The February 19 meeting will be one of CUCUG's split SIG meetings. The Amiga SIG will be having a roundtable discussion of user supplied topics. The Macintosh SIGwill be discussing MacOS 8.1 and witnessing a demonstration of Claris Home Page.
We'd also like to welcome returning members Alan Burkhard, Dennis Jann, Richard D. McConnell, Charlene McNulty, Jose H. Rabanal, William B. Smith, David R. Spankroy, Paul M. Froberg, Richard Rollins, Anderson Yau, Kurt S. Grach, Vincenzo Iodice, Larry McGahey, Bailey Glenn Parker, Mick Pearson, Paul J. Knowlton, Bjorn Peters, Peter S. Wason, Hassan Kabbani, Vincent J. LaMonica, Lloyd LeMere, Mark Landman, Steve Ramsdell, Jim Huls, Andre Page, Ralph E. Knapp, Kevin Glynn, Alexander Perez, Paul D. Ferguson, Patrick J. Foley, Teri Frerichs, Richard L. Kirby, Jeffrey B. Strelioff, Sally and Bill Gradle, Daniel B. Greathouse, Wayne J. Kumingo, Peter Lundy, David E. Waldrop, Brent Meeker, Ricky Shelbon, Louis C. Pesuti, W. Paul Carver, Michael Lynn, Shephen D. Alley, E. Ray Curtis, Ross Randall, Daniel L. Taylor, Paul Tranchida, William A. Klein and Alex Ou.
We welcome any kind of input or feedback from members. Have an article or review you'd like to submit? Send it in. Have a comment? Email any officer you like. Involvement is the driving force of any user group. Welcome to the best.
February 10, 1998 - CUCUG is pleased to announce that the recent problems with the reliability of our main web server have been solved for now.
The main CUCUG web site in Champaign, IL went down on Thursday, February 5th due to a problem with a bad power supply. The current server which houses the CUCUG site had been in use for less than two weeks when it went down. This new server is about three times as powerful as our former machine and will allow us to handle the enormous amount of daily web traffic much better than the former machine.
Everything seems to be working properly and is back to normal.
Thanks to everyone who wrote us with their concerns and offers of assistance! A special thanks to National Amiga for allowing us to use their e-mail list announcing the status of the problem.
Jan. 24, 1998 - We have been contacted by a local Amiga-oriented company looking for Amiga-savvy telephone sales people. If anyone is interested in a position of this nature that would turn your hobby into a career, please contact me, Kevin Hisel at khisel @ cucug.org and I'll put you in touch.
Jan. 23, 1998 - Netscape Communications announced plans yesterday to make the source code for the next generation of its Communicator and Navigator Web browsers available for free licensing. Netscape intends to post the source code for the developer release of Communicator 5.0, which is expected to come out toward the end of the first quarter 1998.
Netscape says this bold new strategy will enable them to harness the power of thousands of programmers on the Internet by incorporating their best enhancements into future versions of Netscape's software.
By allowing free, public access to their source code, developers will be able to incorporate their own changes and enhancements to Communicator and Navigator. This strategy is designed to accelerate development and free distribution by Netscape of future high-quality versions of Netscape Communicator to business customers and individuals, further seeding the market for Netscape's enterprise solutions and Netcenter business.
Netscape also intends to include some of the best features created by this new community of "Netscape" programmers into future "certified" releases of Communicator and Navigator.
Additionally, this also opens the door for there to be a Netscape presence on any platform. Mel Matsuoka of von Wiegandt Productions was quoted as saying, "I think the largest impact of this news is going to be in Netscape's presence on virtually all platforms. I know for the longest time, the Amiga community has pleaded with Netscape to produce a Navigator client for the AmigaOS. And OS/2 users have had to settle for a lackluster 2.0 version of Navigator for a while as well. With the free availability of the source code, Netscape will definitely stave off the attack from Redmond for a while.
"Of course, this brings up new issues for designers. For example, the 216 safe color-palette does not apply to the AmigaOS...but having the source code will mean that bugs and annoyances in Navigator will be squashed without waiting for Netscape to fix it themselves.
"This was a smart move, IMHO."
[Editor's Note: Full article is at http://webreview.com:80/98/01/23/webdev/index.html.]
The two Paxtron technicians have had numerous years of experience working with Amiga products. The technicians were trained in the special courses that Commodore/Amiga once offered. Paxtron has equipped their repair stations with the latest (SMT) equipment which enables the technicians to keep up with the latest surface mount technology, as well as expedite the repair time.
If you would like to take advantage of Paxtron's repair expertise and low costs, the toll free number is 1-800-595-5534. Paxtron representatives are ready to serve you Monday through Friday, 9:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. EST. If all you need is a little technical support, feel free to speak directly with the technicians between 2:00 and 4:00 p.m. EST.
For full pricing information on everything Paxtron performs, visit our website at "http://www.paxtron.com/" and look under SERVICE.
[Source: Amiga News Index of the Amiga Web Directory. ]
Dear Amiga User,
This message is to inform you of some changes at Cronus (formerly Amiga Library Services) and to give you first opportunity at some really great deals on Amiga CD-ROMs.
In early 1986, I founded Amiga Library Services to distribute Amiga software on floppy disk (AKA "Fish Disks") and then many years later began producing CD-ROM distributions of Amiga software. At the time of Commodore's bankruptcy, Amiga Library Services was a small but growing company that not only produced our own products, but imported many products from overseas and resold them to both end users and dealers.
Of course many things have happened since then, and we recently find ourselves in the position of not having sufficient ongoing sales to really justify remaining in the Amiga marketplace at this time. So a couple months ago, we made the rather painful decision that Cronus would stop reselling Amiga products, and with the exception of future AmigaOS versions of Geek Gadgets, stop producing our own Amiga products. Of course this is not an irreversible decision. If for some reason in the future it makes sense to reenter the marketplace we will certainly do so. This is not a loss of faith in the Amiga itself, but purely a business decision based on the "bottom line".
So we now find ourselves in possession of several thousand CD-ROMs that we would like to liquidate at below our original cost. This is a great opportunity for individuals, user groups, and dealers to obtain these products at an unbeatable price.
[Editor's Note: For more detailed information check http://www.cucug.org/amiga/aminews/1998/980129-cronus.html.]
Due to the stipulation that his statement not be altered or extracted, and left "as is" with no editing to ensure it adheres to Vulcan's wishes, we will respect Mr. Carrington's request and direct your attention to http://www.cucug.org/amiga/aminews/1998/980210-vulcan.html for the full text of his statement.
January 28, 1998 - Apple Computer (AAPL) continues to be reshaped by the hand of Steve Jobs, the company's interim CEO.
The latest example of Jobs's desire to rein in the remnants of Apple's past was in evidence yesterday as Claris, the independent software subsidiary, was reorganized. (See related story)
In addition to absorbing the ClarisWorks productivity suite and various other software products, Apple will again take over full responsibility for distribution and production of the hot-selling Macintosh operating system. The company ceded control of production and distribution of the Mac OS to Claris in 1995.
"It [bringing the Mac OS in] was inevitable because Steve Jobs wants to have that puppy under his thumb with nobody in between him," said Robert Morgan, a financial market strategist with Connecticut-based Echo 4 Holdings.
Claris executives, he says, had significant input in the engineering of the Mac operating system. Sometimes, the company would continue to develop software programs for features that Apple had canceled out of sheer inertia, something which Jobs would like to curtail, Morgan surmises.
Peter Lowe, product line manager for the Mac OS, says the move to bring the operating system under Apple's direct purview is aimed at promoting development of Macintosh applications. As an example, he cites Microsoft, stating that it didn't have great success in moving the users of Windows 3.x to Windows 95. The result was that software developers were slower to bring out programs for Windows 95.
