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StarShip 5 MINUTE Weekend Newscast (1993 07 02)
Welcome to the
____
/ ___) *StarShip* 5-MINUTE Weekend Newscast
/ (_ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
/ ___)
/ (__ very weekend the *StarShip* on GEnie presents a new 5-MINUTE Weekend
(_____) Newscast in Communications Room 10 in the Real-Time Conference Area.
Featuring late-breaking stories from the Amiga community, these dynamic,
scrolling newscasts cycle every 5 minutes, so you can stop by between 6PM and
3AM Eastern time on Friday, or 3PM and 3AM Eastern time on Saturday or Sunday
and learn everything that happened during the preceding week. Industry news,
product announcements, upgrades, rumors, special *StarShip* activities, trade
show reports, GEnie usage tips, humor, recommended files to download...
... the works -- and it ONLY takes 5 minutes!
Each 5-MINUTE Weekend Newscast is available on *StarShip* Menu #10 during the
following week. Periodically, newscasts are combined and made available for
downloading from the *StarShip* Library.
____________________________________________________________
// \
|| -*- IMPORTANT! -*- |
|| |
|| As long as individual stories are kept intact and credit |
|| is given, this material may be reproduced in ALL or PART |
|| on a privately owned BBS or in a user group newsletter. |
|| See wording for proper credit at the end of this Newscast. |
\\____________________________________________________________/
|| |
|| |
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Thanks to Denny Atkin, Editor,
COMPUTE's Amiga Resource,
for his generous input.
Here we go!...
DateLine: July 2, 1993
This 5-MINUTE Newscast presents the following stories:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1. Midwest Gateway Computer Show set for October
2. SPA Confirms Software Sales
3. Atari Inks $500 Million Contract with IBM For Multimedia Entertainment
System
4. Next Week's *StarShip* Amiga Conferences
5. Steve Worley Talks About Essence II
6. Micro-PACE Sells Direct Through Select Solutions
7. GVP Maintains Amiga Vitality with New ImageFX
8. Dinosaur Mania
9. The Unwritten Laws of Computing
*StarShip* NEWS *Flash*
1st of 9 Stories
Midwest Gateway Computer Show set for October
______ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(__ __) Bridgeton, MO -- June 21, 1993
/ /
/ /
(_/his fall something exciting is happening in St Louis. On October 23, the
"Gateway Computer Show" will open. This is the first major Amiga computer
show in the midwest for many years. It is sponsored by the Gateway Amiga
Club, Inc., with the support of Soft-Logik Publishing Corporation.
This show is designed to satisfy the hungry appetites of the many computer
users in the midwest. These folks are looking for solutions in Video, Desktop
Publishing, Art, Animation, Music, Multitasking, Multi-processing and more.
They will find solutions and software for the "Creative Computer," the Amiga,
on October 23rd, from 11:30 a.m. until 5 p.m. at Machinist Hall in Bridgeton,
MO.
Don't miss out. We have arranged special pricing for exhibit space, motel
rooms and more. We have gone the extra mile to make this convenient, fun and
profitable for you. This is your opportunity to be an exhibitor at this
exciting event! Space is limited, and a good portion is already committed.
Take this opportunity to increase the public awareness of your company, the
Amiga computer, and all the possibilities that await them. One nibble on this
product, and they'll be back for seconds!
Remember, if we don't work together to push the frontiers of Amiga Computing
forward to a new dawn, we will certainly see the sunset together. Thank you
for your consideration. I look forward to your exhibiting at the "Gateway
Computer Show."
For more information, contact:
Bob Sharp Gateway Amiga Club, Inc.
Chairman, Gateway Computer Show P. O. Box 611
14850 Phelps Drive Bridgeton, MO 63044
Bridgeton, MO 63044 (314) 739-5181
-*-
*StarShip* NEWS *Flash*
2nd of 9 Stories
SPA Confirms Software Sales
____ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
/ ___) Washington, DC - July 1, 1993
/ /
/ (__
(_____)ompanies often make wild claims about the number of copies they have
sold of particular programs, so the Software Publishers Association regularly
certifies sales numbers for some popular programs.
