The Status Register


CHAMPAIGN-URBANA COMMODORE USERS GROUP INC. ________October, 1995


This newsletter will never appear on Prairienet BEFORE the monthly CUCUG meeting it is intended to announce. This is in deference to actual CUCUG members. It is, after all, THEIR newsletter. For advance notification of CUCUG's meeting, look in the "Information About CUCUG" section.

October 1995


To move quickly to an article of your choice, use the search feature of your reader or the hypertext directory above. Enjoy.

October News:

The October Meeting

The next CUCUG meeting will be held on our regular third Thursday of the month: Thursday, October 19, at 7:00 pm, at the IBEW Union Hall. Direction to the Hall are on the back of this newsletter.

The October 19th meeting will be a joint meeting with all members welcoming Carlos Ramirez of C-U Online, one of Champaign's fastest growing Internet access providers. Carlos will be discussing C-U Online's services and may have a few surprises up his sleeve for CUCUG members. So, come and check out what he has to say.

ToC

Welcome New Members

We would like to welcome our newest member Patrick Kane (PowerMac 7500/100 16/500/CD) who has just joint us this month.

ToC

Notes from Jason Compton

Editor-in-Chief, Amiga Report Magazine

"Better late than never" seems to be the theme recently. All of a sudden, the floodgates of news from Amiga Technologies have been opened a bit. We have news and interviews coming from the UK, Switzerland, and Italy. North America actually has a distributor, but our Australian cousins are still shut out.

According to Gilles Bourdin of Amiga Technologies (gbo@lisa.amiga-tech.de), Service Management Group, the company that provided warranty service for Amigas in the US, will have non-exclusive North American distribution for the remainder of 1995.

Maxximum Video Creations, a US dealer, has begun advertising Amiga 4000Ts for mid-October delivery, at a price of $2700, with the full Amiga 1200 software pack (including Scala MM300, per the 1200 HD bundle), a one year SMG warranty, a 1 gig SCSI hard drive, and a double-density floppy. Apparently, Amiga Technologies was unable to secure high-density floppy drives for this release of the machine.

SMG can be reached at 410-992-9975.

Another couple of weeks, and...

Hey, stuff's starting to happen!

True more or less to what we heard in Amiga Technologies' last burst of information promising lots of European conferences and press releases, we're seeing distribution channels established worldwide. While we lack press releases, deals in the US and Australia are being completed, and a Spanish distributor is announced in this issue (PIXeLMEDIA, S.L., former named PIXeLSOFT). When harassed for press releases, Gilles Bourdin has been pleading his workload to explain their lack of existence. In the same vein, we have been unable to schedule an IRC conference with him.

But, to make up for it somewhat, AmiTech will be showing itself at the Video Toaster Expo in November. Not bad.

We've also got a Web page-although it's in German. http://www.amiga.de. Actually, a couple of enterprising (and bored) Amiga users discovered that much of the English translation is available at http://www.amiga.de/uk/infos, but there are no links that would lead the casual reader there just yet. While nothing the reasonably experienced Amiga user doesn't know, having the resource is always reassuring.

What do we have lined up as entertainment in the coming weeks? Well, reviews are always key, and the pressure is on Amiga Technologies to provide us with a shot at their new-old Amiga models-which, incidentally, are already being sold (1200s, anyway) in stores in the UK and Germany. The official SMG word is: [available in North America] A1200s (NTSC) in January.

ToC

Amiga Software Bundle Announced

From: Mat Bettinson (mat@cu-amiga.demon.co.uk)
Staff technical writer, CU Amiga Magazine
Date: 01 Sep 95 11:07:08 GMT

The new Amigas will be bundled with:

Productivity Software:

Games:

Aside from the suspect choice of games software (perhaps the budget was diverted to the other side of the package), I think everyone will agree that this is the package that was needed to make the new Amiga bundle attractive and the new price point. It seems obviously that they are aiming the package at serious users rather than games. That's in line with Tyschtschenko statement that he rejected the first design of the package being it looked too 'gamesy'.

I'm deeply impressed and the general level of optimism in our office has raised significantly.

Well done Jonathan Anderson. We had our doubts at first but you have done well for all of us.

ToC

Netscape Reveals Navigator 2.0 Details

from C|Net Central - 9/18/95

Netscape Communications has released details on the upcoming version of its industry-leading Navigator Web browser, which will feature such enhancements as support for Sun Microsystems' Java programming language, and "live frames" capable of displaying scrolling text, animation, and other multimedia content in individual windows on a Web page.

Navigator 2.0's Java support will allow users to view animated graphics or scrolling text on a Web page, as well as hear audio without first downloading a sound file. However, these features will be available only on Java-enabled Web sites.

Version 2.0 integrates Sun's HotJava viewer technology, the browser software that lets users take advantage of multimedia content created with the Java language. Sun plans to license its Java and HotJava software to developers of other Web browsers and sites as well.

Navigator 2.0 will also support such Windows 95 enhancements as drag-and-drop shortcuts, which lets users drag a URL from Netscape to the Windows desktop. This allows the user to access a Web site by simply double-clicking on a shortcut icon. Other Windows 95 browsers, including Netscape's Navigator 1.2, also offer this feature.

The product will be priced at about $49 and will ship in November, Netscape officials say. The prerelease version will be available next month.

In addition, Netscape will introduce Navigator Gold, an easy-to-use version of Navigator that also includes tools for creating Web documents. The product will cost about $79 and is slated to ship in November. A prerelease version will be available next month.

ToC

Netscape Launches Bug-Finding Contest

from C|Net Central - 10/11/95

Netscape Communications has kicked off its "Netscape Bugs Bounty" contest, a unique program that offers cash prizes to beta software testers who find and report bugs in prerelease versions of the Netscape Navigator 2.0 Web browser.

Rewards will be granted based on the seriousness of the bug. For instance, users who find significant security bugs will collect cash prizes, while those who locate less-important security flaws will receive Netscape merchandise. Users who find other bugs will win a choice of items from the Netscape General Store.

For more information and rules on the contest, go to the Netscape Bugs Bounty page (http://home.netscape.com/comprod/products/ navigator/version_2.0/ contest_rules.html). For a preview of Netscape 2.0, see c|net's hands on review (/Central/Hands/ netscape.html). And for an opinionated take on the topic, go to Christopher Barr's column (/Central/Columns/Barr/ at www.cnet.com).

ToC

PowerBook 5300 Owners Should Hit "Off" Switch - Now

from C|Net Central - 9/16/95

If you own one of Apple Computer's new PowerBook 5300 notebooks, turn off your machine and phone Apple's tech support.

That's the word from Apple officials, who are recalling the new PowerBook 5300 portables, which are suffering from overheating batteries. Apple plans to replace the 5300's lithium ion battery with a nickel metal hydride battery. However, the new models won't ship in quantity until after the company's current fiscal quarter.

While the product recall is embarrassing for Apple, it probably won't prove expensive. According to Apple spokesperson Lisa Byrne, the company has shipped only about 1,000 of the 5300 models, and only about 200 of those have been purchased by customers.

For more information, PowerBook 5300 owners should call Apple at 800/767-2777.

ToC

Trouble at Apple?

This is from the business section of the NY Times 10/05/95:

"Oct. 4 - The executive vice president and chief Financial officer of Apple Computer Inc. abruptly resigned his positions today, the apparent loser in a board room skirmish with the chief executive of the troubled computer maker.

ToC

The BeBox

Here are the messages I picked up in comp.sys.powerpc:

In today's Wall Street Journal (10/3/95, page B6 col. 4), there is a reference to a company called 'Be Inc.' which is producing, yep you guessed it, the 'BeBox'. Supposedly, the BeBox will start at $1600 and use two PowerPC microprocessors. I consider myself fairly computer literate, yet this is the first I've read about the BeBox. Does anyone have any additional information?? Is there a web sight somewhere??

