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GEnieLamp Atari Vol. 6 Issue 83
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~ WELCOME TO GEnieLamp Atari ~
""""""""""""""""""""""""""
~ MIST AtariFest Show Report ~
~ A Visit to the East, Midwest & West Roundtables ~
~ How to Make Your Computer Boot Faster ~
~ Better Ways to Backup Your Hard Drive ~
~ Monthly Review of New Library Uploads ~
~ Monthly Analysis of High Tech Stocks ~
~ Readers Opinions in 'Opposing Viewpoints' Column ~
~ Report on Atari's 1995 Annual Shareholders Meeting ~
~ Humor Online ~ Press Releases ~ and More!! ~
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GEnieLamp Atari ~ A T/TalkNET Publication ~ Vol.6, Issue 83
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Publisher.................................................John F. Peters
Editor...............................................Sheldon H. Winick
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~ GEnieLamp A2Pro ~ GEnieLamp Macintosh ~ GEnieLamp TX2 ~
~ GEnieLamp Windows ~ GEnieLamp A2 ~ LiveWire (ASCII) ~
~ Member Of The Digital Publishing Association ~
GE Mail: GENIELAMP Internet: genielamp@genie.com
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>>> WHAT'S HAPPENING IN THE ATARI ROUNDTABLE? <<<
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
~ August 1995 ~
THE EDITOR'S DESK ....... [FRM] OPPOSING VIEWPOINTS ..... [OVP]
Notes From My Desktop Another Satisfied Atari Owner
MIST ATARIFEST VII ...... [MST] ATARI SHAREHOLDERS MTG .. [SHM]
Show Report The State of Atari - 1995
AROUND AND ABOUT GENIE .. [AAG] HUMOR ONLINE ............ [HMR]
East, Midwest & West RTs If Dr. Seuss were a Tech Writer
IN MEMORY ............... [INM] PRESS RELEASE ........... [SBO]
George Bates Super Burnout
WELCOME TO ITV .......... [ITV] PRESS RELEASE ........... [AVN]
Be Kind to Web Fitted Friends Atari/Activision Agreement
MEL'S MANOR ............. [MEL] JAGUAR NEWS ............. [JNW]
In Search of The Fastest Bootup Fight for Life
LITTLE GEMS ............. [LGM] PRESS RELEASE ........... [NTE]
[*] Elfback Adds Flexibility Atari Users of North Texas
Computer Exposition
ONLINE LIBRARY .......... [OLB]
[*] Files, Files & More Files PRESS RELEASE ........... [XPS]
Expose
COMPUTERS AND INVESTING . [CAI]
[*] High Tech Stock Review PRESS RELEASE ........... [TRB]
The Recipe Box
REFLECTIONS ............. [RFL]
Thinking About Online SEARCH ME ............... [OPF]
Communications Online Puzzle Fun
LOG OFF ................. [LOF]
GenieLamp Information.
[IDX]"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
READING GEnieLamp GEnieLamp has incorporated a unique indexing system
""""""""""""""""" to help make reading the magazine easier. To
utilize this system, load GEnieLamp into any ASCII word processor or
text editor. In the index you will find the following example:
HUMOR ONLINE ............ [HUM]
GEnie Fun & Games.
To read this article, set your find or search command to [HUM]. If you
want to scan all of the articles, search for [EOA]. [EOF] will take you to
the last page, whereas [IDX] will bring you back to the index.
MESSAGE INFO To make it easy for you to respond to messages
"""""""""""" re-printed here in GEnieLamp, you will find all the
information you need immediately following the message. For example:
(SMITH, CAT6, TOP1, MSG:58/M475)
_____________| _____|__ _|___ |____ |_____________
|Name of sender CATegory TOPic Msg.# Page number|
In this example, to respond to Smith's message, log on to page 475 enter
the bulletin board and set CAT 6. Enter your REPly in TOPic 1.
A message number that is surrounded by brackets indicates that this message
is a "target" message and is referring to a "chain" of two or more messages
that are following the same topic. For example: {58}.
TX2 FORMAT What are you missing when reading the ASCII version of
"""""""""" GEnie Lamp? EXCITEMENT! Whenever you see a [*] in the
index or in the article header, that indicates that the article contains
TX2 graphics and/or pictures. To see the graphics, you will need the
following files:
COLRnnnn.ZIP GEnie Lamp in TX2 format w/Color graphics.
MONOnnnn.ZIP GEnie Lamp in TX2 format w/Monochrome graphics.
MINI_TX2.LZH Mini-version of TX2 Viewer (File #20441).
ABOUT GEnie GEnie's monthly fee is $8.95 which gives you up to four
""""""""""" hours of non-prime time access to most GEnie services, such
as software downloads, bulletin boards, GE Mail, an Internet mail gateway,
and chat lines. GEnie's non-prime time connect rate is $3.00. To sign up
for GEnie service, call (with modem) 1-800-638-8369 in the USA or
1-800-387-8330 in Canada. Upon connection type HHH. Wait for the U#=
prompt. Type: JOINGENIE and hit RETURN. When you get the prompt asking
for the signup/offer code, type: DSD524 and hit RETURN. The system will
then prompt you for your information. Need more information? Call GEnie's
customer service line (voice) at 1-800-638-9636.
SPECIAL OFFER FOR GEnieLamp READERS! If you sign onto GEnie using the
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" method outlined above you will
receive $50.00 worth of credit. Want more? Your first month charge of
$8.95 will be waived! Now there are no excuses!
GET GEnieLamp ON THE NET! Now you can get your GEnieLamp issues from
""""""""""""""""""""""""" the Internet. If you use a web browser,
connect to "gopher://gopher.genie.com/11/magazines". When using a gopher
program, connect to "gopher.genie.com" and then choose item 7 (Magazines
and Newsletters from GEnie's RoundTables).
*** GET INTO THE LAMP! ***
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
[EOA]
[FRM]//////////////////////////////
THE EDITOR'S DESK /
/////////////////////////////////
Notes From My Desktop
"""""""""""""""""""""
by Sheldon H. Winick
[GELAMP.ST]
August has arrived, and Atari is still sticking with its promise that it
will finally release the Jaguar CD ROM this month. They are saying it will
begin shipping by August 24th, so watch for it at your favorite Atari
Jaguar dealer. It might also not be a bad idea to contact your dealer in
advance to confirm your order so you will be guaranteed to get one from the
initial shipment if you're anxious to finally get the CD-ROM connected to
your Jag. The current projection is that the Jaguar CD will ship bundled
with a Tempest CD, VidGrid and Blue Lightening CD's.
In the meantime, new cartridge-based Jaguar software continues to debut.
Newest releases include FLASHBACK and WHITE MEN CAN'T JUMP. Both should be
showing up on dealer shelves by the time you're reading this.
This month our regular staff writers once again bring to GEnieLamp/Atari
an excellent mix of information, easy reading and humor. Lloyd Pulley's
'Around and About GEnie' column takes you for a visit to the East, Midwest
and West Roundtables, and then follows up with a special tribute to George
Bates, who you may remember reading about in Lloyd's column a couple of
month's ago; George unfortunately, passed away last month.
Al Fasoldt takes a lighthearted look at Internet in a feature entitled
'Welcome to ITV', then takes a more serious look at the procedures for
backing up your hard drive, and a close look at Elfback software for doing
just that in his 'Little Gems' column. Readers of our TX2 editions will
also get to see some screen shots of that program.
Mel Motogawa's 'Mel's Manor' column focuses on making hard drive bootups
faster and more efficient, and his monthly 'Online Library' offers you a
quick tour of last month's plethora of new programs available to you for
downloading in GEnie's Atari Library. Screen shots of selected programs
are included in the TX2 graphic editions of GEnieLamp/Atari.
Sandy Wolf shares his monthly stock market analysis of high tech, computer
industry stocks in his 'Computers and Investing' column. Our TX2 edition
readers will also be able to see several graphs that are integrated into
Sandy's colum.
Phil Shapiro's 'Reflections' column offers a think-piece concerned with
'notching.' Not familiar with that term yet? Only hint I'll give you here
is that it definitely deals with online communications. Check out Phil's
column for all the details.
Our 'Humor Online' feature column this month offers an example of what we
could expect 'If Dr. Seuss Were a Technical Writer.' Of course, if you're
not familiar with Dr. Seuss, you'd better go back to square one. Just ask
virtually ANY small child or parent of a small child. Then again, unless
you've been living in a cave somewhere, you must've seen 'How the Grinch
Stole Christmas' on television, at the very least.
Our regular staff writers are also joined by several special contributors
this month. Leading off, immediately following this column is a show
report on the seventh annual MIST AtariFest, written by Dorothy Brumleve.
Dorothy, who has authored an impressive array of educational software for
early learning, chose this year to attend the show as a guest instead of an
exhibitor. That gave her the opportunity to write a complete show report
for GEnieLamp, definitely to the benefit for our readers.
Walter Williams offers a guest comentary in our monthly 'Opposing
Viewpoints' feature. Walter's experiences in the Atari community may well
be similar to those of many of our readers who have been using Atari
systems since the early days. He still has a very upbeat attitude toward
Atari and continues to be very satisfied with the performance of his
systems.
We are also pleased to have a report on this year's annual Atari
Shareholders Meeting, written by Philip Louie, who had the opportunity to
attend the meeting. He shares with us both factual information as well as
personal opinions regarding what he saw and heard at that meeting.
Then we have an assortment of Press Releases on a variety of topics,
everything from new software titles to another upcoming Atari show. Add
to that our regular 'GEnie Quick Quotes', 'Online Puzzle Fun' and more, and
I'm confident you'll agree that this month's GEnieLamp/Atari offers an
excellent collection of information and enjoyable reading. Our TX2
versions offer even more, by integrating excellent informational graphics
and an enhanced software interface to spice up the issue even further.
Until next month, happy Atari computing. Enjoy the Lamp!
[EOA]
[MST]//////////////////////////////
MIST ATARIFEST VII /
/////////////////////////////////
Show Report
"""""""""""
by D.A. Brumleve
[DABRUMLEVE]
Mid-Indiana ST held the seventh edition of their MIST AtariFest on
Saturday, July 29. For the past few years, the show has been held in the
Best Western Waterfront Plaza Hotel on the west side of Indianapolis. This
year, two rooms of booths greeted visitors: one for user group booths and
another for commercial vendors.
Your reporter had a tough time getting to the show... My sister and I had
run some errands on the way; at the last of these, the keys were locked in
the car -- and we were locked out! It took no time at all for the
locksmith to jimmy the lock -- but it did take a long time for him to get
to our stranded vehicle, so we arrived at the show a good hour past the
time I'd hoped for. I'd already missed the opportunity to greet showgoers
in a booth my thoughtful MIST friends had set aside for "talk with
Dorothy", but I nevertheless found many long-time acquaintances in the
aisles, and it was great to see them again.
MIST has routinely drawn a crowd of 300 or more, and the aisles were busy
this year as well. Many people took advantage of sales of used equipment
in the user group room (I picked up a spare color monitor myself), and the
commercial vendors were promoting a variety of new releases.
Dave and Jennifer Troy hosted the huge booth for Toad Computers, where many
new games and peripherals were available. CD-ROM items seemed to be moving
well. Mars, too, was offering games. Tom Harker of ICD was showing Jaguar
items like the CatBox. (He also had a real rarity on display, an ST Book
notebook computer!) John Trautschold of Missionware, which now represents
Fair Dinkum and Rhea-FX products as well, offered the Falcon-compatible
Flash II. Dan of Gribnif was demonstrating its latest version of the
desktop replacement, NeoDesk 4.002, and the multitasking application
environment Geneva. Kelly Webb of SKWare One unveiled the latest version
of Seurat, the drawing and paint program for all ST-family computers; it
even supports the Falcon in TrueColor mode and loads and saves in nearly
fifty formats! Jim of chro-MAGIC brought Crawly Crypt CD-ROMs filled with
PD and shareware programs, the Keyboard Gizmo which allows STers to use IBM
keyboards, and music and game products. Greg Kopchak and daughter Irene
manned the booth of It's All Relative, where a variety of CD-ROM offerings
were available; Greg has an ST viewer for Grolier's Encyclopedia CD-ROM,
Atari CD Master (an ST-compatible front end for some DOS CD-ROMs) -- and he
was taking orders for a product which allows the user to _write_ CDs.
User group booths included my own group, CUSTUG, SCAT, EAUG from the
Alton-St. Louis area, LCACE from north of Chicago, WACO, and, of course,
MIST. A MIST tradition, a MIDI-Maze tournament kept kids of all ages
occupied. Commercial vendors provided a number of door prizes for the
hourly drawings; the grand prize, awarded at the end of the day, was a
Jaguar from Atari.
The MIST volunteers did their usual excellent job. Congratulations to Stu,
Charlie, and all of MIST for another successful show!
///// GEnie Quick_Quote ///////////////////////////////////
/ /
/ .... the Jaguar has multi 64-bit chips mounted on a /
/ 64-bit highway and move data in 64-bit chunks. There /
/ are less powerful chips also, such as the 68000 which /
/ are there for very specific support purposes. It's /
/ silly to say a car isn't an 8 cylinder just because /
/ the power windows have their own motors. <g> /
/ /
//////////////////////////////// ATARI (Don Thomas) ///////
[EOA]
[AAG]//////////////////////////////
AROUND AND ABOUT GENIE /
/////////////////////////////////
The East, Midwest & West Roundtables
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
by Lloyd E. Pulley, Sr.
[LEPULLEY]
It's that time of year. The time when many of us are either getting ready
to take our vacations or, if you're a procrastinator like myself, you're
still trying to decide where to go. No matter which group you belong to
there's three Roundtables (RT's) on GEnie you should visit - EAST,
MIDWEST, and WEST.
In all three RT's you'll find discussions of lifestyles, travel, local
events, weather, hotels and restaurants, and special places to go.
Because you're talking with real people who live in these areas instead of
travel agents, you'll learn where the locals like to visit, places not
necessarily on the beaten track; or where the locals like to eat, not
necessarily the tourist traps that you find on the main roads; or the
special events that might not show up in travel brochures, events that are
fun and exciting but are missed by most tourists.
