The January 21 meeting will be one of our split SIG meetings. The Macintosh SIG will be talking about worm viruses and the havoc they've been causing recently. There is a possibility that Paper Port and OS8.5.1 will also be addressed. The Amiga SIG will discuss the implementation of True Type fonts on the Amiga.
We'd also like to welcome back returning members Brent Meeker, Brett Ferlin, Paul Tranchida, Ken McCormick, Frans van Egmond, Joseph F. Piekarski, Daniel L. Taylor, Allan R. Summerfield, Michael A.Schons, Terry Hover, Ichiro Yoshida, Vaclav Misek, James D. Lane, Charles E.Earle, Jerry A. Feltner, Richard Hall, Mark Kevin Hopkins, Mark Landman, James E.Lewis, John Lynn, Bengt Svennson, William R. Zwicky, Jack E. Erwin, Curt Kass,Mario Dell'Oca, Stelios Kalogreades, Ronald E. Daigle, Emil Cobb, Ralph Cabit,Charles H. Hubbell, Richard R. Davis, Samuel E. Dunham III, Lee C. Olson, GregoryL. Zalucha, John Herzfeld, Ron G. Grant, Robert Trevor Dickinson, Robert H.Craparo, Patrick W. Sharkey, Patrick Becker, Roger A. Helvey, Emilio RodolfoLealy Plascencia, Vincent J. LaMonica, Florence Hart, Anders Lindgren, George Hamilton, Stanley Crum, Jim Butterfield, Jim Oldfield, Kevin Hisel, Richard Rollins, John Scotto, Michael Hammer, Mark Tocheri, Roger L. Gullans, Arnold Valdez, Dennis G. Lynch, James Boydston, John F. Lockwood, George Rex, Stephen Mounts, Claude E. Gauvin, Gilbert Walker, Danny Wyble, John Millington, Craig Kummerow, Arlin T. Larson, Alexander Perez, Michael Clark, Johannes Akhtar, Jeffrey B. Strelioff, Donald M. Upham, Colonel Conner Jr.,Virgil M. Leisure, Thomas M. Breeden, Peter Jones, Kevin R. Crable, Steve W.Degler, Andre Page, Richard E. Norman, Everett Ray Curtis, Penny Castillo, Michael Veroukis, Gary Snedden, Steven W. White, David William Morris, Teri Frerichs, Michael K. Scully, Anthony W. Faubus, Frank T. Papaeliou, Octave J. Landry, Alexander Dorn, Kevin Gardner, Jeffrey Grzanich, John Smyth, John Nowell, Rinald Riedel, Lisa Lewis, Joshua Brehm, Jeff Ernes, Jim Hughey, Chester Larson, James Nowak, Daniel Krulewich, Frank W. Davis, Maurice Maissan, Ralph Knapp, Lance Clor and Keith Buniger.
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.
We rely on our members and their talents for our strength and vitality. Please renew, if you haven't already.
President: Jim Lewis NOSPAMlewis_j_e@yahoo.com
Vice President: Emil Cobb e-cobb@uiuc.edu
Secretary: Kevin Hopkins kh2@uiuc.edu
Treasurer: Richard Hall rjhall1@uiuc.edu
Corporation Agent: Jim Lewis NOSPAMlewis_j_e@yahoo.com
Congratulations to the hard corps of CUCUG and thanks to the members voting
in the election.When the source code to Netscape 5 was made available, everyone in the Amiga community immediately expected ports to become available overnight, as we had seen with the likes of Doom, Descent and Abuse. However, this didn't materialise, as the Netscape project was just so large. It was too much for one man to handle, and so the Amiga community were left dissapointed once again.
The situation, as it existed, was unsatisfactory. The Amiga had three very good browsers in Voyager, IBrowse and AWeb, but it wasn't enough. For while the community was happy with the current choice, it was in every one's heart that if the Amiga was ever going to regain its rightful place in computing history, it would need to attract new customers, and it is a sad fact, but a fact nonetheless, that known brands attract people. We know that even if one of the Amiga browsers became the best browser ever, the others would remain unconvinced.
The gaming world had already cottoned on, games such as Quake, Myst, Wipeout 2097, Settlers 2 were beginning to show that the Amiga was once again becoming a viable platform. Now all we needed was some apps. The promise of Opera was due to satisfy this demand, but inexplicably it was cancelled. And so, aMozilla was born.
Perhaps the most ambitious project ever seen on Amiga. We plan to port the worlds greatest web browser to the Amiga, and we fully intend on making it the best version on any platform. There will be two developments running concurrently, the 68k Port, and the PPC Port. We take our heart from K.O.S.H, we aim to nurture the community spirit into creating a thing of greatness. For while aMozilla is not K.O.S.H, the principles are similar. We will have in place a structure of Working Groups and Mailing Lists to create a complete development environment. We ask for Amiga users worldwide to step forward and take their seat on the project. As of 1st January, development will begin on Amiga Netscape.
Beta Testers Info:
We have established a standard for Amiga's to run Amozilla...
Beta testers should note the requirements and prepare accordingly (How long have you been meaning to upgrade? ) If you don't yet have the spec, use the very short time (hint) that you have (hint, hint) to prepare otherwise you will find yourself missing out on the biggest thing happening to the Amiga over the Millenium, - not a mis-matched series of patches and fixes, but an Industry Standard browser that the users of other platforms have heard of, know how to use and will show that the Amiga is not the spent force some would like it to be.
Project manager Ben Rothwell has reported that the Amozilla project has already enlisted six programmers and the aid of 1,250 beta testers. Several working groups have been established covering various facets of the work. If all goes well, a beta version is expected by May and a final release version in the summer.
[Source: http://www.thelads.demon.co.uk/index.html ]
In response to a query from Juan Carlos Marcos jcmarcos@datavoice.es about the fate of the Opera web browser port for the Amiga and the difficulty of the work, Tim Corringham tim@ramjam.u-net.com, head of the Amiga development team at Ramjam Consultants, responded:
We've dropped it completely, although I understand that Opera Software are keen to find a team to complete the port.ToCWell written Win32 code isn't too bad to work with, although untangling some of the Windows specific stuff is time consuming, and of course replacing the UI code is the biggest part of the work.
