🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <46808@seismo.CSS.GOV> dsc@izimbra.CSS.GOV (David S. Comay) writes:
>does anyone have any experience with the e-machines' full page
>display?

I have one of these and have installed several for people around harvard,
mostly on SE's but one on a Mac II.  I have seen many other big screen
displays, and have used one other (MegaScreen) briefly, but really haven't
done a comparative study.

Pros: it works, and it's easy to install into an SE (very easy into a
II).  The developer pricing has fluctuated; I think I read somewhere
that developer price is $995 for the SE version until October 31.  The
screen is very crisp, although the high-persistance phosphor may
bother some.  I do animation of chemical structures, and it smears a
bit, but I don't consider it a problem.  Most units have shown some
interference (diagonal gray streaks) which seems to be related to disk
access.  Rerouting of the internal cables has usually improved this,
but not completely eliminated it.

It comes with several little pieces of software, including:
 - a patch to switcher to allow use of both screens
 - a patch to Macsbug  " " " " " "
 - a patch to Cmd-shift-3 to allow a macpaint-doc-sized screendump anywhere
	on the Big Picture screen
 - a desktop picture INIT
 - an INIT which installs code to switch between the big screen, the mac
	screen, the big screen at 2x magnification, and a double-screen
	mode (for demos, I guess) which displays the same thing on both
	screens with the big screen at 2x magnification
 - an INIT which adds zoom boxes to any application's windows
 - a slide-show program

I don't really use any of these in day-to-day work, myself...

Cons: the tech support is awful.  For example, one unit arrived with a
	defective logic board (all the early ones had a bad PAL).  OK,
	I can cope; the guy said he'd send a replacement out that day
	by FedEx.  Next day, no replacement.  The calls and promises
	went on for a week before I asked to speak to the president of
	the company (this guy had no other boss) and got the board.
	The same rigamarole went on with the software (the earliest
	unit came with just the INIT that installs the screen, none
	of the rest).  This same guy (his name is Greg) told me, when
	asked about compatible 68020 upgrades told me that the Hypercharger
	was compatible, and that the Prodigy wasn't.  OK, so I ordered
	two Hyperchargers.  It wasn't until I went to install them that
	I realized I was missing something.  "Of course," says Greg,
	"you need an adapter kit.  We'll be shipping them in a month."
	Grrr...

Stew Rubenstein
Cambridge Scientific Computing, Inc.
UUCPnet:    seismo!harvard!rubenstein            CompuServe: 76525,421
Internet:   rubenstein@harvard.harvard.edu       MCIMail:    CSC