The December 17 meeting will be CUCUG's "Annual Meeting". The business at hand is the election of officers for next year and the presentation of the formal Financial Report. The rest of the meeting will be a Social/Swap Meet.
Welcome back to returning members Al Groke, Donald E. Jackson, Charles A. Lakatos, Arthur Perkins, Edwin Hadley, Ed Serbe, Don Shaffer, Norris Hansell, Fred Holy, Joseph L. Belanger, Gerald C. Gentes, Joseph M. Perkowski, David R. Spankroy, Daryl B. Brandel, John G. Carver, Joe Duran, Christopher M. Beattie, Carlos E. Maldonado, Ferdinand Tavernini, Carlos Mason, Lois Garcia, Steve Brightman, George D. Madison, Roger Franklin Curtis, Chanel Dupuis, Eugene B. Himelick, Dwayne D. McCarthy, Kenneth W. Dean, Dan Morehouse, Dennis M. McCormick, Alexander A. Priest, Stuart J. Bachamp, Albert M. Bartlett, Ricky Shelbon, Robert A. Miller, Adam Szymczak, Benoit Deschenes, Frederic L. Riebs, Maurice Vosmeijer, Wesley L. Doody, Ronald E. Morris, Hal Brulhart, William B. and Nancy Smith, Daniel Mayrand, Roman K. Konsewicz, David Miller, Stuart Alan Maxwell, Robert A. Wanex, David J. Hutira, Allen J. Newton, Donald R. Myklebust, Oscar J. Miller, Harold C. Walker, Robert Lance Thurston, Ron Wolff, Roger Bennatti, Rodney T. Cape, Christopher John Barrow, Ross Randall, Daniel B. Greathouse, Michael D. Lewis, Jason M. Spencer, Edwin C. Budlong, Ash R. J. Wyllie, Leo Robert Hanrahan, Rodney Schulze, Robert James Parry, Michael Duffield, Diego M. Gonzalez, John T. Nichols, Laurence P. Miller, Selena Kay Douglass, John R. Barrett, Bradley K. Markham, David L. Stevens, Henry Charles Shew, Todd W. McLarty, Spencer Morris, Jonathan D. Norris, Wayne J. Kumingo, Hassan Amer Kabbani, Philippe Reux, Michael B. Goodrich, Mark A. Correia, Ramey Herren, and Marc Andre Baker.
We welcome any kind of input or feedback from members. Have an article or review you'd like to submit? Send it in. Have a comment? Email any officer you like. Involvement is the driving force of any user group. Welcome to the best.
President: Jim Lewis Vice President: Emil Cobb Secretary: Kevin Hopkins Treasurer: Mark Landman Corporation Agent: Jim Lewis
Hello Amiga people, my name is Elspeth Moss the wife of Fleecy. He is bound by some of the contracts he signed to keep quiet but I am not.
I want you all to know that to my husband, the Amiga is very, very important. Many times I have gone to bed without him, weekends have disappeared and there are times I have wanted to pull the plug on his computer just to get him back. I know the children and I are the most important thing to him but the Amiga isn't that close behind. I don't understand the fascination myself but when he talks of the plans, the community, the ppl, I can see that it is more to him than just a computer.
Over the past 18 months he has gone from the happiest of the happy to the saddest of the sad. Frustrated, angry, ranting as the job has progressed - or not progressed. When he got the news on Wednesday, he was devastated. It took him 4 hours before he was back on the computer. First he started moves to get a new job so we wouldn't be deported - in fact with our new daughter Evie not having a birth certificate yet, we would probably have to leave her - thanks Jeff Schindler - and then he was back emailing ppl, coming up with new ways to keep the community going, to prevent it from being destroyed.
Of course he has to find a job first but I think I know that I won't be seeing him much for the next few months in the evening. I am used to it. I just want you all to know the kind of man he is - honest, principled, always figthing for the underdog, obsessive - a pain in the backside. He may have been sacked but he will never give up on the Amiga, unlike some others.
Thank you.
[Editor's Note: The firing of Fleecy Moss seems to have trigger a decided sea change in the Amiga community. The honeymoon with Amiga Inc. is over. Jeff Schindler's leadership is now openly being questioned. Amiga Inc. may think it is leading, but the troops appear to be going over the hill. With talk of the KOSH project and the likes of Dave Haynie lending his support, the current owners of the Amiga's Intellectual Properties have squandered what little good will remained for them.]
I personally feel that Amiga Inc is running a closed shop from now on. I have had only 2.5 contacts at Amiga Inc with all my dealings with them that have been helpful and encouraging to the point that it has given me some confidence. Jeff Schindler is the 0.5.
I am from now on looking at Amiga2 as a new platform, much as a Sony Dreamcast. It is something that may happen, we are unlikely to have any input to what it is or what we want out of it and there is the potential for it to be nothing more than a box that does something moderately interesting. Therefore my only conclusion is that I must follow the road of a more independent Classic Amiga for the forseeable future.
I will continue to develop Classic Amiga. Equally I am more open to alternative ways of pushing forward the platform now than I was a few days ago. If Amiga Inc have made a mess of presenting what they are doing, as they did at the WoA earlier this year, then they are free to represent themselves. I am not going to go to the time and effort of explaining to them what they did wrong this time, they know that already.
Unfortunately I suspect that Amiga2 is more a product of Gateway than of an independent Amiga Inc or any input that may come from QNX. They have every right to take the Amiga2, or for that matter the IP in the Classic Amiga, in any direction that they choose. But that doesn't mean I have to follow...
My understanding was that TeamAmiga is about users putting their view, exchanging information and ideally getting feedback from developers and the Amiga owner. Well, Gateway are the Amiga owner and it appears that they have given us some feedback...
Regards,
Mick Tinker
Access Innovation Ltd, England
index@cix.co.uk
http://access.amiga.tm
http://www.cix.co.uk/~index
Amiga Forever Online Edition contains the official and original Amiga 1.3 and 3.0 ROM and OS environments, configured and ready for use with the included WinUAE software, which emulates the Amiga CPU and custom chips. Third-party Amiga disk images available from online and CD-ROM collections of "Amiga Classics" can be mounted and run in the emulation. The preinstalled emulation environment can very easily be upgraded as new versions of WinUAE or other emulation programs become available (all Amiga emulators support the Amiga ROM and OS files which are part of Amiga Forever). The latest version of the Amiga Explorer networking software is also included.
The Online Edition of Amiga Forever is stored in a compressed executable archive (the file is about 5 MB). To install the software after the download, it is sufficient to double-click on the file.
For further information go to http://www.cloanto.com/amiga/forever/online.html.
CUPERTINO, California - Dec. 7, 1998 - Apple Computer, Inc. today announced Mac OS 8.5.1, an update to the popular Mac OS 8.5 released in October, which fixes several bugs and adds new Sherlock plug-ins for popular Internet sites.
