Macs Only

's CompUSA Watch Page! was updated for the reports received last week. I visited the Tyson's Corner, VA, CompUSA over the weekend to check out the Apple store started two weeks ago and to get some software and a monitor cord if they had them. It was mostly a pleasant sight. The Apple store was finished and the Macs were running. There were lots of people in the Apple store using the Macs. However, the area was partially blocked with some pallets and a loaded push cart but was still accessible. Again, I was not approached by a salesperson as I browsed for quite some time. In fact, I never saw a salesperson in the area--perhaps the philosphy is that the Macs sell themselves? They had the software and the cord that I needed. Please keep those reports coming to me so that the table can be kept current.

From Bob Burdeau, According to Business Week, Pixar (Steve Jobs' company) plans to come out with a new animated feature every year. Here's the story.

PowerLogix PowerForce G3 250 Performance Notes: I switched the PowerForce G3 card from the PowerBase (40 MHz system bus speed) to the 9600 (50 MHz system bus speed). Curiously, the 9600 exhibited more stability problems than the PowerBase when pushing the performance envelope. Short term testing produced these best results:

MacBench 4.0 Scores for Various CPU, Bus and Cache Speeds*

CPU (MHz)	System Bus (MHz)	CPU/Cache Speed Ratio	MacBench 4.0 Scores (Processor/Floating Point)
PowerBase with 56 MB 60ns EDO RAM
292.4	45.0	1:1	1077/934
315.0	45.0	3:2	1098/1002
PowerMac 9600 with 64 MB 60ns EDO RAM
288.8	52.5	1:1	1122/935
308.8	47.5	3:2	1121/995

*Mac OS 8.1, LibMotoSh and Virtual Memory (1 MB)