Hi Rick,
Many of the specialized instruments in science are produced in such low
numbers each year, that re-engineering the interface cards is
disproportionately expensive.

One of the instruments ran with an ISA card, so when the software and a few
pieces of hardware were upgraded, we tried to install it on a newer and
faster computer, with more memory. (Our typical graphics files are about 750
MB per image set). We had to spend mucho bucks to upgrade the interface card
in order to handle this. I dread the day that the PCI slots are no longer
available on PCs. The shift by Apple to PCI-express has no backward
compatible solution. So the ability of Apple Intel Duo to run native Windows
is dead on arrival for us.

But for more widespread toys, such as GPS, AIS, Nav Software, etc., a Mac
Mini is probably a good way to go.

By the way, I installed an AIS on Night Heron a few months ago and hooked it
up directly to our new Standard Horizon Chartplotter (CP180i). After
Standard Horizon and C-Map discovered a slight glitch and had to upgrade the
firmware, it has worked beautifully. I think that it now also works with
older models from Standard Horizon, such as their models 175 and 1000, but
also requires a firmware upgrade.
regards,
Harvey

----- Original Message -----
From: "Sonadora" <sonadora@sail2live.com>
To: <baba-l@ballreich.net>
Sent: Monday, February 19, 2007 7:43 PM
Subject: RE: [Baba-L] Greetings from Luddite Corners!

> Hi Harvey,
>
> You hit on the one reason why personally (not in my day job mind you) I
> will
> probably stick with PCs. As a hobbyist and confirmed hardware junky,
> nothing
> beats wrenching on a clunky, steam-powered dinosaur PC. I won't mention
> the
> number of PCs we currently have in our house, but it probably accounts for
> more than half of our electrical outlay.
>
> But (and it's a BIG but), for the masses I think Macs are gaining
> (re-gaining?) favor. I'm sure we all remember when Apple II and then
> Macintosh dominated. Spendy? Yes. But they know how to put the 'U' in
> Val-U.
> Unlike a Dell (or HP as Rick pointed out), the 'extras' on a Macintosh are
> damn good, functional extras that enhance the experience rather than annoy
> it.
>
> For a boat, the Mac mini seems like a home run. It has everything you need
> from a PC AND entertainment. Add a 12v (or inverted) LCD and some good
> speakers and you'll cover a lot of ground.
>
> One question I do have for you, though, regarding your instrumentation.
> I'm
> assuming you're talking data acquisition. Are these units available in USB
> or Firewire? This, of course, would carry over to those considering a
> computer for the boat. Most of the interfaces nowadays are USB or Firewire
> and some are Ethernet. All of these solutions should work no problem with
> a
> Mac using Boot Camp or maybe even Parallels. The problem with using PC
> based
> software in a virtual environment (Parallels) is that the application has
> to
> go through the Mac OS to get to the hardware layer. This can induce
> latency
> and may not even work. However, Boot Camp accesses the hardware directly
> just as on any PC.
>
> Also for those looking at a PC from Dell or HP or one of the name brands,
> keep in mind that a lot of their internal components are proprietary (i.e.
> $$$) and PCI-e will soon be the only bus you'll see on these units as well
> (Apple has always been 1-2 years ahead of the curve adopting great
> technology).
>
> Okay, I'll stop. At least for now until someone mentions computers or
> stereos and stuff. [g]
>
> Rick Beddoe
> s/v Soņadora, 1978 Baba 30
> Minneapolis, MN
> http://sail2live.com
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-baba-l@ballreich.net [mailto:owner-baba-l@ballreich.net] On
> Behalf Of Harvey J. Karten
> Sent: Monday, February 19, 2007 6:10 PM
> To: baba-l@ballreich.net
> Subject: Re: [Baba-L] Greetings from Luddite Corners!
>
> Hi Rick,
> I quite agree. The new Intel Duo Macs are slick platforms for both OS X
> and
> for Microsoft. I understand that the latest version of Parallels provides
> an
>
> even smoother way of running Windows as a virtual machine on a Mac.
> Unfortunately, for graphics applications, the virtual machine route
> (Parallels) is about half as quick in running big graphics programs. But
> if
> you run Boot Camp (directly from Apple) then it will run Windows in native
> mode, and may even be faster than an equivalent CPU in an exclusively
> Windows box. The downside is the requirement that you have to completely
> reboot if using Boot Camp. But for programs such as MacENC, which doesn't
> really require that much power computing, Parallels should be a fine
> solution. You might not even notice that you are running your Windows
> based
> programs as Virtual Machines.
>
> The problem that we run into with Apple is their exclusive use of
> PCI-Express cards. That locks us out of using the Macs as instrument
> controllers that run under Windows with our expensive regular PCI
> controller
>
> cards. More the pity, as the Mac Hardware is both robust and elegant, and
> the notion of then being able to run a lot of the very high end techie
> UNIX
> imaging software would otherwise make the choice of Apple a no-brainer.
>
> I have been toying with the notion of getting a MacMini for the boat. I
> then
>
> could run Windows for controlling the SSB-VFO, our old Marine Map Nav
> software from Jeppessen, and then add on MacENC for use of vector graphics
> charts and AIS.
> Ah, toys, toys, toys.
> Harvey
>
>
>
>
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Received on Tue Feb 20 11:56:10 2007