Mac OS 8.5.1 remedies problems associated with CD-ROM installation, AppleScript, and a rarely-seen data corruption problem. There is also improved support for third party ADB devices, such as joysticks. Mac OS 8.5.1 also includes an updated version of Sherlock, which improves communication through Internet proxy firewalls, and adds plug-ins for Internet sites such as Amazon.com, barnesandnoble.com, CNN Interactive, Direct Hit, GoTo.com, and LookSmart. These plug-ins are also available from Apple's website (www.apple.com/macos).
"It's amazing how few bugs we've found in Mac OS 8.5," said Phil Schiller, Apple's vice president of worldwide product marketing. "It's been one of our most reliable operating system releases ever, and with this update, it's rock-solid."
System Requirements & Availability
The Mac OS 8.5.1 update requires a Macintosh with Mac OS 8.5 installed, and 16MB of physical RAM with virtual memory set to at least 24MB. Computers with Apple PC Compatibility Cards are not supported.
The Mac OS 8.5.1 update is available immediately for download from Apple's website (www.apple.com/macos) free of charge. Localized versions of the update will be available later this month. In addition to Internet download, the Mac OS 8.5.1 update will be distributed on CD-ROM starting in January. The CD-ROM can be ordered from the Apple Software Order Center at (800) 293-6617 for U.S. $9.95 (shipping and handling fee).
America Online has announced it will buy Netscape Communications in a $4.21 billion stock deal. Under the agreement, AOL will operate Netscape as a separate division, while leveraging Netscape's Web browser software and widely used NetCenter Web site. With the acquisition, AOL will control two of the Web's four most trafficked "portal" sites, which has some analysts saying AOL may attract as much as a third of online advertising revenue. In addition, AOL and Sun Microsystems have agreed to a three year partnership whereby Sun will distribute Netscape's server software and pay AOL $350 million dollars in licensing and marketing fees. In exchange, AOL will adopt Sun's Java technology for use in "AOL devices" and purchase $500 million of Sun's high-end computers. Microsoft is already claiming the AOL-Netscape merger undermines the ongoing antitrust case against Microsoft, although others argue the merger is further evidence that even large companies like Netscape can't stand against Microsoft. For the time being, AOL says it plans to continue distributing Microsoft's Internet Explorer so AOL's client software remains bundled with Windows. [GD]
http://www.news.com/News/Item/0,4,29146,00.html
In Sun Microsystems' year-old Java licensing lawsuit against Microsoft, U.S. District Court Judge Ronald Whyte has approved Sun's request for a preliminary injunction against Microsoft's Java implementations for Windows, giving Microsoft 90 days to bring Java-related products into compliance with its licensing agreement with Sun. Essentially, this means Microsoft's Java products must support Sun's Java Native Interface (JNI) to the Java runtime environment, pass Sun's Java compatibility tests, and disable by default non-standard compiler directives and keywords in Java development tools. Microsoft must also notify its customers it has been preliminarily found in violation of Sun's license agreement and warn developers when they attempt to compile code that will not be compatible with Sun's Java technology. Microsoft says it will comply with the ruling, and although the court found that Sun is likely to prevail in the actual trial, it required Sun to post a $15 million bond in case Microsoft wins in the end. Fallout from the decision may already be coming, with reports that Microsoft is dropping its Java virtual machines (VMs) for Macintosh and Unix, in part to comply with the court order. [GD]
http://java.sun.com/lawsuit/
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/features/11-17sun.htm
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,373263,00.html
Connectix has released Speed Doubler 8.1.2, which fixes bugs and improves compatibility. The Faster File Copying feature now works from a locked startup volume, cleans up spring-loaded folders properly, and doesn't crash if a copy window is placed off-screen, among other changes. The update also fixes a problem under Mac OS 8.5 that caused a crash when clicking OK or Cancel in the Copy Agent schedule configuration dialog. Connectix recommends that all Speed Doubler 8 users upgrade to 8.1.2, which is available as a free 516K download. [JLC]
http://www.connectix.com/html/speed_doubler_updates.html
Every Gateway show has had continuing increases in attendance year over year. The Amiga shows in St. Louis are a great confirmation of doing something right. The things attendees asked for were, a bigger show, and a better banquet hall.
Amiga-St. Louis(tm) is listening to your concerns. We are moving Amiga 99 to a bigger hotel, the Henry VIII Hotel in Bridgeton, MO. We are making the banquet bigger and it will be held in it's own hall.
Advance tickets are at a special price. An 800 number for ordering admission and banquet tickets to Amiga 99 has been established: 800-59-AMIGA (2644). You can order your two day or one day admission tickets and your banquet tickets to Amiga 99 by phone using your credit cards. Please note, there is a transaction fee of $5 for this service. This is a one time charge per transaction. So order lots of tickets at one time for your friends and club members and save.
If you would rather order by mail, and avoid the transaction fee, you can still do so. Mail your check or postal money order, in U.S. funds, to:
Amigan-St. Louis
c/o Amiga 99 - Tickets
P.O. Box 672
Bridgeton, MO 63044
Note: No refunds on tickets.
Amiga 99 Ticket Pricing
Advance At Door
Show floor Admission..Two Day $ 17 $ 20
One Day $ 12 $ 15
Banquet...........7PM Sat. 13th $ 35 N/A
Classes...............Fri-Sun N/A N/A
Note: Tickets for the three days of classes, March 12 - 14 must be ordered by mail only. A full class schedule will be posted as the show approaches. Keep the page http://www.amiga-stl.com/ book marked on your browser.
Visit our site, and see the exciting things that are planned for Amiga 99.
Bob Scharp, Amigan-St. Louis
bscharp@icon-stl.net
As this will be the first visit to Australia by any AMIGA official since Commodore's demise in 1994, Petro Tyschtschenko is keen to meet with as many members of the Amiga community as he can during his trip.
There will be an opportunity to meet Mr. Tyschtschenko in Perth on Saturday 9 January 1999, and at two meetings proposed for the following weekend in Sydney.
For those with a commercial interest in the Amiga's future in Australia (Australasia), there will be a business meeting in Sydney on Friday 15 January.
And depending on the support shown, a daytime function (lunch will be optional) is proposed for the general public on Saturday, 16 January.
Persons wishing to meet Petro Tyschtschenko should send an email to the contact address given below, putting: `Petro Visit Perth' or `Petro Visit Business Sydney' or `Petro Visit General Sydney' as the Subject, according to which meeting they would like to attend.
Then, in the body of the email, they should give some background information about themselves, as well as any comments that they may care to make relating to the Amiga's future in Australasia.
Even if you can't attend, please email us with your comments. (In this case put `Petro Visit Comment Only' as the Subject).
