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Silicon Times Report Issue 0714
*---== ST REPORT INTERNATIONAL ONLINE MAGAZINE ==---*
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
"The Original 16/32bit Online Magazine"
from
STR Publishing Inc.
""""""""""""""""""
April 05, 1991 No.7.14
==========================================================================
STReport International Online Magazine¿
Post Office Box 6672
Jacksonville, Florida
32205 ~ 6672
R.F. Mariano
Publisher - Editor
-----------------------------------------
Voice: 904-783-3319 10 AM - 4 PM EST
BBS: 904-786-4176 USR/HST DUAL STANDARD
FAX: 904-783-3319 12 AM - 6 AM EST
-----------------------------------------
** Fnet 350 * Fido Node 1:112/35 * NeST Node 90:3000/350.0 **
privately owned & operated STReport support BBS
ALL issues of STReport International Online Magazine
are available along with
A worldwide list of private bbs systems carrying STReport
__________________________________________________________________
> 04/05/91: STReport #7.14 The Original 16/32 bit Online Magazine!
-------------------------
- The Editor's Desk - CPU REPORT - MAC REPORT
- UNIX is BIGTIME! - "HACKER" ARRESTED - EVIL EMPIRE VIRUS!
- ICD Applauded - CeBIT Overview - BLACKJACK!
- MAC'S A/UX - PORTFOLIO NEWS - CODEHEAD NEWS!!
* CAL-ASSISTANT REVIEWED! *
* CENSORSHIP -> AT WHAT PRICE? *
* ISRAEL & ATARI! *
==========================================================================
ST REPORT INTERNATIONAL ONLINE MAGAZINE¿
The _Number One_ Online Magazine
-* FEATURING *-
"UP-TO-DATE News and Information"
Current Events, Original Articles, Hot Tips, and Information
Hardware - Software - Corporate - R & D - Imports
==========================================================================
STReport's support BBS, NODE # 350 invites systems using Forem ST and
Turbo Board BBS to participate in the Fido/F-Net Mail Network. Or, call
Node 350 direct at 904-786-4176, and enjoy the excitement of exchanging
information relative to the Atari ST computer arena through an excellent
International ST Mail Network. All registered F-NET - Crossnet SysOps are
welcome to join the STReport Crossnet Conference. The Crossnet Conference
Code is #34813, and the "Lead Node" is # 350. All systems are most
welcome to actively participate. Support Atari Computers; Join Today!
==========================================================================
AVAILABLE EXCLUSIVELY ON: GENIE ~ CIS ~ DELPHI ~ BIX ~ FIDO ~ F-NET
==========================================================================
> The Editor's Podium¿
A few weeks ago, STReport carried an item relative to Borland and
Turbo C/ST. In that article we pointed out that while Turbo C for the
Atari ST was readily available in Germany, the US operation would not
hear of instituting US distribution. We received a letter from a Borland
support person whom we openly addressed in the article. STReport felt it
only right and proper to share that letter with you. From this point
forward, STReport places its full support with Mr. Jimenez and his
efforts to induce Borland to distribute Turbo C/ST in the USA.
Category 26, Topic 2 (STReport's Category)
Message 61 Tue Mar 26, 1991
J.JIMENEZ [Juan] at 17:35 EST
I'd like to communicate that Mr. Mariano called me today, and we mutually
agreed that attacking each other in the media will not achieve any posi-
tive purpose, and that we should both work together to achieve the goal of
seeing Turbo C for the ST released and supported in the USA by Borland
International, Inc. I have stated that I am more than willing to assist
in this goal in any way I can.
Juan Jimenez, President
Micro Consulting Associates
San Juan, Puerto Rico
I received a note from a reader that made mention of the "Borland
Incident". Incident was far too harsh a description for the article's
appearance. In fact, the article has brought a modicum of attention to
the fact that Atarians across the USA wish to see Turbo C/ST available in
the USA. And... it united myself and Mr. Jimenez in pursuing a common
goal. To me, that's a far cry from an "incident".
-==**==-
On another topic entirely, the atmosphere in the electronic communica-
tions world today seems to be highly volatile and constantly near explo-
sive conditions. One of the more apparent causes seems to be that most
folks still have yet to grasp the fact that what is said in this very
moment in time is across the borders of every state in the union at almost
the very same moment.
Also, there are those who seem to "prejudge" most anything they feel
is some type of silly "threat". Good sense and experience will cure these
ills. But until then, it is encumbent upon all of us to exercise restr-
aint and try our very best to understand the next person's actions without
immediately going ballistic.
The other, less obvious, cause is the subtle formation of "cliques".
Most of you know what they are and how destructive they can be. The best
comparison of what they resemble is the old fashion attitude of "them and
us" or, "insiders and outsiders". The saddest observation recently made
was "electronic lynch mobs". Friends, we (all of us) do not need this
happening, watch the online scene, if an individual disagrees with someone
who's on the "in". Almost immediately there appears the very same people,
vigilantly attacking or defending, time after time, carrying on a mile a
minute. If only they could see themselves as others do.
Cliques have destroyed usergroups and all types of social and politi-
cal clubs. Most folks who have experienced the delitrious effects of
cliques are quick to spot them and point them out in hopes of avoiding
headaches. Although the Cliques are not prevalent on all the online
services, they are there and must be nipped in the bud. Thankfully, there
has been some mention made relative to personal attacks and the curtail-
ment thereof. I hope we can put an end to their obvious growth in the
online scene......
Thanks again for your strong support,
Ralph..........
pssst; the moaning and groaning behind the "green door" is already common
knowledge....
TODAY'S NEWS ..TODAY!
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
> STReport's Staff The regulars and this week's contributors!
================
Publisher - Editor
------------------
Ralph F. Mariano
Staff Editors:
--------------
Michael Arthur Lloyd E. Pulley, Sr. Dana P. Jacobson
Lucien Oppler Brad Martin Walter Daniel
Oscar Steele Robert Allbritton John Szczepanik
Contributing Correspondants:
----------------------------
Michael Lee Richard Covert Roger Stevens
Brian Converse Oliver Steinmeier Ed Krimen
IMPORTANT NOTICE
================
Please, submit letters to the editor, articles, reviews, etc...
via E-Mail to:
Compuserve.................... 70007,4454
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Delphi........................ RMARIANO
BIX........................... RMARIANO
FIDONET....................... 112/35
FNET.......................... NODE 350
NEST.......................... 90:19/350.0
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NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE
COMPUSERVE WILL PRESENT $15.00 WORTH OF COMPLIMENTARY ONLINE TIME
to the Readers of;
ST REPORT INTERNATIONAL ONLINE MAGAZINE¿
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
"The Original 16/32bit Online Magazine"
NEW USERS; SIGN UP TODAY!
CALL: 1-800-848-8199 .. Ask for operator 198
You will receive your complimentary time
and
be online in no time at all!
WHAT'S NEW IN THE ATARI FORUMS (April 5)
ARCSHELL 2.4
Charles F. Johnson and Little Green Footballs Software bring you ArcShell
2.4, the latest version of this fine program. This version provides a
link to MaxiFile by allowing you to call up MaxiFile from ArcShell's main
screen. See ARCS24.ARC in Library 1 of the Atari Productivity Forum (GO
ATARIPRO).
ERGO-DUO-BIOPTIC DISPLAY MODE IS NOW A REALITY!
If you don't know what that is (and I didn't either) then read the file
MF30-2.TXT in Library 16, CodeHead SoftWare, of the Atari Vendors Forum
(GO ATARIVEN) and find out about this latest feature added to MaxiFile
3.0. A great program just got better!
NEW FROM DOUBLECLICK
DC LEFTY ARROW is another PROGRAM OF THE WEEK from Double Click Software.
DC LEFTY ARROW is a supplement to their DC LEFTY program, it will give you
a "left handed" mouse arrow. Download DCLARW.ARC from LIBRARY 13 of the
Atari Vendors Forum (GO ATARIVEN). Also download DCSHWR.TXT from LIBRARY
13 -- a Double Click Software press release announcing their new DC SHOWER
program.
GOLDEN OLDIE FOR ATARI ST
DOTS AND DASHES - This classy connect-the-dots strategy game runs in both
color and monochrome. Match wits with the computer or up to three humans.
Play on one computer or compete by way of modem and a phone hookup. Start
with dots only or with some dashes in place. To introduce an element of
luck, make beginning dashes invisible. Fun for all ages and IQs. Built-
in, printable instructions. Available in LIBRARY 2 of the Atari Arts
Forum (GO ATARIARTS) as DOTDAS.PRG.
The Modem Games Forum will be sponsoring a FREE PLAYING NIGHT in the MTM
Gaming Lobby (GO MTMLOBBY) on Tuesday, April 9th, between 7:00 PM and
12:00 AM Eastern Time.
The MTM Gaming Lobby allows you to play modem capable games interactively
against other CompuServe members. The games that are supported include:
KNIGHTS OF THE SKY; COMMAND HQ; FLIGHT SIMULATOR; 3-D HELICOPTER; BATTLE
CHESS; FACES; POPULOUS; STUNT DRIVER; TANK; TRACON II; and VETTE!
If you don't currently own one of the above mentioned commercial modem
capable games, many are available for you to download from the Libraries
of the Modem Games Forum (GO MODEMGAMES). Some of our Forum members'
favorites include:
PC OTHELLO File: OTHELO.ARC in LIBRARY 9 ("Board/Card Games")
BATTLESHIP File: BATTLE.ARC in LIBRARY 11 ("Other Modem Games")
(The above games are IBM Compatible.)
DOTS-DASHES File: DOTDAS.PRG in LIBRARY 11 ("Other Modem Games")
for Atari ST users.
If you've never played through the MTM Lobby, this is a great opportunity
to give it a try. Instructions are available for download FREE OF CONNECT
CHARGES from the CompuServe MTM Games menu (GO MTMGAMES).
The MTM Gaming Lobby is available for use twenty-four hours a day, seven
days a week. Forum staff members are there to help you out interactively
on weeknights from 7:00 PM - 12:00 AM and weekends from 6:00 PM - 1:00 AM
(Eastern Time).
We hope to see you on Tuesday! Remember, CompuServe connect charges will
be TURNED OFF while you are in game play mode!
NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE
***********************************************************************
> CPU REPORT¿
==========
Issue #105
----------
by Michael Arthur
CPU INSIGHTS¿
============
AT&T, THE OSF, AND THE COURSE OF UNIX
=====================================
In May 1988,seven of the most influential Unix Developers, including
IBM, Hewlett Packard, DEC, and German computer maker Siemens Inc., an-
nounced the formation of the Open Software Foundation, or OSF. The stated
goal of the OSF is to openly develop an alternate systems/software stan-
dard for Unix. The catch: AT&T, the owner and licensee of Unix, has
refused to join the OSF, and in fact, is developing a new version of Unix
with Sun Microsystems.
To understand why these large computer companies (any one of which
owns a significant segment of the Unix market) are rebelling against the
originator and principal owner of Unix, AT&T, it is necessary to go back
to the beginning.
