News Mac Amiga CUCUG
The December 16 meeting will be our "Annual" meeting. Election of CUCUG officers will be conducted. Richard Rollins and the Mac SIG have a networked gaming event scheduled. The rest of the meeting will be good food, good conversation and good companionship. Come ring out the old with a bunch of friends.
We'd also like to thanks renewing members Quentin L. Barnes, Richard Hall, Mark Kevin Hopkins, Harold Ravlin, Robert A. Miller, John Melby, and John Baird.
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 one of the best.
The web version of the newsletter will also continue. The form which email and web versions will take in the future will more than likely be evolving. To date, the email version has been kept in simple text form in order to create the least headaches for cross-platform reading. The web version has been kept to one large file so that only a single downloading and saving would provide the reader with the whole issue. If you have any suggestions on how you would like to see the newsletter develop, you can email me at kh2@uiuc.edu.
The official obituary reported that "John Lynn, 45, of Mahomet died at
10:28 p.m. Saturday (Nov. 20, 1999) at Carle Foundation Hospital, Urbana.
Mr. Lynn was born Jan. 22, 1954, in Altoona, Pa., a son of Paul Austin and
Margaret Flannagan Lynn. He married Darlene Sue Butts on July 23, 1973, in
Champaign. She survives.Also surviving are a son, Benjamin John Lynn of Havelock, N.C.; two daughters, Kimberly Lynn Harden of Fort Wayne, Ind., and Alexis Ann Lynn of Mahomet. ...
"Mr. Lynn owned J-L's Video Productions in Mahomet. He was a member of the Mahomet Christian Church and the Champaign-Urbana Computer Users Group. "His interests included motorcycle riding. He was the first member of his family to graduate from high school."
So much for the standard obituary. Those of us who knew him are just stunned by his loss. It just doesn't make sense that someone that full of "piss and vinegar" would just vanish from our midst. The earthiness and devilish humor are the hallmarks of John Lynn. We are going to miss that spark immeasurably.
John was an Amigan through and through. He had a Toaster/Flyer system on which he conducted his wedding - industrials - events video business. He became our full-time Amiga SIG Chairman in April of 1997 and served in that capacity until the end of 1998. John was also our representative at several Amiga shows, most notably the Midwest Amiga Exposition in October of 1998, at which CUCUG raffled off a A4000/Toaster system.
It is at times like these that the tremendous value of each individual makes itself felt. Likewise, one is impressed with the vast treasury of experience and memories each of us carries within ourselves that slips away when we are no more. John Lynn was a good man and valued by CUCUG. He will be missed.
CUPERTINO, California - Nov. 22, 1999 - Apple's blueberry iBook is the number one selling portable computer in the U.S. retail market in October, according to the most recent monthly hardware report by PC Data. The complete report is available at www.pcdata.com.. Based on this report, the combined sales of Apple's iBook and PowerBook portable computer lines give Apple an 11 percent share of the U.S. retail portable market in October.
AKUA Interactive Media has released an extension called Nine 11 that prevents Mac OS 9 from stopping certain incompatible programs with error number 119. To quote MWJ publisher and TidBITS contributor Matt Deatherage, this is "an indescribably irresponsible idea roughly on par with disconnecting the buzzers in your smoke detectors." As we explained in "Mac OS 9 Installation & Compatibility" in TidBITS-503_, to increase the maximum number of open file forks in Mac OS 9, Apple had to change the file control block (FCB) table that the Mac OS uses to track open files. Even with all their resources, there was no way Apple could maintain compatibility with old code that ignored Apple's recommendations and accessed the FCBs directly. So Mac OS 9 prevents programs from doing that, because code that goes directly to the FCBs would likely crash the system or corrupt data on your hard disk. Why is this? Applications accessing the FCBs probably want to read data about which files are open, but because of the changes in Mac OS 9, those applications will read the _wrong_data_. If that application then uses that incorrect information as input for other disk- related functions, disk corruption is likely. In short, if you see this utility online, do not download it and warn anyone using it that they do so at significant risk. [ACE]
http://www.gcsf.com/
http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=05624
Aladdin Systems last week released a free upgrade to StuffIt Deluxe 5.1.5, making the company's long-standing compression and archiving package compatible with Mac OS 9. StuffIt Deluxe 5.1.5 requires System 7.5.3 or greater and 15 MB of disk space, and is a 4.3 MB download. In essence, StuffIt Deluxe 5.1.5 allows users of Mac OS 9 to regain full use of StuffIt Deluxe for free.
http://www.aladdinsys.com/deluxe/515update.html
Simultaneously, Aladdin shipped StuffIt Deluxe 5.5, which offers Mac OS 9 compatibility and numerous additional features for a $20 upgrade fee (upgrades to the $80 package are free for those who purchased StuffIt Deluxe after 01-Oct-99 or $30 for users of other Aladdin products - all prices are exclusive of tax and shipping and handling). New features include faster performance, self- extracting archives for Windows users, Zip compression support, DiskDoubler expansion support, support for Zip and uuencode in Archive Via Rename, an Archive CM contextual menu plug-in that provides contextual menu access to the contents of StuffIt archives, a DropConverter utility for converting old archives to the StuffIt 5 format, and additional functions in Magic Menu. StuffIt Deluxe 5.5 also requires System 7.5.3 or greater.