Porting anything from Windows to Amiga is possible, especially if the code is well written in the first place. But it can be a very time consuming job.
The reason we dropped the port was that I didn't judge the potential sales to be sufficient to repay the effort required to complete the port at anything like a reasonable rate per hour.
When we signed up to do the port just before WoA last May, I expected that OS3.5 would be announced at WoA, and that new Amiga models based around the PPC would be announced for release by now. That was the essence of the most "reliable" rumours going around at that time. I expected those to boost sales of Amiga software above the level at that time (which I projected to be more or less breakeven for Amiga Opera).
Of course, Amiga Inc didn't make the announcements I expected. And the Amiga market slumped. By September we were about half way through the work (a little behind where I'd hoped to be), but the Amiga market was getting worse (Ramjam retails a few items which just stopped selling, and talking to other retailers confirmed our fears - for the UK at least).
Even estimates made by other developers averaged around 1000 sales of an English version, plus some for internationalised versions. The most optimistic projection was 2000 copies - my own was 1000. The royalties we would get from that number of sales wouldn't cover the amount Ramjam was paying out for the programmers' time. Since Ramjam was paying all the costs associated with the port, I couldn't allow the project to continue without the prospect of recovering the money through sales.
Opera Software aren't happy that we've dropped it, but they've lost no money - we have :-( They have lost time, and some sales, but since the Amiga market is so small now I don't believe they've lost very many.
There are other factors which all helped the decision to drop development:
That's about the story...
- Dr. Havemose told me that he hopes to bundle Netscape with the new Amigas
- a version for the AmigaNG would require a rewrite of the UI code (which was the bulk of the work anyway)
- magazines closing, which means less publicity
- the possiblity of a demo on the OS3.5 CD disappeared
- the lack of information from Amiga Inc means that there was a risk of Amiga Inc changing direction (again) leaving us with a product that didn't fit.
ESCENA, the German company that has done hardware development for DCE and IBH, and which announced new G3 PowerPC boards for the Amiga on November 5, 1998, has released an information update on its Project "Brainstormer". As background, the board, which is still in prototype, is a G3-ZorroIII board (without a 68k CPU) which fits into the A3000/4000 and A1200 with Zorro extension. It can take processors (multiple) from 233 to 400 MHz with 512KB or 1MB Backside cache and up to 512MB SDRAM. It will use the WarpUP driver package and the 68k emulator from Haage&Partner. The prototypes will be produced by DCE. Target price for the board without memory and processor will be about 748 DM (~449 US$).
Out of time considerations, we had planned to implement a simplified memory interface that would enable us to test the board, as well as present it at the Computer '98 show. This simplified interface did not feature ZorroIII bus mastering. Since no prototype could be built in time for the show, we went ahead and implemented the full memory controller right away.[Editor's Note: For far more detail on the software and hardware aspects of Project "Brainstormer", the people and partners involved, see http://www.escena.de/main-e.htm ]Our initial plans had been to do the full implementation once we have a working prototype and the actual production begins. Implementing the memory interface now presented us with a few problems that had to be addressed first, but this also means that we will not have to face these problems later.
Another reason for doing the memory interface earlier is the fact that we now have access to a SUN UltraSPARC that offers much greater resources for Verilog simulations than the PC did that was used for that purpose up to now. However, the Christmas season and new year's celebrations mean that the first prototypes will not go into production until some time in January.
To sum things up: we are a little behind schedule (although not as far as one might think based on the fact that there are still no prototypes available). We ask for your understanding, especially since the memory interface is a technologically very sophisticated solution. However, our goal remains to be shipping the first production boards by the end of the first quarter.
ShapeShifter is a multitasking Macintosh-II emulator for the Amiga and DraCo computers. It allows to run Macintosh software concurrently to Amiga applications without hardware add-ons or modifications.
Some of the emulation's features:
OS2.1, 68020 processor, 4MB of RAM, HD floppy drive recommended. A copy of a Macintosh 512K or 1MB ROM and the Macintosh system software are not included, but required. The ROM can be read off of a real Mac by using a supplied program, the system software can be bought from Apple. Note, however, that reading the ROM is only legal if you have bought the ROMs or own a real Macintosh.
[Source: http://www.uni-mainz.de/~bauec002/SSMain.html and http://www.uni-mainz.de/~bauec002/SSReadme.html ]
Amiga of Minnesota Interest Groups Alliance (A.M.I.G.A.) is happy to announce that the CDTV upgrade project has reached the release stage of development. The preliminary tests have shown that with the new PROM chips installed the CDTV will operate correctly under OS 3.1 and the built in CD drive will function correctly. The upgrade requires that the ROM chip for OS 3.1 be installed, and the two internal PROMs that govern CDTV be changed.
The 3.1 ROM is the same chip that fits the 500 or 2000. The two PROMs for the CDTV are only available from A.M.I.G.A. by a license agreement with Amiga International.
There will be further testing, but so far it has been determined that the CDTV will boot from a 880 floppy drive containing the Workbench 3.1 disk, and operate exactly as a 500/2000 with 1 meg would, except that you will have a fully functional internal CD drive, and S-VHS output. At this moment the CDTV is the only CBM developed unit to have this high definition output.
It will also boot the Fred Fish Collection CD ROMs that were released by Hypermedia Concepts, to a 1.3.1 Workbench with the floppy drive active. BUT, it will reset as soon as the eject button on the CD is touched.
If you have email available, request information from thedoctor@wavetech.net and an order email form will be sent to you. Put "CDTV UPGRADE PROJECT" as the subject please.
If you must use SNAIL Mail, write to:
A.M.I.G.A.
c/o Ben Deemer
14501 Sunfish Lake Blvd
Ramsey, MN.
U.S.A. 55303-4578
An order form will be mailed out to you, and $0.35 will be added to your cost.