Australia once had a vibrant Amiga community.
An overwhelming response to this posting will indicate that the Amiga still has a future in Australasia, and will send a strong message to Petro Tyschtschenko and Amiga Inc. that they should do something about it.
Basil Flinter
Coordinating the Amiga in Australasia
Contact/Reply to: flinter@tpg.com.au
MP3 equipment
Soon, you'll be able to take MP3 files anywhere you go! Diamond Multimedia's Rio PMP300 is a pocket-sized gadget that holds up to 60 minutes of MP3 music on a 32MB flash card (upgrades are available). Simply upload the files via your PC's serial port - it takes about 1 minute to transfer 10 minutes of music. At this time, the Rio is the only portable MP3 player available in the United States. List price for the PMP300 is $200.
Korean company Saehan Information Systems was actually the first to manufacture a portable MP3 player - the MPMan. The new F30 model also allows simple voice recording. Neither device is yet available in the United States, and the company did not respond to repeated inquiries. MPMan.com
According to a recent report, Samsung is also planning a portable MP3 player. However, company sources said there were no immediate plans to market the player in the United States.
The conflict over MP3
Recording industry says: MP3s encourage copyright violations. It's way too easy for individuals to make MP3s from CDs in their CD-ROM drives, then post these files on the Net for everybody to grab. The artists receive no money for their hard work. Servers with illegal MP3 files are violating copyright laws, and must be shut down. Portable MP3 players will make it even easier to exchange illegal MP3s, and therefore should be banned.
MP3 supporters say: It's almost impossible for musicians who aren't working for one of the big record companies to get radio play, tour dates, or national distribution. Plus, CDs are very expensive to record and produce. MP3, on the other hand, allows low-budget musicians to get high-quality music directly to a huge audience. The record industry is simply scared that it won't get a cut of the profits when MP3 or another all-Net format becomes popular.
CNET says: MP3 rocks! MP3 files may not sound quite as good as CDs, but for a computer-based audio medium, they're excellent. Of course, the real fun lies in downloading thousands of free files from the Net, creating your own MP3s, and exchanging them with other Net users. Portable MP3 gadgets such as the Rio may help legitimize MP3 as a format and move it beyond the Net, but why wait? Simply download a player, grab some files (an FTP-specific client such as CuteFTP works best), and you'll be hooked - without having to spend another penny.
Questions, comments? Email CNET.com audio guru Matt Rosoff (mrosoff@cnet.com).
Where to find MP3 music files
* MP3.com
http://www.mp3.com/
* MP3site.com
http://www.mp3site.com/
* Sonny's Party of MP3
http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Vault/8821/mp3.html
* 2look4
http://www.2look4.com/
* allmp3.com
http://www.allmp3.com/
* MPEG Layer 3 Sounds
http://www.eskimo.com/~miyaguch/mp3.html
* MP3 Music Webring
http://www.webring.org/cgi-bin/webring?ring=mp3&list
MP3 downloads
Download a player
If you've got Windows 98, the bundled Windows Media Player is all you need to play MP3s. If not, try downloading one of these standalone players.
* Winamp (Windows 95/98) * Winamp (Windows NT) * MP3 Blaster32 (32-bit PC) * Sonique (Windows 95/98) * WinPlay3 (32-bit PC) * SoundApp (Mac) * MacAmp (Mac)
Download MP3 finders
These programs automatically search the Net for MP3 files. Some of them work only in conjunction with an FTP client called CuteFTP.
* MP3Leech 98 (Windows 95/98, requires CuteFTP) * Planet.MP3Find (Windows 95/98, requires CuteFTP) * MP3 Search Master (Windows 95/98) * CuteFTP (32-bit PC) * CuteFTP (16-bit PC)
Download combo rippers/encoders
These downloads help you create MP3 files directly from CDs you play on your CD-ROM drive. But don't blow it for everybody else by posting copyrighted recordings to the Net!
* MusicMatch Jukebox (32-bit PC) * WPlay (32-bit PC) * MpegDJ Encoder (32-bit PC) * CD-DA Extractor (32-bit PC) * MPEG Audio Creator (Mac)
[Source: http://www.cnet.com/Content/Gadgets/Special/MP3/?dd.cn. Download links available there. ]
The wait is over: with considerable fanfare, Apple last week released Mac OS 8.5, billing it as a smarter, faster version of the Mac OS with enhanced Internet integration and a raft of new features. The good news is that these claims are all true, and although Mac OS 8.5 isn't an ideal upgrade for all Macintosh owners or everything Mac owners dreamed about, it is a solid leap forward, with significant new capabilities and under-the-hood transformations.
Just the Facts
Mac OS 8.5 requires a PowerPC-based Macintosh with at least 16 MB of RAM (Apple recommends 24 MB; I recommend even more). Unlike previous releases, Mac OS 8.5 does _not_ support 68040-based Macs, or 68K-based machines upgraded to PowerPC processors. A bare-bones installation requires about 50 MB of disk space; recommended and optional components boost that to 150 MB and higher.
Mac OS 8.5 is available on CD-ROM for $99 from the Apple Store and for lower prices from Apple dealers and TidBITS sponsors Cyberian Outpost and Small Dog Electronics. If you bought Mac OS 8.1 after 14-Sep-98 you can upgrade to Mac OS 8.5 for $20 using an upgrade coupon available in PDF format. If you recently bought a Mac without Mac OS 8.5, you may be able to upgrade for $20 via Apple's Mac OS Up-to-Date program.
http://store.apple.com/
http://www.apple.com/macos/files/macos85coupon_us.pdf
http://www.apple.com/macos/up-to-date/
Installing Mac OS 8.5
For most users, installing Mac OS 8.5 will be simple - the installer application is straightforward and had no problems with clean installations or installing over existing system folders in my testing. If you're using third-party hard disk drivers, make sure they're compatible with Mac OS 8.5 before you install _and_ make sure the Mac OS 8.5 installer doesn't replace them with Apple's disk drivers. Do let the installer update any Apple disk drivers. You should also write down your TCP/IP and dial-up settings before installing Mac OS 8.5. If you're using Open Transport, you can export your settings, then import them after installation.
The Mac OS 8.5 installer permits customization of packages before installation begins and can add and remove selected software once Mac OS 8.5 is installed.
As always, make a full backup of your Mac before installing new system software. If you aren't reliably and consistently backing up your data, you must. This has nothing to do with Mac OS 8.5: it's just common sense.
http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbser=1041
Performance
The first thing many Mac OS 8.5 users will notice is that it's faster than previous versions of the Mac OS - sometimes much faster. One advantage of developing Mac OS 8.5 only for PowerPC-based Macs is that Apple was able to rewrite major portions of the core operating system using PowerPC-native code. Areas of the operating system that see the most benefit include QuickDraw and QuickDraw Text (the Mac OS's fundamental graphics and text rendering tools); routines that handle menus, controls, icons, lists, windows, and dialogs; and internal event management.
