|||||| |||||| || || |||||| |||||| || || ||| || || || || ||| |||| |||||| || |||| Your || || || || ||| || || |||||| |||||| || || |||||| |||||| GEnieLamp IBM || |||||| || || |||||| RoundTable || || || ||| ||| || || || |||||| |||||||| |||||| RESOURCE! || || || || || || || ||||| || || || || || ~ PHIL SHAPRIO: Shareware Etiquette ~ ~ AL FOSOLDT: Illiteracy Of Homonyms ~ ~ PETER BOGERT: Profiles Charles Strom ~ ~ BOB CONNORS: The Plain Vanilla Guide, Part 6 ~ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\//////////////////////////////////// GEnieLamp IBM ~ A T/TalkNET OnLine Publication ~ Vol.2, Issue 14 """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" Publisher.........................................T/TalkNET Publishing Editor-In-Chief..........................................John Peters Editor.................................................Bob Connors Windows Editor .................................... Peter Bogert ~ GEnieLamp IBM ~ GEnieLamp [PR]/TX2 ~ GEnieLamp ST ~ GEnieLamp A2 ~ ~ GEnieLamp MacPRO ~ GEnieLamp A2Pro ~ GEnieLamp Macintosh ~ ~ Member Of The Digital Publishing Association ~ ////////////////////////////////////\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ >>> WHAT'S HAPPENING IN THE IBM ROUNDTABLE? <<< """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" ~ May 1, 1993 ~ FROM MY DESKTOP ......... [FRM] IBM ODDS & ENDS ......... [ODD] Notes From The Editor. PC_Talk! HOT TOPICS .............. [HOT] WHAT'S NEW? ............. [WHA] Too Hot To Handle, Almost... New & Improved. TIPS & HINTS ............ [TIP] THROUGH THE GRAPEVINE ... [GRA] People Helping People. Rumors, Maybes and Mayhem. MESSAGE SPOTLIGHT ....... [MES] HUMOR ONLINE ............ [HUM] Word To The Wise. GEnie Fun & Games. PROFILES ................ [WHO] TELETALK ONLINE ......... [TEL] Who's Who On GEnie. Online Communications. MULTIMEDIA AND YOU ...... [MUL] THE MIGHTY QUINN ........ [QUI] Multimedia -- Spring '93 Random Access. ASK DOCTOR BOB .......... [ASK] CowTOONS! ............... [MOO] Gotta Question? 100% Lean. REFLECTIONS ............. [REF] DOCTOR BOB .............. [BOB] Communications. Plain Vanilla Guide to DOS. GEnieLamp ELSEWHERE ..... [ELS] LOG OFF ................. [LOG] Browsing GEnie. GEnieLamp Information. [IDX]""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" READING GEnieLamp GEnieLamp has incorporated a unique indexing """"""""""""""""" system to help make reading the magazine easier. To utilize this system, load GEnieLamp into any ASCII word processor or text editor. In the index you will find the following example: HUMOR ONLINE ............ [HUM] [*]GEnie Fun & Games. To read this article, set your find or search command to [HUM]. If you want to scan all of the articles, search for [EOA]. [EOF] will take you to the last page, whereas [IDX] will bring you back to the index. MESSAGE INFO To make it easy for you to respond to messages re-printed """""""""""" here in GEnieLamp, you will find all the information you need immediately following the message. For example: (SMITH, CAT6, TOP1, MSG:58/M475) _____________| _____|__ _|___ |____ |_____________ |Name of sender CATegory TOPic Msg.# Page number| In this example, to respond to Smith's message, log on to page 475 enter the bulletin board and set CAT 6. Enter your REPly in TOPic 1. A message number that is surrounded by brackets indicates that this message is a "target" message and is referring to a "chain" of two or more messages that are following the same topic. For example: {58}. ABOUT GEnie GEnie costs only $4.95 a month for unlimited evening and """"""""""" weekend access to more than 100 services including electronic mail, online encyclopedia, shopping, news, entertainment, single-player games, multi-player chess and bulletin boards on leisure and professional subjects. With many other services, including the largest collection of files to download and the best online games, for only $6 per hour (non-prime-time/2400 baud). To sign up for GEnie service, call (with modem) 1-800-638-8369. Upon connection type HHH. Wait for the U#= prompt. Type: XTX99014,DIGIPUB and hit RETURN. The system will then prompt you for your information. Need more information? Call GEnie's customer service line (voice) at 1-800-638-9636. """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" ////////////////////////////////////// GEnie_QWIK_QUOTE //// / "Bring the Pepsi and we be doin' the Aladdin thang! ;-)" / ////////////////////////////////////////// R.MARTIN22 //// [EOA] [FRM]////////////////////////////// FROM MY DESKTOP / ///////////////////////////////// Notes From The Editor """"""""""""""""""""" By John Peters [GENIELAMP] CHANGES, CHANGES, CHANGES! Change is good, right? Well, I certainly """""""""""""""""""""""""" hope so, 'cause there is a whole lot of changing going on here at GEnieLamp. I suppose the best place to start is the changes that have taken place on page 515, our home, the GEnieLamp RoundTable. (Keep in mind that many of these changes are happening as I write this - the changes outlined below are subject to change!) First off, the RoundTable is no longer a RoundTable but just a single page. Here's the new menu you will find when on page 515: GEnie GENIELAMP Page 515 Computing on GEnie Newsletter 1.[*]GEnieLamp IBM Magazine 2.[*]GEnieLamp Atari Magazine 3.[*]GEnieLamp Mac Magazine 4.[*]GEnieLamp MacPRO Magazine 5.[*]GEnieLamp Apple II Magazine 6.[*]GEnieLamp A2Pro Magazine 7.[*]FEEDBACK to GEnieLamp 8. Digital Publishing RoundTable As you can see the bulletin board, libraries and information files are gone and all that is available is the GEnieLamp Magazines, Feedback and a gateway to the new DigiPub RoundTable. (More on that later.) On the negative side, this means that Aladdin no longer works on this page. This goes for previous GET THE LAMP scripts as well. On the positive side, our resident script writer, Jim Lubin has come up with a new Aladdin script which will be available in the DigiPub library as well as the Aladdin support RoundTables within the next couple of weeks. But The Big News Is... Now, instead of capturing GEnieLamp, you can """""""""""""""""""""" DOWNLOAD the magazine. No more waiting through a long capture session! Just download GEnieLamp as you would any other file here on GEnie. (We recommend Zmodem for best results.) If you prefer the old method, just turn on your capture buffer and [L]ist the magazine to you computer. (Again, this is in the planning stage and may not be implemented in time for the May 1st issue release. However, the option to _download_ GEnieLamp is coming RSN!) PLUS! Starting with this issue GEnieLamp Online Magazine is going to a """"" twice a month publishing schedule. Now you can get your favorite version of GEnieLamp (GEnieLamp ST, Mac, IBM and A2) on the 1st and the 15th of every month. AND BEST OF ALL... ~ GEnieLamp IS STILL GEnie*Basic! ~ """""""""""""""""" [*][*][*] WHY A NEW ROUNDTABLE? The GEnieLamp RoundTable was originally set up """"""""""""""""""""" primarily for the distribution of GEnieLamp Magazine. Our secondary purpose was to promote and distribute other online newsletters. But electronic publishing goes much deeper then just magazines and newsletters. Therefore, we came to the conclusion that the time has come for electronic publishing and hence, the Digital Publishing RoundTable came online. The Digital RoundTable (or DigiPub for short) is a GEnie*Value RT here on GEnie for people who are interested in pursuing publication of their work electronically whether here on GEnie or via disk-based media. For those looking for online publications, the DigiPub library offers online magazines, newsletters, short-stories, poetry, informational text files and other various text oriented articles for downloading to your computer. Also available are writers' tools and 'Hyper-utilties' for text presentation on most computer systems. In the DigiPub bulletin board you can converse with people in the digital publishing industry, meet editors from some of the top electronic publications and get hints and tips on how to go about publishing your own digital online book. As an added bonus, the DigiPub RoundTable is the official online service for the Digital Publishing Association. (Whew!) Until next month... John Peters [GENIELAMP] [*][*][*] ,_____ ,_____ (__ | (__ | || | | | | ( \ ^| |^^^^^^^^^^| | /X ^^^ \ ( \,,,,,, <_=_________________________________> Title: Never Bite a Computer Mouse Lying in the Sink Medium: Phospor Artist: Rod Martin [EOA] [ODD]////////////////////////////// IBM ODDS & ENDS / ///////////////////////////////// PC_Talk! """""""" FRONT ENDS: WOULDN'T IT BE GREAT IF... I, too, would like to see an """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" "Aladdin/2". But what I want even more than that is an integrated package that would manage multiple online services. Why should I have to use Aladdin for GEnie, OzCIS for CIS, and TE/2 for local BBS'es? There should be a way to provide a common "roof" over all of one's online communication. For instance, it would be great just to have a common way of reading and archiving downloaded messages. And, the common platform would have just one script language to learn. Of course, there are fundamental differences in message organization and protocols between online services. But I believe they could be overcome with a solid, object-oriented design approach. So, are there any roofers out there? -- Scott (S.BARNES2, CAT6, TOP 32, MSG:12/M615) >>>>> Scott, I can understand your desire, but I also know that what you """"" are asking for is just another general purpose comm program with scripts for doing offline message reading/replying. You can do that today with any number of comm programs and make it work very nicely; but when you go general purpose, you almost always loose something that a special purpose tool provides. For instance, there used to be quite a few one-size-fits-all programs that did spreadsheets, database, word processing, communications, and has a kitchen sink; have you seen any of them take over the market? I didn't think so. The problem is that in order to make a program "fit" one application really well, it isn't going to fit another application as well. This is the one thing that keeps really good programs good. They fit the problem they are trying to solve perfectly--and don't fit other problems very well at all. I believe one could define a set of interfaces to different services that would allow you to have the same interface to all of them--for OS/2 it would be somewhat easier than otherwise--but the size of the core logic for each would probably only save you a little--the user interface and message database code. Everything else would have to change. (B.WITHNELL, CAT6, TOP32, MSG13/M615) >>>>> I most definitly would LIKE :{) an OS/2 front end to GEnie. I use """"" Aladdin now, but would like something that doen't eat the cycles like this beast. I wouldn't want an Aladdin ripoff, I would prefer to see a WPSGEnie with containers for each RoundTable, said containers would have settings for things like preferred Name for this particular RoundTable, what editor to use when composing notes and messages, etc. There would be a container with the each file in the software library represented by an object, to download the file, drag the object from there to any directory on your hard drive or maybe just select download of the menu of the object, if several objects have been selected then a batch download would take place, if you don't want the object cluttering the area - drag it to the shredder, and so on. Again the message boards could be handled in a similar manner but would need much more thought than I have currently given it, but there might be folders for each topic category and within these folders for each topic, the topic folders would contain either the message or a pointer to the message on GEnie, on the menu of these folders might be an update (refresh) command that would check the topic(s) for new messages, again dragging an icon from the message area to another folder on the desktop would download that message, (if it hadn't already been downloaded), or if dragged to the shredder then the referece to the message or the message itself would be deleted. If I had the time and talent I would want to build this or something like it, but I have a job and it does not allow time for such things. (J.TEAGUE, CAT6, TOP32, MSG:14/M615) >>>>> I view the user interface as the paramount aspect of a """"" communications program. There is so much information out there that computer HAS to help you organize it as much as possible. Whether it has to crack open a QWK packet or issue a "RAM NOR", the mechanical vulgarities should be kept out of sight and out of mind. And, once data is captured, the program should offer powerful classification and search capabilities. Scripts will get the information to your computer, but after that they aren't much help. My idea is not to stifle special features and user customization, but instead to encourage the same. Today's scripts work at the character and line level. The tools should be extended to manipulate and route whole messages, topics, threads, and files. This would extend the power of scripts to those who don't care to dissect the format of topic headers and prompts. BTW, I'm not presenting this as any sort of easy program to write. It's just an idea of how today's navigator programs could be improved upon. -- Scott (S.BARNES2, CAT6, TOP32, MSG:15/M615) >>>>> From the inputs, it looks like there is a lot of """"" development--enough