News Common PC Mac Amiga CUCUG
The August 16 gathering will be one of our split SIG meetings. The PC SIG will be treated to Ed Serbe doing a first-person shooter game demo. Ed says the title of his presentation is "The history and latest in First-Person Shooters." In the Macintosh SIG, Richard Rollins, Kevin Hopkins and Charlie Melby-Thompson will be talking about the problems and solutions in updating older Macintosh machines. Kevin will bring in the club's PowerMac 8600 and an external 9GB hard drive that has been added. The panel will discuss adding a USB card and a ZIP 650 USB CD-ROM burner and the related problems attendant to those additions. Richard will talk about upgrading processor cards for more speed and extending the useful life of the older machine. He will also talk about adding more memory and drives. The panel will then answer any questions people have about upgrading their own systems.
This should be a real "hands on" session, so roll up your sleeves and dig in. See you at the meeting.
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 group.
NEW YORK--Apple Computer Chief Executive Steve Jobs unveiled speedier iMacs and Power Macs during his keynote speech Wednesday at the Macworld Expo here, though the announcements lacked the punch he usually offers at the trade show.
Jobs introduced a 500MHz iMac, with 128MB of RAM and a 20GB hard drive, for $999. It comes in indigo and snow, which Apple resurrected after retiring the color earlier this year in favor of Flower Power and Blue Dalmatian.
He touted another model in snow and graphite that runs at 600MHz, with 256MB of RAM and a 40GB hard drive, for $1,299. These two models are available now.
The third model, which will be available in September, runs at 700MHz, with 256MB of RAM and a 60GB hard drive for $1,499. It will also come in snow and graphite.
Each of the new models will include a CD-RW drive. Previously, the iMacs ran at 400MHz to 600MHz.
Still, Jobs' speech lacked its typical surprise ending--when he unveils the latest and greatest. Instead, Jobs ended with a preview of iDVD 2, an update to the program that lets consumers put their digital videos onto DVD. The new software is set to come out in September.
What Jobs didn't announce--a much-anticipated, flat-panel iMac--grabbed analysts' attention.
"None of the announcements are as dramatic as the introductions that Apple made earlier in the year...which could limit their impact on sales in the second half of the year," said David Bailey, an analyst at Gerard Klauer Mattison.
Bailey said he was particularly concerned that Apple made comparatively minor changes to the iMac while hiking the price of the entry-level iMac by $100 to $999.
"Price is more important rather than less important" in this difficult economy, he said. However, Bailey said he is hoping Apple will come out with more dramatic changes in time for the holidays.
However, Apple Vice President Phil Schiller told CNET News.com that the company is keeping a $799 entry-level iMac for the education market, an acknowledgment that price is the key factor for many schools.
"There are certain districts that only have so many dollars to spend" and need to get a specific number of computers for those dollars, Schiller said.
Although Jobs did not mention it in his keynote, the company is also launching a promotion to give Mac buyers a free printer, as well as $100 rebates with the purchase of certain Canon camcorders, a Handspring Visor Edge handheld, a Hewlett-Packard 315 digital camera or the Rio 600 MP3 player.
The offer is good on purchases made between Wednesday and Oct. 14.
Jobs also introduced three faster, slightly restyled Power Macs, which had previously run at 466MHz to 733MHz.
The new entry-level model runs at 733MHz. There is also an 867MHz model. The third model has two 800MHz chips.
The 733MHz Power Mac, which sells for $1,699, includes 128MB of memory, a 40GB hard drive and a CD-RW drive.
The 867MHz version, priced at $2,499, includes 128MB of RAM, a 60GB hard drive and a SuperDrive, which reads and writes both DVDs and CDs.
The high-end machine, which comes with two 800MHz chips, sells for $3,499 and comes with 256MB of memory and an 80GB hard drive.
All three new Power Macs will also sport a new silver-colored case, Jobs said. The high-end model will be available next month, and the other two models are available now.
Shares of Apple closed down $4.31, or 17 percent, at $20.79 on Wednesday.
Goldman Sachs analyst Joe Moore speculated that Apple's aging iMac product line is the reason the company's financial outlook isn't better. Apple watchers were hoping that Jobs would unveil a brand new iMac in his keynote speech, Moore wrote in a research note. But Jobs didn't deliver.
"It seems that the bulk of the shortfall in September is coming from the iMac lineup," Moore wrote, referring to the company's current quarter.
Mac fans at the trade show weren't particularly thrilled either.
"There wasn't anything that seemed truly exciting," said Thomas Simonet, a professor of journalism at Ryder University in New Jersey. "The conference was disappointing compared to last year's, and it didn't live up to the rumor that Apple might introduce a handheld device."
"I was expecting more out of the hardware lineup," said Jeff Ondovic, another attendee. The only thing Ondovic was happy about was the company's decision to get rid of the Power Mac G4 Cube. "Last year's conference was definitely better."
Jobs used the early part of his keynote address to focus on Mac OS X, Apple's new operating system.
Jobs gave a preview of Mac OS X 10.1, which he said would ship in September and offer support for playing DVD movies, along with new networking features and improved handling of digital photos. Jobs also promised faster launching of applications, resizing of windows and other performance enhancements.
"You name it, it's faster," said Jobs, who appeared in his trademark blue jeans and mock turtleneck.
Jobs also announced that the company plans to open four more retail stores next month at malls in Minnesota, Chicago, Boston and Dallas.
"We think they are a great complement to the other great retailers we have out there," Jobs said.
Aiming to demonstrate support for the new Mac operating system, Jobs showed off 10 programs under development for OS X. First came Microsoft to discuss the Office business-application software due to be released this fall.
Adobe Systems, which decided not to set up a booth on the show floor at Macworld, came next. Adobe showed off development versions of Illustrator, InDesign, and GoLive. Jobs also invited representatives of Quark, Apple's own FileMaker, 3D graphics maker Alias Wavefront, IBM's ViaVoice unit, encyclopedia maker World Book, game makers Blizzard and Aspyr, and Connectix, which showed a technology preview of Virtual PC, which allows Windows programs to run on Mac OS X.
"They are 10 of the next 1,000 apps coming to OS X that we are going to see in the next few months," Jobs said.
News.com's Sandeep Junnarkar and staff writer Larry Dignan contributed to this report.
Apple posted a $61 million profit during its third fiscal quarter of 2001, meeting analysts' expectations, although the company warned that the current economic slowdown could cause future revenue to fall short of forecasts. Apple's sales for the quarter were $1.475 billion, down over 29 percent from the same quarter a year ago, but up from the previous quarter's $1.43 billion. Apple says it shipped 827,000 Macs at a profit margin of 29.4 percent, with international sales accounting for 44 percent of the total. The company maintains more than $4.2 billion in cash, and Apple offset a one-time $7 million charge for its acquisition of PowerSchool, Inc., a Web-based student information system, with $7 million in investment income. Compared to other computer makers, Apple stock has been faring well recently, buoyed in part by the high-profile opening of retail stores, the record-setting debut of the new iBook, and strong sales in education. [GD]
http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2001/jul/17results.html
http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=06436
http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=06422
With nary a mention in Steve Jobs's Macworld Expo keynote address, Apple last week began shipping computers with Mac OS 9.2 installed. The new version of the operating system is reportedly a minor enough upgrade that it could have been called "9.1.1" if not for the likelihood it would prompt jokes about "911" (an emergency phone number in most of the U.S.). Although Apple has provided no release notes about what changed in Mac OS 9.2, reports indicate that it contains some bug fixes, support for the latest Power Mac G4 (QuickSilver) machines, and improvements that will be required for use with Mac OS X 10.1, slated for release in September 2001. It's a moot point for most people right now, since Mac OS 9.2 is currently available only with the new Power Mac G4 (QuickSilver). [MHA]
http://til.info.apple.com/techinfo.nsf/artnum/n58840
Pulitzer Prize-winning author Eudora Welty died last Monday at age 92. Welty was a lifelong resident of Jackson, Mississippi, and an icon of American literature. Among her best known works are the short story collection The Golden Apples and the novels Losing Battles and The Optimist's Daughter; two of her works (The Ponder Heart and The Robber Bridegroom) also became Broadway plays. Her stories tended to focus on the lives of sheltered characters in southern America, but also quietly contradict easy categorization into any particular genre. Welty is also noted for her photographs, particularly images of the South during the Great Depression taken when she was working as a "junior publicity agent" for the Works Progress Administration.
http://www.olemiss.edu/depts/english/ms-writers/dir/welty_eudora/
In relation to the Macintosh world, the popular email program Eudora is named for Eudora Welty, specifically because of her famous short story "Why I Live At The P.O.," published in her first collection in 1941. Programmer Steve Dorner read the story in college, and it was still with him years later when it came time to name the first version of his new email program. [GD]
http://www.eudora.com/presskit/backgrounder.html
Casady & Greene has released Conflict Catcher 8.0.9, a minor release of their venerable extension manager. (See "Nice Catch, Conflict Catcher" in TidBITS-446_ for a review of Conflict Catcher 8.) Like so many of the previous releases of Conflict Catcher, this one doesn't add any major features but updates the program's internal data to support Mac OS 9.2. However, it's an important update for Mac OS X users because it fixes a problem with requesting a serial number when booting into Mac OS X's Classic mode. Another fix addresses a problem in the sets activated by the Mac OS X startup set feature. Conflict Catcher 8.0.9 is a free update for registered users of Conflict Catcher 8; it's a 2.1 MB download. [ACE]
http://www.casadyg.com/products/conflictcatcher/
http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=05086
Aladdin Systems recently released Spring Cleaning 4.0, which helps you throw out all that digital crud that accumulates on our hard disk: things like duplicate files, orphaned aliases, empty folders, orphaned preferences files, and so on. New features in Spring Cleaning 4.0 are MailCleaner for locating and removing unwanted email attachments, CookieEditor for deleting selected cookies, and two user modes for easier use. Plus, in Mac OS X, Spring Cleaning now provides QuickCompare for finding differences between duplicate files, and AccessMonitor for tracking accesses on files so you can later tell if they're important to keep. But what makes Spring Cleaning 4.0 interesting on Mac OS X is the simple fact that many people aren't yet comfortable navigating around the guts of the operating system, knowing where things go, and understanding what is and is not important. That working knowledge may come eventually, but for now, Spring Cleaning will be an easy way to clean up Mac OS X hard disks. System requirements are a PowerPC- based Macintosh running Mac OS 8.1 or later. Spring Cleaning 4.0 normally costs $50, with upgrades from previous versions at $20, but TidBITS readers can get it (and have Aladdin's Flashback revision control utility thrown in) for $30 by using the Digital River URL below. [ACE]
http://www.aladdinsys.com/springcleaning/
http://www.digitalriver.com/aladdin/41330/
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) - Dell Computer Corp. is no longer selling desktop or notebook computers preinstalled with the Linux operating system because of low demand.
The Round Rock-based company will continue to offer the Red Hat Linux system to its corporate customers and in its workstation and server lines, though, Dell spokesman Jim Mazzola said Thursday.
"Not that many customers are using Linux for their desktop systems," Mazzola said. "We're a customer-demand driven company, so as we see customer demand in certain areas that's were we opt to sell certain products or services."
Dell also factory installs and supports the numerous Microsoft Windows systems and the server operating system Novell NetWare.
Last June, Dell announced it was expanding efforts with software maker Red Hat Inc. to market Linux, an alternative operating system to Microsoft's Windows that can be downloaded for free over the Internet.
Linux users must memorize and type commands and forgo compatible software applications. Red Hat is one of a number of companies that sell commercial versions of Linux, which include support and technical manuals.
LONDON--Microsoft has made the source code of its Windows CE 3.0 operating system available to developers in a bid to compete with the "open source" software development model that has become popular in recent years.
Open-source software, such as the popular Linux operating system kernel, typically allows people to modify the underlying code to suit their own needs and to redistribute the altered software, as long as the changes are made available freely to the development community.
Microsoft, which has compared some open-source licenses, particularly the GNU General Public License, to a "cancer," is championing its own "Shared Source License." This allows developers to change its source code but not to distribute the altered code for commercial purposes.
But some developers are concerned that downloading the shared-source code could lead to legal complications. They fear that Microsoft could accuse open-source developers of copying Windows code for their own projects, and could use the fact that they downloaded shared code as evidence.
Microsoft released the code, with the Shared Source License, on Friday. It is available on the company's Web site and can be accessed through an evaluation or full version of the Platform Builder development tool.
The move, on the eve of the O'Reilly Open-Source Convention, continues Microsoft's love-hate relationship with open-source software. The company has been attacking the GPL while acknowledging some of the powers of the open-source movement, such as the spirit of cooperation.