Apple, he says, doesn't want to repeat that mistake. By pulling all Mac OS development and marketing activities back in, the company has a better chance to get more customers to upgrade to the Mac OS. When that happens, "a higher percentage of applications will be getting [revised] to take advantage of the latest features," Lowe said.
Last year, Apple faced a similar dilemma when it had to decide to eitherallow the Macintosh clone computer market to continue to thrive or bring control - and hopefully more profits - back inside Apple. Ultimately, it chose the latter, cutting off almost all the clone vendors and regaining control of the market.
Conflict Catcher 4.1 was reporting that some files installed by Mac OS 8.1 had "damaged resources." Apple technical support representatives were advising in some instances that users remove Conflict Catcher and ignore Conflict Catcher's findings.
However, after further investigation by both companies, it was determined that Conflict Catcher 4.1 was not causing an error but, was correctly identifying corrupted files.
Within 10 days of discovering a problem with some Mac OS 8.1 files, Casady & Greene announced the release of Conflict Catcher 4.1.1 which can now scan and repair the problem files.
The following files, which are installed by the Mac OS 8.1 OpenTransport Installer, have bad file lengths, according to ResEdit (Apple's Resource Editor) and can be fixed by either ResEdit or Conflict Catcher 4.1.1: AppleTalk, TCP/IP, Open Tpt AppleTalk Library, Open Tpt Internet Library, Open Transport Library, OpenTptAppleTalkLib, OpenTptInternetLib, and OpenTransportLib.
Users can easily repair the corrupted files with Apple's ResEdit by launching it and then doing a "verify" on the corrupted files. ResEdit will repair the damaged files.
The Conflict Catcher 4.1.1 Update is now available at:
The Mac Resource Page
http://www.macresource.com/mrp/software/mirrors/casadyg/getcc4up.html
Casady & Greene
http://www.casadyg.com/support/updates/getcc4up.html
This is a free update for all Conflict Catcher 4 customers. Customers who require a floppy disk will need to pay for shipping and handling. Conflict Catcher 3 users will need to upgrade to Conflict Catcher 4. See Casady & Greene's web site (www.casadyg.com) for upgrade information.
Conflict Catcher recently received the 1998 Macworld Eddy award for Best Utility of the year.
You can contact Casady & Greene at:
http://www.casadyg.com 1-800-359-4920 - Sales tech@casadyg.com - Tech Support 1-408-484-9228 - Sales sales@casadyg.com - Sales 1-408-484-9218 - Fax
IBM (IBM) unveiled a 1,000-MHz PowerPC microprocessor, and tomorrow will describe the first concrete plans for a copper-based microprocessor, a chipmaking technology that many believe will keep the industry on track to achieve further giant leaps in performance.
IBM's plans for the 64-bit 1,000-MHz PowerPC will be sketched out at the International Solid State Circuits Conference in San Francisco, which will take place from February 5 through February 7. The fastest IBM chip today runs at 350 MHz.
The company will also detail plans for a 500-MHz PowerPC 750 processor using so-called copper technology. In September, IBM announced that it had achieved a major breakthrough in semiconductor design by using copper instead of aluminum as the interconnect material for circuits in a chip.
Copper conducts electricity better than aluminum, the metal traditionally used for microprocessors, and is seen as an essential technology for reducing chip size and increasing performance.
A number of companies have said they will use IBM's copper technology in ASIC chips, but this is the first time IBM will detail how copper technology will be incorporated into a desktop microprocessor. The PowerPC 750 is currently used in Apple Computer's (AAPL) Power Macintosh computers.
IBM executives have said that copper microprocessors will first be featured in RS/6000 servers, in all likelihood before the end of the year. The chips would probably be available for use in desktop computers shortly thereafter.
IBM's 1,000-MHz chip announcement follows Digital Equipment's (DEC) discussion of plans for a new version of its 64-bit Alpha processor that will break the 1,000-MHz barrier by the year 2000, a goal which may put Digital's chip and Intel's upcoming Merced processor on a collision course.
IBM's prototype 1,000-MHz chip was manufactured at a New York plant under today's leading-edge 0.25 micron process. By contrast, the Alpha and Merced chips will have to be manufactured under the next-generation 0.18 micron process to reach 1,000 MHz. Merced is due out in 1999.
Among other presentations at the conference, AMD will detail plans for a 100-MHz "bus," or data path, for K6 processors. This faster bus increases the speed at which the K6 talks to other components in a computer.
Intel, meanwhile, will discuss a 450-MHz Pentium II processor. Intel has previously announced plans to ship a 450-MHz processor by the end of 1998. Currently, the fastest Pentium II on the market runs at 333-MHz.
In Geneva, a city long known for hosting diplomatic negotiations, modem manufacturers have finally settled the battle over competing 56-kbps modem technologies.
As expected, members of the International Telecommunications Union today accepted a preliminary, or "determined," standard that will allow 56-kbps to communicate with each other.
The determined standard, dubbed V.90, sets the stage for vendors to release compatible modems as soon as March, with software upgrades for current 56-kbps modems available as soon as late February.
But it won't happen automatically or even right away. "Despite V.pcm's certain future role as the new 56K modem standard, early testing has revealed [compatibility] is not automatic between differing [versions of] V.pcm," according to a joint statement yesterday from Hayes, Cisco Systems, and Ascend Communications. Prior to today's announcment, the determined standard being referred to as "V.pcm."
As a result, these three companies have said they will release new V.90-only products when compatibility can be demonstrated between major modem and Internet Service Providers.
3Com is also supporting the standard, as are most of the major modem chip makers, including Rockwell Semiconductor and Texas Instruments.
3Com announced compatibility testing with Lucent Technologies and other modem vendors in January. The company is also well into the process of conducting field trials for V.90 products worldwide, the company said.
All the fuss over standards is rooted in one basic problem for consumers: incompatibility between products from leading 56-kbps modem manufacturers. To date, users in many cases have been forced to choose between one of two main modem technologies when trying to connect to an Internet service provider (ISP).
Analysts are upbeat about the new standard.
"With a draft formal standard completed, 'V.pcm' modems will quickly become the most common way to access Internet networks and are likely to remain so for some time," said Ken Krechmer, editor of Communications Standards Review.
A determined standard is the step required before a final, official standard can be issued, with the vote on a final standard normally being a mere formality. Once the formal standard is adopted - probably in September 1998 - products and upgrades shipped before that date may require additional upgrades to conform to the final standard, experts say.
Modem vendors are relieved that the standard has been approved, having seen their financial results diminished because of slower-than-anticipated sales of modems and associated chipsets.
"A lot of people have bought 56K modems, but there has been some confusion out there.... The perception of having a standard is going to allay some of the fears people have," says Moiz Beguwala, vice president and general manager of the personal communications division at Rockwell.
With the standard, people will have more freedom to choose their ISPs, he said. More important, customers will have an easier time connecting to the Internet because ISPs are will have more modems for people to connect to. Many had divided their capacity between the two different technologies but can now offer one 56-kbps technology on all lines.
Since early 1997, all major modem manufacturers have been offering modems that can deliver data at up to a theoretical limit of 56 kbps, about twice the speed of widely used 28.8-kbps modems. But without any technology standard, modems using 3Com's x2 technology couldn't work with Rockwell or Lucent's K56flex modem technology.
Jan. 26, 1998 - Compaq took a major step toward its stated goal of becoming the No. 1 computer power in the world by announcing it would acquire Digital Equipment (DEC) for $9.6 billion.
The acquisition, which has been the subject of high-level, on-again, off-again negotiations for at least two years, essentially will provide Compaq with the high-end hardware technology and the worldwide corps of consulting engineers it has needed to act as a global technology provider.
Compaq has been the world leader in PCs for some time, but it has not had the high-end corporate "enterprise" technology necessary to take on hardware heavyweights IBM (IBM) and Hewlett Packard (HWP). Industry analysts also say the merger could affect rival Dell Computer (DELL), because Dell outsources much of its service work to Digital.