Since 1985 the SPA Certification Program has audited sales of more than 450
programs published by over 55 companies and this week they released minimum
sales numbers for 49 new products.
Accolade has sold 50,000 or more units of the following: Al Michaels
Announces Hardball III; Blue Angels Formation Flight Simulator; Elvira; Jack
Nicklaus Golf & Course Design Signature Edition; Jack Nicklaus Presents the
Major Championship Courses; Mike Ditka Ultimate Football; Star Control; Steel
Thunder American Battle Tank Simulation; The Cycles International Grand Prix
Racing; and The Muscle Cars: Test Drive II Car Disk.
Sales of the following were greater than 100,000 units each: Grand Prix
Circuit; Hardball II; Jack Nicklaus Unlimited Golf & Course Design; Test
Drive II The Passion; and The Supercars: Test Drive II Car Disk.
Broderbund Software sold more than 100,000 units each of: BannerMania; Dazzle
Draw; MemoryMate; Prince of Persia; The New Print Shop Graphics Library;
Type!; Where in America's Past is Carmen Sandiego?; Where in the World is
Carmen Sandiego?; and Wolfpack.
And more than 250,000 units of these were sold: Kid Pix; The New Print Shop;
The Playroom; and The Print Shop Deluxe.
These two were best sellers for Broderbund at more than 500,000 units each:
The Print Shop Companion, and Where in Time is Carmen Sandiego?
The Learning Company was certified as having sold more than 50,000 units of
Operation Neptune and Super Solvers Spellbound; while sales of Reader Rabbit
2 were 100,000 units.
Maxis' A-Train sold 50,000 plus units; SimAnt's sales were 100,000 units;
SimEarth's sales reached 250,000 units; and SimCity was most popular with
sales in excess of 500,000 units.
MySoftware Company's MyBackup and MyLabelMaker had sales of more than 100,000
units.
Reality Technologies' Wealth Builder by Money Magazine topped 50,000 unit
sales.
Spectrum HoloByte's Flight of the Intruder; Vette!; and Wordtris all sold
more than 50,000 units each; and both Falcon 3.0 and Super Tetris sold
100,000 plus copies.
Tally Systems Corporation's PC Census had sales of 500,000 units.
Walt Disney Computer Software has two software products - Donald's Alphabet
Chase and Mickey's Runaway Zoo - that sold more than 100,000 units each.
Copyright (C) 1993, Newsbytes. Reprinted by permission.
-*-
*StarShip* NEWS *Flash*
3rd of 9 Stories
Atari Inks $500 Million Contract
with IBM For Multimedia Entertainment System
_ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
/ \ Sunnyvale, CA -- June 28, 1993
/ - \
/ ___ \
(_/ \_)tari Corp. (AMEX: ATC) announced today that it has contracted with
the IBM Corp.'s (NYSE: IBM) Charlotte, N.C., facility to manufacture the
Atari Jaguar, Atari's new 64-bit multimedia entertainment system.
IBM's multi-year contract is valued at $500 million. The Atari Jaguar, to be
made in the United States, is an interactive multimedia entertainment system
which features over 16 million colors in 24-bit true color graphics and
produces shaded 3-D polygons for manipulation in a "real world" in real time.
A 32-bit expansion port will allow for future connection into cable and
telephone networks, a digital signal processing port for modem usage and
connection to digital audio peripherals. The Jaguar will also feature a
double-speed compact disc peripheral.
"This system is clearly the wave of the future," said Sam Tramiel, president
of Atari. "Because the Jaguar will feature such an array of visual and audio
special effects, we wanted to work with a premier company that we are
confident can manufacture the quality product we have developed."
The Charlotte-based IBM plant, which for 15 years has manufactured and
developed products only for other IBM businesses, just recently began working
with outside companies to meet their production needs. The Atari Jaguar
project represents one of IBM's first entries into manufacturing for the mass
consumer electronics market.