http://www.aladdinsys.com/deluxe/
Aladdin also released updates to its popular freeware expansion utility StuffIt Expander and $30 shareware compression utility DropStuff. StuffIt Expander 5.5 adds various refinements, including faster file expansion, leaner memory usage, support for Internet Config helper applications for uncommon file formats, and elimination of the need for additional extensions. DropStuff 5.5, which is a free upgrade for users of DropStuff 4.5 or later, offers faster compression (Aladdin claims 20 percent faster) and enhances StuffIt Expander so it can expand Bzip and DiskDoubler files.
http://www.aladdinsys.com/expander/expander_mac_login.html
http://www.aladdinsys.com/dropstuff/macindex.html
Aladdin previously shipped StuffIt Expander 5.1.4 and DropStuff 5.1.2 on the Mac OS 9 CD-ROM to provide immediate compatibility with Mac OS 9 (see "Mac OS 9 Installation & Compatibility" in TidBITS-503_ and Aladdin's Mac OS 9 Compatibility FAQ). StuffIt Expander 5.5 and DropStuff 5.5 also offer the Mac OS 9 compatibility of the limited-distribution versions shipped on the Mac OS 9 CD-ROM, along with the features mentioned previously. Both utilities require at least a 68030 CPU; StuffIt Expander needs System 7.1.1 or later and DropStuff requires System 7.5.3 or later. StuffIt Expander is a 1 MB download; DropStuff's download weighs in at 1.9 MB.
http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=05624
http://www.aladdinsys.com/faqs/macos9.html
Apple Computer has revised its Power Macintosh G4 offerings, expanding the more- advanced AGP architecture across the product line and adding a digital video interface. (See "Back to Class with the Power Mac G4" in TidBITS-496_ for an overview of the initial G4 offerings; see "Speed Dips for Power Mac G4s" in TidBITS-502_ for details of Apple's subsequent downshift in G4 processor speeds.) Apple's new G4s offer the same processor speeds (350, 400, and 450 MHz) and the same base prices (ranging $1,600 to $3,500) as their predecessors; however, the new machines all feature DVD-ROM drives by default, offer options for Airport wireless networking, and sport a new AGP-based ATI Rage 128 Pro video which provides improved graphics performance over earlier cards and adds a digital video interface to support the high-end LCD Apple Cinema Display and the just-announced Flat Panel Studio Display. The Flat Panel Studio Display is a digital 15-inch LCD screen with a maximum resolution of 1,024 by 768 pixels; Apple says it will be available before the end of the year for $1,300, while the 22-inch $4,000 Apple Cinema Display won't be available until January. Apple also announced it plans to make the AGP-based Rage 128 Pro video card with digital video output available in early 2000 to current owners of AGP Graphics G4 systems for $99; current owners of AGP Graphics G4s could then use Apple's digital LCD displays with their existing systems. [GD]
http://www.apple.com/powermac/
http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=05546
http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=05615
http://www.apple.com/displays/asd15/
Microsoft has released a 2.7 MB update to Microsoft Office 98 for Mac OS 9. The update is designed to address two specific issues with Office 98 under Mac OS 9: the Format Chart dialog in Excel and Graph should display correctly, and PowerPoint should be able to print to a USB Epson 740 printer. The updater works only with the English language edition of Office 98; Microsoft plans to make updaters for other languages available via its Mac Office Web pages. Also, note this update does not include previous updates to Office 98, which address issues with Mac OS 8.5 and the Memo and Resume Wizards, plus security concerns with unique identifier codes and OLE potentially embedding unrelated data from your computer in Office documents. [GD]
http://www.microsoft.com/macoffice/downloads/OS9.htm
http://www.microsoft.com/macoffice/users/freedl.htm
http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=04973
A bug that complicates starting computers based around "Coppermine" Pentium III processors has been identified, but Intel said it will soon eliminate the problem.
The flaw, or erratum, becomes apparent in the "boot-up" sequence and essentially forces computer owners to hit the "on" button twice, according to Michael Sullivan, an Intel spokesman. If a computer contains a chip with the flaw, it does not start until the second try.
"It is like starting something twice," he said.
The bug only affects 1 to 2 percent of "Coppermine" Pentium III processors and has only been observed in labs, Sullivan said.
Still, Dell Computer has put an "engineering hold" on the manufacture of new Optiplex GX110 computers, which are based around Coppermine, until testing procedures can be devised to weed out any chips containing the bug, a Dell spokesman said. The testing procedures could be completed later today or tomorrow, the spokesman added.
Intel said the flaw will be fixed in the next "stepping," or manufacturing tweak, of the processor. The company also is testing to screen out chips containing the flaw.
The latest glitch contributes to Coppermine's short but eventful product life. Although the chip has been touted for its performance and capabilities, it has endured a number of setbacks.
Coppermine was the code name for the most recent generation of Pentium IIIs. Released on Oct. 25, they differ from earlier Pentium IIIs in that, among other reasons, they are made on the more advanced 0.18-micron manufacturing process.
Chips made on this process have smaller transistors than older Pentium IIIs manufactured on the 0.25-micron manufacturing process, making the new chips both faster and more efficient. Because of earlier delays, however, Coppermine chips have been in relatively tight supply, although shipments are increasing, various sources have said.
Originally due in September, the Coppermine Pentium IIIs promised a number of benefits. It would become the first Intel chip to be used with the advanced Rambus memory technology and would come with a revamped "secondary cache," a small amount of memory near the processor, to substantially boost performance. The chip also promised to close the gap in performance between notebooks and desktops.