Be, Inc. New PPC Workstation!

Jean-Louis Gassee unveils The BeBox; First product of Be Inc. delivers a powerful alternative to traditional computer platforms.

MENLO PARK, Calif. - Oct. 3, 1995 - Be Inc., the company founded by Jean-Louis Gassee, former president of Apple Computer's product division, today launched its much-anticipated first product: The BeBox.

The BeBox is a high-performance, low-cost system designed to meet the demands of sophisticated computer users and developers who are frustrated by the limitations of current architectures.

With its combination of powerful hardware, an innovative new portable operating system, and a host of advanced sound, graphics, video, and communications capabilities provided by Be and third-party partners, the BeBox is poised to become a significant alternative platform for next-generation applications.

It is the first true real-time, object-oriented system that features multiple PowerPC processors, true preemptive multitasking, an integrated database, fast I/O, and a wide range of expansion options -- all at an extremely affordable price.

The BeBox enables users to run multiple compute-intensive programs simultaneously, synchronize music and sound, view and edit videos, and access the Internet -- all at the same time. It includes a full set of software development tools and technical documentation, and features a built-in database that is accessible at all times, so users can continually store, retrieve, and update key information from multiple sources.

No other product on the market can equal its performance in its price range. The BeBox is also an excellent system for classic applications, video games, and personal productivity tools. The combination of these features makes the BeBox particularly attractive to the fast-growing A/V market -- currently valued at more than $7.3 billion by Dataquest -- as well as to technology enthusiasts and hobbyists.

"The BeBox brings the benefits of new processor and software technology to markets that are exploding," said Gassee. "Older computing architectures cannot match its capabilities at this price point. They carry too much baggage and can't effectively incorporate innovations. The BeBox provides a fresh start at an extremely high technical level. It's a system that has already excited developers and captured the imagination of our customers."

The BeBox takes advantage of industry standards, including support for PCI and ISA cards as well as IDE and SCSI devices, making it easy and economical for customers to tailor systems to their needs using components from the "PC clone organ bank," including monitors, keyboards, memory, hard disks, CD-ROM drives and modems.

"The BeBox exposes the exciting to the excitable," said Gassee. "It's a fresh architecture that lets developers do what they couldn't do on other systems. It provides an opportunity to get innovative applications to market and to establish a leadership position on an emerging platform.

"We're a young company, so we're eager to facilitate developers' efforts. We provide outstanding development tools with CodeWarrior for Be, and we're licensing our technology to manufacturers, integrators, and software developers."

Be has already established strong alliances with American and European companies that are developing A/V and telecommunications products as well as personal productivity applications.

The BeBox is the first member of the Be product line, which is being expanded to include four-processor and portable configurations. Be products will also incorporate future versions of the PowerPC processor. The hardware and operating system technology is open for licensing, expanding the possibilities for further added value.

The BeBox will begin shipping to selected customers and developers in mid-October, 1995. The suggested U.S. list price for a basic system is $1,600, which includes the CPU board, the operating system, an I/O card, CodeWarrior for Be development tools, a system case, cables, and technical and user documentation. The BeBox will be sold directly by Be as well as through selected resellers, value-added resellers, and systems integrators.

About Be Inc.

Be Inc. was founded by Gassee in 1990 to overcome the limitations of existing computer architectures. With a team of industry-leading engineers and business executives in the United States and Europe, the company has positioned itself to become a key player in fast-growing application markets. Be Inc. is headquartered in Menlo Park.

Be, the Be logo, and BeBox are trademarks of Be Inc. Metrowerks is a registered trademark and CodeWarrior is a trademark of Metrowerks, Inc. All other trademarks mentioned belong to their respective owners.

E-mail: info@be.com
CONTACT: Be Inc., Menlo Park
Ftp: ftp.be.com Nick Despotopolous, 415/462-4141
Web: http://www.be.com  Fax: 415/462-4129
ToC

Comments on the BeBox

The next 'Amiga'?
From: Michael Whitten (mw@halfdan.med.umn.edu)

Remember that feeling many many years ago when CBM announced the specs on the Amiga 1000? For some, the BeBox machine from Be, Inc. might remind you, once again, that revolutions, not evolutions are still possible. I'm still trying to digest the tek speks on this PPC603(s) machine; you can, too, at:

http://www.be.com

The BeBox
From: Craig Ganoe (ganoe@yosemitemdso.vf.ge.com)

I'm impressed with everything but the price. $1600US isn't bad, but once you add a keyboard, monitor, hard drive, memory, and PCI graphics card, none of which seem to be included, the price pretty easily doubles.

The OS, built in database, and development environment sound like they have a lot of potential. I wonder how much RAM and CPU power the OS requires to run? I'll be paying close attention to this one. Escom could pick up a lot of ideas from here as well.

Sorry AT...you lost this round...
From: Mark Mayhle (mmayhle@crl.com)

Have you been following the PowerPC newsgroup? Jean-Louis Gassee and various Be, Inc. engineers are posting regularly. Gassee describes the machine not as a newer, better Mac but as "AMIGA 96"!

Fred Fish has already posted in that group, expressing lust for the BeBox that he hasn't experienced since the Amiga 1000.

Be, Inc is about to launch technology that is at LEAST 1-2 years away for the Amiga (that means BOTH hardware and operating system). AT appears to be locking itself in at about 1992 technology.

BE!
From: Jason Compton (jcompton@flood.xnet.com)

Gary Alan Peake (Gemini2@cup.portal.com) wrote:

Maybe when ATG has been 'in development' with their NEW Amiga for two years they will really have something to show us?

Amiga Technologies has 10 years of Amiga development legacy in their lap. They are in a position to either watch the Amiga market continue to crumble to dust or to save it. There are no second chances.

Be is a new company, with a new product. There's no market to kill, per se, since one doesn't exist yet.

So you tell me. What has excited Amiga users more in the past month, the announcement that new and unimproved A1200s are on the shelves in the UK and Germany, or that a company has developed a new, Intel/MicroSoft-free machine?

You tell me: what does it mean when I have to wait WEEKS for e-mail response from Amiga Technologies, while the president of Be returns my e-mail as he receives it and not only returns my calls but actually issues his own?

My evaluation of the situation is that there's a company that knows how to reach the Amiga community better than Amiga Technologies. And I wish it wasn't like that. And I hope it changes.

And, quite frankly, Amiga Technologies doesn't have that 2 year grace period in which to impress us. The time is running out. Whatever Herculean trials lie behind and ahead are part of what they bought into.

So in short, it takes a bit more than expensive and dated Amigas to excite me. How about some glimpses into engineering-not "We're considering RISC", but "We have X hardware engineers actively examining implementing RISC into the Amiga architecture"?

Yes, I'm heartened by the fact that AmiTech will be at Cologne, the VT Expo, and (apparently) Comdex. I'm appalled that a worldwide developer's conference hasn't been held yet.

But we need a bonanza, a real event, something that we can run through the streets screaming, and "Photogenics SE will be packaged with the A1200!", while nice to hear, just isn't enough.

Jason Compton (jcompton@xnet.com)
Editor-in-Chief, Amiga Report Magazine
(708) 741-0689 FAX
AR on Aminet - docs/mags/ar???.lha      AR Mailing list -  Mail me
AR on WWW - http://www.omnipresence.com/Amiga/News/AR
ToC

The C64/128 Section:

Copy CD-ROM Files To Your 128

from GEnie

This German program is called CD-ROM COMMANDER, and is currently only for the 128 (a 64 version is in the works). It will let you copy files from any ISO 9660 standard CD-ROM to most any Commodore compatible drive on your system. So it's sort of like Big Blue Reader - a transfer utility.