There are strings attached to sampling the Windows CE source code, though. In addition to the prohibition on using or distributing modified versions of Windows CE for commercial purposes, people must sign up for Microsoft's Passport service before getting access. Passport, an authentication system that can keep track of personal information, is used for Microsoft's programmer resource site and instant-messenger software as well as for its MSN service.
Microsoft gave a host of chipmakers early access to the source code for the next version of Windows CE, code-named Talisker. The chipmakers may optimize the software for their chips but won't have broad access to add features or make other changes to the software.
Since earlier this year, Microsoft has been touting the fact that it has been sharing more of its code.
Staff writer Matthew Broersma reported from London. News.com's Stephen Shankland and Ian Fried contributed to this report from San Francisco.
from the i'm-not-dead-yet dept. - Mike Bouma writes "Amiga`s CEO Bill McEwen announced in a keynote speech held prior to the AmiWest 2001 show that new consumer PPC motherboards, AmigaOS 4.0 PPC and also AmigaOS for x86 will ship by November 1. Furthermore the Amiga Digital Environment which offers full binary compatibility across CPU architectures and operating systems was being demonstrated at the show running on various handheld devices. In addition, Bill stated that Merlancia Industries has acquired the rights for the Amiga Multimedia Convergence Computer which was being worked on by the Amiga team under Gateway but was cancelled. Merlancia will release new PPC hardware soon after the AmigaOne launch. Their CTO is the infamous Amiga system designer Dave Haynie who designed many critical parts of the classic Amiga 2000, 3000 and 4000 desktop computers. "
NewTek Founder, Tim Jenison, To Hold Chairman and Chief Technology Officer roles
San Antonio, TX, July 16, 2001 - Tim Jenison, Founder and Chairman of NewTek, manufacturer of industry-leading video, 2D and 3D animation products, today announced that he has promoted Jim Plant to the positions of President and Chief Executive Officer. Plant joined NewTek as a consultant in February and was named Executive Vice President of Business & Strategic Development in April. Jenison had held the President and CEO positions on an interim basis since early 1998. He will continue to act as Chairman of the Board and Chief Technology Officer.
"Over the many years Jim has been in the 3D and video industries, he has developed a superior knowledge of NewTek's business and the markets we address." said Jenison. "In addition, I believe Jim truly understands our users and has a true dedication to meeting their needs. He has also developed a very exciting vision for NewTek's future, which I strongly support."
In his position as President of NewTek, Plant will be responsible for the day-to-day management of the company's operations. As CEO, he will lead NewTek's executive staff in their ongoing efforts to oversee the development of groundbreaking products, innovative marketing and management of corporate growth. Plant will continue to report to Jenison.
I've been associated with NewTek in various capacities for almost 10 years now, and what I know to be true is that NewTek has world class technologies, strong, well-known brands, and a great executive team and staff," said Plant. "It's an honor to lead this company and this group of people in their mission to develop and distribute revolutionary visual communication tools."
Plant served most recently as vice president of marketing communications at Geocast Network System. Prior to Geocast, he was the director of marketing and director of corporate communications at ReplayTV Inc., a pioneering digital video recorder company.
Plant is best known in the NewTek community as the founding editor-in-chief of Avid, the Amiga-Video Journal and of Video Toaster User Magazine. As chief executive officer of AMG Media, he also oversaw the launch and development of Alpha Visual FX magazine, LightWave Pro and the Video Toaster User Expo. Plant began his career as the director of corporate and educational sales at HT Electronics, focusing on the sales of desktop video production and visual effects hardware and software.
About NewTek
With headquarters in San Antonio, Texas, NewTek is a leading provider of full-featured video editing, animation and special effects tools. NewTek launched the desktop video revolution in 1990 with the release of the legendary Video Toaster. The company's products are now used worldwide on projects ranging from home video, broadcast television and feature films. Recent film and television projects using NewTek software include Charlie's Angels, How The Grinch Stole Christmas, 6th Day, Red Planet, X-Men The Movie, Pitch Black, Shakespeare In Love, the latest James Bond film: Bond 19 "The World Is not Enough", Roughnecks: Starship Troopers, Star Trek: Voyager, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, The X-Files, Ally McBeal and Family Law. Recent game titles include Daikatana, Deus EX, Torment, HALO and Kiss Psycho Circus. Phone: 210-370-8000, fax: 210-370-8001, website: http://www.newtek.com or http://www.videotoaster.com.
-----
* á LightWave 3D is a trademark of NewTek. AMD, AMD Logo, AMD
Athlon MP, AMD 760, AMD-762, AMD-766, and combinations thereof
are trademarks of Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
á Other product names used in this publication are for
identification purposes only and may be trademarks of their
respective companies.
For Press Contact or Review Units Only: FOR GENERAL INFORMATION
Hollie Wendt CALL 1-210-370-8000
Wendt Communications or email info@newtek.com
(831)688-1193
hollie@earthlink.net
The issue of whether @Home allows sharing their broadband connection has always been a little murky. I've always heard that you shouldn't mention to @Home that you are sharing your connection, especially if you have a router. I could never find anything in their user agreement or web site that specifically forbade using a router.
I was looking for some security information today and came across this statement on the security questions page at: http://help.broadband.att.com/legal/questions.jsp
Yes. However, AT&T Broadband will not provide support for your connection while it is connected to a LAN or unsupported device. In addition, you will need to take appropriate security measures to ensure that your network is secure.
For the last several months, consumers in ordinary record stores around the world have unwittingly been buying CDs that include technology designed to discourage them from making copies on their PCs.
According to Macrovision, the company that has provided the technology to several major music labels, the test has been going on for four to six months. Although it's not disclosing just which titles have been loaded with the technology, at least one has sold close to 100,000 copies, the company said.
The technology, which inserts audible clicks and pops into music files that are copied from a CD onto a PC, highlights what could become a critical part of the major music labels' efforts to stem digital piracy.
Although the labels can do little to stop consumers from "ripping," or digitally copying, the hundreds of millions of old CDs already on the market, they are looking for ways to protect new releases, which constitute the bulk of their annual sales.
But the tests also take aim at the basic consumer practice of copying CDs to a computer for personal use without ever trading the songs with others. Although this is a familiar--and legally protected--task in the world of cassette tapes, the legality of creating music collections on a personal computer is more cloudy.
If the Macrovision tests prove successful and the technology is widely adopted, the ability to create personal music collections on PCs, or to create mixed CDs from purchased CDs, may significantly diminish. Analysts say this is particularly likely if the labels finally start selling protected downloads online.
"I do see this as the future if labels have gone down the path of secure digital downloads," said P.J. McNealy, an analyst with GartnerG2. "But I would be surprised that the labels would not communicate this to consumers."
Clicks and pops
Record companies have toyed with protecting CDs against copying for several years. But the technology is a difficult one, because anything added to a CD risks degrading the sound on an ordinary CD player to the point where audiophiles--or even ordinary consumers--start complaining.
Previous efforts have largely foundered. A BMG Music trial in Germany was scrapped after many consumers said the copy-protected discs would not play on their CD players. An album release by country artist Charley Pride earlier this year misfired when unprotected versions were released in some markets, allowing songs from the CD to seep onto file-swapping networks.
The most high-profile effort, the cross-industry Secure Digital Music Initiative (SDMI), has all but scrapped its plans to add digital "watermarks" to recorded music, after disagreements between labels, consumer device manufacturers and technology companies derailed the effort.
The Macrovision tests are based on a technology acquired from Israeli company TTR Technologies. Rather than blocking copying altogether, the technology introduces some digital distortion into a file. Macrovision says this is all but inaudible when a CD is played through an ordinary CD player, but when a song is copied into digital format on a PC's hard drive, the distortion shows up as annoying "clicks and pops" in the music.
The company said it and the labels are in large part testing to see if the changes in the audio are audible to consumers. Reports so far have turned up no significantly higher number of CD returns or consumer complaints, a spokeswoman said.
The company would not say which CDs or labels have been involved, citing nondisclosure agreements with the music labels.
"They don't want to influence the listener's potential experience," said Macrovision spokeswoman Miao Chang.
BMG Entertainment confirmed that it was interested in the technology but stopped short of confirming that any of its CDs in the market include the copy protection.
"BMG is interested in copy-management technology, and we will be conducting tests on some available technology including Macrovision," a BMG spokesman said.
Other major labels would not immediately comment on the issue.
Can they do that?
The tests highlight the questionable legal status of what is now a widespread practice of making digital copies of CDs, if only for home MP3 collections or to transfer to MP3 players.
The Audio Home Recording Act, a law passed in 1992, says that copyright holders can't sue people who are making personal home copies of music. But lawyers note that the act does not require copyright holders to make this power available to consumers.
"There's no affirmative obligation to make this available," said Leonard Rubin, a copyright attorney with Gordon & Glickson. "They just can't sue you if you do it."
Moreover, legal precedents have clouded the issue of whether a PC is actually protected by this law. In the course of a case that gave Diamond Multimedia the right to create and distribute MP3 players, judges ruled that a personal computer was not deemed a "digital recording device." Although the ruling helped protect the legality of MP3 players, it called into question whether copying a CD to a hard drive is in fact protected by law, even solely for personal use, some lawyers said.
The upshot of this is that consumers may not have much recourse if the ability to rip new CDs begins to go away.
"There might be consumer expectations here," McNealy said. "But there is no legal right."
In a win for Intel, a key industry group has voted in favor of the chipmaker's proposal to rework the innards of computers, and a who's who of industry heavy hitters will promote the technology.
The proposed technology, called 3GIO, will now be overseen by the PCI-SIG, (http://www.pcisig.com/home) the standards body that supervises Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI), the long-dominant technique for plugging devices such as graphics cards and network cards into computers. PCI will be phased out and replaced by the Intel technology.
The PCI-SIG steering committee voted unanimously in favor of 3GIO Friday morning, the standards body's president, Roger Tipley, said. The nine committee members--representatives of Advanced Micro Devices, Broadcom's ServerWorks division, Compaq Computer, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, Phoenix Technologies and Texas Instruments--had voted July 27 to take another week for company lawyers to review the standard.
The technology has staying power, Tipley said. "Ten years would be its minimum life, and you probably imagine it going well beyond that," he said.
The main companies putting their promotional muscle behind the technology will be Intel, IBM, Compaq Computer, Microsoft and Dell Computer, said Tom Bradicich, director of architecture and technology at IBM and one of the voters.
Out with the old...
PCI has enjoyed a long reign as the prevailing way to transfer data into and out of a computer, but speeding up the technology is becoming prohibitively expensive.
PCI sends synchronized signals along numerous parallel wires, but 3GIO uses many fewer wires that can transfer data at higher speeds because signals don't have to be synchronized. This revs up data transfer to graphics cards, for example, making for more realistic images in computer games. It also affects network cards, improving the response time of servers that send information such as Web pages over networks.
PCI-SIG's involvement in backing the Intel specification was first reported by CNET News.com.
Analysts had said a different standard--from Intel rival AMD--called HyperTransport had the potential to split the industry, but AMD didn't position HyperTransport as a 3GIO competitor.
3GIO has been governed by a more secretive, Intel-sponsored organization called the Arapahoe Working Group. "We have decided that bringing this to the PCI-SIG body was a better idea than going it alone with yet another special interest group," Bradicich said.
The technology goes by many names. When Intel unveiled it in March, the company simply referred to a "third-generation input/output," hence the 3GIO moniker. But the technology is also called Arapahoe and serial PCI, and it will likely emerge as a standard called PCI 3.0.
"We are now PCI 2.x. From all the conversations we have with the PCI-SIG, this is going to be the 3.0 spec," said Gabriele Sartori, president of the HyperTransport Technology Consortium and a member of the team who decided AMD should vote in favor of the 3GIO proposal. He predicted that version 3.0 would arrive in the second quarter of 2002.
PCI-SIG will gradually assume control of the technology, Tipley said. "Currently the direction for the specification is controlled by the Arapahoe Working Group. At a point in the future, it'll transfer totally over to PCI-SIG," he said.
Intel believes 3GIO will be used in desktop computers, laptops, servers and networking hardware, with the first products emerging in the second half of 2003. Representatives of several companies expected wider adoption to take place in 2004.
"Whatever you shoot for, add a year," said David Pullings, vice president of marketing at Broadcom's ServerWorks. "I would see 2004 as being realistic."
Built for speed
3GIO is expected to be as much as six times faster than PCI-X, the speediest version of PCI. Versions will be defined with a single wire or with two, four, eight, 16 or 32 wires for higher collective speeds, Tipley said, allowing the technology to work for a wide range of tasks.
"You can't go much faster, until light speed," with optical connections instead of wires, Tipley said.
PCI-X offers bandwidth of 1.1 gigabytes per second, with each of the 64 wires carrying about 17 megabytes per second.
Each 3GIO wire will be able to carry data at least 12 times that pace, Intel spokeswoman Mary Ninow said. That means a single-wire 3GIO connection could carry 206 megabytes per second, the eight-wire version could carry 1.6 gigabytes per second, and the 32-wire version could carry 6.6 gigabytes per second--six times the speed of PCI-X.
By contrast, the fastest Ethernet network cards generally available today carry data at 120 megabytes per second. AGP 4x, the fastest method for communicating with graphics cards, operates at 1.1 gigabytes per second.
Though the first versions of 3GIO will have wires communicating at 12 times the speed of those of PCI-X, later versions will have faster wires, Ninow said.
Executives at Intel also say it will cost less to transfer data at a given speed with 3GIO than with PCI.
InfiniBand on the run?
One issue raised by the adoption of 3GIO is what, exactly, it will replace. The technology will be good for connecting network cards and graphics cards, but it also has the potential to step on the turf of the high-end InfiniBand (http://www.infinibandta.org/) networking standard or the Universal Serial Bus (USB) and IEEE 1394 ("Firewire") standards for plugging in peripherals such as video cameras, scanners and printers.
Intel currently sees 3GIO as a bridge that would link to USB or IEEE 1394 connections, not a replacement for those connections, said Bala Cadambi, third-generation interconnect program manager at Intel's Desktop Platform Group. USB and IEEE 1394 were designed from the start to address some issues involved in plugging in peripherals, he said, issues PCI can't handle.
But IBM's Bradicich said it's expensive supporting numerous different data pathways--called "buses"--within the same computer design, and PCI has been heading in the direction of USB. Developers have been altering PCI so it will let people add and remove devices without having to shut down their computer first.
And Bradicich acknowledges that 3GIO steps on InfiniBand's toes. "There will be some overlap down at the low end" of the InfiniBand range, he said. But InfiniBand will arrive beginning this year and will be used for higher-end jobs, which 3GIO won't be able to handle. 3GIO "won't have the scalability, performance and reliability" that InfiniBand has for tasks such as connecting clusters of servers, Bradicich said.
Apple: Machines are more than megahertz
By Ian Fried
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
July 19, 2001, 10:30 a.m. PT
URL: http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1006-200-6614191.html?tag=prntfr
NEW YORK--Several months back, Apple Computer CEO Steve Jobs spoke of narrowing the clock-speed gap between the chips in Macs and Windows-based machines. But as the gulf continues to widen, Apple is once again trying to convince consumers not to judge its computers on megahertz alone.
In an October conference call with analysts, Jobs said the company would unveil machines with faster G4 processors in an effort to close the "megahertz gap" with Intel chips during the first half of 2001 and would look to "make substantial progress in the remainder of the year."
Although Apple has indeed introduced faster machines, including an 867MHz Power Mac on Wednesday, Intel's chips now run at up to 1.8GHz--or more than double the clock speed of the fastest Mac.
Perhaps as a result, Apple is again making the pitch that megahertz doesn't matter and that its machines are still faster at the tasks many people perform.
During Wednesday's Macworld Expo keynote speech, Apple did some now familiar demos showing its chips outperforming the fastest Intel Pentium 4 at tasks such as video and photo editing. However, to further drive home the point, Jobs brought out Apple hardware guru Jon Rubinstein to get into some of the nitty-gritty of chip design, including latencies and dependencies that can slow chips down.
Although such issues are more often discussed at engineering conferences than at mainstream computer shows, Rubinstein used clever graphics to show that chips with long pipelines, like the Pentium 4, can perform slower than ones with shorter pipelines, such as the PowerPC chips built by Motorola and IBM and used in the Mac.
Apple said it is not giving up the effort to close the gap with Intel, even as it works to educate consumers that megahertz is not the only measure of performance.
"We try to do both at the same time," Apple Vice President Phil Schiller told CNET News.com.
"We want to do what we can to close the gap of perception with (regard to) megahertz," Schiller added. At the same time, he noted that Apple's speed increases for the Power Mac are among the largest ever in terms of the number of megahertz. Until Wednesday, the Power Macs ranged in speed from 466MHz to 733MHz. The machines now range from 733MHz to 867MHz.
Analysts praised Apple for trying but questioned its effectiveness.
"It was important to get the message out, but I think it fell flat by the looks of the crowd," said Michael Silver, a Gartner analyst.
Added Chris LeTocq, an analyst at Guernsey Research: "I think they got closer this time, but they missed the punch line."
However, a number of attendees at the show said they were in complete agreement with Apple that counting megahertz is not the way to measure a computer's performance.
"They're right," said Christopher Marson, a graphic designer from the Bahamas. "It depends how fast a machine runs software."
Other Mac fans at the show expressed similar opinions.
"Megahertz is just one of the many factors that affects performance," said Paul Hunter, who manages computers for the Greenwich, Conn., public schools.
Micki Katz, a consultant for Mac Mediatek in New York, agreed but said the perception issue is important for Apple as it seeks to attract new PC buyers and converts from the Windows world.
"In terms of Apple trying to get more market share, they need to do a better job of educating the public," said Katz, who helps graphics workers set up their computer systems. "I think the general perception in the public is that it does matter."
Katz said Apple's presentation was good but noted it was not necessarily reaching the people who really needed to hear it.
"We're all Mac people, and we're all 'yeah, yeah.' But what about the other people? It's a tough question."
Likewise, Joshua Prowisor said that megahertz doesn't matter to him in his present role teaching and managing computers for the Gibbsoboro school district in Westhampton, N.J. But the former CompUSA salesman said he knows that is what many computer buyers look at.
"It's like an engine," he said. "People look at horsepower, but torque is just as important."
[Editor's Note: Apple has set up a web page devoted to combatting "The Megahertz Myth." Check out http://www.apple.com/g4/myth/ .]
Here's a transition guide from Windows to Linux:
ftp://www6.software.ibm.com/software/developer/library/l-faq.pdf
It's 50 pages, but looks like it is a good intro. From IBM.
Here are my musings about DirOpus 6 for Windows, assembled from various messages between Kevin Hisel and myself over the last month.
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First Blush
************************************************************
Well, I've had some time to play around with DO... I LIKE IT! Very Amiga-ish and a welcome change to Explorer.
It *does* have an internal command language, as well as external Batch interfacing. To be sure, there is a learning curve here, but the syntax is very Amiga-like. A couple of weeks with this puppy and I could be throwing a bundle of my file-enhancers back to the waves.
There are many cool (and configurable) features, but one of the coolest is to launch new a list-view. You just double-click on the desktop (or WindowsKey-O) and up it pops, right under your mouse cursor! Opening size is of course configurable as well as most everything else, ad-infinitum, hence more learning curve.
I think you would enjoy this pup as much as I do... you really ought to give it a whirl. It did bomb on me once (after I re-configged damn near everything and tried to view one of the log files before saving the changes), but after it died, it came right back up and ... *didn't* bring Explorer down with it! In fact, I haven't rebooted all day. I am not running in Explorer-replacement mode just yet, wanting to get a feel for things first, but I can see that day coming RSN.
The more I use this proggy, the more that fifty bucks (Usergroup discount, 10 or more copies) seems realistic. On-line help so far is OK, but uses the sub-par WinBloz Help engine. However, there is a PDF document that gets installed in the program folder that is pretty complete.
I'll keep you posted on current developments.
Jim
************************************************************
From: Kevin Hisel (khisel @ kevinhisel.com)
Sent: Saturday, July 28, 2001 1:54 PM
To: kjlewis@prairieinet.net
Subject: Re: DirOpus 6, first impressions
Okay, now it's been over a month. Is DirOpus something you use every time you use Windows? Have you found more warts? More features?
************************************************************
The Honeymoon is Over!
************************************************************
Well, I still like the program. I use it every day, but I've not replaced Windows Explorer with DO, nor am I likely to do so anytime soon. There are too many little "gotchas" with DO to actually replace Windows Explorer at this time.
The Pluses
1. Configurability! This dude can be tweaked beyond belief (as could the Amiga versions).
2. Multi-threaded operation. During normal operation, all aspects of DO can be launched independent of the others (except config, more about that later). This makes for efficient operation.
3. Depth! DO can be as complex as you want to make it! Hooks to outside programs can co-exist with many pre-defined tasks, ex: Split and Join (internal commands), highlight a file and choose Split - a dialog comes up with chunk-size choices of Automatic, 1.44M, 1.2M, 720K, 360K, 40M (Clik), 100M (Zip), 250M (Zip) and 648M (CDR) sizes. Just pick one and you're off to the races. The function adds appropriate extensions for you (like .000, .001, .002, etc.). Joining is an easy process. Just highlight the files to be joined, adjust the position in the list of any file not in sequence ('move' up and down buttons accomplish this), and away it goes. Also, you can tie any batch file or program file you like to a button and control the environment that it runs in. Nice.
4. All the 'built-ins'. FTP, Zip and picture viewing services are all native to DO. You really don't need an external program for the basic features of any of these applications.
5. MP3 file manipulation and renaming by ID3 tags. You have to dig for the method, but it's there.
The Minuses
1. My biggest beef is the documentation. At first blush, I found the help I needed, but as I got more involved with the program, the poor organization and outright omission of crucial explanations in both the on-line and PDF Docs became apparent. You have a *bloated* 3.5M PDF file that does much horn-blowing and self-aggrandizement, but little in helping the user. The on-line help is even *more* atrocious. Evidently, these guys forgot the concept of an INDEX!! The on-line help comes closer (due to the Index feature in the Windows Help file format), barely, but the PDF file is *very* hard to use. Power Users go for the Index, not the Table of Contents, but I couldn't find most of the stuff I needed in the first try, no matter where I looked. Unacceptable.
2. Multi-threaded operation. If you use a 'Sun-Mouse' type accessory (such as the X-Mouse setting on TweakUI), the menus behave oddly. You have to click and hold the LMB to get the drop-down menus to stay visible while you scroll down through them. I find it's easier to disable X-Mouse before working with DO, but that's a pain. Annoying.
3. Depth! Let's use the Split (internal command) example above:
a. Chunk Size is only adjustable among the pre-defined choices. No "custom" size is available. Suppose you want to split a file up for emailing a large file past the limit at your ISP. The only viable options are 1.44M or 1.2M, since the next largest is a whopping *40M*!! It would be nice to be able to choose your chunk-size (like WinRAR for example). Poor design, here.
b. The Split requesters' destination *always* defaults to "C:\". You have to copy the current path from the bottom of the window (assuming you don't have it turned off!) and paste it over the default path in the requester. This one is inexcusable! If there's a config option for this, I COULDN'T FIND IT! The default folder should be the one in which the file to be split apart resides.
Another issue: Split won't work if you're trying to use a file that already has a '.00x' or '.xxx' numeric extension. Yip, evidently, it 'assumes' that you are trying to split an already split file and won't let you do it! What happened to the good-old-days of DO looking at the file header to see what type of file it got fed (vis-a-vis the Amiga version)? Here we just have the normal Windows "guilt-by-association" file extension trap. Disappointing.
c. Join isn't any better. The output portion of the requester does have the original filename to restore to (although I'm convinced it just strips the '.000' extension from the first file to come up with the name), but its path is in the root of 'C:'. Frustrating.
4. Config. The 'Customize' option has to be run to configure any of the options, but you can't customize a button or a menu item from the 'Customize' dialog box. You must move the dialog out of the way and left-click the item of interest. A new listing in the context menu called 'edit' shows up, which must be selected (and pops open yet another requester, BTW) to modify the object. There's config sprinkled all over this program, with no real organization to it at all. Convoluted.
5. Built-ins. The trouble with a 'Jack-of-All-Trades' is usually that he is a 'Master-of-None', and DO fits the stereotype. The built-in FTP, Zip and Image Viewer are much better accomplished by the programs you are probably already using for them (Cute FTP, WinZip and ACDSee). These features are aimed at new or novice users, when the target market of DO *has* to be Power Users. I find that the built-in stuff is just so much extra baggage! Power Users aren't going to put up with these anemic apps. They will just stick to whatever they're already using. A waste of effort on the programmers part. Curious.
I think you get the idea... Very complex and quirky, and enough different from the familiarity of Windows Explorer that switching is tough. Once I get used to it, I'm sure it will be fine, and get used to it, I will! I liked DO on the Amiga too much not to use it on the PC. Trouble is, it's going to take me as long as it did to get up to speed with MS Word, with just as many little 'gotchas' along the way. I can see lots of complex custom buttons, Qbasic programs and Batch files in my future.
On the bright side, It's only crashed once (running under 98 SE), and that was when I changed nearly every custom setting I could before saving. The rest of the time DO has been reliable. And, it certainly *is* configurable. I'm sure, once I become an 'expert' with the arcane syntax used, I'll be whipping around in DO just like old times.