"This is a wonderful opportunity to work with Atari and their new system,"
said Herbert L. Watkins, director of Application Solutions manufacturing at
IBM Charlotte. "Everyone expects IBM to manufacture complex information
technology products, and with this, we'll show that we can competitively
build a sophisticated consumer product."
In addition to assembling the Jaguar, IBM will be responsible for the
component sourcing, quality testing, packaging and distribution. The Jaguar,
announced on June 3, is based on an Atari-designed proprietary 64-bit RISC
processor that features four times the technology currently seen in the
marketplace today. The sound system is based on Atari's proprietary,
high-speed, Digital Signal Processor dedicated to audio which can produce
CD-quality sound.
The Atari Jaguar will be available on a limited basis in the fall, focusing
on the New York market. A national roll-out is expected next year, and the
Jaguar will retail for approximately $200.
NOTE: Atari Corp. manufactures and markets personal computers and video games
for the home, office and educational marketplaces throughout the world. Atari
headquarters are located at 1196 Borregas Ave., Sunnyvale, CA 94089.
The IBM Corp.'s Charlotte facility manufactures and develops for IBM and
other companies a wide variety of products, such as banking systems,
automotive diagnostic systems and electronic circuit boards. The site
includes 2.3 million square feet of work space on a 1,200-acre site. Its
address is 1001 W.T. Harris Blvd., Charlotte, NC 28257. Telephone:
704-594-1000.
-*-
*StarShip* NEWS *Flash*
4th of 9 Stories
__________________________________________________________________________
| |
| *StarShip* Amiga Conferences |
| |
| _ _ |
| / ) _ _ / ) _ _ |
| __ / / / ) / ) / / / ) / ) |
| ( (_/ / / (_/ / / / / (_/ / |
| \___/ (_____( (_/ (__ / |
| ___) / |
| (____/ |
| |
| Except where noted, Conferences begin at 10PM Eastern Time in the Amiga |
| Conference Rooms at Page 555;2. Amiga Programmers meet Wednesday nights |
| at Pro/Am on Page 670. Amiga/GEnie HelpDesk EVERY Night at 9PM Eastern. |
|__________________________________________________________________________|
| Sunday | Monday | Tuesday | Humpday |Thursday | Friday | Saturday |
| Help@9EDT| Help@9EDT|Help@9EDT| Help@9EDT|Help@9EDT| Help@9EDT| Help@9EDT|
|__________|__________|_________|__________|_________|__________|__________|
| 4 | 5 GEnie | 6 |\ | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
|5-MIN News| *Holiday*| _| | | | New |5-MIN News|
| 3PM-3AM | -*- | (_) | AmiGames |vv-Video!|*StarShip*| 3PM-3AM |
| -*- | DeskTop | | ------ | with | 5-MINUTE |9:Hardware|
|10PM: |Publishing| Music |Programing| Steve | Newscast | Clinic |
| Graphics | Night | Night |at Pro/Am | Worley | 6PM-3AM |10: Party!|
|__________|__________|_________|__________|_________|__________|__________|
HelpDesk *EVERY* NIGHT @ 9PM Eastern Time!
Got a problem? If you have questions about learning to use your
Amiga, the *StarShip* or GEnie, we have answers! Stop by Conference
Room 4 ANY EVENING from 9 to 10 EDT for live, on-the-spot help.
-*-
*StarShip* NEWS *Flash*
5th of 9 Stories
Steve Worley Talks About Essence II
______ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(__ __) Menlo Park, CA -- June 30, 1993
/ /
/ /
(_/he most major addition should well appreciated. Included with Essence
Volume II for Imagine are well over 150 attribute files which can immediately
be applied to your objects. These are examples of how to use the textures;
sample settings and combinations that show the range of surfaces that almost
all the textures can produce. You can use these files as a library of new
surfaces to add to your object, but more importantly the variety of these
examples will give you a better idea of what each texture is capable of.
There's also a library of on-disk pictures of many of these so you won't have
to render them to get an idea of what they look like. This should reduce the
amount of experimentation needed to find the type of surface you're looking
for.