Unix was originally made to be a multiprocessor standard, with its
licensees having equal access to a growing operating system which would be
managed and improved by AT&T to take advantage of the latest innovations
in computer technology.
But as time went on, AT&T did not compile such a good record of
keeping Unix up to date. This resulted in Unix derivatives like Xenix and
Berkeley Unix arising to meet these needs. These Unix dialects weren't
that compatible, and Unix users were forced to fragment. Things remained
stable for a while, but as innovations in user interfaces, graphics, and
Unix itself emerged, the need arose for a new version of Unix which would
both take advantage of these innovations and merge these "Unixes" into a
cohesive, well defined standard.
Seeing this need, AT&T announced that it was making such a system, in
Unix Version 5.4, which would merge Berkeley Unix 4.2/4.3, AT&T Unix
Version 5.3, and Microsoft Xenix, therefore establishing a solid Unix
standard, and would also use a new graphic user interface for Unix, called
Open Look. One small detail: Open Look was developed by Sun Microsystems,
and they alone are helping AT&T make its new Unix. Meaning that Sun would
become the most important Unix licensee (and the most profitable).
Another thing is that Sun was also developing the SPARC, a new RISC
(Reduced Instruction Set Chip) processor, and AT&T had mentioned that
Unix Version 5.4 might take advantage of its special features.
So faced with the problems of Sun being allowed to set the course of
Unix in an exclusive partnership with AT&T (thereby becoming the leading
Unix company), as a powerful, yet proprietary Unix lured users away, these
leading Unix vendors took the only reasonable option. Instead of sitting
passively by while AT&T and Sun lived happily ever after, they decided to
make their OWN Unix....
Hence the Open Software Foundation, an independent corporation funded
by its supporters that would devise a comprehensive Unix standard covering
the areas of graphical user interfaces, enhancements to Unix, and other
aspects of Unix. After development of their platform, the OSF would back
it up with the things that they felt were lacking from AT&T. These
things included:
1) Reasonable, stable licensing terms
2) A vendor-neutral decision process
3) Equal vendor influence in (and access to) specifications
4) A hardware-independent Unix standard that would evolve
in a quicker, more rational fashion than AT&T Unix had.
Also, when the OSF's alternate Unix standard has been developed, all
of the OSF's member companies will migrate their entire Unix product line
to it, in order to further support it. And as each member of the OSF has
a greater share of the Unix hardware market than AT&T (and the OSF is
quickly gaining new members), the united force of these Unix vendors could
be great enough to wrest control of Unix away from AT&T.
AT&T has not reacted favorably to this, ridiculing the OSF's plans,
and joining other industry analysts in taking a very dim view as to the
OSF could accomplish. But surprisingly, Sun Microsystems itself has
considered joining the OSF. In order to end all speculation about their
chances of success, the OSF immediately began development on its Unix.
First on their agenda was a standard Graphical User Interface. The
OSF's requirements in this issue were that the interface be based on
X/Windows, a standard Unix windowing system, and that the interface be
completely hardware-independent. The OSF listed 26 organizations whose
products it would consider as candidates. Among the ones considered were
Hewlett Packard (New Wave), Digital Research (X/GEM), Microsoft (Presenta-
tion Manager), Carnegie-Mellon University, and Sun Microsystems' Open Look
interface. It finally chose to create its own interface, called OSF
Motif, by combining the Presentation Manager's "look and feel" with feat-
ures from other GUIs made by DEC and Hewlett Packard.
The OSF then considered what standard of Unix it should base its
operating system on. After considering A/IX (IBM's version of Unix) and
Berkeley Unix, it finally decided to make its OS a combination of other
systems. While it uses Mach, a dialect of Berkeley Unix that supports
multiprocessing, for its main kernel, A/IX is used for most system func-
tions. The OSF has recently been focusing on advanced distributed proces-
sing (which allows you to run one copy of the same program on two or more
computers at the same time), and has been considering several system
standards.
The OSF estimates that it will have its alternate Unix standard ready
for commercial distribution before 1992, and has already sent beta copies
of its operating system to its member companies. However, as AT&T is now
shipping Unix Version 5.4, many computer vendors are choosing to support
it instead of the OSF's Unix. Now that AT&T has spun off its Unix
Software Division as a separate, autonomous company, AT&T Unix is also
beginning to gain new momentum in the computer industry. However, AT&T
has not been able to rally much support for Open Look; even the companies
who use AT&T Unix are beginning to back OSF Motif as the standard GUI
(Graphical User Interface) for Unix programs. With both camps gaining
support, the question becomes whether AT&T Unix will be able to hold off
the OSF and dominate the course of Unix, or if a group of Unix vendors
will be able to muster enough support to dethrone AT&T.
With the advent of OS/2, the computer industry finally began to take a
look at multitasking operating systems, and noticed Unix, with its
powerful capabilities. As such, Unix has become very important, having
the potential of eventually guiding the microcomputer industry into the
21st Century. Now the issue is if Unix not only can overcome the MS-DOS,
Macintosh, and OS/2 alternatives, but can withstand the dissention within
its internal ranks to establish a standard worthy of such a feat....
> CPU STATUS REPORT¿ LATE BREAKING INDUSTRY-WIDE NEWS
=================
Issue #15
Compiled by: Lloyd E. Pulley, Sr.
- Sunnyvale, California NEW ATARI PLANT IN ISRAEL?
---------------------
According to an announcement made by the Israeli Trade and Industry
Ministry, Atari will set up a new 150 million dollar computer factory in
Israel. Zvi Cohen, general director of the ministry, said that Atari
and the government would share the costs and the factory will create 600
jobs at first and could go to 1,000 jobs within five years. Atari has
not issued any comments on the report.
- Dallas, Texas WHO INVENTED FIRST MICROCHIP - TEXAS
------------- INSTRUMENTS WANTS TO FIND OUT.
Texas Instruments has fired the first salvo in challenging the patent on
the microprocessor which awarded to Gilbert Hyatt of Cerritos, Califor-
nia last summer and has asked the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to
determine who first invented the microprocessor chip. The Patent's
Office proceeding is called an "interference" and could take several
years to decide.
Until Hyatt's patent was issued, the computer industry had been oper-
ating pretty much free of basic patent restraints. There are a large
number of engineers who could have a claim in inventing an early version
of the microprocessoR.
Hyatt's patent took over 20 years to issue and was based on an original
filing claim in 1970, which had to be re-filed in 1977. TI's position
is that its employee, Gary W. Boone, invented the first microprocessor,
the 4-bit TMS100 calculator chip. Boone was awarded a patent on it in
1978 after filing in 1971.
- Los Angeles, California HAS 1984 ARRIVED IN CALIFORNIA?
-----------------------
Californians not only have to have their photos taken for their drivers
licenses, they now have to have their fingerprints scanned also. They
are then stored electronically by the California Department of Motor
Vehicles (DMV). The scanner, which is supplied by Fingermax, the only
company which produces electronic fingerprint scanners, scans, digitizes
and then stores the print in a database.
One of the future products to be produced by Fingermax is a fingerprint
scanner for patrol cars. According to a spokesman for Fingermax, "If
the police pull you over because they suspect you of some crime, they
could positively identify you there, instead of hauling you to a
station. Patrol cars are already equipped with a computer monitor and
access to the National Crime Information Center, it's just a matter of
extending that system. This could work as a protection of your cons-
titutional rights,"
- Sunnyvale, California 9600 BAUD MODEM FOR UNDER $200
---------------------
By ignoring the current industry standards and establishing their own, a
new company called CompuCom has come out with a 9600 baud modem that
will retail for less than $200. The "Champ" uses a proprietary protocol
called the CompuCom Speed Protocol (CSP-3) to achieve rates of 38,400
bits per second, when attached to another modem using the same protocol.
This is the same speed claimed by the V.32 modems using the V.42 data-
compression standard.
- Scottsdale, Arizona 'EVIL EMPIRE' IS THE NEW MS-DOS VIRUS
-------------------
A new MS-DOS virus, dubbed the "Evil Empire" virus because of the mes-
sage it displays, has been reported by RG Software Systems, a maker of
virus protection software. The virus was found at an unnamed Canadian
university and displays a message condemning Western intervention in the
Persian Gulf. Appearing at random, the message reads:
"I'm becoming a little confused as to where the 'evil empire' is these
days. If we paid attention, if we cared, we would realize just how
unethical this impending war with Iraq is, and how impure the American
motives are for wanting to force it. It is ironic that when Iran held
American hostages, for a few lives the Americans were willing to drag
negotiation on for months; yet when oil is held hostage, they are
willing to sacrifice hundreds of thousands of lives, and refuse to
negotiate."
RG Software said the next release of their Vi-Spy, scheduled to appear
in a few weeks, will be able to identify the new virus.
- San Francisco, California FEDS HAVE 96% CONVICTION RATE
-------------------------
According to the Secret Service's Fraud Division, they have a conviction
rate of 96% for persons arrested by the Secret Service for telecommuni-
cations and computer crimes. This figure is based on approximately
10,000 arrests since 1985 concerning fraudulent use of access devices
including credit cards, automatic teller machine (ATM) cards, passwords
for computer systems and frequent flyer codes.
- Phoenix, Arizona ANOTHER "HACKER" ARRESTED
----------------
Law enforcement officials have arrested a 19-year old who they say is
the first to be targeted in a nationwide crackdown on illegal computer
"hackers". Baron Majette, aka "Doc Savage" and "Samuel Savage" was ar-
rested last week for alleged crimes uncovered in the joint federal/state
"SunDevil" investigation.
The complaint alleges that Majette last year broke into computer files
and made unauthorized credit card charges from Citibank and its mer-
chants exceeding $60,000. Also, that Majette used a computer to divert
the costs of two long-distance conference calls to a Toys "R" Us retail
store in March 1990. The group which included 15 individuals from Cali-
fornia, Texas, Nevada, Connecticut, Missouri, Georgia, New York and
North Carolina spent $8,100 on telephone calls according to the
complaint.
This is the first arrest resulting from the raids last May, when the Sun
Devil Task Force served 28 search warrants nationwide, seized 42 com-
puter systems and nearly 50,000 computer disks.
- San Jose, California VIDEOPHONES IN OUR FUTURE?
--------------------
AT&T and Compression Labs Inc. (CLI) will join forces to develop video
telephone products. CLI will contribute its expertise in compressed
digital video and very-large-scale integration of chips and AT&T will
contribute its telecommunications know-how.
- Redmond, Washington NUMBER TWO AND CLIMBING
-------------------
According to figures released from the Software Publishers Association
(SPA), sales of Windows-based applications rose 157% during 1990 in
North America and is second only to the sale of DOS applications. A
market research firm in Framingham, Massachusetts predicts another 150%
growth during 1991 (from 1.5 to 3.8 million units), with a further
doubling in 1992.
- Los Angeles, California PRODIGY SUED IN LOS ANGELES
-----------------------
A class action lawsuit, on behalf of a Texas user doing business in Los
Angeles and asking for damages and injunctive relief, has been filed
against Prodigy Services over the alleged deceptive advertising and
fraudulent conduct in developing, announcing and implementing charges
for electronic mail.