for a large group. Perhaps this could become a joint venture where an interested group of programmers do basic OOD and then work on implementation. In fact, this could even be done on the RT as a pedagogical program for those involved and those who wish to watch. It could even be the start of something wonderful--the reintroduction of freely distributed software (in the best traditions of the PC comunity). This would really best be done in a topic in an OS/2 RT--once it starts up--but I suppose it could be started here (the IBM RT, though not in this topic). Input from users could make the requirements specification. We could then do a OOD, review the OOD and start work on the base objects. If there were enough interest from enough programmers, each one could put in just a couple of hours a week. It would take a long time to produce that way, but the code could be made Freeware and that assure the results benefit everyone, and nobody could "steal" the effort of others for their own profit. Any takers? (B.WITHNELL, CAT6, TOP32, MSG:16/M615) [EOA] [HOT]////////////////////////////// HOT TOPICS / ///////////////////////////////// Too Hot To Handle, Almost... """""""""""""""""""""""""""" >>> Bulletin Board Hot Spots <<< """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" [*] CAT 12, TOP 26, MSG:{144}.....Dell's Behavior [*] CAT 12, TOP 26, MSG:{145}.....Greed vs Politics [*] CAT 6, TOP 4, MSG:{513}.......Networking, Windows WG or OS/2? [*] CAT 6, TOP 10, MSG:{258}......SYTOS Plus for Colorado Tape Drives (OS/2) [*] CAT 10, TOP 2, MSG:{85}.......IBM Amiga Emulators [*][*][*] MICROSOFT PULLING A FAST ONE? Just want to say thay I think MS has pulled """"""""""""""""""""""""""""" a real boner. If you buy DOS 6.0 and use have stacker installed, the only ways you can switch over to double disk that comes with 6.0 is by wiping out your stacker drives and restore the contents from backups after installing double disk, or, sending in a coupon [and $5] and waiting 3-5 weeks for a conversion program to show up in the mail. It's not included with DOS 6.0. I paid full price last night to be the first on my block to get DOS6.0. Then when I get home, I find out that I can't really use one of the major advertised features for over a month. Seems like a great way to win customers from the competition. (M.GUIDRY, CAT21, TOP49, MSG:34/M615) >>>>> I agree. I was dismayed at that also. I am only have Stacker on """"" 1 drive so I just copied everything to another drive then copied back after installing DoubleSpace. The lastest 'quirk' I've found is running DOS 6 with Hyperdisk write caching enabled. With earlier versions of DOS, Hyperdisk intercepted Ctrl-Alt-Del and wouldn't let you reboot until all writes have completed. Not with DOS 6 - just goes and reboots before my writes have taken place. (AUSTIN, CAT21, TOP49, MSG:36/M615) >>>>> This is a result of the stacker lawsuit against Microsoft. They """"" could not ship the 'stacker conversion utility' along with DOS. By shipping it seperately, it's a "seperate product" and that's what MS was basically forced into doing because of the legal action against them by the folks at stacker. Not saying that this is a good thing or bad thing, or that stacker was right or wrong to sue... Just trying to explain why they had to do it this way. (SCOTTV, CAT21, TOP49, MSG:38/M615) >>>>> Putting a virus checker in the OS is absurd... It just means that """"" virus creators now have a single checker that they have to fool in order to infect a huge percentage of the systems out there. (DENNYA, CAT21, TOP49, MSG:39/M615) >>>>> I agree Denny.. but people are so caught up in feature-itis that """"" Microsoft pretty much has to include stuff like virus checkers to encourage people to upgrade. (G.K, CAT21, TOP49, MSG:40/M615) >>>>> May I take a moment to explain why I am mad at Microsoft? It has """"" nothing to do with a company being *very* good at what they do...in fact it is just the opposite. Microsoft completely abandoned all support for MS-DOS years ago, trying to shove Windows down our throats. Since release 3.0 (which was when '84 '85?) Microsoft has added no new novelty to the DOS environment. What I mean by that is that they simply look around, see what utilities (That OTHER people developed and OTHER people marketed) are becoming popular and they incorporate them into a "fantastic" new version of DOS. Yes, Mom-and-Pop go out of business. But the tactic that Microsoft is following is well known in the business world -- its called follow-the-leader. How can the world's largest software manuafacturer *possibly* get away with a follow-the-leader strategy? Technical excellence? Nope. Quality? Nope. Marketing? you got it. (T.COLE13, CAT21, TOP49, MSG:137/M615) >>>>> Why is Microsoft pounding on Stacker? I can't believe what MS is """"" doing. Microsoft approaches Stacker. Stacker says ok, we'll talk. Microsoft analyzes Stacker product, puts technology into DOS 6 beta. Stacker decides it doesn't want to do business with MS. MS says ok, but still leaves Stacker's patented code in DOS 6 beta, contravening it's agreement with Stacker. Stacker, for obvious and definitely very good reasons, checks the new beta to see if their code is still in there and sure enough it is! It embarasses Microsoft (and rightly so) for doing something that is clearly wrong. MS pulls out code (admitting that it infringes on Stacker's patent), then it hires an obscure math professor from =Australia= over the Internet to find something to fight Stacker's patent, who finds a 10+ year old patent that vaguely resembles the issue. Microsoft now tells the US patent office that Stacker should have their patent thrown away. Now, you tell me. Do you think this is right? Do you think this is ethical? -Juan (J.JIMENEZ, CAT21, TOP48, MSG:840/M615) [EOA] [WHA]////////////////////////////// WHAT'S NEW? / ///////////////////////////////// New and Improved """""""""""""""" FINAL NT BETA VERSION SHIPS Final Beta Version of Microsoft Windows NT """"""""""""""""""""""""""" Ships to 70,000 Users Customer Input and Extensive Testing Drive Product Improvement REDMOND, Wash. - March 17, 1993 - Microsoft Corporation today announced shipment of the second pre-release version of the Microsoft* Windows NT* operating system to 70,000 customers and software developers. The second beta contains significant improvements in the areas of performance, application support, networking and hardware compatibility, installation and ease of use. Windows NT is aimed at providing the power, reliability and openness required for client-server computing. Based on extensive customer, developer and industry feedback as well as testing over the past one and one-half years, this version of Windows NT represents the last milestone before the release of the final product, which is anticipated for the second quarter of 1993. In tandem, Microsoft is shipping the pre-release version of Windows NT Advanced Server, the server edition of Windows NT -- ideal for building client-server solutions in heterogeneous environments. "In addition to the significant improvements in this beta, we re pleased with the broad industry enthusiasm for Windows NT, including new 32-bit applications for the Windows operating system and broad hardware support," said Dwayne Walker, director of Windows NT and networking products at Microsoft. Strong Customer and Developer Input Drives Improvements Microsoft has """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" achieved significant improvements to Windows NT and the Windows NT Advanced Server based upon comprehensive feedback from the 55,000 developers who have licensed the Win32* Software Development Kit, 3,600 corporate customers, and more than 400 VARs, integrators and consultants who received the first pre-release version of Windows NT. "From what I have seen of the second beta of Windows NT, Microsoft is right on target with providing the user community with a powerful, user-friendly 32- bit operating system that performs as expected and intended," said William Bunch, systems manager for Stanley Bostich Company, the worldwide leader in the manufacturing of fastening materials. "This second beta version of Windows NT has undergone extensive and constant stress testing," said David Cutler, director of development for Microsoft Windows NT. "This is the best performing and highest quality system we have produced to date." Specific improvements in the second beta version of Windows NT include the following: * Performance. This version of Windows NT delivers higher performance for all application categories. Under Windows NT, applications for the MS-DOS* operating system and 16-bit applications for Microsoft Windows can run up to three times faster than the first beta release of Windows NT. Local file system performance is up to 11 times faster. These performance benefits extend to advanced applications -- Microsoft SQL Server for Windows NT runs three times faster than Microsoft SQL Server for OS/2*. * Increased Application Support. Windows NT supports new 32-bit applications for Windows as well as existing applications for MS-DOS and Windows version 3.X. Windows NT provides integration to these applications, with one set of fonts and printer drivers, complete dynamic data exchange (DDE) and object linking and embedding (OLE) functionality between 16-bit and 32-bit applications without any specific configuration requirements. Each of the 55,000 software developers who receive an update to the Win32 SDK will receive the Software Compatibility Test to test applications for compatibility with Windows NT. * Intelligent Installation. Windows NT automatically detects installed hardware including SCSI adapter cards and network cards upon installation. When upgrading from Windows 3.1 to Windows NT, the existing system settings, groups and associations automatically migrate to Windows NT: previously loaded applications for Windows are immediately available to users. * Improved Networking Support. Windows NT offers complete and powerful access to the network, including faster file and print sharing, 32-bit mail and scheduling, and network DDE, along with an OSF DCE-compatible RPC, Windows Sockets, Named Pipes, and NetBIOS support for distributed computing. Microsoft is working with industry members to provide additional connectivity, including working with Novell - as demonstrated at InterOp - to provide NetWare* support, DEC for X/Server support, SunSelect for NFS* support, and Banyan to provide VINES* support for Windows NT. Hardware Compatibility Windows NT supports a wide variety of hardware """""""""""""""""""""" platforms including single-CPU, Intel*-based PCs, multiprocessor desktop systems and advanced multiprocessor servers, such as Sequent s Symmetry*, as well as RISC processors such as the MIPS R4000* and R4400, and DEC* Alpha AXP. Digital Equipment has reached an advanced stage in its development of Windows NT for Alpha, and a timely release is expected. To date, Windows NT has been tested and is compatible with 783 Intel uniprocessor systems, 13 multiprocessor systems and five R4000- based systems. Windows NT is also compatible with a large number of peripheral devices, including 268 printers, 44 SCSI devices, 12 display adapters, 23 network adapters and more than 800 hardware platforms. Windows NT Advanced Server To complement Windows NT on the desktop, """""""""""""""""""""""""" Microsoft is also shipping the beta version of Windows NT Advanced Server - the ideal server for client-server computing on any network, including Microsoft LAN Manager, Novell* NetWare, and Banyan* VINES. A superset of Windows NT, the Windows NT Advanced Server provides centralized management and security, advanced fault tolerance and additional connectivity, making it an ideal server for downsizing, re- engineering and building new distributed client-server applications. The Windows NT Advanced Server supports a broad range of clients, including MS- DOS, Windows 3.X, Windows* for Workgroups, Windows NT, OS/2, Macintosh*, and remote clients connecting over asynchronous, X.25 and ISDN lines. Integrated support for TCP/IP and NetBEUI as well as support for other transport protocols provided by other vendors will ensure that client-server solutions based on the Windows NT Advanced Server integrate well in heterogeneous environments. Today, more than 75 client-server development tools are shipping for Windows NT and the Windows NT Advanced Server. New Users Will Benefit From Windows NT Complementing the existing """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" Windows 3.1 and Windows for Workgroups product family, Windows NT extends the benefits of Windows to new users. Windows NT does not replace Windows operating systems currently available but combines the benefits of a high-end operating system with the ease of use, application integration and choice of leading applications found in the family of Windows operating systems. Windows NT is intended for the client-server computing market and will be used as a commercial business workstation, a developer workstation, and a high-end PC desktop for power-users. "ComputerVisions early adoption of the Microsoft Windows NT operating system highlights ComputerVision s increased commitment to providing customers with cost-effective and complete CAE/CAD/CAM solutions," said Don McInnis, vice president of ComputerVision. "We believe that Windows NT will be very significant in the CAD/CAM marketplace, because of its ability to run the kinds of powerful, computationally