During the summer, however, Intel postponed its release until November because of low manufacturing yields of the fastest Coppermine chips. The Santa Clara, California, chipmaking giant eventually moved up the release of the chip to October.
But the shift forward created an inventory hiccup and lead to a shortage at Coppermine's launch. Unusually, PC makers announced products based around Coppermine upon its release but started shipping new systems later. Normally the pipeline is well stocked with new PCs.
Meanwhile, AMD released its rival Athlon processor. Despite initial shortages, AMD has been able to increase manufacturing volume and boosted the chip's speed to 750 MHz.
Ted Waitt, the founder of direct PC seller Gateway, will step aside as chief executive of the company effective January 1 and hand over the reins to president Jeff Weitzen, the company said today.
Weitzen, who joined the company almost two years ago, has been seen as a key player in Gateway's growth trajectory. As previously reported, Waitt will continue on with the company as chairman of the board. Waitt did not say why he has decided to step down as CEO, but indicated that a transition has been underway for some time. Gateway said Waitt will continue to play an active role in helping set the company's strategic direction.
Waitt, 36, was listed by Fortune Magazine in October as the third richest American under the age of 40, with a net worth estimated at around $5.4 billion.
"Jeff's appointment to CEO is both a formalization of the roles we've essentially been playing for the last year and a recognition of the outstanding job he's done preparing Gateway for the next century," Waitt said in a statement. "We're extremely fortunate to have someone with Jeff's strategic vision and years of experience running a worldwide business."
Weitzen joined Gateway as president in January 1998. Prior to that, he spent 18 years at AT&T, with his most recent title there being executive vice president of the Business Markets Division, a $24 billion unit of the telecom giant.
Analysts agree that Weitzen is capable of managing the company.
"What Ted has done that has been instrumental in the last year is assemble a top-notch management team," Ashok Kumar, an analyst with US Bancorp Piper Jaffray, said last week when rumors swirled about the succession.
"If Ted totally distanced himself from the company, the Street would be uneasy," Kumar said. "But instead we'll have the best of both worlds."
Whether or not he is to be credited for helping turn the company around, Weitzen certainly came to Gateway at the right time.
Last January, Gateway had just recovered from financial losses in the third quarter of 1997. The stock traded in the $19 range, including a subsequent split. The company was continuing to gain market share but margins were declining. Now, the stock trades in the mid-60's. In the third quarter, Gateway grew faster than all other PC companies except Dell.
Part of the surge in growth came from an effort to broaden the customer base as well as the types of products it sold. The company, for instance, opened its Country Store outlets, which effectively gave the direct marketer a retail presence.
In addition, Gateway launched its YourWare program, which allowed it to sell additional hardware, software and ISP services to customers by emphasizing low monthly payments. YourWare has been instrumental in Gateway's continued growth, according to analysts.
And more recently, the company sewed up a massive deal with AOL under which they will invest $800 million in Gateway. The deal also provides for a cobranded online store, cooperative development on Internet appliances and comarketing deals that will lead to bundles of Gateway PCs and AOL Internet service. Weitzen served as the Gateway representative on the deal.
Last year, Weitzen took home $3.5 million in compensation, more than the compensation Waitt received. In 1998, Gateway also gave him 1 million options priced at $34. Gateway's stock split in September.
Each year, when I write this article for TidBITS, I say: "This is the year to buy your first digital camera." (See the "Digital Cameras" series of articles beginning in TidBITS-407_.) But this year really is the year, because for between $750 and $1,000 not only can you get a quality camera, but also a great printer, a charger and batteries, a card reader, and even an additional higher capacity memory card.
http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbser=1022
A few features and specifications have changed or improved since I wrote about them last, so let's first run down a checklist to give you some guidelines. In next week's issue, I'll wrap up with my personal camera picks.
1. The digital camera you buy should have at least 1,280 by 960 true optical resolution (that's roughly 1.3 million pixels, commonly referred to as 1.3 megapixels). You'll then be able to get excellent prints up to about 8 by 10 inches. If this is your first digital camera, it's not necessary to go into the 2 megapixel range although there is one inexpensive 2.1 megapixel digital camera worth considering.
2. There's an old saying: "Familiar things are best." Look for a digital camera that operates most like the film camera you've used. This means fast start-up and fast shot-to-shot time. Many digital cameras are still slugs when it comes to these two features.
3. If possible, check out the camera's menus. I recently reviewed a digital camera for MacAddict that had menu items festooned around the LCD monitor in such a disorganized manner that a 747 cockpit instrument layout looked like it'd be easier to learn. Menus should be intuitive and easy to navigate.
4. Cross off any camera with only an LCD monitor for pre-viewing. They are notorious for washing out in sunlight and you usually have to hold the camera in an uncomfortable position to use them. A well-designed digital camera has an optical viewfinder in addition to the LCD monitor for easy, eye-level viewing.
5. Digital cameras that use standard floppy disks may seem like the ideal way to go but most fall short on speed and resolution. Besides, floppies are fast fading away in the Mac world.
6. The digital camera should come with written documentation so you can refer to it with camera in hand. You'd be surprised at how many so-called quality camera manufacturers try to save a few bucks by putting the documentation on CD-ROM, expecting you to print out 150 pages after you've spent close to $1,000.