The lawsuit comes just weeks after the launch of an investigation by the
Consumer Protection Division of the Los Angeles District Attorney's
office prompted by similar concerns. An investigation into Prodigy's
advertising by the Texas Attorney General resulted in a settlement last
December that included refund offers for some Texas users who said they
were misled by Prodigy's promotional campaign.
____________________________________________________________
> ICD & GRASP! STR FOCUS¿ "Would I buy another product from ICD, you bet!"
======================
ICD & DOIN' THE RIGHT THING!
============================
by M. Angell
GRASP BBS is run on a 1040ST with 4meg of memory and Seagate ST4144R
hard drive(117.8 megs formatted) using an ICD Host Adaptor and an OMTI
3527A controller.
I started having problems with my drive. All of a sudden, I could not
access anything on the hard drive. I rebooted and the system could not
find a hard drive. I rebooted again from diskette using ICD's Host Adap-
tor utilities. The computer system could not find a controller or Host
Adaptor. Since, I have an ICD Tape Backup unit, I decided I would try to
see if I could format my drive. The software went to format and came back
about 4 minutes later saying error "check cable connections".
I called ICD and talked to Howard. He advised me to check my cables.
He tried to help me on the phone. He told me I could send my setup to ICD
and they would check it out. I thanked him and said I would if I could
not get it working. I tried reseating all my cables to no avail. I then
decided I would try swapping boards from my other hard drive which is the
same setup as the BBS. I was timid about doing this. I did not want to
have two systems down. I talked to a friend, Dan Grenoble about my sit-
uation. After checking my system out, we decided to swap boards. I first
swapped my ICD Host Adaptor board and rebooted. Same problems. I then
swapped OMTI controller boards and the system came up. I then reinstalled
the original ICD Host Adaptor board and the system came up. Now, I knew
my problem was the OMTI controller card.
I called ICD and talked to Howard again. I asked Howard to send me a list
of the SENSE codes that the OMTI puts out. He fax'ed the sheet to my work
place. I told him my controller was bad. He connected me to sales. The
salesman was very courteous and gave me an Return Merchandise Authoriza-
tion number and instructions to send it back and he would send me a new
replacement. I am very pleased with the service and help I received from
ICD and especially, Howard Peters. Everything I have purchased from them
has worked reliably and as advertised. Would I buy another product from
ICD, you bet!
Mickey Angell,
president of GRASP.
SysOp GRASP BBS 804-744-8022
***********************************************************************
:HOW TO GET YOUR OWN GENIE ACCOUNT:
_________________________________
To sign up for GEnie service: Call: (with modem) 800-638-8369.
Upon connection type HHH (RETURN after that).
Wait for the U#= prompt.
Type: XTX99587,CPUREPT then, hit RETURN.
**** SIGN UP FEE WAIVED ****
The system will now prompt you for your information.
-> NOW! GENIE STAR SERVICE IS IN EFFECT!! <-
***********************************************************************
> MAC REPORT¿
==========
Issue #005
----------
by Robert Allbritton
*** APPLE SHIPS //E EMULATOR CARD FOR MAC LC
Over the past three years the greatest loss for Apple has been
in the educational market. IBM PC clones have been eating market share
for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. One reason Apple has had this problem
is because it has been stressing its Macintosh line and de- emphasizing
its Apple II line, yet a vast majority of Apple educational software is
for the Apple II.
Apple is now trying to change that by shipping the Apple //e
emulator card for the Macintosh LC. The card has a built in 6502 micro
processor and its own 128K of RAM as well as joystick and floppy disk
ports. Up to one meg of the LC's memory and its video display are used in
conjunction with the card which will run 98% of all Apple //e software.
The card was originally announced in October along with the Mac Classic,
LC, and IIsi; however it was not expected to be shipped before the 2nd
quarter and is on time.
*** ALDUS SHIPS UPDATES: PAGEMAKER 4.01 AND FREEHAND 3.0
Many people were surprised when Aldus shipped their Freehand 3.0
release a month early! The update includes many new features and is
available to registered Freehand users for $50 directly from Aldus.
Freehand 3.0 has a retail price of %595. Pagemaker 4.01 is a relatively
minor update, mainly speeding up some functions.
*** APPLE PRESIDENT UNCERTAIN OF FUTURE ... OR IS HE?
Late last week, Apple president Michael Spindler said he was
"terrified about where ... Fiscal 1992 revenues will come from," but
later claimed he was taken out of context. "My point was that in a
dynamic industry and economy, that there are no road maps or histories
that allow managers to make fail-safe decisions," in reference to data
base managers, not his corporate outlook for Apple, which remains bright
with growing market share.
*** APPLE STOCK BREAKS 70 - FORTUNE 100
This week, Apple computer stock hit a high of 72, from a low of
25 in mid October (just before the Classic announcement.) Of other finan-
cial interest, Apple was ranked #95, up from #96, in the Fortune 100 at
$5.558 Billion. Other Fortune neighbors were Colgate-Palmolive (#94),
Northrop (#96) and BASF (#99).
> Unix MACREVIEW Friend or Foe?
==============
UNIX: FRIEND OR FOE?
====================
UNIX is like a cult, everyone wants it, but not that many know
why, and even fewer really know what it is. Apple has it. IBM has it.
Even Atari has it on the TT. Large computer customers like the Department
of Defense and large industrial and scientific corporations demand it.
But what is it?
UNIX is more of an environment than anything else. It is one of
the few big mainframe type operating systems that is available on the
micro computer level. UNIX consists of several concepts that reads like a
wish list for all other micro computer operating systems including MS--
DOS, Mac OS and TOS: virtual memory, networking, standardized graphical
interface, huge software libraries, and primitive multitasking. All of
this may seem great, but it does have its drawbacks.
UNIX was originally dreamed up at Bell Labs as an operating system
to orchestrate all of AT&T's nation wide communications equipment. Switc-
hing all of those phone lines around required a highly complex multitas-
king environment. UNIX was born. Along with UNIX came C, as it was used
to do almost all UNIX programming. This is still true today. The problem
with this is that UNIX was developed as a programmer's operating system.
It has a very complicated set of mnemonics (programmers just *love*
obscure codes) and can be a real pain to set up (ever tried to set up an
Amiga with a lot of custom hardware? similar experience.) There are also
several versions of UNIX. The TT will conform to AT&T UNIX System V
release 4 while A/UX, Apple's UNIX, conforms up to release 2.2, with parts
of release 3 (streams.)
A/UX on the Mac is an interesting creature. First of all, UNIX is
a very disk based operating system. Its virtual memory system allows
almost any amount of memory to be declared, regardless of how much memory
is actually in the computer. The virtual memory is then swapped off and
on the hard disk as required. This means that UNIX (and A/UX) really
should have a large, fast hard drive to work well. Another problem is
that the Mac's file system is completely incompatible with A/UX, thus a
hard drive must be set up with A/UX partitions that are separate from the
Mac OS (this is very similar to the partitioning system used by Spectre
128/GCR.)
A/UX does have one neat feature: you can start the Mac OS Finder
as a separate application under A/UX. This means that UNIX code, and
normal Mac programs can operate at once in the same machine. However,
A/UX requires a fast Mac. There is a lot of overhead. Nothing slower than
a Mac IIsi should be used (20Mhz 68030.) The normal Apple OS has a
memory ceiling of 8 Megs of RAM (similar to the 4 Meg limit on the ST)
but under A/UX that is lifted. One side effect of this is that all Mac
programs that you want to run under A/UX must be "32-bit clean." Most new
applications are 32-bit clean, but some older programs that have not been
updated in the past 3 years will have problems. In the environment UNIX,
Mac and X Windows programs can all be running at once.
X Windows is that standard UNIX graphical interface that was
developed at MIT, however it is not central to the UNIX operating system
and applications must be written specifically to take advantage of the X
Windows environment. This is similar in the way that not all ST programs
use the GEM graphical interface. To get the most out of A/UX, X Windows
is a must; as is Ethernet. A/UX got a bad wrap with version 1.0, however,
the new 2.01 release seems to be a winner. Its compatibility is much
improved as are features.
Who needs A/UX or UNIX? Well, certainly not the average user.
UNIX is a big can of worms that will not give you any advantages over the
normal ST or Mac environment. However; if you currently work with UNIX in
your job or through some other capacity, the ability to have UNIX on your
desktop will have obvious advantages: UNIX is set up to work in conjunc-
tion with other UNIX systems.
A/UX is not perfect. It lacks a wide range of tape backup solu-
tions (only Apple's slow DC2000 tape drive is supported) and the package
itself is very expensive. Additionally, none of the Macs currently made
have enough horsepower to drive some of the most serious scientific progr-
ams, but that is not necessarily a flaw (the TT will be no better) some of
these programs were written with high speed RISC workstations in mind, so
you really can't expect miracles from a 25 Mhz 68030. However, the in-
tegration of the UNIX environment and the Macintosh operating system is
excellent.
A/UX comes in several formats and is *expensive* An 80 meg hard
drive with A/UX pre-installed will set you back $2,395. On floppy disks
or a DC2000 tape cartridge, A/UX retails for $995. CD-ROM is $795. Man-
uals are $800 for a complete set and the X Windows system is $350 with
manuals. This is *not* for the home user. However, Apple has recently
announced an A/UX bundle of a Mac IIsi, 5 Megs of RAM, an 80 Meg hard
drive, NuBus adaptor with math co-processor and A/UX 2.0.1 for $5,169
retail could be a real bargain and a good way to break into both the Mac
and UNIX at once. If you are a programmer / hacker, UNIX is a dream come
true. If you are a user - stay away, unless you like headaches.
__________________________________________________________________
> CEBIT 1991 STR Feature¿
======================
DAVE SMALL AT CEBIT
===================
Courtesy GEnie
Atari ST RoundTable
Category 4, Topic 44
compiled by Michael Lee
...CeBIT is past mindblowing. I mean, you could lose COMDEX inside it
quite easily. Apple built a CASTLE out of cinder blocks and mortar for
their booth (can you imagine the time that takes to build/tear down?).
It is such a huge show I can't imagine getting through it, even in the
allotted 8 days.
Sandy and I met a lot of people. Seems the GCR is pretty well known in
Europe. What blew me away was when a guy dumped a magazine on me, and
told me that he just wanted to let me know that the whole thing was
produced on the GCR, using PageMaker. It was a major magazine indeed. I
was blown away -- it is so amazing seeing what people make GCR's do.
Much interest in the SST accelerator. I don't know how many people took
pictures of it in its 8 meg configuration -- *lots*. I imagine it'll
show up in a few mags. We had endless technical talks with some really
on-the-ball engineers about timing, configurations (a 32 megabyte SST
really, really lit their eyes up -- they *glowed*), and so forth. The
interest level was really overwhelming; I'd go back to our place at
night and be asleep by 8 or so.
I did manage to "zap" myself with the Mega power supply heat sink;
there's some blasted capacitor in there holding that hot even when
machine is off. Dropped an SST full of RAM and almost dropped myself --
that one hurt. Which only goes to show software types should avoid
hardware.