As for required hardware, yes, it takes having a CMD HD with a SCSI CD-ROM drive attached to the SCSI port.

Another program has also been released by the same author which can be used to select songs to play from an audio CD. The name of that one escapes me at the moment, though.

[Source: The Commo-Hawk Commodore Users Group newsletter, "The File" October, 1995. CHCUG's address is P.O. Box 2724, Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52406-2724.]

ToC

The Super64CPU

CMD is pleased to announce that we are developing a new line of accelerators for the Commodore 64 and 128 computers. The Super64CPU series design is based on the Western Design Center W65C816S microprocessor which was used in the Apple IIGS and is currently employed in the SNES (Super Nintendo Entertainment System). The new series is scheduled to debut in February 1996 with two models: the Super64/10 (10 MHz) and Super64/20 (20 MHz).

Both accelerators will operate on Commodore 64 and 64c computers, as well as in 64 mode on Commodore 128 and 128D models. Acceleration will be switch-selectable as well as software-selectable. An additional switch will allow you to completely disable the accelerator or select between Standard and JiffyDOS operating modes. Other announced features include 64K of fast static RAM, 64K ROM, and a built-in pass-through port for connecting compatible cartridges and RAM devices.

Devices that will be compatible with the Super64CPU's include:

Super64CPU accelerators will provide high-speed with many software applications including GEOS, telecommunications & BBS programs, productivity and utility software, as well as most BASIC programs. Retail prices are estimated to be $149.95 for the Super64/10, and $199.95 for the Super64/20.

   Creative Micro Designs, Inc.
   P.O. Box 646, E. Longmeadow, MA 01028
   Orders: 1-800-638-3263
   Info & Support: 1-413-525-0023
   Fax: 1-413-525-0147

   Online Contact: cmd-doug@genie.geis.com
   http://www.msen.com/~brain/guest/cmd/
[Source: Amiga Report International Online Magazine, Issue No. 3.18 - October 8, 1995. AR can be reached by contacting its Editor, Jason Compton on the Internet at: jcompton@xnet.com.]

ToC

The Macintosh Section:

AppleScript

by Mark Bellon, CUCUG

AppleScript is a scripting language that is best described for this audience as AREXX with an Apple attitude. It's an interpreted/compiled language that allows near full control of an application. It can be used to control multiple applications at a time and can even be used to generate low level events (like mouse moves and clicks) for an application. It's quite powerful and has extensive error handling abilities.

The language is a bit wordy but this can be useful at times. Here is an example:

   tell application "Finder"
      if calculate folder sizes of file
           "Views" in control panels folder then
         set calculate folder sizes of file
            "Views" in control panels folder to false
      else
         set calculate folder sizes of file
            "Views" in control panels folder to true
      end if
   end tell
This little gem informs the finder (the workbench equivalent) to toggle (change) the setting of the option to have folders (directories) calculate the size of their contents when a folder is opened.

The tell command gets the applications attention. It then determines that state of a checkbox in a control panel and changes it to the opposite of the current setting.

There is extensive documentation on AppleScript including a formal language definition book from Prentice-Hall and training courses from Apple as well as plenty of references. It really comes in handy when you really feel the need for a command line. I'd also compare it to a unix shell program as it's abilities are far beyond that of a CLI or batch files.

As far as I've used it, I'm quite impressed, and I like the formalities Apple has defined. It's not a capable as AREXX when libraries are involved but otherwise it's quite nice.

ToC

The Look and Feel of Buying Into the Mac

by Mark Bellon, CUCUG

[Editor's Note: Although I was unable to print it sooner, this item from a few months ago has some valuable insights, so here you are.]

Current PowerMacs have a Processor Direct Slot (PDS) which is the Apple equivalent of the Amiga coprocessor slot and some models have NUBUS slots. The NUBUS slots are of limited use to most, especially since the motherboard has so much stuff on it already. The PDS slot, which allows for processor/cache/etc. upgrades is a feature of all Apple machines (currently and in the future) and will not disappear. PCI is an I/O bus and is used for display, network, serial, sound and other things. Definitely not the place to put a processor. The PDS, if available will provide a way to add a processor upgrade to a 604 (the 603 is functionally less than or equal to the 601, so it isn't worth looking at) although I wouldn't be suprised if Apple doesn't offer the card. Certainly Apple will offer motherboard swaps and some of these deals have actually been reasonable in the past.

Used Apple machines hold their value well, especially if you sell them at just the right time and it is frequently the case that it is better to sell a machine used and just buy a new replacement than to upgrade it (sort of like selling a used car or trading it in). In fact, this is how I got my PowerMac - the used price of my 68040 machine was within a few hundred dollars of a completely new machine and the PowerMac offered so much more.

The PCI PowerMacs will be released over the next few months. The first, the 9500/120 and 9500/132 will be the high end, expensive screamer 604 machines. What follows will be high clock rate 601 machines and a 100 Mhz 604. Existing machines will not be PCI and only upgrades will change this. The PCI machines don't clearly offer advantages over the really low cost that the end of the first generation of PowerMacs will offer. It really depends on what you are looking for, how much you are willing to spend, and when. From a speed perspective it may take well into next year before a system package is near the same price point as the current systems (of course it will be faster, but it's not clear by how much and how much expeansion it will have).

I plan to purchase a third generation PowerMac to go along with the one I have now (the older machine becomes the kid's). My basic requirements are a 150+ Mhz 604e with 16 MB of RAM and 1 GB of disk in the base configuration. Two memory slots, a PDS, and a PCI slot or two will finish off the system. I'd add another 16 MB of RAM and go from there to monitors (17"? 19"?) and such.

It's very hard to describe the feel of a PowerMac to someone that is looking at an '030 machine. It just so much faster and has so much of a better OS that it's difficult to explain. For instance, the speed of the emulated m68k code is something like 4 times the speed of their machine and native code another 3-4 times faster than that. Against an '040 the comparision is more difficult. The current emulator is very close to the performance of a 20 Mhz '040. A 60 Mhz 601 runs at about 3-4 times the speed of a 25-33 Mhz '040 when native and, if the program even tries a little bit, it can be even faster. Add a higher clock chip and an L2 cache and watch out. The double speed emulator will be out in a few weeks along with a large infusion of native OS code. I've been running one of the pieces as BETA software and it's 4.4 times faster in many cases.

The best package price is currently $1799 as mentioned in the newletter. $250 more raises the clock to 80 Mhz and an L2 cache. If you want to really go fast, add $100 more and get a 512 KB L2 cache. Things really move! RISC does have it's downsides: one of which is RAM is a premium. You will want to add RAM at some point, probably earlier than later. 16 MB of RAM is about $575 right now and this has held stable for almost 2 years. With WIN 95 scaring everyone the price may actually go up for some time to come. We shall see.

For a cost perspective these packages are excellent if you don't have any Mac software. They won't be around for too much longer, since the new family will be coming out and then there will be the big wait for price point to come down again. When to buy is really a personally issue, but does revolve around when you REALLY NEED to buy.

ToC

The Amiga Section:

Macs to the Max, Part Deux

by Colin Thompson (colin@connectnet.com)

Last month I promised to explain a bit more about the Mac OS. I'll try. I admit I know more than I did then, but I'm no expert. I've gained my little bit of familiarity by downloading dozens of files and installing them. I try out the files and then dump most of them in the Trashcan. This form of "saturation learning", combined with reading the Mac Bible has gained me some confidence.

I installed System 7.5, but found it left me with precious little memory to run my applications. 7.5 uses twice as much memory (about 2 MB) as 7.0.1. Since I only have 8 MB of fast RAM to start with, I decided to switch back to 7.0.1.