intensive applications that were previously only available on high-end workstations." The Windows NT Advanced Server will serve as a robust platform for business application database servers, messaging servers, communication servers, server- based vertical applications and many other server applications as well as file and print sharing within a client-server solution. Training To help prepare customers, distribution channels, consultants """""""" and solution partners for the launch of Windows NT, Microsoft has launched the Windows NT Inside Track worldwide training program. The program is providing detailed information on installing and deploying Windows NT to thousands of corporate customers, trainers, distributors, VARs, integrators, dealers and consultants who will in turn hold their own regional training events. More than 200 organizations were represented at the first Windows NT Inside Track event in Seattle in February 1993. Windows NT Inside Track events have also been held at multiple sites in Europe and Africa and are forthcoming in Australia, Canada, India, Japan, Singapore and South America. "There s a real demand for education about Windows NT and its role in the client-server environment," said Mike Osborn, director of engineering services at CTR Business Systems, a corporate integrator in Portland, Oregon. "The Windows NT Inside Track accelerated our ability to meet customer demand to deliver in-depth technical training on Windows NT ahead of the product. We re able to give our customers the information they need to integrate Windows NT into their client-server plans now." Availability Microsoft and its solution partners, who are trained to support Windows NT, plan to expand the second beta from 3,600 current sites to 15,000 sites worldwide. In addition, the second beta and development tools are shipping at no additional charge to the 55,000 current Win32 Software Development Kit (SDK) customers. For more information, or to order the SDK, please call Microsoft Developer Services at (800) 227-4679. The price of the SDK is $69 for CD-ROM only, and $399 for CD-ROM plus printed documentation. Founded in 1975, Microsoft (NASDAQ "MSFT") is the worldwide leader in software for personal computers. The company offers a wide range of products and services for business and personal use, each designed with the mission of making it easier and more enjoyable for people to take advantage of the full power of personal computing every day. [*][*][*] Microsoft and MS-DOS are registered trademarks and Windows NT, Windows and Win32 are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. OS/2 is a registered trademark of International Business Machines Corporation. Novell and NetWare are registered trademarks of Novell, Inc. NFS is a trademark of Sun Microsystems, Inc. Banyan and VINES are registered trademarks of Banyan Systems, Inc. Intel is a registered trademark of Intel Corporation. Symmetry is a registered trademark of Sequent Computer Systems, Inc. R4000 is a trademark of MIPS Computer Systems, Inc. DEC is a registered trademark of Digital Equipment Corporation. Macintosh is a registered trademark of Apple Computer, Inc. For more information contact: Microsoft Corporation Collins Hemingway (206) 882-8080 Waggener Edstrom Linda O Neill or Erin Holland (503) 245-0905 MORE WINDOWS NT Windows NT is on schedule but in the final stretch of """"""""""""""" beta there is the unknown variable amount of time needed to fix customer reported problems. The 'official' rollout for Windows NT is indeed at Windows World on May 24th. The question as yet unanswered is whether Windows NT will be through the channel and on store shelves then. Obviously, that would be nice but we are not going to sacrifice product quality just to make an arbritrary date. If we need to take a few more weeks and fix a few bugs we will take the time rather than ship a less than robust product. (RDILL, CAT21, TOP48, MSG:860/M615) THE MARCH BETA OF NT LIVES! Here's a few comments after a couple of """"""""""""""""""""""""""" hours of use: - Compatibility with OS/2 Boot Manager is promised. Where is it? Where is the doc? SETUP and the Disk Administrator recognize the BootMan partition, but installing NT left me without BootMan, which means I have to boot OS/2 off of floppies and reinstall BootMan. I'm supposed to be able to boot NT from BootMan. We'll see...Thumbs up on promises, thumbs down on reality. - Drivers for tape drives and sound boards is much better. I was able to back up my NT partition to my Tandberg 3820 SCSI tape drive, at about the same speed of CPBackup 8.0 under DOS. The PAS-16 sound board is supported! Too bad I couldn't get it to work. Video drivers are better. Still no 8514 or ATI drivers. There's a generic VESA 800x600 driver. Thumbs mostly up. - Speed is better (on my 486/33 local-bus system). It's still slower than my Windows 3.1 setup and WIN-OS/2 3.1 under the December OS/2 2.1 beta, but both of those are running accelerated video drivers. Thumbs up. - Much more reliable. I was able to hose both the July and October releases at the drop of a hat. The March release has gone several hours without a crash. (I should hope so! 8->) Thumbs up. - SETUP was much easier. Even a custom setup didn't prompt for enough things. It's still not terribly user-friendly, though. For example, I forgot to uncheck the "Set up network components" check box and had to go through the network setup. It should be easier to back up through the setup. Thumbs mostly up. - Executable format has changed again. Argh! As many tools came out between October and now, this is a major inconvenience. Now we have to wait for companies to provide updates. Big thumbs down. (They promise this is the last time. I'll believe it when I see it.) LITTLE THINGS """"""""""""" - You can now have color *and animated* cursors. A Control Panel applet lets you choose from a set of supplied cursors for different modes (normal cursor, hourglass, sizing, etc). Neat effect. Just what your average server needs. 8-> - The source code to DLGEDIT and SPY is supplied. Very nice, if only as a study aid. It's getting better. I don't know if Comdex is reasonable but they're getting closer. I'll be installing it on a 386-40 soon, and I'll see what the speed's like. //bob (R.ARNSON, CAT21, TOP48, MSG:863/M615) VIDEO BLASTER INFO Any of you folks ever buy a Video Blaster? I just """""""""""""""""" ordered one, it hasn't arrived yet. Judging from my past experience with new toys I'll probably need some help. :) (LYNDA, CAT14, TOP12, MSG:29/M615) >>>>> First report: Easy to install! You need a BIG hard drive, """"" though. One minute of film equals 23mg of hard drive. Luckily, the computer we put this on has an almost empty 213mg HD. Now to try to actually do something. :) (LYNDA, CAT14, TOP12, MSG:33/M615) >>>>> Lynda, Guess I'd be good for about 45 seconds! Have about 20mb """"" left on my 105MB drive. Windows plus Corel Draw consumed about 45MB of that. Also confirms that I will have to add a drive before going into video. (DIPLOMACY-1, CAT12, TOP19, MSG:101/M615) >>>>> Fun report! """"" The good news. Out here in the boondocks where I live TV reception is so bad it's a joke! Yesterday I was finally able to watch Star Trek TNG on the computer monitor with greatly improved reception by hooking the VBlaster to the VCR. Unexpected fringe benefit. :) The bad news. My husband's computer (the one the VBlaster is installed on) has only a VGA monitor. He is starting to look longingly at my SVGA. Not a chance! (LYNDA, CAT14, TOP12, MSG:35/M615) >>>>> Lynda, Will the Video Blaster capture live-action clips and not """"" just stills? Also, will the Video Blaster accept input from video, Laserdisk, videotape, CD-ROM, and videocamera sources? (PROF.MARK, CAT14, TOP12, MSG:36/M615) >>>>> Hi Prof Mark! Yes, it will capture clips as well as stills. That """"" doesn't do me much good because the only way I'd have to store it would be on the hard disk and that would get full in a hurry. From the manual: You can use a video cassette recorder, videodisk player, video camera, camcorder, or other NTSC/PAL-standard device as a video source. All I've tried is the VCR and a camcorder. I've gotten some really nice stills and saved them in GIF format. Unfortunately they look pretty bad on any other viewer I've tried them on, including Norton Desktops', Magellan, and some shareware viewers I downloaded from here. I'm not to concerned, it's not like I've even studied the various manuals yet. :) (LYNDA, CAT14, TOP12, MSG:37/M615) IT'S GRRRRRRRRREAT! Well, ladies and gentlemen, I've picked up my AL-II """"""""""""""""""" today and have only the tiger to qoute: It's Grrrrrrrreat! This baby absolutely does the job and more! Outstanding print quality and ease of use. Had a bit of trouble at first printing a couple of sample pages and noticing that the characters were not all coming out dark (uneven density) and after a couple of shakes on the toner cart it improved. However, that left some other portions of the page not come out at all (left side, last 4 letters) but I cleaned the toner cart and it seems to have fixed it. (D.COLON, CAT15, TOP21, MSG:47/M615) ZIPManager v1.1 (minor upgrade) has been posted & should be available for """"""""""""""" download 3/25! A minor, but frustrating bug has been fixed (I think it was the major cause of a lot of problems), and a couple of small enhancements can be found in the new version. The old version has been removed from the library. -Loring Rose (L.ROSE11, CAT4, TOP38, MSG:6/M615) STAC ANNOUNCEMENT Stac Announces First Full-Featured, Integrated Data """"""""""""""""" Compression for MS-DOS 6.0 CARLSBAD, Calif., March 30, 1993 - Stac Electronics (NASDAQ:STAC), the leading supplier of high performance data compression, today announced Stacker 3.1 for Windows & DOS The latest version of Stac's award- winning compression software achieves new levels of safety and ease of use by taking advantage of special operating system features available for the first time in Microsoft's new MS-DOS 6.0. Stacker 3.1 replaces DoubleSpace, and seamlessly integrates the Stacker LZS compression into the MS-DOS 6.0 operating system. Unlike DoubleSpace, which is based on data compression technology which Microsoft licensed from Vertisoft Sytems, Stacker 3.1 is also fully compatible with earlier versions of MS-DOS. With MS-DOS 6.0, Stacker 3.1 drivers are pre-loaded, no longer requiring the Stacker commands in the CONFIG.SYS file. This eliminates any risk of accidental deletion by the user. With Stacker 3.1, all DOS commands work directly on Stacker drives, without modification: For example, the DIR and CHKDSK commands can be used directly on Stacker drives. "The fully integrated Stacker 3.1 removes the one advantage that DoubleSpace had over Stacker 3.0," said Gary Clow, founder and CEO of Stac Electronics. When used in conjunction with DOS 6.0, Stacker 3.1 achieves the same level of integration into the operating system as DoubleSpace, Microsoft's first-generation compression product. Price and Availability Stacker 3.1 for Windows and DOS will be available """""""""""""""""""""" within 30 to 60 days of the release of MS-DOS 6.0. Stacker will be available through retail channels at the suggested retail price of $149. An upgrade for all registered users of Stacker 3.0 for Windows and DOS will be available in the same time frame, directly from Stac for $19.95 plus the cost of shipping and handling. Stacker 3.0 units sold after March 30, 1993, will qualify for a free upgrade with proof of purchase. (JIM.LUBIN, CAT4, TOP4, MSG:557/615) LATEST ATI ULTRA DISPLAY DRIVERS UPLOADED I just uploaded to Windows R/T """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" Software Library file #1037 (NTB2_ATI.ZIP) which contains the latest ATI Ultra display drivers for Windows NT Beta 2. Adapters and Modes Supported ============================ The ATI drivers will run on the following boards: Graphics Ultra Graphics Vantage 8514 Ultra Graphics Ultra Pro Graphics Ultra Plus Supported resolutions are: {640x480, 800x600, 1024x768 [256 colors]} Graphics Ultra Graphics Vantage 8514 Ultra Supported resolutions are: {640x480, 800x600, 1024x768, 1280x1024 [256 colors]} Graphics Ultra Pro Graphics Ultra Plus IF you have 2M video mem and the aperture enabled: 640x480 32 bpp [16,777,216 colors] 640x480, 800x600, 1024x768 16 bpp [65,536 colors] The supported resolutions and pixel depths are conditional on there being enough memory on the card. The pixel depth is conditional on the DAC type on the display adapter. If you choose a resolution that is not supported or your card has not been installed for, the miniport will substitute one that is. (RDILL, CAT21, TOP48, MSG:879/M615) [EOA] [TIP]////////////////////////////// TIPS & HINTS / ///////////////////////////////// People Helping People """"""""""""""""""""" HELP, I'M FREAKING OUT! We have an IBM Clone with Soundblaster. We """"""""""""""""""""""" thought it was freaking out because, maybe, of a conflict with the DFI Scanner board but we took it out and still the computer periodically makes a loud, discordant humm from the sound card which cannot be stopped except by re-booting. What would you look at next? Art tried moving cards around so the sound card was not near the disc controller. That helped. Now it just locks up 2-4 times a day instead of every 20 minutes or so. -Karen (A.JANSSEN, CAT2, TOP34, MSG:4/M615) >>>>> From what you've said, unusual sounds, system locking up, and so """"" on, it appears there is a memory or IRQ conflict somewhere. Seems to be a lot of that lately. What follows is a summary of an earlier post on this subject. Check the IRQ's, bios, and other memory addresses for all devices in your system. The bios and memory addresses often need to be excluded from use since memory managers don't always recognize them until the device is used - which is too late. IRQ conflicts will cause rampant problems - such as system lock up. Look in your device manuals for bios addresses and other addresses. For example, the memory requirements of an SVGA video card are greater than straight VGA. Immediately exclude these addresses using whatever syntax for your memory manager (usually X=nnnn-nnnn). Identify the IRQ used by all devices and write these down. Look for conflicts. If a conflicting device provides for alternate IRQ's, consider changing it. Note however, that some devices have become a "de facto" standard, such as the SBPro use of IRQ 7, and some software authors have unfortunately hard-coded this information in their programs. Is the device card "16bit" capable so you can put it into a 16 bit slot and take advantage of IRQ 8-15? If so, this can provide you with another 4 or 5 open IRQ addresses. If you use MS Windows 3.1, you have a utility called msd.exe. This utility is in your windows directory and will give you a listing of "known" IRQ and memory usage. This is a good start if you don't have the information from the device manuals. It will also identify the standard IRQs used for the system timer, clock, printers, etc. This should give you a start Karen. -Les (L.MCRAE2, CAT2, TOP34, MSG:5/M615) [EOA] [GRA]////////////////////////////// THROUGH THE GRAPEVINE... / ///////////////////////////////// Rumors, Maybes and Mayhem """"""""""""""""""""""""" NORTON UTILITIES VS. 7 Got a letter today from Symantic announcing """""""""""""""""""""" Norton Utilities vr 7. Now has hardware diagnostics, improved SpeedDisk and now SpeedDisk, Disk Doctor and NCache will work on compressed drives that use Stacker, SuperStor (Pro, too) and Double Disk. Registered users can get the upgrade for $49. (List is $179, $120- $130 for retail probably) It's also DOS 6 compatible. -Sam (S.APPLETON, CAT4, TOP18, MSG:184/M615) NEW VERSION OF WORDPERFECT Does anyone know if WordPerfect is coming out """""""""""""""""""""""""" with a new version of its OS/2 product? If they are, does that product resemble most the DOS or the Windows version? -Pat (P.BIRD1, CAT6, TOP7, MSG:375/M615) >>>>> Version 5.2 is WP for Windows. However, Wordperfect for DOS """"" version 6.0 is in the works; I believe it's expected this summer. It will be a completely different beast--graphical, with a button bar, and with lots of new features. Thanks to WP Corp's cross-platform upgrade policy, if you own WP for anything you can upgrade to its versions on other platforms for, as I recall, $40. But don't take my word for it, the people in the WP RT can give you exact prices and conditions. (K.LAUX, CAT2, TOP9, MSG:182/M615) >>>>> WP 5.2 for OS/2 will be a fairly straight port from Win 5.2 done """"" using the Mirrors facility from Micrografx. WP 6.0 (A rewrite for full native OS/2) is planned for year-end. The PM Chart mini-app is an example of "mirrored" code. I got this information from the last WP newsletter. Ami Pro/2 is due out soon (2nd quarter), according to Lotus. -Jeff (J.ELKINS1, CAT6, TOP7, MSG:379/M615) NT = NO THREAT? """"""""""""""" System configuration: No name 486-50 clone 16 meg RAM SB Pro T128 SCSI & NEC Intersect CDR-73 Zoom 2400b Hayes clone CMS 120 tape backup EPL-7000 printer 500 meg storage Trident 8900C with 1 meg RAM I installed both march betas this week. OS/2 came 3/29, NT arrived 3/30. The OS/2 CD install while not as polished as NT's was painless, the NT install painful. I maintain OS/2 on a 50 meg extended FAT partition which I reformatted for the March borg install. I created my two boot disks under OS/2 and rebooted, installing w/o any hitches. The improvements are widely broadcast at this point, but briefly: The WPS is much faster. The system INI files can now be copied, making desktop recovery an easier task. WinOS/2 is equal to or arguably better than Win3.1. MMPM/2 events are allowed on a system level. Running for 16 hours thus far I've had no crashes. The NT install, OTGH took four tries before success. Initially, I selected custom install, choosing the 256k 800x600 video drivers. Install proceeded until the reboot to load the graphic portion. After the boot the PC emmitted two short beeps followed by eight long ones. System hang, power off. Reboot to garbled NT video screen. Reboot to OS/2 floppy to use FDISK. (Make BM active) Rebooted to my OS/2 maintenence partition. Cleaned my c: drive of all NT files & directories. Custom install, choosing the 256k 640x480 video drivers. Install proceeded until the reboot to load the graphic portion. After the boot the PC emmitted two short beeps followed by eight long ones. System hang, power off. Reboot to complete the NT install, w/o problems. Reboot NT, log on, then shutdown (probably not needed, just an OS/2 habit). No errors (beeps) on shutdown. Reboot, then log on as administrator and select the disk manager tool, making the BM partition active. Reboot to BM, select OS/2. Text portion of load completes, but hangs on the load of WPS. Rebooted to OS/2 maintenence partition. Restore OS/2 INI files and do CHKDSK /F. Reboot main OS/2 w/o problems. Reboot BM, then NT. The screen response seems incredibly sluggish, so after running a few 3.x winapps (seemed slower than 2.0 GA) I decided to re-install with 640x480x16 drivers. Reboot BM then OS/2. WPS hang again. Rebooted to OS/2 maintenence partition. Restore OS/2 INI files and do CHKDSK /F. Reboot main OS/2 w/o problems. Cleaned c: drive of all NT files & directories. Reboot with NT floppy. Custom install, choosing the 640x480x16 video drivers. Install proceeded until the reboot to load the graphic portion. After the boot the PC emmitted two short beeps followed by eight long ones. System hang, power off. Reboot to complete the NT install, w/o problems. Reboot NT. Screen response was much better, a bit slower than 3.1 perhaps. NT apps load quickly, Win3.x apps at about OS/2 GA 2.0 speed. The few 3.x apps I tried (Quicken, Turbotax plus some shareware) worked w/o apparent problems. Visual Basic apps didn't. No error message returned. I did not investigate this further. At this point the NT Tutorial was selected with the following crash: The NTVDM CPU has encountered an illegal instruction. CS:c000IP:1566 OP:10 15 c4 15 e4 The same error occured when I attempted to run any DOS or OS/2 16 bit program. Shutdown NT reboot OS/2. WPS hang. Repeat clean & purge . Reboot OS/2 and look on CIS for fixes. D/L ntdetect.com fix for NTVDM problem for Cirrus Logic video. Apply fix (what the heck, it might work ). Reboot NT. No cure :( Reboot OS/2. WPS hang . Repeat OS/2 repair, reboot OS/2, un-apply NT fix. Total time: six hours. NT is no threat to the success of OS/2 (J.ELKINS1, CAT6, TOP8, MSG:525/M5615) NEXT GENERATION TELIX? According to the last Telix plans from Jeff Woods """""""""""""""""""""" (deltaComm) in the Fido echoes, he's working on the next generation Telix right now, with a hoped-for release date this year. Apparently, he's planning on mouse control, drop-down menus, and the like. Once it's out, Telix for Windows is planned next (which *should* take care of multitasking). These will be commercial products, with a reasonable upgrade price for registered owners of Telix (e.g., much less than the retail price will be). I don't remember ever seeing the word "fax" used. (P.GRANZEAU, CAT23, TOP15, MSG:239/M615) PENTIUM UPGRADE? Just so people are aware, the Pentium released this """""""""""""""" week is not the same chip that can be used in the "Pentium Upgradable" systems out there today. The chip that was released is the full 64-bit version and it will not work in "Pentium Upgradable" systems. The version we are looking for is the 32-bit "SX" version, which will be out this fall. (Although Intel isn't calling it an SX, just the 32-bit version.) -Peter Szymonik (DIPLOMACY-1,C AT12, TOP19, MSG:101/M615) MORE ON PENTIUMNS Pentiums are shipping in tiny quantities to """"""""""""""""" manufacturers so they can do test production runs and make sure all is well. "Mass" shipments aren't expected until May, and there will likely be a large backorder situation until late 3Q 93. The P24T (the 32/64 PentiumJr, or "8088^2") won't ship until at least 2Q 94, from what I've heard. (DENNYA, CAT12, TOP19, MSG:106/M615) [EOA] [MES]////////////////////////////// MESSAGE SPOTLIGHT / ///////////////////////////////// Word To The Wise """""""""""""""" IBM PC RoundTable Category 14, Topic 21 Message 269 Sat Mar 20, 1993 SCOTTV [Autodesk] at 21:10 EST Steve, Steve, I understand how you feel. I'd love it if my company had the resources to support every OS and platform out there (of course it would make my job, support, living hell, but...). But that's just not the way the real world works. All Vision / Long-sightedness / Long-range-thinking aside, it's mostly a matter of resources. IF a company has the resources to do more than just address the 'most important thing right now' then you can think about long range stuff etc. The problem is two fold; the first is resources, the second the pace of the industry. 1) As we've discussed if you have limited resources you put them into whatever gets you the most return, simple common sense. But wht people often don't consider is, 2) The average 'life' of a video board is probably from 6 months to two years at the outside. I don't mean how long the product will be in use, but how long it will be SELLING on the shelves. Of that life, unless you've got something REALLY special, I you can count on being "king of the hill", IF you even make it to the top, for 6 months, or a year at outside. And often top-o- the-heap time is much shorter. So if some OS is not hot RIGHT NOW, then having drivers for it is not going to help the sales of the current product. If it gets hot 6 months or a year from now then you can write drivers for the product that you are selling WHEN that happens. The solution is NOT to harp about "how many OS/2 users" there are out there. The numbers might seem big to you, but frankly, compared to the size of the DOS and Windows markets, they are miniscule. All you have to do is look at what software people are buying, the lists are dominated by DOS and Windows applications. Nope, I think the way to get OS/2 support is to bend some manufacturs ear in a nother way. Point out to him that since EVERYONE is ignoring OS/2 that there is a "captive" sales market there for the folks that DO address it. Right now in the DOS or Windows World a vendor is fighting for a slice of the pie amongst hoards of other vendors, and that's hard work. These people need to realise that the OS/2 pie, while much much smaller, is mostly just sitting there. And that with a little work they can get a pretty BIG slice of that pie. Because it sure seems to me that you OS/2 users talk a lot to one another, and that you are ALL very un-happy about the lack of support, and that IF you discover a good quality board (even if it's say not the board with the best performance) that has GOOD OS/2 support, that you are going to tell every other OS/2 user about it, and the group of you will literally 'flock' to purchase that product. You see where I think most manufacturers go wrong is in assuming that they will get the same sized slice of the OS/2 market as they do the DOS market. But considering how few people are electing to participate in the fight for the OS/2 pie, I think that logic is flawed. OS/2 support needs to be presented as a "missed opportunity". Whoever gets in their first, and does a good job will probably dominate that market for a significant time to come. [*][*][*] IBM PC RoundTable Category 14, Topic 21 Message 270 Sun Mar 21, 1993 STEVE.HIRSCH [64180] at 09:19 EST Scott: Yes, I couldn't have said it better. An adjunct to my point about lack of OS/2 support being short-sighted is the fact that it is having a peripheral effect on sales to DOS-Windows users. You are correct in surmising that OS/2 users talk to each other! The OS/2 hardware echo on Fidonet is EXTREMELY active. Almost every other message is a flame about the p*ss-poor video driver support. A large percentage of these "flamers" are consultants, VAR's and/or corporate types with purchase-decision influence. I would venture to say that a much higher percentage of OS/2 users meet the criteria of "approves or recommends purchase of..." than do Windows users - overall. Most of these individuals are SO fed-up with the delays in 32-bit Mach support from ATI, to name a prime offender, that they would never recommend or approve any further purchases of ATI products, REGARDLESS of target platform (ie. DOS-Windows). If ATI does not think this is hurting them, well, what can I say? They have their corporate heads in the sand... [*][*][*] While on GEnie, do you spend most of your time downloading files? If so, you may be missing out some excellent information in the Bulletin Board area. The messages listed above only scratch the surface of what's available and waiting for you in the bulletin board area. If you are serious about your IBM-PC, the GEnieLamp staff strongly urge you to give the bulletin board area a try. There are literally thousands of messages posted from people like you from all over the world. [EOA] [HUM]////////////////////////////// HUMOR