Mac OS 8.5 also includes a new PowerPC-native version of AppleScript, which Apple claims can be as much as five times faster than earlier versions. Scripts I tested typically run more than twice as fast as they did under Mac OS 8.1. Apple is also touting improved network performance, which is generally true, but the greatest benefits are seen between systems running Mac OS 8.5 on high-speed 100Base-T Ethernet networks.
Application Switcher
After installing Mac OS 8.5, you'll notice the Application menu on the far right of the menubar sports the name of the current application along with the application's icon. Long-time Mac users may find this annoying, but it's beneficial to less sophisticated Mac users, who often have trouble figuring out which application is in the foreground if it lacks open windows. A small vertical beam enables you to reduce or eliminate the amount of space given to the application name.
You can tear the new Application menu off the menubar entirely - drag your cursor off the bottom of the menu until an outline appears, then release the mouse button. Now you're looking at the Application Switcher, a floating palette that displays your currently running applications as buttons, and lets you switch between them by clicking. You can also switch between applications at any time by pressing Command-Tab.
The Application Switcher is capable and configurable. You can drag & drop items onto running applications, and Option-clicking an application switches to that program while hiding the current one. Similarly, clicking the palette's zoom box hides or shows application names, Option-clicking the palette's zoom box toggles between large and small icons, and Option-Shift-clicking the palette's zoom box toggles between horizontal and vertical displays.
You can change the Command-Tab shortcut for moving between programs (it can interfere with HyperCard, FileMaker Pro, and other applications). The new HTML-based Mac OS Help features a script to change the key combination; look under "Files and Programs." You can also change the key combination and other options using a third-party utility such as SwitcherSetter from Chris Gervais, or the stack in the HyperCard Update folder on the Mac OS 8.5 CD-ROM. Some of Application Switcher's more obscure capabilities are accessible only via these utilities or AppleScript.
http://www.channel1.com/users/cg601/aso/
Finder Features
The Mac OS 8.5 Finder boasts many new features, some of which are subtle. You can finally resize and (except for the Name column) reorder the columns in Finder list views, and you can use the Finder Preferences to create default settings for all Finder views, then convert any Finder window to those settings using its View Options dialog.
Folder windows now display proxy icons in their title bars; you can drag these proxies directly to a different location without having to open the window's parent folder, locate the item you want to move, and then move it. You can also scroll Finder windows without using the scrollbars by Command-dragging in the content area.
The Finder's Get Info windows feature multiple panels for general information, sharing privileges, memory settings (for applications), and printer capabilities (for desktop printers). Each item is available directly via contextual menus as well as in the Get Info window.
The Finder is smarter about email addresses and URLs. If you drag a URL or email address from an application like Eudora or BBEdit to the desktop, the Finder creates an Internet Location File instead of a text clipping. When you double-click an Internet Location File, the Finder uses your Internet preferences to handle it. Unfortunately, earlier versions of the Finder don't recognize Internet Location Files or treat them as text clippings, so exchanging the files with earlier versions of the Mac OS is awkward.
The Finder sports new a new Add to Favorites command which creates an alias to a selected item in the new Favorites folder in the Apple menu. At first, Favorites seem like a half-baked attempt to add bookmarking capabilities to the Finder. However, Favorites are worth keeping an eye on since they tie in with Navigation Services, Mac OS 8.5's replacement for the awful modal Open and Save dialog boxes. Only a few applications (like Anarchie Pro) support Navigation Services currently. We'll talk more about Navigation Services soon.
Celebrity Makeover
One anticipated feature in Mac OS 8.5 is support for themes, originally slated for Apple's long-defunct Copland OS project. Themes give users a high degree of control over the look and feel of their Mac, such as choosing window styles, system fonts, menu items, scrollbars, background pictures, buttons, and other interface elements. Several alternate themes have been heavily publicized, and Apple's failure to deliver theme support in previous versions of the Mac OS inspired products like Kaleidoscope, which has long provided much the same functionality. (Kaleidoscope has been updated to work with Mac OS 8.5.)
Mac OS 8.5 delivers on Apple's promise of theme support in the Mac OS, albeit not to the degree many Mac aficionados have expected. The new Appearance control panel subsumes the older Color, WindowShade, and Desktop Pictures control panels, providing a multi-tabbed interface for controlling various interface elements. (Mac OS 8.5 includes five new system fonts, but there are other font changes - for instance, Monaco has a new semi-serif look that takes some getting used to.) The Appearance control panel also enables you to have TrueType fonts smoothed (anti-aliased) above an arbitrary point size. Not all Macintosh applications are Appearance-savvy: some menus won't appear with proper fonts or colors, and some window elements might be out of place. For the most part, however, these problems are only cosmetic.
Although Apple developers had access to Gizmo and Hi-Tech themes while Mac OS 8.5 was in development, Mac OS 8.5 ships with only one theme: Apple Platinum. I suspect this is a conservative move by Apple to protect the renowned Macintosh look and feel. Frankly, few things will drive a new computer buyer away from an iMac faster than the Gizmo theme, which turns a standard interface into a cacophony of color, clutter, and chaos. If you desire more customization, try Kaleidoscope. Further, although Apple hasn't released details on creating theme files, enthusiastic Mac programmers are already reverse-engineering Apple's themes and developing tools to create new ones. A few documents imply Apple and other companies may distribute new themes in the future.
All that aside, sound tracks will be the love-hate feature of Mac OS 8.5's themes. Like the popular but long defunct SoundMaster control panel, themes can include a sound track for actions involving windows, menus, window controls, and various Finder actions. For instance, using Apple's Platinum sound track dragging a document across the screen causes a slight ticking, which even pans left to right as you move the document from side to side. Sounds play when windows open and close, when you select menus and menu items, when you scroll windows, and in response to many other events. I initially thought the Platinum sounds were distracting, but the sounds are surprisingly well thought-out, and now a silent Macintosh seems odd and somehow dry. Sound tracks aren't for everyone, but you might want to give them a chance.