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Conclusion:
************************************************************
I certainly expected much better from this Author, particularly based on his previous Amiga experience. The Amiga documentation was complete, well organized and pleasant to use. If I had as good here, I would be raving about DO, instead of biting my tongue while I write. You simply *must* explain how to do things in a way the average user can at least find, let alone understand. I consider myself to be a cut or two removed from the 'average user', and I *still* had major issues configuring what I have so far on this program (I'm nowhere *near* done yet, either). Granted, there is Web-based support and a "Users Forum" available on GPSoft's site, but basic configuration info *should* be in the Manual or On-line Help. These guys aren't Microsoft (the only company other than GPSoft I'm aware of that virtually *requires* you to hit the Knowledge Base to configure their stuff). Maybe Mike Latinovitch can straighten me out on some of these issues since he was one of the Beta-Testers. I hope so!
Then there's the PRICE of the program. Even $35 would be EXHORBITANT for this incarnation of DO, and the MSRP is $77, over *double* that!!
My current recommendation is to wait for Version 7, assuming it sports a re-done Help file and REALISTIC pricing. Unless a *real* help file, with an accurate Index is made available, Version 6 IMO, is a BETA and isn't ready for prime-time yet.
Jim
************************************************************
Wow, thanks for the answer on this. I wonder if maybe this is just suffering from being the first version out of the chute. I'm guessing that he will address some of the 'minuses'. But I can relate to your 'Jack of All Trades' comment. Maybe I'd consider this program if I was just starting out and had not already paid for fully registered versions of all the great add-ons.
Thanks again.
-Kevin Hisel
http://www.kevinhisel.com/
khisel @ kevinhisel.com
Viruses have always been an issue on various computer platforms with the Windows platforms having the greatest share of them in a distant first place. Some of the most popular these days spread so much faster than in the old days because many access the email addresses people keep in their Outlook and Outlook Express addressbooks and then transmits the virus to them. Not only does this potentially affect those receiving the virus in email, but has been known to bring various email servers to their knees because of the traffic generated, thus affecting others not even getting this virus. With this in mind, viruses are having a greater impact on individual users than ever before. Most of this has all come about due to a Microsoft technology known as vbscript. Without getting real technical, it is nothing more than one of a few scripting languages for the Windows operating systems that can hook into the operating system and other applications. Users of other platforms such as Macintosh or Amiga might be familiar with Applescript or Arexx which can serve some of the same purpose for true productive scripts.
What's this have to do with extensions?
Let me begin with a brief description about these before trying to make sense of all of it. In all Windows operating systems since Windows 95, Microsoft has felt the need to somewhat imitate the Macintosh, in that files and programs are viewed on the screen without seeing the extension. For those unfamiliar with extensions, these are the most basic way that a person can tell what format a file is. For example a file might be listed as forest.jpg. The ".jpg" suggests that this forest file should be a picture in a jpeg format. Most people have seen "index.htm" when viewing pages on the World Wide Web. The ".htm" is the extension suggesting that this is an html document. As you can see these extensions are typically three letter extensions. This was popularized by DOS and the various early Windows operating systems. Although many modern operating systems can address more than three letter extensions, this has become a basic standard in some circles so that most, if not all, systems know how to deal with files. An example of a four letter extension that is quite popular is ".html". Had web servers originally been only available for Windows systems in the early days, we likely would have only seen ".htm". We can debate all day and night as to whether three, four, or 9 letter (god help us) extensions might be best but that really isn't the point of this article. I merely want to point out that Microsoft attempts to loosely hide these from people, thinking that it might confuse them. Bad mistake. Not only is it a bad idea in my opinion to hide something from the user that directly impacts their work, but it also allows for something like a virus to use this feature to infect and damage systems without the user having any knowledge of it.
Now what about associations?
Associations almost describes itself. It is merely a feature in Windows that associates an extension to a particular application. Many users utilize a shareware product called ACDSee for viewing graphics. If the default installation is left alone, files with ".jpg", ".gif", and many others as their extension will be associated in the operating system, so that when a user double clicks the file, it will launch the specified application which in this case is ACDSee. Associations aren't really a bad thing and Microsoft actually makes them somewhat flexible to make adjustments to them in terms as to how the applications can interact with the files. It's not perfect but not bad at all.
What does this have to do with viruses?
These new viruses work by converting a media format file in most cases like a jpeg into a vbscript which would typically have a ".vbs" extension on it if the user could see it. Technically,it doesn't really convert the file but records the name and extension on the file, deletes it, then replaces it with the malicious vbscript. It then names this vbscript with the same name and extension of the original file. You're thinking at this point "big deal" as I have that jpeg file or whatever media file it is set to load in something that doesn't run vbscripts when I double click them like acdsee, photoshop, or some player. This is where it gets you. It not only named it after the original file but added "another" extension ".vbs". Below is an example:
original file -> forest.jpg file after infection -> forest.jpg.vbs
It's starting to come together now, isn't it?
Some of this might be starting to make sense to you by now in that, since it has that ".vbs" extension on there, it is now associated in a way to run the script when you double click the file. The user, of course, thinks they're going to double click the file to view their picture but instead executes this script that does whatever it was designed to do. A simple way to defeat this is to open up Windows Explorer and enter the Options which are labeled differently under various Windows OS's and are located in different areas with some as well. (If you are unsure how to do this, please visit one of our monthly meetings to ask for further details.) Once you select the options, you may have to search a bit, but there is a place where it lists the following with a checkbox next to it.
"Hide file extensions for known file types"
It's been awhile since I've sat in front of a Win9x system, so it might be labeled slightly different. It should be fairly similar, if it is indeed different. This will allow the user now to recognize more easily what has been corrupted, as now that they're accustomed to seeing files with ".jpg" when viewing those, they will notice more quickly that "forest.jpg.vbs" is not what it should be. Sure the icon might have changed before to show it had changed, but people seem to not always recognize icon changes like Apple and Macintosh wanted people to believe would happen years ago. Most people do read and that's how they identify files that they access.
Another tip that can be helpful if you do not need to run vbscripts with a double click is to change their file association to open something like Notepad. At this point it also depends on the version of the Windows operating system as to how to do this. Rather than go into detail here and me try to explain how under each OS, I recommend again attending a meeting and asking. I'm pretty much a straight Windows 2000 guy these days, so I rarely touch a different Windows OS, but there are others in the club that do and can be more specific. With that in mind, I'll simply point out that in Win2k you can open Windows Explorer and go to the Tools menu, select Folder Options, then select File Types. Click the Extensions' heading so that it sorts them alphabetically then look for "vbs". Click change and then select something like "notepad" that will be used to open them. There might be other solutions, like using the Advanced button instead and changing things there, but I've found just changing what application it opens to be pretty suitable.
What this all means is that Microsoft has provided features that the authors of viruses utilizing vbscript can take advantage of. None of what I spoke of above is really an evil thing. I do hold to my opinion that I don't care for hiding extensions but that's just the design they went with. Not really a right or wrong implementation in many cases.
I really do encourage folks to attend the CUCUG meetings. We have some good question and answer sessions early in the meeting and if someone had a question about how to do any of this, there would probably be at least a few others there that would be interested and learn from it as well. Besides questions often spawn other topics that really make the meetings interesting and informative.
http://www.tweak3d.net/tweak/ - Great page with links to tweaks for OS's, hardware and software
http://www.webattack.com/ - Nice site for downloading freeware and shareware.
http://www.labmice.net/ - Good Windows 2000 resource.
It was the best of expos, it was the worst of expos.
With apologies to Charles Dickens, this year's Macworld Expo in New York City was a truly odd show. Expectations of new Macs ran high based both on rumors and on analysis of Apple's current products and release cycles. Equally anticipated was a significant feature update to Mac OS X. But the much-awaited Steve Jobs keynote on the first morning felt cobbled together at the last moment and showed more forward momentum than shipping products. Moving from the keynote to the show floor quickly revealed to me that the show floor was smaller than last year. Put these two facts together and you have what would seem to be the start of a dismal Macworld Expo.
As with all journalists, I was already writing bits of this article in my head, tying a mediocre show to the industry downturn, to Apple's inability to ship Mac OS X 10.1, to the error-marred keynote. Then I noticed that walking through the aisles was proving difficult due to the throngs of Mac users. And then, as with the Scrooge-like Grinch who hears the singing of all the Whos down in Whoville even after he's stolen all their Christmas fixings, I gradually realized that this crowd was not only large, it was happy. Clearly it was too early to call the show, so I put my musings aside and wandered the floor.
By the end of the second morning, I'd determined that not only were there fewer square feet of exhibitors, there weren't any breakthrough products for the mainstream Macintosh audience. Grinch-like phrasings started to rattle around in my head again, but then I started to ask all the exhibitors I knew how the show was going. It's a standard question that I ask of everyone I meet after the first day, but I was utterly astonished to hear the enthusiastic responses. The exhibitors with whom I spoke were, without exception, happy, and some of them were wildly happy. Those selling products said sales were good or even great, and Neil Ticktin of DevDepot said they sold a t-shirt every 22 seconds during the first day. Attendance dropped off the second and third days (due in part to the drab keynote, which would otherwise have drawn in more New Yorkers), but in the end, it seems that slightly more people came to this Macworld Expo than last year's show.
So, despite the disappointing keynote, paucity of exhibitors, and lack of any must-have products, people attended in droves, and the exhibitors were pleased with the results. Weird, truly weird. Let's look at each of these in more depth.
A Keynote to Forget
Macworld keynote addresses since Steve Jobs returned to Apple have been extravaganzas. We've seen Phil Schiller jump from a 30-foot platform to demonstrate AirPort networking on the just-introduced iBook, and we've seen Apple Pro mice stuck to the bottom of all the chairs in the main hall of the keynote. We've seen products like the Power Mac G4 Cube and the PowerBook G4 Titanium released to huge fanfare. Jobs has become famous for his "And one more thing..." phrase that introduces the surprise product for the keynote. Compared to that stellar past, this keynote was lame, though still far better than the average trade show keynote.
http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=05488
http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=06064
Jobs led off with video footage from the opening of the Apple stores in McLean, Virginia and Los Angeles, California and then said Apple plans to open 4 more stores in August (in Dallas, Minneapolis, Chicago, and Boston), and follow that with more openings to bring the total to 25 by year-end. Although Apple believes the stores will break even by the end of this year, the president of a retail consulting firm was quoted in the New York Times as saying that Apple's approach was completely flawed and that the stores would shut down after two years of huge losses. Although initial traffic at the Apple stores was incredibly high, Jobs didn't provide any sales numbers for the stores in their first eight weeks.
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/07/12/technology/circuits/12APPL.html
Next up was Apple's industry dog-and-pony show "10 on X" that Apple hoped would make clear the level to which Macintosh developers are creating Mac OS X-based software. It was an important show of support, featuring Microsoft (Office and Internet Explorer), Adobe (Illustrator, GoLive, and InDesign), Quark, FileMaker, Connectix (Virtual PC), IBM (ViaVoice), World Book (2002 World Book Encyclopedia), Blizzard Entertainment (WarCraft III), Aspyr (Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2), and Alias|Wavefront (Maya) showcasing their products. There's no arguing with Apple's choices of who to show, since these ten companies covered much of the overall Macintosh market. But only two of the products shown were actually shipping: the 2002 World Book Encyclopedia and Aspyr's Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2, neither of which seem to use Mac OS X in an interesting fashion. All the others are slated for later this year.
http://www.worldbook.com/
http://www.aspyr.com/mini-sites/th2/
Although it too isn't scheduled to ship for a few more months, the first program shown, Microsoft Office 10, will be the key to Mac OS X's success. Without the popular suite of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Entourage running native on Mac OS X, most business users would face a significant barrier to adoption. Microsoft is even giving Apple a boost by putting Office 2001 into maintenance mode and concentrating all future development on the Mac OS X-only Office 10. I'll look at the changes in Office 10 more closely in a future issue.
After the demonstrations, Jobs enthusiastically launched into showing the new features in Mac OS X 10.1, and from first glance, it appears that it addresses many of the glaring holes and problems in the current version of Mac OS X. We'll write more about Mac OS X 10.1 in next week's issue, but suffice to say, the changes, if not the September ship date, were well received.