Are there hurricanes in the area where you're headed? Heat waves?
Floods? These three RT's are the place to find out. No reason to take a
chance on ruining your vacation with bad weather when there's local experts
that can tell you what the weather is _really_ like in their area.
One area in each of these RT's that you have to visit is the file
libraries because they're crammed full of entertaining, interesting, and
useful information. Here's a file that I found in the WEST RT file
library...
Number: 3601 Name: LVTRIPS.TXT
Address: G.ADAMS1 Date: 950117
Approximate # of bytes: 37376
Number of Accesses: 61 Library: 8
Description:
A series of day trips and longer side trips from Las Vegas. Also
included are food ideas, shopping hints, etc.
Since I live in Phoenix, I've been to Vegas many times (for us folks who
live out west, Vegas is just a "hoot and a hollar" away - anything less
than 500 miles is just a "stretch of the legs") but this file showed me
tons of places that I never even knew existed.
There's articles in the libraries written by real people, people like you,
telling about their trips and what you should look for - and look out for.
Since I've always been a railroad travel 'nut', I particularly enjoyed
H.Sutton's "First Timer Tips for Amtrak Travel".
In the EAST and MIDWEST RT file area you'll find a very extensive library
of .GIF files. (.GIF files are graphic pictures and require a special
program in order to view them. There are many freeware and shareware
graphic views in most of the computer RTs.) These GIF pictures show
different areas of the country, so you can actually see your destinations
before you get there so you get a general idea of what to expect.
I'm a Native American Indian (Cherokee) and I was pleasantly surprised at
the amount of information available in all three RT's about Native
American events. As one of the sysops told me, "Since pow wows are mainly
a summer activity, and they are educational for children and adults, what
better way to spend a couple of days (or even hours) during a vacation?"
Each RT has a special category (CAT) devoted to Native American events -
Cat 11 in the East, Cat 27 in the Midwest, and Cat 44 in the West.
Whether you're interesting in gambling (I never knew there were so many
places to gamble in the U.S. until I visited these RT's), hunting,
fishing, camping, hiking, skiing, scuba diving, looking for amusement
parks, museums, or whatever, these three RT's can point you toward the
right areas.
But don't let me mislead you, these RT's are great to visit even if you
are not going on vacation. Are you from New York but living in another
part of the country? There's New York
"....THESE RT'S ARE GREAT TO folks in the EAST RT who can keep you
VISIT EVEN IF YOU ARE NOT up on what's happening "back home".
GOING ON VACATION." Or maybe you've always dreamed of
visiting the Virgin Islands or St.
Thomas but can't afford to do anything but dream. There's folks here that
can fill out your dreams and tell you all about these areas. Or maybe you
want to know how "dem Bears" are going to do this year. There's Bears fans
in the RT's who will be more than happy to keep you up-to-date on your
favorite team.
One feature that the EAST and MIDWEST RT's have that might interest some
of you folks are their lottery postings from the states in their regions.
The lottery and Powerball numbers are updated every 2-3 days, so you can
keep track of how many millions you won that week. <grin>
GEnie (or someone) has divided the country up into three areas. When they
say the EAST RT, they mean all of the eastern states and territories
including most of the southern states, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands/
St. Thomas islands. The WEST is all of the states most of us would
consider 'the west' including Alaska and Hawaii. And that leaves the
center part of the U.S. as the MIDWEST. (The WEST RT has a nice ASCII map
showing what areas they cover.) The only state that I 'lost' (couldn't
find easily) was Oklahoma. Since Kansas was part of the MIDWEST, I thought
Oklahoma would be too. Nope, it's part of the WEST RT (along with Texas).
The EAST and MIDWEST RT's are run by Gary P. Bungart who has eleven very
able assistants to make sure everything runs smoothly. The main sysops of
the WEST RT are Diane (MODEM.MOM) and Kathy (KATHY.H).
That's one thing you should keep in mind when you visit these RT's. The
WEST RT is run by a different group from the EAST and MIDWEST RTs. This
gives each of them a different 'flavor' (which I found enjoyable). While
both groups are each doing about the same thing, each goes about it
differently.
All three RT's have real time conferences (RTC's - times when you can talk
in real time (just like on the phone) to other members of the RT). Also,
each one has monthly Trivia and Hangman games where you can win 1-4 hours
of free online time.
To get to the EAST RT, simply do a 'M 1470' (Move to area 1470). To get
to the MIDWEST RT, do a 'M 1475' (Move to area 1475). To get to the WEST
RT, do a 'M 1065' (Move to area 1065). If you're using Aladdin, simply add
that number (those numbers) to your RT configuration.
[EOA]
[INM]//////////////////////////////
IN MEMORY /
/////////////////////////////////
George Bates
""""""""""""
by Lloyd E. Pulley, Sr.
[LEPULLEY]
Folks,
In my first "Around and About GEnie" column two months ago, I reviewed the
Jerry Pournelle RT. In that column was the following two paragraphs...
Then there's George Bates, the resident 'intellectual' (at least that's
how I perceive him), the guy who's whole purpose in life is "to keep
Lloyd on his toes" - or at least it seems that way sometimes <grin>.
[George has a neuromuscular disorder and is so profoundly disabled that
he can only twitch one finger. He writes all of his messages with a
keyboard emulator that scans a keyboard on the screen, one letter at a
time, and he twitches his finger when it gets to the letter he wants.]
George passed away this last month. According to an E-Mail sent to me, he
passed away peacefully, without pain and in his sleep with his family by
his side.
The following is a memorial to George written by Jerry Pournelle...
It is very hard to compose a suitable memorial to George Bates. I never
met him, and most of my contact with him was public and thus known to
everyone here. To say that he was learned and wrote well is to say the
obvious. I was encouraging him to write more, and hoped he might have a
contribution to one of my anthologies; meanwhile, I like everyone else
here enjoyed his essays.
I came up with the title "RT Essayist" when he came aboard as an
assistant and wondered what to call himself. It seemed obvious to me,
and to everyone else on the staff; only George wondered if he 'deserved'
such a title. That doubt says as much about him as anything else.
He cannot have had an easy life, but few hints of that ever escaped him,
and it was easy to forget that his works were written one letter at a
time through a computer program that scanned across the keyboard so that
he could select a key with the small physical function that he retained.
His essays never seemed cramped, merely well focussed.
I was pleased to welcome him to the staff, and I will miss him a lot.
I don't know if any of you had a chance to visit the Jerry Pournelle RT
while George was still there, but if you did and had a chance to read any
of George's posts, you would never know that each one probably took him
hours to type in. They were well written, detailed, and well researched
(when George "said" something, you knew that he had the facts to back up
his statements).
George and I had many online discussions (one of our most famous was "Is
there such a thing as a free lunch") but one thing I always liked about
George is that he only attacked your position and argument, he never made
personal attacks. George would make you think about what you posted and
defend your position.
In all of the years that I've been online, I've had many online friends
and acquaintances, but none effected me (and my thinking) as much as George
did. And it's to my sorrow that I never let George know how much he and
his posts effected me and my life. GEnie, and the world, is a lesser place
now that George is gone.
[EOA]
[ITV]//////////////////////////////
WELCOME TO ITV /
/////////////////////////////////
Be kind to your Web-fitted friends
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
by Al Fasoldt
[A.FASOLDT]
Copyright (c) 1995 by Al Fasoldt. All rights reserved.
I've finally figured out what the Internet is all about. It's about
14-year-olds.
This was a big disappointment. I've been 14 and I'd rather not go through
it again. In fact, I've passed 14 nearly four times. I like being a
grown-up.
I made this startling determination by the most rigorous scientific method.
I walked into a drug store and picked up a magazine at random. It was
called "Cyber Hyper Surf Bow Wow" or something similar. I'm no good at
names anyway. What stood out was the cover. And the first page. And the
second. And all the rest.
They were straight from one of those comic books you'd find under a
14-year-old-boy's bed, the kind filled with gross jokes and weird pictures
no one older than 15 1/2 could possibly understand.
Mind you, I have nothing against 14-year-olds. I even think they're useful
when it comes time to clean the chimney or scoop up the doggie do. Some of
my best friends used to be 14.
But the Internet wasn't supposed to end up like MTV. This grand father of
all networks, this perfectly paved superhighway for scientific and cultural
information, was supposed to travel straight from one big university to
another, with only a few stops at personal computers in between -- yours
and mine, maybe.
But that's all changed.
Like wow.
The focus of this data diminution is the Web. If you're older than a
sapling and haven't heard of the Web, I have some quick advice: Stop
reading this. Run outdoors. Get away from anything that glows in the dark
and plugs into the wall. Yell for help. Get out that old squirt gun and
fire at every passing computerist.
Stop the revolution before it engulfs you. Once you clamber up onto the
Web, you are a moving target for Beavis and Butthead. You'll have to learn
Newspeak just to get past the guards.
Woof!
It's not surprising that the World Wide Web snuck onto the Internet stage
while most of us adults were looking elsewhere (working extra hours so we
could buy computers for our 14-year-olds, probably). We looked at the
Internet as a kind of alternate post office. But the entire population of
junior-high students sees the Web as another kind of TV network.
A personal TV network.
You sit there in a dim corner and click your way through sights and sounds.
You navigate past commercials. You blunder into something serious -- an
old fashioned Web site where someone is actually trying to impart useful
information -- and quickly click past it to get to the good stuff.
Arf!
I don't blame 14-year-olds for this. They didn't create MTV either. I
don't blame computers any more than I can fault TV sets for showing the
"Psychic Friends Network" every Saturday morning. When the technology
rises to a new height, we adults gladly take the credit. When it
nosedives, the moving finger points to the same target. There's no
escaping it.
But I do wish comic books would stay on one side of the aisle and Internet
magazines would keep to the other. When Spiderman gets on this kind of
Web, life on the data highway will never be the same.
///// GEnie Quick_Quote ///////////////////////////////////
/ /
/ My brother asked me if Atari was banned from /
/ advertising or something.:) He was dead serious too. /
/ He says everytime he tells someone he has a Jag they /
/ have no idea what he's talking about. /
/ /
/////////////////////////////////////////// REALM ///////
[EOA]
[MEL]//////////////////////////////
MEL'S MANOR /
/////////////////////////////////
In Search Of The Fastest Bootup
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
by Mel Motogawa
[M.MOTOGAWA]
Booting your system. I'm surprised at how long that onerous task can take.
The more auto programs and desk accessories in your lineup, the longer this
can take, which can be a
"....THE FEW TIPS HERE WILL HELP YOU IN frustrating toe-tapping
SPEEDING UP THE TIME IT TAKES TO BRING experience if all you needed
YOUR SYSTEM TO LIFE." to do was check on something.
And even if not, it's a
chore by any measure. Hopefully, the few tips here will help you in
speeding up the time it takes to bring your system to life.
Managing Your Bootup:
"""""""""""""""""""""
One surefire way of shortening your boot time, if you only need to grab a
quick bit of data, is to use a boot manager and set it up for both normal
and minimum (just the vital auto folder programs/desk accessories)
configurations. There are tons of boot managers available and many offer
one keypress or mouse click access to different configurations. So if you
don't want to wait, use the minimal configuration for a speedy bootup.
Speed Squeeze:
""""""""""""""
Optimizing your hard disk can help to speed up the bootup process by
reducing fragmentation. I use Diamond Edge, but there are many other
public domain, shareware and commercial optimizers.
If you really want to squeeze the nanoseconds out of your hard disk, use a
directory sorter to put the auto folder programs and desk accessories at
the front of their respective directories. Usually, there are many other
files in the directories where these programs lie and a directory sorter
will assure you that your system will find the necessary files as soon as
possible.
And while we're splitting hairs, I might as well mention No Clear. It's a
little freeware utility that strips out the clear-screen commands in some
auto folder programs. Although not as common today, it seems that some
auto folder programs like to issue a clear-screen command before writing
their message to the screen, which takes a tad more time. No Clear will
eliminate these time-consuming clear-screen commands with the result that
your auto folder messages scroll up your screen as fast as your system
allows.
Fast On:
""""""""
Turn the Fastbit flag On in your auto folder programs. There are many
utilities for doing this also and this little feature in later TOS's will
speed up program execution noticeably. If you don't notice any difference,
then you may have one of the earlier TOS versions that didn't support the
Fastbit flag. I find that Maxifile 3, from Codehead Software, to be the
best utility for quickly setting the Fastbit on my executable files. (I
wouldn't recommend turning the Fastbit On on desk accessories since this
has been known to cause crashing on some systems.)
Fast Off:
"""""""""
Have you heard of Pinhead? This little shareware jewel does something
similar to TOS's Fastbit flag, but better. Over the years I've always
gotten consistently faster bootups by using Pinhead rather than the Fastbit
flag. You just stick Pinhead at the front of your auto folder and turn Off
the Fastbit flag on anything that runs after Pinhead. The difference in
how much less time it takes to boot your system is dramatic versus a
non-Pinhead system. And Pinhead's fastloading works on desk accessories
too! And any other program you run after bootup, for that matter. Be sure,
though, that if any auto folder program has to run before Pinhead, that you
turn On its Fastbit flag, since Pinhead hasn't started working yet.
Squish Me:
""""""""""
Compressing your auto folder programs and desk accessories seems to speed
up my bootup, although fast hard disks these days can make this difference
another hair splitter. The reasoning behind compressing executables is
that part of the program's execution takes place in ram rather than from
disk. I've never found a program packer that decompressed faster than the
commercial program Squish 2 from Trace Technologies and it handles the
compression of desk accessories flawlessly, which is more than what many
other packers can say. Another fringe benefit of squishing your
executables is that they will take up much less space on your hard disk.
Engage!:
""""""""
If you're using the powerful Warp 9 screen accelerator from Codehead
Technologies, try putting it as early as you can in your auto folder
execution chain. You'll marvel at how much faster those auto folder
messages whip onscreen and the overall impression of speed is quite
noticeable. Warp 9 also incorporates the fastloading feature of Pinhead,
so if you're using Warp 9 you can remove Pinhead from your auto folder.