Through Digital, Compaq gains 1,600 certified Windows NT technicians and 3,000 Unix professionals, as well as a full line of Unix-based servers and workstations.
The Compaq-DEC deal probably became a reality because of Digital's concerted effort to shed itself of business units over the past two years. Since 1996, Digital has been able to rid itself of its disk drive operations, printer business, networking unit and, more recently, its chip fabrication plant.
"Compaq did not want to be in the chip business and did not want to compete against its largest partner Intel," said Chip Christiansen of IDC Research.
Some industry observers believe today's acquisition of Digital Equipment Corporation by Compaq is the last nail in the coffin for Digital's Alpha chip, but other analysts are saying that it serves as a strong placeholder for Digital until Intel's next-generation "Merced" processor is released and able to prove itself as a worthy competitor.
Alpha, Digital's high-end 64-bit processor used in its servers and workstations, has faced an uncertain future since last October, when Digital sold its chipmaking plants to Intel as part of the settlement of its patent infringement lawsuit against the processor giant. Under the terms of the deal, Intel said it would continue making the Alpha chips for an undisclosed amount of time.
Many analysts then concluded - and still believe - that the settlement was the beginning of the end for Alpha. As part of the deal, Digital agreed to begin making servers based on Intel's forthcoming Merced technology, and many analysts say that it is only a matter of time before Digital folds its products into a platform based on Merced, the first generation of Intel's 64-bit chip technology.
At the time, Ashok Kumar, an analyst for Lowenbaum & Company said, "This will accelerate the demise of Alpha, but it won't happen right away. The transition has to be done slowly."
"This will definitely accelerate the demise of Alpha," Linley Gwennap, vice president of publications for market researchers MicroDesign, said today. "While it's possible that Alpha could have some superior performance, it's about how many R&D dollars Compaq wants to invest in a technology that's not the standard."
Compaq could reinforce this transition since it is a company that has always supported the Intel "X86" chip architecture almost exclusively across its computer products.
Nathan Brookwood, an analyst at Dataquest, thinks the Alpha chip will help Compaq with its high-end corporate computing strategy and has a couple of years to prove itself before Intel rolls out its competing IA-64 Merced architecture.
Brookwood says that today's merger should have no effect on the previous settlement with Intel. A spokesperson for Digital agreed, saying that the two deals were "mutually exclusive."
"The Compaq-DEC deal won't have any effect on the Intel-DEC deal. Let's assume that the FTC blesses them," Brookwood said. "Compaq has said that they see Alpha as an asset, and I'm willing to accept that statement."
Compaq's pronouncements about Alpha's future are upbeat for now. In a statement today announcing the acquisition, Compaq CEO Eckhard Pfeiffer said that Compaq is committed to supporting the Alpha architecture.
Digital Chairman Robert Palmer agreed, saying: "Alpha's future is brighter than ever," in a conference call this morning.
Such assertions didn't sway Gwennap, who pointed out, "They don't want to have people stop buying Alpha systems until IA-64 systems are ready. They need to have the deal approved."
Brookwood noted that Alpha's enterprise computing niche makes it especially attractive to Compaq, especially until Intel rolls out Merced. "DEC does have products that the [corporate] customers find accessible for high-end applications. IA-64 may be there someday, but it's not today," he said.
"We now will have Compaq, IBM, and Hewlett-Packard as the three mega-vendors. IBM and HP both already have high-end systems based on proprietary architectures" that Alpha can compete with, he said.
Users of Iomega's Zip drives are reporting serious malfunctions in their drives and disks in a problem that has come to be known as the "click of death."
The problem is being discussed in several newsgroups, including "alt.iomega.zip.jazz" and "comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.misc," as well as on Web sites, such as the New Unofficial Iomega Page (http://www.juip.com/) and the Click Death Home Page (http://www.thirdeyesp.com/jatin/iomega/).
Users report that, after a time, their Zip drives no longer read disks and instead produce a loud clicking sound, from which the problem gets its name. Afflicted units reportedly no longer work once they get the "click of death," and numerous users reported damaged disks as well as data loss.
The problem is not reported to be associated with Iomega's new storage product for handheld devices, called Clik.
DJ Breslin, a consultant and programmer at Intel, told NEWS.COM that, in the past 18 months, he has lost five Zip drives to the "click of death" problem. While he lauded Iomega's customer service department for replacing his broken drives in each instance, he noted that the company had not responded to a letter of complaint he sent in November.
Breslin said Iomega's products were the most convenient to use because of their large installed base, but said, "If I had it to do over again, I wouldn't go with Iomega. I wouldn't trust it."
Iomega today issued a statement saying that "of the more than 12 million Zip drives shipped, Iomega is aware of a small percentage of customer complaints, a number lower than industry norms."
Iomega did not acknowledge the "click of death" problem. The company's Web site, however, has a page (http://www.iomega.com/support/techs/zip/2135.html) that describes it.
Iomega later amended its statement to acknowledge the problem.
"A number of Iomega's customers call from time to time describing a 'clicking' sound emanating from their Zip drive, which can be a symptom of a variety of problems in Zip drives, as well as in other kinds of drive products in general," the statement read. "Iomega continually works with its customers to resolve the particular problems they are experiencing. Iomega also continually evaluates its own product testing data to ensure the highest quality standards."
A source who identified himself as a former Iomega technician said the problem was well-known within the company when he started working there more than two years ago. He said the problem was not common, but noted that it accounted for about half of the malfunctioning drives on which he worked.
The source said the clicking sound is caused by the read/write head bumping against its movement stops--bumpers that keep the head within its intended range--while searching for and not finding track 0 on the Zip disk. When the "click of death" problem happens, the read/write head fails to find that track, which contains vital directory information, because the head has become misaligned.
The cause for that misalignment?
"The drive and disk are not extremely sturdy," the source said. "They're not flimsy, but people like to carry them around, and depending on how your car rides, after six to eight months, you might get the problem."
The source also said that dropping the drive, exposing it to the electromagnetism of a computer monitor, and other external factors could cause the misalignment. He noted that internal drives were less susceptible to the problem, and stressed that, apart from the sturdiness of the casing, the products themselves were not defective.
"I don't think the drives are faulty in any way," he said, noting that he had just authorized the purchase of 50 Zip drives for the company where he is currently employed.
The source said he also had encountered a related problem reported in newsgroups: a domino effect in which misaligned heads damage disks, which in turn misalign heads of other drives, which then damage more disks.
"It's fairly rare," he said. "But it does happen."
In a later report (http://www.news.com/News/Item/0,4,18877,00.html), analysts say that the ire directed against Iomega is merely the product of the company's enormous success in selling millions of drives, and also a function of the product's inexpensive construction.
"When you've sold 12 million drives, even a 1 percent failure rate is going to mean a lot of complaints," said International Data Corporation analyst Bob Amatruda. "Ship 12 million and you're a victim of your own success."
Iomega announced last quarter that it had shipped more than 12 million Zip drives since it launched the product in March 1995. Company spokesperson Tyler Thatcher today said that the company sells about 1 million Zip drives every month, so the 12 million figure is already out of date.
It depends. Software must be written to use MMX instructions, otherwise there is no benefit.
Many software packages will never need MMX, because they don't rely on multimedia. If you don't have such programs, then MMX will mean nothing to you and will not speed up your programs.
MMX is an enhancement of 57 new instructions which Intel added to their processors. Fortunately for everyone, it was not proprietary, and Cyrix and AMD began to produce their own brand of MMX processors. These instructions speed up the processing of multimedia and communication data, mostly in the areas of audio-video playback and image processing. Thus programs may achieve as much as 60% in speed with MMX. Other programs work fine with MMX processors. As time goes by, more processors with be made with MMX, and more programs with be designed to accommodate this new advancement.
Is Apple continuing to retreat after 1997's losses or starting to recover from those dark days? Apple has made a number of moves in the last few weeks which raise that question, and as with everything that happens at Apple, the answers aren't clear. Let's look at some recent events.