ONLINE / ///////////////////////////////// GEnie Fun And Games """"""""""""""""""" By Darrel Raines [D.Raines] ANNOUNCING THE BANANA PC In a new product announcement made to an """""""""""""""""""""""" audience of PC industry pundits that were waiting with baited breath, the Banana PC was introduced with a host of novel features and a price tag that will get some attention. The projected price of the new computer: $1.59 per pound! This new PC has a number of unique features that will put in on the top of every Christmas shoppers list. The Banana PC is scheduled for volume production starting in October. Its leading feature is the bright yellow color of the exterior plastic. The small, infrequent black spots do a lot to make the PC resemble its namesake in the fruit world. In addition to its sporty new color, this computer comes complete with the new and improved Banana Operating System Software (BOSS). With the BOSS installed in your new computer, you can realize some new generation commands that have never been available on a personal computer before. For example, the new command CONF will cause the PC to tie up your phone line and be unavailable for about two hours time (this feature requires an optional phone connection). Many users will enjoy the new "Aroma feature". Scratching the plastic case of the keyboard will produce the smell of ripening bananas for the enjoyment of the happy typist. Something completely new with this computer is the addition of robotics in the form of legs and feet. This new feature allows the computer to serve in a useful capacity as waiter when the aspiring programmer would like a beer or Mountain Dew from the refrigerator. However, the manufacturer does not warrant possible damage or loss from the computer drinking said beverage. Another key feature for this product is the removal of annoying peripherals from the system. Never again will a user have to worry about noisy printers, clunky disk drives or space-consuming hard drives. The Banana PC eschews such nonsensical devices and any perceived benefits from them. An opening in the front of the computer, resembling an old style floppy drive, is just an esthetic feature to make users of older systems feel at home. It also serves as theexhaust vent for the new "Aroma feature" and the enhanced voice synthesis hardware. Not to be outdone by older technology computers made by other "fruit" companies, the Banana PC has the latest advances in voice synthesis and recognition. Short training sessions with a microphone, yourself and a loved one will have the new computer ready to go. At this point, it will recognize your voice, ignore your verbal commands, and insult you in a voice that you are used to hearing every day. BOSS OPERATING SYSTEM FEATURES With the advent of fifth generation """""""""""""""""""""""""""""" software for your home computer, the newest system software will have many new features never found on computers before. A new filing system makes its debut with the Banana PC: Magical Envelope Storage System (MESS). With this filing system, every file created will be instantly lost in the mass storage area. You will never have to worry about where you put a file again. No longer will you have to dig through layer after layer of file folders. With MESS, you start out with lost files. Industry experts are amazed at this time-saving new feature. Another break-through in computer power is the built-in software contained on the Banana PC. An integrated Word Processing Suite is available in ROM (Read-Only Memory). 15 different Word Processors are available at the touch of a key. Each of the Word Processors is able to exchange data with the others (common clipboard). You can even load files directly into any of the 15 different programs without converting file formats. Use the Programmer's WP for those coding tasks. Then switch over to the Document WP for the instructions that go with your code. Finally, jump to the Note WP to write down those ideas that come to you while working. You may never need to buy another Word Processor again! Editor's note: We were unable to run more than one of the Word Processors at a time without expanding the 64 Meg memory of the base system. Our best recommendation is to go ahead and get about 1 Gig of memory to start with. That should last you at least a year, until lazy software manufacturers catch up with that memory standard. [other editor's note: What?] Parent Company and Availability Banana Computer, Ink. was formed to """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""" develop and market this new computer in 1990. S. Sboj and S. Kainzow are the founders of the company. The initial stock offering for Banana Computer, amazingly enough, coincided with the announcement of the new PC. Stock prices have been soaring with the initial market acceptance and advance orders. Most corporate buyers of computers are concerned about purchasing computers that are not at the leading edge of market technology. These same buyers can purchase the Banana PC with confidence. It is guaranteed to be old technology by the time it actually shows up at your office. Banana Computer is firmly committed to making product announcements so far in advance of delivery, that they will have announced the successor to a computer BEFORE the computer itself is ever rolled off the assembly line. One inside source at Banana Computer has been identified and asked to comment on the mighty feature list indicated earlier in this story. "Yeah, right", the engineer exclaimed. While asking for anonymity, the source went on to say that "it would be nice if we could get the darn thing to power on without burning out chips before the announced delivery date". However, this newsletter is not trying to cast a disparaging light on official company spokesmen. [Heh, heh. Oops.] Banana PC's will be distributed through Sears stores nation-wide. You can place advance orders by sending a certified check directly to any Sears store or the computer manufacturer. When asked about Sears participation in home computer sales, a local store official remarked: "Why not, nothing else is selling in here." [EOA] [WHO]////////////////////////////// PROFILES / ///////////////////////////////// Who's Who On GEnie """""""""""""""""" By Peter Bogert [P.BOGERT1] >>> WHO'S WHO <<< """"""""""""""""" ~ A Profile of Charles Strom ~ SysOp of the IBM RoundTable This month I thought we would get to know Charles Strom, who is the Sysop of the IBM RT that we all love. Charlie was kind enough to take some some to answer some questions about a variety of issues relating to GEnie and personal computing. Let's hear what he has to say: [*][*][*] GEnieLamp> Hi, Charlie. Thanks for being our "Interview of the Month." """"""""" Tell us a little about yourself: a little background, what you do for a living, how you got hooked up with GEnie, what your computer set-up is like, etc. Charles> I am a chemist by training and a University administrator during """"""" the day. I built my first computer (an Imsai) in 1978 and was a charter member of the first consumer information service. I became their second sysop (when the concept of the RoundTable first was developed) and ran a CP/M interest group there. When GEnie was born, I was invited to host one of the charter R/T's, specializing in IBM-compatible computing. GEnieLamp> Being the sysop of such a large RT must have it's up and down """"""""" times! What do you enjoy most about being the IBM RT Sysop? Charles> I enjoy meeting and interacting with the wide variety of people """"""" we can meet on GEnie. It affords a unique opportunity to learn from others and to form on-line friendships. GEnieLamp> Based on your observations in the RT messages, what is """"""""" different about the IBM world today as compared to two or three years ago? Charles> The IBM workd has become increasingly commercialized. It is """"""" very much big business compared to just a few years ago. There presently is a basic shakeout taking place in the marketplace. I believe we will see the continued success of a few giants and the disappearance of those who cannot adapt quickly to the changing situations. GEnieLamp> I've asked each of the people who have been interviewed this """"""""" question: As you look ahead, what do you feel is the factor most likely to change the face of computing in the next few years? Charles> The continued development of graphic user interfaces (GUI's) is """"""" making major changes in the face of IBM-compatible computing. This is one of the most significant developments in the recent past. GEnieLamp> One of the most significant facets of the IBM RT is the file """"""""" section. What are some of the most significant changes in the type and quality of shareware that you see as compared to a few years ago? Where do you think the shareware concept is headed in the next few years? Charles> Shareware continues to offer some of the most significant, """"""" highest quality software available in the IBM marketplace. I see this trend continuing. Shareware is a healthy industry segment. As OS/2 and Windows NT mature, we will see a rapid expansion in the shareware marketplace addressing these new platforms. GEnieLamp> What commercial programs do you use most? Charles> I use OS/2 a lot lately. I use Microsoft Word, Word for """"""" Windows, Borland's Quattro Pro, TE/2 (a communications program for OS/2) and of course GEnie's own PC Aladdin. GEnieLamp> As RT Sysop, you no doubt hear quite a bit of feedback from users. What do users want most from GEnie and the RT? Can you shed a little light on any plans you have for the RT over the next few months? Charles> GEnie users appreciate our areas as timely sources of the """"""" latest and greatest in shareware for the PC. They also look to the BBS for a place to get fast answers to problems they may experience installing or using a new application or operating system. GEnieLamp> What do you feel is the most under-used facet of the RT? In """"""""" other words, what do you feel GEnie users have access to, but are not largely taking advantage of? Charles> I feel the BBS is underutilized as a good place for problem """"""" solving and feedback. GEnieLamp> You have developed the Windows RT as a spin-off of the IBM """"""""" RT. That leaves this RT a bit more of a "DOS" oriented RT. What do you see as the future of DOS? Charles> DOS fills a very definite role and still serves the needs of a """"""" majority of the users of PC compatibles. Judging from continued DOS and DOS-compatible utility development, DOS has a long history ahead. GEnieLamp> DOS 6 is probably one of the hot items of discussion. What """"""""" is your impression of the product? Charles> DOS 6.0 is a mature product. It is basically an evolutionary """"""" step in DOS development, bundling a variety of tools into a single package. It is an excellent choice for the new user or the user who has not invested a lot of time or money in obtaining the plethora of utilities which are now built in to the basic package. GEnieLamp> Do you use either Windows, Windows NT or OS/2? If so, what do """"""""" you like about them, and if not, what do you like more about the plain old DOS interface? Charles> I strongly believe in using those tools which exploit the """"""" hardware to its limit. Features such as multitasking, protected mode operation, print spooling, etc. as implemented in OS/2 and NT are very attractive. I am using both platforms at present and will probably continue to do so. I hope that we will see a merger of the best features of both sometime in the future. GEnieLamp> Thanks, Charlie, for your time. I know I - and many others - """"""""" appreciate the work that you do to make the IBM RT a fun and helpful place. [*][*][*] GEnieLamp Comments I am interested in Charlie's statement that the RT """""""""""""""""" message section is an underutilized forum for finding help. What are you wrestling with with your computer (or perhaps how are you and your computer wrestling with each other?!)