This is a "not for Profit" enterprise of a user group, and the license is restricted for this project. Therefore it is necessary to PREPAY for the upgrade PROMs, and by special arrangement, a discount on the 3.1 ROM if on the same order. Prices are as follows:
CDTV proms kit and instructions: $23.00 US
3.1 OS Rom if ordered with proms $30 US.
All shipping will be by US Postal Priority System 2/3 day. Rates as follows: US - $3, - Canada, Mexico, Western Europe, Middle East - $3.75, - Pacific Rim, South America - $4.95
No orders will be shipped to anybody until the ORDER FORM IS RETURNED with the required information and signature, and the PAYMENT IN US FUNDS IS RECEIVED (no personal or business checks).
This upgrade set of 2 - proms is not available from any other source, and will only be available while supplies of the now obsolete out of production parts is available. The 3.1 ROM is a special offer and only available to upgrade purchasers through A.M.I.G.A.
PiM Publications, publishers of Amazing Computing/Amiga, and Eldritch Enterprises, publishers of The Amiga Informer, are proud to announce that they have combined their efforts into one publication. This magazine will maintain the Amazing Computing/Amiga title and continue to be distributed through PiM Publications. Fletcher Haug, the Editor-in-chief of The Amiga Informer, will join the staff of Amazing and bring with him many of the resources from The Informer. "It is vital that the Amiga community retain a print publication in North America," said Haug. "By combining the efforts of The Informer and Amazing, I feel we will be able to give our readers and the community a stronger publication that combines the best qualities of both magazines. I am looking forward to working with PiM Publications on this project."
Since North America was served by Amazing Computing/Amiga and The Amiga Informer, both magazines were in competition for the same advertising dollars and subscribers. In recent months, it has become clear the North American Amiga would benefit from a single newsstand distributed publication. "These are critical times for the Amiga marketplace as Amiga Inc. prepares the Next Generation Amiga and OS 3.5 remains in development," stated Amazing's Managing Editor, Don Hicks. "We believe the best way to serve this industry is to combine our efforts and build a stronger communication network from the two publications. With this alliance, we can offer Amiga vendors an unparalleled opportunity to the Amiga marketplace in North America while giving our readers the best possible service."
The Amiga Informer magazine was launched in April, 1996 and grew to be a respected publication providing Amigans with insightful information and news compiled by freelance authors worldwide. Issue 17 of The Amiga Informer was recently released and it will be the last issue printed. As part of the arrangement between Amazing and The Informer, PiM Publications will fulfill any outstanding subscriptions from The Informer with issues of Amazing Computing/Amiga. Eldritch Enterprises closed as a business, effective December 31, 1998. Further information will soon become available at The Amiga Informer website (www.amigainformer.com) and the Amazing Computing website (www.pimpub.com).
Amazing Computing/Amiga was the world's first monthly Amiga magazine and remains the longest running Amiga publication. For over 13 years, AC has provided the Amiga community with balanced, thoughtful reporting on the Amiga market. The AC staff has also been instrumental in providing video tapes and transcripts of the major events in the Amiga community. With the combined efforts of Amazing's Amazing Authors and The Amiga Informer's quality staff, the Amiga community has an opportunity to build an even better future publication.
We hope that the combining of Amazing Computing/Amiga and The Amiga Informer will prove to make a stronger publication that can continue to serve the Amiga community and carry it to the next level of Amiga computing. With the combined efforts of both magazines' staff focused in the same direction, we believe that the community will be better served and will continue to get the information it needs to move forward to the future.
Sincerely,
Fletcher Haug, The Amiga Informer Magazine
Don Hicks, Amazing Computing/Amiga
[Source: Investor's Business Daily, Thursday, Jan. 14, 1999, A2. ]
Unconfirmed details of Apple Computer's forthcoming consumer portable have trickled out, though interim Apple chief executive Steve Jobs said the notebook would not debut at a trade show early next month.
As reported Wednesday by CNET News.com, the new portable is expected to weigh less than four pounds and offer a variety of wireless communications options, according to sources. It should be priced between $1,000 and $1,300.
The consumer system will come with a 300-MHz PowerPC chip and a USB (universal serial bus) port, the San Francisco Chronicle reported yesterday , also citing sources. The notebook will be translucent and called WebMate, the paper added.
Trade publications Computer Retail Weekly and MacWeek have also touched on details of Apple's newest notebook in recent weeks.
The Cupertino, California, company declined to comment on unannounced products, but Apple has previously talked about a "four-box strategy," comprising a lineup of business and consumer desktops and business and consumer portables. So-called G3 desktops and G3 PowerBook notebooks make up Apple's corporate offerings, while the hot-selling iMac takes care of the consumer desktop arena.
The new notebook will arrive in the first half of 1999, Apple has said, but it will not be introduced at the January 4-8 Macworld Expo in San Francisco, Jobs stated Wednesday at an education conference in Seattle.
Last weekend, Apple slashed prices on its PowerBook G3 notebooks, playing catch-up with mid-range and high-end notebooks made by leading Windows-Intel manufacturers, such as Toshiba, Dell, and Compaq. Four G3 models were discounted by as much as $600, reducing Apple's high-end system with a 14-inch display, 300-MHz processor, 64MB of memory, and DVD-ROM drive to $4,399.
The low-end 233-MHz system with 32MB of memory and a 2GB hard drive was cut by $300 to $2,499.
The price drops seem to presage Apple's next-generation of PowerBooks, code-named Lombard. These will feature new designs that will be even curvier than the current G3 notebooks and pack in processors as fast as 400 MHz, industry sources told News.com.
Apple demonstrated a prototype system with such a speedy chip earlier this year, and may show the systems in private sessions at the Macworld Expo.
Justifying his reputation for the unorthodox and the dramatic, interim chief executive Steve Jobs used the Macworld trade show to introduce five new models of Apple Computer's hot-selling iMac: strawberry, blueberry, tangerine, grape, and lime.