Sandy managed to drop a very heavy multi-purpose tool as a knife into
the top of her foot, where it "stuck". It was as bad as the image in
your mind. We made the acquaintance of the very good German health
system. She's got a cast (!!) on her foot and all is healed up fine
now. Everyone treated us great in the hospital, but it sorta tripped up
our travel plans.
Our Stacy regrettably was stolen the last day of the show -- was gone
when we showed up in the morning. Old serial # 14 -- if anyone sees it,
drop me a line, ok? Nothing really exciting on it (I mean, MacPlayMate
on the Mac partitions) -- and they didn't swipe the 030 board right next
to it. Methinks it was someone who thought it was an IBM portable, who
is in for a big shock. Time to find out if safeware insurance is
international.
Atari Germany could not have been more helpful. They bent over backwards
helping us, particularly Matthias Born and his underlings -- found us a
fine place to stay, got us a 110VAC converter for our Mega with the SST,
fed us lunch (I mean, people, the Atari booth had a full inner area with
free Pepsi, all you wanted, for anyone who came in, a full counter to
pull up chairs too, and stuff -- it was mindblowing) and excellent
lunches. The cook in particular made my day, feeding one tired Dave
Small -- you can bet he went home with some "I want my Mac ST" T-shirts.
There was so much at the Atari booth, so many developers, I didn't get
around to them all. (I need to get someone to wear my badge and work the
booth so I can wear dark glasses and get around; I get stopped for
questions otherwise).
Matrix makes fine, fine monitors. There are all sorts of 24 bit color
monitors there, beautiful pictures indeed. TT's abounded; shortage of
fastRAM boards but that's changing. Very nice booth layout, large area,
and just flat crammed with people. What impressed me the most were the
people from eastern European countries who came -- people from
Czechoslavakia and so forth -- that knew the GCR. There are hot, hot,
hot programmers in Poland, Hungary...now that the borders are open maybe
we will see more of their stuff.
There's a rewritten and optimized TOS callled KAOS-TOS out in Germany
that's a bit controversial (as it is a patched 1.4, and Atari didn't
condone it), but wow is it fast. Redraws are done correctly, all sorts
of new options, and the speed gives Quick Index fits. Amazing stuff. The
programmers of it were great to talk to and really, really knew their
stuff. I mean, how many people can you ask, "What bits enable the data
and instruction and write-allocate on the 030?" and have them tell you
from memory? I'm impressed!!
There's a lot more, but I'm still a bit fuzzy and don't recall. The
Overscan -- autoswitch overscan -- is great. That's one Spectre needs to
work with -- gives you LOTS more dots on your ST monitor.
Checked out their UNIX Sys 5 Rel. 4. It seemed to work well. I "did some
things" to it to check it out. It has a very similar X windows to a
machine I've used a long time, so I was right at home with it. One
omission: no "man", online manual, pages. But that's no big deal to
install at all and I'm sure it'll be on the release version -- heck, I
installed my own man pages on my unix box, and as Dave Beckemeyer can
testify, I am the true devil to UNIX.
The performance was okay; not great, not bad. I would guess there's
still some internal tuning and tweaking to do in the device drivers and
stuff.
Scuttlebutt is that Sys 5 will ship on a 200 mbyte hard disk. There'll
be a version if you have a TT 030/8 (you need the fastram!!), another
that includes the TT (which costs more, big surprise).
The machine I played with was running X with the standard clock, X logo,
X maze (I never got source to that one, but it was working), some file
handling utilities, and whatnot. I played in a command-line window and
the speed was very acceptable to me; I'm used to a 20 Mhz 030 UNIX box,
and the TT version was definitely faster. Did things like LS -FRal >
/tmp/tempfile & to load the system and it held it well.
The network was ethernet, going VME, but there are also Mega cards that
Ethernet so you can plug in remote terminals. I just assume that you can
plug in remotes through the serial ports as well -- if not, I bet I know
someone who could add it to the necessary /etc lists.
UUCP was in there, with all the utilities, but was not configured on
that system (System file was default, for instance). No big deal there,
that's easy enough to change. uucico and stuff were all there.
It all looked very nice on the big monitor (the Viking-like one) and ran
well. I loaded it fairly well and it didn't bog badly. I suppose it'll
have to be benchmarked by some pros to get true performance values but
it worked fine for me.
The ST Book was impressive. And gee, a connector on the side. I wonder
if they want a Mac Book? *grin*.
Welp, My body is telling me it's time to go to sleep, and Eric wants to
go see the sequal to the Mutant Turtles. Time to sign off. Hope I
managed to get some of the "feel" of CEbit across to you.
[Continued the next day in another post]
Yeah, jetlag is insidious; it takes a long time to really get over,
versus feeling 50% or 80% "with it". Add to it a cranky 2 year old
making sure that I don't get a night's sleep without interruptions and
it's enough to make me reveal the invasion plans -- perfect torture. Oh,
well.
I mean, imagine Atari's booth. Outside of the actual enclosed 2-story
booth area are a pile of software developers, as has been done many
times at Comdex, etc. All are mobbed. Inside Atari's booth is a nice
schmoozing area with Pepsi and so forth taps (for free), and people
talking all the time. Upstairs is a lovely view of CeBIT and another bar
place with snacks. The cook at the Atari booth was most tickled with
Jennifer and took special care to get me lunches, which I really
appreciated. (Jenny went to him after he'd handed out cookies and asked
if she could get more "for her baby brother". Riiiiight... but it was
funny.)
The exhibitor booths varied. Mine was a cross-shape; each developer got
one "corner" of the cross, with a divider on the cross lines. One my
left was an outfit selling a 12 mb upgrade for your ST. On my right was
autoswitch overscan, a really cool overscan generator (I bought one).
Diagonal from me was Tom Harker, with women mooning over him constantly;
now I have something to threaten him with. (Just kidding Tom!)
There was none of this "pick up a book and read it between customers
stuff". I worked the Gadgets booth alone and was 5 deep most of the
time. All sorts of questions, from unbelievably good to unbelievably
bad. Got interviewed by mags I had never heard of, asked out to dinner
by about 58 distributors that want the SST board Real Bad (I declined;
Sandy needs a little adult companionship after a day of watching the
kids; she and I switched off running the booth and watching the kids.
Equally tiring). You just plain need more than 1 person at the booth 2
or 3 is fine. We gave away boxes and boxes of literature -- we'd fill
the literature trays, boom, they would be empty.
Had many interesting talks with German developers, people from Prague,
Hungary, Poland. The sheer *energy* being displayed there was a buzz --
it was sort of like the ultimate world of Atari show. Walking around,
there were 24- bit color boards that looked superb, Matrix's many
monitor driver cards, and much, much more. I never got time to see the
whole booth at all -- I would try to wander around, get asked "one
question", and pow, my time was up. I need a Groucho Marx nose and
glasses next time.
The *energy* is what stays in my mind. Driving from Zurich into
Hannover, which is pretty much straight north through Germany, I saw
awesome levels of construction -- cranes everywhere, buildings going up.
Looks like Silicon Valley on a busy year. Definitely NOT like Denver!
Man, their economy is going places. Of course, they just got East
Germany dumped on them, which looks like it's in the 1800's (we drove
through several villages; it is sad what was done to that country), but
give the German people a few years to fix up East Germany, then wait and
hang on.
Berlin -- totally crowded. No unused cubic inch. The Wall was GONE,
totally razed; all that is left are the lights, and a bike path. All de-
land mined and stuff. I have a video tape of my kids playing where they
would have been machine-gunned two years ago. The border is the only
place I have ever felt that is like Mordor from Tolkien, totally evil.
Drove through Austria and back to Zurich (flew SwissAir to avoid a
Hussein present) in IFR conditions; 20 feet visibility. What Alps?
Anyway.
The Eastern European countries have little hard cash and little to
generate any; they buy Ataris because they are inexpensive. Atari is
busy at this moment setting up distribution there. Soviet Union is very
slow due to bureaucracy (big surprise there). But as the lessons of
capitalism sink in, I think the countries will take off; Germany did
after being totally levelled in 1945.
The TT is very big there; already there are many VME products for it and
others being developed. The Sys V was running VME Ethernet from a server
of sorts. It worked, although I could make it groan a bit if I tried
(but so?). I think the TT will go okay in Europe, maybe not be a killer,
but do ok. In the US, I have no "feel" at all, especially after the
price drops.
Learned a lot about the distribution system there. Typically a holding
company owns both a magazine and a software firm, and you can imagine
what happens to reviews of the software and any competition. There are
several biggies, and they love the word "exclusive". I don't sign
anything with the word "exclusive" in it, so that wasn't love at first
sight, but we reached an understanding. Accelerator boards are just
settling in in Germany, and the added 8 Megs of memory was quite a
popular thing; you could tell by the twinkle in their eyes. Pointing out
the timing charts showing that D-Ram outperformed cache systems in set
cases really made my day; there's too much popular belief that caches
speed things up, when that is not necessarily true.
The HyperCache/030 is one example.
Welp, I'm rambling -- still not unlagged yet, grin! -- so I'll sign off.
Night all.
_____________________________________________________________
> BLACKJACK! STR InfoFile¿ "REALISTIC CASINO PLAY"
=======================
** ** ** ** ** ** ** PRESS RELEASE ** ** ** ** ** ** **
=================================================================
"BLACKJACK PLUS 3" by MUSICODE SOFTWARE
=================================================================
A UNIQUE NEW PRODUCT FOR ATARI ST USERS!
Realistic casino play, plus 3 additional play modes using program- mable
strategies. More than just another game, BLACKJACK PLUS 3 can show you
why you have lost in the past and teach you how to WIN in the future!
Both new and experienced players will find this program equally valuable.
Play with one to seven players. Play with one to nine decks; you may
specify the deck dealing depth (when to shuffle). Adjustable playing
speed. Card totals for each hand may be displayed. Set casino rules.
Play and enjoy, alone or with friends, using the mouse, keyboard or joys-
ticks!
All aspects of the game of blackjack are supported. You always have the
option to: Double Down, Split, Double after Split, take Insurance (when
the dealer has an ace up) or Surrender your hand.
You will lower or eliminate the casino's odds by practicing the game. See
why you have lost, and how to win next time!
Set up and try any playing, betting or counting strategy. All strategies
and program settings may be saved to disk.
Each player may be individually set to one of four playing modes:
MANUAL - you play the game, just like in the casino
AUTO - play is automatic, according to chosen strategy
FEEDBACK - play manually, you are informed of mistakes in play
BACKGROUND - test strategies quickly (100 hands in 8 seconds)
Practice different strategies to see how to improve your game.
A log may be kept which shows all play action for every hand! Statistics
are tallied for each session and may be displayed on the screen. The log
and statistics may be printed for evaluation.
BLACKJACK IS ALWAYS FUN TO PLAY, ESPECIALLY WHEN YOU WIN!