Fewer Is Better:
""""""""""""""""
This brings up another means for shortening your auto folder execution. If
you can run one program that does multiple things, you save the time it
takes to boot several programs. For example, Warp 9 incorporates a screen
accelerator, program fast loader, mouse accelerator, screen saver, alert
button hotkeyer and a background picture utility. In the past, you could
have run 6 programs in your auto folder to achieve these tasks, but with
Warp 9 you run just one program. If you can find auto folder programs and
desk accessories that consolidate commonly used features, your boot time
will be reduced.
Running From Ram:
"""""""""""""""""
An exotic technique for shortening one's boot time is to use the two
programs Code Ram and Code Copy from the Codehead Utilities package. These
programs allow you to create a self-booting ramdisk with your auto folder
and desk accessories on it. When you start your system, the Code Ram
program in your hard disk's auto folder runs and then loads an image file
of your normal auto folder and desk accessory setup into one of the
speediest ramdisks around. Code Ram boots your system from this ramdisk
auto folder and loads the accessories from there too. In order to get this
going you'll need to roll up your sleeves and familiarize yourself with the
various commandlines for the programs and any changes in your auto folder
or desk accessories will require the saving out of a new image file.
In Conclusion:
""""""""""""""
Two other speedup techniques involve adding an accelerator board to your
system (big money), or fiddling with your hard disk driver if it allows you
to reduce the amount of time it displays its status message before allowing
your bootup to proceed (easy to difficult depending on the driver).
The above tips can help anywhere from a little to a lot on a hard disk
system, and tremendously if you're booting on a floppy based system. A
further tuneup tip for floppy users is to use a fast floppy format like
Interleave 11 (available on Maxifile 3) which speeds up floppy reads big
time.
Many of the utilities mentioned above (or their freeware/shareware
equivalents) can be downloaded from the ST Roundtable File Library. With
the help of these tips, I hope that you spend a minimal amount of time
waiting for your system to boot.
///// GEnie Quick_Quote ///////////////////////////////////
/ /
/ Atari usually has superior hardware, and with a very /
/ few exceptions, it is THEY who get "crushed by the /
/ competition". /
/ /
////////////////////////////////////// T.PATRICK5 ///////
[EOA]
[LGM]//////////////////////////////
LITTLE GEMS /
/////////////////////////////////
[*] Elfback Adds Flexibility to a Tiring Chore
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
by Al Fasoldt
[A.FASOLDT]
Copyright (c) 1995 by Al Fasoldt. All rights reserved.
You can never have too many friends, too much love or too many backups.
And you can't have too many choices of backup programs, especially in this
era of big hard drives and puny floppies.
I suspect that backing up to floppy disks is a one-time thing for many
Atari users. For Atarians with large-capacity hard drives, it's just too
much trouble to stick floppies in the A: or B: drive one by one, take them
out and label them, store them someplace where they're safe, and then find
them later when you need to retrieve something. You do it once, spending
all weekend plodding through floppy disks, and vow never to do it again.
I know that's how I feel. I actually did finish an entire backup of all my
files to floppy disks once. At that time I had 180 megabytes of Atari
files, and I had to use about 160 floppy disks to back them up. After
trying to keep the backup current a couple of times, I gave up the floppy
shuffle and bought a secondary hard disk just for backups. It was, in
effect, a mirror of my primary drive.
By compressing all the files I was backing up, I was able to store copies
of all my files in one-third the space they took up on their original
disks. (Compression methods save about 50 percent in actual file size, and
the additional savings comes from collapsing folders into zero-byte entries
in each compressed archive. Folders take up 16 kilobytes -- even though
they are ostensibly empty -- on my file system, and even on the smallest
hard drive they take up 1 kilobyte. With 1,200 to 1,800 folders on each
primary partition, I was saving a lot of space when files and folders were
stored in compressed form.)
I've continued to use this kind of backup method for the last four years.
As my primary drive capacity increased, so did my backup drive capacity.
Backups are quick and easy, and my homebrew backup program even runs
happily as a background task under MagiC or Geneva while I do my writing,
telecommunications or image processing.
But my backup system (a series of batch files running under a DOS-style
command-line interpreter) works so well because it's customized for my
setup. It almost certainly would not work as well for anyone else. What's
needed is a good hard-drive-to-hard-drive backup program that anyone can
master -- one that makes the important decisions for you while compressing
both files and folders in the minimum amount of space. Although Diamond
Back 3 is a superb backup program, I found after I bought it that it failed
to meet the second of my two criteria: It does not compress files and
folders into single archives, and this means it wastes a lot of space.
None of the two dozen other backup programs I've tried over the last few
years measured up to Diamond Back 3 in other respects, so I had given up on
finding one that could do what I wanted a backup program to do.
Then I began an interesting e-mail correspondence with software engineer
John Kormylo [j.kormylo on GEnie], the author of a backup program called
Elfback. Kormylo recently updated Elfback to make it compatible with
Geneva, and this made it compatible in most ways with MagiC as well. But
he added another feature that was even more important to me: Whereas
previous versions could back up only to floppy disks, the latest Elfback
was able to back up files from one hard drive partition to another.
(Editors Note: A screenshot appears in the TX2 versions of GEnielamp)
Kormylo sent me a couple of beta versions of Elfback, which I am not at
liberty to discuss except to say that they are similar to the one available
in the Atari ST Roundtable's file libraries, ELFBAK26.ZIP (file number
36208). That archive file contains Elfback 2.6 and its documentation,
written in plain English. The program requires at least 2 megabytes of
memory and will not run under the oldest versions of TOS (TOS 1.00 and
1.02) because they do not support the proper use of the archive bit. I
tested it on a 20-megabyte TT under both TOS 3.06 and MagiC (a multitasking
replacement for TOS), and checked its behavior under Geneva also. One
problem was noted under MagiC, which I will describe later, but Elfback
behaved well under TOS and Geneva.
Elfback employs a mild form of "annoyware," displaying a reminder to
register the program each time it starts up. Registration costs only $10.
The registered version does not have the reminder.
Like many other Atari programs, Elfback relies on modal dialogs for its
selection windows, but uses a large modeless (multitasking) dialog when it
is actually operating. This allows Elfback to share processor time with
other programs or most desk accessories while it is doing backups or
restores, and is a welcome touch. If you've never been able to conduct
backups while performing another task, and have a 16MHz or faster Atari,
Elfback should be a welcome surprise.
Elfback is a complete backup program. It can back up individual files,
multiple files, complete folders and even entire partitions, and can
restore selected files or an
"ELFBACK IS A COMPLETE BACKUP PROGRAM. entire backup set. Backups
IT CAN BACK UP INDIVIDUAL FILES, can be full or incremental.
MULTIPLE FILES, COMPLETE FOLDERS, AND In a full backup, everything
EVEN ENTIRE PARTITIONS, AND CAN is archived; in an incremental
RESTORE SELECTED FILES OR AN ENTIRE backup, Elfback adds only
BACKUP SET." those files that are new or
have been changed, using the
archive bit -- a setting within each file that is turned on (set to a
binary 1) when a file is created or changed.
(Editors Note: A screenshot appears in the TX2 versions of GEnielamp)
Like most other Atari backup programs, Elfback does not remove files from a
backup set that are no longer located in the original directory. This
allows you to delete files that are taking up precious space without losing
them from your backups, but it also tends to clutter your backups with old
versions of files that you may no longer need. For this reason, you should
occasionally create new backups using the "full" method. (Create the new
ones first, then check them for integrity before deleting the old ones.
Never leave yourself without a set of reliable backups, even for a few
minutes.)
Elfback does not copy a set of separate files and folders to another
location; it places all backed-up data in a single archive file that can be
located anywhere -- even on the same disk as the original files and
folders. (This would invite disaster if the disk failed, but you can do it
if you want.) Each backup file archive can be any size.
Backups can be tested for integrity at any time -- handy for those who back
up to floppies, which can deteriorate over time -- and Elfback can format
single-sided and double-sided standard 720-kilobyte floppy disks and
1.44-megabyte high-density floppies before placing any files on a disk.
(Users also can choose higher-capacity formatting.) Elfback will not
overwrite data already on a disk unless you tell it to.
During file operations, Elfback displays thermometer-type graphs that show
free memory, free disk space and the status of the backup. The name of the
active file is shown at the bottom of the dialog. Pressing the Undo key
pauses Elfback's backup or restore operations, and an alert box asks if you
want to cancel the task. You can cancel a restore at any time without a
problem, but canceling a backup will destroy the active backup file.
Kormylo is as much a theorist on data-compression methods as he is a
programmer, and this shows up in Elfback as a choice between two
compression methods or no compression at all. Highest compression is
achieved by a technique called LZA, while the fastest compression uses what
Kormylo refers to as an adaptive-arithmetic technique. You can choose one
or the other at any time. Elfback automatically detects the type of
compression used when it extracts data, and will also restore files that
were backed up using an older compression method used in earlier versions
of Elfback. The choice of no compression is useful only when you are
backing up files that are already heavily compressed, such as LZH or ZIP
files or such graphics files as GIFs and JPGs. Uncompressed backups are
not readable from the desktop or from any other utility, so you should not
choose an uncompressed backup in the expectation of being able to restore
files by copying them from backup disks.
(Editors Note: A screenshot appears in the TX2 versions of GEnielamp)
Kormylo says LZA compression achieves 60 percent file-size reduction and
adaptive compression can reach 40 percent reduction, using typical data.
In my tests, the figures ranged from 50 percent to 70 percent reduction for
the LZA method and 35 to 40 percent for the adaptive technique. Texts
usually compressed the most, as is typical with LZH and ZIP archivers.
Adaptive compression was very fast on the TT, doing its work so quickly
that I initially mistrusted the results. But after running integrity
checks on a dozen adaptive-compression backups, I became convinced that
Kormylo's fast-compression method was as reliable as it was quick. I
checked other backup compression schemes on both my TT and my 66MHz Windows
PC, and all were slower than Elfback -- and most would not operate in the
background, either.
In fact, it is Elfback's unruffled mastery of background operations that
sets it apart from nearly all other backup programs. On the Atari, only
Diamond Back 3 can match Elfback's ability to run as a secondary task, but
DB3, as I mentioned earlier, does not create unitary backup files, and
therefore cannot save the same amount of disk space that Elfback does. The
savings achieved through a single archive file for each backup set can be
much greater than you suppose; the average for all my tests showed that
Elfback's backup archives took up only 19 percent of the space the original
files and folders occupied.
If this kind of new math makes no sense, consider the savings you'd get
from compacting the entire file structure so that individual files and
folders do not occupy separate clusters on your hard disk. I could make
this point in a more dramatic way by listing the results of Elfback's
archive of my large collection of small Flash DO files: Each file ranges
in size from a few bytes to a few thousand, with the average DO file
perhaps 200 bytes in length, yet each one takes up 16 kilobytes on its
hard-disk partition. Elfback achieved a space savings of 99 percent.
Elfback's operation under MagiC, which performs preemptive multitasking at
all times, was outstanding in every way but one. When I double-clicked on
the names of folders in Elfback's built-in custom item selector, the TT
locked up. Double-clicking on the folder symbol at the far left of each
entry worked OK. I'd like to see Kormylo abandon the custom item selector
or offer an option to bypass it. Modern replacement item selectors such
as Selectric and the Geneva item selector -- and old standbys such as the
Little Green Selector -- are a much better choice when working with a file
system. (They'll also work with TraceTech's FastPath item-selector
enhancement, which the Elfback selector will not do.)
But this is minor carping. In every other way, Elfback stands out as an
superb backup program. If you care about your files, I can't think of a
better way to spend $10.
[EOA]
[OLB]//////////////////////////////
ONLINE LIBRARY /
/////////////////////////////////
[*] Files, Files & More Files!
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
by Mel Motogawa
[M.MOTOGAWA]
It's certainly gratifying to see another 258 files uploaded to the ST
Roundtable File Library this month. One of the highlights is the demo of
Kobold 3, a truly breathtakingly fast file maintenance program. One look
at its incredible speed and powerful features will leave you dumbfounded.
Kobold is one of those programs that really brings excitement to the Atari
ST market. Don't forget to keep your Aladdin library listing current, to
keep from missing other downloadable notables.
Any comments of my own are shown within double asterisks "**...**" after
the file description, in the ASCII GEnie Lamp version, and also in italics
in the TX2 version. (If you haven't experienced reading the Lamp in TX2
format, why not download the TX2 file viewer (file #20441) by David Holmes?
You may be surprised at the versatility and power of this program, above
and beyond viewing TX2 Lamp issues.)
#36336 TW_CHECK.LZH 6912 Simple, effective checkbook application for the
"""""""""""""""""""""""""" new Twist database (sold by Oregon Research).
Use LHARC or the LHarc-Shell to extract.
#36337 SATURNST.LZH 184960 Use an MPEG player or 1stGuide to play this
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""" black-and-white MPEG of Saturn. This is a
live movie taken by NASA. Use LHARC or the LHarc-Shell to extract.
#36338 ZERO-5.ZIP 724992 This is a Great 3D space fighting game for the
"""""""""""""""""""""""""" STE and F030 only! If you have either of these
machines, you should download this demo NOW! Check this out 4Play, there
is some nice stuff that would be nice in Battle Sphere. Check out the star
fields!!!! Use latest ST-ZIP to extract.
#36341 JETSPEED.TXT 6272 Straight Edge Software announces JetSpeed, a
"""""""""""""""""""""""""" custom GDOS printer driver that uses OutBurST!
to achieve extremely short printout times for GDOS based applications such
as Atari Works. Also version 3.3 of OutBurST! is shipping. This file
gives details of both products and ordering information. File may be
<L>isted or <D>ownloaded.
#36342 DEMOPARC.ZIP 227840 Demo version of the picture database PARC.
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""" Reads JPG, TIF, GIF, and several other
formats, and can read pictures directly from the CHILI video digitizer.
Demo version can write a max. of 10 pictures per archive. German DOCs
only, but hopefully someone can translate, because this looks like a killer
program! Use latest ST-ZIP to extract.
#36361 GD_CHECK.LZH 29056 This is the premiere font-sample utility for
""""""""""""""""""""""""""" the Atari, running in a modern multitasking
GEM window and providing great control over all parts of the sample
printouts. Those who want to can even edit the configuration file so that
GDOS Check will print thousands of test characters for each font.