The maverick computer maker is emphasizing style, rather than hardware features. "People don't care about that stuff," he told the audience at a keynote speech. "What they care about is, 'I want to express myself.'"
iMac blossoms
The new iMacs come with a 266-MHz PowerPC processor, a 15-inch built-in monitor, 32MB of memory, and a 6GB hard drive for $1,199. The iMac debuted in April with a 233-MHz chip and a 4GB hard drive for $1,299. These older models are to be discounted to $1,049. [TidBits reports that the new iMacs do not have the older iMacs' built-in infrared port or the undocumented expansion slot.]
Apple is also releasing new versions of its G3 Power Mac desktop computers containing processors running at 300 MHz, 350 MHz and 400 MHz. The Power PC processors used in the new G3s will use copper wiring, rather than aluminum. IBM and Motorola will manufacture the chips. Retail price on the desktop models, depending on the configuration, will range from $1,599 to $2,999. G3 servers, meanwhile, will sell for $3,299 and $4,999. Like the first iMacs, the new G3s come in a translucent blue case. A large "G3" logo decorates one side of the new machines.
Also in his Macworld address, Jobs introduced Mac OS X Server. Billed as Apple's first modern server operating system, Mac OS X Server was until recently known as Rhapsody, and is built on the Mach microkernel, BSD Unix 4.4, the Yellow Box application layer derived from NeXTStep, plus the Blue Box, a separate application layer that can run existing Mac OS software.
The Apple cofounder further said the company's pending earnings report will likely show its first year-over-year quarterly revenue growth since 1996, and certainly show a fifth consecutive quarterly profit.
The run of good news has encourage software developers to write to the Macintosh platform, Jobs was at pains to point out. News of an upcoming version of the growingly popular Linux operating system for Mac (specifically, for the PowerPC chip architecture) underscored the point.
CUPERTINO, California - Jan. 13, 1999 - Apple Computer, Inc. today announced financial results for its fiscal 1999 first quarter which ended Dec. 26, 1998. For the quarter, the Company posted a net profit of $152 million, or $.95 per diluted share. These results compare to a net profit of $47 million, or $.33 per diluted share, achieved in the year-ago quarter. Revenues for the quarter were $1.7 billion, up eight percent from the year-ago quarter, and gross margins were 28.2 percent, up from 22.4 percent in the prior year. International sales accounted for 47 percent of the quarter's revenues.
The current quarter's results included a $29 million after-tax gain from the sale of 2.9 million shares of ARM Holdings plc. Without this non-recurring item, the Company's net income for the quarter would have been $123 million, or $.78 per diluted share.
Sales of 519,000 iMac computers in the quarter drove overall unit growth to 49 percent year-over-year. Ending inventory dropped to $25 million, which represents two days of inventory.
"Unit growth year-over-year was three to four times higher than the industry average," said Steve Jobs, AppleOs interim CEO. "In addition, Apple ended the quarter with only two days of inventory, besting industry-leading Dell's seven days of inventory."
"Growing earnings combined with world-class asset management resulted in positive cash flow from operations of $223 million," said Fred Anderson, Apple's CFO. "Apple now has nearly $2.6 billion in cash and short-term investments."
Linux is making inroads into the Macintosh community, as new Linux products are turning up at the Macworld Expo in San Francisco this week.
At the show, LinuxPPC is showing the latest release of its version of Linux that runs on the PowerPC chip--the chip that powers current Macintoshes--although the company won't be selling the new version 5 release for another two weeks.
But perhaps a better indicator of the prevalence of Linux is that the show's Internet backbone runs on Linux machines, LinuxPPC said today on its Web site.
"An on-site engineer described the show's infrastructure, which uses Linux for every aspect of running the show's Net connection: DNS, load handling, IP number distribution, and network security," LinuxPPC said.
Also at Macworld Expo, Applix is introducing its first PowerPC version of its Applixware suite of office applications for Linux. Previously, the suite has been available only for Linux systems running on Intel and Alpha systems.
Linux is a Unix-like operating system built from the ground up by hundreds of programmers across the Internet. Its source code--the original programming instructions for the operating system--are freely available to anyone. However, several companies make money by packaging Linux with tools and programs and by offering support for Linux users.
LinuxPPC Incorporated grew out of the nonprofit Linux/PPC project to bring Linux to PowerPC-based machines. LinuxPPC president Jeff Carr began selling Linux CDs in 1997, and the current version sells for $32.
Debian also is working on a port of Linux to the PowerPC system.
Other efforts, such as Apple's MkLinux project, have versions of Linux that use a different kernel--the basic core of the operating system--from the Linux kernel initially created by Linux founder Linus Torvalds.
LinuxPPC is working on incorporating the developer version of the latest Linux kernel--version 2.2--into its product, LinuxPPC said, but version 5 won't yet ship with that kernel.
Ordering information: The most convenient method of placing an order is to use our electronic order form located at http://www.schatztruhe.de/order.html. You can also send an E-Mail to stefano@schatztruhe.de including your address and the products you wish to order.
Linux 5.1
Linux is a free Unix-type operating system originally created by Linus Torvalds with the assistance of developers around the world. Linux is an independent POSIX implementation and includes true multitasking, virtual memory, shared libraries, demand loading, proper memory management, TCP/IP networking, and other features consistent with Unix-type systems. Developed under the GNU General Public License, the source code for Linux is freely available to everyone.
This CD-ROM contains the unofficial RedHat 5.1 Amiga-Version (binaries only!) ported by Jes Sorensen. The source code is available upon request. Technical support is provided free of charge via phone (English & German spoken).
To make sure that Linux is usable on your Amiga you might wish to consult the System Requirements prior to your purchase:
http://www.schatztruhe.de/files/linux_sysreq.html
Every customer of this product is entitled to obtain future versions of this CD-ROM at a discounted price.
Last week in TidBITS-451, we took our first look at Mac OS 8.5 with a discussion of system requirements, installation, and prominent features like Sherlock, Appearance and Themes, and new Finder capabilities. This week, we'll cover Internet and networking changes, the new HTML-based online help, Navigation Services, and more.
http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=05142
Internet and Networking
Networking changes in Mac OS 8.5 are among the most noticeable new items for Internet users - especially those connecting via a modem.