Memory conservation is pretty important to SS. I allow SS to have all the available fast RAM. That usually leaves me about 100K left for the Amiga side. Amazingly, that leaves me enough to run SID2 and Parnet, while SS is running.

Last month I reported my dismay at finding the Mac doesn't support double clicking in a file requester. Wrong again, byte-breath. I had set up my mouse click speed too fast. Once I slowed it down, double clicking began working, just like a normal computer, such as the Amiga.

I also found out how to make the Mac print to any of my printers. I downloaded "chucks-printer-driver.hqx". After reading the instructions a hundred times, I finally figured out how to make it work. You tell the Mac OS to use this printer driver, then you tell every application that can print to use this driver. Then you call your mother-in-law and tell HER which printer driver you intend to use.

The Mac is not an ASCII based machine. All text sent to the printer is converted to graphics first, then sent to the printer. This "Graphic dump" style of printing can be very slow on 9 pin dot matrix printers.

I spent the last month worrying about how I was going to explain to you what an Extension is. I still don't know, exactly. The Mac has an Extension Manager that, I suppose allows you to manage your various extensions. I think an Extension is something like a program you might place in WorkBench Startup, but not exactly. The Mac has a place to deposit programs you want to run on startup, so this analogy can't be right. I think the concept doesn't translate to the Amiga.

The good news is that you really don't need to know. Fortunately, a normal person, such as myself, can download and install most programs without dealing with this stuff. The most complicated installation I've seen so far only required me to drag and drop a file inside another folder. No big deal.

It seems the Mac's programs store the executable, icon, data files, libraries and every other thing on earth inside one file. Then the Mac OS breaks these items out as necessary when the program is run. This resource fork and data fork stuff is making me crazy.

I have also discovered that a needed file, called "SSBootFile.lha" is actually available on some ftp sites. The file was not included in the normal SS distribution because the System Administrator of AmiNet felt there might be a legal problem. Christian Bauer maintains a web site that holds the latest and greatest SS stuff. There are links to connect you to all other ShapeShifter sites. From this site, you can download everything you need to install SS, except the Mac ROMS.

The address is:

http://www.uni-mainz.de/~bauec002/

SSBootFile is a sawed-off Mac OS. It contains just enough to let you get SS going and log into Apple. From there you can download 7.0.1. Before all this can happen, you must obtain a copy of the Mac ROMS.

The Usegroup is the best place to discover what SS does on other folk's Amigas. By reading the posts, I've found that I'm not the only person to have no luck with MacSlip and NetScape. I'll just wait a bit for a new release that will solve the problem. One person reported MacPPP seems to work OK with Netscape.

The current version of SS is 3_2a. You can find it on AmiNet as misc/emu/ShapeShift3_2a.lha. Christian Bauer has been releasing weekly updates for the last two months, so watch the RECENT or you'll be left in the dust.

The latest version solves the earlier problem with the mfm.device. It also gives you access to two monitors. I wish someone would tell me why I need two monitors. Must be a Mac thing. 3_2a also seems to run much faster in color mode. Four colors are very quick. Sixteen colors is usable, but 256 colors are too slow to be of much use.

SS has proven to be very stable. By reading the Usegroup postings, I see that every major piece of Mac software has been used successfully with SS.

I think ShapeShifter is the best program released for the Amiga this year.

ShapeShifter Screen Shot

[Source: The San Diego Amiga Users Group newsletter, "The NotePad" October, 1995. SDAUG's address is P.O. Box 81801, San Diego, CA 92138-1801.]

ToC

IBM on the Amiga EMPLANT e586DX

by Kevin Breen, NOCK Secretary

You've probably seen the ads in the back of Amiga magazines for the EMPLANT e586DX emulator - "PC Emulation can be FAST!, Microsoft Windows on your Amiga!", even "the fastest PC emulator for the Amiga!". Sounds great, and since I already owned the EMPLANT board and the MAC emulation, I thought I'd try it. For around $90, I'd have an IBM in my Amiga, right? Well, yes and no!

The EMPLANT emulations are a two part system: (1) hardware - a Zorro II card that fits in your Amiga with optional SCSI and Mac serial ports, and (2) software, with different programs that allow the emulation of Macintosh or IBM computer systems. Your system must have a 68020 or better processor, but a MMU (Memory Management Unit) is not required. The user must also supply the Mac ROM or IBM BIOS chips (or ROM image - EMPLANT emulations require you to dump the ROM information to a disk anyway, before use, so you only need the hardware chips for legal purposes). You also need Mac or IBM system software.

The Mac emulation worked well and so I was expecting great things from the IBM version. Mike Simoneaux (former NOCK Amiga Group President) and I got it up and running at the March meeting. We tested it with AMI and Microsoft diagnostics and they showed a 486DX with math coprocessor that passed all of the standard tests and emulated VGA, CGA, and EGA graphics (within the limitations of the A2000 it was installed in, ie. 16 colors max, but you can get SVGA/256 colors on AGA machines). It showed a processor speed of ) to 16 MHz, depending on the test - not lightning fast on a 68040/33MHz machine, but much faster than PC Task, the other IBM emulator for the Amiga. Utilities Unlimited, EMPLANT's makers, estimate the actual speed to be about 6MHz average, but claim some operations on the emulator actually run faster than on a 66MHz Pentium system. Users running Windows say it runs well, but very slowly. Windows 95 may change that. Under DOS it works well too, but certain operations, like unZIPping files, can run very slowly (it took almost 9 hours to decompress 3 HD game disks for a flight simulator game). Utilities Unlimited has updated the IBM emulation software 3 times since I first bought it (they offer free software updates from their BBS) and each update has brought speed improvements, It's impressive considering there's no IBM/Intel hardware (x86) involved, but don't plan on running 3D Studio on it anytime soon.

And there are some other problems. The emulation is supposed to support a mouse (PC Bus type) but my software has never been able to find it.

There is also no serial port support, even if you have the dual serial options on your EMPLANT hardware, although the manual would lead you to believe there is (as does the EMPLANT advertisement, although a serial port is never specifically mentioned).

A parallel port was added in version 2.1 of the software and uses the Amiga parallel port.

I haven't been able to get the emulator to recognize IBM hard drive files with later versions of the EMPLANT software. They worked well with versions 1.0 and 1.1, but anything later can't find them and FDISK returns a software error/divide by zero". This seems to be a common problem, with lots of postings to their BBS about it.

There also is a problem with the emulation causing hard disk errors if the emulation locks up and you try a warm reboot of the Amiga. A command stored by the emulation in the Amiga's T directory saves Mac and IBM CMOS information to a small file on your hard disk and you'll get a "Read/write error - Disk not validated" message. I reformatted and reloaded my hard drive several times (lots of work!) before I discovered all I needed to do was rewrite the Rigid Disk Block info to the drive, not reformat the whole thing.

Major bugs in my book, but apparently they only happen on some systems, since many posts to the BBS say the emulations work fine on their Amigas. Utilities Unlimited tech support is difficult, if not impossible, to reach and they seem to rarely answer questions posted on the BBS. The company does seem very concerned about improving their software and fixing the bugs, though. Version 2.2 of the IBM software is to be released soon and that may fix the problems (Mac version 5.4 will also be released soon).

If you already have an EMPLANT board and need to run IBM software that doesn't require extreme speed or a serial port, the IBM emulation may be for you. But if you want to do 3D rendering, Windows, or Netsurfing, you'll probably be better off with a real IBM or clone for now.

[Source: New Orleans Commodore Klub, Amiga Group, newsletter, "N.O.C.K Notes" August, 1995. NOCK Amiga Group's address is P.O. Box 8307, Metairie, LA 70011-8307.]