7. Read a few reviews before you decide. Most digital photography Web sites have very thorough and detailed reviews. On the other hand, read digital camera reviews in computer magazines critically; the reviewers are not usually experienced photographers, and get sidetracked with bells and whistles.
http://www.dcresource.com/
http://www.imaging-resource.com/NEWS.HTM
http://www.steves-digicams.com/diginews.html
http://photo.askey.net/
8. Be prepared to buy a couple sets of rechargeable NiMH (Nickel Metal Hydride) batteries and a good charger unless your digital camera comes with them or uses Lithium-Ion batteries. Quest and Kodak batteries are long-lasting, and the Maha C204F charger is an absolute jewel. Two sets of batteries and a charger will set you back about $50 to $70 from places like CKC Power.
http://www.kodak.com/US/en/digital/accessories/power/
http://www.ckcpower.com/
9. Transferring images to your computer can be tedious unless both camera and computer have USB. But USB on a digital camera should not be a prime requisite. You can get inexpensive USB and SCSI memory card readers that let you transfer pictures to your computer in a flash. The Microtech USB CameraMate ($85 from places like CKC Power) takes both Compact Flash and SmartMedia cards, used on most digital cameras today. And Norman Camera has a couple dozen discontinued Minolta SCSI readers ($120) which, with the appropriate PC card adapter work fine with older Macs.
10. Printed pictures will only be as good as the printer you use, so plan to buy a decent photo-quality printer. Printers are like the speakers in your stereo system. It does little good to have the finest electronic components pushing sound through a set of tinny speakers. Although the Epson Stylus Photo 750 ($250) has traditionally been the choice of most Mac users, the new USB HP 970 Cse ($400) delivers absolutely stunning output.
http://www.epson.com/printer/inkjet.styphoto750/
http://www.pandi.hp.com/pandi-dbprodinfo.main?product=deskjet970c
If I had to choose between an expensive digital camera without the extra peripherals (batteries, card reader, printer, etc.) and a less expensive digital camera with them, I'd go for the lower priced camera with all the goodies. Why? Because you'll eventually be buying another camera based on what you've learned from your first digital camera. But in the meantime, you'll be getting the most convenience and best output from the digital camera you've bought.
In part two of this article, I'll tell you just which cameras fit all or most of the above requirements, and how their features stack up. Although I've said this is the year to get your first digital camera, even those who already own a digital camera may be persuaded to upgrade to the current generation.
[Arthur H. Bleich (arthur@dpcorner.com) is a photographer, writer, and educator who lives in Miami. He has done assignments for major publications both in the U.S. and abroad and is currently Contributing Editor of Digital Camera Magazine.]
It's that time of year again! The time of year when our thoughts turn to crowds at shopping malls, lack of parking, traffic congestion, and things we want to buy for our beloved Amigas. Not sure about that last point? Don't worry, you are not alone and unfortunately the Home Electronics Show (aka the Cologne Show) did nothing to change that. ...There wasn't much to be happy about. Sure Petro was there with his dancing Annex groupies and OS 3.5. Haage and Partner was there demoing the latest versions of their stuff like an OS 3.5 Developer CD, as well as some surprises like a mock PPC card for the A500. There was even an Amiga History museum that featured venerable models like the A1000 and CDTV (how a Commodore PET could be included was beyond me). However, what would an Amiga show be without some disappointment? Again, the long awaited Boxer did not show, as well as the highly anticipated Phase5 G4 cards running QNX. Concerning the Boxer, sources now indicate that the expected release date is February of 2000.
There was some rumors floating about in Cologne. No doubt some of you may have gone to the Czech Amiga News website and saw a little ditty from an unnamed source about Bill McEwen and Jim Collas buying Amiga for 8 million dollars and that the AmigaOS was going to be ported to the PPC chip. Well, that unnamed source was none other than our beloved Petro. From what I can say, he is partially correct about an effort to purchase Amiga, but to date the deal has not been completed and some of the names mentioned above are inaccurate. The price mentioned was also a bit high (but driven up by a bid from a Californian Amiga dealer), and there is still no official decree to port AmigaOS to the PPC.
It another bit of odd news, it seems that Don Hicks and Amazing Computing have taken a leave of absence. At the writing of this article, Amazing's web site and 800 phone number are no longer operating. Several of his writers and Amiga dealers have not heard one word from him. Several subscribers have been wondering where their latest version of the magazine is also. There has been no official word as to the state of Amazing Computing, nor what would happen with paid subscriptions if the magazine has ceased to print.
Turning to other OS solutions, it seems that the Psion's EPOCH32 OS has been making inroads from the PDA to the convergence market. Palm Computing has decided to ink a deal that will allow them to place the GUI and API software set on top of the Psion's OS for use with convergence like products. Also, Psion is slated to release a notebook sized device that is a step up from their famous PDAs. With WInCE failing to make inroads, Palm and Psion can seize and defeat Microsoft in the coveted convergence market. Currently PalmOS claims 80% of the PDA market.
Be has been busy too. Several internet appliances are slated to hit the market soon featuring the BeOS. Be has inked several deals with PC cloners to include the BeOS with their machines, as well as announce a "BeOS Lite" that will function like an application under Windows. This is to entice Windows users into switching to the BeOS, but not to violate the licensing agreements that several PC vendors have with Microsoft against offering "dual boot" systems. In fact, the BeOS with the BeOS Bible can be had at Best Buy for around $55.
