replies stuck inbetween original.... On 08/10/05, John Niven <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > On Oct 5, 2005, at 11:11 PM, Samual Acorn wrote: > > 'quadra 950 introduced 1992 at $8500' (source; lowendmac.com) > > -please- tell me you didnt buy that new.. > > after looking at the specs tho it would make a great webserver > > (running linux of course) ;) > > > > one question; what format exactly are you digitizing that audio as? > > i dont think an ogg vorbis or mp3 encoder would be very speedy on a 68k > > (if such even exsists) > > Sorry Sam, for the late reply - I've been away. > > You made some good points but I still don't agree with you :-)
well.. mainly my point was that if the rom could be bypassed the system might be able to be stretched further... for example if a rom routine wasnt exactly what one could call 'optimal' something that is faster could replace it... only way i see that that could be done would be to use an alternate OS (be it linux or otherwise... linux is just my flavor of choice) > > I did NOT buy my Quadra 950's new or indeed any of the Macs I own with > the sole exception of my 12" G4 PowerBook. But loads of people did buy > them new - and no doubt - thought they where the best buy on the market > at that time :-) 8500$ tho... yeeesh.. > > Frankly I just like them - and at todays prices I don't really have to > do much justification! I like mine with a five hard drive carrier, set > as a RAID array (you don't need linux to do it). I agree they make a > nice webserver (you can use MacHTTP to do that also without running > linux). i wouldnt be willing to trust macos to stay stable/secure as a web server (doesnt mean i couldnt be proven that it could just that i personally wouldnt trust it) > > I don't think you can even run linux on a Q950 because of the > "undocumented" chips (I did look at this once). I would of thought that > it was possible to reverse-engineer the ROM code to work out how to > control the hardware. Maybe even replace the ROM with a simple one that > uses the programable "OS" instead. But I guess that's too much effort > for too little return. Which leads me back to my point that - given the > difficulties - why not just use a PC instead for Linux? PC with linux is a perfect match but mac with linux is just something fun to hack around with.. kinda like the challenge of making a 'doze machine work properly (top uptime with win2k is a week due to memory leaks... been trying to stretch this... is fun to see how far it can be made to go) top uptime with linux is around 2 months (if i had a ups this would be much longer... only reason i ever reboot is when the power goes out....) ive honestly never tested a mac uptime (ran a powerbook duo 280c for 3 days and it was fine... but it wasnt doing anything either...) as a side note; i wouldnt trust windows as a webserver either.... > > My "audio" 950 has a AudioMedia II sound card and I run the Sound > Designer s/w that came with it. It records in a file format called > "Sound Designer II audio file" and these can be saved as AIFF files. > However I have installed a Yamaha CD-burner in the 950, and can use > Toast 3.5 to burn an Audio CD with these files which play on a normal > cd player fine. Or I send the files over my network to my B&W G3 iTunes > which recognizes the Sound Designer II files and can either play them > direct or convert them to mp3's. AIFF = quicktime? (big endian uncompressed PCM... right?) > > I did find an application that would batch process the mp3 conversion > on the 950 but it takes a long time and the 68040 doesn't have enough > power to play mp3's directly. Obviously it plays the the Sound designer > II files which are stored on a RAID array of 4 X 9Gb drives without > effort. 9gb scsi drives.... i have a funny feeling that wasnt cheap... actually a 68040 -can- play mp3 directly; http://members.aol.com/xanathus/mpegdec/ got a 33mhz 680LC40 to play at 22khz stereo (highest setting the builtin dac supported) [machine was a performa 575] note: might not be able to do much else while your system is playing the mp3 but it does work... (make sure virtual ram is turned off.. the mac might try to swap the sound buffer to disk making for dropouts) > > It sounds good to me - but this could well be that the analogue audio > circuit techniques haven't always got better with time :-) So the > digital side is "good enough", and the analogue side is pro quality. > dunno much about mac soundcards (only thing ive tinkered with is what comes built in) only analog to digital ive done is with a soundblaster AWE32 (85db SNR) > > > > -- --sam http://mephitus.renamon.org/ "When you've done something right, no one will be sure you've done anything at all." -- Futurama -- -- Vintage Macs is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/> and... Small Dog Electronics http://www.smalldog.com | Enter To Win A | -- Canon PowerShot Digital Cameras start at $299 | Free iBook! | Support Low End Mac <http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html> Vintage Macs list info: <http://lowendmac.com/lists/vintagemacs.shtml> --> AOL users, remove "mailto:"; Send list messages to: <mailto:[email protected]> To unsubscribe, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For digest mode, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subscription questions: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/vintage.macs%40mail.maclaunch.com/> iPod Accessories for Less at 1-800-iPOD.COM Fast Delivery, Low Price, Good Deal www.1800ipod.com