ToC

ASIMWare CDFS 3.0 - Review

by Mark Gilmore, President of the Northwest Amiga Group

[NAG Editor's Note from Dale C. Pace: If the free CD-ROM software is not adequate for your needs, this product should certainly solve the problem. Just the options in its preferences took Mark a while to cover (at NAG's July general meeting). There are several options for the type of icons you want to use and their appearance. There are boot options - you can boot from a CDTV or CD32 CD-ROM. You can choose the multi-session format you want to use. You can set up to play music through your Amiga if you have the appropriate sound card. Mark demonstrated the effects of many of the possible configuration choices. Mark booted from a CD32 CD-ROM attached to his A2000 and the sound and music on the CD played just like it would on a CD32. He demonstrated Grolier's Electronic Encyclopedia published to run on a CD32. It all worked except AGA graphics, which could not.]

Well, it finally came, the very long awaited ASIMWare CDFS 3.0 (a CD-ROM file system for the Amiga). There were a lot of new features added and it was worth the wait. I couldn't wait to get the disk on my 2000.

As I opened the package, I inserted the disk into DF0: and then looked at the manual for details on how to install the new software...Not! Yep, I just stuck the disk in the drive and double clicked "Install-CDFS3.0" and away it went.

I picked "Expert User" as my preps for Commodore's Installer program. It was a painless process. They spent a lot of time configuring the install program for the expert user pref. The installer program asked about every aspect of the installation and if it was OK with me! I like this, because, as many of us know, sometimes developers will do stuff like overwrite a newer, updated file and leave you with an older one. What's worse, they won't even tell ya.

Well, let's look at the new features over 2.0. First is when you stick a CD-ROM into your drive, a requester will pop up and ask which file system would you like to use? I find this very useful for CD-ROMs that have more than one file system, such as those with IBM and Mac files on the same disk. Not only that, if you pick a Mac format, there is a button for with resource fork you want: MacBinary, Resource, or Data. This is a real gem for those of us with data on Mac formatted CD-ROMs. The next feature I noticed was that I could finally look at Photo CDs without having to load three programs. They worked it out so all you do is point and click. If you have a Photo CD in your drive, just double click the disk icon. Then open the drawer with the size pictures you want and voila! There is a thumbnail picture of all the pictures on your Photo CD disk. I then double click on any of the thumbnails and it is shown as an IFF file on the screen. This didn't work for me in 2.0. I'm glad it does now.

One of the things that really impressed me was the emulation of CD32 and CDTV. After selecting prefs, then selecting "autoboot CD32/CDTV titles", I was able to boot from CD32 and CDTV disks. Not only that, they worked... :} I was able to boot from a CD32 gamer's disk and actually run the games on my 2000. Wow! Almost all of the games were playable. There were a couple I couldn't play. Probably some AGA specific stuff. Other than that it was really sweet. It has read and performed all of the emulations that I was able to throw at it except for CDXL stuff. I have had several conversations with ASIM on this and we feel it has something to do with my Derringer board, but they are on it.

The next item was a little discouraging. I was not able to get all of ASIMTunes to work right. Although I was able to play an audio CD using the play button, the numbers in the different windows would have strange numbers. Like I was playing track 40 when there were only eight tracks on the disk and the track length was -46:03 minutes. There is some work to be done. This seems to be a problem that I alone have since no one else has reported it to ASIMWare. I have found that the PD version of AmiCD-ROM's Jukebox still works, so I'll use it until they get this bug fixed. I think that being able to rename the icons for each audio CD-ROM disk and file is a really neat feature. Just used the Workbench's Rename from the pulldown menu.

The only feature I was not able to get to function was the ability to have CD-FS read 16-bit audio CDs and play them through the Amiga's 8-bit audio jacks. I was looking forward to being able to use this feature for digitizing some of my audio effects CDs. Again, so far, I am the only one with this problem.

The last thing that has sold me is the fact that while ASIM was late releasing the product, they have worked very hard trying to get my version to work with my computer. I say "two thumbs up for the technical support group at ASIMWare..." All and all, I am impressed with the product and recommend it to anybody with an Amiga and a CD-ROM.

[Source: Northwest Amiga Group, Inc.'s "Northwest Amiga Journal" August, 1995. NAG's address is Galleria Suite 553, 921 SW Morrison, Portland, OR 97205-2723.]

AsimCDFS v3.3 Maintenance Release
from Paul Reeves, Asimware Innovations Inc.

We would like to announce the availability of AsimCDFS v3.3, which was released on August 29th, 1995. This is a maintenance update for the AsimCDFS v3 package.

Particulars include support for additional CD-ROM drives, small feature additions and minor bug fixes. Consult the AsimCDFS3_3.readme file on our FTP site for details. [Note: The FTP site seems to be ftp.asimware.com. -Dan ]

Registered users can obtain this release via our BBS or FTP site. Consult your manual for details on obtaining the update.

Asimware Innovations Inc.               Phone:  (905)578-4916
600 Upper Wellington St., Unit D          Fax:  (905)578-3966
Hamilton, Ontario                       EMail:  info@asimware.com
Canada  L9A 3P9
ToC

Squirrel SCSI Interface

reviewed by Eric W. Schwartz, Amiga artist

Manufactured by the British company HiSoft and released in the U.S. by Oregon Research, the Squirrel is a SCSI-2 interface that fits in the PCMCIA card slot of an Amiga 1200 or 600.

The hardware consists of a little black box with a connector on one side, a 50 pin SCSI cable coming out of another side, and a sticker depicting a red (British) squirrel on top.

The cost is very similar to that of the Dataflyer 1200 SCSI+ (both are a bit under $100), but there are a few differences worth noting. The Squirrel is a full SCSI-2 interface, able to access 7 devices, while the Dataflyer is an 'IDE translator' of sorts, and it only can access five.

Installation of the Squirrel is a no-brainer - you simply connect it to the card slot and connect your SCSI devices to it. The Dataflyer installation is no picnic - I know because I assisted in the installation of Steve Cornett's.

Finally, the Squirrel's software already includes special provisions for tape drives, floptical, and removable media drives, CD-ROM file system software and the means to play much of the CD-32 software through emulation (provided your hardware is up to spec).

Currently, the only use I've put it to is accessing CD-ROMs through a single-speed NEC/Mediavision CDR-25 drive, but it has performed marvelously and very fast in that task (seemingly faster than a CD-32 can read its own drive, and it has a double speed).

I very much recommend the Squirrel for any 1200 owner looking for a cheap, but good, SCSI card for their machine.

There are small warnings, however. It has no PCMCIA pass-thru, so you have a problem if you are already using (or plan to use) that port for something important, like if you are a A600 owner who doesn't have much of a choice but to go PCMCIA to expand memory. Also, you may have an A1200 memory conflict if you've got more than 4 megs of expansion memory in the trapdoor slot, due to the 1200 memory mapping scheme. (Dataflyer is not a PCMCIA device, so it doesn't have that possible problem.) I have no conflicts with my DKB Cobra accelerator with 8 megs, and you probably won't have trouble with a 68030 accelerator memory or memory card that requires a software patch to bring its memory online. Finally, you can't autoboot from a SCSI hard drive, but you can't on the Dataflyer either.

I can't praise the Squirrel enough. You just have to evaluate your current expansion situation before you plug it in.

[Source: The AmiTech Amiga Users Group's "AmiTech Gazette", April, 1995. AAUG's address is P.O. Box 292684, Kettering, OH 45429-0684.]

ToC

Dell 1.76M High Density Floppy Drive

from RAMRunner (GEnie)

First Impressions: My goodness, this thing's tiny.

It arrived in an old Commodore-Amiga shipping box (yes, I'll b hanging on to it as a memorial), buried in newspaper and wrapped in bubble-wrap packaging. There was no unit box, per se. Just the drive, data cable, and an instruction sheet. And a formatted 3.5" HD disk, protecting the heads from rough-and-tumble shipping.