The new hardware announcements that followed the Mac OS X 10.1 demo didn't rate the same enthusiasm (although the announcement that the new iBook (Dual USB) had sold a record 182,000 units in only two months garnered huge applause). The speed-bumped iMacs rated just a few minutes from Jobs, and they deserved no more. More solid were the new Power Mac G4s, which offered a minor front panel redesign and significantly improved performance at the same price points. Although these upgrades aren't inherently interesting, they offer a fabulous price for performance ratio.
http://www.apple.com/imac/
http://www.apple.com/powermac/
What would an announcement of fast Macs be without a comparison with the top-of-the-line Pentium-based computer running Windows? Refreshing, since the canned comparisons are dull and wasted time in an already long keynote. People don't buy the Mac based on performance, and although it's fine to show that the fastest PowerPC chips are no slouches, it's time to let these comparisons die. If the comparisons were predictable (Jobs trots out Phil Schiller, they banter about how they had trouble even buying the Pentium, they run the Photoshop filters, the Mac finishes first), this year's lesson in chip architecture from Apple hardware chief Jon Rubinstein was inexplicable. In an attempt to show that clock speed isn't the only thing that makes a processor fast, he talked the audience through an animation of how more pipeline stages (the PowerPC G4 has 7, the Pentium 4 has 20) can significantly reduce performance. He's right of course, and his demonstration was well done, short of the fact that the longer pipeline representing the Pentium 4 wasn't running twice as fast to show the faster clock speed. But who cares? Chip performance is a highly complex issue, and no one who believes that clock speed is all that matters will be convinced otherwise by such a demonstration from Apple.
Last, but not least, was a preview of iDVD 2, which adds motion menus, new themes (some of which featured background animations), a soundtrack option for still image slideshows, background encoding, support for 90 minute DVDs (up from 60 minutes currently), and support for Mac OS X. Like so much else, it's due in September, and will be a free upgrade.
At the very end, there was even tacit admission of Apple's desire to have more to present. To show that Apple hasn't exactly been goofing off, Jobs flipped through slides of all the software and hardware releases Apple has had this year. He then asked the audience to give a round of applause for the hard-working Apple employees, and then another for the families of those employees. Though it's unlikely that many family members were watching the keynote to appreciate the gesture, it was still welcome recognition for the effect 80-hour work weeks have on families.
http://www.apple.com/hotnews/articles/2001/07/macworld/
Missing Exhibitors
There was no question that the show floor sported less booth space than in past years. A number of mainstays of the Macintosh industry weren't in attendance at all, most notably Adobe and Casady & Greene, and others had smaller booths than in previous years. Then there was Smith Micro, the makers of FAXstf. They had a fair amount of space, but it was occupied only by a banner hanging from the cavernous Javits ceiling, a wire snaking down from the rafters, and a couple of plain tables. The whole thing just screamed "cost-cutting!"
http://www.adobe.com/
http://www.casadyg.com/
http://www.smithmicro.com/Mac_index.tpl
Companies chose to stay away for two basic reasons. The most important is the industry downturn. New York is expensive and my guess is that for a company like Adobe, the cost of a large space; the booth and related equipment; and the airfare, hotel, food, and salaries for the necessary staff could easily run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars. Most companies are tightening the purse strings these days and even though Adobe in particular has fared relatively well, that kind of money might be better spent elsewhere, such as on traditional advertising that's both cheaper and more effective with the loss of many Internet advertisers.
The second reason - the transition to Mac OS X - is related to the first. It's one thing to spend marketing money on a trade show in hard economic times, but it's another to spend that money when you don't have much Mac OS X-specific software to demo. Other than a few games, Casady & Greene doesn't have any Mac OS X software, and given the expectation that this would be the big Mac OS X show, it's easy to understand their decision to stay home. By that reasoning, Macworld Expo in San Francisco this coming January should be huge, since Mac OS X 10.1 will be out and many more companies will have their Mac OS X versions done.
No Killer Products
I was depressed to go the entire show without seeing anything that I found truly impressive. There were a few welcome Mac OS X versions, such as QuicKeys for Mac OS X from CE Software and Virtual PC for Mac OS X from Connectix. But as useful and necessary as those programs are, they don't introduce particularly new functionality to the Mac world. On the hardware side, the usual crop of high-quality printers and cameras and camcorders may not have been surprising, but they at least made for good browsing. I remain particularly impressed with Canon's PowerShot S110 and S300 Digital Elph cameras for snapshots (the S300 has a 3x optical zoom and a larger body). The most interesting devices were Griffin Technology's sleek PowerMate USB volume controller and PowerWave USB audio adapter, which provides high-quality audio recording and playback through a built-in amplifier so you can connect normal stereo speakers to your Mac. They weren't shipping at the show, but almost everyone with whom I talked mentioned them, along with the P5 glove controller from Essential Reality.
http://www.cesoft.com/products/qkx.html
http://preview.connectix.com/testdrive/
http://www.powershot.com/powershot2/s110/
http://www.powershot.com/powershot2/s300/
http://www.griffintechnology.com/audio/pwrmate.html
http://www.griffintechnology.com/audio/pwrwave.html
http://www.essentialreality.com/
There were a few companies with products that were present only because Mac OS X provides a Unix core on top of which they can run, such as Memora for the Mac, a home server for email, digital photos, and music that runs on top of Mac OS X. But on the whole, Mac OS X has caused a pause in the level of innovation on the Mac. To be fair, innovation has fallen off a good bit over the past few years anyway, so my hope is that after programmers come up to speed on what Mac OS X makes possible and move their existing software over, we'll see functionality from our Macs that wasn't possible before Mac OS X.
http://www.memora.com/product/mac_index.htm
Droves of Attendees
Attendance at Macworld Expo was at the same levels or above those of last year, when Apple and the entire Macintosh industry was still doing extremely well. That's surprising enough in its own right, but a number of exhibitors commented that last month's PC Expo (also at the Javits Convention Center) was nowhere nearly as heavily attended. So not only did people come to Macworld, they did so in the face of industry conditions that caused a similar trade show in the same location to suffer significant attendance loss.
As I've noted before, Apple's fortunes aren't completely related to the rest of the computer industry because Macintosh purchases are more individual than corporate decisions. My current theory is that attendance at Macworld Expo is a roughly similar decision, and lots of people were curious to see Mac OS X and software that would run on it. Although Mac OS X 10.1 didn't make it out for Macworld Expo, almost none of the attendees with whom I spoke were running Mac OS X as their primary operating system, and as such they didn't seem concerned about the additional wait.
http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=06404
Even more important was that everyone seemed upbeat, and even when they'd seen the keynote, they didn't seem perturbed by the unspectacular present or unknown future. Perhaps it's just that Macworld Expo is the semi-annual gathering of what is essentially the Macintosh fan club, and the clear forward momentum on Apple's part made up for the lack of major announcements.
Happy Exhibitors
The fact that all of the exhibitors I spoke with ranged from happy to ecstatic about the response from attendees was what surprised me the most. It costs a lot to exhibit in New York, and exhibitors are sensitive to the value of presence versus the hard costs of showing up.
The sheer number of attendees helped a great deal, since there's nothing like a crowd of people taking promotional materials to make an exhibitor smile. The folks at CE Software said they ran out of CDs on the first morning and had to rush another batch in for the next day. But these weren't just any attendees, these were the Macintosh faithful. Rich Brown of Dartware (the company spun out of Dartmouth to develop the network utilities InterMapper, MacPing, and SNMP Watcher) said he'd been mobbed by InterMapper fans on the first day, not necessarily a common experience for someone making fairly technical networking utilities.
http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=05920
http://www.dartware.com/
But what really warms an exhibitor's heart is sales, and from what I can tell, sales went extremely well. Peachpit was selling lots of books despite a slowdown in overall book sales, and the cashiers at DevDepot were mobbed whenever I walked by. There's undoubtedly an aspect of being able to see and touch Macintosh products in person, something that's relatively difficult in most places (hence Apple's rationale behind the new Apple stores). But that's been true for years, and I simply don't know why people were more willing to spend money this year than in previous years. Perhaps it was the pricing: I know I was sorely tempted by a 100 GB FireWire hard disk and a 256 MB Compact Flash card, neither of which I really need, but both of which seemed cheap. RAM in particular was amazingly inexpensive, with one company advertising a 512 MB DIMM for $140, which I thought was low until I checked a couple of Internet price comparison sites such as the new and well-designed dealram. (I'm hearing that RAM is at a low right now due to a glut on the market, but because some production lines have been shut down to reduce supply and because the release of Windows XP in a few months will likely increase demand, prices will likely go up again soon.)
http://www.peachpit.com/
http://www.dealram.com/
In the end, even if I don't really know why this particular Macworld Expo was so upbeat, I'm not going to complain about it. Perception is powerful, as we've seen so many times with human interfaces, and if the perception of the state of the Macintosh is positive, that goes a long way toward creating a self-fulfilling prophecy that serves us all well.
Bill McEwen, President and CEO of Amiga Inc., made a number of exciting announcements at the AmiWest show in Sacramento, California. The AmiWest show is organized by the Sacramento Amiga Computer Club and is one of the largest Amiga shows on the West Coast.
The following products were announced for release by Q4, 2001.
* AmigaOne PPC Computer
* AmigaOS 4.0 PPC Operating System
* Amiga x86 (x86 Amiga emulator)
* AmigaDE 1.0 and Series Zero Game Pack
AmigaOne PPC Computer
The AmigaOne PPC computer, being built by Eyetech in the UK, is based on Zico specs published by Amiga Inc. Amiga Inc.'s flagship next generation desktop continues to advance towards the first real new hardware for the Amiga community in over 6 years. Excitement is mounting at both the Amiga office and around the world as Amigans realize that the long wait will soon be over. All partners in the AmigaOne and AmigaOS4.0 project have been working hard to meet deadlines as the project moves into its final stages.
Bill also announced that the two week slip in schedule for the Eyetech AmigaOne which had appeared in June had now been pulled back to just one week. The new Rev B boards are functioning well, with live PCI and AGP slots and work is now focused on bringing the board and the CPU cards together. The first week of August will see full system boards delivered to the AmigaOS4 team for preparations to move AmigaOS4.0 from the test bed machines.
For more details regarding the AmigaOne, see http://www.eyetech.co.uk/amigaone/ or http://www.amiga.com/products/one/.
AmigaOS 4.0 PPC Operating System
The AmigaOS 4.0 project is being managed by Amiga Inc. in partnership with both Haage-Partner (H&P) who are porting the main portions of the new PPC OS and Hyperion Software who are doing 3D and Mesa for the new PPC Operating System.
AmigaOS 4.0, which will only run on the Eyetech AmigaOne, is moving forward nicely. With the help of Amiga partners such as Matay, much of the development work has used a combination of A3/4000s, Matay Prometheus PCI bridge boards, Cyberstorm PPC Accelerators and H&P's StormC v4.
This has allowed the project to move forwards without having to wait for an actual AmigaOne board to become available. Consequently, the new file system and the core of the TCP/IP stack were completed over two weeks ago. The PPC 68K emulator is being fine-tuned and the new Amiga PCI library is being profiled against the Eyetech AmigaOne live PCI slots. The RTG system is being enhanced, with a full PPC implementation of the extended and most used functions, to allow for stunning 2D and 3D performance. In addition, the Voodoo 3 drivers have been completed and the G450 drivers are under development, to be followed by drivers for the new Matrox G550.
While the porting of the 68K elements of the AmigaOS will continue through AmigaOS4.2 and AmigaOS4.5, the first set of libraries ported to PPC will ensure that AmigaOS offers impressive increases in stability, functionality and speed.
Once the test bed to AmigaOne migration has been completed, Amiga will provide screenshots and benchmarks of the new system. These reports are aimed at demonstrating the superiority of the AmigaOne and will give the community an early look at the features of the product. In addition, Eyetech has commissioned some very impressive case designs that will give the AmigaOne the looks to go along with its brains.
Amiga x86
Amiga was able to demonstrate a prototype of an x86 emulator for 68K for the AmigaOS3.x series. This product, codenamed Amithlon, provides only RTG compatibility and is being targeted at providing a first step from x86 towards the AmigaOne. Amithlon is self-booting from CD on almost any x86 laptop or PC desktop. It is able to run most RTG programs at speeds beyond that of a standard Amiga 060 cpu. Several developers at the AmiWest show tried their applications on Amithlon and commented that they had never seen such fast run times before on a 68060 Amiga computer. Amithlon is being written by Harald Frank and Bernie Meyer.
Many Amigans who left when Commodore went bankrupt have been looking for a way to run their favorite Amiga applications on newer hardware. The purpose of the emulator is to allow x86 PC owners to experience the benefits of running the AmigaOS and applications without having to make a potentially risky purchase of an entire machine. Marketing and community will then slowly draw these people towards the superiority of an AmigaOne with a full native OS running on it, along with the latest applications. Amithlon is not a port of the AmigaOS and there are currently no plans to see the AmigaOS ported to x86.
More details of the Amithlon including feature lists and release dates will be published shortly.