[Source: The National Capital Amiga Users Group newsletter, "Amiga Intuition" December, 1999. NCAUG's address is P.O. Box 12360, Arlington, VA 22209. On the web it's http://www.ncaug.org ]
I got my copy of the first real Amiga OS update since Commodore went under through Amitech's user group deal with Compuquick. It came in a nice box, with a CDROM, and a booklet with installation instructions (no brick-like manuals). The installation is a good deal more complicated than any before, but mainly involves a first step, to set up the installation (making sure you have about 20 free megs), installing over top of a 3.1 setup (included on the CD), and adding whatever modules you feel you need like CD software, PowerPC software, and internet software. It took a little work to do so, mainly because I tried to set it up on a new hard drive. 3.5 increases the boot time somewhat - when you first turn on the machine, it patches some of the libraries in ROM and resets. This allows a few features many thought impossible without new ROMs. You may notice the place has been prettied up a bit. The workbench icons now have color palette and transparency information, and look their best on most screens. The new icon system is compatible with the original icons and ones that use "newicons", and are rather pretty. Windows for disk volumes have a "fuel gauge" like you may remember from 1.3. Many of the new and improved workbench programs use a new GUI system called ReAction, a variation of the old Class Act GUI system. It's not quite as polished as MUI, but many don't like MUI for its shareware nature. There are also a number of little additions and touches to make life a little easier.
3.1 had a rudimentary CD-ROM driver, but 3.5 improves on it with CacheCDFS. It supports more filesystem types, and includes an audio CD player program. I noticed an improvement reading CDs for Windows systems, where a filename that used to read as "WINDOW-0.JPG" would now appear as "Windows Graphic File.jpg". 3.5 also includes software to use PowerPC coprocessor boards, based on Haage & Partner's WarpOS system. I was a little disappointed that the full Warp package was not included, which leaves your PPC software that uses PhaseV libraries out in the cold. (I included both, with no ill effects so far). Probably the most disappointing module so far would be the Internet software. Only a demo version of Miami is included, because the special version for 3.5 was not finished yet. (It is planned for an online update). An email program called AmigaMail is included, which I chose not to install, since I already use YAM. The only other element is the web browser, a crippled "special edition" version of Aweb 3.3. It's still a nice web browser, but some of the removed features, like the ability to save a hotlist, really punish the user a bit too much. I doubt I'll be using it too much once I upgrade IBrowse.
There are other features and enhancements to 3.5 which I'm sure I've missed. There are hardly any bugs that I've noticed, with the exception of one bad glitch I've run into with Cybergraphx 4 and some software, including Pagestream 3.3 and Final Writer 5. People who use these may want to be cautious. On the whole, I'm very pleased with the 3.5 update. It did not quite deliver everything that was originally promised, but it delivered quite a bit for a reasonable price, and helps greatly to modernize the Amiga in the absence of the next big thing down the road.
[Source: The AmiTech Amiga Users Group's "Amiga Gazette", November 1999. AAUG's address is P.O. Box 292684, Kettering, OH 45429-0684. On the web, it's "http://www.coax.net/people/erics/amitech.htm ]
Now that the dust has settled, and I am seeing 3.5 at auction on EBay (http://listings.ebay.com/aw/listings/list/category4598/index.html ) A QUESTION...
Can anybody document how many copies have been actually sold..?
I don't mean to distrubutors........
On Sunday, 28-Nov-99, Ronald Schwartz (dadbeavr@gemair.com) wrote:
In a question and answer session set up over the telephone by several European user groups, just before the Cologne show, Petro stated that 5600 copies of 3.5 had been sold to date. He also stated that the break even point is sales of at least 25,000 copies.
I have to admit that I was surprised that the sales to date were so low since everyone I know has been lined up, money in hand, just waiting for its release.
Those of you that haven't upgraded yet, do so soon. The third party support for Amiga is amazing, considering that it has essentially been off the market for 5 1/2 years. They can only support us if we support them. H&P has put together 3.5 and has promised to further upgrade the OS if 3.5 is a success. The next upgrade will, undoubtedly, include PowerPC support, making that system much more productive.
Ron Schwartz
AmiTech Dayton Eric's Dad
On Monday, 29-Nov-99, Bill Evans (bille@traveller.com) wrote:
I appreciate the thoughts Ron, however, as long as it keeps the Flyer from running, I cannot buy it for my Flyer systems, nor suggest that any of my customers (all Flyer owners) do since they make money with their editors and can't make silent videos (current largest issue) until a fix is available. In addition, my non flyer system is used primarily for ImageFX, at this time ImageFX does not run well under 3.5. How you can do this huge beta team (according to H&P) for the product and not include Newtek and Nova Design (among others) on the list when they were asking and pleading for early copies, I have no idea.
In addition, 3.5 currently kills Master ISO so we are using my PC to write our CDs as Lee's Amiga is CDwriterless at the moment unless he rips off 3.5 and goes back to 3.1.
These aren't screen hacks or unsupported items that have been dead for years, all three of these manufacturers regularly exhibit at shows etc, and yet their products do not run with the new OS. I'd love to support H&P, but since not a single one of my customers can use 3.5 at this time, despite the fact these are the people most likely to want big drives (the Flyer is the largest software package sizewise for the Amiga) and literally gigabytes of third party addons. Not one of these people can use 3.5, so I won't push people to buy floppies to sit on a shelf.