At the end of January, Apple announced that Claris would restructure to focus exclusively on FileMaker Pro, the company's award-winning database. Other programs that Claris markets - including ClarisWorks, Emailer, ClarisDraw, ClarisImpact, and Claris Organizer - move back to Apple, with a single exception, Home Page, which is now considered part of FileMaker.
We'd been hearing rumblings of Claris dropping Organizer and Emailer for several months, and to be honest, we haven't even heard anyone mention ClarisDraw or ClarisImpact in several years (ClarisDraw was last mentioned in TidBITS in November of 1995 and ClarisImpact hasn't appeared since March of 1994). The rumor behind Claris Organizer's woes was that the product wasn't selling all that well, so Claris decided to drop it, only to find out too late that the problem was primarily the expensive $70 price point.
Similarly, we've heard numerous rumors about how the forthcoming 2.0v3 upgrade to Emailer was to be the last one because the program, though popular and offering unique features, was Macintosh-only and wasn't selling well. Those rumors came before the transfer of Emailer to Apple, so there's no telling what will happen now, though several possibilities have been proposed. First, Emailer could be worked into the Mac OS, much as PowerTalk provided email services in the Mac OS back in System 7.1 Pro. Frankly, that seems unlikely given what happened to Cyberdog, which Apple had talked about as being part of the Mac OS. A second rumor would have Apple merging Emailer and Organizer into a single integrated program to compete with Microsoft Outlook, which integrates email and scheduling functionality under Windows. Given the current close relationship between Apple and Microsoft and the release of Microsoft's Outlook Express email client, this option also seems unlikely. Finally, the most likely option would have Emailer go into maintenance mode at its current release - at best Apple might make the latest version of the program free at some point, though that too might anger Microsoft, Netscape, and Qualcomm, not to mention other email companies.
With ClarisWorks, Apple has been quite specific about how it will continue to maintain and develop the program. This emphasis is no doubt due to the fact that ClarisWorks is popular in education, and education and publishing are now Apple's two primary markets. It remains to be seen if Apple will maintain the Windows version of ClarisWorks.
In the end, the restructuring probably makes decent business sense. FileMaker, and increasingly the Windows version of FileMaker, was where Claris was making the bulk of its money - about $73 million in 1997. By eliminating the smaller products that may not have been making much money, and laying off 300 employees (some 40 to 50 percent of the Claris work force), the newly created FileMaker, Inc. can go forward with renewed focus. In some circles, it also might not hurt to move away from the Claris brand name, which is indelibly linked with Apple and may not help efforts to market Windows software.
There had been talk of Apple looking to sell Claris, and the restructuring may in fact be a way of gussying up the FileMaker portion of the company to make it more attractive as an acquisition target. Although it wouldn't seem to make sense to me to sell off a profitable subsidiary, perhaps this is another instance of Apple's new mantra, "Focus, focus, focus." The entire restructuring could be explained by Steve Jobs having decided that Apple shouldn't be producing general business application software and that the company must focus on building Macs.
The next major event that can be interpreted as either good or bad news for Apple is the pullout from major retail stores, including Best Buy, Circuit City, Computer City, Office Max, and Sears. Apple's propaganda spun the event to claim that the goal was to focus on the "store within a store" concept that Apple and CompUSA say is currently being quite successful. CompUSA claims that the percentage of Mac sales to total computer sales has increased from 3 percent to 14 percent since the "store within a store" concept was initiated.
http://product.info.apple.com/pr/press.releases/1998/q2/980202.pr.rel.compusa.html
It seems a little odd that Apple would pull Macs out of these other stores, no matter how well CompUSA was doing, but there's more to the story than that. Reportedly, Best Buy and Sears had dropped Macs from their stores the previous week, and the other major retailers weren't happy with how well Macs were selling either. In short, the ill-feelings were probably mutual.
Why could CompUSA report such an increase in sales, if Macs were selling poorly at these other stores? We've all heard stories over the years of indifferent or even hostile support from staff in these and other major retail stores - we've even published a few in TidBITS. Poor presentation, technical support, and Mac-ignorant sales staffs in these outlets no doubt account for part of the sales discrepancy, as could Apple's historically lackadaisical attitude toward consumer retail outlets. How many times have you gone into one of these stores and seen Macs without monitors, keyboards, or mice - or Macs that weren't plugged in? How many times have you been steered toward the PC clone of the month if you expressed interest in a Mac? I've seen it all too often, and we've heard from someone who ran a successful Mac department at an east coast Sears, where he was given (grudging) permission to do it right. He kept a number of well-maintained Macs on display, stocked cables and peripheral items, answered customer questions, spoke to local user groups, and the end result was that he sold a fair number of Macs.
http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=00727
Granted, many computer stores don't treat their PCs much better, but in a world where the Mac is the main alternative to some sort of PC, it requires a bit more selling. Despite valiant efforts on the part of at least some of Apple's sales reps, Apple never managed to get the right people selling Macs. I've said this before and I'll undoubtedly say it again, but Apple has never taken advantage of the incredible customer loyalty it has built up over the years.
Despite the spin of "focusing" on CompUSA, I don't see this pullout as a significant problem. Sure, it will be harder to find Macs in big retail stores, but since those stores weren't selling many Macs anyway, there's little liability now. More important is the fact that this pullout may direct more attention to the individual Apple dealers and other businesses that sell Macs in more than 3,500 locations around the U.S. Those businesses tend to be staffed by the people who care, and customers who go there will hopefully get the treatment they deserve. It would be nice to see Apple acknowledge these dealers, perhaps by emphasizing that the staffs are generally more knowledgeable and resourceful than the bigger computer store chains.
The major concern with this move is not the present, but the future. What happens down the road if Apple recovers from the last few years of diminishing sales and market share? Will it be possible to wiggle back into the good graces of retailers? Or will it even matter, due to changes in the way people will buy computers in the future?
A little-reported victim of Apple's new emphasis on focus has been the imaging department that produced printers and digital cameras. According to sources, that department wasn't particularly profitable, and Steve Jobs felt that Apple wasn't adding any value to the products, so he swung the axe. Peripheral companies like Hewlett-Packard, Epson, and others are expected to start producing more Macintosh-compatible hardware, since competing with Apple had reduced incentive in the past. Since Hewlett-Packard was producing the engines for the Apple-labeled printers, there were also contractual issues with Apple that prevented Hewlett-Packard from selling certain Mac- compatible printers.
As I understand it, the printer story for Apple in the future will be as follows. Other than high-end color laser printers, Apple will cease to make and sell Apple-branded printers or digital cameras. However, PostScript laser printers from other companies will continue to work with Apple's LaserWriter driver. For the most part, the specific hardware is immaterial - the driver is the important factor, and Apple's LaserWriter driver works well. Low-cost inkjet printers are trickier because the drivers for them must be coded individually, though PowerPrint from Infowave (formerly GDT Softworks) does make most PC printers accessible to the Mac. We hope that Apple will provide either code or development assistance to the printer companies producing these low-cost inkjets.
http://www.infowave.net/printing_solutions/html/products.html
Apple will reportedly put some of these third-party printers on the price list for educational institutions, so schools will still be able to order both Macs and printers with a single purchase order.
Remember OpenDoc and its loyal Internet retriever Cyberdog? Respectively, they were Apple's component technology (where functionality could be provided by small, inter- operable parts) and perhaps the best example of what OpenDoc could do. In the great retrenching of 1997, Apple put both into "maintenance mode," which seems to mean that minor fixes will be made but otherwise the technology is dead.