The low point is definitely the instructions. It's a single sheet, typed by Software Hut, that's basically a "Thank You For Buying This High-Quality Drive From Dell, It's Got A 90-Day Warranty, Here's How To Hook It Up, You'd Better Have At Least AmigaDOS 2.1, There Ya Go, Have Fun" kinda thing.

The drive itself, as I remarked earlier, is tiny. Take five 3.5" disks. Stack them. Set them next to the drive and see them tower over it in height - well, not quite, but it's a close call. Lengthwise, there's barely enough room within for there to be a drive mechanism. I don't know whose mechanism they're using, but you can't get any smaller. The data cable (a separate unit) plugs into the back. A green LED squeezes in on the front, and a slide-type eject lever is planted on the top right-hand front corner. Forget about stacking two of these, never mind standing one on end without bookends. The case, by the way, is a black, rubbery affair - I'm concerned, between the case design and the 90-day warranty, that this is a "Throw It Away When It Stops Working" thing, like the old Commodore 64 power supplies. I hope not.

So, following the paragraph devoted to hooking the drive up, I did so, sat back, and threw the main power switch.

A quick buzz-buzz of an Amiga drive powering up later, along came click... click... click... With Workbench up and running, I carefully inserted the included disk in the drive to see what would happen. AmigaDOS recognized the disk insertion, scanned, and came up with a def_Disk icon captioned Empty. I double clicked and was rewarded with a disk that had 1673K free, 3K in use, and one of those bloody TrashCan icons. So far, so good.

I stuck a blank disk in DF0: (a stock 880K drive) to get some benchmarks for comparison. So far, all I have done is format a few disks, and copied some files. All results were comparable to the standard Amiga floppies.

Note that with a low-density disk in the Dell drive, it was a few seconds slower in copying, and with a high-density disk, almost ten seconds slower still. Formatting a high-density disk is twice as long, but of course, it has twice as many sectors to format. None of this is unexpected.

The drive automatically recognizes low-density disks vs high-density and reacts accordingly. OPUS' status indicator in the format box changes from 80 Tracks - 11264 Sectors Per Track - 880K to 80 Tracks - 22528 Sectors Per Track - 1.7M as per which disk is inserted.

Well, based on about two hours of playing around, I like it. A lot. It works as advertised, requires no special drivers, like the PowerPoint drive, is quieter than either my internal or the generic external or either of the Golden Image Master 3A's I have. I have yet to test it with my BridgeBoard, PC-Formatted disks, or specialty software like SuperDuper's Fast-Format, which I have heard does not like the PowerPoint drive in the least. I'll post more as I have more time to play. The black, rubbery case is... odd. Not bad, maybe not good, as there seems no way to break it open without breaking it open should the drive mechanism die, and it really doesn't fit in with the Amiga decor. It dos present an interesting statement as to where Dell might have gone if it had acquired Amiga. It'd make a nice companion to a CD32 (or, if you're lucky like me and have a 2.0-equipped CDTV), but it really doesn't look bad at all next to my 2000.

Recommendations...? Are you looking for a high-density drive? This one's the cheapest on the market right now, is limited to 7500 units according to Software Hut, and appears to perform well. There's no driver to worry about - plug it in and run with it. I have no problems recommending this unit highly.

[Source: The Commo-Hawk Commodore Users Group newsletter, "The File" September, 1995. CHCUG's address is P.O. Box 2724, Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52406-2724.]

ToC

SwitchHitter PC Keyboard to Amiga Adapter

From: John Scott Freeland (john_freeland@freemf.wa.com)

BRIEF DESCRIPTION

A keyboard adapter that allows you to use IBM AT compatible keyboards on your Amiga 2000/2500/3000/4000 and CD32. (More than likely, an easy solution will be available for A500/1000s.)

AUTHOR/COMPANY INFORMATION

   Name:       Dana Peters
   Address:    #7 - 49 Sherway Drive
               Nepean, Ontario
               Canada  K2J 2K3
   Telephone:  (613) 825-7031

   E-mail:           Dana_Peters@Mitel.COM
   World Wide Web:   http://www.worldlink.ca/~dana
LIST PRICE

$45 (US), ground shipping included.

SPECIAL HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS

COPY PROTECTION

None.

MACHINE USED FOR TESTING

A2000, A2500, A3000, A4000 and CD32.

INSTALLATION

Just power down the Amiga, unplug the old keyboard, plug the SwitchHitter in and the PC keyboard into the SwitchHitter and power back up.

There are some DIP switches for customizing the setup, but the default is fine for a start - more on this later..

REVIEW

I'm forced to use a PC Clone at work. The latest thing to appear on my system there is a Microsoft Natural(c) keyboard. This is one of those 'Ergonomic' keyboards with the left-hand side of the keyboard slightly offset (approximate 10 degree angle) from the right-hand side, and the numeric keypad is more 'sculpted' to fit the fingers in the 'ten-key form' of entry.

Actually, I've gotten to like this keyboard. I've only been a marginal 'touch-typist' and this keyboard has helped enforce proper practice. Besides - it looks cool! :-) So, it was time to start looking for keyboard adapters so I could use one on my A4000.

During my search, Dana Peters and I got into an EMail exchange about a new gadget he was developing, the SwitchHitter. I was looking for support of the additional 'Windows' keys (at the bottom of the 'alpha' keys at approximately the same position as the 'Amiga' keys on a standard C= keyboard). Dana was very supportive and essentially did a custom design for the 'Natural'.

When I received the prototype, I was pleased to see that not only was the 'Natural' support well done, but Dana had also added other features:

DOCUMENTATION

One 8 1/2x11 two-sided page.

This is all that was required for a product of this type. The DIPs were explained in a logical, easy to understand fashion.

LIKES

I like the complete support of the Micro*oft Natural keyboard and the 'StickyKeys' feature is quite cool.

DISLIKES AND SUGGESTIONS

My only suggestion would be some way to 'program' the F11 and F12 keys. I had no other use for them as the MS Natural has a place for the 'Amiga' keys.

COMPARISON TO OTHER SIMILAR PRODUCTS

The only other device like this that I've had my hands on is the PC keyboard socket in the SX1 (CD32 expansion). There are some 'keyboard buffering' problems with that one. I went back to the keyboard socket on the CD32 when the SwitchHitter freed up my A4000 keyboard. :-)

BUGS

None that I could find.

VENDOR SUPPORT

I've been quite pleased with the support so far. No need as yet to test his repair support.

My only association is as a beta tester for the prototype - I now own a production unit. I have no vested interest in his company and Naturally :-) wish him the best.

WARRANTY

No warranty is mentioned in the simple documentation. Very little could go wrong with a discrete component like this, anyway.

CONCLUSIONS

I'd give this six out of six stars. A very cool gadget.

I'm very happy I found this product - it's made my clone friends envious that it can make a Natural KB even better than when it's plugged into a 'native' system.

John Scott Freeland (scotty@freemf.wa.com) (26-Jul-95)

Daniel Barrett, Moderator, comp.sys.amiga.reviews
Send reviews to:        amiga-reviews-submissions@math.uh.edu
Request information:    amiga-reviews-requests@math.uh.edu
Moderator mail:         amiga-reviews@math.uh.edu
Anonymous ftpsite: math.uh.edu,
   in /pub/Amiga/comp.sys.amiga.reviews
ToC

Amiga Time Bomb

by Hal Greenlee (Greenl) 407-453-5805 (East Central Florida)
Warning to 3000/3000T/4000/2386BB Owners

Your motherboard contains a time bomb which will kill it if you do not act in time, and that time is already past for early production 3000s.

