Jerry Pournelle's column in June '96 BYTE magazine
Hello all,
I've been lurking on this forum for months and had to sign up this morning so I could share some more good news with all of you.
For those of you who don't read BYTE magazine, Jerry Pournelle writes a monthly column describing his experiences with various computer hardware and software. He's kind of the "Consumer Reports" of computing, and his column is one of BYTE's most popular features.
I got my latest BYTE yesterday, and behold, Jerry finally decided to try to install a SCSI Syquest EZ135 on a PC running Win'95. For SEVENTEEN paragraphs he describes in gory detail how installing the EZ135 messed up his system, requiring substantial effort, including using Norton Disk Doctor, to repair his system. (I'd post the whole thing, but this post is long enough already.)
Anyway, after that long story comes these three paragraphs:
<< begin excerpt; [] is my note, *text* is my added emphasis >>
"Eric Pobirs, who helps out at Chaos Manor [that's the name Jerry gives to his computer lab], got an Iomega Zip/Z100P drive at Fry's last week. This connects to the parallel port; you then install some driver software, and it looks like another drive. We tested it on Racing Cow [one of his computers], and *it worked perfectly*. It also worked on Super Cow [another computer] *and everything else we tried it on*.
"The Zip/Z100P is rapidly becoming the standard sneakernet method for large file transfers. It's not as fast as the EZ135, but it's small, lightweight, and, most important, extremely easy to install and use. It works for backup, archiving, and file transfer. While it's slow compared to Ethernet, it's darned fast compared to floppy disks, and when you remove it, there's no evil aftereffect [a reference to the Syquest nightmare].
"If you've invested in a big machine, you should seriously consider getting an Iomega Zip/Z100P not only for backup, but to carry your working environment from machine to machine. Some of you may remember that was the goal of the Tandon systems back in the IBM AT days. The difference is, the Zip Z100P works, and it's cheap, too. Recommended."
<< end of excerpt; BYTE is copyright 1996 by McGraw-Hill Companies >>
Those who read Pournelle know that "Recommended" is a very good rating. Jerry is not afraid to beat something up if it doesn't work (read the part about Syquest for comparison). Interestingly, I've never heard it called the Z100P before, and the price is listed as $239.95. :-( Anyone know anything about this? Of course, those who know the products realize that he's comparing a SCSI EZ135 with a parallel port Zip, so it's no surprise that it's slower. Too bad Jerry didn't point that out...
Even so, this is VERY GOOD PUBLICITY for IOMG! Jerry's word carries a lot of weight in the personal computing circles.
I wanted all of my fellow SI IOMG "IDIOTS" to know about this. Even though I've been lurking here, I've enjoyed reading the posts, and wanted to give something back. You all are GREAT!
Brian
Oh, and did I forget to say?...... LOOOOONG IOMG!!!!!!!!!!! |