The Game's Afoot
The most-publicized new feature in Mac OS 8.5 is Sherlock, which replaces the Mac OS's Find File. You still use Sherlock to hunt for files on local disks and servers - its functionality is much like Find File - but Sherlock can also search the contents of documents on indexed volumes and send queries to Internet search engines. Unlike Find File, you can keep multiple results windows open.
http://www.apple.com/sherlock/
Sherlock's Find By Content capability is based on Apple's long- simmering V-Twin technology, which is now built into the Mac OS so applications besides Sherlock can use it too. (To see another instance, Control-click a text file in the Finder and choose Summarize File to Clipboard.) Searching by content requires that Sherlock first index the disk you want to search. This process can take hours and results in an index stored as a large, invisible file. (Luckily, you can schedule Sherlock to index in the middle of the night, and Sherlock can ignore items with a particular Finder label.) After it creates an index, Sherlock can quickly search the disk's contents and provide relevancy-ranked search results that you can sort by several criteria. To use Find By Content to best advantage, use a phrase that describes what you're looking for, rather than just a few keywords; also, take advantage of the Find Similar Files button. Because Sherlock indexes only entire disks rather than particular directories, some people will find it more useful than others. For instance, I'd love to have Sherlock index just TidBITS issues, articles I've written, and a few other folders, but since these items live on separate disks, the overhead might be excessive.
Sherlock's most-advertised capability is to send queries to Internet search engines like AltaVista and Apple's Tech Info Library. Sherlock does this by using Internet Search Site plug- ins, which live in their own folder in the System Folder. The plug-ins tell Sherlock how to send a query to a particular search engine, how to interpret results from that site, and how often to check for plug-in updates. This means Sherlock is also a lightweight Web client: it sends a query to one or more search engines, then parses the HTML returned from those sites to display a results window. Clicking a search result often displays an abbreviated preview in the search results window; double-clicking a search result opens the item in your preferred Web browser. Sherlock's previews can contain banner advertisements from search sites, complete with animated GIFs. Although these banners are troubling precedents, their presence assures ad-driven sites that Sherlock users don't get the benefit of the site's searching capability without seeing advertising; otherwise, sites might ban Sherlock altogether.
Mac OS 8.5 ships with six search site plug-ins. Dozens more are already available for Macintosh-related sites, and Apple has a page of additional plug-ins for general-interest sites. We've created a Sherlock plug-in to search TidBITS articles - try it out by downloading it and dragging it to your System Folder.
http://www.apple.com/sherlock/plugins.html
http://www.tidbits.com/search/
Sherlock can also save search criteria to separate files - whether you're searching your hard disk or the Internet - making it easy to repeat frequent queries.
Compatibility
Mac OS 8.5's compatibility is quite good: most extensions and applications run without problems, and surprisingly few current applications seem to suffer from cosmetic Appearance-related problems. Nonetheless, some widely used applications and utilities have problems with Mac OS 8.5: here's a quick run-down of common problems and fixes.
Microsoft has released a 2.9 MB patch to the English language version of Office 98 to address a delay in menus drawing and solve layout inconsistencies between Mac OS versions. The update also fixes two problems that aren't specific to Mac OS 8.5.
http://www.microsoft.com/macoffice/85update.htm
The QuickDay and QuickContact components of Now Contact and Now Up-to-Date have severe problems when configured to add menus to the menubar. Qualcomm recommends turning off menubar functions.
http://eudora.qualcomm.com/techsupport/now/os85.html
Kensington has released MouseWorks 5.0.5 for compatibility with Mac OS 8.5.
http://www.kensington.com/support/mwsmac1.html
There have been widespread reports of problems with Adobe ATM and ATM Deluxe with Mac OS 8.5. Several Adobe reps have confirmed privately that version 4.0.3 of both products works fine under Mac OS 8.5. I haven't found any problems with ATM 4.0.2, the version on the Mac OS 8.5 CD-ROM.
I had severe crashing problems with Symantec's Suitcase 3.0.1 extension; Symantec hasn't responded to my queries, or (so far as I can tell) acknowledged a problem.
OneClick 1.0.3, the current version, is incompatible with Mac OS 8.5. WestCode has said an update is forthcoming.
http://www.westcodesoft.com/os85.html
Next Time
The next part of this article will examine some of Mac OS 8.5's features in greater detail, including AppleScript, Navigation Services, Internet and networking changes, additional software components, and new operating system features. In the meantime, please visit TidBITS Talk for more discussion about these and other Mac OS 8.5 features.
http://www.tidbits.com/search/talk.html
[Source: TidBITS #451 / 19-Oct-98. TidBITS address is http://www.tidbits.com/tb-issues/default.html.]
ICQ has come to the Amiga, well not officially that is. Douglas F. McLaughlin wrote an ICQ compatible client for the Amiga called StrICQ. However, StrICQ is not supported by Mirabilis, nor is it known how Mirabilis officially feels about this program. Early attempts to port ICQ to the Amiga fell through in the negotiation phase.
ICQ is a revolutionary, user-friendly Internet tool that informs you who's on-line at any time and enables you to contact them at will. With ICQ, you can chat, send messages, files, and URLs, play games, or just hang out with fellow "Netters" while surfing the Net.
StrICQ requires an Internet capable Amiga with Workbench 3.0, TCP stack (like Miami), MUI, and some new special MUI classes (NList.mcc, Textinput.mcc, Lamp.mcc, and Busy.mcc). Not all the ICQ functions have been implemented (like file transfer) at this point, but the author vows to work on them as time permits. You can download the latest version of StrICQ from Douglas' web page at http://www.momo2000.com/~mclaughd.
Setting up and using ICQ is fairly simple. Going into the program's "Project/Register UIN" menu, simply enter your user information, a nickname, and a password. Registering with Mirabilis will give you a unique ICQ number that you can use to log in and check and see if your friends are on-line, provided they gave you their ICQ number. If not, there is a handy search feature that allows you to find them. I have installed ICQ on my Amiga, Mac Quadra, and Windows computer at work. The Amiga version is actually the most visually pleasing.
Douglas suggests you check with his web page for the latest version. Hopefully, in the future, Mirabilis can see fit to actively support StrICQ on the Amiga. This is a very handy utility in sending messages, or searching for friends on the big bad busy Internet.
[Source: The National Capital Amiga Users Group newsletter, "Amiga Intuition" November, 1998. NCAUG's address is P.O. Box 12360, Arlington, VA 22209. On the web it's http://www.ncaug.org ]
Been shopping for a modem lately? Now that the V.90 standard has finally been hammered out you may be considering it. Also, the prices of external 56K modems are finally affordable to the working Amigan. Among the usual features to consider are supported compression routines, fax, Caller ID, and now voice mail.
Voice mail is nothing new to the Amiga. A long time ago GVP's Phonepak turned your Zorro based Amiga into a professional message center. If you have ever called NCAUGer Paul Sadlik (architect), then no doubt you have witnessed this fine product in action. However, since GVP-M has resurfaced they have not brought back this venerable item. Fortunately, there are several Amiga programs that take advantage of the voice mail capability of these new modems as a replacement.