Documentation, program and resource file in English. Works with all
Ataris; tested with a CDII card and a NOVA card. Prints perfectly (with
proper page lengths) under Speedo GDOS and NVDI 3.x. Use LHARC or the
LHarc-Shell to extract.
#36362 TC63CPX.LZH 18560 Fans of Tcache, the first modern disk cache for
"""""""""""""""""""""""""" Ataris, now have a CPX module that can be used
for cache readouts and for setting cache parameters in real-time. (The
accessory that comes with Tcache freezes all other processes while it is
on-screen, but this CPX can be open while other activities are going on,
even in a single-tasking system). NOTE: This is totally in German, so its
main usefulness (until we can secure a translation) is in cache reporting.
Use LHARC or the LHarc-Shell to extract. Requires TCACHE63.LZH, file
#36120.
#36363 PARCA_D1.ZIP 337280 Small demo database for use with the
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""" DEMOPARC.ZIP picture database program. This
does a great job of showing off PARC's power! Requires DEMOPARC.ZIP, file
#36342. Database in German. Use latest ST-ZIP to extract.
#36369 WORDLASR.ZIP 6400 This is a group of various PRINTER.CFG files
"""""""""""""""""""""""""" for WORDWRITER II. Some may or not work. I
have tried them with my Epson Action Laser II in the HP Mode. DeskJet
users should be able to use at least one DJ.CFG file. Hope this will help
those who like WW II and cannot print on a laser printer. Harry Hill St
George, UT/Las Vegas, NV. GENIE: H.HILL8 Please use the latest version of
ST Zip to extract.
#36376 XV_301.LZH 521028 XV 2.10 is a program that displays image files
"""""""""""""""""""""""""" in GIF87, GIF89, JPEG, PBM/PGM/PPM, TIFF,
PDS/VICAR Sun Rasterfile, and X11 Bitmap formats. XV runs on nearly ALL X
displays: 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 16, 24, and 32-bit, color, greyscale, and
black/white. XV displays one image at a time in an output window, or on
the root window. Many, many features, ready to go. Tested on my TT030
under X Windows (X11R5). Use the latest LZH extractor to decompress.
#36384 TC63CPXE.LZH 18688 Full English version of the Tcache CPX,
""""""""""""""""""""""""""" translated by JSW. The CPX is a much handier
way to adjust the cache settings, since the CPX can be kept on the screen
in single-tasking systems while the computer is running GEM programs. No
password is needed to change the cache settings, unlike the unfortunately
restrictive ACC version of the cache control manager. Tcache is available
in the libraries here. It is the most modern disk cache for the Atari ST,
TT and Falcon. Use LHARC or the LHarc-Shell to extract.
#36389 XSPREAD_.LZH 559420 Spreadsheet modified for Xwindows modified
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""" version of "sc 6.22" that runs under
Xwindows. Supports mouse, LOTUS files, and 5 different graph types. Works
only in ST High/ Monochrome /TT High resolutions (no color) with MiNT/
Xwindows /MiNTOS/MINIX setup. So far, I'm impressed. :) Tested on a 10Meg
TT030 with 19" TTM195 monitor and TOS 3.06, running Xwindows X11R5, MiNT
1.12h2-beta, MiNTOS, and MINIX 0.60 (amongst other things). Use the latest
LZH utility to extract.
#36395 MEMWTCH4.ZIP 12800 Check on your memory fragmentation--in any
""""""""""""""""""""""""""" version of TOS, MultiTOS, Geneva, or MagiC!
This version has new features and a whole slew of bug fixes.
#36399 DARKROOM.ZIP 28288 This program will allow you to control lights
""""""""""""""""""""""""""" and small appliances in your home. Differs
from other x10 control programs because it has the ability to be used as an
interval timer. Runs on all Ataris from the 520ST through the Falcon.
<Sysop Note> Requires X10 hardware. Sysop unable the verify operation of
this file. Use latest ST-ZIP to extract.
#36400 F223UP.LZH 156288 Missionware Software is pleased to present
"""""""""""""""""""""""""" another free upgrade to Flash II, the
telecommunications program of choice that works on all Atari ST, STe,
MegaSTe, TT030 and Falcon computers. This upgrade fixes a number of small
problems we had in version 2.22. Most significantly was the
incompatibility with SpeedoGDOS version 5.0c. Enjoy the upgrade and have
fun with Flash II. Use latest Quester's LZH to extract.
#36401 F223_PR.TXT 6528 For information on Flash II from Missionware
""""""""""""""""""""""""" Software and our latest software release
(version 2.23), download this short text file. File may be <L>isted or
<D>ownloaded.
#36405 INTCH152.ZIP 97664 In-Touch is a specialized database for
""""""""""""""""""""""""""" organizing names, addresses, phone numbers,
notes, calendar dates and manipulating them with a couple clicks of a
mouse. The date reminder and built in calendar system keeps you in touch
with all upcoming events. Features galore include importing, exporting,
and modem phone dialing. A wide variety of professional looking envelopes,
mailing and calendar labels, addres and date books can be printed using
Speedo fonts. The latest upgrade provides a monthly calendar and month
event listing; and clears an edit category bug.
#36415 NEWCAD.LZH 94592 Marvelously flexible and fully GEM-based
""""""""""""""""""""""""" Computer Aided Design application from Germany.
Tested on a CDII graphics card under MagiC and Geneva. Use LHARC or the
LHarc-Shell to extract. ** I couldn't get this one to run well in medium
resolution. A screenshot appears in the TX2 versions of GEnielamp. **
#36416 PARDON.LZH 24192 You'll beg your own pardon when this cute
""""""""""""""""""""""""" GEM-windowed game gets the best of you. Tested
on a CDII under MagiC and Geneva. Use LHARC or the LHarc-Shell to extract.
** A screenshot appears in the TX2 version of GEnielamp. This program
requires 640x400 and up resolutions. **
#36425 TAUT_II.ZIP 302208 This is a two player Maj Jong type game with
""""""""""""""""""""""""""" nice graphics and odd sounds. Its like Maj
Jong, but square. Neat variation. It works only on a Falcon, but can use
Joysticks, Joypad, Mouse, or keyboard for control. Use latest version of
ST ZIP to extract.
#36438 T2G_R6_D.LZH 74112 This is the latest version of TOS to GEM.
""""""""""""""""""""""""""" Please note that the docs are in German.
#36442 DEPAT203.ZIP 144000 This program will patch Diamond Edge 2.00,
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""" 2.01 or 2.02 to V2.03 It is recommended for
all Diamond Edge owners. Best regards, Bob Luneski Oregon Research Use the
latest version of ST ZIP to extract this file.] SYSOP NOTE->You do NOT have
to download this file if you have already downloaded DE203PAT.ZIP. The
only change is in the wording of the copy- protection dialog box.
#36444 ESSCOD64.LZH 94208 This is the latest version of ESS-Code v6.40.
""""""""""""""""""""""""""" Used for converting files, both ASCII and
binary, to a ASCII file so you can trrnsfer it via E-Mail. One of the new
features in this version, it will automatically look for the next UUE file
when it is segmented. Also has filters so you no longer have to edit the
UUE files before you decode them. Please use the latest version of
Questor
LZH to extract this file.
#36445 TBLA133E.LZH 22272 TurboBlanker V1.33e, released May, 27 1995.
""""""""""""""""""""""""""" TurboBlanker is a shareware screensaver for
your Falcon. Performance is accelerated when the screen is inactive! By
manipulating the signal between the monitor and the Falcon TurboBlanker
frees up the main Falcon processor so it can get on with other tasks. This
program manipulates synchronisation between Falcon and onitor. Some
monitors could be damaged if the synchronisation is altered. Please use
the latest version of Questor LZH to extract this file.
#36480 MGX2FCR3.ZIP 25216 Patch for MagiC 2.0 to run on a Falcon 030.
""""""""""""""""""""""""""" (Untested.) All docs are in German
#36481 MGX3FCR2.ZIP 24832 Patch for MagiC 3.0 to run on a Falcon 0300
""""""""""""""""""""""""""" (Untested.) All docs are in German
#36482 VECTOR.ZIP 227456 In order to see this file you must have Calamus
"""""""""""""""""""""""""" SL. In order to print this file you must have
a 600 dpi printer. Thus, once again I appeal to a mass audience. The
files demonstrate what can be accomplished in the way of logo design using
either Outline Art or the Line Art Module of SL Use latest version of ST
ZIP to extract.
#36484 KIVI_141.LZH 103680 This is the latest version of Kivi QWK
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""" Reader. Version 1.41. A good off-line QWK
reader that runs on all Atari's. This version has some bug fixes, a few
speed increases, and support for FidoNet Mail.
#36486 THIN054E.LZH 387328 This is the latest version of Thing v0.54.
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""" This archive is is English, the German one
is available upon request. Thing is a alternative desktop that is usable
under regular TOS (except 1.0 and 1.2), under a multi-tasking program like
Geneva, Magic, or Multi-TOS. Offers many improvements over the regular TOS
desktop.
#36495 ACM_PR2.TXT 5888 Here is the new Update to the PR for the new CDs
""""""""""""""""""""""""" supported by ATAAI CD MASTER from Homa Systems
House. The new CDs are 1995 automobile almanac and TIME 1994 reference
edition. More CDROMs to be added soon. Read this PR for new exciting
news.
#36497 EVERST34.ZIP 94080 This is version 3.4E of Everest, the
""""""""""""""""""""""""""" jam-packed-with-features GEM text editor.
Everest has all the standard features of normal GEM text editors, plus
several others, such as allowing normal STs to have up to 10 text windows
open at once, full clipboard support, multiple search options, file lists,
abbreviations, labels, etc, and is very easy to use. As of its release
date (11/5/94), it's compatible with all Atari 680x0 computers and graphics
cards. A must have for all, especially those under multitasking systems!
Shareware from Germany.
#36511 XUFSL105.LZH 86016 This is version 1.05 of the Extended Universal
""""""""""""""""""""""""""" FontSelector. Please note hat it is
completely in German. Note: Sysop unable to verify operation of this file.
Use latest Questor's LZH to extract.
#36513 JPEG5.ZIP 174592 This distribution contains the fifth public
""""""""""""""""""""""""" release of the Independent JPEG Group's free
JPEG software. This software is the work of Tom Lane, Philip Gladstone,
Luis Ortiz, Jim Boucher, Lee Crocker, George Phillips, Davide Rossi, Ge'
Weijers, and other members of the Independent JPEG Group. This is NOT a
viewer, but rather a utility for converting to and from the JPEG format on
any size Atari. This version is about 30% faster. Use latest ST-ZIP to
extract.
#36514 JPEGD.ZIP 20480 This is the JPEG decooer from Atari. It runs
"""""""""""""""""""""""" only on Falcon computers, since it uses the DSP.
It's small, and fast... This program doesn't do anything by itself. You
need a viewer that uses the installed routines. Imagecopy and Speed of
Light are two such programs. This archive also includes a nice little ACC
that will load and display a JPEG, quickly.
#36518 MULTDIAL.ZIP 1664 Finally, an Aladdin AUTO script that allows you
"""""""""""""""""""""""""" to use three phone numbers: GEnie 2400, GEnie
9600 and Sprintnet without actually having to "Do User Script". Any option
that causes Aladdin to connect will be intercepted by the script where you
will be asked which phone number to use. It makes the Sprintnet
logonnprocedure painless and automatic.
#36520 PIXCROM.ZIP 77440 Front end for the VIDIST video capture
"""""""""""""""""""""""""" interface LOAD / SAVE 24bit QRT raytrace RAW
files must use RAW2SPC to view full color. Has some interesting filters.
Sysop Note: Color Monitor required.
#36527 FRDM114E.ZIP 369792 This is the latest 'English' version of the
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""" Freedom File Selector, version 1.14.
Freedom is an alternative file selector that runs on all Atari computers.
Please use the latest version of ST Zip to extract.
#36531 TC63_AW.LZH 8832 The docs for TCache 6.3 (a hard-disk cache
""""""""""""""""""""""""" program, not included), here presented in
AtariWorks format using a couple of Speedo fonts. You will need one
Dutch/Roman font family (with regular, bold & italic), and one medium
weight Sans-Serif font. Please use the latest version of Quester's LZH to
extract.
#36532 XUFSL103.LZH 62464 A number of german Atari programmer's have
""""""""""""""""""""""""""" made attempts to come up with a FontSelector
program that will allow a standardized way of switching display fonts in
different programs. This is the latest and most elaborate attempt
(released in 1994). It includes an Auto folder program and a CPX control
module. I've translated about 95% of the program in English, so it's
fairly easy to use and understand. Works well with NVDI 3. Should work
with Speedo and earlier versions of GDOS also. Please use the latest
version of Quester's LZH to extract.
#36537 ZXD_103A.ZIP 119296 Zero-X v1.03 Demo, a Professional Sample-Edit
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""" program for Atari. Transfer samples via
MIDI and SCSI port. Converts audio files at any size. Automatic
LoopSearch. Powerful Sample Edit with Auto-Cut. Sample rate conversion,
BeatSplit, Detune, Gate, Cross Fade, Change Gain etc. Many Drum Loop
functions; creates MIDI files from drum loop samples etc. For Atari ST/E,
STacy, MegaST/E, TT, Falcon/Barracuda and the Eagle. By HB Button and
Copson Data (C) 1994-1995. Please use the latest version of ST Zip to
extract.
#36539 MM12DDEM.ZIP 534912 MagiCMac demo v1.2 for Apple Macs with 68030,
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""" 68040 and PowerPC CPUs. Demo runs for 15
minutes. File is in MacBinary, packed with Stuffit. Use Stuffit Expander
or Stuffit Lite to unpack. Please use the latest version of ST Zip to
extract. SysOp note: German docs/program.
#36543 RAM_LEAK.ZIP 9216 TSR inserts magic words around RAM blocks. ACC
"""""""""""""""""""""""""" test magic words 4 time/sec. Also can show
map of allocated blocks.
#36544 ELF_MINT.ZIP 56192 ST Guide hypertext MiNT Documentation. Demo
""""""""""""""""""""""""""" taken from Pure C English Help Files.