First, Open Transport/PPP has disappeared: you won't find a PPP control panel in Mac OS 8.5. Instead, Mac OS 8.5 uses the PPP capabilities in Apple Remote Access 3.1 - the Remote Access control panel now contains all the familiar dialup options. Thinking of PPP connections as a form of remote access isn't a large conceptual leap, but long-time Macintosh users may think Remote Access is used only to connect to AppleTalk networks via a modem; if those folks haven't needed Remote Access in the past, they may exclude it when performing a custom installation of Mac OS 8.5. The result is a Mac OS 8.5 installation with no PPP capability. So, if you connect to the Internet with a modem, make sure you install Remote Access with Mac OS 8.5.
After entering your dialup settings in the Remote Access control panel, you can connect to the Internet through the control panel itself, or via the Remote Access Status application that's installed in the Apple menu. Both interfaces provide a connection status display. If you used FreePPP instead of Open Transport/PPP, you'll be happy to know that it works fine with Mac OS 8.5.
http://www.rockstar.com/ppp.shtml
Also new in Mac OS 8.5 is the Internet control panel, which brings together many Internet-related settings, including mail servers, email addresses, and suffix mappings, along with default applications to handle email, Usenet news, and Web browsing. If the Internet control panel sounds like Internet Config, that's because, underneath, it is Internet Config. Apple quietly shipped Peter Lewis and Quinn's public domain Internet Config 1.3 with Mac OS 8.0 and relied on it to tie together Internet-related features. With Mac OS 8.5, Apple provides its own interface to Internet Config 2.0's settings via the Internet control panel, plus access to Internet Config features such as the capability to store - and switch between - multiple sets of preferences. (Switching preferences comes in handy for laptops that travel to different locations or for computers shared by multiple users.) Internet Config and the Internet control panel write to the same preferences, so you can adjust settings using either, though you should use Internet Config 2.0 or higher.
People who use multiple configurations on their machines will be happy to learn that the Location Manager (now installed by default) can automate switching groups of settings in one step, including settings for Internet, Remote Access, TCP/IP, and AppleTalk, as well as items like printers, named Extension Manager sets, time zones, and more. Sharp-eyed users will note that Internet Config's suffix mappings also appear (and can be modified from) the new File Exchange control panel, which replaces both PC Exchange and Macintosh Easy Open.
Mac OS 8.5 ships with Open Transport 2.0, a significant under-the- hood upgrade to the Mac OS's fundamental networking technology. Although users won't see differences in the TCP/IP or AppleTalk control panels, Open Transport includes improved Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) support and other enhancements for better interaction with Windows NT-based servers. Open Transport 2.0 also supports Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP). Despite the name, SNMP is a sophisticated network management tool; some networked sites may require users to install SNMP on their systems. SNMP software comes in the Mac OS 8.5 installation set (not as part of the Mac OS 8.5's Internet software set); however, typical home and business users don't need to install it. SNMP could even pose a security risk since it can report hardware and configuration information about your machine to a remote user with an SNMP administration tool. (Apple includes such a tool on the Mac OS 8.5 CD-ROM.) If you install SNMP and decide you don't want it; use the Mac OS 8.5 installer's custom remove feature to delete it.
http://til.info.apple.com/techinfo.nsf/artnum/n58128
The most publicized aspect of Open Transport 2.0 is improved network performance: Apple is keen on claiming that Mac OS 8.5 networking is faster than Windows NT networking, albeit between two machines running Mac OS 8.5 using a high-speed 100Base-T Ethernet link. Users desperate for improved modem performance won't see improvements from Open Transport 2.0 - the modem is the bottleneck - although I was pleasantly surprised to see Mac OS 8.5 deliver improved network performance in realistic network environments, such as a 10Base-T network populated with Macs running varying versions of the Mac OS. Using Mac OS 8.5, copying files in the Finder seems faster regardless of the version of the Mac OS used on the remote machine, shared FileMaker databases respond more quickly, and access to AppleTalk servers and devices (like printers) is smoother. Internet applications are somewhat snappier, and background network operations (like downloads) no longer cause unexpected pauses in foreground applications.
Unfortunately, the Chooser is still as awkward as ever. But Mac OS 8.5 now includes a new Network Browser application that displays the hierarchy of AppleTalk zones and servers, plus enables you connect to those servers and remote AppleShare servers via TCP/IP. The Network Browser strongly resembles the Windows Network Neighborhood and relies heavily on Navigation Services (below), which can also offer most of the same functionality in new Open and Save dialogs. Nonetheless, the Network Browser is a step in the right direction for those who routinely deal with large AppleTalk networks.
Favorites, Aliases, and Navigation Services
After installing Mac OS 8.5, you may notice a Favorites folder in the Apple Menu, and new Add To Favorites commands in the File menu and in various contextual menus. Logically enough, you can use the menu commands to create an alias to the selected item in the Favorites folder. As I noted last week, at first Favorites seem like an attempt to add bookmarking capabilities to the Finder; however, Favorites tie in with Navigation Services, Mac OS 8.5's replacement for the awful modal Open and Save dialog boxes.
Applications must be revised to take advantage of Navigation Services - in fact, even programs that ship with Mac OS 8.5 like SimpleText and MoviePlayer don't support Navigation Services yet, although some third-party applications already support them, like Anarchie Pro. But you can get a glimpse by using another new Finder feature: fixing broken aliases.
Unless you already have a broken alias that can't find its original item, you'll need to make one. First, duplicate a small file (like a ReadMe or a text clipping), then make an alias to the duplicate. Put the duplicate in the Trash and delete it by emptying the Trash. Now, select the alias you just made and choose Show Original from the Finder's File menu. In Mac OS 8.5, instead of seeing a dialog that simply tells you the alias's original item can't be found, the dialog also offers to delete the alias or fix it. If you choose to fix it, you'll be presented with a new dialog which allows you to locate the original item, or choose a new one.