Some OpenDoc developers didn't feel that OpenDoc deserved to die (wonder why?) and one of them, Hutchings Software, negotiated a "stewardship agreement" for the OpenDoc Development Framework whereby Hutchings Software would continue to move the software forward in exchange for Apple agreeing that it would continue to make OpenDoc available. Hutchings Software did this with the expectation that Apple would be willing to license OpenDoc and Cyberdog and would keep them as part of the Blue Box within Rhapsody indefinitely. A number of Apple employees who believed in the technology also worked extra hours to make this happen. However, the Apple vice president who made that promise has since left Apple. Steven Roussey of Kantara Development had been working on a stewardship agreement for Cyberdog since April of 1997, but was told recently by a different Apple vice president that Apple management isn't interested in licensing OpenDoc, Cyberdog, or related technologies.
Why Apple would care about this remains unknown, and the only argument we can think of is that licensing can be expensive, what with staff time, legal expenses, and whatnot. Perhaps this refusal to license OpenDoc and Cyberdog after previously agreeing to it is another example of Apple focusing on what's important, but it essentially seals the fate of OpenDoc after Kantara Development, Hutchings Software, and others have worked so hard to ensure that OpenDoc didn't fade away. Events like these bring into question whether or not Apple has turned over a new leaf.
By now, you've probably heard descriptions of Apple's new television ad, which features a snail hauling a Pentium II chip and compares that to a screaming fast Power Mac G3. Overall, reaction seems to be positive from the Macintosh community, but hey, we already know this stuff. The question I have is what do non-Mac users think about the ad? To rephrase the question, what do people who don't currently use the Mac want in a computer? Do they believe that speed is of the utmost importance? Let's face it: these are not people who have the technical background to judge CPU speed anyway - just look at the misinformed comments you see about clock speed in non-computer publications, somehow assuming that you can compare two different chips by clock speed alone. (That simply isn't true: clock speed comparisons are only relevant within the same chip model.) These quibbles aside, it's good to see Apple doing real comparison ads for a change.
In the end, we come back to the question - is Apple focusing its business or retreating? At the moment, I give the nod to focusing, since morale within the company has seemed relatively high and the first quarter profit of $47 million (slightly higher than the estimated profit of $45 million we reported back in TidBITS-412_) was encouraging. A profit in the next quarter would be even more encouraging, since it would show that the $47 million profit wasn't a fluke or accounting trick, a possibility that Apple has hotly denied.
http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=04625
That said, Apple must continue to move forward in significant ways. You can only focus for so long before everyone outside of the target audience has forgotten you exist. For instance, with the release of sub-$1,000 computers in the PC world, many fear that Apple will be left even further behind in the consumer market. Similarly, there's a tremendous range of laptop computers available in the PC world at a time when Apple continues to focus its PowerBook line to a small group of models.
Rhapsody is yet another story. Although development is moving along, Apple continues to groom Rhapsody as a server operating system. With Apple's servers having been focused out of existence throughout 1997 - including Apple's high-end Network Server systems - it seems difficult to believe network administrators will flock back to Apple for a server operating system, no matter how neat.
Perhaps that's my overall concern - Apple has kicked a lot of people out while putting its house in order; will enough users want to come back to check out the results of the remodelling?
For information: how to subscribe, where to find back issues, and more, email info@tidbits.com. TidBITS ISSN 1090-7017. Send comments and editorial submissions to: editors@tidbits.com Back issues available at: http://www.tidbits.com/tb-issues/ And: ftp://ftp.tidbits.com/pub/tidbits/issues/ Full text searching available at: http://www.tidbits.com/search/]
Commands and system software patches and tools which we as Amiga Users can use to enhance and measure the performance of our Amigas:
ADDBUFFERS -- Addbuffers is an Amiga OS command right out of the C: directory. Essentially this command enhances disk performance by using RAM to buffer disk data transfer. For each buffer allocated by this command about 512 bytes of memory will be set aside for utilization. Besides using this command in your STARTUP-SEQUENCE and USER-STARTUP and Mount-List files to set aside buffers, HDToolBox or other hard drive utilities can be used to allocate buffers through the RDB (Rigid Disk Block). The number of buffers used can drastically affect the performance of hard disk files used with emulators like PCTask and ShapeShifter. For such applications it is not unusual to use as many as 1000 or 2000 buffers! (NOTE: 2000 bufferes calculates out to 1 megabyte of RAM being used!)
CPU -- CPU is another Amiga OS command found in the C: directory. Like almost all commands, the CPU command can use many different arguments, but the one we discussed was the CPU FASTROM command. IF you own an accelerated Amiga and have Fast RAM to spare, using the FASTROM argument will move an image (copy) of the Amiga's ROM into Fast RAM where execution of ROM commands will be many times faster. The ROM image for OS2+ machine will occupy 512 kilobytes of memory!
Two tools I like to use to measure Amiga performance are SYSINFO and MEMSPEED. Both of these PD pieces of software and are available on your club's BBS.
SYSINFO provides a quick way of measuring your Amiga's overall performance.
MEMSPEED is a lot more specific in what it measures. It measures the speed of Fast RAM and Chip RAM read, write, and copy functions. In addition, MEMSPEED measures the speed of ROM reads. In this last capacity, MEMSPEED is very useful for measuring the performance improvement from the CPU FASTROM command.
The name of one programmer stands out when I think of Amiga Operating System patches. And that name is Arthur Hagen. Though there are many other programmers who have developed specific patch enhancements for the Amiga Operating System, none of them have been as consistent and prolific in their efforts. Therefore, our meeting presentation about system patches focused on Arthur Hagen's work. Here is a brief description of some of his software. Most, if not all, of these patches are available in the BBS SIG Library section.
ARTSER.DEVICE -- Just a debugged and optimized version of the C= serial.device 37.4. All functions should be identical, but this one should be somewhat faster and safer (the original contained code that trashed a byte when closing the device). To use this program, place it in your DEVS: directory, and select artser.device instead of serial.device in your comms program.
COPYMEMQUICKER -- Just another small thingy to put in your Amiga's S:Startup-Sequence. This one will patch the exec.library functions CopyMem and CopyMemQuick to become faster than the regular ones. These functions are two of the cornerstone functions of the operating system, so most programs should benefit from this patch. Should work with all versions of the OS from Kickstart 1.2 up to and including 3.1, and with all processors from the 68000 up to and including the 68040. [Editor's Note: I disabled this patch on my Blizzard 68060.]
EXECPATCH -- Requires Kickstart 36.xx or greater. Should work with all processor types / FPU-configurations. Requires a few hundred bytes of Fast-mem (not slow Fast-mem as on modified A501 memory boards) to be present. [Editor's Note: I disabled this patch on my Blizzard 68060.]
The Amiga is a multitasking machine (no kidding!), and will happily switch its CPU use between several tasks and processes too fast for the user really to notice. This task switching system is the whole basis for the Amiga's multitasking capabilities, and has, naturally, been coded in efficient assembly to reduce overhead as much as possible. Even so, several of the basic multitasking functions of the system could be optimized even further, thus speeding up the machine when several tasks are running simultaneously, and/or the CPU use is high.
FBL -- This tiny program will speed up blitter processes just like FastBlit, for any Amiga running 2.0 or above. Should work for all Amigas with ECS/AGA and AmigaDOS 2.0 or above. Among things that should be noticeably faster with FBL installed is menu browsing, WB updating, text scrolling and benchmark programs that test the GFX capabilities (like AIBB). [Editor's Note: This patch works best on accelerated Amigas with true Fast RAM.]
VBRMOVE -- If you have an Amiga with a 680xx (xx >= 10) processor, as well as fast-memory, you might take advantage of the processor's ability to have the vector base set anywhere in memory instead of just at address zero. On the Amiga, address 0 and upwards is defined as chip-memory, which is slower than fast-mem. By setting the Vector Base Register (VBR), the interrupt-vectors could be located anywhere in memory, and by moving them to fast-mem, all routines that use interrupts or similar will be speeded up marginally. VBRMove will allocate 1K in TRUE fast-mem (not slow-mem) if possible, copy the old frame and set the VBR to point there. Just include VBRMove in your Startup-Sequence (or similar) to take advantage of this. VBRMove is both re-entrant and relocatable, which means that it is both pure and ROMable.
