HI all,
Thanks for all your answers. Reading back I realize that my question was formulated a bit obliquely, so allow me to tell you a bit more. I'm currently finishing two books, and I regularly write shorter pieces, varying from academic articles to newspaper columns. I'm an historian of science, who specializes in the history of paleontology, and I work at two institutions in the Netherlands.
As to the computers, as I said the SE/30 is brand new (for me), but the SE I have owned since 1989 or 1990, when I scraped together all the earnings of my paper route and extorted the rest from my parents in order to be able to purchase the machine. Before that I had an Atari ST 520+ which ran Mac software through an emulator called Spectre. All the apps had to be transferred though an AppleTalk cable at a ludicrously slow speed; but the prospect of being able to run Dark Castle or even Word on the ST kept me going. But I digress.
The SE saw me through most of my studies, until I bought a Powerbook 150 around 1995 I think, and wrote my MA thesis on that one. I even sold the SE at one point, but thankfully was able to buy it back shortly afterwards. It came in handy when working on my PhD thesis; the PoBo 150 functioned as a floppy conversion station at that stage. But the SE is in dire need of some TLC: it has become very noisy, and the floppy drive appears to be hiccuping now and then. The SE/30 appeared to be a better day-to-day compromise, particularly as I restore the other machine.
Configurations:
- SE: 4/40 with a minimal system 7.1.
- SE/30: 8/2x40 with one hard drive in its usual position, and the other mounted on its side against the case wall.
- Powerbook 150: 8/120 clinging on for dear life, but barely readable display.
Practical problems that I run into at the moment are:
- How to write to SE/30-formatted floppies on my MBPr (as I said).
- Document conversion: Word documents from 5.1 don't open on Word for Mac (2011 or 2016 Preview). I'm mostly using .rtf, which appears to work but is not ideal.
- The system on the SE/30 is 7.0.1 Dutch; I prefer to have an English-language system on it, if possible (7.1 or up). I have disk images, but I still have to get them on the SE/30 to write them to floppies.
If anyone can help me with particularly the first point, much appreciated. In general, I have to say that getting involved with these machines again has been a hoot, and I notice that my past experiences are unlocking themselves in my brain on a daily basis.
Thanks for all your answers. Reading back I realize that my question was formulated a bit obliquely, so allow me to tell you a bit more. I'm currently finishing two books, and I regularly write shorter pieces, varying from academic articles to newspaper columns. I'm an historian of science, who specializes in the history of paleontology, and I work at two institutions in the Netherlands.
As to the computers, as I said the SE/30 is brand new (for me), but the SE I have owned since 1989 or 1990, when I scraped together all the earnings of my paper route and extorted the rest from my parents in order to be able to purchase the machine. Before that I had an Atari ST 520+ which ran Mac software through an emulator called Spectre. All the apps had to be transferred though an AppleTalk cable at a ludicrously slow speed; but the prospect of being able to run Dark Castle or even Word on the ST kept me going. But I digress.
The SE saw me through most of my studies, until I bought a Powerbook 150 around 1995 I think, and wrote my MA thesis on that one. I even sold the SE at one point, but thankfully was able to buy it back shortly afterwards. It came in handy when working on my PhD thesis; the PoBo 150 functioned as a floppy conversion station at that stage. But the SE is in dire need of some TLC: it has become very noisy, and the floppy drive appears to be hiccuping now and then. The SE/30 appeared to be a better day-to-day compromise, particularly as I restore the other machine.
Configurations:
- SE: 4/40 with a minimal system 7.1.
- SE/30: 8/2x40 with one hard drive in its usual position, and the other mounted on its side against the case wall.
- Powerbook 150: 8/120 clinging on for dear life, but barely readable display.
Practical problems that I run into at the moment are:
- How to write to SE/30-formatted floppies on my MBPr (as I said).
- Document conversion: Word documents from 5.1 don't open on Word for Mac (2011 or 2016 Preview). I'm mostly using .rtf, which appears to work but is not ideal.
- The system on the SE/30 is 7.0.1 Dutch; I prefer to have an English-language system on it, if possible (7.1 or up). I have disk images, but I still have to get them on the SE/30 to write them to floppies.
If anyone can help me with particularly the first point, much appreciated. In general, I have to say that getting involved with these machines again has been a hoot, and I notice that my past experiences are unlocking themselves in my brain on a daily basis.