Bill Evans
Flyer Developer
Short: Splits OS3.5 HTML manuals into chapters
Author: Ron Goertz
Uploader: goertz@earthlink.net
(http://home.earthlink.net/~goertz/Ron/)
Type: util/rexx
Replaces: util/rexx/SplitOSDocs This ARexx macro will copy the OS 3.5 HTML manuals from your OS 3.5 CD to your harddrive, splitting the manuals into chapters as it does so. The indexes and tables of content are also updated.
Note that the original HTML documents are stored in four different formats, requiring this macro to be fairly specific to this version of the docs. The conversion of the Workbench manual takes about 27 minutes by itself, most of the time spent converting the document to a standard format. I can't guarantee the conversion process will work with non-English versions of the documentation.
WHY:
Keep your browser from fainting at the prospect of loading 1MB HTML files
Speed up access to the parts of the manual you're interested in
Allow you to correct the numerous mistakes in the HTML docs
WHY NOT:
You don't have 3.5 MB of free disk space
You don't have a legal copy of the OS 3.5 upgrade
REQUIREMENTS:
A legally obtained OS 3.5 upgrade CD
OS 3.5 installed
3,474,427 bytes of free disk space
About 40 minutes. On a 25 MHz -040:It took 4.55 minutes to convert the arexx manual.
It took 9.37 minutes to convert the dos manual.
It took 0.76 minutes to convert the harddisk manual.
It took 0.31 minutes to convert the installation manual.
It took 27.20 minutes to convert the workbench manual.
USAGE:
From a shell, type: rxSplitOSDocs.rexx
Two file requesters will appearThe first one asks for the original (CD) files
The second one asks for the destination directory
Daryl writes:
Main Processor:
- Motorola MC68040, clocked at 80/40 and 100/50 Megahertz
The Sonnet Quad Doubler is a circuit board about 2" wide by 4" long. One half has a zillion pins on the bottom to match the pins on the bottom of a 68040. The other half has 68040 with a gnarly heat sink on top. There is additional circuitry to make the 68040 run at twice the clock speed of the 68040 25Mhz Accelerator (Mac's Centris or Quadra) it's plugged into. (There are four different models. The BST-40F, for the Centris 610, costs $200; the BST-50FA, for the Quadra 610, and the BST-50FB and FC. The cost, about $200. I would recommend staying away from the BST-40F until they are tested with the Amiga products. I personally own a BST-50FA.
Installation is pretty simple. The instructions that come with the Quad Doubler are clear and well illustrated. You open the case and remove the original CPU. The kit comes with a little tool you use to gently pry up the CPU. Then you plug the Quad Doubler into the CPU socket. You have to first remove the expose CPU -- but surprisingly enough, there is room for it to go back, even with the big heat sink on the Quad Doubler. Put the case back on, plug everything back in, and you're in business. If you have any questions ........e-mail me (dgholley@uswest.net).
Specifications:
- CPU: 100/50 MHz 68040 Motorola processor. (for the Centris 650 & 660AV; Quadra 610, 660AV, 700 & 900; and Workgroup Server 60/25)
- CPU: 80/40 MHz 68040 Motorola processor. (for the Centris 610 & Workgroup Server 60/20)
- PMMU: Integrated Paged Memory Management Unit.
- FPU: Integrated with 68040 processor.
- Part #: BST-40F, BST-50FA, BST-50FB, BST-50FC.
Real-Time Clock:Chip Set:
- Yes
- Enhanced Chip Set
All Sonnet products offer a 3 year warranty, free technical support, and in-stock orders are shipped within 24 hours.
[Source: http://www.bison21.bizland.com/QuadDoubler.html ]
The November 18, 1999 General meeting began with the traditional introduction of officers.
President Jim Lewis began the discussions by bring up the recent court decision declaring Microsoft to be a monopoly. Jim voiced the widely held belief that Microsoft will probably be broken up, resulting in several spin-off companies. Jim said he feels this would be a good thing since, to compete, "the company doing the OS will have to finish it - make it stop crashing. Jim said he thought what had been keeping Microsoft going was "Office." Others thought it more likely their coercive OS licensing deals with clone makers was the real source of their resilience. Jim relayed Gates' assertion that whatever solution is decided upon must "leave Microsoft able to innovate." This was roundly scoffed at. Name one innovation Microsoft has made ... that they haven't bought or "stolen."
Harold Ravlin brought to our attention a story that 64 Mac G4s are being used in a networked cluster as backup for the Cray at Environment Canada (Canada's equivalent to the USA's National Weather Service).
Norris Hansel asked about utilities needed to cure OS9 problems. During that discussion Norris asked how to construct a rescue disk on a ZIP disk. Someone noted that a new Iomega package had been released last night.
Jim Lewis asked Kevin Hisel what was new in the Amiga world. Kevin stood up and said, "You want to know what's new in the Amiga world?" He paused, then said "Thank you." and sat back down.
Richard Rollins talked about Comdex and the new iMac with DVD and Firewire. He mentioned that Mac OS9 has been released. Regarding the December meeting Richard said we need 3 or 4 PowerPC machines for our next meeting just before Christmas. He has plans to network them together and play games - parts of the Marathon trilogy, etc.
Kevin Hopkins brought up a problem his wife has been having with Word on the Macintosh. The difficulty is that what is appearing on the screen is not the same as what is being rendered in Print Preview, making precise editing extremely difficult. It was suggested that one should work in final mode instead of draft mode. Kevin was directed to check Page Setup and see if they are the same.
