We received a flurry of email in response to the review of Iomega's ZIP drive in upFront.eZine #90. Here are samplings:
On the slow data transfer speed, which we clocked at 2MB/minute:
"2MB per minute over a parallel port is quite good actually."
-- Tom Eugelink
"We are about to order a new model that handles both parallel and SCSI
ports. However the complexity of
adding/removing SCSI terminators on a portable ZIP drive definitely
limits its convenience. I hope that USB will
solve this problem."
-- Don Beaton
"With ZIP drives on SCSI, we have had transfer rates that confirm IOMEGA's
claim of nearly 60MB per minute. These
things do ZIP."
-- Terry W. Dotson
"I use a parallel port ZIP drive (have for a long time) and get much
faster transfer than you reported. It depends on
the port hardware. Most ECP and EPP ports can be speeded up a lot by
running the Iomega speed-up program to test the
port and, if possible, reset its parameters."
-- Geoff Harrod
"I have a Zip plus drive hooked up to the parallel port of my Pentium
200. In some informal testing I found that it
could copy 13.3 Megabytes in 12 files in 22 seconds." [Works out to
36MB/min].
-- Darcy Detlor
On the high price of ZIP diskettes:
"I agree with your comments on the Zip drives. The Zip disk cost per
MB is an outrageous rip-off compared to other
backup media. However, Zip drives are widely used, so they are still
useful for transferring files."
-- Don Beaton
"It is not fair to compare it with hard drives because there is the
removable option. One should compare it with the
price of other removable media, like the Superdrive or floppies. [Diskettes]
would come to $0.17/MB."
-- Tom Eugelink
"I don't have any reason to advocate Iomega (don't work for them;
don't even know anyone who works for them). But of
all the computer devices that have been released since I entered the
industry in 1983, this one has provided the
public with a good tool at a reasonable price, and it was a tool that
was needed. I cannot say that about many other
products, most of which have been poorly designed, sloppily manufactured,
and designed strictly for short term company
profits and/or constant upgrades (got to keep that corporate income
stream flowing)."
-- Richard Price
On our complaint about Iomega's network-ignoring Backup software:
"I'd recommend ignoring the '1-Step Backup' software supplied on the
Tools disk. It is really tape software and
fails to realize the capabilities of a disk medium. I also found the
'1-step Restore' program failed to restore! WinZip
6.3 or PKZip for Windows95 will span an archive volume over as many
ZIP disks as needed."
-- Geoff Harrod
On our wish that ZIP drives used compression to double their capacity
to 200MB:
"I hate it when people force compression on me. Because I never know
how much capacity I really have. But when I copy
an already compressed file, I can predict if enough room is available."
-- Tom Eugelink
"While the Zip/Jaz tools do not offer compression, you can use Windows
95's DriveSpace to compress just about any
removable drive, including Zip and Jaz disks."
-- Peter Sheerin
"WinZip 6.3 or PKZip for Windows95 will span an archive volume over
as many ZIP disks as needed."
-- Geoff Harrod
On our recommendation not to buy the ZIP drive:
"I consider ownership of a ZIP drive essential nowadays, as they ARE
the 'industry standard' interchange mechanism, at
least in this country."
-- Geoff Harrod
"This little 100mb piece of plastic has made a HUGE difference in my
computing life. Your client wants a DWG,
and they often want it on a ZIP. Since I have work that I often need
to complete at multiple locations, I keep all
files relative to a project on one 100mb disk."
-- Terry W. Dotson
As for the 2GM JAZ disk drives:
"The new 2GB JAZ drive was first announced back in Sept'97 with an
anticipated release date in Q4'97. I placed my own
order for the product with a local vendor and was told to anticipate
a mid-December delivery. According to a recent
Iomega press
release the revised delivery time frame is Q1'98. My vendor informs
me their distributor is expecting Iomega
to start shipments around February 1st."
--J. T. Pedersen
"If you want to knock Iomega for something, do it with something they
deserve in spades: crummy support policies.
They offer zero free technical support, not even for a measly 15, 30,
or 90 days as do most other vendors."
-- Peter Sheerin
As for alternatives:
"I too looked at the Iomega Zip drive but decided to spend a little
more and get a Philips CD recordable drive. No
hassles with anyone else reading the CD-ROMs and it's very easy to
use. Priced around US$350 at Office Depot. I have
found CDs at Price/Costco in packs of 10 for US$30 with a US$10 rebate
coupon."
-- Fred R. Weaver
"A good file transfer program could reduce the need for Zip disks. I
tried DropChute+ from Hilgraeve yesterday, and I
like it. A free copy of 'Drop Chute+ Release Candidate 1' is available
at http://www.hilgraeve.com/ "
-- Don Beaton
"CAD - Computer Aided (or Assisted) Draughting (or Drafting). Some people
draw a clear distinction between
Design and Draughting, and will argue for ever whether a given CAD
package is a design tool, or a draughting tool. -
Hence the term CADD - Computer Aided Draughting and Design."
-- Andrew Bichard
"Here is another interesting expansion for CAD: Coronary Arterial Disease"
-- Ram D. Sriram
Miller Freeman has announced a major investment that will increase
Cadence magazine's audited circulation to exceed
100,000 in early 1998. Says MFI, "This 25% increase in all new, first-year,
100% qualified subscribers is the largest single
circulation increase in the CAD-related publishing industry."
Bentley Systems
Over 100,000 academic licenses of MicroStation products have been issued
to students and faculty worldwide.
Intel
The 333 MHz Pentium II is due to ship Jan 26. Code named "Deschutes,"
the initial shipments will run at 333MHz and
will reach 450MHz by the end of this year.
The American Federal Trade Commission has allowed
Intel to continue pursue Chips and Technologies.
Visio
All of Visio's 300 employees are moving to the entire East office building
of the Port of Seattle's World Trade Center
complex. The company signed a ten-year lease contract.
Seagate Technology is cutting 10,000 employees -- 10% of its workforce
-- because of reduced prices of hard
disk drives and increased competition from small manufacturers.
"New features come along like new toys, the best ones are implemented
(copied) by everyone else. Ultimately we are
all using the same tools. As individuals we have to weigh our current
level of expertise and resources against the
unknown greener grass over there. I know I work with only one
of the best CAD programs around. While my software
vendor of choice jockeys for pole position, I benefit from continued
improvements. I can't imagine any other software
increasing productivity to the point that it justifies a new learning
curve, and the risk of other unforeseen pitfalls
involved in major software shifts. Especially, when a little patience
delivers the new toy in the next release."
-- Paul Freeman
"Great work. Keep it up."
-- VA
"Appreciate your upFront eZine NEWS. Is most informative and has helped
me in some of my tasks."
-- KD
"Capitalism, as understood in the USA, is the product of a long
historical evolution, of deeply institutionalized
notions of the sanctity of the contract, of courts whose judgments
are obeyed without question, of civil society, of
political leaders whose authority rests on the freely given consent
of the governed."
-- R. Taggart Murphy, "Don't Be Fooled
by Japan's Big Bang," Fortune magazine, 29 Dec'97