VBRMOVE WARNING! Some programs (and viruses) set the interrupt vectors directly in the lowest 1K of your memory without either testing the VBR first or using the system routines, and if you have run VBRMove or any similar program first, these vectors will never be called. So, if you want 110% compatibility with all code, DON'T run VBRMove or any similar program.
FASTMATH LIBRARIES -- This set of libraries is a replacement for the original libraries by Commodore. They are written in highly optimized assembler code using the 68881/68882 FPU chips and the 68040 FPU directly without any emulation or compatibility overhead. So they are much faster, much smaller, and still 100% compatible.
[Source: Commodore Houston Users' Group newsletter "?Syntax", February/March 1998. CHUG's address is P.O. Box 230851, Houston, TX 77223-0851.]
As we approach the first anniversary of Gateway 2000's purchase of the Amiga, many in the Amiga community are getting the gnawing feeling in the pit of their stomachs that the Amiga subsidiary should have been named Nero and Company. With the continuing loss of Amiga developers, user groups and users themselves defecting from the platform, all the talk from this "reluctant standard bearer" about "our Amiga" and "things are happening - I just can't tell you - NDA" seems so much fiddling while Rome burns. Below is a sample reaction to Joe Torre's interview.
Subject: Amiga Inc choses PPC! Final nail in coffin.
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy
From: viper@deltanet.com (laura)
Date: Thu, 29 Jan 1998 18:57:22 GMT
Is this entire newsgroup insane or what? This whole thing is not good news; it's a disaster. Let's look at the facts, quoted from the news source itself:
Q: Which CPU is more in the Amiga's future, 68K or PPC?
A: Both of them. Amiga has the 68K for legacy compatibility, the PPC for speed. The flexibility of the Amiga architecture has allowed it to gain a PPC chip(s) for computationally intensive tasks like rendering, (de)compression, (de)encryption, etc. The 68K provides 100% software compatibility, while the PPC provides the horsepower. As more of us upgrade to 68K+PPC we will have more and more software for our Amigas that harness the capabilities of PPC.
Translated to English: Buy a PowerUP card. We aren't going to do anything.
Q: Will a PPC accelerator be required to run Workbench 3.5?
A: Definitely not. The OS upgrade is for existing machines, as well as future ones. We wish to maximize the value and appeal of WB3.5, so all users will upgrade upon release.
Future what? The 68k is dead. This is little more than a "service pack" option.
Q: Since a native PPC version of WB3.5 would be faster than a 68K version, why is it being written for 68K only?
A: To support the existing Amiga Community. Whatever CPU AmigaDOS was ported to, it would run faster, if the CPU was faster. The time it takes to market is an important consideration. The time it takes to add an accelerator board is under 20 minutes, but porting the OS to PPC would take a year plus. The WB3.5 upgrade is for the hundreds of thousands of 680x0 machines in use today, with or without PPC co-processors. More Amiga users benefit from a 68K upgrade sooner, than a PPC upgrade later, to hardware they don't own.
Translation: AmigaOS is dead. They say the next generation is PPC but they don't plan on supporting it.
Q: Will there be a PPC only version of AmigaDOS?
A: Third party AmigaDOS Licenses are free to port to Alpha, PPC, MIPS, etc. These CPUs may be ideal for embedded (non-Amiga) applications that AmigaDOS excels at. While these ports will no-doubt be fast, especially compared to the bloated OSs that usually run on such hardware. Although they can't be considered to be Amiga compatible unless they provide some sort of chipset and 68K emulation.
Translation: No there will not be. Not by us anyway. Port it if you want and leave a check at the door.
Q: Will Amiga Inc. be making new Amigas?
A: No, Amiga, Inc. will not be making new machines. New machines will come from companies who have a license from Amiga International. Petro has been very successful licensing the Amiga technology. Check the Amiga International web page at http://www.amiga.de for the long list of licensees. Look to those companies for the new Amiga models. These companies brought to the Amiga refinements like RTG, AHI, PPC, Wide SCSI, and even PCI! These companies need your feedback as to what kind of features you prefer in a new Amiga model. They will only produce the kinds of Amigas you want to buy.
Translation: We have little interest in the Amiga beyond generating as much cash as we can. What better way to offset the cost of acquisition than to sucker people into believing we were serious?
If they are not going to make new machines themselves, then why did we wait so long to hear PPC?? On top of that, they say any licensee can do what ever they want. Port to MIPS, Alpha, etc., any hardware, any software, we don't care as long as you pay up.
I have been looking forward to new Amigas for a long time, hoping they would do something right.
This however is BULLSHIT.
Greeting all,
I trust 1998 will be a great year for the Amiga. In spite of the frustrating silence from Amiga Inc. publicity, there is a great deal of activity out of the public eye.
I learned from a reliable source that this silence will soon be broken. In fact, it's likely a public announcement will be made by the time you read this. I truly hope this is the case, but I will tell you what I hear anyway.
It is my understanding Amiga Inc. has already hired its upper management, including its Development, OS, and Sales managers. New hardware and software engineers have also been hired. Names have not been revealed, but Carl Sassenrath is working for them on OS development.
A marketing strategy is underway that includes the bundling of various software titles on CD and targeting them to be sold with systems and separately. These bundles will be application specific, with graphics, audio, animation, and the Internet likely bundle contenders.
There has been a decision on the CPU for the next Amiga. While I cannot say for certain, sources indicate we will likely see a fast clocked 060 CPU before the release of a RISC based system. This will provide 100% compatibility with current systems and substantial speed improvements while the OS undergoes RISC conversion.
Amiga Inc. is in close contact with Amiga clone manufacturers, in particular, Index Information Ltd. This will ensure that the new clones are compatible with the direction Amiga Inc. is planning.
There's also a "feel-good" project underway. An "Amiga Made" competition has started which will solicit and judge images, demos, mods, and animations made with the Amiga. Likewise, a major effort is underway to establish several Amiga web servers which will host Quake competitions. In this way, Amigans can gather to play Quake with other Amigans, over the Internet.
Much of the above and more is promised to be announced in a February press release. This is great news, but I hope it isn't just a flash in the pan. Amiga Inc. needs to release information to the public and/or press on a regular basis. They must make a major effort to rebuild consumer confidence in the Amiga, which is surely waning. The loss of Rick Snyder from the upper management of Gateway 2000 (a true Amiga believer) set the Amiga time schedule back several months while his replacement was convinced of the Amiga's potential. These were vital months lost.
In spite of a decent market, Amiga Inc. must recognize the urgency and importance of acting now or face the loss of the last of its user base. I'm not sure how many more times we can say, "they better do something soon," before Amiga Inc. finds the market has all but slipped away.
Fletcher Haug
[Source: The Amiga Informer, Issue 12 Feb/Mar 1998, used with permission. The Amiga Informer can be reached through its editor Fletcher Haug (eldritch@mhv.net), its web site (http://www.amigainformer.com), or by writing Eldritch Enterprises, P.O. Box 21, Newburgh, NY 12551-0021 ]
The January 15th meeting began with newly elected President Jim Lewis smoothly delivering the now traditional introduction of the CUCUG officers.
Jim's first official act was to proposed lifetime membership for his presidential predecessor Richard Rollins. Reciting his qualifications for this honor, Jim noted that Richard had been President for 7 of the past 9 years, taking the club from a time of financial trouble to prosperity. Richard helped institute the Macintosh SIG and has personally helped connect nearly all the Macintosh users to Advancenet, gaining them as members of CUCUG in the process. Not to mention the untold hours and phone calls fielded in the assistance of our users. When the vote was taken, it was unanimous. It was noted that Richard had already paid his membership for this year. Kevin Hisel jokingly informed Richard "We're keepin' the money."
