🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <DBMqt0.8E9@watserv3.uwaterloo.ca>, mjmuise@novice.uwaterloo.ca (Mike Muise) writes:
|> Scott L Parrish (parrisc@mail.auburn.edu) wrote:
|> : Mike Muise (mjmuise@novice.uwaterloo.ca) wrote:
|> : : [...] I can't imagine what I'd use the zip for if I couldn't 
|> : : carry it around and plug it into other PC's [...] is portability 
|> : : a total non-issue for most folks out there?
|> : 
Portability is a big issue. A lot of ZIP drives are being sold to people with 
notebook PCs. It's a pretty attractive alternative to PCMCIA (PC Card) hard 
disks that are expensive and are Type II format. Since PCMCIA hard drives 
are Type II format you can't use your other PCMCIA peripherals (unless you're 
one of the few with a machine with *two* Type II slots). In my case, I have 
a subnotebook that has only a single Type I slot -- a slot that I have to 
use to connect the external floppy drive. So, hanging the ZIP drive off of the 
parallel port (which is otherwise unused, except when I print) is a 
pretty attractive option. 

|> The throughput is adequate for me, about 6-8 meg/minute on stock ports.  
|> This doubles or triples for EPP ports, but it still doesn't approach 
|> Iomega's claim of 60meg/min for SCSI.  I wish I hadn't been forced to 
|> make this sacrifice, but oh well.  A Zip with *both* parallel and SCSI 
|> would be great, as would a cheap (under $150) internal model with either 
|> a SCSI (preferred) or IDE interface.  If something like this comes out, 
|> I may just buy it and have the best of both worlds.
|> 

Most new machines have enhanced parallel ports. Even 6-8 meg/minute blows 
the doors off of floppies.

The ZIP drives will likely hurt the low end tape backup market in the PC 
arena. The media is competetively priced and the drive isn't that much more 
expensive than even the cheapest internal tape backups. Furthermore the 
drive is portable and offers random access. I won't be recommending low end 
tape drives to anybody. 

Another thing that accounts for the popularity of ZIP drives on PCs is 
the large files that PC users need to move around. A lot of PC users 
drag files back and forth between PCs at work and home. Contrary to popular 
Mac users' beliefs, PC users also have huge document files. For example a 
ten page report could easily eat five megs of disk thanks to OLE. With 
embedded spreadsheets, charts and graphics compound documents have storage 
requirements that quickly exceed the capacity of a single floppy. 

I believe that I read in some trade mag that Iomega was preparing internal 
versions of the ZIP drive and had already signed some OEMs to offer the 
ZIP drive as standard equipment. I suspect that the internal PC versions 
will be EIDE. Iomega has a real winner on their hands. This technology 
is everything (and more) that the Floptical should've been a few years 
ago. 

Jon Mellott 
(jon@alpha.ee.ufl.edu)