This dialog box is part of Mac OS 8.5's Navigation Services. Notice that you can expand and collapse folders in the list, the dialog is resizable, and you can switch to other applications while the dialog is open (although you can't do other things in the Finder). At the upper right, you see menus for recent items, disks, and network volumes - you can also browse your AppleTalk network from here, and (aha!) choose items from a menu displaying any Favorites you've made. Navigation Services dialogs can also show previews (good for movies, pictures, and text) and accept items dropped into them from the Finder or Sherlock, Mac OS 8.5's new Find feature.
Although Navigation Services isn't in widespread use now, I look forward to its adoption by applications. Over the last ten years, I've used almost every utility that expands the functionality of standard Open and Save dialog boxes. Though they're useful - and many offer features not provided by Navigation Services - incompatibilities and constant updating have been a perpetual frustration. The standardized, enhanced functionality offered by Navigation Services should be a tremendous benefit to Mac users in the long term.
AppleScript Goes Native
Folks who automate tasks on their Macs or need to create custom functionality within or between applications have been wishing for a PowerPC-native version of AppleScript for years. Despite wide use in the publishing industry and amongst Macintosh administrators and power users, AppleScript has always been denigrated for poor performance, even on high-end systems.
With AppleScript 1.3, Apple has finally removed critical performance bottlenecks and produced a PowerPC-native version of this built-in scripting environment, and, frankly, the difference is like night and day. Apple claims that some AppleScript operations run as much as five times faster under AppleScript 1.3 as under previous versions. Although my results aren't that dramatic, AppleScript scripts I use on a daily basis typically execute two to three times faster under Mac OS 8.5 than they did under Mac OS 8.1. Apple also added new, much-demanded functionality to AppleScript: alert dialogs can now time out after a period of inactivity, plus scripts can access the clipboard, summarize text, enable users to select items from lists, and understand many new units and data types (including Unicode text). Additionally, Apple extensively reorganized the scripting dictionaries for the Finder and other system components for clarity (although this means some scripts must be updated to work with Mac OS 8.5). Mac OS 8.5 also boasts several new scriptable items, including the Appearance, Location Manager, File Exchange, Internet, and Apple Menu Options control panels. Heck, you can even use AppleScript to embed a ColorSync profile in an image.
As much as this enhanced AppleScript functionality is welcome, Folder Actions are perhaps the most subtle new AppleScript capability. Folder Actions enable users to attach AppleScript scripts to a particular folder and have those scripts respond to events affecting that folder, including opening or closing the folder window, and adding or removing items. The possibilities of this functionality are wide-ranging: I've set up Folder Actions that delete chaff from my email attachments folder and automatically generate Web server log reports. Another scripter uses text clippings dropped into a particular folder as a customized reminder and scheduling system, and Gordon Meyer noted on TidBITS Talk that he set up a Folder Action on his father's iMac so specially configured folders are always available as pop-up windows across the bottom of the screen. Folder Actions raise a few security concerns - after all, scripts have complete access to the system - so Folder Actions can run only from local hard disks (not from server volumes or removable disks), and there's no way to send a Folder Action via email. Nonetheless, be sure you only use Folder Action scripts that you make or that come from a reliable source.
Mac OS 8.5 allows Folder Actions to be set only via contextual menus (Control-click a folder); if this is a problem, check out Bill Cheeseman's shareware Folder Action Setup; it has a seriously overburdened interface, but you'll find it useful if you spend a lot of time setting up Folder Actions.
http://oasis.bellevue.k12.wa.us/cheeseb/downloads/FolderActionSetup.html
Online Help
Mac OS 8.5 also features a new HTML-based online help facility. Unlike Sherlock - a lightweight, specialized Web client with limited display capabilities - the Help Viewer application is a reasonably full-featured HTML engine with no Web capabilities.
Macintosh developers have clamored for HTML-based online help for several years now: although Apple Guide works well for walking users through a series of steps, it's lousy for detailed explanations and references. Also, creating material for Apple Guide requires specialized tools and knowledge that can't be applied anywhere else, like to a Web site or a Windows version of a product. Most technical writers and software publishers live and breathe HTML these days, and, since authors can use standard third-party tools to create HTML, it's easy to repurpose HTML- based documentation. (GoLive CyberStudio seems to have been the favorite tool of Apple's help authors.)
Apple took this opportunity and ran with it, not only creating extensive online help for the Mac OS (complete with surprisingly useful tips and information for advanced users), but also adding capabilities to Help Viewer that enable it to interact with your system via AppleScript. So, the HTML-based help can offer to open the Chooser, connect to a Web page, launch an application, or modify your Application Switcher settings. It's also possible to embed links to scripts in Web pages on remote servers, so a technical support page could, via an AppleScript installed with its own product, offer to open the product and adjust settings for the user. This capability to run scripts is controlled by your Internet control panel - look in the advanced settings under Helper Apps, and you'll see Help Viewer is set to handle the "help:" URL scheme. (Don't bother changing it: the Help Viewer will change the setting back.) This feature opens up the possibility of someone installing a mischievous or malevolent script on your Mac, then triggering it from a Web page, but, frankly, the risk is the same as someone shipping a malevolent script with a software product.
(Incidentally, to see good examples of using AppleScript under Mac OS 8.5, look through some of the cryptically named scripts inside the Help folder.)
As good as the Help Viewer is, however, its organization makes hopping around between subjects awkward, particularly since it lacks key commands to move forward and backward, so almost all navigation is by clicking. Savvy Mac users can avoid these navigational hurdles by utilizing the Help Viewer's search capability, which returns results ranked by relevance. In my experience, a reasonable search query works better than browsing if you know what you want to find.
Not Forgotten
Mac OS 8.5 included several dozen new features, and we've covered only a handful of them in these articles. Here, then, are a few other important items in Mac OS 8.5 that shouldn't be forgotten:
More Info
If you'd like to read about other's experiences with Mac OS 8.5 - including tips, discussions, and notes about software conflicts - check out the Mac OS 8.5 threads on TidBITS Talk over the next week or so. We've been steadily answering questions from readers there, as well as passing along Mac OS 8.5 tips and news.
http://www.tidbits.com/search/talk.html
[Source: TidBITS #452 / 26-Oct-98. TidBITS address is http://www.tidbits.com/tb-issues/default.html.]