If you have not already done so, it is very important that you change the NICAD battery to be found on the left side of the motherboard. I have observed on almost all of the 3000 desktop boards I have recently inspected, working or not, that this battery is leaking corrosive salts onto the surrounding components and board. By the time your computer fails (and it WILL fail), so much damage is likely to have occurred that repair will be extensive, if not even impractical. Why? Well, it would be bad enough if it were only the nearby components that were being eaten up, but this crud also follows the battery and component leads down into the interior of the board. Typical problems include failure of the scan doubler and other video circuitry, and erratic booting. Anything within a couple of inches of the leaking parts of the battery can be effected.

I strongly advise you not to wait for your machine to start acting up, or until gross corrosion is visible. If you own a 3000, replace the battery NOW. This battery should be changed on any board more than two years old. The problem is already showing up on early 4000s.

The battery is a barrel-shaped object about 0.6" diameter and 0.8" long, with blue or red plastic covering. They are 3.6v, 60 MAH, made by Varta, GP and others. The service manual gives the mfg. part number as BT190. Revision D 4000 boards (not many around) don't use this battery, having a chrome disk-shaped lithium battery instead.

These batteries can be obtained from many distributors of computer parts. Don't take a chance, do it!

[Source: From Springfield's Premier User Group newsletter, "The Gazette", August, 1995. SPUG's address is P.O. Box 9035, Springfield, Illinois 62791-9035.]

ToC

The CUCUG Section:

September General Meeting

reported by Kevin Hopkins

The September 21st meeting began with President Jim Huls giving the traditional introduction of officers. He then acknowledge our guest speaker for the evening Dick Tryon. The floor was then open for the Question and Answer Session.

After the Q&A, Amiga Librarian Kevin Hisel showed the new Amiga disks for this month.

CUCUGAMI #149: Biker Babes from Barbados (a great game, but it's in PAL, so it didn't demo well), DoSayTime (a clock that speaks the time to you), and Parachute Joust (a game where two guys fall out of an airplane and fight over the one parachute on their way down. The finale it worth the fall).

The floor was then turned over to Dick Tryon. Mr. Tryon is the Western Hemisphere rights holder to the manufacture and distribution of the Maltron keyboard, a new rendition of an all too familiar friend.

Mr. Tryon began his talk with a review of the history of the present day keyboard, invented by Stolz in 1848, the same year that saw the delivery of the Communist Manifesto. Mr. Tryon made analogy to the crumbling and burdensome construction of the two creations, an analogy not very well made but probably well received by the investment capitalists he probably used to pitching it to. More accurate was his description of how the QWERTY system, devised for the mechanical linkage typewriter, was intentionally made to be difficult and to slow the process down in order to prevent jam-ups. Keys were arranged illogically and staggered, hampered by the mechanical device they served rather than the typist who used the typewriter. The result being carpal tunnel syndrome and the impetus to design ergonomic keyboards. Mr. Tryon pointed out one such design on one of the PowerMacs at our meeting. However, he said this design was still weighed down by some of the culture surrounding Stolz's original invention. Even though the Mac keyboard here had been split and curved to more comfortably fit the human hand, it still uses the QWERTY key layout and the keys are still staggered, both a legacy of old mechanical linkages they were designed to protect. He said, with the advent of the electronic keyboard, there is absolutely no need for this situation to persist (other than entrenched learned patterns). This brings us to the development of the Maltron keyboard.

Mr. Tryon then gave a little of the history behind the Maltron system. It is named for Lillian Malt of England who has made a study of what would be the most advantageous keyboard layout for human beings. This went so far as to the neuromuscular study of right brain/left brain physiology to see if there were any speed difference in the transfer of nerve signals required to type characters. Turns out there were, so the most used characters are now laid out on the brain's faster side. Keys were moved into line with each other in order to reduce the amount of movement required to execute a typed character. No avenue of improvement was left unexplored.

Mr. Tryon talked about the other people involved in the development of the Maltron keyboard, organizations like PRINT (Printing Research In New Technology) and individuals like Steven Hopeday of Printed Circuit Design who made the original Maltron keyboards in his garage. Mr. Tryon went on to discuss his own trials and tribulations in attempting to bring this keyboard to market.

The original keyboards sold for about $800US and were used primarily by people suffering injuries from a life of using traditional keyboards. As an example and testimonial, Mr. Tryon presented his sister Carolyn. He said she had worked for years as a typist but was forced to retire when she got carpal tunnel. She had typed at 80 words per minute. He was able to convince her to try the new Maltron keyboard despite her misgivings. She was able to learn the new layout in six weeks (or approximately 50 to 60 hours) and was up to 110 words per minute. If initially trained on a Maltron keyboard, Mr. Tryon feels others could do much better than someone having to unlearn old habits. He noted that 2/3 of the keyboard users worldwide have been determined to be unschooled in touch typing. "Hunt and peck" users probably wouldn't be as seriously impacted.

Turning to the keyboard itself, an unusual looking affair to say the least, Mr. Tryon stressed that in order to be successful the keyboard would have to become a piece of personal equipment. The keyboard has been both ergonomically redesigned and the keytop layout has been changed. The Maltron keyboard would have to be portable and be able to be plugged into either a PC-compatible or a Macintosh system. To that end, his keyboard has a chip inside that will allow it to be used with either style computer. He envisions a Maltron user to carry his keyboard into any work place, hook up his own personal keyboard, do his work, disconnect and take his keyboard away with him.

In order to not buck tradition too much, the keyboard also has a switch that will allow it to respond to the QWERTY layout for those that just can't break themselves of the habit.

The Maltron keyboard will be for sale very soon for $295. There will be 100% satisfaction guaranteed with a 30 parts and a one year warranty. Anyone desiring further information can get it on the Internet from teleprint.com.

At the conclusion of Mr. Tryon presentation, he fielded questions.

With that Mr. Tryon concluded his presentation. We would like to thank him for taking the time to show us his most interesting keyboard. It is definitely something to consider should the demands of your job or your curiosity require something different from the standard keyboard fare.

Richard Rollins then took the floor to announce that he had brought in two issues of Tidbits, the online magazine for the Macintosh, printed out for those that would like to see them. He also brought up two items that appeared in the Champaign News-Gazette recently: (1) the Chinese have already pirated Windows 95, and (2) the security system in Netscape has been cracked, a new version will be forthcoming.

The floor was then turned over to Macintosh Librarian, Mark Bellon, who had two Mac disks for this evening.

CUCUGMAC #11: The QuickTime Tools collection (programs to use with QuickTime, which Mark said is conceptually like IFF).

CUCUGMAC #12: Utilities and Games. Highlights of this disk are Journeyman Project (a QuickTime analyzer), Sparkle (MPEG in software), Graphic Converter (a graphics editor that converts and views every format of image that Mark knows about), Area Code Finder (find out about area codes either using the number to find which area it's for or use a location and find out what its area code is), and Montana (a solitaire game authored by Eric Snyder).

After Mark's disk demonstration, the club - in the words of Jed Clampett - "commenced to socialize" and play games.

ToC

September Board Meeting

recorded by Kevin Hopkins

The September meeting of the CUCUG executive board actually took place on Tuesday, October 3 due to some schedule conflicts among the Board members. It was held at the regular time, 7PM, at Kevin Hisel's house (address and phone number, both in the book). Present at the meeting were Jim Huls, Jim Lewis, Richard Rollins, Mark Bellon, Craig Kummerow, Garry Morenz, Mark Landman, Jon Sago, Kevin Hisel, Kevin Hopkins, and Emil Cobb.