? Why not take a look at the thrill of victory (and some of the agony of defeat) that your fellow users have found in the IBM RT. Until next month, Peter Bogert [P.BOGERT1] [EOA] [TEL]////////////////////////////// TELETALK ONLINE / ///////////////////////////////// Online Communications """"""""""""""""""""" By Al Fasoldt [A.FASOLDT] >>> ILLITERACY OF HOMONYMS <<< """""""""""""""""""""""""""""" Copyright 1993 by Al Fasoldt. All rights reserved. A new kind of illiteracy is sweeping the country. To give it a proper name, it's the illiteracy of homonyms - words that sound the same as other words but are spelled differently. Some say it's caused by the proliferation of spelling checkers used on computers, but that's not the full story. You see, most spelling checkers are abysmally dumb. They don't know the difference between "bear" and "bare," or "do" and "dew." All that most spelling checkers know is that "do" is spelled just as correctly as "dew" is. And that's where the disaster comes in. Combine a bad speller (human variety) with a bad software program that can't distinguish between the appropriate word and the one that is just plain ludicrous, and you have the seeds of the new illiteracy. A poem posted on the Internet, a worldwide computer network, shows what I mean. Here it is: "Spellbound" by Pennye Harper I have a spelling checker; It came with my PC. It plainly marks four my revue Mistakes I cannot sea. I've run this poem threw it; I'm sure your pleased too no. It's letter-perfect in it's weigh. My checker tolled me sew. I've brought this problem up with other writers, and many of them say the current reliance on spelling checkers has made most of us lazy. Instead of looking up (and learning) a word we don't know how to spell, we just keep typing away, confident that the spelling checker will catch our mistakes. This is probably true. But I look at it another way. Spelling is supposed to be taught in school long before students do much writing on PCs, so I don't think spelling checkers are to blame if we can't spell; I think these brainless software programs are simply showing how poorly we were taught at an early age. I say "we" so that you don't get the impression that I am just talking about kids. Adults have this homonymic affliction, too. The other day, a distinguished publisher of how-to books sent me a review copy of a book by a respected author. In the back of the book, he explained how he had done most of the work on the book himself - even producing the book's pages, ready for the publisher's press, on his own desktop-publishing software and laser printer. I hadn't read past Page 11 when I saw his first gaffe. "Press the brake key," the book said. There were other mistakes just like that throughout the book. I had better things to do than wade through that sort of illiteracy, so I put on the breaks and went back to my keybored. The book went into the trash. [EOA] [MUL]////////////////////////////// MULTIMEDIA & YOU / ///////////////////////////////// Multimedia -- Spring '93 """""""""""""""""""""""" By David Holmes [D.HOLMES14] MULTIMEDIA HAS ARRIVED Last year, "multimedia" seemed to be featured on """""""""""""""""""""" the cover of every major computer magazine. At the time, it will still labeled as "coming soon" or called a very immature industry. Well, multimedia has arrived (at least in a basic form), and there's no going back. While the "interactive entertainment" industry is still highly disordered, adding multimedia to a PC is, for the most part, standardized. The MPC label continues to grow in popularity, and stick ing with it will prevent you from ending up with incompatible components. The hardware is cheap, and software is plentiful. The two main components of multimedia -- sound cards and CD-ROM drives -- are of fairly high quality now, but more importantly, they are inexpensive. Video, the next step in multimedia, has show n up in the form of Video for Windows, but it will be some time before high-quality video will be playing on your PC. Sound Cards The old Sound Blaster standard is still with us, and it """"""""""" doesn't seem to be leaving any time soon. Only a few of the new sound cards do not offer Sound Blaster compatibility, and it is something you should still look for. Games, especially, are not written for Windows, thus they can only support a limited number of sound card options. The best-selling sound card right now is the ProAudio Spectrum 16, and with good reason. This low cost (street price: $170) card is 100% Sound Blaster compatible, supports 16-bit digital playback and recording, and has a built-in SCSI interface. Its only drawback is that it uses FM synthesis, a sound system that is (thankfully) being phased out in favor of wave table synthesis. Media Vision is supposedly going to release a wave table-based sound card later this year. Until then, though, they have the new ProAudio Studio, which adds voice recognition software to the basic card. (Current board owners can upgrade to the new software.) Creative Labs makes the best known line of sound cards. Their latest is the Sound Blaster 16 ASP. It offers an Advanced Signal Processor for added power, but it still lacks a SCSI interface. Music generation is again with FM synthesis, although a daughter card, the Wave Blaster, will offer a Proteus-based synthesizer. The Proteus is a great sounding system, but you could get the same results with any General MIDI synthesizer add-on (such as the Roland SCC-1). A constantly evolving sound card is the Gravis UltraSound. This card is growing in popularity due to its $130 street price and great sounding music, but the software drivers have yet to be perfected after dozens of upgrades. Sound Blaster compatibility is offered through software emulation only, so it still does not work with all software. The UltraSound is a wave table based synth, and keeps its patch samples on the hard drive, only loading them into its 256K of RAM when necessary. This system may limit the number of different instruments that may be used at any given time, although the card can be upgraded to 1 meg of RAM. Both 16-bit recording and any type of CD-ROM interface are options. Its Windows drivers are less than perfect, and support from game companies has been slow in coming. One of the newest series of sound cards are those based on the ARIA chipset. These are wave table-based synths, most offering Sound Blaster compatibility and voice recognition. They are currently not all that popular, but there may be as many as 20 of them on the market in the next few months. Roland is known for making great profession music equipment, but they have also been making great sound cards since the LAPC-1. Its current offering, the SCC-1, is a General MIDI sound card with excellent instruments; however, it lacks a DAC, thus is must be used in conjunction with another sound card. Coming soon is the TAP-10, which will be Sound Canvas compatible and offer a 16-bit stere o DAC, as well as studio quality reverb and chorus effects. This will probably be the second "professional" MPC sound card, after the MultiSound. The TAP-10 will reportedly be out in mid-May and ret ail for $599. CD-ROM Drives Double speed drives are almost becoming the norm now, and """"""""""""" for smooth full-motion video, they're almost a necessity. At the same time, though, fully MPC compatible drives are breaking the $200 barrier. Sony's 31A caddyless drive is almost becoming the new standard as most low-cost multimedia upgrade kits now include it. It is fairly slow, with a 450 ms seek time, but it does fully support Kodak's Photo CD system, including multisession discs. NEC was the first to sell a double speed drive, and their MultiSpin series is one of the best selling. They now include 256K buffers and Photo CD compatibility. Other double speed drive makers include Texel and Toshiba. Several other companies sell these units under their own names. The NEC and Texel have seek times of 265 ms, and the new Toshiba 3401 series has an incredible 200 ms seek time and 330K data transfer rate. Industry Support Perhaps the newest trend is sound support being added """""""""""""""" to the motherboard. Several companies will be adding support later this year. Already most offer multimedia systems. Gateway now includes a CD-ROM drive free with their popular 486DX2-66 system. More companies are sure to follow as CD-ROM drives and sound support become necessities, not just luxuries. [EOA] [QUI]////////////////////////////// THE MIGHTY QUINN / ///////////////////////////////// Random Access """"""""""""" By Mark Quinn [NEWSIE] "A Whole Buncha Milliseconds with Mark" by Mark Quinn, DOA GEnie address: NEWSIE "When he sits around the computer, he really sits _around_ the computer." That sentence pretty much describes me. I'll admit it: I've tortured my culinary sensibilities with McWendy's not-so-haute cuisine with the worst of them. Richard Simmons would be aghast at the sight of my daily repast. While I'm baring my ASCII: I'm 6'5" (not 6'5" through, by the way, but the jury is out as long as the light inside the refrigerator isn't) tall, and when I was in high school and attended family gatherings, distant male relatives would always ask me if I played football. People have stopped asking me that. Instead they'll say something on the order of "I've got a cousin about your size. Where do you buy your clothes?". My father will take a close look at me and fade into a story about someone he vaguely knew ten years ago who died in bed after about nine heart attacks after they had quintuple- bypass surgery, the result requiring bashing a gaping hole in the roof of the poor deceased person's house, the services of a crane operator, a carpenter, and a large flatbed truck with a "Wide Load" sign fluttering in the breeze on its rear. I really shouldn't trivialize my plight and the plight of many others who are ruled by their food. Then again, no one else should -- but does that stop every dumbarse from recycling tired fat jokes for the burning ears of overweight targets, waddling down the main aisles of KMarts across the country? I've felt their dull barbs for most of my life, and my main recourse is humor. My main course is a double cheeseburger with the works, but my main recourse is humor. I haven't always been obese. When I was 14 years old, I starved, bicycled, and exercised my excess weight into temporary oblivion. I was amazed at the easy way I became 'popular' with the jocks. One of them asked me how I did it, and seemed quite surprised when I said, "I don't eat anymore. I'm a one-serving kinda guy." Then summer vacation came, and my weight slowly began to return -- along with the stares and the jokes. I can remember sitting in our living room and scarfing down one peanut butter sandwich after another. Why? I've often thought that I was so afraid of living up to everyone's expectations that I took the easy way out: my old protective coloration. I doubt it. The answer was that I was on the wrong kind of diet. Starvation diets hardly ever work, as I've since been told. So why don't I "buck up" and lose the weight again, the right way this time? Hmm . . . here's the answer: I'm waiting for R. Simmons to acknowledge my existence by selling his once-controversial "Deal-a-Meal" package, long ago adapted for use on PCs, on the QVC shopping network. Then some rotund hacker will give in and write a "cheat program" for it, and I'll be able to eat all the chocolate cake and Haagen Daz (now in version 6.0, I believe) I want. Can you imagine the calls he'd get on the tech support line? "Richard, this is Wanda. My husband got so desperate last night that he ate the Deal-a-Meal disk, and wouldn't give me a byte. It was a high-density disk, so he said he felt pretty full after it went down. Now we have no program. Then he said he had some of the wallpaper in our bedroom with ranch dressing, and swore it was delicious. What do I doooo?!" "Hang on, Wanda. (Lapsing into some sort of high-pitched shriek.) 'Help me, Wanda, help-help me Wanda'. We'll send you a backup. About the wallpaper, ask your husband to send me a sample of it and if it's good enough, I'll put it in my cookbook." Now that my TV, VCR, and cassette deck have fallen to Sir Richard, so far, only my computer remains unsoiled. There's a TV in the computer room, though. But there is also a way out. ". . . I hold the fork", Simmons reads, racking up another fifty or so sales. "And I hold the remote control," I say. [EOA] [ASK]////////////////////////////// ASK DOCTOR BOB / ///////////////////////////////// Gotta Problem? Gotta Answer! """"""""""""""""""""""""""""" By Bob Connors [R.CONNORS2] o 4DOS, NDOS, AND THE LOADHIGH COMMAND o IS MY BATTERY DIEING? Doctor Bob, Is the MS-DOS 6 readme correct that 4.02 will fix the LH switch problem? Or does one of the 4.01x versions fix this? Also, how do I install over NDOS which I am using now? Thanks, Daniel Hello Daniel, My source tells me that 4DOS 4.02 fixes the LH switch problem although he hasn't used it (he uses QEMM386). He does know that it is not fixed in 4.01 though. As to your second question, there are two ways to go about it: 1) Change the SHELL command in your CONFIG.SYS file to point to 4DOS instead of NDOS. Since NDOS is a subset of 4DOS, that should not affect things. 2) Another alternative is to rename 4DOS.COM to COMMAND.COM and use that in your SHELL statement. I haven't tried it (I don't use 4DOS myself) but my source has and, according to him, it eliminates a whole lot of configuration problems with applications. Hope this helps but a word of caution, BACKUP! -Doctor Bob [*][*][*] Doctor Bob, I have a question about the IIGs battery. I have had my 'puter for going on 5 years now, and never changed the battery. Lately, about 4 times out of the last 50 cold boots, my computer lost all of my control panel settings and went to default, except for the sound. It goes to the max. Is this a symptom of my battery going on me or what? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks for any help, chevy chase (R.GELLOCK) Hi Chevy, What you describe does certainly sound like a weak battery to me. I would suggest that you get it changed or, if you are technically responsible (you know which end of the screwdriver has the blade) and you know the details of your computer's innards, you might be able to do it yourself. If you do not know how to do it, then either take it to someone who services the IIGS or check out the APPLE, A2PRO, or A2 RoundTables. There is bound to be someone in one of those RoundTables who can give you the necessary guidance. -Doctor Bob [*][*][*] ASK DOCTOR BOB Do you have a question about operating systems, GEnie or """""""""""""" anything concerning computers? If so, you can get your questions answered here in GEnieLamp by Doctor Bob. Any question is fair game...and if the good Doctor Bob doesn't know the answer, he'll find someone who does. Stop wandering around in the dark, send your question to Doctor Bob in the Digital Publishing RoundTable bulletin board, CATegory 3, TOPic 3. [EOA] [MOO]////////////////////////////// CowTOONS! / ///////////////////////////////// 100% lean ( ) /~~~~\ /~~~~\ | | /~~|~~\ \/~~~~\ /~~~~\/ | | /~~~~\ | | | | | | | || | |\ | `. | | | | | | | | (o || (o | | \ | `-. \____, \____/ \./ \./ | \____/ \____/ | \| \____) \ / /~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ \ / . No Skimming! / [MOO] By MIKE WHITE [MWHITE] (. .) . ' * Cows from Literature, ~~~ History, and the Arts |\~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~/| Volume I, Number 3 | |~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| | | | | | | | o] [__] o][o | | | | [o [o^] ~ | | | | \ / /-------\/ ~ | | | | || / | || ~ | | | | * * ||----|| |: 0 | | | | ~~ ~~ | | | | | | | |/~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~\| ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Cubist Cows ~~~~~~~~~~~ attributed to Pablo Piccowso, 1881 - 1973 $ ...