Amiga Game of 1998 - Quake
Under the stipulation that the game must already be out, six different games were voted for. Foundation took an early lead, in the face of opposition from ADoom, Genetic Species, Shadow of the Third Moon and Myst. However, Quake made a late charge to come from nowhere and claim the award.
Amiga Application of 1998 (Non-commercial) - YAM v2
Fighting with Voyager, ScalOS and FBlit, amongst others, Marcel Beck's brilliant e-mail package won through, but only just. The question is, would it have won more votes if the program was complete? A great victory for Marcel, who was happy to win the award.
Amiga Application of 1998 (Commercial) - NetConnect 2
The complete Internet connection package, seemingly the foundation on which a surprising number of internet users have connected with, scooped the commercial award, fighting off ImageFX, Tornado 3D and both big word processors from Digita and Softwood, amongst others.
Amiga Developer(s) of 1998 - Vaporware + Haage & Partner
For their excellent range of Internet applications, Oliver Wagner and the team saw off competition from people and teams such as Holger Kruse, Alien Design and Shareware App winner Marcel Beck. They couldn't fight off Haage & Partner, who equalled them, making the developer award a split.
Amiga Hardware of 1998 - PowerPC cards
This could so easily have been won by the BlizzardVisionPPC, but of course this wasn't available at voting time. As it stands, Phase5 still romped home leaving the Power Tower, Ariadne II and Pixel64 eating their dust. The PowerPC card range scored the biggest win, with five times more votes than anything else in the category.
Amiga Show of 1998 - World of Amiga
Best known this year as the place where AI made either the "big announcement" or the "big mistake" depending on which way you view it. It fought off competition from two other shows, Computer98 in Cologne, and Amiwest, from our friends in the US of A.
Amiga Personality of 1998 - Fleecy Moss
Former Amiga Inc. employee Fleecy stuck two fingers up at his former employers when the community proved his popularity by walking away with twice as many votes as people like Petro Tyschtschenko, Andrew Korn and Carl Sassenrath. Now leading the K.O.S.H. project, and a columnist on our site, it was the best start to the new year.
Amiga Wooden Spoon (Biggest mistake) of 1998 - Amiga Inc
Joe Torre - gone. Fleecy Moss - gone. The hopes of 90% of the Amiga community - gone with them. EMAP Images (former publishers of the much-missed CU Amiga) fought them all the way, but in the end AI won through for the way they have destroyed the dreams of a large proportion of the community. Digital Corruption also got a vote, probably for much the same thing.
Amiga Website of 1998 - Amiga Web Directory
Other sites voted for included Amiga Universe (wahay!), AmiBench and Amiga.org. In the end, a confused Kevin "where was this vote?" Hisel accepted the award on the behalf of the Web Directory.
Amiga Achievement of 1998 - Chris Wiles + the Amiga community
Chris became the only person to win two awards, coupling this with his win in the commercial app. category. His hard work and dedication in finally getting Netconnect 2 out on the streets. He shares this award with the whole community, who people voted for based on our own dedication to the Amiga. Chris and ourselves had to fight off such nominees as Gary Peake and personality winner Fleecy Moss. This ones for the community. Stick it on your site, we've all won this award purely for being here.
Amiga Lifetime Achievement Award of 1998 - Petro Tyschtschenko
This wasn't an open voted award, there was only ever going to be one winner. An emotional Petro was overjoyed to find the award in his e-mail, calling it "one of the best presents ever". The staying power he has shown when he could have gone to greener pastures is just one of the many ways he has proven his dedication to this Amiga community. We shouldn't slate him for selling watches, we should thank him for staying around and helping keep the flag flying. Without Petro's dedication, enthusiasm and hard work, the flag would have been down long ago.
AU Editor's View: Congratulations to everybody who won the award. They have been saluted by a community well served over the past year. Or in the case of wooden spoon winners Amiga Inc., a community well miffed. Sort it out AI, or else you'll have a full set of kitchen utensils in a few years time.
The December 17, 1998 General meeting began with the traditional introduction of officers. President Lewis then addressed the election of officers for next year. The published slate of candidates was placed before the membership present, with on change. Mark Landman had decided to retire and Richard Hall offered to fill that position. Rich was officially nominated by President Jim Lewis and seconded by Kevin Hopkins. Kevin Hisel then delineated the procedure for accepting the revised slate by acclamation and the membership then did so accept. Therefore, the officers for 1999 are:
President: Jim Lewis
Vice President: Emil Cobb
Treasurer: Richard Hall
Secretary: Kevin Hopkins
Corporation Agent: Jim Lewis
Outgoing Treasurer Mark Landman then gave the Annual Financial Report. Mark said that basically we have cut our expenses with the emailing of the newsletter and closing the BBS, and our membership is up significantly, producing a solid financial situation. Mark noted that the name of our bank has changed again, due to another merger. He went on to discuss specific financial matters. Kevin Hisel, Kevin Hopkins and Jim Lewis offered particulars that they were immediately familiar with. Looming in the future is a sizable increase in our meeting room rent. President Lewis once again appealed to members for assistance in finding a more reasonably priced meeting site. Jim closed the financial portion of the evening by saying to Mark that his report had been "very enlightening" and "very good news." Then, puffing his own feathers, Jim modestly noted that "There's good management here." Everyone laughed.
The floor was then opened up for a Question and Answer Session.
Kevin Hopkins asked if any one had a memory board larger than 2MB for an A2000 that they would be willing to let go cheap. He's looking up upgrade his backup A2000, although this is not pressing. Jim Lewis said he might have one.
Sue Kraybill asked for impressions and recommendations of IS Providers. Jim Lewis said to stay away from national providers unless you're a travelling salesman. The consensus was pro Advancenet, host of the Amiga Web Directory. One nice thing about Advancenet is the ability to look at your email via the web. Their fee is $12 per month for CUCUG members. And for Mac people, you get Richard Rollins as your safety net, since he does all the Mac installs for Advancenet. Another recommendation was to use Prairienet's PPP dialup as a backup for whichever principle provider you choose. Prairienet's $36 per year fee is negligible for having an alternative should trouble hit your primary provider. The discussion concluded with the observation that you will be enduring growing pains at Advancenet and shrinking pains with PDNT.