AmigaDE 1.0 and Series Zero Game Pack
AmigaDE 1.0 (based on Elate/Intent by Tao Group) is being programmed by more than 30 programmers worldwide under the management of Amiga Inc. There are over 3000 developers currently signed up to produce content for various digital devices from cell phones, PDA's, handhelds, and even desktop computers running AmigaDE 1.0. Amiga also announced the first set of games that is being released under the moniker "Series Zero" to Sharp for use on the Zaurus handheld devices. The 5 games that are being released as part of the Series Zero Game Pack are:
* Batty by Titan Computers
* Boxikon by e.p.i.c. interactive gmbh
* Convex by Zeoneo
* Linea by Titan Computers
* Solitaire by John Harris
Since no-one's mentioned much yet (!), it turns out it's actually an emulator based on UAE JiT on top of a small Linux kernel -- which is *exactly* what I've been fantasizing somebody would do! I read somewhere that it'll be gradually updated (ie. parts moved to x86) -- is this true? If so, surely this would make for a good two-pronged attack, if both PPC and x86 had their libraries gradually ported alongside each other...
If not, well, it's still excellent news.
Alan Swithenbank (swithenbank@acm.org) wrote:
I haven't checked the URLs, but I have played with it hands on...;^)
As I understand it, it is not an emulator, but a translator, and there is a bit of Linux lurking to provide the drivers, (but that is to go away eventually).
What it is is friggin' AMAZING! I was already hitting a high level of amazement over the various announcements of partners and numbers, and literally became slack-jawed dumbfounded after Bill pulled it out from under the podium Friday night running on a 500 MHz Celeron laptop. (And that is a state it is not easy to get me in to...;^)...)
The issue for some will be it doesn't emulate the original chipset. Well, they will just have to keep on whining, while the rest of us get back in the game!
The conjecture around the show floor was that because it doesn't emulate the chipset, programs that work on a graphics card will likely be fine, and those that don't promote may have some trouble. Be that as it may, I saw it load up and run ImageFX, Aladdin4D, Aweb, and a few other things with no apparent problems (and REALLY REALLY FAST!). (Kermit even gave an ImageFX demo with it.)
Between the AmigaOS x86 (note this is NOT AmigaOS 4.x or DE, it is for all intents an purposes OS3.9), and the other announcements it's clear things are definitely happening! I predict that in spite of the small turnout this year (still a LOT of fun!), next year is going to be big, REALLY big...;^)
Colin Wenzel (colstv@yahoo.com.au) wrote:
With the simple addition of FAST AmigaOS x86 software, some people are screaming "Traitors", "We're Doomed" "I'm leaving Amiga", "Going over to the dark side"...... Ad infinitum... I really think some people need their prescription medication refilled.....
Skal Loret (skal@goes.com) wrote:
That was NOT the reaction at the show. Every hand raised when Bill asked who would buy it.
Then again, you should have seen the look on Kermit's face when he demo'ed ImageFX, for the second time, on X86...
James L Boyd (james@thesurfaces.net) wrote:
Only problem is that there are quite a few developers *seriously* whining about it, Amiga's trying to deprive them of food, killing their babies, etc. The most well-known are the Hyperion brothers (this is on ANN, so no secrets being let out here), which really surprised me... they're excellent coders, but they seem to really hate the idea of an x86 version.
Skal Loret (skal@goes.com) wrote:
I have no idea what the hell they are talking about, and I suspect that they don't either. Look, this thing was go-to-hell cool, worked like a charm, for such an early edition, and raped-ape *FAST*. Fast like the speed of heat. Fast like causes tumescence. Fast like you may have never ever seen an Amiga run, and many other OSs as well. Silly fast. Stoopid fast. People are gonna get speeding tickets from The Software Police fast.
Some people take a little more time to get the advantages:
Fast.
Old Amigans can run the thing EASILY.
No writing X86 or PPC code. Just write to the Amiga. Just keep yer' grubby lunchooks away from metal whacking.
A lot of people, when they calm down and take their meds, are gonna wake up and find them selves with Rockwell Scale 11, case hardened and engraved erections.
Just think of the economies of scale. Think of the potential numbers. Think fast. Think money.
David L. Stevens (dstevens@cityscape.net) wrote:
Ya just sold *ME*!
(:^)>
Skal Loret (skal@goes.com) wrote:
Well, get thineself a coolio, cheap PC and get ready, for verily, you have never seen Pagestream do stuff like this.
Fast.
Oooooo...so DAMN fast!
PS: Don't believe that "Performance hit, emulation" hype. The natural advantages of the OS are enhanced to an incredible degree, to the point that you are gonna need O2 near the machine, just in case.
Kelli Halliburton (kelli217@crosswinds.net) wrote:
Are you saying that I should have seen the look on Kermit's face? You've only mentioned this, um, four times now. ;)
Skal Loret (skal@goes.com) wrote:
Well, You can throw all the numbers and benchmarks and specs at me you want, but it all comes down to the reaction of the user. When said user is the notably crusty and skeptical Kermit, and I (and others...) see that look of discovery, kind of that kid at Christmas morning kind of look, well, you have convinced me, foursquare.
I don't give a rat's patoot about much except the tumescence factor, for truthfully, *THAT'S* what shifts the units out the door.
What is this FAQ?
Please note that this is not an official Amiga document. Heck, it isn't even an unofficial Amiga document. It's just me writing down a few answers. Things are written from my point of view, so you shouldn't even think about taking these as anyone else's opinion, or position, or world view, OK?
"We" refers to Harald Frank, of VMC in Germany, and myself. Together, we have been working on the Amithlon project.
Now, there is a bit more happening. Notice how I talked about rom images, plural? That's because in addition to the kickstart rom, we are also loading some Amithlon-specific roms that contain special drivers. These drivers tend to not actually do their work in 68k code (because, quite frankly, I suck at writing 68k code :), but instead simply call into the x86 side of things. So in actual use, control is jumping back and forth.
Long answer: One of my design choices was to make this thing in such a way that a gradual migration towards an x86 native AmigaOS is possible. The API for switching modes is insanely fast, and as far as programs are concerned, there is absolutely no difference between pointers to 68k functions and pointers to x86 functions. So if one were to rewrite, for example, the AddTail() function in x86 code, it could easily replace the 68k version.
It wouldn't be fun to be limited to just using all that fancy hardware in compatibility mode. On the other hand, it also is unrealistic to write AmigaOS drivers for all this stuff.
So what we do for gfx card access is to use the linux framebuffer devices. That lets us use just about any gfx card to some degree, and a number of directly supported cards in very nice ways. That's only possible because some nice people already wrote really good drivers for the linux kernel, and all we have to do is to make some calls to those drivers.
The same goes for IDE/SCSI access. The linux kernel is full of drivers for an incredible range of IDE/SCSI controllers. So instead of hitting the hardware directly, we simply leave the low level detail to someone else....:)
We are currently thinking about doing the same thing to network devices --- you would then have a single SANA2 device that gives you access to whatever networking hardware the linux kernel found. It's not quite clear whether this is feasible, but it appears to be
(To be honest, you cannot possibly imagine how much work that one was, but it's the end result that counts, and that is that it works).
An earlier version of Amithlon supported IDE disks by presenting the PC's IDE port as the Gayle IDE interface. It worked, and in some ways it even worked better than the current setup. But in many many ways, it was much worse --- PIO0 is really an insult to modern disks. And there couldn't be more than 4 IDE devices. Not to mention the total lack of SCSI support. And every now and again, things locked up, because Gayle just isn't the same as a PC's IDE port, really. So things are much much better now.
Fun starts when you get a supported gfx chipset. That's when you suddenly have loads of modes in 8, 16 and 24 bit depth available. The best supported ones are currently nVidia cards, up to and including all the variants of GeForce2. You will get all modes, and also accellerated 2D on these (no prices for guessing what cards I have in my machines). Next best supported are Matrox cards, with most modes available (some the hardware can't do the way P96 needs them), and most of the 2D accelleration. Then there are a few chipsets (e.g. some ATI stuff) which will give a wide range of resolutions/depths, but no accelleration.
Amithlon has reached the point where we were OK with the idea of showing it to the world, so when Amiga Inc asked us whether they could show it off at AmiWest, we said yes. It was important for us that people would be able to play around with it, to see with their own eyes (and, uhm, fingers) that it actually works.
It's not yet at the point where we would feel good about selling it. There are still a few items on the TODO list. Some just minor things, some biggies. We want this to be a great product when you get it.
They are two people who alpha-tested this stuff. They have provided great feedback, on many aspects of the emulator. They have also provided some great suggestions, have tried out things I would never have thought of, or plain didn't have available, and are just a couple of all-round great guys. They are also much appreciated for sometimes being a relieve valve when I really needed to tell someone about this stuff I was working on (or some other, related happenings) and could not tell anyone else, due to the hush-hush nature of it all.
And if you think they got a good deal, then think about the fact that what Bill McEwen showed is version 8d according to my internal counting. Bill H. and Lasse ran all those earlier versions, many of which I myself wouldn't have let anywhere near my main work PCs. Some of those were scarily buggy....
This whole thing sits on top of a modified linux kernel. Of course, that linux kernel is under the GPL, and the moment we start distributing Amithlon, I will personally make sure that the kernel source is right there on the CD. No discussion about that.
There are also a bunch of example programs and little helper utilities that I have written over the months to demonstrate and test the Amithlon features. Unless Amiga can show a good reason not to do so, I will also put those under the GPL, to give people as much info as possible.
All the clever stuff, however, is in the emulator. That one is proprietary, and no, you won't get sources.
Think of UAE as a grand mansion, with many rooms and corridors. There are a couple of rooms that between them make up the Amiga gfx emulation. There is one room for Paula, one room for the CIAs, one room that has the CPU emulation, one room for the FPU emulation, one room for the floppy emulation, one room for the P96 emulation, and so on. The corridors are things like the config file parsing, the GUI modules, the various I/O modules, and that sort of stuff. Lots and lots of people have contributed to this great building.
What I did was to take a great big wrecking ball to this mansion. Piece by piece, I got rid of just about everything. Native chipset emulation --- gone. Floppy emulation --- gone. P96 emulation --- gone. Config file parsing --- gone. GUI --- gone. All that was left standing was the innermost core of the place, the CPU emulation. Everything else I got rid of.
Quite a few of those things I then had to rewrite from scratch, looking only at the available hardware documentation. But most of them needed a rewrite, anyway, because Amithlon is very, very different from UAE....
If the author produces derivative code, based on code he released under the GPL earlier, there is absolutely no need to release that new stuff under the GPL as well. In contrast, if someone else, who acquired the code under the GPL, creates a derivative work and distributes it, then she is bound by the conditions placed on her by the GPL.
Please check the further explanations on the FSF site if you are still not convinced.
Unfortunately, reality is that I have to pay rent. I have to eat. I have to buy nifty new hardware to work on, and nifty old hardware to test this stuff with. Maybe I should even buy a special girl flowers every now and again. All of that costs money.
To get Amithlon to the point where it is right now took a lot of work. A LOT of work. Maybe you remember Bill McEwen's comment about having saved his team 18 months of development time? Well, I don't know how many people he has on his team, but over here, it's basically just me. And it hasn't been 18 months. Which might give you an idea of the kind of daily hours that went into it.
To put it bluntly --- I could not afford to invest that much time without getting some money out of it. If this thing wasn't proprietary and commercial, it wouldn't exist. Period.
Also, think about Amiga's position. Amithlon needs a ROM image. It needs an OS. It needs drivers developed for it. If they couldn't earn money with it, Amiga would have no reason to give access to any of that stuff. They are a for-profit company. Without such access, Amithlon would be crippled before it even started...
If you object to the idea of a commercial derivative of the UAE-JIT work, then by all means, use UAE-JIT. Hey, I like UAE-JIT. I spent waaaaaay too much time on it, of course, but it was fun making it. And I released it under the GPL, which is the only reason you can use it. Which is exactly why, most days, I can sleep quite well. This way, everyone is better off.
I must warn you that this is an unusual kind of an article, starting by the way it was made.
I started to write it, even before I could put my hands on the Amiga DE. I'm hopping that by doing this - showing you how it all evolved - you could get a better impression of it, through the experience I had, seeing what kind of disappointments I may encounter on the way (or may not) - from the moment I've begun to write it, until the moment I've finally finished it - what I had imagined it would be, and what it really is.
The beginning
As an avid Amigan, I've followed the steps of all Amiga plans, back from the Commodore time, where Amiga was alive and kickin', through its bankruptcy, passing by Escom, Viscorp, Gateway, and to the current owners, and I must confess to you, most of the plans were great and made a lot of sense, but they never got enough backing from the owner companies.