The textures themselves are a completely different set from the original
volume. These new textures tend to be much more detailed and less "boring"
than the Essence I textures, allowing you to use them directly without having
to use many layers of textures to build a complex surface. While many of the
Essence I textures were based on "fractal noise", Essence II has many
textures with a different type of appearance, best described as an organic,
randomly tiled surface. This type of texturing is, literally, state of the
art in 1993, with Essence II being the FIRST company to use this new type of
texture basis. NOBODY using an SGI or a PC or a Mac has these! If this sounds
like we're gloating, well, it's because we are. In a year you'll be seeing
textures with this style being used by others, but right now Apex has the
monopoly over these unique surfaces. You can have great fun challenging your
rendering buddies to reproduce these new effects; they won't be able to!
Somewhat like Essence I, Essence II has a variety of textures, with a couple
of themes and many that are just unique. A partial list of some of the
textures follows.
Space Textures
Gasplanet: This texture makes the turbulent, banded surface of gas planets
such as Jupiter, Saturn, and Uranus. We even include objects of these three
planets with the correct settings to reproduce the appearance of the real
planets.
Planetring: Absolutely gorgeous planet ring systems, like Saturn's. You can
make a "natural" appearance with subtle shades of colors, or go for the JPL
"photo-enhanced" high contrast electric color scheme. You can make everything
from thin solitary rings to a complex Saturn-style ring system with thousands
of ringlets.
Cyclone: A hurricane spiral, ready to paste onto a planet. It makes a great
Red Spot for Jupiter, or you can use it on a map of Earth and threaten any
city you like with instant destruction.
Spaceship hull: You asked for it, you got it! Irregularly tiled plates, with
varying colors and brightnesses. Another texture ("Machinery") makes the
conduit-and-boxy-structure type of surface that you see on the Death Star.
With altitude mapping of course!
Organic Textures
These cannot be easily described. A set of "organic" surfaces with altitude
mapping which will let you make everything from snake skin to parched,
leather-like hides. Many of them are disgusting, sort of like crusty alien
snot (but worse). And these textures are designed to layer with each other,
producing even more repulsive combinations. One texture in particular makes
lumpy-looking fungus patches which, as one beta tester noted, should not be
shown to the squeamish.
Bumpy Things
If you use Bump from Essence I, throw it away. A new set of altitude textures
gives you the ability to transform a flat plane into a variety of uneven
surfaces.
Stucco and Pitted are much more powerful variants of Bump that allow you to
make surfaces with pits and raised surfaces, or stucco-like layers. You can
erode a landscape in an instant.
Crumpled: Perhaps the coolest texture of all. Its abilities are amazing,
despite the plain name. It makes crumpled paper, cauliflower, even a surface
that looks like just like a pile of berries.
Burnish: Just like the Terminator II logo. Makes outstanding metallic
surfaces, as well as scratches on almost any surface. You flying logo artists
will love this puppy!
Water Effects
Waterdrop: the surface ripples that radiating out from a disturbance in the
water, like a impact of a drop of water.
Waterdropref: like Waterdrop, but this version will also compute REFLECTIONS
of the ripples from the sides of a basin or tub. Very realistic!
Raindrops: Waterdrops falling at random, with definable density and strength.
Very cool and completely automatic!
Seawaves: an ocean surface, with physically correct, animated, windblown
waves.
Miscellaneous textures
LatLonLines: makes a gridwork on a sphere, just like the lines on a globe.
Radarscope: A circular disk, with an animated, sweeping trace. You can use a
brushmap or texture to make "blips" which brighten and fade as the trace
passes over them.
Fiber: sort of a mishmash of intertwined threads, like a ball of twine or a
fiberglass patch.
Faceted: A relative of Crumpled which makes gemstones and photorealistic ice
shards.