Check out the self-executing demo in Library #10 (DEMOS):
# 18758 BJP3DEMO
Ask your dealer to order it for you, or contact:
MUSICODE SOFTWARE
5575 Baltimore Drive
Suite 105-127
La Mesa, CA 91942
(619) 469-7194
RETAIL PRICE: $89.95
******************************************************************
> The Flip Side STR Feature¿ "....a different viewpoint"
=========================
A LITTLE OF THIS, A LITTLE OF THAT
==================================
by Michael Lee
Recently there has been some controversy on Genie concerning whether
posts in the ST Roundtable are copyrighted, whether they can be re-
printed without the posters and Genie's permission and whether they have
to be printed in full or can be edited. I have always felt the purpose
of this column was to spread needed information to the whole ST
community and not get involved in any controversies but in this case, I
feel I and my column have become involved, if only indirectly.
As I've stated before, when necessary, I do edit posts for clarity and
brevity and do not always print them in their entirety. Since I am on
all three major networks and capture hundreds of posts, (of which, only
about one in ten are used), working many times until the last minute, it
is impractical for me to get in contact with each network asking
permission to use each post, let alone each individual who posted a
message.
I feel until this issue has been clarified, I will not be able to
include any posts from the ST Roundtable on Genie in my column unless I
have time to get permission from the person who posted it. I hope this
situation can be resolved and will allow me to continue as before, as I
feel there is good information from all three networks for our readers.
RE-PRINTING OF GENIE MATERIAL (Revised September, 1990)
RE-PRINTING REQUIRES PERMISSION:
Individuals wishing to reprint articles, bulletin board topic dis-
cussions, or other information on the GEnie service may make a request
to the GE Mail address: GENIE. We will review the request and forward it
to the appropriate information provider for action. No material found on
GEnie is to be re-printed without the express written permission of GE
management. Re-printing is intended to be a community service to civic &
non-profit organizations for infrequent and special situations. We
reserve the right to cancel such re-prints at any time. Such requests
should specify the specific material to be re-printed, the intended
purpose of the re-printed material, and the media, circulation and
duration of the re-print.
PRESS ARTICLES OR EXCERPTS ARE ALLOWED:
Press articles may include excerpts to highlight examples of the GEnie
service. However, Press articles including such excerpts should be
cleared through GEIS' Press Relations Manager (using the GE Mail
address: STEVEPR) before the article is published.
EDITOR'S NOTE:
In the interests of fairness, the matter of the rules and guidelines
for GEnie has been resolved, the list of rules appears elsewhere in this
issue. STReport feels the new rules and guidelines are fair and unencum-
bering.
-----------------
Question from Bob Britton on CIS...
Can anyone tell me if it's possible and how I can transfer data files
from an Atari St floppy disk to an MS/DOS machine?
Answer from Pat Augustine on CIS...
It's EASY, if the DOS machine has a 3 1/2 inch drive. The ST and MS-
DOS use the same 3.5" drive format (720K). ST's prior to TOS 1.4
don't write an MS-DOS compatible boot sector, but that's no problem.
Either format on the IBM (which the ST will have no trouble reading),
or use a utility (like DC Format) that writes a DOS boot sector. Then
treat it like a normal ST disk. Copy files to it like normal. The DOS
machine should have no trouble with reading them back.
----------------
A similar question from Cavit Alev on CIS...
I'm an IBM'er with no Atari experience, so please excuse my
ignorance: I need to obtain text for a newsletter from a writer who
does the writing on an Atari 520ST, in Wordwriter. I would rather not
re-type all the text from printed output; modem connection is out
because the writer is a beginner, so I need to get her to put the
text on a disk that I can read on a PC...Could anyone here please
spell out the steps required for me so I can forward it to her. All I
need is text, no formatting.
Remember, I'm an IBM'er and she is a real beginner. So don't skip any
steps 'cause we sure won't figure them out.
Answer from Hal Dougherty on CIS...
The quickest way to move ST files to an IBM disk is to format the
disk on your IBM. If you have a 1.44 meg drive just use the command.
format a: /t:80 /n:9
It works even if you only have a normal density 720K drive. The
format switches select 80 tracks and 9 sectors per track. The ST will
read and write to this disk just fine. Just have your friend save the
file as ascii text and you can import the text into almost all the
IBM word processors.
Good luck transferring the files. I use my ST to transfer files to
the pc at work all the time. There are other solutions...
----------------
Some posts (compiled) from Delphi concerning experiences with hard
drives, backing them up and the DVT hard drive VHS tape backup system
From BLACKICE (Matt)
...I had a hard drive mishap a while back...and after my backup
utility (Flashbak) failed to restore [my backup disks] I ordered a
new backup system and went into morning for my loss. With DLII I was
able to recover all my files, but now I have to go back and try to
figure out what they are, since DLII only gives the files numbers and
not names. But at least I didn't completely lose two years of
animation and pictures thanks to that program.
...the reason for this post is that I ordered DVT, the hard drive VHS
tape backup utility and I would now like to sing its praises. At a
cost of only $109 delivered it was fairly reasonable. I backed up and
restored my drive three times with the DVT and it worked flawlessly
every time, no matter whether I was backing up the entire hard drive
or just single programs. I even copied the VHS tape to another tape
with the VCR and used the copy to restore with no problems...I'd have
to say that to date (2 weeks) the restores have been very
reliable...The one and only big disadvantage of this program is time.
It took me about two hours to back up a 40 meg (full) drive. Of
course the advantage is no floppy frisbee and you can back it up
unattended.
...All in all I think this is a really nice backup system for the
money and would recommend it to everyone. Speaking from experience,
do not wait to get a backup
utility (any brand), it's like playing
Russian roulette by yourself with no prizes.
Comment from COSTERD3...
I hate to say it, but I am under the impression that restores are a
bit, umm, "Dicey", or unreliable. Don't hold me to this, but I think
I heard something along these lines.
Comment from Norm Weirness..
I think it depends how you do the backup. Matt likes the DVT, but
I've heard that they are unreliable. I have a tape cartridge backup
system made from "common clay", i.e, a standard SCSI tape cartridge
mechanism hung on my ICD host adapter with the hard drives. The only
tricky part is the software...I understand that Berkeley Systems, the
ones that make host adapters, sells such software, separately.
----------------
Comments (compiled) about the new AIM color covers done by Lee Seilor
and the programming team at Lexicor Software by Ron Luks (Sysop) on
CIS...
I just got the new issue [of AIM] in the mail today, and congrats are
in order. The magazine just gets better and better each month and the
cover artwork is superb...The cover artwork on the magazine has been
way above average for a while, but lately it's been superb. I think
this one by Lee Seilor is one of the best I've seen...[By the way], I
don't mean to withhold any credit from Lee's programming team, but
Lee still has to accept the credit for a wonderful artistic touch!
Comments from Pat Augustine on CIS...
Are you SURE that cover was done on a computer? That's amazing, no
jaggies, no computer artifacts at all. Very nice work, Lee.
Reply from Lee Seilor (Lexicor Software) on Cis...
Thanks for the compliment, but all the credit goes to Dave Ramsden,
Robert Birmingham and Paul Dana. Without their many hours of work and
dedication to detail, I would never had the tools to do the artwork
...the cover was done using one of our new highres, 24-bit boards and
programs. Coming to an ATARI screen near you soon.
Reply from Pattie Rayl (Atari Interface Magazine) on CIS...
Thanks Ron! That's high compliments coming from you! Lee did a really
nice job on the artwork, all we did was give it to a graphics place
to have it color separated, then give those seps to our printer! So
Lee deserves the credit on this cover!
PS-- The April issue will also feature Artwork from Lee...more along
the lines of a cartoon graphic this time!
----------------
Question from Ted Cain on CIS...
I would like to know if there is an emulator for the Atari ST that
will run Prodigy and if so, what sort of hardware is required.
Answer from Hal Dougherty on CIS...
Prodigy will run with the Spectre Mac emulator [GCR from Gadgets by
Small]. I use it [Prodigy] at work with an IBM 386. I thought the
Mac version was a lot slower than the IBM version, but it's only
because the screens are graphic and not text. The IBM version runs
about the same speed in high res VGE color. Low res has some
advantages.
----------------
Question from Willie Pelzer on CIS...
Can anyone give me ANY info, good or bad, on the Maxtor LXT100 SCSI
hard drive?
Answer from Jay Craswell on CIS...
An opinion. Maxtor made some really fine high density drives. We had
some at CPT corp and they were the biggest/best gadgets. Expensive as
I recall.
Answer from Jeff Lamb on CIS...
I'm using a Maxtor LXT50S, and am very pleased with it!! At work, we
just bought a Maxtor LXT200S. That is the best 200 MB drive I've ever
seen! It is extremely fast, quiet (you can't even hear it), and seems
to be very reliable. I wouldn't hesitate getting another Maxtor.
I chose the Maxtor LXT50S because it costs less than half of the
LXT100S. Also, it is a little bit faster on the access time. The
transfer rate I'm getting out of the 50 is about 300 MB/S. We're
getting more than a Meg/Sec out of the LXT200S. That might be because
it's running on a 386-25 with a high performance Adaptec host
adapter.
----------------
Question from Brian Campbell on CIS...
Has anyone out there used Notator/Creator 2.2 with TOS 1.4? After the
upgrade, I noticed a few quirks in the system, like I can no longer
double-click on a track to name it, and I can't put a name on an
unrecorded track using the [esc] key.
Answer from John (ST Informer) on CIS...
...I'm using Notator 2.2 with TOS 1.4, and don't have the problems
you mentioned. Notator does seem pretty sensitive to AUTO folder
programs - do you have anything in your AUTO folder that might be
causing conflicts? I know weird stuff happens when I run TurboST at
the same time - the screen doesn't always get redrawn when it should.
I'm running on 4 meg - if you're only running on one meg, you might
try booting Notator out of Creator, and see if memory might be the
problem.
----------------
Until next week.....
______________________________________________________________
> CENSORSHIP STR FOCUS¿ IS THE PRACTICE WORTH THE PRICE?
====================
CENSORSHIP, A TOOL OF TYRANNY
=============================
by R.F. Mariano
Webster's defines censorship as: the institution or practice of cen-
soring.
The actual definition of censor is:
As a Noun; a person empowered to suppress publications or excise any
matter in them thought to be immoral, seditious or otherwise undesirable.
Military definition; An official who examines letters, papers etc.. to
make sure they contain nothing that could interest the enemy.
Sub applications; any of various officials in British Universities.
Any person who supervises the morals and conduct of others.
Freudian; the psychological mechanism which prevents distasteful
unconscious ideas and memories from coming into the consciousness.
Roman History; one of two magistrates charged with taking the census
of citizens, regulating taxation and controlling public behavior.
The act of v.t.; to examine (letters, literature etc..) in the capa-
city of a censor || to delete (judged offensive material) from these or
ban (a work). Critical faultfinding.
There is no doubt, that when the power of censorship is in the wrong
hands it soon becomes a tool of absolute and complete tyranny. It is the
very same thing as forcible silencing of an individual. The ultimate
outcome realized in every case of proven censorship has been the utter and
devastating downfall of those not only practicing censorship but also
those advocating and/or justifying its use. When censorship is employed,
a red flag of warning immediately is raised. This flag warns of the
hiding of information, the deliberate removal of information from the
public eye and the ultimate suppression of all views except those of the
censors and their supporters.