Jim then opened the floor up to the Question and Answer Session.
He continued, saying Apple had announced a 47 million dollar profit on 1.6 billion in sales. But warned that it might not be repeated next quarter as the second quarter is historically Apple's worst.
Richard Rollins announced that the Mac SIG would have Emil Cobb showing how to make buttons. Next month they will be covering MacOS 8.1.
John Lynn said the Amiga SIG would be having a live three camera set-up with a Toaster demo.
John Lynn began is demonstration by saying "You usually don't take your studio out on the job." Indeed, he had a lot of equipment up at the front of the room. John said he had brought out half of his office.
As John prepared to film, Mike Latinovich began by opening up the club's A3000. The first thing he did was check the battery. It was very fuzzy. This battery should be replaced before the motherboard is damaged by the leaking battery.
Next, Mike located the ROMs which are right behind the mouse, joystick and keyboard ports. Other A3000 owners circled around like rubber neckers at an accident as Mike exchange the ROMs in our machine with version 3.1 ROMs.
As he worked, Mike commented that Aweb 3.1 had been released today. It includes JavaScript and is HTML 4 complaint.
Kevin Hopkins mentioned a problem one of our web members (Larry McGahey) was having with the Voodoo email program. It appears that receiving a file in the 85-90K range (the size of our monthly email newsletter) causes Voodoo to choke. Mike said he had been a beta tester for the original programmer for Voodoo. Finale initially made it unstable when its new programmer took over the project. Although, updates should have corrected it by now.
Mike mentioned that the Amiga show is in St. Louis has added a day, Friday the eleventh, and the floor will be open on that day.
There was a discussion of the Amiga situation and Microsoft's court problems.
Mike defined Retargetable Graphics for Bill Zwicky (as opposed to Device In dependent Graphics).
Mike mentioned that Cybergraphics and Picasso are about 90% compatible. Cybergraphics 3 and Picasso 96 are free.
While all of this had been going on, John Lynn had bee working on getting his equipment to work, but ultimately he was unsuccessful. John reported that he was having synchronization problems.
The focus of the meeting turned back to the opened A3000. Mike had a Cybergraphics 64/3D 4MB version video card from Greg Scott at National Amiga. He prepared to install it. Mike said it was a pretty standard card. It doesn't have a pass through. It doesn't populate the video slot, but goes into a Zorro 2 (or above) slot. It'll fit an A2000, A3000, and an A4000. It gives you a true 24 bit display on your Amiga. That is an AGA or better display. Mike said AGA slows your machine down. To make the card work you need AmigaDOS 3.0 or better. It works right through the Screenmode Preferences program.
The Cybergraphics card is faster than the standard display. 800 x 600 in 16 bit is 4 times faster than the standard A4000 display.
There was a discussion of games and Mike said a lot of old games are being brought back in 3D versions.
Mike show an A3640 Commodore 040 accelerator. He showed where it would be installed on the club's 3000: it goes right along the front of the machine on the right hand side.
Later, in discussing what went wrong with John Lynn's presentation, Mark Landman said that the video cameras take their sync from the AC power and could possibly sync up, but you really need a Time Base Corrector or frame synchronizer on each camera to be sure that it will happen. John only has one. Mark said sometimes you get lucky, but this time John didn't.
Since Apple had already donated a copy of MacOS 8 to the club, we received an "extra" copy of the MacOS when we purchased the new PowerMac for the club. It was decided to have a drawing for this copy at the January meeting. It came down to two people being interested or eligible for the drawing and Selena Douglass won the draw.
There was a question regarding the memory/RAM requirements of PhotoShop as well as processor speed. The general rules:
Someone noted that hooking speakers up to the wrong jack makes the main speaker a woofer (?)
Some comment were made about Internet Explorer. Jim Huls said that "we have it at work and it's dog slow." Rich Rollins said he has it at home and that it is very solid. He repeated his often sited maxim that it is and will be the only piece of Microsoft software on his machine. He said he has no problem running Eudora and printing a page in Claris (Works?). He admits that he runs a limited version. It wa reported that on the MacFixIt site the largest amount of traffic concerns problems with Internet Explorer's e-mail program. (Notetaker's comment: I have heard the same for Netscape.)
Netscape was reported solid in it's 3.0.4 and 4.0.4 versions. Edwin Hadley reports that he is running version 3.0.1 and when it crashes it is late enough that he uses the crash as an omen and just goes to bed. Jim Huls agreed that Netscape 4.0.4 is solid and that he doesn't care for Explorer.
Rich said that the new System 8 upgrade (8.01) will ship soon. (Probably by the time you get this.) It will include Netscape 3.0.4 and Explorer 3.0.1. Website said the CDs are to ship by first week of February. Claris says second week of February, with the website offering it the first week of February. One of the new "big deals" of this upgrade is the new HFS Plus file system and improved Virtual Menu, and an upgrade of Open Transport to 1.3. Quicktime 3 was held back so they could add some more stuff to it. The club will have it at the next meeting.
Rich said that MacWorld Expo was reported to have had fewer vendors, but just as much interest. Jobs gave a long boring speech, waiting to the last moment to mention the recent profit that Apple was posting. Most people were interested in the new G3 machines. The processors are currently at the 233 - 300 MHz range, with a 450 version coming soon. There is a 750mhz potential, as well as 1ghz by the end of the year. (This reporter will believe it when he sees it.) Rich said that the backside cache was "real neat" with a small circuit board attached to the processor. Jim Huls and Rich Rollins speculated that high end "work stations" were coming. Supposedly Apple is "watching the market". "Besides, secrecy is Job's thing."
Rich Rollins suggested the Apple Bathroom Reader as a good source of info and insight, like the fact that Commodore came "that close" to buying Apple, but that the Woz and Jobs couldn't trust the main man at Commodore.
At this point we turned to Emil Cobb who had promised to show us how he makes badges for fun and profit. Well, maybe just fun. (He had been very patiently sitting by as we blathered on about the above.)
Emil told us all about his technique for making badges, using Claris Works for the artwork and/or text layout. He uses clip art or scans in a picture for import into Claris. Claris Works will not arch type, but has some graphic capabilities. If you wanted to play with type more, you would have to use Freehand or Illustrator.
After he has made his design for the button, he lays out as many copies of the original as will fit on a page and sends it off to print.
After he has the printed page, he turns to his Badge-A-Minit badge making kit. This is a collection of plastic rings and plugs(?) that help you trim the paper and assemble a finished button. Assembling a finished button takes no more than a couple of minutes if you are careful. The Badge-A-Minit system cost about $30 for the table model and there is a handheld version for about $20. Emil (and I) recommend the table model because the handheld model wears out your hands too fast and it becomes easier to start screwing up the finished product. You can make other variations of buttons, like refrigerator magnets, belt buckles, keychain fobs, ribbons, etc. The Badge-A-Minit people are ready to supply you with all your button making needs as well as make the badges for you. They have a variety of accessories available, like pre-printed artwork and hard supplies for all the variations of the badge. Badge-A-Minit can be found in arts & craft outlets. I got mine from the A. B. Dick outlet store that used to be in rural Urbana. Emil ordered his first machine years ago from a model train magazine. He got his second machine from the catalog that came with his order. The web site is http://www.badgeaminit.com/.
The January meeting of the CUCUG executive board took place on Tuesday, January 20, 1998, at 7PM, at Kevin Hisel's house. (For anyone wishing to attend - which is encouraged, by the way -the address and phone number are both in the book). Present at the meeting were Jim Lewis, Emil Cobb, Mark Landman, Jim Huls, Rich Rollins, John Lynn, Kevin Hopkins, Kevin Hisel and Anderson Yau.
Jim Lewis: Jim began by noting that the Amiga meeting hadn't gone off as planned. John he had done a dry run of his demo and it had worked with his switcher. He does not have Time Base Correctors. He said his last resort would have been to recalibrate the Toaster but by then time did not permit. It did not help that we were locked out of the meeting hall until well after our usual starting time.