A list of just some of the other textures:
Bumparray Clusterbump
Crust Flagstones
Fleck Julia
Plasma Polkabump
Scales Shingles
Vein Woodgrain
And thrown in for fun, here's some more statistical comparisons between
Essence I and II:
34 Essence II textures apply bump mapping. (80%)
8 Essence I textures apply bump mapping. (12%)
There are 26 "base" textures in Essence I with 40 variants. (39%/61%) There
are 30 "base" textures in Essence II with 13 variants. (70%/30%)
If code size is a measure of texture complexity, the average texture
executable size in Volume I was 12K. The average texture executable size in
Volume II is 26K.
Essence II has a list price of $140.00. There is a discount price for IML
readers (and current Essence owners) of $74.00 US. Please call Apex at
415-322-7532 if you have any further questions or wish to order.
______________________________
/ \
| Steve Worley |
| in Real-Time Conference |
| |
| Thursday, July 8, 1993 |
| 10PM Eastern Time |
| *StarShip* Conference Room 7 |
\______________________________/
-*-
*StarShip* NEWS *Flash*
6th of 9 Stories
Micro-PACE Sells Direct Through Select Solutions
______ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
/ __ ) Champaign, IL -- June 25, 1993
/ / ) /
/ /__/ /
(______/ear Consumer,
Select Solutions -- a new division of Micro-PACE, Inc. -- combines the
expertise of eleven years in Commodore and Amiga distribution with a new,
state-of-the-art consumer-direct sales and marketing division.
The core of Select Solutions is the world's largest inventory of Amiga-
related computers, peripherals, accessories and software. NewTek, Commodore,
Great Valley Products and Digital Creations are just a few of the top-selling
product lines that are available.
The heart of the new division is a sales and technical support staff with
unmatched product knowledge. No matter what your needs, from a complete
personal video production system to simply upgrading your current system with
a hard drive, memory or a new mouse, Select Solutions has the answers.
Answers are great, but more important are price and availability. And how
about same day shipping on over 1400 in-stock items? This is where you will
find Select Solutions to be your truly remarkable one-stop shopping resource.
Select Solutions is located at 3001 Clark Street, Champaign, IL 61821. You
can find our current advertisements in Amiga World and Video Toaster User
magazines.
We look forward to serving you in the coming months. As an added bonus, call
now and with your first order get a free Amiga coffee mug (while supplies
last) just by mentioning this BBS announcement (Source Code B02).
Sincerely,
Michelle Schluter
Select Solutions
P.O. Box 6512
Champaign, IL 61821-6512
Orders: 800/322-1261
Support/Returns: 217/355-2785
*StarShip* Amiga *Flash*
7th of 9 Stories
GVP Maintains Amiga Vitality with New ImageFX
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
_____ Version 1.5 to take Image Processing World by Storm
/ ____)
/ /___ King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, June 30, 1993
/ /( )
/ (__) /
(______/VP announces the imminent release of a major upgrade to their
renowned image processing package, ImageFX. Already described as "the most
substantial graphics package to support 24-bit animation" by prominent Warner
Bros. animation director Rusty Mills, ImageFX has now been further enhanced
to meet the changing demands of photographers, graphic artists, animators,
educators, scientists, and hobbyists.
For Mills, ImageFX is "more usable than almost any software package... on any
platform." Now, with the upcoming July release of the newest version
designated 1.5, ImageFX attains new heights in flexibility, raw power, and
value.
Highlights of this comprehensive upgrade include faster global operation,
multilevel UNDO, macro recording, and aspect lock. In addition, users can
expect improved real-time feedback for all painting tools, new drawing tools,
and more crazy effects.
Moreover, there are dozens of new loader and saver modules, extended support
for the new Epson 600 & 800 series scanners, plus framegrabbers like the VLAB
and PP&S 256. In an move to stretch compatibility, ImageFX 1.5 now directly
supports the Opalvision and Retina display boards. Finally, ImageFX
1.5 pushes the envelope of print quality to the limit, as further
enhancements were made to the already-excellent output routines.
If that weren't enough, the accompanying manual addendum for version 1.5
provides clear explanations of changes and features, plus many existing
chapters have been expanded and revised, making ImageFX 1.5 incredibly easy
to use.