In the fast moving electronic information age, the word censor and its
implementation is perceived (in most circles) as an invitation to disas-
ter. Last week, many folks, myself included felt censorship was in full
bloom when STReport issue 7.13 was held back from release to the users.
It was more a case of "extreme" caution being excercised because a sysop
felt something 'questionable' was possibly contained in that particular
issue. Unfortunately, the sysop who makes the decisions was truly 'out of
pocket' for a few days... thus unable to assess the matter in a timely
fashion. Ultimately, the problem was detailed as being two messages that
were partially displayed (excerpts used) and comments presented concerning
the displayed messages. The outcome was that as soon as the sysop was
able to completely review the matter, the file was made available.
Below, we present the article in question;
REPRINTED from STReport 7.13 verbatim:
CONDEMNED? STR Spotlight "We've been somewhat premature!"
========================
ALL THINGS MUST BE CONSIDERED!
==============================
by R. F. Mariano
Recently, a situation has developed that deserves our sincere and
unbiased attention. The reason this matter deserves the attention of the
users is because it depicts a very typical problem in our small, but
highly communicative computing community. It appears that a young man,
Anthony Hall age 27, a new and upcoming developer, decided to announce an
exciting new desktop accessory. Below, we present for all to see the
exact announcement of this new program.
============== CalAssistant ==============
THE ONLINE HELP ACCESSORY
FOR CALAMUS DTP SOFTWARE
o Help is just a mouse click away!
o The first online help companion for Calamus DTP software. CalAssis-
tant is an accessory program that runs on top of Calamus.
o Using efficient code management and overlay swapping, memory re-
quirement is kept at 90K maximum.
o This program uses text, icons and pictures to illustrate, explain
and give tips for commands and functions step by step. Since the
Calamus interface is very icon oriented, the "Help Messages" func-
tion under the "Extras" menu is used to navigate the user online.
o Complete page referencing to the Calamus manual is included.
o CalAssistant user interface is taken from the tear off menu design
used on the Amiga, TT and MAC computers.
o CalAssistant can be called from the accessory menu at any time while
using Calamus, but we recommend 2 megs of RAM to do this.
o A hard drive is needed in order for the software to function at full
speed; otherwise, it is not required.
o The software supports monochrome mode only.
o CalAssistant is to Calamus, as MicroSoft Word 5.0 online help scr-
eens are to MS Word 5.0, but ours is better, much like HyperText in
concept.
o Oh, you also get a beautiful printed manual created entirely with
Calamus.
The package will be shipped with CalAssistant online help accessory,
in addition to tutorial CDK files, utilities and fonts. CalAssistant
is now available at a suggested retail price of $34.95.
Mail Check or Money Order Only To:
Contact:
Spar Systems
381 Autumn Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11208
(718) 235-3169
As a result of this announcement, both STReport and Z*Net were men-
tioned in a "less than positive" manner.
"Now I could stop here but I have another comment about this entire
issue in that thanks to ST Report and Z-NET, the entire communications
network is aware of this product to some extent and who do you think
will be asked about whether it is a good product or not?"
excerpt from message 112, Cat 16, topic 2
posted on 03/25/91 @ 17:03 EST by ISD [Nathan]
"Sounds like the guys at Z-Net and ST-Report may have jumped the gun a
little in publicising a product that may very well be of a question-
able nature."
excerpt from message 127, Cat 16, topic 2
posted on 03/26/91 @ 07:47 EST by S.WINICK
STReport & Z*Net are, indirectly, being urged to gain some type of
approval from some "higher authority" or in fact, are actually being
encouraged to allow some ridiculous type of censorship of their publicati-
ons. This, I assure you, simply will not ever happen.
Knowing Nathan of ISD as I do, I am certain this is not what he in-
tended or even remotely alluded to. I do feel however, that the entire
situation was in its extreme premature stages and the questions of
validity and/or legality should've never been brought up or made public
until such time as all the facts were known and verified.
To further shed light on this matter, STReport contacted Mr. Hall and
asked about obtaining the program and docs, he in turn consented to sen-
ding STReport a copy of the program for review. STReport is sending a
copy of the program and our findings to Z*Net for further evaluation and
opinion. At the same time, STR inquired about the serial number of the
version of Calamus that was being used by himself and his assistant in
facilitating the interface of CalAssistant and of course, Calamus. The
number he gave is: 300524. Presumably, the outcome will be another fine
software offering for the ST community to enjoy. And as an added benefit,
a greater number of Calamus programs will be sold as a result of this
helper program.
Now to the real "meat" of the subject. Far too long we have stood
idlely by while observing obvious "overreactions" to different happenings
and comments made in passing on the electronic services and in the ST
community in general. To condemn Hall's program to obscurity or Hall
himself is an outrage. When this occurs, every precept of the Constitu-
tion of this country is cast aside. Anthony Hall should not and must not
be accused, tried, convicted and punished of anything without irrefutable
proof of wrong doing. Although all the "accusations were implied, they
were still accusations that were unproven and actually only assumptions at
best. Yet, we find there are now those who are ever so quick to jump up
to "condemn and punish."
Nathan:
"Well...... from what you said about Spar Systems, it's not likely
that their software will be gracing the shelves at Computer STudio
anytime soon alongside Calamus, Outline Art, Font Editor, etc.! Of
course, there's always the remote possibility that this guy just
didn't bother to send in his registration card and is paranoid by
nature. But that doesn't sound like the kind of developer whose
software I would want to purchase either. And I definitely couldn't
recommend such a product to my customers under these circumstances."
excerpt from message 127, Cat 16, topic 2
posted on 03/26/91 @ 07:47 EST by S.WINICK
Mr. Winick has stated his impressions and it seems like denying access
to the program for his customers and thus is punishing both Anthony Hall
and his (Winick's) clientele is the order of the day. Certainly, this is
not the right thing to do. The bottom line is simple, if the program
meets the necessary criteria, then the decision should be up to the users
regarding its acceptance in the ST community. Never, ever should a retail
outlet practice selective marketing unless, of course, the product is a
poor seller.
_________________________________________________________
Now, for further clarification. We present the entire messages the ex-
cerpts were obtained from.
Category 16, Topic 2
Message 112 Mon Mar 25, 1991
ISD [Nathan] at 17:03 EST
I'll give you some information Ringo and I am glad you asked....
Spar Systems and the product they sell, was news to me as of last Friday
when their advertisement appeared in ST Report and Z Net. I did some
checking, being naturally curious about anything having to do with Cal-
amus and discovered that none of my people had ever heard of this company
or product. Hmmm, this is strange. Then I learned the name of the contact
person at this company, Anthony Hall, and checked the registration cards.-
..nope, not a registered owner of Calamus. Hmmm, stranger still. After
all, usually anyone does anything for Calamus they actively seek out my
assistance and help, or even just a good word about their product. I had
never encountered a circumstance before where someone had done something
Calamus related and didn't even bother to let me know about it. So I
called the number indicated in the ST Report advertisement and ZNet press
release. And I'm still trying to figure out what happened from there.
Basically, the end result is that Anthony flatly refused to send me a
package. He spent almost the entire conversation telling me in no uncer-
tain terms that he was not in violation of anything or infringing on any
copyrights. He was telling me this as soon as I said my name. I told him I
had no idea if he was doing anything wrong or illegal. I was just natural-
ly curious about any new Calamus product and would like to see it. And
listened to another long paragraph or two on how he wasn't doing anything
illegal. Like I said, bottom line is that he refused to send me his produ-
ct. I'm still scratching my head in puzzlement wondering where this person
is coming from. At this point, what conclusion would you draw?
Somehow the conclusion that I arrive at, is when I finally happen to come
across this package someplace, I'm going to get real upset with the con-
tents. What do you think?
Now I could stop here but I have another comment about this entire issue
in that thanks to ST Report and Z-NET, the entire communications network
is aware of this product to some extent and who do you think will be asked
about whether it is a good product or not? As I said, ST Report just ran
an advertisement. Z-Net's was more like a press release. And what am I
supposed to do now? I read the ad after it was brought to my attention
and was mostly curious about a new product relating to Calamus that might
have been of some use, that I had never heard of. After the telephone
call, I suspect my thoughts have taken a different direction. (sigh) Like
I have nothing more important to worry about.
I think I'll get back to work now, and concentrate on selling and promo-
ting the Calamus Desktop Publishing solution to the best of my ability, as
usual.
------------
Category 16, Topic 2
Message 127 Tue Mar 26, 1991
S.WINICK at 07:47 EST
Nathan:
Well...... from what you said about Spar Systems, it's not likely that
their software will be gracing the shelves at Computer STudio anytime soon
alongside Calamus, Outline Art, Font Editor, etc.! Of course, there's
always the remote possibility that this guy just didn't bother to send in
his registration card and is paranoid by nature. But that doesn't sound
like the kind of developer whose software I would want to purchase either.
And I definitely couldn't recommend such a product to my customers under
these circumstances.
Keep us informed as this develops further. Sounds like the guys at Z-Net
and ST-Report may have jumped the gun a little in publicising a product
that may very well be of a questionable nature. Given the attitute that
many Atarians have that they MUST have the newest and greatest things
immediately, its unfortunate that this guy received any coverage at all
before anyone actually even saw his product and all the facts were known.
Regards,
Sheldon (Computer STudio)
------------
To all our readers, at STReport, we try diligently to ensure that if
portions of a message are presented, they must be presented with none of
the original 'flavor' or 'intent' of the original message not apparent.
In this particular case we feel we did the posters of the messages a
positive service. For example, the first message (#112) carries a number
of statements that could very possibly be vague accusations of any number
of acts of wrongdoing. While I have the utmost respect for the poster of
this message, it must be made painfully obvious that the object (Spar
Systems) of these posts was wrongfully taken to task and done so primarily
through assumption and supposition. In the United States of America an
individual is innocent until PROVEN guilty.
The first paragraph, points to the possibility that Spar used an "un-
registered" copy of Calamus. Why should this have been mentioned at all?
To make a point? What point? That Spar systems didn't register a copy of
Calamus, didn't have a stamp? Or was this an effort to discredit Spar
Systems? Also, its mentioned that, Spar Systems didn't seek out either
the help or assistance of the author of the message. We say.... So what!
What's the big deal? Its still a free country if Mr. Hall and Spar ele-
cted to develop the program independently then more power to them for
having the gumption to do so without seeking out a crutch.
The second paragraph gets even better! A private telephone conversa-
tion was publicized in such a way as to induce the reader of the public
message into drawing a derogatory conclusion concerning the content of the
phone conversation. In fact, such a conclusion is made by the author in
the third paragraph.
Then to add icing to the cake, in the fourth paragraph the two online
magazines are taken to task for having made mention of this new product
and its author. We already addressed the heat thrown at the online magaz-
ines in last week's article presented above. Elsewhere in this issue is
our first impressions of this product and its usability.
Then comes Mr. Winick's (milk of humanity) message...... it speaks for
itself.
______________________
As a result of this matter coming to a head, the head sysop of the ST
RT & GEnie have brought forth a set of guidelines by which all magazines
either hard copy and/or electronic, wishing to reprint public messages,
are expected to abide by.