#36545 ELF_HARD.ZIP 48384 ST Guide Atari Hardware Documentation.
""""""""""""""""""""""""""" Includes memory map and peripheral chip
descriptions. Demo take from Pure C English Help Files by E.L.F.
Software.
#36549 SCRNFONT.LZH 70784 The GDOS screen fonts I previously uploaded(in
""""""""""""""""""""""""""" 2 files, 35715 which had a number of fonts
converted from Warp9's degas format; and 36530, which had a Calamus screen
font converted from J.BATTEY1's Calamus screen font for Warp9) had a slight
problem which prevented most of them from being recognized by NVDI(and
Neo4/Geneva/STalker). This has been rectified, and this new file contains
all the previous, plus an IMG guide which illustrates the different font
styles. Sorry for the confusion! The other two files have been deleted.
#36550 DIRLST_E.LZH 21376 DirList 1.4, now translated into English.
""""""""""""""""""""""""""" This is a simple but effective program that
will display, print out, or save to file, a list of all the folders/files
on any given drive partition.
#36551 LEDPAN3E.LZH 38528 LED Panel 3.0 -- This is a menu-bar
""""""""""""""""""""""""""" drive-light/capslock/time/date display. I've
translated the CPX and Config program into English. ** A screenshot
appears in the TX2 versions of the GEnielamp. **
#36552 MYCLOCKE.LZH 22656 MyClock is a Digital or Analog clock in a
""""""""""""""""""""""""""" resizable window with many options, including
the ability to use Speedo/NVDI fonts, selection of different hands/numbers,
setting of alarms, resizing of digital display, different day/date formats,
hiding of window elements, and more. Now the help-screen/key has been
translated into English. ** A screenshot appears in the color/mono TX2
versions of the GEnielamp. **
#36554 AHDI_FIX.LZH 94208 Uwe Seimet's patch utility to fix the problems
""""""""""""""""""""""""""" with AHDI is included in this archive, along
with the version of AHDI that his patch is specifically designed to work
with. The patched AHDI can be set to ignore any SCSI, ACSI or IDE drive
IDs, can be configured to allow 1-G partitions and can be adjusted for up
to 9 partitions per physical drive. NOTE: The AHDI included in this
archive is NOT patched. It is the official v. 5.00 AHDI from Atari, with
all its unchanged support files. You must run the patch util to create a
new version, for personal use only. Use LHARC or the LHarc-Shell to
extract.
#36556 MH112H3.LZH 120488 Ok, the original distribution (by TAF) of
""""""""""""""""""""""""""" MH-MiNT and X Windows included MH-MiNT
1.12h2. It had some bugs, and was prone to crashing upon exiting. It also
did not work with MultiTOS. Enter the upgrade! MH-MiNT 1.12h3. Fixes all
of these things. Run tcsh from TOSWIN 1.4 under regular GEM, WITH those
UNIX servers, or just replace your original MH-MiNT and use with X Windows.
It works well. Tested on a TOS 3.06 TT030. Use latest LZH utility to
extract.
#36562 BCKWD283.ZIP 92416 Backwards version 2.83 for the Falcon
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""
#36563 BACKWIII.ZIP 129664 Backward is an utility to make the Falcon
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""" capable of running most ST games. Backward
III introduces a new method: it is now a resident program which can be
accessed through a Library Manager. This is the demo version and is
multilingual.
#36564 KB3_DEMO.TOS 87424 Demo of Kobold 3. Kobold has a new 3-D look
""""""""""""""""""""""""""" and supports drag-and-drop, among other
improvements. You can also change the font. Kobold is an _extremely_ fast
file copier utility and is equally reliable. It can also record and play
copy routines macros, delete files _extremely_ fast, and has a nice Format
Disk option. ** A screenshot appears in the TX2 versions of GEnielamp. **
#36565 LYNX237B.LZH 257236 Here is it... Lynx 2.3.7 - a WorldWideWeb
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""" Browser that uses vt100 emulation (text) for
68020 machines and higher (like the Falcon and the TT030). No waiting for
those graphics to download so they can display on your screen. Runs under
MiNTOS, MiNTNet, and MH-MiNT. It does run from tcsh under MH-MiNT 1.12h3
on my TT030 / TOS 3.06. Read the INSTALL file for info on how to install.
Use the latest LZH utility to extract.
#36566 METADS25.ZIP 13452 This is the MetaDOS 2.5 CD ROM driver your
""""""""""""""""""""""""""" your Atari computer. It will allow you to
access ISO 9660 and High Sierra format CD ROMS if you meet the following
reqirements... (1.) You are running ICD Pro HD Utilities, or (2.) You are
running the CD ROM from the TT SCSI buss, or (3.) You are using the CDAR
504 Atari CD ROM on the ACSI buss. If you are using it with the ICD Pro
Utilities, you NEED the ICDCDROM.BOS driver!! Tested on a Mega STe, TOS
2.05 (and Toshiba 3401 CD ROM drive). Use latest LZH utility to extract.
#36567 PROF2_14.ZIP 182928 This is Profile 2.14! It is a full GEM
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""" application. Just double-click on the
entries to show what your XBRA links are, etc. A very fine Shareware
(5-pounds British) system utility. Will show you more than you ever wanted
to know about your system, and can also point you to conflicts. A _good_
tool. Tested on a Mega STe w/TOS 2.05, and a TT030 w/TOS 3.06. Use latest
LZH utility to extract. ** A screenshot appears in the TX2 versions of
GEnielamp. **
#36570 COMA_290.ZIP 390272 Program-Name: CoMa Voice/Pro 2.90
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""" (COmmunication-MAnager) purpose: To send &
receive faxes, FTP-server, answering machine Fax & Voice-Mail-System
Program-Type: Shareware / Crippleware Hardware: Computer with MagiC, TOS or
MultiTOS & MagiC Mac Note: Sysop unable to verify operation of this file.
Use latest ST-ZIP to extract.
#36584 CD_LIST6.ZIP 17408 The July update to our CD_LIST that now
""""""""""""""""""""""""""" includes 23 Atari Specific CD's and over
1,400 CD's in total. See what is available on CD ROM today for your Atari
machine.
#36585 CAL3_FAX.ZIP 43520 This archive contains a template for FAX
""""""""""""""""""""""""""" generation in Calligrapher 3 format. Also
included is an IMG version of the page. Use the latest version of ST-ZIP
to extract.
#36594 SYSTMEKO.LZH 843136 An impressive Falcon030 demo with some rather
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""" amazing effects.. mainly 3D polygon
routines that are very smooth. Including a Checkard Flag like racer but
unfortunetly, it is unplayable. WILL NOT NOT RUN IN VGA MODES! Use the
latest version of Questor LZH extractor to extract this file.
///// GEnie Quick_Quote ///////////////////////////////////
/ /
/ Or, perhaps, Atari ought to hire a top notch PR firm /
/ whose sole purpose in life is to make sure that the /
/ press gets and publishes the proper information! /
/ /
//////////////////////////////////// J.TRAUTSCHOL ///////
[EOA]
[CAI]//////////////////////////////
COMPUTERS AND INVESTING /
/////////////////////////////////
[*] Monthly Review of High Tech Stocks
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
by Sanford E. Wolf
[S.WOLF4]
(written July 29,1995)
Introduction
""""""""""""
Is there no end to this good fortune? Most market averages are still
moving ahead steadily, at rates of 2% - 5% per month depending on which
average one is watching. Reminds me of the Japanese stock market only a
few years back, unstoppable and reaching for the sun as it rose to ever
higher peaks.
"MOST MARKET AVERAGES ARE STILL MOVING Unfortunately, the sun
AHEAD STEADILY, AT RATES OF 2% - 5% PER also sets, and today
MONTH DEPENDING ON WHICH AVERAGE ONE IS there is considerable woe
WATCHING." across the Pacific.
About the only thing
preventing a 1929 style panic crash is the considerable degree of
government influence in all aspects of the Japanese economy; the relevant
ministries just won't let the most important elements of the economy suffer
the fate which they might well do in the U.S. system. This might avert a
panic, but there are other not so pleasant side effects which such a policy
can cause. Well, you say? That's their problem. Well, yes it is, but
it's also ours. In today's intermeshed world financial system, a serious
mistake over there can hit our markets within seconds, with dire
consequences.
So...., how are we faring in spite of the above? Quite well, with a small
"but." The first signs of a jolt in our seemingly non-stop up escalator
came along in mid-July (19th) with a one day drop of nearly 4% in the
S&P-500. This took the average from the top of the rising channel (see
chart <SP500>) to just below the bottom, from where it has gradually
climbed back to even higher levels. OK, you say? It has resumed its
advance, so all is well, you say? Well, there are a few cracks which have
not yet been repaired, and they might be harbingers of difficulties to
come. Let's take a look.
(Editors Note: A graph appears in the TX2 versions of GEnielamp)
On the <SP500> chart is super-imposed the chart of long term interest rates
(30 year US Treasury bonds). We looked at this pairing last month, and
suggested that rapidly falling interest rates was probably the driving
force behind these last 7 months of joy. Well, look at what has transpired
since! Any chart analyst would have to see a significant triple bottom in
that line, and indeed, the past few weeks have given us a sudden jump from
under 6.5% to nearly 7%. The recent consolidation just under 7% looks, to
my (amateur) eyes, like a possible continuation pattern which could give us
long term interest rates of 7.3% or higher in the not very distant future.
The "driver" appears to have made a "U-turn"; will the trailer follow?
BTW, the 5 year interest rate chart looks quite similar.
MicroSoft
"""""""""
Love Gates or not, his company has come to be a market leader -- better
than 2000% (yes, that's two thousand percent or 20 times) in the past 5
years and tripling in the past 9 months. So, how did MicroSoft get through
the sudden drop. Well, it led the way down -- nearly 20% drop in 2 days!
Has it also led the way back up? Well take a look at the chart.
(Editors Note: A graph appears in the TX2 versions of GEnielamp)
Clearly it did not lead the recent recovery in the market averages. In
fact the yawning gap it left behind on July 19th is still wide open,
untouched. Moreover, the volume of selling -- 25 million shares -- which
accompanied that gap suggests to my amateur eyes more than your typical day
at the ticker tape. Some readers may recall the discussion we had of chart
gaps in relation to IBM's fall from the heights, and this MSFT gap has the
looks of a "turnaround". Yup, in spite of (or perhaps because of) the
imminent release of "Windows 95", this stock looks to be in trouble. As an
acknowledged market leader, guess what that suggests.
I have drawn in a segment of an uptrending resistance line under the recent
price action. If that is penetrated in any serious way, look for a further
drop to the low 80's and possibly lower -- how about 75?!
BTW, I could just as well have used INTEL in place of MicroSoft. Both have
achieved the role of market leader, and both have similar recent chart
patterns, including open "turnaround" gaps.
IBM
"""
IBM continues to be one of the more interesting stocks to watch -- and
learn from. It has, to most observers, resumed its long held place as a
market bellwether; ie, where IBM goes, the market follows. The chart <IBM>
has several interesting features. Clearly, IBM has surpassed that long
term downtrending line of resistance which dates back to its all-time high
in 1987. It is also pressing against the top of its more recent trading
channel. All this would be marvelous for IBM investors, except for a few
niggling details.
(Editors Note: A graph appears in the TX2 versions of GEnielamp)
i) While it did not leave an open gap, IBM did fall, top to bottom, over
10% during that infamous July 18/19 downdraft. The accompanying volume was
nearly 9 million shares each day. This is the largest 2 day price move and
trading volume, up or down, since it started its rise from the 1993 low
point.
ii) Volume accompanying IBM's recent rise back to new highs has actually
been decreasing. (This has also been true of the overall market -- see the
<SP500> chart above.) This, and some other analytical techniques, suggest
at least some downward correction should soon appear. Actually, IBM seems
to have been under distribution for the past 2 months, in spite of rising
price which often mask such "hidden" selling. This distribution seems to
have substantially increased since July 19.
Atari
"""""
SURPRISE! The chart of <ATC> has suddenly developed into an interesting
picture. During the past 4 months, ATC has been building a fairly solid
base within a horizontal trading channel. In fact, it displays some
aspects of a saucer shaped bottom. There are hints that it may be on the
verge of an upside breakout. It now has to contend with the long term
downtrending line of resistance dating back to its high of November, 1993.
This line has just recently entered the horizontal channel, and seems to be
responsible for the most recent pullback in the price. The volume pattern
suggests some buying pressure has recently entered the picture. If ATC can
penetrate the combined resistance offered by the top of the trading channel
and the downtrend line, it could have a nice upward move ahead.
(Editors Note: A graph appears in the TX2 versions of GEnielamp)
Another positive aspect is the recent behavior of Atari's convertible
bonds. After dropping to a recent low of 46, these bonds have climbed back
to 57 in one week of noticeable buying. In a sense, this represents the
"smart" way to invest in Atari at
"....THIS REPRESENTS THE 'SMART' this time, since the bonds are
WAY TO INVEST IN ATARI AT THIS yielding about 10% and Atari does
TIME, SINCE THE BONDS ARE have enough money in the til to
YIELDING ABOUT 10% ....." meet the interest payments for at
least several years. One can
speculate that the positive action in the bonds may be a harbinger of good
news for the stock. Meanwhile, we are entering that time of year when
anticipation of the xmas selling season has often helped stocks of this
type.
Coda
""""
Last month, we looked at Digital Equipment as a possible harbinger of
things to come with the computer technology stocks. We saw that DEC was on
the verge of giving an important sell signal. That signal did come within
a few days, and DEC dropped 15% during the next 2 weeks, for a total
decline of about 30% from its May high. So it did fulfill its assigned
role, calling attention to the underlying weakness in computer stocks which
we have now seen. It has since recovered back to the level of that sell
signal, but has not yet demonstrated a convincing renewal of an upward
trend.
Is the overall market showing signs of age? Well, the recent recovery to
new highs suggests that the bullish phase is still intact. But, cracks are
appearing, as seen above, and one should be exercising caution.