These are just some of the changes made to the program that embodies its
slogan, "Truly Integrated Image Processing." As a tribute to this
integration, Byrd's Eye Software, makers of the very hot ToasterVision
package for NewTek's Video Toaster, have announced ToasterFX; an ingenious
compliment to ImageFX that allows it to load, save, and display directly to
and from the Toaster with professional ease! Furthermore, ToasterFX modules
allow ImageFX to actually preview and paint within the Toaster as well!
With all of the above, plus much more, one might expect to pay dearly for
such an upgrade. However, Great Valley Products will continue to support
their "power to the people" approach by offering this new version to
registered users at only $29.95. Version 1.5 is anticipated to ship beginning
July 15, 1993. More information will be provided as it becomes available.
ImageFX and CineMorph are trademarks of GVP and Nova Design, Inc. Amiga is a
trademark of Commodore Business Machines, Ltd. All other trademarks are held
by their respective companies.
For more information about ImageFX, contact Great Valley Products at
215/337-8770. For more information on ToasterFX, contact Byrd's Eye Software
at 512/835-4811.
-*-
*StarShip* NEWS *Flash*
8th of 9 Stories
Dinosaur Mania
______ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
/ __ ) *StarShip* News Network -- June 30, 1993
/ / ) /
/ /__/ /
(______/inosaur Mania is reaching epidemic proportions. A recent survey of
the Software Library of the *StarShip* on GEnie indicates that even in this
last holdout against the fads and trends of the masses, the epidemic is
surely spreading.
We offer the following files as prime evidence that even our beloved Amiga is
not immune to these rampaging prehistoric creatures.
No. File Name Type Address YYMMDD Bytes Access Lib
----- ------------------------ - ------------ ------ ------- ------ ---
19782 CRETACEOUS.LHA X INDIGO 930612 92672 33 18
Desc: Dinosaur-mania: Add it to your colle
19788 TRICERATOPS.LHA X INDIGO 930612 103680 35 18
Desc: Dinosaur scan-Did you lose this cuti
3316 DINO.ARC X J.K.PALIVEC 871128 22680 61 19
Desc: dinosaur startled by a meteor
16432 DINO.LHA X D.LYALL1 920711 209536 19 33
Desc: A foundation stack about dinosaurs.
3849 DINO.ZOO X T.DAVIS4 880218 21420 52 19
Desc: Hi-res skeleton of Dinasour
10780 DINO1.LZH X J.RAUH 910322 47880 31 18
Desc: Dinosaur Stamp #1 of 4
19769 ALLOSAURUS.LZH X MIKE-D 930611 82944 52 18
Desc: Great DINOSAUR scan, take him home!
19789 DIPLODOCUS.LHA X INDIGO 930612 42112 42 18
Desc: Here Comes Another Dino for you!
19790 JURASSIC.LHA X INDIGO 930612 73984 58 18
Desc: Dinosaur Scan of Jurassic Age
19791 STEGOSAURUS.LHA X INDIGO 930612 58368 41 18
Desc: Stegosaurus: Awww, he's SOOO cute!
1432 TREX.ARC X D.R.CAIN 870207 22680 72 19
Desc: Tyrannosaurus Rex sleleton. Great!
2135 TRICERATOPS.ARC X D.R.CAIN 870511 10080 45 19
Desc: Excellent lo-res pic of a dinosaur
19795 TRICERATOPS2.LHA X INDIGO 930612 81408 56 18
Desc: Watch Out, the Dinosaurs are invadin
-*-
*StarShip* NEWS *Flash*
9th of 9 Stories
The Unwritten Laws of Computing
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
_ __ _ Contributed by David Bridges
( \/ \/ )
\ /
\_/\_/hen all else fails read the manual.
There is no problem, however complicated that, when looked at in the correct
way, does not become more complicated.
A technical publication that can be misunderstood will be misunderstood.
Ignorance is not an excuse.
As soon as you have the answer start checking it - it's probably wrong.
The really clever bugs never come out until it's gone live.