I decided to purchase the Zoom Dual Mode 56K external modem with fax and voice capabilities. I have always liked Zoom modems and had owned the 2400 and 14.4 bps models. Another reason I chose the Zoom Dual Mode is that many ISPs, including CAIS, originally supported the K-Flex standard and are in the process of converting to the ITU's V.90 standard. This Zoom modem supports both. Setting up the modem was as simple as any modem setup. Miami had no problems reconfiguring my setup to my ISP. Getting a reliable 56K connection on the other hand is fodder for another article.
Choosing a suitable fax/voice mail package is as simple as downloading demo versions off Aminet. The three I have tried are STFax Pro, PhoneWizard, and AVMSuite. Unfortunately, GVPFax does not support voice or RTG screens without screen mode promotion, thus it was not considered for this article.
The Zoom modem I have features the Rockwell chipset. While this is not uncommon for most voice modems, it presents an issue when using on the Amiga. That is because these programs can only playback your phone messages via the Amiga sound channels for Zyxel modems. Others like my Zoom will only playback messages via the modem's internal speaker (bad quality) or your phone line.
The problem lies in that none of the respective program authors were able to get the Rockwell codec in portable C code. Dr. Alberto Villarica (AVM Suite) was able to get a codec, but it was in X86 assembly code. Without this codec, the Amiga is unable to convert from the format in which messages are stored by the modem to IFF or WAV files. If it could convert the messages, then it would be possible to play them back through your Amiga sound channels. AmiPhone (Internet phone program) may provide a solution to this, but getting the respective programmers together will require some work, Paul?
In order to record or playback your messages you must either press a number key on your phone to clear the dial tone, or leave the phone off hook for a few minutes until the phone company gives up on you and lets your phone line go dead. Obviously here is where the Zyxel's ability to playback messages via the Amiga sound port has an advantage.
STFax Pro
First up to bat was STFax Pro. STFax came on two floppies in a CD jewel case. One disk contained the program, the other the necessary MUI files. I did not like that the installation script placed MUI files on your Amiga without checking versions. I was very concerned that older versions of certain MUI classes would overwrite my current versions. Aside from that, installation was straightforward.
STFax attempts to initialize your modem from the start. There are ways to tweak the settings to get it to work just right, but it is minimal at best. Unfortunately, I was not able to get STFax to record the greetings using the phone line, let alone set up my voice mail box, with my modem. I had no problems setting STFaxs fax routines.
Setting up the voice mailboxes is not as easy with the others programs tested. STFax does offer multiple voice mailboxes, passwords, fax back and a mini-bbs system to boot. You first have to record greetings or messages related to certain events. Then you have to create a "script" using those prerecorded greetings. STFax can use wav files, but a lack of a Rockwell codec prevented the Amiga from converting the wav into a modem friendly format.
Other nice features found in STFax include fax forwarding, scheduler, speakerphone, AREXX support, printer driver intercept, and datatype support. I will keep trying to make STFax work, Simone Tellini fortunately is very patient in assisting registered users. I especially look forward to using the Caller ID feature.
PhoneWizard
Moving on, I decided to give PhoneWizard by Matthais Bock a try. Phone Wizard is strictly a voice mail program; there is no support for your modem's faxing capabilities. It didn't require MUI, and had a nifty configuration tool that detects your modem's chipset. Recording the greeting was simple using the phone line. PhoneWizard is the least complex out of the three packages tested.
Faults with PhoneWizard are that you cannot have multiple voice mail boxes, and it had trouble detecting when someone hung up. Messages often had several seconds of dead air at the end of them. Unless you register the program, you are limited to storage of two incoming messages.
AVMSuite
Last up was AVMSuite by Dr. Alberto Villarica. AVM also requires MUI for GUI layout. Installation is done via a simple installer script. An installation doc file also assists with the basic installation and setup of AVM. Following his instructions, I had my simple voice mail box up and running.
AVM also features built in faxing capabilities, phonebook, Caller ID, and event scheduling like STFax Pro. AVM can alternate your greeting based on the day of the week or time of day. However, AVM is limited to just three voice mail boxes. The faxing portion of AVM is handling by a GNU port of EFax. AVM like STFax can function as a printer driver to fax documents directly from your applications.
AVM is shareware, but at the time of this writing Dr. Villarica told me that he would soon release the source code for others to improve the package. The version of AVM I got off Aminet was from 1995. Sending email to the good doctor will get you the needed keyfiles to unlock all the advanced features of AVM for free.
Hopefully this is wear someone can come in and write a codec for my Zoom modem. Also, since this program is 3 years old, it does not take advantage of the latest MUI has to offer like drag and drop, cut and paste, and window configuration. AVM also sent a particularly loud and nasty beep to those who wished to leave a message. I don't know if this is respective to my Zoom modem, but you can supposedly alter the beep via a configuration file.
In all, I cannot endorse one particular voice mail program for the Amiga. PhoneWizard was quick and easy to setup, but did not feature the capabilities that AVM or STFax Pro did. STFax Pro was the visually most pleasing with advanced features, but also the most difficult to get to work reliably. AVM Suite was powerful (as well as free), but is starting to show its age and neglect. Try them all to see which you prefer.
[Source: National Capital Amiga Users Group's, "Active Window" July, 1998. NCAUG's address on the web it's http://www.ncaug.org ]
The November 20, 1998 General meeting began with the traditional introduction of officers. President Lewis then welcomed a visitor to our meeting, Laughton Huggins.
Jim then talked about the new Kagi credit card service CUCUG has signed on to in order to facilitate easier membership renewal for both local and our worldwide members. He also noted that CUCUG membership stands at 725 members.
Jim again raised the subject of needing a new meeting place. The Park District has instituted an onerous new rate structure for next year that we will not willing submit to. So, if any member can help us find a new location for our local meetings, please let us know.
Amiga news was reviewed by John Lynn. John reported on the Amiga Inc./QNX Operating System partner deal. He said, "Looks like Amiga is going to come back."
It was then reported that on the Wednesday before the Cologne Fair, Amiga Inc.'s Jeff Schindler fired Fleecy Moss over the phone. This did not sit well with the membership at all. Fleecy was a real user advocate at Amiga Inc. There's been no public statement on the firing from Amiga Inc. They appear to be shuffling off the OS3.5 project to Haage & Partner. Taking a contrary view, Mike Latinovich said, "Can 3.5. It's been dead for 3.5 years." Jim Lewis said, "I doubt that OS5 will see the desktop, maybe a settop box."
A discussion of what is known about QNX followed. During that discussion, the sentiment was raised that Amiga Inc. management has hatcheted anyone who was on the inside and saying anything: Joe Torre is gone, Fleecy is gone, and Darreck Lisle, the supposed User Group Coordinator has done nothing for ten months.
With that, the floor was turned over to Richard Rollins to review the Macintosh news. Richard reported on the injunction filed against Microsoft for corrupting Sun's Java in their attempt to co-opt the standard and bend it to their profit. Microsoft has been ordered to follow the contract and the Sun standard.