Jim Lewis: Jim brought in a couple of older issues of AC Tech Amiga for anyone who wanted to look at them. He also brought in the latest issue of Amiga Computing (US edition). Jim said one nice thing about the latter magazine is that it's thick and is pretty good if you can get passed the British slang that creeps in from time to time. He rates it 3 on a scale of 5. Amazing Computing would be 4 on a 5 scale.

Later, Jim also handed out a sheet with the IRS's required changes to our By-Laws. Jim will implement these for us.

Mark Landman: Mark made apologies for missing the last couple of meetings, but let everyone know he has been extraordinarily busy. He is directing a new newscast at Channel 15 (on top of his other duties), working on his private production business, and going to graduate school at ISU in Bloomington. His schedule has become punishing and he is now looking for someone to take over his CUCUG Treasurer's duties. He says he can last until the next election (three months away), but he will not be running for that office again. If anyone fancies the job, please volunteer.

Kevin Hisel complimented Mark on his tenure as our Treasurer, saying "You have been the most successful Treasurer we've had."

Mark then gave an abbreviated Treasurer's Report.

Mark finished by saying he would not be at the next two monthly meetings due to his grad school schedule.

Richard Rollins: Richard informed everyone that Carlos Ramirez of C-U Online has agreed to come and speak at our October 19th meeting. Concerning his plans to discuss the HTML language at the November meeting, Richard had decided to postpone that idea. Instead for November, the Mac SIG will be investigating speech recognition on the Macintosh with "Plain Talk 1.4.1".

There was a discussion of getting a machine for the Mac SIG for demonstration purposes. Money, membership numbers, and voluntary use of personal machines all entered into this discussion. A question about the video adapter not working at the last meeting was tentatively explained by Mark Bellon saying his new machine had a NEC video driver installed as opposed to the more general one on his previous machine. He suspects this software to be the problem, but due to our guest at the last meeting using the big monitor, Mark was unable to troubleshoot the problem. It should be fixed by the next meeting.

Mark Bellon: Mark announced that he will be releasing CUCUGMAC #32 at the next meeting and there is a possibility he will have a disk #33 and #34. As an aside, Mark requested more disk labels from Chief Librarian Kevin Hisel. There was a general discussion about the sale and pricing of disks.

As an overview of upcoming Mac SIG programs, Mark said he is looking at Plain Talk, Applescript, and the general topic of Inits.

Mark informed everyone that he has uploaded a file called Aaron.hqx to the BBS. It is termed a "user experience" for the coming Copland upgrade to the Mac operating system. In layman's terms, it's a demo. It will give you an idea what Copland will be like. Mark advises all Mac users to go take a look at it. He says it looks a lot like the Amiga's WB2.1.

There was a discussion of the costs associated with going online to download material for the club.

Craig Kummerow: Craig said, thanks to Carlos Ramirez, October is taken care of. In November, Craig said he will cover a Loadstar disk for the C64/128 SIG's program.

Craig said he is hoping Angelo Koutsos will take over the Chairmanship of the C64/128 SIG.

Not having been at the last meeting, Craig asked how the game meeting went. He was told that only the Macs had games running.

Craig took that opportunity to say how much he likes his new Mac, with its speakers and CD-ROM. He said he didn't get a modem with his machine and asked the provider if he should have. He was assured by Advanced Business Center of Torrence, California that he was and that the "modem is in the mail." We'll see.

Craig said he was also interested in getting a color printer. Richard Rollins told him that the HP 550C is selling for $219 in the MacWarehouse catalog. The black and white version is going for $179.

Garry Morenz: Garry solicited responses to Dick Tryon's presentation of the Maltron keyboard. Most of the Board members said it looked interesting. It looks like it has some promise. A general discussion of keyboards followed.

Jon Sago: Jon said he will bring some Compuserve sign-on packs for the Macintosh to the next meeting. If anyone is going to join America Online, talk to Mark Bellon first. If done through him, you can garner some free time for the club on their service, which we can use.

Kevin Hisel (KH1): Kevin reported that BBS usage is at 12.2%. Actual time online is down since most users are running 28.8K modems now. Kevin also reported that he has opened up more hard drive space for Mark Bellon and his Macintosh uploads. Mark was noticeably pleased.

Kevin read the information posted by the Mac group on Prairienet. After some discussion, it was decided that the time has come for Mark Bellon to approach the remnants of CUMUG and see if they would be interested in folding into our organization.

Turning to disk sales, Kevin reported that they were "decent." There was another discussion about disk pricing.

Kevin briefed the Board on some ideas he's working on with regards to CU Online and CUCUG's Internet presence. More details will be forthcoming when these plans become more developed.

Kevin Hopkins (KH2): Kevin presented the exchange newsletters and handed out the mail as usual. In particular, Kevin turned over three Disks of the Month sent to us by MC=UG of Hernando, MS. These were their September offering. Craig gladly took these disks for the C64/128 SIG.

Kevin reported that the Amiga archive at the UI on UX1 is going down. It will be backed up and once the University is done revamping the machinery, they may restore the archive, but it is not a certainty. Kevin has contacted them and requested that the archive be spared, but that appears to be all we can do.

Kevin let the Board know that he had gotten on uiuc.sys.amiga and personally invited the Amiga users there to come to our meeting. He will continue to post club meeting dates there in the future.

Emil Cobb: Emil reported that attendance at the September meeting was pretty good, with about 50 members present.

Jim Huls: Jim said he liked the September meeting. He would have liked to have seen more game play on the Amiga, but he was pleased with the activity on the Macintosh. Commenting on the Maltron keyboard, Jim said it was "pretty cool" although it was not very visually impressive.

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The Back Page:

The Champaign-Urbana Commodore Users Group, (CUCUG), a not-for-profit corporation and Authorized Commodore User Group #00251, was originally organized in 1983 to support and advance the knowledge of area Commodore computer users. We've grown since then.

Meetings are held the third Thursday of each month at 7 p.m. at the IBEW Local 601 Union Hall (352-1741), located at 2901 Research Road in the Interstate Research Park in northwest Champaign. To get there, go north on Mattis over I-74 and turn right at the second stop light, onto Interstate Drive. Then take the first "real" left at Research Road. The Electrician's Hall is the third building on your left. There's a big flag pole right out front and it's directly across the street from one of Hobbico's signs. You should park and enter the building in the back.

ASCII text files of all recent Status Register newsletters are available for downloading on our BBS or our WWW site. Other user group newsletter editors may leave a comment to the BBS Sysop to request free access. To initiate a newsletter exchange, just send us your newsletter. As a matter of CUCUG policy, a newsletter exchange partner will be dropped after three months of no contact.

This newsletter was prepared with PageStream 2.22 on an Amiga 3000 25/100 and output to an HP Laserjet IIP plus. Pagestream was donated to CUCUG by Soft-Logik Publishing Corporation.

For further information, please attend the next meeting as our guest, or contact one of our officers(all at area code 217):


President:         Jim Huls         892-8730
Vice-President:    David Witt       685-2815          ntranger@msilink.com
Secretary/Editor:  Kevin Hopkins    356-5026                  kh2@uiuc.edu
Treasurer:         Mark Landman     398-2910       mlandman@prairienet.org
Corporate Agent:   Jim Lewis        359-1342         jlewis@prairienet.org
Librarian/Sysop:   Kevin Hisel      406-948-1999         khisel @ prairienet.org
C64/128 SIG:       Craig Kummerow   784-5919       cwkummer@prairienet.org
Macintosh SIG:     Richard Rollins  469-2616             RERollins@aol.com

Call our Starship CUCUG BBS at (217) 356-8056, always online, up to 28,800 baud, supporting all CBM and Macintosh computers. Email us at

cucug@prairienet.org

or surf our home page at

http://www.prairienet.org/community/cucug/

Call Prairienet free at (217) 255-9000. Login as "visitor".

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