President Jim Lewis then opened the floor for nominations for CUCUG's officers for next year. Kevin Hisel moved that the current slate of officers be nominated. Norris Hansel seconded. The current slate of officers was accepted into nomination. Those officers are:
President - Jim Lewis
Vice President - Emil Cobb
Secretary - Kevin Hopkins
Treasurer - Richard Hall
Corporation Agent - Jim Lewis
Just before the break, Quentin Barnes mentioned that he had changed another battery in an Amiga in which the solder wouldn't melt on one of the battery legs so he had to go to a spot on the board. This is the third one out of three that has been like this.
For the presentation, Quentin brought in his own machine, a Motorola StarMax 3000, containing a PPC 603e processor, since upgraded with a 300Mhz Newer Technology G3 card.
Quentin began with an overview of the BeOS. He stated that BeOS is considered a "Modern" OS. It is available on Pentiums and PowerPCs and has been aimed at the multimedia and settop box markets. Quentin said that Be claims to be the Amiga OS done right and it IS the closest thing to the Amiga, he believes.
Quentin then gave a little history of the company. Be was founded by Jean-Louis Gassee, a former president of Apple's product division. The original idea for Be started in early 1990. BeOS was begun in early 1991. Quentin said that while Gassee was at Apple he was a colorful spokesman that John Sculley, CEO of Apple at the time, did not appreciate. The relationship between the two men ended when Sculley asked Gassee what he thought of him and Gassee told him. Gassee's last day at Apple was September 30, 1990.
Initially, Be had a hardware component. The original BeBox was conceived as using multiple AT&T Hobbit processors. The Hobbit was $35 a piece and the idea was to use many cheap processors rather than one fast expensive processor. So, from the beginning, the BeOS was designed with multiple processors in mind. This is known as SMP or Symmetric Multi-Processing. The OS moved on to the PPC in early 1995 in the developed BeBox and then on to the Macintosh in August of 1996. Be added support for the Pentium in August of 1997. With the advent of the G3 and G4 machines, Apple has refused to publish how to boot an OS on their machines. Be has stated that they won't hack the hardware or reverse engineer the Apple system, so support for the PowerPC will probably be dropped next year after revision 5 of the BeOS. Quentin noted that the news of Microsoft's problems with the U.S. government has caused Be's stock to jump from 3 9/32 to as high as 18 11/16, closing the day of our meeting at 13 5/8.
Quentin then spoke a little about Be's support. He said their web site (www.be.com) is pretty nice. He made particular note of BeWare at www.be.com/software/beware , saying it is like Aminet and VersionTracker. It provides good support.
Turning to the features of the BeOS, Quentin first focused on its AmigaOS-like qualities. The BeOS has pre-emptive multi-tasking. It is multi-threaded and makes pervasive use of it. And, like the Amiga, the BeOS uses asynchronous, reply-based message-passing, done right, unlike QNX.
The "Modern" OS features of the BeOS are that it has Symmetric Multi-Processing, implements Virtual Memory and has a robust File System. This file system is a journaled 64-bit file system. It is very database-like. Quentin said you could have mega-data on it. A file could theoretically hold 100 years of uncompressed HDTV. The file system has "Attributes" and "Resources."
Other "Modern" OS features of the BeOS are that it is Extensible, facilitating Add-ons and Plug-ins. It also has dynamically loaded device drivers, which means they can be dynamically unload as well. The lack of dynamic loading of device drivers is one of the sources of the incessant need to reboot systems like the PC and the Macintosh when new devices are added.
Other general features of the BeOS is that it has a very fast boot time. On Quentin's system the MacOS takes one minute and thirty seconds to boot up; the BeOS takes twenty seconds. The BeOS is also very stable. In the Amiga style, the BeOS has a CLI and a GUI. The CLI is the BASH shell. Fred Fish has ported all of the GNU utilities to the Be. One last general feature of the BeOS is that it has IDE Slave Support.
Quentin then discussed the Tracker, Be's equivalent of the Amiga's Workbench or the Mac's Finder. Quentin said the windows on the Be are pretty snappy. The BeOS has Amiga-like public screens, called Workspaces. You can't drag screens, as you can on the Amiga, nor does the BeOS support multiple monitors. Quentin then talked about the contextual menus and the deskbar - task bar for you PC types. Quentin said the BeOS really likes a two button mouse. He said any Kensington mouse or trackball will work fine. Quentin spoke about the ease of installing the OS. He also covered application installation and the Software Valet. He touched upon directory organization, with the Boot and Home areas, queries and file types.
Quentin said he likes the stability of the BeOS, particularly when he is "surfing" and "networking into work". He said the MacOS crashes about every two hours because he "beats" on it. He considers the MacOS a very fragile OS. Be has decent web support, supporting PPP and PAP. Quentin noted that on the BeOS the browser is worked into the OS, in the manner that got Microsoft into trouble, but unlike Microsoft, the incorporation of the browser only took two hours of work and nine lines of code. The browser is called Netpositive. It doesn't have Java or JavaScript yet, but a deal with Sun is being finalized and should bring Java 2 to it next quarter (1Q2000). In it's favor, though, Netpositive is very fast. The browser Opera is also out for the Be system in beta.
Quentin then showed a couple of demos that Amigans should immediately recognize. One was BeBounce, the Be version of the legendary Boing Ball demo, and the second was Opus 4 - DirOpus under another name.