[EOA]
[RFL]//////////////////////////////
REFLECTIONS /
/////////////////////////////////
Thinking About Online Communications
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
by Phil Shapiro
[P.SHAPIRO1]
"Notching" - When One Thing Leads to Another
The social aspects of online communications is a most fascinating
phenomenon. In the past few years I've tried to pay close attention to how
people interact online. One of the most interesting phenomenons is
something I've come to think of as "notching."
Notching occurs when somebody adds an extra "notch" to an online
conversation. So if I were to send e-mail to a friend or colleague
inquiring about one thing, and then they reply asking or offering
information about something else, then a "notch" has taken place. As a
visual metaphor for "notching," imagine two small gears interacting with
one another. As one gear turns, it invariably gets the other gear turning
as well. And once the second gear is in motion, it impels the first gear
to keep turning as well. Then if you draw back and look at these gears
from a few steps away, you'll notice that these two gears are interacting
with other gears as well. And if you step backfurther still, you'll see
thousands and thousands of gears all connected and rotating in concert.
This connection of gears is known, in certain circles, as society.
The Nature of Notching
""""""""""""""""""""""
What is the nature of notching? Why is this phenomenon something deserving
of its own name? The nature of notching derives from the nature of human
interaction. Human beings are far more likely to bring up a new topic of
discussion if there is already an ongoing exchange taking place. It's the
nature of human interaction that anyone who raises a new topic for
discussion needs to provide a context for taking such action. And spelling
out a few introductory sentences for each new idea you want to bring up
takes a great deal of emotional effort. The emotional effort of
introducing a new topic of discussion is minimized when you can raise that
new topic as part of a reply to an e-mail message already sitting in your
mailbox. The proverbial "by the way" (abbreviated to "btw" by experienced
e-mail users) tacked on to the end of a message has enormous social
implications. A "by the way" appendage to an e-mail message signifies a
transition to a new (but related) topic. Implicit in the writing of the
"by the way" appendage is a common understanding that the recipient of the
e-mail message would likely have some interest in the information content
of the "btw appendage."
The phenomenon of notching has deep implications in the realm of human
initiative. If it's an established aspect of online communications that
"one thing leads to another," then it behooves people who are interested in
having things happen to "start the ball rolling." Any pertinent and
interesting e-mail message might just well spawn an e-mail response whose
scope is much larger than the initial message. What starts off as being a
casual e-mail exchange could conceivably develop into something of much
larger import.
Just as in life, it's the nature of the online experience that one thing
leads to another. The facility with which e-mail can be sent and received,
though, makes it much more likely that gears start turning online.
Sometimes it takes just a few keystrokes between two individuals for a
larger gear-turning enterprise to take form.
Notching and Online Collaborations
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Notching is the central activity of all online creative collaborations.
People working on a shared writing project, or a shared software
development project, have an implicit understanding that each person
participating in the project will keep the gears of creative development
turning at a roughly equivalent speed.
Last month I had an opportunity to experience notching firsthand when
working on a collaborative software development project. A colleague of
mine in California volunteered to work on a freeware educational software
project I proposed. Each day he would add a few new features to the
program, and send the work-in-progress over to my online mailbox. The
implicit understanding we had when we started this project is that I would
provide prompt and thoughtful feedback to him as he went thru the steps of
adding further features and refinements to this software.
Once the project got underway, I checked my e-mail about three to four
times each day. Whenever I received a copy of the work-in-progress
software, I stopped whatever else I was doing to test the software and send
feedback. Once, I happened to let a full day pass before sending feedback
to my programming colleague. In a friendly way my colleague pointed out
that I had lapsed by not sending him immediate feedback about the work he
was doing. In other words, my gear was turning slower than his and he was
suggesting I change my ways to get the gears turning in sync again. I
laughed and laughed when I received his message because neither one of us
had spelled out our expectations for this project. But since we were both
experienced online users, we had an implicit understanding of the
"notching" nature of online collaborations.
In thinking about this, I came to understand that I had a moral duty to
provide a roughly comparable amount of volunteer effort to the volunteer
effort being undertaken by my colleague. It would be an egregious breech
of online etiquette to agree to participate in an online collaboration, and
then not follow thru with a good faith effort on my part. Considering the
fact that the two of us meshed well in this project, and that we might work
on other fruitful collaborative projects in the future, I quickly mended my
ways to get my gear turning as fast as his. Interestingly enough, his gear
was spinning fast enough that I felt compelled to go out of my way to keep
pace.
The Implications of Notching
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
The implications of notching are that it behooves people to stay in touch
with one another, even if any particular e-mail message does not contain a
whole lot of substance.
"THE IMPLICATIONS OF NOTCHING ARE THAT IT The very fact that your
BEHOOVES PEOPLE TO STAY IN TOUCH WITH ONE e-mail message shows up in
ANOTHER, EVEN IF ANY PARTICULAR E-MAIL someone else's mailbox can
MESSAGE DOES NOT CONTAIN A WHOLE LOT OF help remind them of your
SUBSTANCE." existence. And if
they're not totally
extended in their own work, they will naturally respond with whatever they
happen to have on their minds. Therefore, a "notched" e-mail exchange
bypasses all the labor involved in writing an introductory section to your
e-mail messages, which helps the gears of society spin round and round.
(The author takes a keen interest in the psychological and social
dimensions of online communications. This essay is one of a collection
of 25 essays in the "Thinking About Online Communications" series. The
author invites e-mail responses at: p.shapiro1)
[EOA]
[OVP]//////////////////////////////
OPPOSING VIEWPOINTS /
/////////////////////////////////
Another Satisfied Atari User
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
by Walter R. Williams
[W.WILLIAMS4]
I am a long time Atari user. It all started when my mother bought a 2600
in '78 or '79 ($150). On a whim, she bought a close-out ATARI 400 with 410
tape drive in '83 ($150). After a year my brother received an 800XL
($150) and a 1050 disk drive ($150) soon after. (Take notice of the
prices).
Speed and Power! Heaven!!
As I was revelling in the performance, word came that Atari, Inc. was going
out of business. Horror!
The TRAMIELS then saved the day and in record time produced the ST ($1000).
I bought a 130XE / 1050 ($150 each) in '85 right before the 520ST came out.
At that time I also saw a MAC 128 ($2300) and wasn't impressed. I needed
to see one of those new STs. The first time I saw one, I was amazed.
Atari had done it again! Beauty and Speed. WOW!! I knew that I wanted
one but used my 8-bit until 1989 when I could afford to by a 1040STfm.
MEGAFILE 60...STE...FALCON...another FALCON... All followed over the next
four years. Things got better and better.
I am currently using two FALCONS, one at home and one at the office. I
have been on GEnie for three years, rarely at first then much more often in
the last two. If you are a FALCON owner, ScreenBlaster 2, NeoDesk4/Geneva,
NVDI, and RAM and some others are must haves. The extra screen room
combined with multitasking has made life much easier. My FALCONs will be
useful to me for years to come.
As for the JAGUAR, when I first saw Cybermorph, I knew immediately that
there was some real power under the JAGUAR's hood. It was "WOW!" all over
again. Real-time shaded 3-D!!!
I am patiently awaiting the release of new games and the CD's arrival. I
realize that some people are impatient and crying over a lack of games.
What seems to be missing is the understanding that a complex,
multi-processing piece of equipment such as the JAGUAR has a necessarily
steep learning curve and to push out titles before they are ready would be
foolish. There will be a constant stream of more and more impressive
titles coming out for years to come as programmers learn the ins and outs
of this machine. As long as they come out faster than I can afford to buy
them, I'll be happy.
The Virtual Light Machine has me interested as I have a home office with my
computer, stereo, JAGUAR and TV (27" S-video) set up within. I spend a
good amount of time there and will certainly make good use of the VLM.
I own most of the currently available games for the JAGUAR and really like
the following ones: Iron Soldier, Cannon Fodder, AvsP, Cybermorph, and
Wolfenstein 3D. My girlfriend likes Tempest and Cybermorph. Of all the
games that I own, Cybermorph probably has the most playtime on it. The
ones that I don't care for are Raiden and Cresent Galaxy. The others fall
in between. That's just my opinion and to each their own.
Atari Corp.'s customer service is top rate as far as I am concerned. In
March '94 I bought a JAGUAR from The WIZ in Manhattan. Upon arriving home
and setting it up, I discovered that I had a defective unit. I mail
ordered another from the WIZ and returned the first for a refund.
Unfortunantly the second unit had the same problem as the first. I called
the 1-800-GO-ATARI number and talked to Barbara Benson who said, "Send your
JAGUAR in and we will get you one from the next shipment." Two weeks later
I had a new unit. Thank You Barbara! A year later my girlfriend bought a
JAGUAR which later developed a bad cart. socket pin. UPS to Atari and two
weeks later new JAGUAR - no problem. Again, great service.
I don't know much about the other systems. I believe that the Sega Genesis
and Super Nintendo are the current sales leaders, primarily because of
availability and price. I have never seen a 3DO or Saturn in action but
know that down here in South Florida, the Saturn seems to be selling and
the 3DO and CDi are collecting dust.
The JAGUAR is selling what units are available. If Atari can manufacture
and distribute enough units at a price near to the Gen/SNES, and with
proper advertising, Atari will be a winner this year. Of course, the
buying public must want to buy new machines. I believe that the overall
game console market is lackluster at this time and don't see much change
coming. It is going to take some excellent marketing to build the sales
momentum require to sell millions. (Atari Corp., Please spend GOOD MONEY
for GOOD MARKETING!)
I have heard talk that the JAGUAR is finished, doomed to be steam-rollered
by the new machines from Sega, Sony and Nintendo. I don't think so. At
their higher prices, they will be in more direct competition against PCs.
The JAGUAR will be very well positioned for this coming holiday season. It
will have a price advantage over all of the latest units. (Remember the
price point above?). If sales are slow now, that just means Atari will be
able to stockpile enough units for an aggressive move when the time is
right.
The Tramiels are quite able to keep Atari in business. Perhaps they will
finally hit it BIG! The stock has been scraping the bottom for a while now
and has recently moved up a bit. I'm not saying that it is going to do
anything, but you know what they say, " Buy low, Sell High! ". And lest
you think that I have a vested interest in all of this; I most certainly
DO! I am also making ready to buy more ATC.
What ever happens with the JAGUAR, Atari will still be in business. From
past experience I believe that Atari's ULTRA-64 KILLER is well into
development and will be backwardly compatable with JAGUAR games. Even if
Atari fumbles the JAGUAR, their large collection of patents from old Atari,
Inc. plus their team of lawyers will ensure that they WILL be back to fight
again! So just enjoy what you have or buy another; If its a JAGUAR, get
ready for some really great games!
Walter Williams is 32 years old, and is VP of Custom Cabinetry and
Furniture Company. He currently owns the following Atari computer
systems:
- unused: 130 XE / 1050 / many games
- spare: 1040 STe / 4 MB / Mono / Color
- Home system: FALCON 4/80 /525 Quantum / 88 Syquest / PanaSync Monitor
LaserJet 4L / SupraFAX v.32bis
- Work system: FALCON 14/80 /170 Quantum / 88 SyQuest / Mitsubishi
Diamond Pro 17 / LaserJet 4P / Unisys A-B Plotter /
SupraFAX v.32bis
[EOA]
[SHM]//////////////////////////////
ATARI SHAREHOLDERS MEETING /
/////////////////////////////////
The State of Atari: The 1995 Annual Atari Shareholders Meeting
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
by Philip N. Louie
[P.LOUIE1]
Another year has gone by which means another annual Atari shareholders
meeting. Being unemployed, I decided to waste some more time by driving
down to Sunnyvale to check out what is going to happen in the next year
around the Atari world.
Marketing
"""""""""
Sam Tramiel, President and CEO of Atari, says that according to Dataquest
and a New York Survey Company (forgot the name), only 5% of the US
population the two data research companies surveyed would buy a $300-$400
game machine. That is why Atari continues to defend their choice of
selling the base system and the CD peripheral separately. They hope to
repeat the same strategy as the Commodore 64 where they sold the computer
and the peripherals separately.
Mr. Tramiel admits that the shortage of software has kept Jaguar sales
down, and they hope to boost sales with the increasing pace of software
they plan to release this summer. Right now, there are two software groups
led by John Correll and Bill Rehbock to lead the software development.
NeoStar, the owners of Babbages and Software Etc., agreed that Software
Etc. stores will be carrying the Jaguar soon with the first 100 stores to
be carrying it this summer. The plan is to increase that number by 200 so
that a total of 300 Software Etc. stores will carry the Jaguar by September
1st. With the steadily increasing amount of software to be released this
summer, Atari hopes that Software Etc. will be enthusiastic about selling
the Jaguar. Atari is buying shelf space in many of these electronic stores
such as Babbages and Electronics Boutique (EB) to increase the Jaguar's
presence. An example of this are the signs at the entrances of the EB
stores that says the Jaguar is available in the store along with a $5
discount off the games in stock. Also at EB, there will be a special
Jaguar section in the stores which is supposedly in the process of being
set up now. This type of buying shelf space will continue throughout the
year and hopefully spread to Babbages and other stores of the same genre.
As for games for the pre-teen population, Mr. Tramiel says that until the
user base increases, the main "thrust" of software titles are aimed toward
people in their teens, 20s and 30s as these age groups contain the largest
number of video game players. He did point out that there are a few games
such as Highlander, Zool 2, Rayman and Nerf Power Force that aren't
"violent" so that kids can safely play them.
Software
""""""""
White Men Can't Jump is scheduled to go into production on the week of June
12th. It will be bundled with the TeamTap four-player adapter so that four
players can play at the same time. A prototype TeamTap was used at the
meeting, but it was only a bare board with four ports for four controllers.
Highlander I is the first game of a Trilogy of Highlander games based on
the animated series. It's the first Atari title that is being developed on
the Jaguar and the PC at the same time. Scheduled to be released by the
end of the year, the game looked very good for what was done. The
background scenery was all rendered, lots of full-motion-video and many
different camera angles showed different views of each scene. All the
polygoned characters' movements in the game were recorded by pads attached
to certain parts of the body and then their motions were recorded on a
computer. Thea Realm Fighters (TRF) also uses this method to record the
body movements of several stars of Mortal Kombat I and II. TRF is
scheduled for the 4th quarter this year on CD.