I recall with joy the great time at Cologne98 with the QNX presentation, where I saw a great potential, accomplished with either a great leadership in the person of Jim Collas, a great partner - QNX - and a big company to put some money where the mouth is. But it all went wrong. Jim Collas began to diverge immensely from the original plans. Linux was going to be the next big thing, a technology used by anyone else and their cats, with little or no space to the rebirth of the Amiga Philosophy (after all that is what the Amiga is, a philosophy, a better way of doing things), so my hopes vanished, or so I thoughtÉ
Amino, founded by Fleecy Moss and Bill McEwen, ex-employees of Gateway, stepped in and acquired Amiga. They had a plan, so I started seeking what this plan was all about, one more time... as I've searched for all the other plans. They share a fate already seen before. Their plans, also like Gateway, turned into another direction, but this time they didn't step so deep as Gateway did. They opted for reviving the AmigaOS, which is not an entirely bad thing, integrating both AmigaDE and AmigaOS by the 5th revision of AmigaOS.
The plan
The main focus this time was put on the OS, instead of the Hardware, as many in the past. So, they've chosen TAOS has their foundation and TAO, its creator, as their partners.
This departure from the Hardware brings for the first time, independence from the machine itself, giving the possibility of conquering a much wider market, without having to worry where it runs, and giving the possibility to "write once, run it everywhere" unlike others' systems, where even if you have the possibility to run on many CPUs, the programs had to be compiled for each one of them. Another great feature is that it can run on multiple CPUs. Fine, others also do that, you may say, but others can't run on different processors like TAOS can.
Another thing that this plan brings that others don't is the fact that this one takes a much more realistic approach, and not a megalomaniacal one as Gataway did. This plan is affordable, even for a company like Amiga Inc., and, if the foundation on which Amiga Inc. is building its core, shares the main elements from the AmigaOS with a nice presentation, it has the potential to be successful, bringing the Amiga name to where it belongs, on to new ground, but with the same soul.
This can be the turning point of Amiga's fate. We could actually see the rise of a new paradigm in how the user interacts with the "digital being". Amiga can again lead the computer evolution.
We will see the time where programmers start to take into special account the optimization of their programs, and here, Amiga with its VP assembler takes a major role in easing this task.
People will be tired of bogus software that crashes all the time, has its standards controlled... They will see the options out there, seeking for the best, a solution that doesn't cause them a nervous breakout, that leads them the way they want, and not some other way. This shift will make people more productive at what they do, not feeling that kind of loss we feel knowing that there is a better way to do things...
The promise
After all this merchandising from Amiga, saying that they will implement all of the Amiga spirit based on these foundations, one felt curious to know how good this really is... the pics shown reveal only its potential, but don't do any good when it comes to knowing about performance. So when I found an opportunity to get my hands on it, I simply couldn't resist... seeing for myself the new system in action without having to go to the shows (not a bad thing, but in Portugal there are none, and to travel to other countries is a rather difficult task).
Some pictures shown on the net show it in action, but give us no clues about its smoothness, of how it all behaves.
Hey!! It just arrived!! Let's Party!! : )
AmigaDE
Much has already been said about AmigaDE, so I'm not going to talk about it. I'll start now by showing a little bit of the AmigaDE, and although I haven't a lot to play with, I'll try to show to you most of it, through some exhaustive tests of what was given on this Party Pack, with my rather limited knowledge of this entirely new system.
Tests:
I've performed some tests, so that I can see how well it performs in extreme situations. So, as I couldn't use either Quake or Doom to perform a heavy load on the processor, I had to use what was given, and opened 105 windows, namely, using all the demos submenu, opening all the demos available, and thinking that that wasn't enough, I managed to open a few more boing balls and movies. Then, I was ready to see how it all performed.
RealTime
I felt a little slow down on the windows refresh, but not a big amount. The movies (at least the ones I could see :') didn't reveal any slowdown, neither did the bouncing boing balls. Needless to say, I needed about 6 minutes to be able to close all the windows!! :')
While I was doing this, I did some benchmarks using the command Speed given on the Party Pack, but the speed never dropped too much.
Interaction between Windows
Next, I evaluated the interaction between the ball and the background, but it has to be seen to be believed: the balls bounce, and their shadows react with whichever background is present: different backgrounds, windows with filters, you name it, it did it all in real-time! The ball passing behind, in front of a window with sepia effect, false colour, alpha gradient with colours!! The Ball bounced and was seen passing through a window with an alpha channel, the conjunction of various windows on top of each other performing their tasks, mixing their effects!! WOWÉ like Saint Thomas, you must see it to believe it!
Font analysis - The Amiga Anit-aliasing System
Next step had to be a font analysis.
The Fonts were anti-alised, so I thought of comparing them with the anti-aliazation of a known paint program - PaintShop Pro, not the world's best, but good enough to compare. And I have to say, they are both using the same algorithm made for this anti-aliazation, as they're both equals!! Is Amiga stealing PSP7, or was it the other way around!? ;')
So it's good new, knowing that AmigaDE uses such a good technology!
Resizing windows four ways
Next stop, windows sizing!
The AmigaDE takes a new departure from the Classic OS in windows sizing, by allowing the user to choose, whenever possible, any of the windows borders. So, if you select the right border, it will resize the width of the window. If you select the bottom left corner, it will resize both the width and height of it, and so onÉ
You're no longer tied to choose the right corner only, for resizing the window.
Banging the metal - The AmigaDE shell
Having tried everything I had access to, I began my entrance into this 'new kind' of Amiga Shell.
Whether they were new commands, or just mere equivalent ones with a new name, all of them have a new way of behaving. Besides that, there are some quirks, maybe due to the early stages of this shell.
For example, you have to type all the extension of the path of a program, so that it can run (i.e- $ demo/ave/edit). Another downside is the fact that when you use the left arrow button in conjunction with the shift key, it gives you nothing more than some weird characters, instead of going directly to the beginning of the line, as we are used toÉ
A good feature though is the help function present for each one of the commands, although, I haven't managed yet to close it, so that I can still make use of the shell. (After a thorough reading of the manuals, I've finally found what I had to do to keep using the shell: I only need to press the Q key :)
Summarizing, at this early point, it is nowhere as usable as the Kingcon shell I'm used to working with. Now, it's up to Amiga Inc. to increase its useability and to take it closer to what we are used to, with all the improvements it possesses.
The difference between some of the AmigaDE commands and the AmigaOS ones:
AmigaOS AmigaDE * dir * dir * list * ls * copy * cp * move * mv * rename * mv * delete * rm * sort * sort * run * run * echo * echo * type * catJava Speed
Another thing that everyone at Amiga talks about is the speed this system can achieve, so I ran the Java demos. Well, they seem pretty fast to me, but as I loaded them on IE, they turned out to be as fast as the speeds achieved by the Java Engine present on AmigaDE - not a big achievement by any means...
I was expecting an improvement over the others Java Engines, but that wasn't shown, at least I wasn't aware of any.
The End
This is the end of the review, but I'm hoping that you can help me improve it, by helping me correct some of the mistakes present in this review. For any further questions, you can mail me at: Leo_n@iol.pt
I hope you've liked it! : )
[Editor's note: Copies of this article, with it's accompanying pictures and in it's rough English source form can be found at:
HighRes PDF - http://amigarticles.tripod.com/pdfs/amigarticleshigh.pdf
LowRes PDF - http://amigarticles.tripod.com/pdfs/amigarticles.pdf
My appreciation to its original author.]
July 19, 2001 - President Jim Lewis began with the traditional introduction of officers. Jim then introduced the visitors to our group from the Linux/Unix special interest group on campus: Angel (sorry, I missed the last name), Kevin Wade, Mark Lennigan, Chris Clineworth, and Josh Dalbert.
First thing - Why are all these Linux people here??
Well, Jim, Mike and Dave went to a local Linux/*nix meeting and thought our group might get something out of a mutual communality. Would they want to join our group or just visit on occasion? After all CUCUG is known for gobbling up computer platforms, maybe we could ... uh ... get them to join us! Kevin expressed a concern that adding another SIG might affect our Commodore 64 support. And from here we digressed into a series of bad jokes about the 'hairy palm' SIG and other silliness. Of course the PC guys said it was the Mac guys fault. There was a short moment for practiced angry glares.
Questions -
A discount bookstore in Tuscola had several books of interest to the Linux/Server geeks. One was a commentary on Apache servers and one was a commentary on Linux IP Stacks. (I believe he said they both included CDs.) Kevin declared that some REAL exciting reading!
This same member also brought with him some paper stock that he had dug out of the discard bin at his place of work. Some time it's photo base and some times it is just weird stuff. This time he had some clear sticky-backed plastic that can be used to cover anything you printed on the photo base he brought last time.
Harold Ravlin learned something he didn't know before!! How to put clear plastic over an image! He mumbled something about doing a demo for one of the SIGs sometime. George Krumins mentioned that the server at his place of work had been hit with a 'Denial of Service' assault and had been crashing time and time again. It is a Windows NT server and the those in charge had been in contact with Microsoft. They suggested installing the latest service package 6a.
Harold said a better fix is to get a couple of the Unix guys to install a copy of Apache on the server. George had doubts as to whether his technology guys were that ambitious. Josh mentioned an IIS site to see if a patch was available.
Kevin Hisel mentioned that CNN reported an IIS worm called 'Code Red' that has been running amok on the web servers (mostly Unix and Wintel) everywhere. It first takes over the e-mail address list and sends itself to as many other servers as possible. Then later it sends 'mucho packets' to addresses like the Whitehouse and the Pentagon. There have been two assaults of the virus since it was first announced.
(What I don't understand is people announcing a beta version of a virus!?! "Oh yes, a cute little virus, with a gentle bouquet! It is quite efficient, but could use with a better soundtrack. But, ultimately, the code show a serious lack of innovation. It's back to the keyboard, boys! So, I'll have to give this beta a 6 on a 10 point scale.")
In the PC news ... memory is cheap! And there was Microsoft marching forward with the release of XP this fall. Some want to block it because issues raised in the recent court case about the co-mingling of the web browser with the system. MS has pulled Java support out of XP and several present felt that was a 'smackdown' on SUN, Inc. SUN's stock has been down as of late. Neither of these things were very surprising to those present.
Speaking of which, AOL's earnings were down, too. Several brought up the fact that all staff at CNN (who is owned by AOL) were required to use AOL! (Sickly sneers and knowing glances were witnessed being unabashedly exchanged!)
Mike mentioned that MS was allowing OEM's to unbundle Internet Explorer from Windows. But now that Netscape is also-ran, who cares. Also that CNN had announced that the product registration codes had already been cracked. He also said the 'alert of changes' warning had been 'softened. Windows 'IDs" the system and when it registers itself at MS, if you change it too often or radically.
Jim Lewis said that licensing agreements were to change, as well. And that the OEM version of XP will only work on one machine. But that the version bought by John Doe at the local mega-mall would be able to be put on any machine.
Kevin Hisel said that he had heard that Linux product registration was handled a bit differently.
In the Apple news, Jack Melby said that MacWorld, New York had just started (or finished) and there were announcements of new higher speed processors and CDRWs for all iMacs and G4 desktops, including a new dual processor machine. Also that 10 major manufacturers participated in the MacWorld keynote, previewing versions of their OS X ready software. An update for OS X was announced to be coming out in September. This would be OS X 10.1, and OS 9.2 will be here at the same time. Jack also mentioned that a version 9.2.1 had already been ceded to developers and that OS 9.3 will be coming later.
The question was asked if OS X would run on a 604 processor. Some seemed to think it was possible, but Jack said that Apple did not support OS X on a 604 processor.
Jack mentioned that the list of new OS X drivers was getting quite long. And that many were also 'acting correctly' in the OS 9 Classic environment.
Jack then mentioned that Charlie Melby-Thompson was giving his swan song demo this month. He will be leaving us soon, nothing drastic, just going to school. But, it is in New Jersey. More recently, he had just returned from MacHack and had several things to show us. Rich Hall talked about hacks for running OS X on upgrade cards.
It was mentioned that the early iMacs can't deal with hard drives larger than 8 gigs. If one wants to install a larger hard drive, one needs to partition the drive first and then install the OS on the first partition.
Linux news - New kernel? New kernel every day. Rumors that Red Hat might charge licensing per processor, nobody would confirm this. Other than that, there was no new Linux news presented.
We broke into separate SIGs.
The question came up - Is Apple's Airport wireless network PC friendly? Harold said 'Yes it is PC friendly , but be careful. The questioner said that he wanted to avoid spending $600 and then being wrong. Jim Huls said that there is a shareware Airport controller that works on the PC side.
Charlie's Swan Song.
Charlie just got back from MacHack. It consisted of big rooms filled with computers supplied by Apple, drinking lots of high-caffeine beverages. Caffeine references were rampant. The purpose of the whole event is to come up with the cleverest hack possible. The tactile awards are cheap hardware, but the real reward is the group's praise.