Richard Rollins answered Jim's query about how the Mac SIG went by saying that they had answered a lot of questions. Emil had done his button making demo. Richard stated that the Park District people just messed up concerning the room not being opened in time. He had called them that day, but it didn't seem to help.
Jim reported on his investigation into getting Credit card service through First of America Bank. A discussion followed. It was noted that we have no merchant risk. Jim stated that we will need a $200 piece of software to handle the cards.
Jim reported that Rich Hall will help Mark Landman with some of his Treasurer duties. Emil Cobb will help Kevin Hopkins by keeping track of the applications coming in over the web.
Concerning the By-Law modifications, Kevin Hisel reviewed what changes need to be made.
1. The definition of a quorum (Article 7) will be set to 20 members rather than a percentage of the total membership.
2. A clarification on the vote for Lifetime membership (Article 3:5), stating that this honor can be conferred with a 2/3 vote of the members present, not of the entire membership.
3. We will ask to raise the discretionary spending limit (Article 5:2) to $500. The current $200 limit was set in 1983 when computers cost $125 and it has never been raised since.
4. Change the word Commodore to Computer (Article 9) concerning guest attendance at our meetings.
Jim closed his segment with a discussion of the problem Kevin Hopkins reported soon after our last meeting. The Apple 15" monitor has died. There was a discussion of getting a cheap 17" monitor. Opposition to the idea gave way when it was determined that the monitor could be used on the Amiga as well as the Macintosh.
Emil Cobb: Emil reported that 25 members had attended the last general meeting.
He then presented button designs for buttons to be sold at the Gateway show in March. It was decided to let the general membership decide on which to make. We'll make 100.
Emil mentioned that he will be taking on some of the membership duties.
Mark Landman: Mark reported the club's financial status. He reported to Richard Rollins some difficulties he had been experiencing with Advancenet concerning membership dues.
There was a discussion with Jim Lewis about State and Federal tax filing.
Jim Huls: Jim turned over the Filemaker Pro manual and the SoftWindows package to Mac SIG Chairman Richard Rollins. Richard passed the Filemaker manual on to Kevin Hopkins. He announced that his presence at meetings this year will be a little scarce as his new baby is demanding a lot of time.
Jim announced that Mac OS8.1 was released yesterday. He recommended getting it from a legitimate Apple site since a version of it is circulating that has been corrupted. The part that has been messed up is within OpenTransport, so once you download it and install it, you can't get back on the Internet to download a good copy. Jim said in his 15 minute experience with the new version of the OS, he has found that it runs noticeably faster. In his judgement it is what OS8 should have been.
Richard Rollins: Next month the Mac SIG will be talking about OS8.1, Richard said. He will also be demoing Claris Home Page. He will show how to make a very simple home page and then show how to upload it and get all of its components working properly on the web server.
Richard reported that he still can't get the Motorola modem to work. The Board advised that he exchange it.
Richard said the Mac SIG will have a demo on Quicken sometime in the future.
He noted that Claris has offered to give the club two pieces of software each year if we demo it at a meeting and review it in the newsletter.
Richard thanked everyone for his Lifetime membership.
Richard said he is looking for presenters for the Mac SIG who would be willing to do a small segment of about 15 minutes in length.
Richard stated that the Question and Answer sessions have been going very well.
He said he is still doing installs for Advancenet, which garners members for the club.
Richard concluded his portion of the meeting by saying that "As Board Advisor, I have nothing to advise."
John Lynn: John said he was disappointed that the demo didn't come off as planned. He said he had wanted to show the Toaster 4.2 software, which can work like an automated switcher. He said it works like an Edit Decision List.
John stated that he believes the club does not have a working Amiga to do demos on, not wanting to continually bring in his A4000. He was informed that yes we do have working machines. Kevin Hopkins said he has the club's A2000 which is in working order. Jim Lewis said that Mike Latinovich was supposed to bring the A3000 and related hardware to the Board meeting. Jim said he'd make sure the 3000 was back in working order by the next meeting.
John reported that we have nothing set up for next month's Amiga SIG meeting, since no one volunteered to do anything. It was decided to do a Question and Answer Session. John decided to reiterate Richard's decision to go for short presentations. He wanted it asked of the membership that we need people to come forward and do short 15 minute presentations, nothing fancy, anything you'd like.
John brought up the possibility of bringing PC members into the CUCUG organization in hopes of generating some involvement and enthusiasm. Jim Lewis related the activities of the WinSIG. Kevin Hopkins spoke strongly in support of the Amiga SIG and it's importance to CUCUG. John noted that all his demos are Toaster related and that some variety is needed to maintain interest.
Kevin Hopkins: Kevin transferred funds to Treasurer Landman. Kevin reported that Emil Cobb has volunteered to assist in managing memberships over the web. Kevin said he has already sent Emil four messages describing in detail the duties he has been performing and a date will be set up to give Emil a hands on look at the process.
Kevin reported that, in accordance with the Board's wishes, the January newsletter was sent out almost entirely via email. Paper copies were sent to those members who don't have email, those who specifically asked for a printed copy, and those receiving membership cards - still a sizable number but nearly half as many as the month before. Kevin said he had then followed up on those members who's email addresses had bounced with a printed newsletter containing a note to that effect and asking each member to report their new address.
Kevin also brought up the topic of the Lost Souls letter (for those members who haven't renewed). He will provide newly elected President Jim Lewis with a copy of the previous letter.
Kevin Hisel: Kevin reported that ClickBoom will be sending CUCUG ten copies of Myst for the Amiga Web Directory's February to March drawing. Kevin reported that he had caught up sending out past prize winnings. He also reported that he had sent out a list of the winners to all our Amiga members.
One of our web members (Charlene McNulty) had suggested that we send out a reminder with an invoice one month in advance of the date of membership renewal. Kevin noted that we have been sending out renewal notices, but that we haven't included an invoice. He said the idea is a good one and we will be doing that from now on.
There was a discussion of the need to accept credit card payment for membership dues and how exactly such an eventuality would be handle.
Anderson Yau: Anderson had no further business topics to add.
Meetings are held the third Thursday of each month at 7:00 p.m. at the Bresnan Meeting Center in the Champaign Park District Headquarters (398-2550). The Center is located at 706 Kenwood, 1/2 block south of the corner of Kenwood and John Street, in west Champaign. Kenwood is the fourth north-south street off of John as you are going west, after crossing Mattis. The Center is in the northwest corner of Centennial Park, northwest of Centennial High School.
Membership dues for individuals are $20 annually; prorated to $10 at mid year.
Our monthly newsletter, the Status Register, is delivered by the postal service or email at the member's choice. All recent editions are available on our WWW site. To initiate a user group exchange, just send us your newsletter or contact our editor via email. As a matter of CUCUG policy, an exchange partner will be dropped after three months of no contact.
This newsletter was prepared with PageStream 2.22 on an Amiga 3000 25/100 and output to an HP Laserjet IIP plus. Pagestream was donated to CUCUG by Soft-Logik Publishing Corporation.
For further information, please attend the next meeting as our guest, or contact one of our officers (all at area code 217):
President: Jim Lewis 359-1342 NOSPAMlewis_j_e@yahoo.com Vice-President: Emil Cobb 398-0149 e-cobb@uiuc.edu Secretary/Editor: Kevin Hopkins 356-5026 kh2@uiuc.edu Treasurer: Mark Landman 398-2910 mlandman@earthlink.net Corporate Agent: Jim Lewis 359-1342 NOSPAMlewis_j_e@yahoo.com Advisor & Mac SIG: Richard Rollins 469-2616 Webmaster: Kevin Hisel 406-948-1999 khisel @ cucug.org Amiga SIG: John Lynn 586-3555 jlvideo@pdnt.com
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