Myst is almost done and it looked very nice on CD. In fact, the latest
version was being pressed onto CD during the meeting. (It was shown on the
big TVs after the demonstration period) This game took a short time to
port due in part to the improved development tools that have gotten better
over time. Estimated time to do a port of a game is now six months while a
whole new game idea takes about twelve months.
Other games that were shown at the meeting were Super BurnOut, Rayman,
Ultra Vortex (all three were great), Varuna's Forces (lots of full motion
video), Black ICE/White Noise (great graphics and video - some of the best
I've seen), Fight for Life (looks okay), Flashback (looks like all the
other versions), Primal Rage (JagPEG video only shown) and Nerf Power Force
(JagPEG commercial only shown).
The first Atari PC game to be released will be Tempest 2000 which is
scheduled to be released in July on CD-ROM. No comment was made on the
publisher of the PC version. It will require a minimum of a 386, but a 486
or faster is recommended. More sophisticated games in the future will
require a 486 or Pentium. Other games including Highlander and The Rocky
Horror Picture Show will also be released on the PC in the future.
Software Agreements
"""""""""""""""""""
Batman Forever will be on CD with a software house called Probe doing the
game for all the major platforms including the Jaguar. However, Acclaim
will handle the distribution for all the versions except the Jaguar version
which will be distributed by Atari. It is scheduled to be released on all
major platforms (including the Jaguar) in January 1996 in conjunction
(hopefully) with the video release.
When Sam Tramiel was asked about an agreement with Electronic Arts that was
printed in a UK magazine, he said, "Interesting. There is nothing formal
with Electronic Arts." He goes on saying that they always talk to them,
but there is nothing "formal" to announce right now. What that is suppose
to mean, I don't know. Maybe a US/UK division difference.
Atari and Sega has picked the five titles from each other's library that
they plan to translate for their own systems. The agreement states that
the chosen games must be available for one year on their respective home
systems before the translation can be done. The problem is that Atari
doesn't feel that the past Sega games are that good and have not decided if
they want to port them. However, Sega will be porting over their five
chosen Atari titles to the Game Gear, Genesis and Saturn. Mr. Tramiel says
that next year, Atari will have the chance to choose the Virtua Racing and
Fighter games to port over to the Jaguar as the Virtua games would have
been out for one year on the Sega home systems. However, Atari still isn't
saying what titles they or Sega chose.
Time Warner Interactive has already started testing two new arcade games
based on the Jaguar hardware. No names were mentioned, but they are
testing the new games at a place called Golfland in the Southern part of
the San Francisco Bay Area.
Hardware
""""""""
Controller 2 is still in the testing stages. It works well, but Atari
wants to improve the feel of the joypad more than the current prototype
they had on display. They are expecting it to be packed in with the Jaguar
later this year. It will also be available separately.
The Jaguar CD-ROM is set to be released sometime in August. There is still
no official word on the pack-in game, but right now, Blue Lightning is the
most likely one. (Late Note: It has since been announced that Blue
Lightning will be the pack-in game) Vid-Grid, Virtual Light Machine and
the Tempest 2000 Soundtrack are the other pack-ins. Vid-Grid features nine
videos and each video is cut into a number of pieces on the screen. The
pieces are shuffled and you must unscramble the pieces to see the video
correctly. A tenth video to solve is awarded if the player unscrambles all
nine videos. Eight titles are scheduled to be released at the same time as
the Jaguar CD, and advertising will begin around the Labor Day weekend.
The Jaguar Virtual Reality helmet is scheduled to be released in early
1996. It's very unlikely that they will have it ready by Christmas this
year. They already have ten VR prototypes in testing and hope to have to
next prototype by June 19th. The first game to be released for this full
color VR system is Missile Command 2000. An interesting note is that
Virtuality was able to build the tracking device that keeps track of your
head movements for about $15, yet it works faster than the commercial
tracking device (which cost about $1000) that is used in virtual reality
theme parks today. Because of the (hopefully) $299 price tag and because
virtual reality is so new in the mass marketplace, Mr. Tramiel guesses to
sell this device to about 10% of the total Jaguar owners.
Jaguar 2, project codename Midsummer, is still in development. Atari
estimates Midsummer to be about "two to four" times more powerful than the
Sony Playstation and will hopefully be fully downward compatible with the
original Jaguar. The two new chips to replace Tom and Jerry are named
Oberan and Puck (two characters in Shakespeare's "A Midsummer's Night
Dream"). The Oberan is the new "main" chip and the first prototype was due
in from Motorola on the week of June 12th, but Motorola didn't manufacture
it correctly. Thus, the next corrected version of Oberan is due in at the
end of June/early July. The first parts of Midsummer may be running by the
end of July, and developer units hopefully will be in the hands of
developers by September/October 1995. It's still not decided if the CD
will be integrated or be separate unit. Atari will see how well the
$300-$400 game systems sell before making this decision. If the Midsummer
CD is separate, Atari will probably put more RAM into it and other
improvements to add more power to the machine. They hope to have Midsummer
ready by Christmas of 1996, but this date ,as well as the other Midsummer
("Jaguar 2") related dates and specifications, are still NOT set.
Atari says that 99.5% of their Jaguar development is now done on PCs and
Macs. The 0.5% that still only uses TT030s and Falcon030s is Eclipse based
in Germany, who don't want to work on "sh*tty" PCs. [That's the spirit!
<grin>] They are working on Iron Soldier 2 which will be on CD. Speaking
of Falcons and CDs, the Jaguar CD-ROM was originally designed to use a
Falcon030 as the front end (which is why last year, they had a bunch of
Falcons showing off the Jaguar CD development units). Since Atari stopped
manufacturing Falcons though, they have had to use PCs to develop on the
Jaguar CD which was harder due to the unavailability of the DSP port and
chip in the Falcon. Atari has contracted a UK company to make a Falcon on
a PC card, complete with DSP chip and port, so that developers can use the
Falcon's DSP port and chip without buying a Falcon. In fact, the Jag CD
units on display at the meeting still had the DSP cable attached to them.
I couldn't get any more information or clarify this as Bill Rehbock was too
busy answering more important (ie Jaguar) questions. In my opinion, before
you get too excited, I might want to add that I think this card will NOT
likely to be a consumer product as it was specially made ONLY for Jaguar CD
developers.
We'll See This Christmas...
This year's meeting didn't seem to be as interesting as last year's. I
can't really point a finger at the reason why, but I suspect that it's
because last year, Atari was in a transition stage switching over from
computers to video games. Thus, many wanted to know what they were going
to do as their plans were not quite clear at that time. Another reason
could be that most of the information that Sam Tramiel gave was common
knowledge around the telecommunications community (GEnie, Internet, etc.).
There were no Jaguar kiosks to play with either. The meeting still had a
decent amount of new information and that was good enough for me.
[EOA]
[HMR]//////////////////////////////
HUMOR ONLINE /
/////////////////////////////////
If Dr. Seuss Were a Technical Writer
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
(Author Unknown)
Here's an easy game to play.
Here's an easy thing to say:
If a packet hits a pocket on a socket on a port,
And the bus is interrupted as a very last resort,
And the address of the memory makes your floppy disk abort,
Then the socket packet pocket has an error to report.
If your cursor finds a menu item followed by a dash,
And the double-clicking icon puts your window in the trash,
And you data is corrupted 'cause the index doesn't hash,
then your situation's hopeless, and your system's gonna crash!
You can't say this?
What a shame sir!
We'll find you
Another game sir.
If the label on the cable on the table at your house,
Says the network is connected to the button on your mouse,
But your packets want to tunnel on another protocol,
That's repeatedly rejected by the printer down the hall,
And your screen is all distorted by the side effects of gauss,
So your icons in the window are as wavy as a souse,
Then you may as well reboot and go out with a bang,
'Cause as sure as I'm a poet, the sucker's gonna hang!
When the copy of your floppy's getting sloppy on the disk,
And the microcode instructions cause unnecessary risk,
Then you have to flash your memory and you'll want to ram your rom.
Quickly turn off the computer and be sure to tell your mom!
///// GEnie Quick_Quote ///////////////////////////////////
/ /
/ I want new original games that don't end in 2000 and /
/ hopefully get released before then as well.:) /
/ /
/////////////////////////////////////////// REALM ///////
[EOA]
[SBO]//////////////////////////////
PRESS RELEASE /
/////////////////////////////////
Atari Launches "Super Burnout" on Jaguar 64
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
CONTACT: Jessica Nagel or Patricia Kerr
Dorf & Stanton Communications Inc., Los Angeles
310/479-4997 or 800/444-6663
SUNNYVALE -- July 5, 1995 -- Earlier this morning Atari Corporation
released "Super Burnout", a fast-action cartridge title for the 64-bit
Jaguar system. In this crash- and-burn arcade-style game, motorcycle
players compete head-to-head with friends, computer generated racers, or
against the clock.
"Super Burnout" has 60 frame-per-second break-neck action graphics and
intense realism of motorcycle racing. Players criss cross the globe to
compete on the most intense tracks in the world. All eight racetrack
locations feature awesome scenery and the hottest music soundtracks.
The key to a player's driving success is to choose a custom sports bike
that provides them with the winning edge. "Super Burnout" offers numerous
motorcycles for players to choose from, each with individual style and
powerful driving capabilities. The two-player "versus mode" applies
split-screen details, which allows competitors to view their racing
progress all the way to the checkered flag.
"'Super Burnout' is a great addition to our library of software titles,"
said Ted Hoff, president of Atari Corp.'s North American Operations. "It
is a fine example of the high-quality, competitively priced software we
continue to bring to our Jaguar 64 consumers."
"Super Burnout" players can race day or night and choose the number of laps
in one of four racing modes. "Super Burnout", rated KA (appropriate for
kids through adults), is available for sale now for $59.99 (suggested
retail price).
Additional Atari Jaguar summer releases will include: "Ultra Vortek",
"White Men Can't Jump", "FlipOut!" and "Rayman". These are just a few of
the many great titles for the Atari Jaguar library, which will approach 100
titles by the end of 1995.
For over 20 years, Atari Corporation has provided consumers with
high-quality, value priced entertainment. Atari Corporation markets
Jaguar, the only American-made, advanced 64-bit entertainment system.
Atari Corporation is located in Sunnyvale, CA.
"Super Burnout" (c) 1995, Atari Corporation, Virtual Xperience and Shen
Technologies SARL. All Rights Reserved. "Super Burnout", Atari logo and
Jaguar are all trademarks of Atari Corporation. Virtual Xperience, The
Virtual Xperience logo and Shen Technologies SARL are the trademarks or
registered trademarks of their respective companies.
Other products may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their owning
companies.
[EOA]
[AVN]//////////////////////////////
PRESS RELEASE /
/////////////////////////////////
Atari Corporation Inks Licensing Agreement With Activision Inc.
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Deal yields release of classic Atari titles for PCs.
CONTACT: Jessica Nagel or Patricia Kerr
Dorf & Stanton Communications, Inc.
(310) 479-4997 or (800) 444-6663
Sunnyvale, CA -- (July 17, 1995) -- Atari Corporation announced today the
finalization of a contract with Activision Inc., a Los Angeles based leader
in software development. Atari Corporation's pact with the prestigious
developer will bring consumers classic Atari titles in multiple formats.
The agreement will also result in the release of the all-time American
favorite, "Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure" for Jaguar 64.
"Our collaboration with Activison will offer exciting entertainment for
both Jaguar 64 consumers and PC users," said Ted Hoff, Atari Corporation's
President of North American Operations. "'Pitfall' is a fine example of
our continued commitment to provide Jaguar gamers with top-quality titles."
The release of "Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure" for the Jaguar 64 system will
be an ideal showcase for the extensive capabilities of this advanced home
entertainment system. "Pitfall" reflects the power of Jaguar's superior
64-bit technology, resulting in brilliant color, intense speed, and stereo
sound. The jungle adventure game has a target ship date of mid September.
Numerous Atari classic games will soon be available to PC users when
Activision releases "Atari Action Pak II" for single-user IBM and PC
compatible computers. The special "Pak" will also provide consumers with
PC versions of such memorable Atari titles as: "Air Sea Battle";
"Breakout", "Super Breakout"; "Space War"; "Surround"; "Millipede";
"Combat"; "Yar's Revenge"; "Canyon Bomber"; "Gravitar"; "Maze Craze"; and
"Night Driver".
The "Pitfall" release under the Activision agreement is one of the many
exciting games for the Atari Jaguar 64 library, which will approach 100
titles by the end of the year. The expanded library will include CD titles
for the much anticipated Jaguar CD system, which will be shipping in
August.
For over 20 years, Atari Corporation has provided consumers with
high-quality, value- priced entertainment. Atari Corporation markets
Jaguar, the only American-made, advanced 64-bit entertainment system and is
located in Sunnyvale, California.
[EOA]
[JNW]//////////////////////////////
JAGUAR NEWS /
/////////////////////////////////
Fight for Life
""""""""""""""
AN OPEN MESSAGE FROM MR. TED HOFF, Of those of you who follow
PRES. OF NORTH AMERICAN OPERATIONS Atari's progress and 64-bit
FOR ATARI CORPORATION.... Jaguar momentum, some have
expressed interests (and
concerns) with regard to the disposition of the much anticipated Jaguar
software title, "Fight for Life." Right away, let me address the
rumors/flames by stating that "Fight for Life" is alive and well and a
solid Atari development effort continues on that title. Due to the online
concerns passed on to me recently, I see there's a need to make Atari's
official position clear with regard to its current status.
Since the development effort began on "Fight for Life," Francois Bertrand
and the "Fight for Life" team have seen significant progress in the
development tools and the capabilities of the Jaguar machine. What was
underestimated was the development time and effort necessary to take
advantage of the machine's capability. In our most recent evaluation of
"Fight For Life," we were concerned that the game (in its current stage)
did not exploit the capabilities of the Jaguar, nor would it deliver to the
gamer the quality or depth of game play expected from the Jaguar 64 system.
For this reason, newer development efforts are being explored, including
the evaluation of new software engines to enhance the speed, smoothness and
graphics handling of the Jaguar 64.