Charlie started by taking about MacOS X in general. MacOS X is a nicely pre-emptive multi-tasking system, based on the Open BSD flavor of UNIX, which means OS X has a variety of things that are very different from earlier MacOS incarnation. There are no extensions or control panels. These have been replaced by System Prefs, an application that acts like Control Panels. Rather than using extensions to extend system functionality, MacOS X uses dynamically loaded libraries and applications. Device drives and some system extensions are also written as "Kernel Extensions", which are programs that are attached to the driving core of a UNIX system, the Kernel.
Charlie then spoke about Mac OS X's WindowServer, the UNIX application that manages window content and which all other applications must talk to in order to perform any window content changes. While OS X's kernel is UNIX, its facade is be pretty much the standard Mac GUI. The GUI is very important because it has been decreed from on high that the Mac OS GUI must look good! Things like transparent window bars and the swoosh of the icons jumping out of the Dock.
Jim Huls wanted to know if anyone had hacked OS X to turn off the fancy new GUI? Charlie said he could probably do it, but he'd have to take a look at the 'stacks.' And that is an ugly prospect. I wanted to know why you would want to? Jim said 'To save processor time.' Harold said you wouldn't be saving very much time. But we digressed...
Next came a discussion of how OS X interacts with it's clients. OS X uses Frameworks, which are packaged libraries and can act as the equivalent of the old extensions. Frameworks contain all of the important OS X system code - the stuff that creates windows, sets up menus, draws lines, and plays sound - and all these functions are dynamically linked to applications when they start up by the system utility DYLD, the DYnamic Library loaDer. This structure has several important effects. It is really easy to update libraries and system software. The system can be quickly and conveniently extended. Libraries can be loaded from a user's home directory, making it possible for one user's applications to be forced to load a library while another's doesn't even know that the library exists. Application load times can increase because of the self contained nature of their environment.
Addressing application development, Charlie said Apple is being very accommodating to developers, allowing anyone who wants to write for OS X to download the new developer tools from Apple's site. To find documentation on how to develop OS X applications, or to download the developer tools, just go to http://developer.apple.com or to Apple's site and click on Developer. Charlie noted that the documentation is sketchy in parts, especially about the older functions used in Carbon, the application system that allows programs to run on both OS X and earlier OS versions, and so sometimes one has to do a little digging to find what one wants. Nonetheless, Apple is trying to make development as painless as possible. Apple has also made Darwin (the name given to OS X's particular UNIX core) open source, which means that anyone who wants to work on improving and adding to Darwin is free to do so, although there's no guarantee that those additions will be used by Apple. Charlie said this was especially nice for someone himself who enjoys system hacking.
And, of course, the best place place for a code hacker in the Macintosh world is MacHack, from which Charlie had just recently returned. Charlie's hack at MacHack, ShowWindow, used DYLD. New windows start very small and grows to it's final size. The winning hack was called Apple Turnover and it did just that. Turn on the hack and the desktop rotates to a desired angle. The desktop is still operable, too! It would be a great practical joke. Your office mate goes to the bathroom and you quickly flip his desktop 180¡ and sit back and watch their face. You may want to duck out of the room quickly, though.
Another good hack was The Talking Steve. It had Job-heads popping up randomly spouting Jobs-ish insults. Charlie mentioned one of his past hacks that made windows bark and reposition themselves. This made doing anything difficult. And when he left the stage, he did not remove the hack. So, when the next presenter came on, he couldn't get anything done as the windows bounced around the screen. The machine had to be removed and reworked before it could be used again. He had reworked system libraries.
Harold took a moment or two to contemplate how to rework ShowWindow. We dragged him back to the subject of the MacHack show, screaming all the way.
The hacker show was a rowdy affair. All presentations benefit from a good humorous presentation. But, if a presenter gets too cocky, the call of 'Marketing!' goes up. If a hack is totally useless, the call of 'Useful' goes up. All the best hacks are useless. (!?!) I asked if one could just go and look? Charlie said 'Sorta'. One tends to feel out of place if you are just a 'gawker.' Some hacks have been worked on before the show, but this is sort of frowned upon. Hacks should really be started and finished at the show.
The discussion became a listing of various hacks, either at MacHack or elsewhere. Such as the one where they took old Powerbook infrared communication systems and ramped up the power so they could burn paper put in the beam. Or, Mr. Macintosh - when you open a menu a certain numbers of times, Mr. Macintosh appears. Harold suggested the menus should break off and fall to the bottom of the screen. Or, Get on the train - A 'Steve Jobs' train comes by and drags off the current window. This accompanied by Steve Jobs saying 'We gotta get on that train!'
Finally, the hacks weren't only limited to the computer itself, one hack patched into the hotel door system. It would auto shut the door anytime someone approached it. Obviously this didn't go on for very long as the hotel doesn't particularly want to turn away customers. Especially in this manner!
Charlie felt the MacHack show was a good crucible for ideas. Many ideas were shared openly and freely. He said that his hack owes a bit of credit to an anonymous hacker from Iowa, who happened by.
We all packed up and went home at this point.
Jim Lewis and Kevin Hisel did a demonstration of Poikosoft's Easy CD-DA Extractor. Easy CD-DA Extractor is a Shareware program that will convert a cd collection to mp3's, as well as convert most any other audio format to any other audio format on your PC. Easy CD-DA Extractor is $29.95 to register, which is very well worth it if you are into mp3 conversion or any other audio conversion at all.
There are numerous different mp3 encoders out there, Audio Catalyst by Xing, which was bought out by Real Networks Inc, back in 1999, and they haven't updated the software to be supported under Windows 2000. Audio Catalyst can be found at http://www.xingtech.com/ . Another mp3 encoder is Music Match. Music Match can be found at http://www.musicmatch.com/ . A basic version can be downloaded off their site for free. The best mp3 encoder is pretty much personal choice, but the majority of people who do mp3 encoding recommend Easy CD-DA Extractor. An evaluation copy can be downloaded at http://www.poikosoft.com. The price for registration for these programs, is about $30, with free upgrades for life.
If you really want to get the low down on mp3's, you should check out http://www.r3mix.net/ . This web site is full of information about anything you have ever wanted to know about mp3's and more.
Jim did a demonstration of a "Sweep Tone" that he had compressed with Audio Catalyst, and CD-DA Extractor using the "L.A.M.E." encoder (which using version 4.5 of CD-DA, is the default setting). There was a severe drop off above the 16khz using Audio Catalyst. There was a noticeable difference between the Audio Catalyst file, and the CD-DA file. There was serious clipping with the Audio Catalyst file, whereas the CD-DA file had none.
CD-DA will auto detect any cd drives you have in your system, and uses freedb.org, which is a database of albums, that you can only use when you're on-line. If you are not on-line, you can still encode a cd, but will have to manually label each track, as well as album title, and artist. Freedb.org has 368,085 titles in their database. (personal note, I have encoded over 500 cd's, and have yet to run across a cd that hasn't been in the database, but Jim mentioned that some cd's may not be labeled correctly).
July 24, 2001 - The July meeting of the CUCUG executive board took place on Tuesday, July 24, 2001, 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, Dave Witt, Mike Latinovich, Jim Huls, Charles Melby-Thompson, Jack Melby, Kevin Hopkins, Kevin Hisel, Josh Tolbert, Emil Cobb, and Mark Linigan.
Jim Lewis: Jim reported that most of the Linux group had showed up at the last meeting. He noted that the PC SIG had done a program comparing Easy CD-DA Extractor to Audio Catalyst. Jim said the comparison of a ripped sweep done by each program had shown a striking difference in quality - Easy CD-DA Extractor being the clear winner. Jim said more information on this program can be found at http://www.poikosoft.com .
Next, there was a discussion of the Linux group joining with us.
Lastly, Jim commented that he would be upgrading the club PC soon.
Dave Witt: Dave said the demonstration at the meeting was decent. He noted that the Internet connection was done, but luckily came back up just as it was needed.
Dave informed Kevin Hopkins that he had notes of the PC SIG for the next newsletter. (Thanks, Dave.)
Mike Latinovich: Mike said the meeting was "Pretty damn good. The Mac SIG seemed pretty lively, too." He said he enjoyed the basic chatter at the first part of the meeting in particular.
There was another installment of the discussion of the Linux group entering our ranks. Jim said they are concerned about loosing their identity, which he noted was a concern of the original Amiga group when they decided to join with CUCUG. Jim said he himself had been the biggest worry wort on this point - and look what happened to him. Jim said the Linux group wants to maintain a separate meeting night and hope that CUCUG can help them obtain a more conducive meeting site. Jim said Chris and John seem to be the principal forces in the Linux group. He said they are enthusiastic about what they do. The pros and cons of the merger were discussed.
Jim Huls: Jim said he had nothing special to contribute tonight.
Charles Melby-Thompson: Charlie reported that IBM had announced a 210 GHz experimental processor, which is compatible with the RISC PowerPC.
Jack Melby: Jack said that other people need to comment on the Mac SIG, as he missed most of it dealing with other questions. Although, he thought the Mac side went reasonably well. Charlie said he had talked about the inner workings of OS X. He spoke about the UNIX side of OS X, the GUI, its library structure and, finally, MacHack. He noted that a program called "Apple Turnover" was the winning hack. It would rotate your screen display without effecting its functionality. Charlie said it was a OS 9 hack, while his had been an OS X hack.
Jack said the new, faster Mac machines are actually available. now.
Kevin Hopkins: Kevin said he has no business to bring up. When asked about his thoughts on the Linux group merger, Kevin said that the plan to maintain separate meetings was not a problem, but that CUCUG had never in its entire history financed a separate meeting site for a SIG. The Machine Language SIG during the C64 years, the Amiga SIG, nor the Macintosh SIG had received separate room rent funding. It sort of flew in the face of the stricture that a group must pay its own way within the group. The whole rationale of moving to the Illinois Technology Center in the first place had been to reduce our expenses. If we turned around and paid out double the room rent, we are right back where we were before. Other than that he thought the talent exhibited in the Linux SIG members would be a welcome addition to our group. Jim Lewis said he would explore the room rate issue with those at ITC.
Kevin then spoke a little bit about the vacation he had just returned from.
Kevin Hisel: Kevin asked, "What are doing next month?" Jim said that we would have Ed Serbe present his first person shooter game stuff. September will be a Palm demo.
Returning to the Linux SIG issue, Kevin said if the Linux SIG encompassed networking issues he'd be interested. Learning more about Unix/Linux/Solaris would also be a plus.
Kevin wryly concluded that "BBS traffic very slow".
And, as an after-thought, Kevin reported that TextPad 4.5 is out.
Josh Tolbert: Josh said, "I enjoyed my first meeting."
Emil Cobb: Emil reported that there were 22 members and guests in attendance at the JUly meeting. Emil said Richard Rollins is in possession of the completed Visitors forms.
There was more general discussion of the Linux group. A couple of names for the SIG were suggested: *X or SIG-Tech, rather than limiting it just to Linux. They will probably be meeting in a separate meeting, as they are now, on the second Thursday of the month.
Mark Linigan: Mark made mention of the recent use of Audio CD encryption by certain major recording labels (BMG to name one). Imperfections are being intruduced into the music which most stereo equipment is too insensitive to notice, but creates clicks and pops on computer or other digital players. He said you can take the SPDIF output (analog out) and still rip music but you are limited to 1X.
Meetings are held the third Thursday of each month at 7:00 p.m. at the Illinois Technology Center. The Center is located at 7101 Tomaras Ave in Savoy. To get to the Illinois Technology Center from Champaign or Urbana, take Neil Street (Rt 45) south. Setting the trip meter in your car to zero at the McDonalds on the corner of Kirby/Florida and Neil in Champaign, you only go 2.4 miles south. Windsor will be at the one mile mark. Curtis will be at the two mile mark. Go past the Paradise Inn/Best Western motel to the next street, Tomaras Ave. on the west (right) side. Tomaras is at the 2.4 mile mark. Turn west (right) on Tomaras Ave. The parking lot entrance is immediately on the south (left) side of Tomaras Ave. Enter the building by the front door under the three flags facing Rt 45. A map can be found on the CUCUG website at http://www.cucug.org/meeting.html . The Illinois Technology Center is also on the web at www.IL-Tech-Ctr.com .
Membership dues for individuals are $20 annually; prorated to $10 at mid year.
Our monthly newsletter, the Status Register, is delivered by email. 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.
For further information, please attend the next meeting as our guest, or contact one of our officers (all at area code 217):
President/WinSIG: Jim Lewis 359-1342 jlewis@computers4life.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 jlewis@computers4life.com Board Advisor: Richard Rollins 469-2616 Webmaster: Kevin Hisel 406-948-1999 khisel @ kevinhisel.com Mac SIG Co-Chair: John Melby 352-3638 jbmelby@home.com Mac SIG Co-Chair: Charles Melby-Thompson 352-3638 charlesmt@home.com
Surf our web site at http://www.cucug.org/