Bugs that mysteriously disappear tend to re-appear the same way.
Adding manpower to a late-running project invariably makes it later.
Whenever something is demonstrated the number of faults is directly
proportional to the number of viewers.
No system is ever a total failure, it can always serve as an awful example.
No project is ever on time or within its budget.
A test run may be considered successful if less than half the data needs to
be ignored for it to work.
To err is human but to really foul things up requires a computer.
Any given program, when live, is obsolete.
Any given program costs more and takes longer.
If a program is useful it will have to be changed.
If a program is useless it will have to be documented.
Any program will expand to fill available memory.
The value of a program is inversely proportional to the weight of its printed
output.
Program complexity grows until it exceeds the capacity of the programmer who
will have to maintain it.
Make it possible for programmers to write in English and you will find that
programmers cannot write English.
If you don't know what the hell your program is meant to be doing don't start
writing/amending it.
The bigger the project the less time there will be available to do it.
There is a solution to every problem; the only problem is finding it.
After adding two weeks to the schedule for unexpected delays add a further
two weeks for unexpected unexpected delays.
If you pout rubbish into a computer you will get rubbish out but that
rubbish, having passed thru a very expensive machine, will somehow become
sacred and nobody will dare to question it.....
Computer are unreliable but humans are even more unreliable: Therefore at the
source of every error blamed on the computer you will find at least two human
errors including the error of blaming it on the computer.
Any system that depends on human reliability is unreliable.
The error-detection and correction capabilities of a system will give a very
good guide to the errors it cannot handle.
All programs contain bugs until proved otherwise (which is impossible).
Investment in reliability will increase until it exceeds the cost of the
errors (or until someone insists on getting some work done).
Fuzzy project objectives avoid the embarrassment of estimating the costs.
A carelessly planned project takes three times as long to complete than was
estimated; a carefully planned one only takes twice as long.
Project teams hate weekly progress meetings because they only go to show
their lack of progress.
In every large program is a small program struggling to get out.
Computer paper is strongest along the perforations.
Machines work; people think.
The first ninety percent of the project takes the first ninety percent of the
time; the other ten percent takes the remaining ninety percent.
Phases of a project:
Exultation
Disenchantment
Confusion
Search For The Guilty
Punishment Of The Innocent
Distinction For The Uninvolved.
It works better if you plug it in.
Design a system that even a fool can use and only a fool will want to.
In any slide presentation at least one slide will be backwards, upside down
or both.
Any given project will take twice as long as planned, cost twice as much and
produce half of what the user wanted.
If builders built the way programmers program the first woodpecker would
destroy civilization.
A computer can make as may mistakes in two seconds as twenty men working
twenty years.
The vital chunk of logic is always across the fold of the listing.
Printers only fail to stack very large listings that you didn't check were
stacking.
Bugs are always infectious.
There is always one more bug.
The only people making money these days are the ones selling computer paper.
If a severe problem manifests itself no solution is acceptable unless it is
involved, expensive and time-consuming.
Sufficient funds to do the job are never available; they are easily obtained
for repeated revisions.
Computing power increases as the square of the cost increases. If you want to
do it twice as cheaply you must do it four times as fast.
A computer does what you tell it to do; not what you want it to do.
If a test site functions perfectly all subsequent installations will have
problems.
JCL cards that can be arranged in improper order will be.
The effort required to fix a bug increases geometrically with time.
One reason why a computer can do more work than a person is that it never has
to answer the phone.
Experts have theorized that, thru evolution and inbreeding, programmers may
become a distinct subspecies of the human race.
When putting it into memory remember where you put it.
The more humanlike a computer becomes the less time it spends computing and
the more time it spends doing humanlike work.
If it can go wrong it will (and even if it can't it might)
-*-
Over a GIGABYTE of Amiga files in our Library!
Catch your limit of Fred FISH Disks from the *StarFish* Library.
If you are after a SINGLE PROGRAM on a Fish Disk, SEARCH for it
before downloading the disk. Most are available separately!
_______________________________________________________________
| |
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