For the record, STReport feels that the resolution of this matter has
brought about a positive conclusion to a previously clouded issue.
1. Prior permission to reprint partial messages must be obtained from the
author of said message, and with the knowledge of the RT Staff.
2. All requests and approvals must be done in GE-mail.
3. The RT staff will copy or forward requests and approvals/rejections to
each of the message authors involved.
4. At all times the GEnie signup information must be included in the
magazine or newsletter as well as the source of the material whenever
anything is duplicated.
5. At all times it must be noted where the information came from as in the
name of our service and the category, topic and message number.
6. Anyone posting in the Roundtable may request in GEmail or a designated
topic in Category one that NONE of their messages will ever be repri
nted in whole or in part.
7. Messages may be taken in their entirety without express permission of
the author, GEnie or the Roundtable Staff unless stated by the author
that NONE of his messages may be duplicated ever. To do such, you must
post your request in Category 1, Topic 12 and in GEmail.
This topic will remain closed. If you wish to discuss any or part of
this, feel free to create a topic in Category 18. Just type SET 18
then type STA <-- You can then follow the prompts.
=END=
_______________________________________________________
> STR Portfolio News & Information¿ Keeping up to date...
================================
THE ATARI PORTFOLIO FORUM
=========================
On CompuServe
by Walter Daniel 75066,164
Did you know that over 250,000 Portfolios have been sold worldwide as
of January 1991? With numbers like that, more developers should be get-
ting interested in the machine.
BJ Gleason, Portfolio programmer extraordinaire, is looking for your
wish list of Portfolio software. Send your ideas to him at 73337,2011 and
you might find your dream program in the New Uploads library one day. My
personal wish is for a mathematics program so my Portfolio can replace my
scientific calculator.
Palmtops, including the Portfolio, are popular with Macintosh users
(including me, for example). There has been so much PALMTOP activity in
the Macintosh System Forum that the sysops there have opened message
section 16 and library 16 as "PALMTOPS & MACS." Remember that message
area 10 and library 10 in the ATARI PORTFOLIO FORUM are dedicated to the
"Mac-to-PORTFOLIO" topic.
Here's a bit more information on John Feagans' software for the Portf-
olio to use a Tandy Portable Disk Drive 2 (PDD2). The drive communicates
at 19.2 kbaud, so it should back up a 128 k RAM card in just over one
minute. Over in the Model 100 Forum (M100SIG), there are programs to
connect a PDD2 to both Atari ST and MS-DOS computers (how about Macs?).
Keep in mind that the PDD2 uses a special format that is NOT MS-DOS com-
patible. Still, 200 k of storage on each floppy is much cheaper than
buying another 128 k RAM card. John's utilities will read, write, and
rename files and read a directory of files on a floppy. Send orders and
questions to John Feagans, 2681 N. Rodeo Gulch Rd., Soquel, CA 95073.
California residents must add the dreaded 7% sales tax.
Most of the files uploaded this week were utilities. CHKCRD.COM is a
small program for use in batch files that will check if a memory card is
in drive A. TRS.ZIP is a time recording system for tracking hours on
different work items. GSTOUT.ARC contains both PBASIC and EXE versions of
a program to calculate the very confusing new GST taxes in Canada. (While
I play ice hockey, enjoy Molson, and say "eh" a lot, I'm glad I don't have
to deal with GST!)
___________________________________________________________
> CalAssistant! STR Review¿ "The Online HELP Accessory"
========================
CALASSISTANT
============
By: Derrick Anthony Hall
from: Spar Systems
by Ralph F. Mariano
Before I get into the overview itself, I'd like to point out that on
the second page of the very nicely done manual are the "Product Copyright
and Trademark Notices giving full acknowledgment and credits to all men-
tioned. By all indications, every requirement has been met in the lega-
lese found in every manual accompanying software. Very Professional
indeed.
You may ask why did I go into that? Well, since the author of CalAs-
sistant is relatively new to that Atari arena and was without a doubt,
given a rather "unfriendly" welcome (to say the least), I am am going to
try to be overly meticulous. In all fairness to him and Spar Systems, we
are covering as much of the nits that were picked in the last ten days
concerning this matter.
Calamus is a very powerful and complex DTP program. Its many features
and powerful abilities will unfold only to those who spend the required
time to learn. Beyond a shadow of a doubt, a user who is ready to learn,
is equipped with CalAssistant installed, Calamus and the Calamus manual
will become veritable mavins in no time at all. The manner in which this
new program guides, teaches and induces the use of the Calamus manual as a
learning tool is marvelous. There is no doubt that a great deal of plan-
ning and effort went into the creation of CalAssistant.
The Design of CalAssistant provides an extremely friendly user inter-
face where the user is able to fully employ its fine features almost
immediately. CalAssistant uses the the "Help Messages" menu function from
the "Extras" menu to navigate the user while online. When one passes the
mouse pointer over an icon, the actual function or command will be visible
at the top right of the screen (menu bar right). The user then employs
this message to move about in the main and sub-menus of CalAssistant.
CalAssistant is very efficient with memory because of its built-in
overlay code. It occupies 90k of ram when loaded. At this time only the
monochrome mode is supported. This is expected to change with the new
releases planned that will work in all the TT resolutions and with Calamus
SL.
Installation is simple, I placed the pertinent files in a new folder
created in the same partition and folder as Calamus. I then placed the
.ACC program and its files in the area I use for all my desktop acces-
sories. After that I ran a program called path.prg.
When you boot up path.prg, you'll be greeted with a dialog box, within
this dialog box are various buttons which are used to configure CalAssis-
tant's path names. All very easy.......
A few examples of the excellent help screens presented to the user:
Extras Menu
Save Settings
Used to save all settings made within the "Set Path",
"Miscellaneous Settings" and "Scan" dialog boxes
under the "Extras" menu.
To use:
Select menu function to save path information to the
Calamus "CALAMUS.SET" filename.
Refer to page XVI-6 in the Calamus manual.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Font menu Menu Box
Skip backwards
Go to selected font
Skip forward
Font
Text color 1
Text color 2
Used to select installed fonts. All fonts
loaded with the "Load Fonts" command from
the "Extras" menu will be shown here. Only one
font name can be selected at a time within
this menu box.
You can scroll installed fonts using the
three arrow icons above. Font color is set by
selecting the color(black or white) icons at
bottom.
Fonts changes in text frame will only update
if the "Restyle text" icon is selected while
text frame or block is highlighted. See the
"Font Size & Style" menu box in the "Text"
module.
To use:
Click on the font name.
Refer to pages IX-22, IX-23 in the Calamus manual.
In closing, I reiterate, there is no way this program could be con-
strued to be anything but a compliment to both Calamus and the Atari
users. It is well written and is an absolute bonus to every Calamus
owner. The experienced Calamus owner will now have the tools to 'exper-
tly' teach the finer points of Calamus to "newfies" with ease. The NEW
Calamus owner will find this program an indispensible aid in learning to
use Calamus to the umpteenth degree. Its almost like having a teacher
standing there waiting to help you over the rough spots.
My reccommendation is to make every effort to obtain this program ASAP
as it will make your Calamus DTP activites so much better.
For more great news, Spar Systems is also preparing to release a help
system for Pagestream too. Its a pleasure to welcome and support a new
developer in the Atari arena.
The package is shipped with CalAssistant online help accessory, in
addition to tutorial CDK files, utilities and fonts. CalAssistant is
now available at a suggested retail price of $34.95.
Mail Check or Money Order To:
Contact:
Spar Systems
381 Autumn Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11208
(718) 235-3169
____________________________________________________
> CODEHEAD NEWS!!! STR InfoFile¿ "Great Deals from the "Good Guys"
=============================
*****************************************************************
* *
* Once Again... *
* *
* CodeHead Software Announces MaxiFile 3.0 - The SuperTool! *
* --------------------------------------------------------- *
* *
* EVEN MORE POWER - EVEN LESS WAITING - EVEN SHIPPING!! *
* *
*****************************************************************
Dateline: Friday, March 29, 1991
---------------------------------
EXTRA, EXTRA, READ ALL ABOUT IT...
CODEHEAD PROGRAMMER GOES BERSERK, CAN'T BE STOPPED!
After weeks of resisting attempts to put an end to further
enhancements to MaxiFile, Charles F. Johnson has finally been
brought under control. It looks like the worst part of the siege
is over. His source code has been seized and is being held in
abeyance in order to complete the release of this long-awaited
product. Mr. Johnson himself is currently in quarantine where he
is being examined for possible damage to his overworked neural
center and digital extremities. Further reports on his condition
will follow as they become available.
CodeHeadQuarters
----------------
A short time ago we announced the release of MaxiFile 3.0. Due to
circumstances beyond our control, MaxiFile's release has been postponed
by run-away feature-itis. Since our last report, MaxiFile has
undergone even more major changes:
*------------------------------------------------*
| |
| Announcing the feature most often requested... |
| |
| ERGO-DUO-BIOPTIC DISPLAY MODE!!! |
| |
| or, Simultaneous display of |
| source and destination directories! |
| |
*------------------------------------------------*
The new dual display mode now features two side-by-side listings showing
filename, size, and date. Unique scroll bars appear between the
listings allowing you to easily scroll either listing by using standard
window gadgets and sliders. Special arrow buttons provide simultaneous
scrolling of both lists at the same time.
Keyboard equivalents give you complete control of scrolling, paging,
selecting, and "starting" of files without even using the mouse. This
allows you to do such things as run programs or start documents even
from the destination directory.
The Ergo-Duo-Bioptic Display Mode is such a major addition to MaxiFile
that it's impossible for us to describe all of its usefulness in this
document. You'll have to see it and use it to believe it!
The following features were also added since our last notice:
o New GRAPHIC DISPLAY of disk space including "thermometer bar" of
space used, total bytes available, bytes used, bytes free, percentage
used, and percentage free for each available drive as well as totals
for all drives selected. Includes keyboard equivalents for all
operations. This feature is GREAT, and FAST, too!
o Directory listings can be output to printer or a file on disk.
o Any printing operation may now be sent to the serial port.
Here's a brief synopsis of some of the new features of MaxiFile 3.0 that
were mentioned in our previous press release:
o New ICONS for all main screen functions.
o HUNDREDS of NEW KEYBOARD COMMANDS provide full operation with either
mouse or keyboard, including selecting and opening files and folders
and full keyboard control of ALL dialog boxes!
o Greatly enhanced FILE VIEWING provides very FAST SCROLLING forward
AND backward through a file complete with forward/backward searching,
configurable tab settings, help screen, and optional half-height
text (in hi-res modes).
o Speedy "Safe Deposit" RECOVERABLE DELETE function insures against
accidental erasure of files -- and Maxifile does it LEGALLY, without
messing around with direct disk access. Keep your files AND your
file structure safe!
o An AWESOME SEARCH FUNCTION has been added -- version 3.0 lets you use
MaxiFile's unique 'FILTERS' in a search, allowing you to find FILES
AND/OR FOLDERS with multiple masks and extensions, or even search
according to archive bit and time/date stamp! MaxiFile maintains a
list of the last 20 "matches" and lets you instantly jump to a
directory, selecting EITHER all files that match the filter settings,
or just the one file you select!
o WILD CARD RENAME function lets you rename all files with a given
extension to another extension, in ONE action.
o New HELP SCREEN shows keyboard equivalents for the main screen and
'More' box. Other keyboard commands are displayed in their
respective dialog boxes.
o Full COMPATIBILITY with all Atari computers in all resolutions,
including the Atari TT.
o TRUE MS-DOS DISK FORMATTING creates disks compatible with any PC
system, including those that are particularly floppy-fussy.
o Disk formatting starts at end of disk to help RECOVER FROM ACCIDENTAL
FORMATTING of the wrong disk.
o File/Folder Info Boxes have 'Previous' and 'Next' buttons (and key
commands), allowing you to easily browse the details of all files and
folders.