---... ../ / | \ \.. $ ./ / / | \ \ \. $ / / / | \ \ \ $ / / / | \ \ \ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ $ \ | / \ | / $ \ | / $ \ | / \ | / \ | / $ \ | / \ | /(__) \|/ (oo) /---++--\/ / | || || * ||-++-|| ~~ ~~ D. B. Mooper Hijacked a Northwest Boeing 727 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ November 1971 (.....) ( ! ! ) \ ' / / \ / \ CowTOONS? Stephen Litwin took us up |\ /| on our offer and sent in this month's | \|/ | CowTOONS selection. ( | ) \ | / If you have an idea for a CowTOON, we | | | would like to see it. And, if we pick ] | [ .'''''''. your CowTOON for publishing in GEnieLamp J..../ ' 0 we will credit your account with 2 hours U of GEnie non-prime time! Arnold Cowl-mer ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Making a Perfect Cow Chip By Steve Litwin [S.LITWIN2] [EOA] [REF]////////////////////////////// REFLECTIONS / ///////////////////////////////// Thinking Online Communications """""""""""""""""""""""""""""" By Phil Shapiro [P.SHAPRIO1] As shareware becomes an increasingly popular channel for software distribution, it seems fitting and appropriate at this time to review some of the basics of shareware etiquette. As your mother so often told you as a child, the rules of shareware etiquette apply equally to both shareware users and shareware creators. Good manners and thoughtful behavior have a uniquely wonderful reciprocalness to them. Shareware etiquette starts with the shareware creator. Creators have the obligation of politely informing shareware users that the software they are using is being distributed on a try-before-you-buy basis. Shareware notices should be concise and pleasantly phrased. It's entirely appropriate to give tactful hints that further goodies await the kind souls who send in the requested shareware fee. Please note that "starving college student" humor can be acceptable if it's truthful, sincere, and tasteful. Brevity, as always, is a must. On the other side of the table, shareware users have the duty of pleasantly reading the pleasantly phrased shareware notice. They have the further duty of pleasantly understanding what the tactful and thoughtful shareware message is saying. Customarily, shareware users are granted two weeks to try out shareware programs. If, after that time, they find the particular shareware program does not meet their current needs, they have the duty of pleasantly and thoughtfully formatting the floppy disk containing the shareware. In the case of hard drive users, they have the duty of removing the shareware entirely from their hard drive system. Should they decide to keep, cherish, and foster the shareware, they have the duty of sending in the shareware fee along with a suitably brief but heartfelt expression of their gratitude and appreciation. When sending in the requested shareware fee, shareware users are given generous opportunities to earn extra-credit etiquette points. Extra-credit etiquette points can be earned by including: 1) Suggested enhancements for possible future versions of the shareware; 2) Ideas for new shareware disks, and, 3) A self-address stamped envelope. To earn admiration far and beyond the call of standard shareware etiquette, a stamped, self-addressed floppy mailer might be included. Kindly take note that shareware etiquette does not end with the shareware fee being sent. Far from it. Upon receipt of the shareware fee, the shareware creator has the duty of sending a timely, appropriately phrased expression of gratitude. This expression of thanks need not exceed two typed paragraphs. But at least two to three sentences must address the particular comments included in the shareware user's letters. Shareware etiquette frowns seriously upon the unchivalrous sending of mail-merged form letters. It's appropriate for shareware creators to express in their own words how meaningful it is to them to have their faith in humanity renewed by the kind and thoughtful sending of the requested shareware fee. Please - - - no gushing sentiments, though. The sending of extra software goodies to the shareware user is entirely within the impeccable discretion of the shareware creator. But here again, extra-credit etiquette points can be earned by going above and beyond the call of duty. By sending extra software goodies, shareware creators can help perpetuate a spiral of goodwill resonating out in ever widening circles of trust and charity. Please be aware that special etiquette rules apply to educational shareware programs. If such shareware is being used primarily by children, then the rules of shareware etiquette dictate that the children themselves should write the thank-you letter accompanying the requested shareware fee. Handwritten letters carry far more meaning than typed letters in these circumstances. As usual, the expressions of gratitude needs to be both heartfelt and brief. Handwriting, as usual, should be the child's very best. Black or blue-black ink on white lined paper, thank you. The rules of shareware etiquette have not fully developed to address the question of what happens if the shareware fee letter is returned as being undeliverable. We live in such a mobile society that such eventualities happen far too often. In such cases, the kind and considerate shareware user has an obligation to make reasonable efforts to track down the shareware creator. Polite inquiries directed to one's local users group, or on the national information services, are entirely appropriate. If reasonable efforts are unable to reveal the current address of the shareware creator, a fitting course of action is to donate the money from the returned shareware fee to a deserving local charity. In that way the goodwill generated by the initial shareware creator continues to live on in some other form. By following the basic rules of shareware etiquette yourself, you can feel enobled by your own role in carrying on a tradition that has served computer users for several hundred years. How very fortunate we all are for the shareware traditions our forefathers and foremothers passed along to us in the early days of microcomputers. -Phil Shapiro [*][*][*] [The author takes an interest in the social dimensions of communication technology. He can be reached on GEnie at: p.shapiro1; on America Online at: pshapiro; and on Internet at:pshapiro@pro-novapple.cts.com] [EOA] [BOB]////////////////////////////// DOCTOR BOB / ///////////////////////////////// The Plain Vanilla Guide, Part 6 """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""" By Bob M. Connors [R.CONNORS2] >>> THE PLAIN VANILLA GUIDE TO DOS <<< """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" Editor's Note This series of articles was originally published in """"""""""""" TeleTalk Online Magazine and distributed via the now non-existent T/TalkNETwork. Back issues of TeleTalk Online Magazine are available in the GEnieLamp RoundTable Library (M515). [*][*][*] Welcome back to the DOS column. This is the sixth installment and if you have followed this series since the start, you are well on your way to being a DOS "power user." Last month, we got into a bit of advanced input/output (I/O) redirection talking about the DOS filters, SORT and MORE. This month, we will expand on what we have discussed by talking about the DOS FIND filter and more information about SORT. To illustrate these commands, we are going to actually create a small database program through the use of batch files and the three filters. Let us first start off by talking about the FIND filter. There are a few utilities around, both commercial and public domain, that allow you to find a file on a hard disk drive. These are quite useful especially when you do not remember which directory on your drive contains a file or even if you have deleted the file from the drive or not. FIND is a similar utility that comes free with DOS that will let you find, in the current directory or in a directory you specify, all files that have, as part of their file name, the text you specify. Here is the complete syntax for find (remember, anything inside "[ ]" is considered optional and need not be included): [d:path\]FIND [/V] [/C] [/N] "string" [filespec...] Breaking it down: d:path is the drive and directory path where FIND is located which is not needed if the PATH command already points there. FIND is the name of the program itself. /V tells find to display any file name that does NOT contain "string." /C counts the number of lines containing "string" and shows the total. /N will cause the relative line number of each line containing "string" to be displayed. "string" is the text you are looking for in the filename and is case dependent; that is, "EXE" is different than "ExE" since the latter has a lower case character and the former does not. It must be inclosed in double quotes. filespec is the drive, directory path, filename and extension of each file to be searched. It can include more than one filespec but each must be separated by a space (wild card characters are not permissible). If no filespec is specified, FIND defaults to all files in the current directory. If no filename and extension is specified, then FIND will default to all files in the specified drive and directory path. Let's take a quick look at a typical directory and then see how find works. I will use the root directory on drive C for this example and here it is: Volume in drive C is PC-DOS 3.2 Directory of C:\ DOS AUTO BAT AUTOEXEC BAT BBS BAT BOOT1 TXT BRK DRV COMMAND COM CONFIG SYS DM EXE DMDRVR BIN G7 COM G7 SYS G7-NEWS G7-READ ME G7COM G7INSTAL BAT G7SYS GETCLK COM HELP BBS LOG EXE NANSI BKP NANSI SYS NIL RESET COM SETCLK COM 25 File(s) 245760 bytes free Assuming we are in that directory, issuing the command: DIR | FIND "exe" results in no files being found. This is because we asked for all lower case characters and, of course, DOS shows all filespecs in upper case only. Remember, the "|" is the DOS symbol to pipe or send the output from DIR through the filter FIND.COM. What happens if we change the above command to: DIR | FIND "EXE" We get the following display: AUTOEXEC BAT 1916 3-05-89 10:35p DM EXE 44096 8-27-86 10:24a LOG EXE 9648 1-06-89 9:35a Hmmm... interesting to see that AUTOEXEC.BAT is included in the display, is it not? Reinforces the statement that "computers do what you tell them to do, not what you want them to do." In order to eliminate AUTOEXEC.BAT and show only the *.EXE files, we need to be more specific with our "string." Instead of specifying "EXE" we need to specify ".EXE" (note the period). This will give us a listing of only DM.EXE and LOG.EXE. Big deal you say? Yes, I know we could basically do the same thing with the "DIR *.EXE" command but remember, we can also combine FIND with other redirection filters and/or symbols to do some interesting things that cannot be done with DIR. For starters, if you have been observant, you should have noticed something different about these displays. DIR gives you the drive label name and current directory name in the first three lines (line 3 is blank) while FIND only gives you the names of the files it finds plus the other file information. If we route this information to another file using the ">" I/O redirector, we can then use the file in applications or batch files (redirection is exactly how I created the listing above. I sent it to a file called "DIR.TXT" which I then merged with this document. You didn't think I typed all that by hand, did you?). Stay with me as I am going to show you exactly what I mean shortly. Issuing the command DIR | FIND /C "7" gives this display: 15 Pretty straight forward. The "/C" switch tells FIND to count the number of occurrences of "string" and to report the total. It did that, right? Not much use to us that way though so let's try a different approach. What will happen when we change the command to DIR | FIND /C/N "7" (answer is below): 15 Eeek, the same result! An important lesson here, "/C" has priority over "/N" and if you want "/N" you cannot use it with the "/C" parameter. So I will try it with only the "/N" parameter and here is the display: [13]CONFIG SYS 89 10-13-88 11:57a [14]DM EXE 44096 8-27-86 10:24a [15]DMDRVR BIN 5696 8-27-86 10:24a [16]G7 COM 798 1-01-87 12:00a [17]G7 SYS 1054 1-01-87 12:00a [18]G7-NEWS 8980 1-01-87 12:00a [19]G7-READ ME 1064 1-01-87 12:00a [20]G7COM 4 1-01-87 12:00a [21]G7INSTAL BAT 1152 1-01-87 12:00a [22]G7SYS 15 1-01-87 12:00a [23]GETCLK COM 116 1-01-87 12:00a [24]HELP BBS 9327 3-27-88 9:29p [30]SETCLK COM 116 1-01-87 12:00a [32] 27 File(s) 249856 bytes free Wait a minute! Why are all those files showing up when only 7 of them have the number "7" in them? I'll tell you in a minute