-up thermometer" was about a quarter of the
way across.  The thermometer continued to fill, but nothing further happened
when it reached the right edge.  Everything happened as normal when I
rebooted.  I suppose I may not have waited long enough, but all three of my
CDEV icons (the boot, Sound, and Zip GS) always show up long before the
thermometer is filled.  Anyone know what the deal is?  (I'm using an
AppleColor monitor, btw.)

--
Sean McAfee          |      "Why don't you pick on someone your own opacity?"
mcafee@umich.edu     |                                    -- Tom Servo