See our previous press releases for a general listing of all the
features MaxiFile has always had.
HOW TO ORDER OR UPDATE YOUR OWN COPY OF MAXIFILE
------------------------------------------------
MaxiFile can purchased and used separately, or you can enjoy its
increased power when linked up with HotWire by purchasing HotWire and
MaxiFile packaged together as HotWire Plus, AND save yourself $15 at the
same time.
As a current owner of MaxiFile, you can obtain an update by sending your
original MaxiFile master disk and $10 to the address listed below.
Suggested retail price for MaxiFile 3.0 is $39.95, or you can get
HotWire Plus - - HotWire packaged together with MaxiFile -- for $69.95,
a savings of $15. CodeHead Products are available from your local Atari
dealer, through mail-order houses, or directly from CodeHead Software:
CodeHeadQuarters
Friday, April 5, 1991
---------------------
WE BLEW IT !!!
AND YOU SAVE !!!
...BUT YOU MUST ACT FAST !!!
The CodeHeads have no one to blame but themselves. They couldn't just
release a normal update to MaxiFile worth $10. Noooo...they had to
keep adding this and that nifty gadget and inventing new features that
just couldn't be left out until MaxiFile was transformed into a JEWEL
worth far more than they're charging.
As it turns out, the printed addendum to MaxiFile is almost equal in
size and content to the original MaxiFile manual. Unfortunately, the
CodeHeads can't afford to continue offering upgrades to MaxiFile
including the addendum for the advertised price of $10. On May 1st,
the price for the MaxiFile 3.0 upgrade will be increased to $15
including the addendum manual. At that time, the purchase price for
MaxiFile will also be increased to $44.95.
HOWEVER ... our loss is your gain!
Those who have already ordered their MaxiFile update and those whose
orders are placed (or postmarked) before May 1st will still pay only
$10 for the upgrade, or $39.95 for the full package! So hurry -- send
back your MaxiFile disk today for upgrading (see below) and you'll
receive the complete MaxiFile upgrade package, including the printed
manual addendum, and save yourself $5.00 at the same time!
See our previous press releases for an impressive listing of all of
MaxiFile's features.
HOW TO ORDER OR UPDATE YOUR OWN COPY OF MAXIFILE
------------------------------------------------
MaxiFile can purchased and used separately, or you can enjoy its
increased power when linked up with HotWire by purchasing HotWire and
MaxiFile packaged together as HotWire Plus, AND save yourself $15-20 at
the same time.
As a current owner of MaxiFile, you can obtain an update by sending
your original MaxiFile master disk and the update fee to the address
listed below.
Product Before May 1st After May 1st
================================================
MaxiFile Update $10.00 $15.00
MaxiFile 3.0 $39.95 $44.95
HotWire $44.95 $44.95
HotWire Plus $69.95 $69.95
CodeHead Products are available from your local Atari dealer, through
mail-order houses, or directly from CodeHead Software:
CodeHead Software
P.O. Box 74090
Los Angeles, CA 90004
Phone: (213) 386-5735
FAX: (213) 386-5789
BBS: (213) 461-2095
CodeHead Software accepts Mastercard, Visa, and American Express, as
well as checks, money orders, and cash. Shipping charges are $3 US, $4
Canada, and $6 elsewhere. The is no shipping charge for updates.
Current office hours are Monday-Friday 9A-1P Pacific time. Prices and
hours are subject to change without notice.
Thank you for your support!
_________________________________________________________
> Hard Disks STR InfoFile¿ TAX TIME SPECIAL OFFERINGS!....
=======================
NEW LOW PRICES! & MORE MODELS!!
===============================
>> INCOME TAX REFUND SPECIALS <<
** EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY! **
ABCO COMPUTER ELECTRONICS INC.
P.O. Box 6672 Jacksonville, Florida 32236-6672
Est. 1985
_________________________________________
Voice: 904-783-3319 10 AM - 4 PM EDT
BBS: 904-786-4176 12-24-96 HST
FAX: 904-783-3319 12 PM - 6 AM EDT
_________________________________________
HARD DISK SYSTEMS TO FIT EVERY BUDGET
_____________________________________
All systems are complete and ready to use, included at NO EXTRA COST
are clock/calendar and cooling blower(s).
*-ALL ABCO HARD DISK SYSTEMS ARE FULLY EXPANDABLE-*
(you are NOT limited to two drives ONLY!)
(all cables and connectors installed)
* ICD HOST ADAPTERS USED EXCLUSIVELY * OMTI HIGH SPEED CONTROLLERS *
* ICD ADSCSI+ HOST ADAPTERS * FULL SCSI COMMAND SET SUPPORTED *
* SCSI EMBEDDED CONTROLLER MECHANISMS *
WE PAY SHIPPING!!! >BLUE LABEL UPS!<
Conventional Shoe Box
ADD 35.00 for 4 BAY TURBO Cabinet w/250w PS
Model Description Autopark Price
==================================================
SGN3038 31Mb 28ms 3.5" Y 419.00
SGN4951 51Mb 28ms 3.5" Y 479.00
SGN6277 62Mb 24ms 5.25" Y 519.00
SGN6177 62Mb 24ms 3.5" Y 549.00
SGN1096 85Mb 24ms 3.5" Y 649.00
SGN1098 100mb 25ms 3.5" Y 719.00
SGN6277 120Mb 24ms 3.5" Y 889.00
SGN1296 168Mb 24ms 3.5" Y 1069.00
SGN4077 230Mb 24ms 3.5" Y 1669.00
==================================================
****** SPECIAL - SPECIAL ******
---- FOR USE IN MEGA, MEGA STe & TT030 SYSTEMS ----
>>>> 100mb SCSI HARD DRIVE Mech 25-28ms 3.5" ...ONLY $349.00!! <<<<
****** SPECIAL - SPECIAL ******
>>> ALL ABCO DRIVES ARE HIGH SPEED UNITS <<<
(500 - 600k per sec @ 16 - 33ms)
CALL FOR SUPER SAVINGS ON ALL OUR OTHER CUSTOM UNITS
FROM 30mb 28MS @ $419.00!
--==*==--
* SYQUEST 44MB (#555)>> ABCO "44" << REMOVABLE MEDIA DRIVE *
- SYQUEST 44 MB DRIVE - ICD ST ADVANTAGE PLUS H/A
- ICD Utility Software - 3' DMA Cable
- Fan & Clock - Multi-Unit Power Supply
(1) 44 MB Syquest Cart.
WE PAY SHIPPING!!! >BLUE LABEL UPS!<
COMPLETELY ASSEMBLED AND READY TO RUN!
--->> SPECIAL NOW ONLY __$ 685.00__ <<---
EXTRA CARTS: $ 74.95
DRIVE MECH ONLY: $ 349.95
* TWIN SYQUEST 44MB REMOVABLE MEDIA DRIVES ... PROGRAMMER'S DELIGHT *
SPECIALLY PRICED ** $1329.00 **
* SYQUEST 44MB REMOVABLE MEDIA DRIVE AND HARD DRIVE COMBINATIONS *
- Syquest 44 Model [555] and the following hard drives -
50mb SQG51 $ 939.00 30mb SQG38 $ 819.00
65mb SQG09 $ 969.00 85mb SQG96 $1059.00
LOWBOY - STANDARD - DUAL BLOWER CABINETS
CUSTOM CONFIGURATIONS AVAILABLE
WE PAY SHIPPING!!! >BLUE LABEL UPS!<
Listed above are a sampling of the systems available.
Prices also reflect various cabinet/power supply configurations
(over sixty configurations are available, flexibility is unlimited)
*** ALL Units: Average Access Time: 24ms - 34ms ***
ALL UNITS COMPATIBLE WITH --> SUPERCHARGER - AT/PC SPEED - GCR
LARGER units are available - (special order only)
*>> NO REPACKS OR REFURBS USED! <<*
- Custom Walnut WOODEN Cabinets - TOWER - AT - XT Cabinets -
* SLM 804 Replacement Toner Cartridge Kits $42.95 *
Replacement Drums; CALL
Keyboard Custom Cables Call for Info
ALL POWER SUPPLIES UL APPROVED
-* 12 month FULL Guarantee *-
(A FULL YEAR of COVERAGE)
WE PAY SHIPPING!!! >BLUE LABEL UPS!<
QUANTITY & USERGROUP DISCOUNTS AVAILABLE!
_________________________________________
DEALERS and DISTRIBUTORS WANTED!
please, call for details
Personal and Company Checks are accepted.
ORDER YOUR NEW UNIT TODAY!
CALL: 1-800-562-4037 -=**=- CALL: 1-904-783-3319
Customer Orders ONLY Customer Service
9am - 8pm EDT
Tues thru Sat
ABCO is EXPANDING!! CALL FOR INFORMATION!
____________________________________________________________
> A "Quotable Quote"¿
=================
Laughter the BEST MEDICINE......
"Two bears are walking through a path in the woods. The second bear
stick his nose into the first bear's behind. The first bear stops for
a second but decides to ignore it. Two minutes later the second bear
sticks his nose in the first bear's behind again. The first bear
turns around and clubs the second bear in the head. The second bear
looks at the first and says, "Sorry. But I just ate a lawyer this
morning and I'll do anything to get the taste out of my mouth."
Question: What do you call 1700 lawyers at the bottom of the
ocean?
Answer: A good start.
Alternate Answer: Pollution.
Question: Why won't sharks eat lawyers?
Answer: Professional Courtesy!
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
STReport International Online Magazine¿
Available through more than 10,000 Private BBS systems WorldWide!
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
STReport¿ "YOUR INDEPENDENT NEWS SOURCE" April 05, 1991
16/32bit Magazine copyright ½ 1987-91 No.7.14
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Views, Opinions and Articles Presented herein are not necessarily those of
the editors, staff, STReport¿ CPU/MAC/STR¿ or ST Report¿. Permission to
reprint articles is hereby granted, unless otherwise noted. Each reprint
must include the name of the publication, date, issue # and the author's
name. The entire publication and/or portions therein may not be edited in
any way without prior written permission. The contents, at the time of
publication, are believed to be reasonably accurate. The editors,
contributors and/or staff are not responsible for either the use/misuse
of information contained herein or the results obtained therefrom.
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