Jerry Feltner brought in a conversation piece - an tube part from an old IBM computer.
Richard Rollins informed everyone he had just been working on Lucy Seaman's Mac at the front of the room and had found that her mysterious problems were the result of a worm virus. He noted that we had experienced one on the club's Mac at last month's club meeting. Jim Huls proffered the information that he had encountered the worm viruses at Parkland College where he works and that they appear to be propagating despite the Autostart features being turned off. Richard Rollins mentioned several anti-virus programs that can be used to rid yourself of this problem: Bug Scan, Worm Food, and Worm Gobbler (which had originally be called Early Bird, but whose name had to be changed for legal reasons). Jim Lewis said that all the talk of viruses had inspired him to scan his Windows machine at work, which had not been done in far to long, only to find that it did have one of the Microsoft Word macro viruses on it. Jim urged everyone to update their virus software's definition files to be current, up-to-date, and safe. Richard Rollins suggested that Mac people check out www.macvirus.com.
Sue Kraybill mentioned a problem a friend was having with a disk drive that would not consistently display all of the icons of files present on the disk. Kevin Hopkins suggested that it might be a drive alignment problem - the heads out of alignment or the disk clamping mechanism not seating on the disk properly. Back during his Mac emulator days on his Amiga 3000, Kevin had a Mac floppy drive that acted that way.
The rest of the meeting was an informal social gathering.
The December meeting of the CUCUG executive board took place on Tuesday, December 22, 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, Richard Hall, Emil Cobb, Richard Rollins, Mark Landman, Kevin Hopkins, and Kevin Hisel.
Jim Lewis: The meeting began with an informal discussion of AWD issues, touching on the requirements of getting your link placed on the Directory and some of the more light-hearted elements of the AWD like the disclaimer page.
Jim then moved on to the officer election, which he said "went as we thought it would."
Jim noted that the cookies were excellent.
There was a discussion of the logistics of the Treasurer's office transfer from Mark Landman to Richard Hall.
Jim requested that the check for next year's room rent be sent to insure we had a meeting place, despite our desire to go somewhere else. Mark said he would see that this was done.
Richard Hall: Rich said he had nothing as of yet. He was principally observing the proceedings so far.
Emil Cobb: Emil reported that we had 23 members at the last meeting. There was a discussion of local attendance.
Richard Rollins: Richard started by saying he was bummed that Emil had bought the Laserwriter at the last meeting, before he himself had a chance to get to it. Richard had been helping Lucy Seaman get her machine straightened out and he had missed the deal. Richard was really trying to lay the guilt on Emil, but Emil just giggled at him.
Richard noted that he had encountered a lot of trouble with worm viruses lately in his consulting business. He said next month's Mac SIG meeting will be devoted to talking about worm viruses. He said there is a possibility of Quentin Barnes doing his Paper Port presentation or that OS8.5 might be installed on the club machine, but viruses would definitely be on the agenda. Richard said he would be handing out free copies of virus checkers to those that attend the next meeting.
Richard discussed the iMac. He's had the opportunity to play with one recently. While discussing hardware, Richard recommended an online site that he has had a lot of luck with for hardware purchases: http://www.outpost.com. Richard suggested that anyone thinking of using outpost.com should contact Amber Lautier at 1-877-688-7678 extension 239 (Int: +1-860-927-2050). Tell her Richard Rollins sent you.
Richard reported that the Mac is going to Firewire on the midrange machines, USB on the consumer line, and SCSI 2 on the high end machines.
Richard also reported that Motorola and IBM are getting back together on PowerPC development after the AltiVec schism.
There was a discussion of the available machinery and how they compare - iMac, Amiga, and low cost PCs, both new and used.
Richard restated his decision to discontinue our installation deal with Advancenet as of December 31. There was a discussion of the hardware upgrades taking place at Advancenet.
Richard closed by saying "We really need to get people to do presentations at the meeting."
Mark Landman: Mark began with a review of the club's accounts. Following that, there was a discussion of the logistics of "the passing of the official briefcase" to incoming Treasurer, Richard Hall. President Lewis publicly thanked Mark for his years of service as our Treasurer, particularly sticking it out when there was no one else to do the job. Mark thanked Rich Hall, in turn, for assuming the Treasurer's duties. He also expressed his regret that he wasn't able to devote as much time to those duties as he felt they deserved. Mark, then, spoke of his personal situation which was necessitating the change in his free time activities. Everyone expressed their hope that matters would work out for our trusty Treasurer and friend.
Mark assured everyone he was still going to be around and as active as time permitted. He said he'd be glad to do something with Corel Draw for the Mac SIG, now that the club's machine had more memory added. Thanks to Richard Rollins for that upgrade service. Richard then related the particulars of the memory installation, during which we discovered that the Macintosh system notepad "Stickies" conflicts in a major way with the shareware program CopyPaste 4.2.1, to the point of corrupting the machine. Richard had to perform a System file / Finder transplant, as he had shown the Mac SIG in July (August newsletter) to get the club's Mac back into a health state.
Kevin Hopkins: Kevin delivered a copy of the database to Kevin Hisel, for his and the President's use. There was a discussion of the requirements for the rebate on the copies of Filemaker recently purchased.
Kevin reported on the continuation of new and renewing memberships. CUCUG currently stands at 753 members. He stated that everyone up the present date had been mailed their membership cards.
Kevin Hisel: Kevin reported on the deal he had concluded with Cloanto. He also spoke about the appearance of the Amazon.com banner on our website. He said the club gets a small percentage of the purchase price of any books purchased via a click-through from our site to Amazon.com. Kevin said, "So, if you are going to buy any books, click through our site and you'll help out the club a little."
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: Richard Hall 344-8687 rjhall1@uiuc.edu 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