Rich said Apple is doing well, Syquest is dead, and Iomega has released their USB Zip drive. The latter sparked Bill Zwicky to broach the topic of storage "quality" on Zip disks. Richard said Zip disks are supposed to be good for 10 years. Kevin Hisel noted that for long term storage "put your data on CD." Someone else comment that Toast 3.5.5 was the software you need to burn CDs on the Mac.
Richard then spoke about the Autostart worm that got on the December Mac Addict CD. This variant is actually a kind of Christmas present. It installs itself, then searches for other variants of the worm virus, converts then to itself, and then goes away on December 24th.
Richard announced that the Mac SIG would not be doing the Mac program stated in the newsletter. Mark Landman would be showing Corel Draw 8.
Returning to the news Richard said iMacs were selling well. They are available at our own local Best Buy. He also spoke about the Apple Demo Days at Best Buy.
Richard said Farallon has released a mezzanine card for the iMac that provides 2 serial ports, one monitor connector, and an external sound port. The card is called the iPort and is selling for a mere $69. He noted that 147 vendors are now selling products for the iMac.
Richard talked about the undocumented solder points for a floppy drive on the iMac's motherboard. He said there is no SCSI interface for the iMac yet.
Richard also mention a couple of magazines he'd brought in for folks to look at: Mac Today and a Filemaker Pro magazine. He also brought in Netscape Navigator 4.5 for anyone who'd like that tonight.
It was stated that the big story from Comdex this year is USB. All modern PCs ship with two USB ports. There was a discussion of the potential of USB. Richard said there is a great peripheral market for USB right now. It was pointed out that USB is hot swappable. Jim Lewis noted that USB allows a PC user to shift peripheral off your PC and open up some of those scarce IRQs which will let you get more peripherals for your PC. It was noted that Compaq will soon have monitors that will connect to Macs. ADI makes Compaq's monitors and "they'll do what Compaq says."
Our guest, Laughton Huggins, asked about rendering on an A500 he'd been given. He said it had no hard drive and appeared to have stock memory. Jim said we'd be glad to go into depth on that subject in the Amiga SIG. In commenting on the relative value of his present, Jim told Laughton that CUCUG had sold our A500 at MAE for $25.
The subject of Syquest was revisited. Kevin Hisel said, "Syquest died, closed up and blew away." A discussion followed.
Sue Kraybill asked about photo printing. During that discussion the Epson PhotoEX and the Epson Stylus 700 were mentioned as fine printers for that purpose. The results are greatly affected by the paper you use to print your pictures on. Jim Lewis said he had a PhotoFun printer he'd sell her.
The Amiga SIG began with Laughton Huggins saying he was interested in cartoon animation. We discussed his machine and DPaint 3. He was introduced to Ed Serbe, our master of squeezing the most from the least in hardware and software.
John Lynn reported that he had gotten his Flyer working.
Kevin Hisel mentioned it was time to renew membership. He said members could renew with Mark or by credit card on the web site.
In the discussion of the current state of the Amiga community, it was stated that Amiga Inc. sees the users as an annoyance. We are not their market. To bring Laughton up to speed on the platform has just encountered, Jim Lewis gave a brief history of the Amiga in all its sordid glory.
Jerry Feltner asked about Degrader and a keyboard problem he was having with the Ultima 5 game. It was suggested that he look for his solution with the setting of the keyboard repeat rate in Prefs/Input.
Jim Lewis brought up the upcoming CUCUG elections. It looks like the slate of candidates will be the same as the current office holders.
There was a discussion of the future Amiga SIG demonstrations. Mike Latinovich offered to do a program in January on how to "Amiga-tize" your PC with utilities that help provide Amiga-like functions to your clone. Some of our trans-machinal members tossed out a few suggestions. TextPad is almost as good as DME. ClipTraker is a PowerSnap clone - it's even written by a former Amigan, David Plummer of Silicon Prairie. He also wrote MemTurbo. A final suggestion was ShortKey by Macro Express. So if you're planning on bailing to the PC, you've already done it, or you just want your machine at work to act more like your Amiga, this demonstration might be quite enlightening. If anyone has any other suggestion, don't hesitate to email them in.
After discussing some questions about photo quality printers, the Mac SIG looked at Corel Draw 8.
Corel Draw 8 is actually a suite of related graphics programs - Corel Draw, Photo Paint and Corel Trace. Corel Draw is a vector art illustration program similar to Adobe Illustrator. Corel Photo-Paint is Corel's answer to Adobe Photoshop. Corel Trace is a program which allows you to take a raster-based graphic from a program like Photo-Paint or Photoshop and convert it to vector-based artwork for Corel Draw or Illustrator. The package also contains a couple of handy utility programs, as well as lots of fonts and clip art. Font Reserve, a font management utility is used for keeping track of all of your fonts on various disks and previewing fonts. Cumulus, a media management utility, can be used to keep track of all of your media files (graphics, sound files, video clips etc).
Photo Paint
Photo Paint has many (but not all) of the same functions as Photoshop. In fact it even has some that Photoshop doesn't. The program's pen types selector is particularly nice. You can use it to easily select a wide range of pen types such as ball point pen, highlighter, felt marker, pencil, watercolor and tempra blends. The program has many of the same mixing modes as Photoshop, such as difference, hue, saturation, color, overlay, hardlight, soft light, color dodge, and color burn. It also has a couple of logical mixing modes (Logical OR, AND and XOR). Photo Paint will run Photoshop plug ins and appears to be fully scriptable through Apple Script. Photo Paint is not a speed deamon, and it certainly is a memory hog. The initial installation prior to the meeting was done on a Power Mac 7600/132 with 224 MB of RAM. A large (27MB) Photoshop file containing an 18"x28" graphic at 300 dpi with 10 layers took 2:32 to read using Photoshop. The same took 8:05 to read using Photo Paint. Since the file was written in Photoshop format instead of Corel's format, perhaps this wasn't really a fair comparison. So after the file was read into Photo Paint is was saved in Corel format. The file was only 10MB in Corel format compared to 27MB in Photoshop, but it still took over 3 minutes to read back into Corel Paint.
Corel Draw
Corel Draw is a very nice program for making illustrations or if you work a lot with type. It's easy to set up shape as a container and fill the shape with type. It will also shape and distort type or set type on a curved path. It seems to have most of the same tools for creating and manipulating graphics as Adobe Illustrator and unlike Illustrator appears to be fully scriptable via Apple Script.
For the meeting, both Corel Paint and Corel Draw were loaded into the club's PowerMac 8600 with 32MB of RAM. We found that 32 MB isn't enough to do much. We had to turn off unnecessary extensions, close any open windows and reduce the preferred RAM size in order to get either program to start. Corel programs were originally developed on the PC and only recently ported over to the Mac. For the most part, Corel has done a good job of giving the program a Mac-like look, but occasionally its PC roots make themselves known. Just as this was mentioned, as if on cue, the Mac crashed and displayed what I was told was a PC error dialog box.