but first, look at the display itself. "/N" tells FIND to show the relative line number for each file that contains the search string and, as you can see, it does this at the beginning of each line. I want to try one more thing by changing that last command. DIR /W | FIND /N "7" is the command and results in: [7]DMDRVR BIN G7 COM G7 SYS G7-NEWS G7-READ ME [8]G7COM G7INSTAL BAT G7SYS GETCLK COM HELP BBS [11] 27 File(s) 249856 bytes free Have you figured out what is going on here yet? If not (or even if so), I will explain it. We told DOS to give us a directory with the output of that command to be filtered by FIND. We told FIND to display the line number for anything that contains the number seven. FIND is not very smart and doesn't realize that you want it to only look at the file names and not anything else. So, when each line of the directory is passed to FIND, it will include any line that has the number "7" in it anywhere to include the file size, date, time, or even the recap on the last line. Since each of the lines contained the search string, they were listed in both of the last two displays. If we only wanted the files that contain "G7" we would have to issue the following command: DIR | FIND /N "G7" which results in: [16]G7 COM 798 1-01-87 12:00a [17]G7 SYS 1054 1-01-87 12:00a [18]G7-NEWS 8980 1-01-87 12:00a [19]G7-READ ME 1064 1-01-87 12:00a [20]G7COM 4 1-01-87 12:00a [21]G7INSTAL BAT 1152 1-01-87 12:00a [22]G7SYS 15 1-01-87 12:00a We are going to regress here for a moment. What would you do if you wanted the same files displayed but you wanted them in ascending order by file size (smallest to largest)? We could go out an buy Norton Utilities or we could save our money and let DOS do it for us. In addition to the FIND filter, we need to use the SORT filter also (covered partially last month) to accomplish this feat. SORT will accept a parameter called an "offset" which permits us to tell SORT the position we want to start the sort on. Since the file size filed of a directory listing starts in column 16, we will use that as the parameter we will pass to SORT. Either of the following commands will produce the listing following them: DIR | FIND "G7" | SORT /+16 DIR | SORT /+16 | FIND "G7" G7COM 4 1-01-87 12:00a G7SYS 15 1-01-87 12:00a G7 COM 798 1-01-87 12:00a G7 SYS 1054 1-01-87 12:00a G7-READ ME 1064 1-01-87 12:00a G7INSTAL BAT 1152 1-01-87 12:00a G7-NEWS 8980 1-01-87 12:00a Do you know why either command will work? It makes no difference which filter process the directory listing first except maybe for a little speed difference. If SORT gets the DIR first, then it must sort *all* the files before sending them to FIND which in turns filters out all the unwanted files, displaying the rest. If we filter the unwanted files first, then SORT has a few less files to have to SORT so we would see a small improvement in speed. With a large file, the speed difference would be important. Try this command in one of your directories: DIR | SORT /R The parameter, /R, tells SORT to sort the files in reverse (descending) order. Since you didn't specify an offset, column 1 is used for the sort (the filename). Here is the result for my directory: SETCLK COM 116 1-01-87 12:00a RESET COM 16 10-19-84 10:01p NIL 0 3-11-89 1:45p NANSI SYS 2500 10-20-86 NANSI BKP 2500 10-20-86 LOG EXE 9648 1-06-89 9:35a HELP BBS 9327 3-27-88 9:29p GETCLK COM 116 1-01-87 12:00a G7SYS 15 1-01-87 12:00a G7INSTAL BAT 1152 1-01-87 12:00a G7COM 4 1-01-87 12:00a G7-READ ME 1064 1-01-87 12:00a G7-NEWS 8980 1-01-87 12:00a G7 SYS 1054 1-01-87 12:00a G7 COM 798 1-01-87 12:00a DOS 3-15-88 8:50p DMDRVR BIN 5696 8-27-86 10:24a DM EXE 44096 8-27-86 10:24a CONFIG SYS 89 10-13-88 11:57a COMMAND COM 23791 12-30-85 12:00p BRK DRV 503 11-30-85 10:41a BOOT1 TXT 3 4-26-88 8:59a BBS BAT 1916 3-05-89 10:35p AUTOEXEC BAT 1916 3-05-89 10:35p AUTO BAT 1555 12-21-88 1:30p 0F080A25 0 3-12-89 3:08p 0F080A1F 0 3-12-89 3:08p Volume in drive C is PC-DOS 3.2 Directory of C:\ 27 File(s) 249856 bytes free Gee, that looks kind of funny, doesn't it? What are those two strange files close to the bottom (0F080A25 and 0F080A1F)? They weren't there before. They are temporary work files that DOS created when it performed the sorting. No need to look, they are no longer in your directory as DOS deleted them immediately following the conclusion of SORT. Since they were there during the sort operation, they are included in the DIR list. They were not included in the previous DIR lists because they did not contain the string G7. Prove it to yourself by issuing the following command (this assumes you are using the same directory I am... you are, aren't you?): DIR | FIND "G7" | SORT /R Since you apparently lost your copy of my directory, here is what you should have seen: G7SYS 15 1-01-87 12:00a G7INSTAL BAT 1152 1-01-87 12:00a G7COM 4 1-01-87 12:00a G7-READ ME 1064 1-01-87 12:00a G7-NEWS 8980 1-01-87 12:00a G7 SYS 1054 1-01-87 12:00a G7 COM 798 1-01-87 12:00a Well now that we have covered all the parameters you can use with SORT and FIND (the only one we didn't cover was FIND's "/V" parameter but it is pretty much self explanatory and you should experiment with it at your leisure), what type of practical use can we make of the filters and other redirection? In the fourth installment of this series, I covered DISKCOPY and DISKCOMP, two DOS utilities that allow you to copy diskettes and compare the copy to be sure you have good copies. If you remember, when using DISKCOPY with a two drive system, it prompts you to insert the source diskette in drive A: and the destination diskette in drive B: and then press when ready. Further, when the copy is done, it asks you if you want to make another copy which requires you to enter a Y or N as a response. Type the following in the order shown: COPY CON DISKCOPY.KEY N ^Z Now type the following in the order shown: COPY CON DCOPY.BAT DISKCOPY A: B: < DISKCOPY.KEY ^Z The "" in each of these means to press the ENTER key, do not type it literally. Now, with these files, you can automate a single disk copy without having to answer the prompts. Just put the appropriate diskettes in the appropriate drives, close the drive doors, and type "DCOPY" at the DOS prompt. The DCOPY.BAT file tells DOS to begin the DISKCOPY but to accept the file DISKCOPY.KEY as the input instead of the keyboard. The first (on the second line of the first list) responds to the prompt to press any key when ready to begin the diskcopy. The "N" responds to the "Copy another diskette (Y/N)" prompt when the diskcopy is done. The "^Z" marks the end of the file so DOS knows there is nothing following and input returns to the keyboard. You could shorten the name of the batch file to D.BAT and perform a disk copy in two keystrokes (e.g., D). You can do similar things for any DOS command/utility that requires user responses to prompts once you know what to expect from the command or utility. DOS will even let you assign the "D" to a function key for single key press operation (more on that in a future column). It just gets easier and easier, doesn't it? While you may expend some initial effort to set things up, it will save you time over the long haul and, after all, that is what computers are supposed to do, right? Here is an example of how to setup a small database and manipulate it using redirection and filters. We will make this an address database and will include names, addresses, and phone numbers to include area codes. I think this is something we can all relate to. You can expand it if you want to include a date and code where the date is an event and the code specifies what kind of event you are remembering (anniversaries, birthdays, etc.) but I will just give you the basic address database described and leave the rest to you. The first thing we need to do is decide on our fields. Let's have columns for last name (14 characters), first name (14 characters), street address (20 characters), city (15 characters), state abbreviation (2 characters), zip code (5 characters), area code (3 characters), and phone number (7 characters). So here is our record layout: Field Name Starting Col Length ---------- ------------ ------ Last Name 1 14 Blank 15 1 First Name 16 14 Blank 30 1 Street Address 31 20 Blank 51 1 City 52 15 Blank 67 1 State Abbreviation 68 2 Blank 70 1 Zip Code 71 5 Blank 76 1 Area Code 77 3 Blank 80 1 Phone Number 81 8 We will create this file using a text editor or word processor that is capable of saving the file without control codes (such as Word Star in the non-document mode). We could use the DOS COPY command or the DOS editor, EDLIN, but they do not usually show the position you are at while text editors and word processors normally do. We will use this format in next month's column to produce our database so keep it handy. This will give me some time to generate a small database to use and I will show you how you can manipulate it using everything you have learned so far. Ha! You thought you had to buy dBase III+ or RBase to do these things, eh? Not so, as you shall see. Until next month, TTFN! [*][*][*] Copyright (c) 1988 by Robert M. Connors Permission to Reprint is granted provided Copyright Notice is included in reprint. QUESTIONS? Do you have a question or comment for Doctor Bob? Leave GE """""""""" Mail to R.CONNORS2 or you can reach him in the GEnieLamp bulletin board (M515;1) or you can contact him on the BBS Wildcat! Orphanage at 719-392-6631. [EOA] [ELS]////////////////////////////// GEnieLamp ELSEWHERE / ///////////////////////////////// Browsing GEnie """""""""""""" By Peter Bogert [P.BOGERT1] >>> EXPLORING THE GEnie UNIVERSE <<< """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" OK. Your wife watches you at this screen for hours on end, and if she is not as tuned into the value of GEnie as you are, she's probably inclined to ask, "You seem to have a lot of fun on that machine, but WHAT'S IN IT FOR ME???!!??" As you log on to GEnie, this oft-repeated scenario again rears it's head: "Lots," you coyly reply. "Why did you know that I can save us money by using this machine? "I've heard that before," she says, "and it usually ends up COSTING money." You break into a cold sweat remembering that you used the same arguments to justify the larger hard disk, faster machine, better printer, more colorful and (of course) easier on the eyes monitor, etc. "Well, it is true. Remember that CD we bought the other week - what a dog. Wouldn't it have been better to find out what's worthwhile and what's not? And how about the movie we rented last weekend. The description on the dust jacket forgot to mention that it is a guaranteed cure for insomnia." "What's all this have to do with computers?" "O.k. Well, just a few moments ago I spend a little time over on the Music Roundtable of GEnie (you wonder if it would be condescending to tell her that a Roundtable is a section of GEnie where a major topic is discussed). I downloaded two files that I thought might be helpful." You hand her printed copies of Video4.zip and Music4.zip, the latest issues of video and music reviews available on the Music RT [See GEnie page 135] "If we had read things like this, it might have saved us some time and money. See what I mean? The look in her eye tells you that you've scored a minor point. Don't give up now. Get a few more while the opportunity is still present! "And you know how your mother is coming in a few weeks and how you complain that she gets in your way? Well, I've got some cross-stitch patterns [see the Hobby RT - GEnie page 180] for her to look at. Maybe you can keep her occupied with her favorite hobby while I, uh, you are occupied with your favorite hobby - me!" A roll of the eyes tells you that maybe you overestimated the power of that last salvo. You decide to make one more try. As you turn back to the computer screen, you say, "Oh, yeah, I also downloaded a file that fixes the problems you've been having printing on the DeskJet [DK0774.ZIP in the Microsoft RT (page 505)- library]. Now when you do your club newsletter you won't waste time or paper. No need to thank me, though. I'm on GEnie because of the service it provides for our family." And so ends another discussion on the contributions computers make to your family life. You smile proudly, knowing you convinced her, failing to catch her "he's a computer addict" smile and shake of the head reflecting in your monitor screen. You head off to the IBM RT to download that great new file that was recommended in GEnieLamp, knowing that - at least for this evening - you have been victorious and the exploration can continue. Happy Computing! /////////////////////////////////////////////// GEnie_QWIK_QUOTE //// / "[Aladdin] allows me to participate in this message base, where / / I would not be able to afford it if I had to do my typing online, / / and gives me time to spend downloading the files I want." / ///////////////////////////////////////////////////// NTACTONE //// [EOA] [LOG]////////////////////////////// LOG OFF / ///////////////////////////////// GEnieLamp Information """"""""""""""""""""" o COMMENTS: Contacting GEnieLamp o GEnieLamp STAFF: Who Are We? o SEARCH-ME! Answers GEnieLamp Information GEnieLamp is published on the 1st and the 15 of """"""""""""""""""""" every month on GEnie on page 515. You can also find GEnieLamp on the main menus in the ST (475), Macintosh (605), IBM (615), Apple II (645), A2Pro (530), Unix (160), Mac Pro (480), Geoworks (1050), BBS (610), CE Software (1005) and the Mini/Mainframe RoundTables. 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