Rowpro And Macintosh

[old] Lucky · Post by **[old] Lucky** » December 4th, 2004, 9:58 pm

Happy to be here, a new member & first post. Would have checked archives for this subject but as I've discovered that all of you are in software transition (erow/rowpro) I thought it best to post direct. I'm interested in online rowing but am a Mac owner. Any word on this issue?Any Mac folks out there that have used "Virtual PC" for erow? Might rowpro be bi-platform? Any and all feed- back very much appriciated. Gene Wilson Soon to be iced up in Maineland

[old] michaelb · Post by **[old] michaelb** » December 4th, 2004, 10:35 pm

As a fellow mac user, I feel your pain. I just bought a new iMac G5. I decided it didn't make sense to use my mac for my rowing computer, since you really need a dedicated computer to sit next to your rowing machine, and an old junk PC works just fine for that. As I describe in this other thread, I just asked around and was able to get several for free. <a href='http://concept2.ipbhost.com/index.php?s ... mpressions' target='_blank'>rowpro impressions</a> There were reports years ago about people using VPC and erow, but since macs have been usb only since 1998, you also had to emulate the serial port, so there were glitches with that. With VPC, you still either have to buy or pay for the cost XP, so it is cheaper to just buy XP and stick it on a junk PC if you can get one of those somehow (you can buy better than junk PCs for around $150). So for VPC, you are looking at around $250 just to get up and running. The really interesting possibility if you have say a mac laptop and want to use that for your display, is to get a cheap pc, install XP pro, and run the free remote desktop app which will let you run windows on your mac remotes. People seem to say this blows VPC away (but I am not sure about graphics card performance this way, but I would guess it is better than VPC). <a href='http://www.microsoft.com/mac/otherprodu ... ktopclient' target='_blank'>remote desktop</a> If I had XP pro I would test this out as a public service for rowing mac users everywhere. I do have to admit that I haven't quite figured out Mac to XP file or printer sharing, but it gives me a headache to sit in front of my rowing computer, so I really need to haul it back to my office to figure that out. The XP computer shares my airport network though just fine (it did hours to figure that out though). I bet if I hadn't bought a cheap PC network card, and went with the airport express instead, I would have been up and running in 5 minutes.

[old] dgg · Post by **[old] dgg** » December 4th, 2004, 11:29 pm

Michael, I have been rowing since Sept. '03 and have always wanted to try rowpro, but I'm not interested enough to spend anything on a test using Microsoft software. You suggest a very attractive solution to my problem. I have zero experience with Windows --I last used a PC in the days of DOS 2.0 -- but I am sure I can borrow a machine running XP Pro. The "free remote desktop app" that you mention -- that's from Microsoft, is it, or do I get it someplace else? Also, would my PowerBook connect to the PC through my airport? Thanks, Dennis

[old] michaelb · Post by **[old] michaelb** » December 5th, 2004, 12:07 am

As far as I can tell (I haven't done this at all), your powerbook would connect to the PC using airport or ethernet and then you can control it using RDC, so that the PC display of rowpro would appear on your powerbook. RDC is free from microsoft. You could have the PC anywhere, but it would need to by connected to the rowing machine by a USB cable (assuming you have a PM3) or serial cable, and there is fairly short limit to that cabling. But once the PC is running remotely, you would just leave it running and not mess it with it at all. <a href='http://www.macintouch.com/vpc7.html' target='_blank'>macintouch</a> Scroll down to Oct 14 and start reading with Matt Davis's post. Somewhere I read that RDC doesn't use the PC's video card though, so that it won't work for "graphics intensive games" so I think that will be the key test for rowpro.

[old] SlugButt · Post by **[old] SlugButt** » December 12th, 2004, 4:28 pm

If anyone has success with running RowPro and/or eRow on a Mac I'd love to know. I'm getting pretty frustrated with my Dell (poor reliability, terrible support) and am considering a Mac for my next computer. However, I'd hate to be without online rowing. David

[old] michaelb · Post by **[old] michaelb** » December 12th, 2004, 6:14 pm

Slugbutt, I think you have the perfect situation. You can use the old Dell for your rowing computer, virus and spam and spyware clogged as it may be, and then buy a mac as your other computer to do everything else. If you network the PC to the mac, and use the mac for your internet connection, I think you get all or most of the built in security benefits of the mac protecting your windows pc. For others looking for windows emulation, this just came out a few days ago, and may be a scam since they aren't offering a demo, but once this get reviewed, it may be worth checking out for the price ($24), particularly if you have a copy of win 2000 or XP you can use. <a href='http://www.iemulator.com/' target='_blank'>iemulator</a> In this post, somebody posts an email from the developer saying this may be slower than VPC, so we will have to see how this works in real life. <a href='http://forums.dealmac.com/read.php?1,20 ... 63#2017263' target='_blank'>dealmac forum</a>

[old] SlugButt · Post by **[old] SlugButt** » December 12th, 2004, 10:06 pm

Many thanks for the advice!

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