Both Photo Paint and Corel Draw are very good and capable programs, especially if you consider that they cost much less than their Adobe counterparts. However, they do need large amounts of memory and disk space to be useful. The fact that the club's Mac has only 32MB of RAM made it difficult to do much of anything worthwhile for the demonstration. We hope to be able to do a more in-depth demonstration, and offer more detailed descriptions of these programs once the memory in the 8600 is upgraded.
The November meeting of the CUCUG executive board took place on Tuesday, November 24, 1998, at 7PM, at Kevin Hisel's house. (For anyone wishing to attend - which is encouraged, by the way - the address and phone number are both in the book). Present at the meeting were Jim Lewis, John Lynn, Mike Latinovich, Jim Huls, Mark Landman, Kevin Hopkins, Emil Cobb, and Kevin Hisel. (If you're curious about the order, it how we sit around the room.)
Jim Lewis: Jim raised the issue, proposed from the floor at the last meeting, that the December Annual Meeting be held some place that served food or order some in. The benefits and negatives of this were weighed. There was not unanimity on the subject. The majority decided that the Annual Meeting would be held at Ryan's Family Restaurant. The club would pay for one meal per membership card only. It would be duly noted that no membership dues would be spent for this purpose; advertising revenue only would be used. A refund of room rent from the Bresnan Center would be sought for the December change of venue and applied to the securing the room for next year, provisionally. Jim Lewis said that he would look into making the arrangements. [It has since been discovered that Ryan's isn't available on the night of our December meeting, so the meeting has been returned to it original site at the Bresnan Center.]
John Lynn: John commented that last meeting's Q & A went well. "Good meeting." Next month, we'll have the Annual meeting at Ryan's and hold the election. The January Amiga SIG meeting will be on "How to Amiga-tize your PC" or how to make the PC experience as much like the Amiga as possible. John said he could have a Flyer demo by February or March.
John said he was working on getting a room at his church for our meeting, but, as it is located on Anthony drive, it may be too far north for our purposes.
John concluded his segment with an appeal for someone to volunteer to be Amiga SIG chairman next year.
Mike Latinovich: Mike said, "The meeting was cool. The new guy was fun. Since there were no doughnuts, they couldn't have been good."
Mike said he'd have a nice demo in January, a nice selection of programs to ease the transition to the PC. "There are programs that mimic the Amiga pretty well."
Mike reported that the mailing list for the Board is working. There was a discussion of instituting a list for the membership, but policing issue weighed against it. We might institute a news headline PUSH to the members.
Jim Huls: Jim said he has been dabbling in the PC world recently. "Interesting. Not as horrible as most Mac people might think. There is excellent software on the PC."
Jim reported that he is still getting stuff for the raffle.
Mark Landman: Mark began on a personal note saying that Tech Tool Pro is real nice. It dealt with a problem he was having.
Mark reported that the Mac SIG tried to talk about Corel Draw, but due to the lack of memory, they had all sorts of problems. He even got a PC error dialog box at one point, revealing Corel Draw's PC heritage.
Kevin Hopkins said he had been warning about these memory problems since the club's machine had been upgraded to OS8.1. Jim Huls said he would get more memory and get in contact with Kevin for installing it. The Board approved the purchase of 128MB of memory. [64MB was finally installed by Richard Rollins on December 11.]
Mark said he'd try to demo Corel Draw again in February or March. Jim Huls offered to do a networking demonstration in the Spring.
Mark reported we had five members renew at the last meeting.
Mark said he too had a possible church location for our future meetings.
As Treasurer, Mark closed with his financial report.
Kevin Hopkins: Kevin distributed the mail to the appropriate Board members.
He reported on the flow of new and renewing memberships. Membership stands at 728.
Kevin brought up the possibility of the Gateway boycott as proposed by Joe Rothman of Mr. Hardware Computers on the Team Amiga Ninemoons mailing list.
Kevin also brought in a printout of Jeff Schindler's less than inspiring press release entitled "Dreams and Reality" dated November 23,1998. The code in their souls in not "Amiga native."
Kevin concluded his segment by suggesting that memberships be given to all those who ventured $50 or more in our recent Amiga 4000/Toaster raffle as a form of consolation prize. The idea was not supported by the Board.
Emil Cobb: Emil reported that we had 20 members at the last meeting.
Kevin Hisel: Kevin reported that "tons of Kagis are coming in."
Amiga news is "icky." Kevin reviewed the Fleecy Moss firing. He also talked about the proposed KOSH operating system. KOSH stands for Kommunity Operating System and Hardware and is conceived as an open software and hardware system in the vein of Linux and the Convergence movement. Kevin noted that it was named after a character on Babylon 5.
Kevin and Jim talked about a misunderstanding with the Northwest Amiga Group. They noted that a simple solution is available.
The Lazarus "suit" was also discussed.
Meetings are held the third Thursday of each month at 7:00 p.m. at the Bresnan Meeting Center in the Champaign Park District Headquarters (398-2550). The Center is located at 706 Kenwood, 1/2 block south of the corner of Kenwood and John Street, in west Champaign. Kenwood is the fourth north-south street off of John as you are going west, after crossing Mattis. The Center is in the northwest corner of Centennial Park, northwest of Centennial High School.
Membership dues for individuals are $20 annually; prorated to $10 at mid year.
Our monthly newsletter, the Status Register, is delivered by the postal service or email at the member's choice. All recent editions are available on our WWW site. To initiate a user group exchange, just send us your newsletter or contact our editor via email. As a matter of CUCUG policy, an exchange partner will be dropped after three months of no contact.
This newsletter was prepared with PageStream 2.22 on an Amiga 3000 25/100 and output to an HP Laserjet IIP plus. Pagestream was donated to CUCUG by Soft-Logik Publishing Corporation.
For further information, please attend the next meeting as our guest, or contact one of our officers (all at area code 217):
President: Jim Lewis 359-1342 NOSPAMlewis_j_e@yahoo.com Vice-President: Emil Cobb 398-0149 e-cobb@uiuc.edu Secretary/Editor: Kevin Hopkins 356-5026 kh2@uiuc.edu Treasurer: Mark Landman 398-2910 mlandman@earthlink.net Corporate Agent: Jim Lewis 359-1342 NOSPAMlewis_j_e@yahoo.com Advisor & Mac SIG: Richard Rollins 469-2616 Webmaster: Kevin Hisel 406-948-1999 khisel @ cucug.org Amiga SIG: John Lynn 586-3555 jlvideo@pdnt.com
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