I personally wish to assure you that every step will be taken to provide a
game that meets your expectations and shows off the strength and capability
of the system. Most of all, I insist that each game provides hours and
hours of fun and challenging game play. I am demanding these principals
to be maintained on all games from Atari; not only on "Fight for Life." If
we change schedules, it will be for good reason; namely to meet high
standards of graphics appeal and incorporate the "fun factor" for which
Atari products are so well known.
Francois wants to add...
"Due to the acquisition and implementation of new resources, my 'Fight
For Life' team has been inspired to enhance 'Fight For Life' in the
areas of graphics and animation. We are really excited with the changes
we have made so far. The enhancements will well be worth the wait."
I know the online community has hung in there with us! Thank you. You
are our loyal user base and we are determined not to disappoint you.
For those of you interested, Jaguar CD-ROM will ship August 24, 1995 and
should be available throughout our retail distribution base by the last
week of August and early September; depending on how different stores have
set up distribution.
If you are not presently a Jaguar gamer and wish to own the power of the
64-bit Jaguar, please call Atari Corporation at 1-800-GO-ATARI and we will
help locate a retailer near you. For about $150.00 each (system or
CD-ROM), you can't beat it. We will continue to monitor your comments and
feedback regarding our products... both positive and negative. I'm hoping
that we can continue to be open and constructive.
We have a big job ahead of us; your input continues to be important and
your loyalty and interest are greatly appreciated.
--Ted Hoff (July 21, 1995)
[EOA]
[NTE]//////////////////////////////
PRESS RELEASE /
/////////////////////////////////
The Atari Users of North Texas Computer Exposition
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
The Atari Users of North Texas (AUNT) presents the D/FW Exchange
Underground Computer Exposition (DEUCE). The show will be held in Dallas
this October in conjunction with the monthly DFW XChange Corporation "Super
Saturday" activities at the
"SHOW DATE IS SATURDAY, OCTOBER 7th." beautiful Dallas Infomart.
Show date is Saturday,
October 7th. The exposition, along with the Super Saturday activities, is
free and open to the general public. The one day exposition will begin at
8:30 AM and run until 4:00 PM. Both a Friday evening pre-show get together
and a post show get together are also being planned.
October is a great time to visit the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex. For one
thing we probably have better weather in October than most of the rest of
the world. The DFW Xchange Corporation "Super Saturday" activities are a
monthly computer extravaganza where thousands of computer enthusiast get
together, share their computer interests and enjoy some of the best
computer and high-tech electronic buys in Texas. This October will be
special for us Atarians because many of our finest developers and dealers
will be participating in the activities.
The Dallas Infomart facility - a replica of the famous 1895 World Fair
Crystal Palace - is located in the heart of the Dallas Market District.
The facility is leased by the DFW Xchange Corporation each month to provide
a community service to all computer users in the Metroplex area. The
Atari Users of North Texas is one of many participating user groups that
help support this community service by sharing our Atari computer
interests, general computer expertise and providing user assistance to our
local Atarians and the interested general public.
Vendors currently planning on participating include; It's All Relative,
Systems for Tomorrow, chroMagic, Crawly Crypt Corporation, Oregon Research,
Dave Munsie, DMJ software and Branch Always Software.
Vendors interested in participating can contact:
David Acklam
(214) 242-9655
GEnie ....... D.ACKLAM
Internet .... d.acklam@genie.geis.com.
[EOA]
[XPS]//////////////////////////////
PRESS RELEASE /
/////////////////////////////////
Expose
""""""
Expose, the true colour, real-time video digitizer for the Falcon, is now
available. Full production has delayed due to the many improvements that
have now been implemented to the RGB Splitter. The Splitter now includes
full control over brightness, contrast and colour, compatibility with PAL,
NTSC, composite and S-Video inputs and adjustment for sync and NTSC hues.
Included in the package is FalCAM, a GEM ACCessory for viewing live video
from within GEM based programs, and a demonstration program called Videobox
which allows the live video to be texture mapped on to the surfaces of a
cube. The cube can then be rotated and zoomed, while digitising, in
real-time. See below for more details on FalCAM Tripod.
FALCAM TRIPOD This stand-alone program now replaces the original idea of
supplying an enhanced version of APEX Media because of the memory
restrictions associated with hi-res, 24-bit images.
FalCAM Tripod will be an executable program having variable exposure and
image resolution settings, along with options to save JPEG, GIF, TGA or
PPM file formats. Conversion between these file formats will be possible
with variable adjustments to optimise the image.
The live video image will always be present within the program so that
'Tripod' is best run using a 256- or true-colour video mode, although in
practice any video mode can be used. The live video image also permits
final positioning of the camera to compose the image prior to digitizing.
Because of the way in which the program operates, 'Tripod' is intended for
capturing still images and is best used with rostrum cameras or VCRs with
perfect freeze-frame, hence the name 'Tripod'!
BRIEF SUMMARY: Capture size: 768x576 (PAL broadcast)
384x288 (quarter size PAL)
Bit planes: 24-bit File support: JPEG, GIF, TGA, PPM
If updating to V2.12 is required, the original APEX Install disk and
Registration Card must be returned. The charge is 25 U$D.
Pricing for the EXPOSE True Color Board for existing APEX Media Users is
498 U$D, which includes foreign freight and handling as well as taxes and
duty charges.
The Expose Board in the U.S.A. includes the Digital Arts Render Kit version
2.0 and a 3D Design Disk worth 128 U$D. This offer is available to North
American Customers only.
Lexicor Software Corporation
36 Queensberry Street, Suite 6
Boston, MA 02215 U.S.A.
Tel: (617) 437 0414 - Fax: (617) 437 9413
Email: service@lexicor.com
[EOA]
[TRB]//////////////////////////////
PRESS RELEASE /
/////////////////////////////////
The Recipe Box - The Leader in Recipe Storage Systems
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
In May of 1992, Mountain Software introduced The Recipe Box to the Atari ST
community. Since that time, the program has been through numerous
revisions, and has been ported to the Commodore Amiga and Apple Macintosh.
Now, more than a year since the last revision, we are happy to announce the
arrival of The Recipe Box 5.0 for the Atari ST!
Rather than trying to build on old technology, we completely rewrote
version 5.0 from the ground up. The result being a more compact, more
reliable, and more flexible application.
One of our primary goals in version 5.0 was to make the program even easier
to use, and the new button bar was the first step towards that goal. You
can now jump effortlessly between all sections of the program instead of
quitting back to the main menu for every task. In addition, we cleaned up
most menus in the program by switching to context sensitive mouse response.
Now right clicking an object will bring up the appropriate editor for that
object.
By eliminating unneeded buttons in the index menu, we were able to increase
chapter titles to 24 characters, and record titles to 50 characters. This
means that you will now have more room for those recipes with long titles!
In addition, we added a new "information" record type. This new record
type lets you store up to 5 pages of 80 column text in each record. The
possibilities this new record type opens up are enormous. These include
simple uses such as storing nutritional information or cooking tips, up to
entirely new uses for The Recipe Box such as personal information managers,
diaries, address books, song/poetry books, family histories, inventories,
etc.
New database structures allowed us to increase storage capacity to over
65000 chapters with 2000 records in each chapter. And, new loading
routines mean nearly instantaneous chapter loading.
The internal text editors have been greatly improved to be faster, more
feature filled, and easier to use than previous versions.
The recipe import formats have been enhanced, and we've added additional
formats, including "Mastercook II" and the "Usenet Cookbook". Recipes that
do not adhere to recognized formats may be imported easily using the manual
import feature. And, any text file may be imported as an information
record for easy management within The Recipe Box.
As with earlier versions, recipe records may be exported directly in the
latest "Meal-Master" format for easy recipe exchange with other users. And
information records are easily exported for use with other software.
The accuracy of the print routines has been greatly improved, and now
supports multiple print formats including various notebook sizes, 3x5
cards, and 4x6 cards.
The new grocery menu has undergone many improvements to improve the speed
of the database, and to make preparing grocery lists even easier.
A new "Locate" feature allows you to quickly find the item you are looking
for even when there are many items with similar descriptions.
The grocery item editor now includes a "Staple" field for automatically
inserting those items you buy on a frequent basis. In addition, any
changes made to an item in the item list are reflected in both the item and
grocery lists.
The shopping list created by the grocery manager has been improved to be
more readable, and more compact than previous versions.
The old Meal Manager of previous versions has been replaced with a new
Calendar Menu. This new menu features a full graphic calendar and an easy
to understand event list. Any record in the database can be attached to
any date on the calendar, or simply drag a record to the calendar to attach
it to the current date. Personal notes may be entered on any date in the
calendar as well.
There is no limit on the number of events you may store in the calendar,
and you may place as many events on a single day as you wish. In addition,
events will be retained for as long as you wish, though outdated events are
easily removed when you desire it. Or, simply drag the event to a new date
on the calendar.
The batch menu allows you to select any of your desired records for
printing or exporting.
The new "Find" menu allows you to search the entire database for records
matching your search string. The complete text or the titles only of each
record may be searched depending on your needs. The results of each search
are maintained so that you can quickly view multiple records that match
your searches.
The new graphical user interface is now much more configurable, and
includes the ability to use up to 16 colors if your system supports it.
Virtually every aspect of the interface is user selectable, and a number of
presets are available to get you started.
A new help system is built-in providing instant access to the program
documentation, from any point in the program. The help system features a
hypertext style document allowing quick access to any part of the text.
A new statistics display makes it easy to determine the program version,
the registered owner, the number of records stored in the database, the
free memory available, etc.
The Recipe Box runs on all Atari ST, TT, and Falcon computers with 1 Meg or
more of RAM. A hard drive is highly recommended. GDOS/SpeedoGDOS is
required for all printing functions. The program runs in color or
monochrome in any resolution of 640x200 or greater (ST Medium, ST High, or
greater).
The Recipe Box lists for $45.00 and is available through better Atari
dealers. Or, you may order directly from Mountain Software at:
Mountain Software
6911 NE Livingston Road
Camas, Washington 98607 USA
Check or Money order in US Funds only! Shipping is free in the US and
Canada, $5.00 elsewhere. Residents of Washington State, please add 7.6%
sales tax.
Registered users of any previous version may upgrade to version 5.0 for
only $20, by sending a copy of your receipt, or a photocopy of your master
disk.
Users who have purchased older versions on or after June 1, 1995 may
receive a FREE update by sending a copy of your sales receipt showing the
purchase date.
Questions regarding The Recipe Box may be directed to the following E-mail
addresses, and a demo version should be available at most of these sites
soon.
GEnie: A.WATSON6
Internet: awatson@pacifier.com
Internet: a.watson6@genie.geis.com
WWW: http://www.pacifier.com/~awatson
FTP: ftp.pacifier.com/pub/users/awatson
Bear Cavern BBS: (360) 573-2054 (E-mail to Anthony Watson)
Postal Service: Mountain Software
6911 NE Livingston Road
Camas, Washington 98607 USA
[EOA]
[OPF]//////////////////////////////
SEARCH_ME /
/////////////////////////////////
Online Puzzle Fun
"""""""""""""""""
by Scott R. Garrigus
[S.GARRIGUS]
Baby Things
^^^^^^^^^^^
HIGH CHAIR W R E T E M O M R E H T S I N
LAMAZE A H I Z D P L A X H M T Q A W
MIDWIFE L B H A A Q G K A D R N I I F
MOMMY K Y U Y H M M B D O C C P O E
OBSTETRICIAN E O N G G C A D L R I E A R W
PABULUM R W X V D I E L E R S R B E Y
PACIFIER H R S N C W E H T U F L U F M
POWDER Q A C M D R I E G F D X L I M
RATTLE K T C H F G T H S I X H U W O
SAFETY PINS A T E W Q S P Z F S H E M D M
STROLLER X L P K B T R E D W O P J I U
TEETHER H E H O W L A C N I H V Y M M
THERMOMETER T C O S A F E T Y W P I N S G
WALKER V T P A C I F I E R F L T T C
WIPES K B T E E T H E R H G W J Y D
GIVE UP? You will find the answers in the LOG OFF column at the end of
"""""""" the magazine.
This puzzle was created with a shareware program called
Word Search Puzzle Maker by Impact D. Publishing.
[LGF]///////////////////////////////
LOG OFF //
//////////////////////////////////
GEnieLamp Information
"""""""""""""""""""""
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>>> GEnieLamp STAFF <<<
"""""""""""""""""""""""
GEnieLamp o John Peters [GENIELAMP] Publisher
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"""""""" o Gina E. Saikin [A2.GENA] A2 Staff Writer
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"""""
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IBM o Sharon La Gue [SHARON.LAMP] IBM EDITOR
""" o Tika Carr [LAMP.MM] MULTIMEDIA EDITOR
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MACINTOSH o Richard Vega [GELAMP.MAC] MACINTOSH EDITOR
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POWER PC o Ben Soulon [BEN.GELAMP] POWER PC EDITOR
""""""""
WINDOWS o Bruce Maples [GELAMP.WIN] EDITOR
""""""" o Marlene Gaberel [M.GABEREL1] Windows Staff Writer
ETC. o Jim Lubin [J.LUBIN] Add Aladdin Scripts
"""" o Scott Garrigus [S.GARRIGUS] Search-ME!
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>>> SEARCH_ME! ANSWERS <<<
""""""""""""""""""""""""""
HIGH CHAIR W R E T E M O M R E H T S . N
LAMAZE A . I Z . . . . . . . T . A W
MIDWIFE L . . A A . . . . . R . I I .
MOMMY K . . . H M . . . O . C P . .
OBSTETRICIAN E . . . . C A . L . I E A . .
PABULUM R . . . . . . L . R S . B E Y
PACIFIER . R . . . . E H T . . . U F M
POWDER . A . . . R . E G . . . L I M
RATTLE . T . . . . T . . I . . U W O
SAFETY PINS . T . . . S . . . . H . M D M
STROLLER . L . . B . R E D W O P . I .
TEETHER . E . O . . . . . . . . . M .
THERMOMETER . . . S A F E T Y . P I N S .
WALKER . . P A C I F I E R . . . . .
WIPES . . T E E T H E R . . . . . .
[*][*][*]
\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\////////////////////////////////////
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[EOF]