Quentin addressed the limitations of the BeOS. Hardware support is sparse. Graphic card support is spotty. Conversely, Be on the PowerPC is a bit dodgey, supporting the 603 and 604s, but only on some motherboards, contingent on the glue logic of the boards. Secondly, there is little general-purpose software. There is GoBe Productive, but major name applications like Word, Photoshop, or Filemaker are missing. It is the "chicken or the egg" situation: you need a large established OS base to attract developers, but you need the applications to spread acceptance of the OS.
Focusing on programming, Quentin noted that there have been a lot of Amiga programmer cross-overs to the BeOS. The programming of the OS is in C++. The first commercial application for Be was CodeWarrior.
Quentin closed his discussion of the BeOS by addressing availability. The latest version of BeOS is 4.5.2. You can order it directly from Be for $70. It comes on one CD. The entire package is about 240 MB in size. The average installation is usually about 100 MB. You can run it off of a ZIP disk. However, Quentin recommended getting the release from Gigabuys (www.gigabuys.com). There the BeOS 4.5 alone is $41.45, included with the BeOS Bible (highly recommended), $47.45, with the book and GoBe Productive Bundle, $85.95.
The evening ended with questions from the audience. The question of main stream applications was raised again. Quentin said to check the Byte web site for news. There was also a discussion of it's ability to read Mac HFS and Windows files on its host system.
The November meeting of the CUCUG executive board took place on Tuesday, November 23, 1999, 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 initially were Emil Cobb, Richard Hall, Mike Latinovich, Jack Melby, Charlie Melby-Thompson, Kevin Hopkins, and Kevin Hisel. Vice President Emil Cobb began the meeting in the President's absence. President Jim Lewis and Dave Witt arrived soon after the meeting was begun.
Richard Hall: Rich reported on the latest IRS developments. He reported we are done with the State. However, the Federal penalty letter has arrived and will need to be dealt with. Financially, Rich said, this last year was a wash.
Mike Latinovich: Mike stated, "The doughnuts were no good." Kevin Hisel chimed in that they were "Light and airy."
More to business, Mike said that Quentin's demo of the BeOS had spurred him to pull out his BeOS disk again and examine it in more detail. He lamented that not a lot of software is available for the BeOS. He said it reminded him of the Amiga OS very early on. But, "it's fast. It multitasks. The Amiga doesn't multitask that fast. It's multitasking is awesome." Mike said the Be graphics drivers are not as refined as those on his PC, and "it had no drivers for my sound card." Bottom line, "there are no apps to run on it. I won't switch to it until there are more apps for it. There are a lot of holes. There are no games. There's no Netscape for it." Some discussion followed.
Jim Lewis: Jim, Dave and Chris had just come back from John Lynn's wake at the Morgan Funeral Chapel. Talk turned to our fallen friend, John Lynn. Jim said, "I'm sure going to miss John. We did shows together. We gave each other crap. He had a great sense of humor." Others around the room gave personal anecdotes about John. We're all still just stunned by his loss.
Jim said John's family will want some help dealing with John equipment. Mike Latinovich and Jim will offer to provide that service.
Jim said John's wife is a nurse and a neighbor is an EMT. They were on him immediately and if anyone could have saved him they would have, but he just stopped breathing. Jim said it was the way he would have wanted to go - quick. But still, it was such a tragic loss.
Turning away from that sadness, there was a quick recap of the meeting for Jim and Dave. Jim and Rich discussed the tax situation.
Jim noted that the election of officers will be next month. He informed us that he had asked Jack Melby and Charlie Melby-Thompson to co-chair the Mac SIG for next year. As for the last meeting, Jim said Quentin had done an excellent job presenting the BeOS. He said he found it very interest the way Quentin had approached the subject from the software architecture point of view. Jim also noted Be's problem od no applications and insufficient driver software. He also returned to the topic he raised at the meeting of Microsoft and his hope that the OS would be spun off in any monopoly settlement.
Jack Melby: Jack said he didn't have much report.
Emil Cobb: Emil asked about the social and doughnuts for the December meeting.
Kevin Hopkins: Kevin delivered a copy of the membership database to Kevin Hisel for his and the President's use. Likewise he collected some information that hadn't made it to his hands at the last meeting.
Kevin conveyed Richard Rollins' agenda items for this meeting. Richard, likewise, was at John Lynn's wake and had called Kevin to fill in for him in his absence. Richard said he would getting the doughnuts for the December meeting as usual. He asked those that could to please bring their PowerMacs to the December meeting. He wants to network multiple machines together in order to play games.
Kevin brought up the necessity for new membership cards for next year. After some discussion, the oldest user group rule on the books took effect: "Whoever brings up a subject, gets to deal with it." Kevin will see that new cards are made.
Lastly, Kevin sparked a discussion of how upcoming decisions are going to effect membership and newsletter content.
Kevin Hisel: Kevin went into the specifics of his future plans. He also brought up how we should work a little harder to make visitors more welcome at our meetings.
Jim Lewis: Jim stated that January's program will be Bill Zwicky showing the Amiga emulator UAE.
Dave Witt: Dave raised the issue of instituting Windows disk sales at the meetings, reviving the idea of club disks.
Dave said he has been working on the WinSIG's web page and he asked what members would like to see on the page.
Finally, Dave closed the meeting with a sentiment that spoke for all of us: "John Lynn's dying sucks."
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 352-1002 khisel @ cucug.org
Surf our web site: