*---== ST REPORT INTERNATIONAL ONLINE MAGAZINE ==---* """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" "The Original 16/32bit Online Magazine" November 01, 1991 No.7.43 ========================================================================== STReport International Online Magazine Post Office Box 6672 Jacksonville, Florida 32205 ~ 6672 R.F. Mariano Publisher - Editor ----------------------------------------- Voice: 904-783-3319 10 AM - 4 PM EST BBS: 904-786-4176 USR/HST DUAL STANDARD FAX: 904-783-3319 12 AM - 6 AM EST ----------------------------------------- STR East: FNET 350 - The Bounty ST BBS 1-904-786-4176 STR West: FNET 075 - Bloom County BBS 1-415-965-9347 STR Canada: FNET 018 - ///Turbo Board Support 1-416-274-1225 STR Europe: FNET 1031 - <<>> 011-44-296-395-935 __________________________________________________________________ > 11/01/91: STReport #7.43 The Original 16/32 bit Online Magazine! ------------------------- - The Editor's Desk - CPU REPORT - COMDEX & ATARI - CODEHEAD NEWS!! - IAAD NEWS - ABBREVIATOR ST! - Grammar Expert - MAIL CALL! - STR Confidential -* TOS 1.62 -> PROBLEMS? *- -* RULING IN FAVOR OF SERVICES! *- -* MEGAPAINT PRO IS HERE! *- ========================================================================== ST REPORT INTERNATIONAL ONLINE MAGAZINE The _Number One_ Online Magazine -* FEATURING *- "UP-TO-DATE News and Information" Current Events, Original Articles, Hot Tips, and Information Hardware - Software - Corporate - R & D - Imports ========================================================================== STReport's support BBS, NODE 350, invites BBS systems, worldwide, to participate in the Fido/F-Net Mail Network. Or, call Node 350 direct at 904-786-4176, and enjoy the excitement of exchanging information relative to the Atari ST computer arena through an excellent International ST Mail Network. All registered F-NET - Crossnet SysOps are welcome to join the STReport Crossnet Conference. The Crossnet Conference Code is #34813, and the "Lead Node" is # 350. All systems are welcome and invited to actively participate. Support Atari Computers; Join Today! ========================================================================== AVAILABLE EXCLUSIVELY ON: GENIE ~ CIS ~ DELPHI ~ BIX ~ FIDO ~ F-NET ========================================================================== COMPUSERVE WILL PRESENT $15.00 WORTH OF COMPLIMENTARY ONLINE TIME to the Readers of; ST REPORT INTERNATIONAL ONLINE MAGAZINE """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" "The Original 16/32bit Online Magazine" NEW USERS; SIGN UP TODAY! CALL: 1-800-848-8199 .. Ask for operator 198 You will receive your complimentary time and be online in no time at all! WHAT'S NEW IN THE ATARI FORUMS (November 1) NEW LIBRARY SOFTWARE Now that CompuServe's Forum Libraries support "Across Library Searching", we will be closing down the New Uploads Library in ATARIARTS and ATARIPRO over the next few days. You can use the handy BRO LIB:ALL command to browse through all of our Forum Libraries at one time. NEW VERSION OF CAL! Cal 6.0 lets you look at any month/year, and schedule events by date, position, or every so many days. All new screens, more room to describe each event, cyclic events, save/load/merge events, keyboard shortcuts, auto conversion from previous versions, much more! Includes new Calshow to show upcoming events at boot, full docs. Download file CAL.ARC from LIBRARY 1 of the Atari Productivity Forum (GO ATARIPRO). UUENCODE AND UUDECODE FILES Download file UUCODR.ARC from LIBRARY 1 of the Atari Productivity Forum (GO ATARIPRO) for UUCODER 1.0, a GEM-based uuencoder/uudecoder by Steve Yelvington and Up-At-The-Lake Software. This program uuencodes and uudecodes files quickly and easily. Splits uuencoded output into multiple files if desired when uuencoding, automatically joins a split file when uudecoding. Nice! Public domain. NEW VERSION OF B/STAT B/STAT is a shareware statistical analysis and graphics program. This is version 2.41F. It fixes a major bug with 95% confidence limits on regression. The program requies an absolute minimum of 1 megabyte of memory and a double sided drive. It will use GDOS if available but GDOS is not required. Download file BSTAT.LZH from LIBRARY 1 of the Atari Arts Forum (GO ATARIARTS). The CompuServe Modem-to-Modem Challenge Board (GO CHALLENGE) now supports the following two modem games by Forum member David Becker. Both of these games are available in LIBRARY 2 ("Games") of the Atari Arts Forum (GO ATARIARTS): Download these games, find an opponent through the Challenge Board, and even play them against your opponent through CompuServe at reduced connect rates via the MTM Gaming Lobby (GO MTMLOBBY): PAIGOW.ARC - Las vegas style PaiGow poker. Play against the computer or over the phone line with a friend! Monochrome freeware. BGAMMO.ARC - Online backgammon can be played over the phone lines with a modem. Many options including the ability to play the computer make this a fun and challenging monochrome game. Freeware. ATARI PORTFOLIO FORUM (GO APORTFOLIO) BJ Gleason, Don Messerli, and David Stewart have accepted the challenge to upload a new program to our Portfolio Forum Libraries EVERY DAY, beginning November 1st, through the end of the year !!!! (And in return, they challenge the rest of the collected membership to match their output with an equal number of uploads) When combined with the 300+ Portfolio files we now feature in our forum libraries, Portfolio owners will have access to an incredible wealth of software, far in excess of other palmtops. Besides making your own uploads, you can help out the team of wunderbar programmers by dropping suggestions for specific programs or utilities that you'd like to see them write in our WISH LIST section in the forum. Can they do it??? Tune in and check for their daily uploads starting Friday, November 1st. THE ATARI PORTFOLIO FORUM ON COMPUSERVE HAS BEEN DESIGNATED AN OFFICIAL SUPPORT SITE BY ATARI CORPORATION "GO APORTFOLIO TO ACCESS THE ATARI PORTFOLIO FORUM" *********************************************************************** > CPU STATUS REPORT LATE BREAKING INDUSTRY-WIDE NEWS ================= Issue #44 Compiled by: Lloyd E. Pulley, Sr. --Compuserve Not Liable In the first US court action to determine standards of liability for distributors of computerized databases, a federal judge in New York has ruled that CompuServe Inc. cannot be held liable for defamatory state- ments contained in an electronic newsletter available on its system. US District Judge Peter Leisure ruled late Tuesday that computerized databases are equivalent to news vendors or bookstores and cannot be held liable for information unless they know beforehand that it is false. Saying "technology is rapidly transforming the information industry," Judge Leisure ruled that if computerized databases were held to a higher standard of liability than public libraries, bookstores or newsstands, it "would impose an undue burden on the free flow of information." "CompuServe and companies like it are at the forefront of the informa- tion industry revolution," Leisure wrote in his decision. "While Compu- Serve may decline to carry a publication, it will have little or no editorial control over that publication's contents." In dismissing the suit, Judge Leisure agreed with CompuServe's argument in court that it is a distributor, not a publisher, and could not be held liable because it did not know about the statements. -- Did You Ever Have One of Those Days? Prodigy Has!! Have you ever had one of those days when nothing went right? It looks as if Prodigy is having one of those years!! In the past, Prodigy has been accussed of censoring bulletin board messages, now they're being faulted for not censoring messages. The Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith has gone public with comp- laints it found anti-semitic material being broadcast on its bulletin boards. The B'nai B'rith wants Prodigy to censor comments such as "Israel is the source of all the problems in the Middle East" on the grounds it is offended by them. The messages were not bulletin board messages, but were private notes. -- Atari Games to Develop Software for Seaga Systems Atari Games Corp. said today it will develop and market software for Sega of America's video game systems under its Tengen label. Tengen, which is one of Sega's largest third-party software developers, will introduce more than 40 titles over the next two years for all Sega video game formats, including Sega Master System 8- bit machines, the 16-bit Sega Genesis and Sega Mega-Drive systems, and the color portable Sega Game Gear. The games will be marketed in both the US and Europe. Atari Games is a privately held company not affiliated with Atari Cor- poration. -- Fujitsu and Roland Join Forces Fujitsu Ltd. and Roland Corp., a major electronics music equipment manufacturer, have joined forces to produce and market an integrated circuit music board that will allow computer users to compose and play their own scores without using a musical instrument. The music board can be installed in Fujitsu's FM Towns personal computers. Roland will produce and supply the integrated circuit board to Fujitsu, which Fujitsu will then sell under its name. Three years ago, Roland developed a similar musical board for NEC Corp.'s 9800 series personal computers. Roland has sold some 100,000 of these units for NEC's machines. -- Do You Want a Cray? Cray Research has announced the Y-MP EL supercomputer, its entry level system which is targeted at companies buying their first supercomputer. The Y-MP EL is air-cooled and has a starting price of about $300,000. -- One Gigabit Chip Technology Now Available NIT claims to be the first in the industry to have developed the fun- damental technology that can be used to create a 1 gigabit (1 billion bit) memory chip. NTT was also the first to have established the technology to make a 16-megabit and a 64-megabit chip. -- Intel to Introduce Clock Doubler CPUs Intel is reported to be ready to introduce a line of '486 cpu's with an internal clock doubler technology. According to Intel, a user will be able to replace a '486 chip running at 20mhz with a '486 chip running at 40mhz with performance gains of up to 100% possible. Intel says the internal clock doubler chips will be available as a stra- ight replacement for the current '486 chips, or another version can be placed in the math co-processor slot on a '486sx machine. The new clock- doubler chips will also contain an internal math co-processor as well, the company said. Intel hopes to have the chips available sometime in mid-1992. -- Motorola Predicts Lower Chip Revenues for 1991 A Motorola executive said that the worldwide semiconductor market has been sluggish and is unlikely to meet 1991 growth forecasts for a 15% increase in revenues over last year's levels. A predicted growth rate of 10 to 12% is more likely. """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" IMPORTANT NOTICE! ================= As a reader of STReport International Online Magazine, you are entitled to take advantage of a special DELPHI membership offer. For only $29.95 ($20 off the standard membership price!), you will receive a lifetime subscrip- tion to DELPHI, a copy of the 500-page DELPHI: THE OFFICIAL GUIDE and over $14 worth of free time. NOTE: Special offers can be found in your favorite Atari magazines: START CURRENT NOTES ST INFORMER ATARI INTERFACE MAGAZINE SIGNING UP WITH DELPHI ====================== Using a personal computer and modem, members worldwide access DELPHI services via a local phone call JOIN -- DELPHI -------------- 1. Dial 617-576-0862 with any terminal or PC and modem (at 2400 bps, dial 576-2981). 2. At the Username prompt, type JOINDELPHI. 3. At the Password prompt enter STREPORT. For more information call: DELPHI Member Services at 1-800-544-4005 or at 617-491-3393 from within Massachusetts or from outside the U.S. DELPHI is a service of General Videotex Corporation of Cambridge, Mass. SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT -------------------- The 20/20 Advantage Plan IS FANTASTIC! And it features 20 hours online for just $20 a month! The $20 is a monthly fee that covers your first 20 hours online via direct dial into one of DELPHI's two direct-access lines, or via a special Tymnet 20/20 Access code. It also gets you additional hours at just $1.20 per hour. And you get free access to several services on DELPHI as part of the Advantage Perks. Other telecom services may have additional charges. Canadian Tymnet users have an additional telecom charge. Office Time access (7 a.m. to 7 p.m., weekdays) may have an additional charge. And of course, other restric- tions may apply. But this is still an amazing deal! IMPORTANT NOTICE! ================= As a reader of STReport International Online Magazine, you are entitled to take advantage of a special DELPHI membership offer. DELPHI has waived the sign-up fee! For a limited time, you can join the World's Premier Online Service for FREE! Members can access DELPHI worldwide through hundreds of local access lines. For more information please contact: DELPHI at 1-800-544-4005 and ask for Member Services. DELPHI- It's getting better all the time! """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" > IAAD UPDATES STR FOCUS News from the President ====================== FROM THE DESK OF: Nevin Shalit Nevin Shalit of Step Ahead Software, Inc., was elected President of the Independent Association of Atari Developers (IAAD), at a meeting of the IAAD during the WAACE Atarifest. Shalit replaces Nathan Potechin of ISD Marketing, who stepped down after serving as President for the first two years of the IAAD's existence. The IAAD is a group of registered Atari developers who work together in various marketing, instructional, and educational areas. Currently more than 50 developers make up the IAAD, which includes representatives from Canada and Europe as well as a full complement of US developers. "I look forward to building on Nathan's excellent work in the coming year, by increasing our membership, and having IAAD members work together on specific projects which will benefit developers, dealers, end users, and Atari itself," says Shalit. IAAD business is conducted mostly on GEnie, the national on-line ser- vice. Developers interested in joining the group should send e-mail to PERMIT$. *********************************************************************** :HOW TO GET YOUR OWN GENIE ACCOUNT: _________________________________ To sign up for GEnie service: Set your communications software to Half Duplex (or Local Echo) Call: (with modem) 800-638-8369. Upon connection type HHH (RETURN after that). Wait for the U#= prompt. Type: XTX99587,CPUREPT then, hit RETURN. 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, and bulletin boards on leisure and professional subjects. With many other services, including the biggest collection of files to download and the best online games, for only $6 per hour. MONEY BACK GUARANTEE! Any time during your first month of membership if you are not completely satisfied, just ask for your $4.95 back. GEnie Announcements (FREE) -------------------------- 1. NEW FCC COST INCREASE THREATENS COMPUTER SERVICES.......... 2. CompuCopia starts TODAY. To find out all about it, type. *COMPUCOPIA 3. Need help with a Unix question: stop by and ask in.....UNIX 4. We're KICKING OFF a new Apple II programming course in..A2PRO 5. Play the weekly Pro Football Pool and win $$............PRO 6. Visit the GEnie Info Library today.....................*LIBRARY 7. GeoWorks RT Expands with NEW GW Product Line............GEOWORKS 8. Update - Redecorate; Get advice from the experts in.....*REAL ESTATE 9. Thinking about a Fall/Spring Cruise Check out the Travel BB...TIS 10. AutoVantage OnLine announces on-screen Used Car Valuations....CARS Atari RT -------- Join us on Monday, November 4th, for a FREE Conference in the Atari ST Real Time Conference area. Type M475,2 to get there. The conference runs from 10 PM to Midnight, Eastern STandard Time! On hand as our Special Guest during this conference will be John B. Jainschigg, Publisher/Editor of ATARI EXPLORER magazine. Also online will be Marc Needleman, Explorer's Art Director, ready to answer your Desktop Publishing questions, or just questions about Explorer itself! GEnie Information copyright (C) 1991 by General Electric Information Services/GEnie, reprinted by permission *********************************************************************** > The Flip Side STR Feature "....a different viewpoint" ========================= A Little of This, A Little of That ================================== by Michael Lee This week we'll have some follow up information, rumors and impressions about Comdex. Also, we'll include some information and rumors on new products and rumors from Atari. ---------------- About TT ram upgrades from Gary Gray on CIS.... GE SOFT from Germany sells a ram board for the TT that uses ordinary SIMMs. This board will support up to 32 megabytes of TT-Ram in addition to whatever ST ram is in the TT. ---------------- Attention!! Unix information from Randy (Intersect Software) on CIS... Atari SYSTEM V Release 4 now shipping Atari is now shipping UNIX V release 4 with X-Windows to Developers. Minimum hardware requirements are 8 megs of RAM (4 megs of TT and 4 megs of ST RAM => requires the 2 meg ST ram upgrade and the 4 meg TT ram upgrade to a STOCK TT030), a Monochrome (TTM195 monitor) and a 3 button mouse (included with the UNIX kit). 10 megs of TT ram are recommended for speed. Included in the basic kit is a 213 meg HD drive already formatted and setup with UNIX V release 4, X-Windows, XFacemaker 2 (a SUPER Resource Construction set for X-WINDOWS), FULL AT&T - BSD - XENIX utilities, TCP/IP, and many more features. Looks like a FULL develo- pers implementation. Man pages included on the HD but paper documentation covers only the XFacemaker 2, Face, Wish and Atari Style guide. Since SYS V X-windows is a "STANDARD", documentation (suggested reading) is available off the shelf. Price for this software/hardware kit is $1850.00 (does not include TT030) From talking to the "UNIX" people at the Atari booth at COMDEX it's done, shipping and only 4 known bugs...currently being fixed. It's extensively tested and still undergoing tests in Germany. Plans are for fast turn-around on bug reports (a complaint that my Intel UNIX friends have is the slow bug fixes in the Intel UNIX arena). My impressions-questions to the UNIX people at Atari... - well, ahhh, yes we have plans about for Color support, not on this version of the TT - well we felt that the additional color planes would slow down the display. - I can't comment on that. At the Developers Dinner, SAM T. mentioned the new TT but wouldn't comment on features other than it was going to be a 030 or 040 machine with more color support. Also mentioned was a new machine with a 68020 MPU (no further comment on that either). My impressions of the Unix software on a TT030 with 12 megs of RAM are that it's quite fast, at least when compared to a ISA 386 machine Weak points still not addressed in this release: Can not read a TOS floppy or a TOS HD partition. This is an obvious omission and I think that we should see this "fixed" by the German Developers. ---------------- Some more Comdex information - from Randy (Intersect Software) on CIS... COMDEX NEWS Atari is releasing (SOON ) a CDROM external drive. I believe them this time as it's a CHINON drive in an Atari case/power supply. They don't even have an ASCSI interface on the back, it's straight SCSI. This means that they don't have to do anything that just repackage the SCSI CHINON drive. This has benefits that Atari dealers will soon realize. It's the BEST (350 MS), least expensive external CDROM drive available and will work with a PC or MAC as well as straight out of the box with a TT030 or Mega STE. ALL new Atari machines will have SCSI ports on them, ASCSI is being phased out as NON-PROFESSIONAL. Price for the CD-ROM is $385.00 RETAIL!!!!!!!******!!!!!! Third parties are already gearing up to produce a ASCI to SCSI box for this CD-ROM drive (for those of you with ASCSI only ports.) RUMORS - OBSERVATIONS A new TT is in the works, will have a 68040 MPU and more resolutions/ colors. This new machine is being built in a Tower Configuration for the UNIX (more VME SLOTS) as well as the professional DTP market. The current TT will stay as is, may have an easier RAM upgrade path in future. The Mega STE will have a 68020 at probably 16 Mhz, whether it's still called a STE is another matter. 68000 machines will be found in the GAME machines that Atari is still to release. They have narrowed their development to one machine they had two on-going research projects and have now closed one and are concentrating on the final choice. A new ROM set/kit is available for older ST's that allows them to run the TT desktop. The board plugs into the current ROM plugs and has two wires that connect to the MMU. FSM GDOS is now done and shipping. Wordflair now includes it with their program. Rumor has it that later TT roms will include the GDOS Driver in ROM, currently it's a CPX (new control panel extension). There are 150 font faces available at this time. Demo dealer packs (5 disk set) will be sent to developers later this year, some dealers were receiving them at COMDEX. ---------------- Some more Comdex rumors and impressions from Randy (Intersect Software) on CIS... The impressions I got are that Atari is pushing the more professional Image with DTP (high end) Didot (similar to Correl Draw) and RETOUCHE which is a high end Image editor and laser separation program. Cost for DIDOT $1000.00 and for a RETOUCHE system $20 - 30 thousand $$. The obvious reason for the RETOUCHE cost are hardware as this package includes a Matrix 24 bit color card for the TT (16 million colors) a 24 bit color digitizer, a 19 inch monitor with an amazing display, and a laser color printer with a Atari Laser for proofing. Retouche will produce print ready color separations with screening at the necessary DPI. Also built in is a feedback system for color correction so that images on screen and final prints are corrected for inherent hardware color errors. Mentioned at the show when asked...is this better than a MAC system? The Atari DMA lends it's self to this application, it's more efficient and the professional saves time when printing and editing an image. Something to give Mac and Atari owners a brighter day. Although almost everyone at COMDEX was showing Windows programs, very glitsy displays that made you want to eat your heart out, many were complaining about the CLUNKY, SLOW windows environment. It's finally getting bad press with reviewers and developers. Anyone who has used a Mac with SYSTEM 7 or even a lowly ST will be totally floored at the amount of hardware necessary to get windows to perform at ho-hum speeds. Almost all machines at the COMDEX show displaying windows were EISA 486 machines with State of the art Tigra boards. ---------------- Some additional comments about Atari and Comdex - Cat. 11, Topic 9, Msgs 91, 92, 103, 105 - from the ST Roundtable on Genie - From Jeffrey C. Davis (CEO, Magnum Software)... Just a note here guys & gals: Atari spent approximately $700,000 to do the COMDEX show. Another thing: I wish I could say more about the new TT machine, but I am under non-disclosure. Just believe me when I say you're going to LOVE IT!! From George @ JMG... Well, David and I just got back from COMDEX (and a bit of gambling to boot). Before I get some needed sleep, I thought I'd add some personal views. I don't think Atari's showing at this year's COMDEX was a run-away roaring success, but that's because I think COMDEX '91 as a whole was slower, more boring, and less exciting. There were simply less interesting people wandering around (I don't know attendance figures, so I use the term "interesting people" to mean people who actually looked interested in seeing the show and checking out vendors besides just IBM and Microsoft). But maybe it is not fair to make comparisons to the last four years of COMDEX, since it is still by far the biggest show of its kind in North America. But on the other side, I thought Atari's showing was very good indeed. The DTP section was the focus, and the products being shown are "world class". Even at our end of the booth (as a late addition, we weren't in the "best seats" :-) ) we received a good deal of interest about HyperLINK and the capabilities of the Atari in general. And I was surprised at how many dealers wandered by saying "HyperLINK? Oh, I carry your product in my store..." It was nice seeing stocking Atari dealers in the flesh. And some of these people are still quite enthusiastic. Since both David and I went down to Vegas, we both got a chance to tour most of the show. In all of it, there were only two things that impressed me. OK, I may be getting thick-skinned after 11 years in this business, but the new Macs, the thousand or so new clones, the pen based computers, etc, are nice in the way of evolution of the industry, but they are not terribly exciting to normal people. Try to afford a Mac Quadra or try to find an everyday sort of use for a pen based computer... The two things that impressed me are 1) the inroads made in the area of multimedia hardware and standards. In fact, the "Best products of COMDEX '91" award went to an IBM/Intel room displaying DVI (Digital Video Interactive, I believe) technology, a very high tech combina- tion of full motion video with graphics, sound, etc. With our product being a multi-media based product this new stuff is of particular interest to me, and early in the new year I am very eager to incor- porate some of the technologies I saw displayed into an Atari plat- form under HyperLINK. Some of it is a little unreasonable with current hardware, (ie full motion video in a window on a medium rez colour 1040 is not possible), but it appears that Atari has noticed what is required of them for the next generation of ST/TTs and is addressing some of these hardware/software issues. Additionally, 1992 is without doubt the year you will see CD-ROM take a foothold in the Atari market. If Atari themselves don't do it by 1st Quarter '92 -- and at the dinner Sam seemed quite confident that Atari would ship CDARs, stating that the "order had been placed" and the units were in production -- but if Atari doesn't ship then I KNOW for a fact that third parties WILL ship early in the year. And I can't speak for other companies, but I can assure you that we will be right in the front lines providing software for CD-ROM use, specifically in tailoring HyperLINK to be an ideal front-end for CD- ROM data. But I digress -- back to the things that impressed me at COMDEX. Item 2) was a simple little device - the new drive from Syquest. Many of you know the traditional Syquest removable hard drive mechanism, a 44 megabyte 5.25 inch cartridge-based drive (used in Atari's Megafile 44, for instance). A top notch product, even David Small likes 'em :-) Well, these guys introduced and are producing a drive they call the "Iota" series, using 2.5 inch (yes, two and a half inch) cartridges storing 44 megabytes. For less than the size of standard floppy, using a drive that takes about half the size of a normal 3.5" hard or floppy drive, you can store 44 megabytes. More amazing than that, these drives will sell for LESS than the old unit, in quantities under $300 each for the drives and under $50 for each 44 megabyte cartridge. In comparison to other new technologies (ie floptical, etc) the drives are cheaper, the media cheaper per megabyte, the disks smaller, and the technology more proven. I would LOVE to have one of these drives in each ST I own :-) (BTW, Syquest has a six month backlog of orders on these units, so don't look for 'em at the corner store just yet). Follow up on the Syquest 2.5' drive from Norm Weinress... Electronic News (I got it today) reports that Syquest dropped the other shoe. It seemed strange that they would jump directly from 5- 1.4" to 2.5", with nothing in between. Well, they have also announced a 3.5" removable media drive! 105 Megs per cartridge, but no pricing as yet. More from J.LYONS16... I read that those 2.5" drives will sell for $300 in quantity and the cartridges will go for around $50. 44 meg on a 2.5" drive. ---------------- Some chit-chat from Delphi about upgrading your ST to a STe and also about some various mail-order houses. From Jim Cannon.... In case anyone besides me is in need of trading in an old, defunct 1040 ST to Atari for a NEW STe, Atari Customer Relations has given me this info...Send a note requesting a new STe with a check or money order for $300 by UPS, to: Atari Computers 390 Carribean Ave. Sunnyvale, CA 94809 Attn: Customer Relations The woman I spoke with was named Barbara and she said that the old computer did NOT have to be insured and the box it came in was suf- ficient for shipping. She said to allow 3-4 weeks for the new unit to arrive. Mine is about to head out. I will let you know how well this goes and how many phone calls it take to find out who got my money and where my new STe is. Some comments by Kwai... Here's some companies [mail order] that may interest you: Joppa Computer Products 800-876-6040 Orders 301-676-1948 Technical questions, etc. Rising Star Computers (formerly 1st Stop Computers, if you're wondering) 800-252-2787 Order Line 513-254-3160 Order Status Computer Games + 800-443-8189 Orders 714-639-8189 Inquiries and CA residents Rising Star Computers is my favorite mail-order company. From Paul (SANZA)... Computer Garden has good prices on Atari Hardware and Software. You can reach them at this address/phone # Computer Garden West Side Mall #50 Edwardsville, PA 18704 phone (717) 288-6140 From TRAHERNE... Another FANTASTIC store that I've dealt with often, both in person and by mail order is L&Y ELECTRONICS. John and Susie are great to deal with and I have nothing but good to say about them. Their address and phone are: L&Y Electronics 13644C Jefferson Davis Hwy Woodbridge, Virginia 22191 (703)494-3444 Until next week..... __________________________________________________________ > COMDEX PRESS RELEASES STR SHOW NEWS ATARI COMDEX PRESS RELEASES =================================== PEE CEES! ========= Las Vegas, Nevada, October 21, 1991- Atari Computer Corporation announced today the launch of three new 386-based computers at the Comdex trade show on October 21-25 in Las Vegas. Atari is introducing two desktop models and one notebook computer. The Atari ABC386SXII is a 20 MHz 80386SX based desktop system. The Atari ABC386DXII is a desktop system based on the 40 MHz Am386 processor chip. The Atari ABCN386SX notebook computer is powered by a 20MHz 80386SX and weighs less than 6 pounds. The three new machines combine very powerful hardware with the wide range of traditional MS-DOS application software. "These new machines offer the best performance and value in the PC marketplace," said Sam Tramiel, Atari Corporation CEO. "We believe that the speed and power of these systems combine with an aggressive pricing philosophy and our commitment to product quality and reliability to provide our customers with the best overall computing solution." The Atari ABC386SXII is a desktop system that comes equipped with a 20 MHz 80386SX processor, 1 MB of RAM, a fast 40 MB hard drive {average access time is 17 ms), and two 8-bit and four 16-bit ISA (Industry Standard Architecture) expansion slots. Up to 8 MB of RAM can be installed on the system's motherboard. An Intel 80387SX floating point math coprocessor is optional. The ABC386SXII uses an industry standard Phoenix BIOS and comes with a SuperVGA video adapter that displays at a resolution of 800 x 600. The Atari ABC386SXII carries a suggested retail price of $1,195. The Atari ABC386DXII is a high-powered desktop computing platform that used a 40 MHz Am386 processor from Advanced Micro Devices, 2 MB of RAM, a fast 80 MB hard drive (average access time is 17 ms), and eight 16-bit expansion slots (plus one 32-bit slot for RAM expansion). Up to 64 MB of RAM can be installed on the system's motherboard. The system comes with 64K of Cache RAM, which is expandable up to 256K. An Intel 80387 or Witek 3167 floating point math coprocessor is optional. The ABC386DXII uses an industry standard BIOS by AMI and comes with a SuperVGA video adapter that displays at a resolution of 1024 x 768. The Atari ABC386DXII carries a suggested retail price of $1,995. Both desktop systems use a small footprint "minicase" chassis, with a 200 watt power supply, a 3.5" 1.44 MB floppy drive, three 5.25" drive expansion slots, a 101 key enhanced AT style keyboard, one parallel and two serial ports, and a game/joystick port. Both desktop units come standard with both MS-DOS 5.0 and Microsoft Windows 3.0. The Atari ABCN3865SX provides the power of a desktop system in a convenient notebook size. It uses a 20 MHz Intel 80386SX processor and a AMI BIOS. it comes with 1MB of RAM, a fast {19ms average access time} hard disk drive and an internal 3.5" 1.44MB floppy drive. Up to 4MB of RAM can be installed as options, bringing the maximum installed RAM to 5MB. An optional 60MB hard disk is available. The ABCN386SX features a 20MHz bus speed, almost three times faster than most competitors. The built-in 8" x 5" screen displays bright crisp 16-level grayscale images. The ABCN3865SX keyboard features 85 keys, 10 function keys, and four cursor control keys with standard, full-size spacing between the keys. A numeric keypad is optional equipment. MS-DOS 5.0 and Windows 3.0 comes standard with the ABCN386SX. The ABCN3865SX is packaged in an extremely convenient and portable format: the 5.9 pound system measures 8.3" by 11.5" and is 1.5" thick. The battery will last 1.5 hours before needing a recharge, and will recharge in eight hours if the unit is on and 1.5 hours if the unit is off. The Atari ABCN3865SX carries a suggested retail price of $2,895. These systems will be available in the first quarter of 1992. Atari Computer Corporation is dedicated to providing its customers with the highest quality, most powerful, and most reliable computing platforms and the best dollar-for-dollar computing value available anywhere. Located in Summyvale, Califormia, Atari Computer is widely recognized as a worldwide leader in personal computing innovation. UNIX! ===== Las Vegas, Nevada, October 21, 1991 - Atari Computer Corporation announced today the development and imminent availability of the Atari System V(ASV) Developer's Kit. A pre-release version of the Developer's Kit will be exhibited and demonstrated at the Comdex trade show on October 21-25 in Las Vegas. The Developer's Kit is also available to selected software developers interested in creating new of porting existing applications onto the powerful, low-cost Atari TT030 personal workstation. The ASV Developer's Kit contains a rich set of developer's tools conforming to a wide range of industry standards based on Atari's implementation of UNIX System V Release 4.0 for the Motorola 68000 series processors and Atari's workstation graphical user interface. The interface is based on the hardware-and operating system-independent XWindows system standard and the Open Systems Foundation {OSF}/Motif style. Thus, ASV applications take on a sculptured three-dimensional Presentation Manager-like appearance. The Atari Style Guide is an enhancement to the Motif style that sets standards for consistency among ASV applications. The tools that comprise this developer's kit will help key software vendors to efficiently port their applications to ASV and take advantage of the most cost-effective UNIX workstation platform, our TT030, said Sam Tramiel, Atari Corporation CEO. "We're excited about the value that these applications will add to the TT030 and about providing the UNIX workstation market with a low-cost, high powered platform." The Developer's Kit has three main tool groups {core tools, graphic user interface tools, and language compilers and debuggers} and one group of tools for networking services. The core tools include: AT&T System B Release 4.0, BSD and XENIX Convergence, Virtual File Systems, Virtual Memory Management, User-Controlled Process Scheduler, Device Driver Interface/Device Kernel Interface, Internationalization, and Extensible Linking Format {ELF}. The Graphic User Interface tools include X Window System Release 11.4, Motif User Interface, XFaceMaker2, and the WISh2 Desktop Manager. ASV application designers can quickly create a Motif-compliant interface by using XFaceMaker2 to paint an application screen from a palette of Motif objects such as labels, push buttons, scroll bars, and message boxes. With FACE, a built-in C-like programming language, the designer can easily mold the behavior of the interface. The programming tools include the efficient GNU C and C + + compilers and the GNU gb debugger as well as the AT&T System V sdb debugger. The C compiler is fully compatible with the System V ELF object format and with the ANSI C Issue 5 extensions. The tools and styles in the ASV kit assures the developer of compatibility, portability, and inter-operability with other workstation vendors conforming to an open systems architecture and such industry standards as POSIX, X/Open, XPG3, FIPS, NFS, X Window System, and Motif. The networking package adds the Network File System {NFS}, Remote File Sharing {RFS}, TCP/IP {the DARPA protocols} and BSD Sockets. The Atari System V Developer's Kit will be available in general release form in the first quarter of 1992. Atari Computer Corporation is dedicated to providing its customers with the highest quality, most powerful, and most reliable computing platforms and the best dollar-for-dollar computing value available anywhere. Located in Sunnyvale, California, Atari Computer is widely recognized as a worldwide leader in personal computing innovation. ____________________________________________________________ > CODEHEAD NEWS!!! STR Spotlight MegaPaint Professional is Available NOW ============================== For immediate release CodeHeadQuarters Friday, November 1, 1991 ------------------------ MegaPaint Professional is Available NOW from CodeHead Software -------------------------------------------------------------- Surprise! CodeHead Software has the graphics drawing program _you've_ been waiting for...and we have it NOW! MegaPaint Professional is a full-featured bit-map and vector graphics tool for Atari ST and TT computers. We're proud to include it in our new line of "CodeHead GT" Graphic Tools -- along with Avant Vector, Repro Studio, and Genus (which we'll tell you about later). To call MegaPaint Professional 4.0 "full-featured" is a vast understatement! Here's a partial list of its features (and this list barely scratches the surface): o Virtually any drawing function imaginable is available, making a complete listing impractical here. Besides the normal tools, there are such obscure features as rhomboid, equilateral polygons with 3 to 32 sides, circular or elliptical ringsectors, dropping perpendicular lines, or parallel lines...all available in either bit-map or vector graphics. o Text support is extensive, including bit-mapped and vector fonts, as well as support for the vast Signum font library. You can also easily create your own fonts or symbol tables from any graphics block. o Vector graphics can be projected into a bit-map picture and bit-map graphics can be faded into a vector picture giving you unique flexibility when working with any type of graphics. o Whether working with bit-map graphics, vector graphics, or text, the user interface and features are tuned to give you the power and ease of use you're accustomed to with CodeHead Software. o Coordinate systems and even screen aspect ratios can be adjusted. o FAST block and lasso functions. o Editable fill patterns and line styles. o Up to four planes of color separation may be manipulated, overlayed, viewed with varied intensities, and printed to a color printer. o There are 197 dropdown menu selections and 377 submenu dropdown selections! o Unique overlapping pop-up menus give you 120 selectable icons. o Choices in the pop-up menus may be assigned to any of the available functions in the dropdown menus. Icons in the pop-up menus can be selected from over 240 predesigned icons or redesigned to the users specification, even changed to text. o MegaPaint can be used with virtually all printers. Supplied printer drivers can be easily edited to adapt to any printer. o Pictures can be loaded in MegaPaint's .BLD format, standard .IMG format, MS-DOS .PCX format, Degas, straight 32K format, or STAD format (.PAC). Vector graphics can be exported in CVG format. o MegaPaint can call external modules, allowing infinite expandability for new functions. Import and export modules are already in the works (from CodeHead) for several other picture and vector formats. o Runs on any ST/TT with a monochrome monitor from 640x400 up to 8192x8192. o Virtual page size may be as large as 7680x7680. Pictures may be loaded into any area of the virtual page. o MegaPaint has network support. o MegaPaint is available for MS-DOS machines, supporting the same file format. o Scanner support currently includes interfaces for 3 different scanners. External module support allows the future interfacing of any other scanner. And best of all -- MegaPaint is unbelievably FAST!!! We've never seen a drawing program anywhere, on any platform, released or not, that even comes close to the speed of MegaPaint. That's why MegaPaint fits so well into the CodeHead line of products. If you've ever seen Tempus work with text, you'll remember your first reaction to its incredible text-scrolling speed, even without a screen accelerator. MegaPaint is the Tempus of graphics processors! It's so fast that the windows actually update the display AS YOU DRAG THE SLIDER! And you simply won't believe how quickly MegaPaint loads IMG pictures and rotates blocks or entire images. We'll be releasing a demo version of MegaPaint Professional soon so you can see for yourself just how amazing this program is. Meanwhile we're gearing up our shipping department because once you get a taste of MegaPaint, you'll want it immediately and won't want to wait. MegaPaint is available NOW, and retails for $175. For more information, contact your local dealer, or; CodeHead Software PO Box 74090 Los Angeles, CA 90004 voice (213) 386-5735 fax (213) 386-5789. __________________________________________________________________ > ABBREVIATOR ST! STR Review ========================== ABBREVIATOR ST 1.1 REVIEW ========================= by Daniel Stidham My favorite programs are those that are pure and simple in their implementation and provide a converse degree of productivity. Think about it. Apple is now advertising their Mac computers as being the most produc- tive solely because more people get more done with the computer, oweing to its down-to-earth approach. They don't spout about the speed of their microprocessors or the complexity of their architecture. The captitalize on its ease of use. That's why when I first set eyes on Kyle Cordes utility, Abbreviator ST, I knew that this was going to be one of those UIS III-type programs: Something I paid very little for, spent about 20 minutes learning, and have taken it for granted the rest of my computing days (I wouldn't boot up without it). Lots of return for little money and no incompatibility headaches to wrastle with. Abbreviator ST is a text macro program. With it you can abbreviate ascii text strings up to 200 characters long and assign then to a 1 to 8 letter abbreviation. 'AL' become Alabama, 'DS' becomes Daniel Stidham, 'add' becomes 3809 Feather Lane. I have an abbreviation that I use in my resume business quite a bit, 'res'-- when I need to captialize this at the beginning of a sentence I just capitalize the 'R', typing in 'Res' and the expanded string keeps the capitalization. The expanded macro is triggered after typing in the abbreviation and any trigger key: a space, a period, or other punctuation. The punctuation used to trigger the expansion will appear at the end of the expanded string. Seeing as there would be special times when this wouldn't always be desirable, Kyle allows you to suppress the trigger key by adding a con- trol sequence to the end of your abbreviation when creating it. For instance say there is a string that you want to use as a root, sometimes you want to pluralize, or add an appropriate suffix, you would type in your expanded string and at the end type a Control-S (for suppress). Control characters also allow you to control cursor movement. Certain combinations (in the interest of foiling the common software thief I will not elaborate) will replicate pressing the up arrow key, the down arrow key, the right and left arrow keys, the return key, the tab key, backspace key and the escape key. Priming your imagination can you see how this can be put to use on form letters, etc.? Another useful feature is the ability to capture the last 200 charac- ters typed in and assign them to an abbreviation. The Abbreviator ST crea- tion form has a button labeled 'Capt' and it will spill the last 200 characters onto the form, leaving you to assign an abbreviation. Everything else on the creation form is self-explanatory, with some buttons allowing loading and saving of '.abr' files--use different abr files in different programs if you wish. Buttons are there also to allow you to delete an abbreviation or clear out all abbreviations in an abr file. Abbreviator ST is installed as a desk accesory and looks in the root directory for the default abr file to auto-load into memory as designated on the configuration page. The configuration page also gives information on the number of abbreviations and percentage of memory used by these ab- breviations. The amount of memory is user-designated in the configuration as well as a hotkey combination to turn Abbreviator ST on or off without having to go to the GEM desktop and access the accessory directly. A print key allows a hardcopy of the abbreviations in memory. Use Abbreviator ST to type in month and days of the year, common misspelled or typo'd words ( 'recieve' properly converting to 'receive'), convert 'i' to I. Use your imagination. I have found Abbreviator ST to be very useful in my business as I find myself typing repetitively in the resume business: manager, management, position, responsible, University, college, etc. It has saved me lots of time and prevented lots of typos. I find it a perfect complement to my other macro powerhouse, Codekeys. Using abbreviations for commonly used phrases and words is mnemonic and Abbreviator ST is simlicity itself in handling this limited macro applciation, while I use Codekeys for mouse action, full keyboard usage and programming and automating repetitive and complex tasks. Any program has room to improve and I have a few suggestions: allow hotkey usage for changing abr files on-the-fly, provide an audio tone to confirm that a macro has been executed (so you can go on typing and not have to worry that it didn't take as a result of a typo). I have Abbreviator ST installed in MultiDesk and it works perfectly. MultiDesk handles the on,off switch quite well. I paid only $25.00 for this program and I think that was the full retail price, as I bought it directly from Kyle. The version reviewed here is Abbreviator ST 1.1, run through its paces on a Mega ST4 and installed in MultiDesk. Kyle Cordes 3815 Greengrass Drive Florissant, MO 63033 Cordata, Inc. (call information and they will give you Kyle's listed phone number and he will be glad to get this out to you directly) ___________________________________________________ > GRAMMAR EXPERT STR FOCUS "A fully functional Grammar Expert Program" ======================== P R E S S R E L E A S E ======================== Release Date: 1 November 1991 NEPEAN, ONTARIO -- Phil Comeau Software announces the release of a new version of the Grammar Expert program for the Atari computer family. The new release, version 1.10, contains several improvements designed to make Grammar Expert easier to use. These improvements are listed below. * Users can now search Grammar Expert's table of contents or index for a text pattern. When the pattern is found, the corresponding page is automatically displayed. For example, a Grammar Expert user might search the index for the text "persuade." Grammar Expert would respond by locating an index entry containing the text "persuade," then would display the page associated with that index entry. Grammar Expert's new search feature can locate the first occurrence of a pattern or subsequent occurrences. This feature greatly reduces the time needed to locate information in the index or table of contents. * Grammar Expert now permits users to select the way it presents links. (Links are mouse-sensitive "hot spots" that provide pathways to further information on a topic.) Users can choose their link-presentation preferences from "inverted," "bold," "underlined," or "none." Users can combine this feature with the new text- and link-color feature (see below) to gain control over Grammar Expert's presentation style. * Users can individually select the colors Grammar Expert uses to display normal text and link text. For example, a user could select black normal text and red link text. This feature and the link-presentation feature allow Grammar Expert users to customize the appearance of Grammar Expert to individual taste. * Several kinds of keyboard shortcuts have been added to Grammar Expert. First, pressing the "Alternate" key and a letter opens the first link that starts with that letter. Second, pressing the "Alternate" key and a letter when the index is displayed positions the index to the first entry that starts with the letter. For example, pressing the "Alternate" and "C" keys positions the index to the entries starting with "C." Third, the "Esc" key now closes the Grammar Expert window. These keyboard shortcuts make Grammar Expert easier to use for users who prefer interaction via the keyboard over the mouse. * Grammar Expert users can now save the position and size of the window, so Grammar Expert will present the window at the preferred configuration each time it runs. This saves users the extra step of having to adjust the window location and size manually. * Grammar Expert now remembers the current window position in the index and table of contents. For example, when a user returns to the index after viewing a page, the index will be positioned as it was before the user viewed the page. * Grammar Expert now uses a linked-in resource file, so it needs less memory. This upgrade is the first major enhancement to Grammar Expert since it was released in September 1991. Grammar Expert is an online reference for the rules of English grammar, punctuation, and effective writing. Grammar Expert runs as a desk acces- sory on Atari's family of 16- and 32-bit computers. The program is intended as an aid for professional and casual writers. Grammar Expert provides its users with access to over 120 pages of infor- mation on grammar and writing -- the equivalent of a moderate sized book. The information is organized to provide practical answers and help to wri- ters who may be unsure of the correct rules to apply or the best way to organize their writing for maximum effectiveness. To make locating infor- mation on a specific topic fast and easy, Grammar Expert uses hypertext technology and an online index and table of contents. Once a Grammar Ex- pert user has located a topic of interest, he or she can obtain more deta- iled information or explore related topics by simply clicking the mouse button. Grammar Expert 1.10 is available now. The price of Grammar Expert remains at $59.95 US ($66.95 Canadian). Grammar Expert can be purchased from Atari dealers or directly from Phil Comeau Software (Atari dealers can purchase Grammar Expert through their usual distributors). Registered owners of Grammar Expert can upgrade to version 1.10 by sending their original Grammar Expert diskettes and a check or money order for $5.00 to Phil Comeau Software. For further information contact: Phil Comeau Software 43 Rueter St. Nepean, Ontario Canada K2J 3Z9 (613) 825-6271 GEnie: P.COMEAU1 CIS: 72060,3056 Internet: comeau@crc.sofkin.ca __________________________________________________________ > STR Portfolio News & Information Keeping up to date... ================================ THE ATARI PORTFOLIO FORUM ========================= On CompuServe by Judith Hamner 72257,271 New Uploads this week: PA02.TXT and PA03.TXT uploaded by bj Gleason contain issue 2 and 3 of Portable Addiction. PR0791.TXT also uploaded by bj Gleason contains the Portfolio Resource column from Atari User. 22WEIG.BAS and 22RUNW.BAS were uploaded by Robert Kelsoe. These two programs will calculate the weight and balance, and the runway length needed for a BE-24R Sierra. They can be adapted for other small planes. MACPTX.SIT and MACPOR.SIT contain information provided by George Gooder- ham. One of these files will be helpful to Mac users trying to transfer files to or from their Portfolio. Announcements: The new forum software has now been installed. It is now possible to do searches across all libraries in the forum, instead of having to do a separate one for each forum. Ron Luks and Don Thomas shared the news from Comdex with forum members. Steve Kostelnik provided updated information for the Nov. 23 & 24 Chicago Computerfest. There is speculation about the new 1 meg card released in England by DIP. DIP has been represented online answering questions for forum members. The Wish List section is still very sucessful for matching would-be programmers who are looking for ideas with those who have needs for a new program. Sysop Ron Luks announced the programming challenge. Three forum members, BJ Gleason, David Stewart, and Don Messerli have agreed to join forces in a programming marathon. They have agreed that at least one new program will be uploaded every day through the end of the year. They further challenge forum members to contribute by matching their number of uploads. Programs, tips, help files, etc. would qualify. ___________________________________________________ > GFA RAYTRACE UG STR InfoFile JOIN TODAY! PARTICIPATE! ============================ WHY A GFA RAYTRACE USER GROUP? ============================== As an avid Raytrace user, I am interested in contacting other users, sharing operational tips, and seeing some of the creations others have been able to produce with the program. I feel that by forming an informal sort of User Group, we can all benefit from each other's experience and get the most out of our purchase. My primary motivation however is to find other Raytrace users to join a grassroots campaign to get GFA to produce a converter for raytraced pics, so we are not permanently trapped in Raytrace's native format. Finally, it is my hope to build a Community Library showcasing the talents of Raytrace users, and making it availiable to anyone who is in- terested enough to send in a disk of thier work to contribute to the library. An informal User Group indeed! There is no cash of any sort involved here. All that will be required is a floppy disk of your Raytraced creations to get on the mailing list. CONVERSION UTILITY NEEDED!!! My main reason for organizing this group is to get people asking GFA Ger- many to release a pic conversion utility for Raytace users. Ideally, one that converts .SUL/.SCL files to Spectrum 512 format is much needed and long overdue. However, a well written 16 color converter might be a simpler alternative. (SPU2DEG.TTP included with Spectrum 512 does a fairly good job of analyzing a 512 Spectrum pic and reducing it to 16 colors. Either or both are needed. And if GFA can't produce such a program they should at least be encouraged to provide enough detailed info on Raytrace file format to the public domain so that one could be written. THE DISK LIBRARY The 'cost' of subscribing to this newsletter is a disk, single or double sided with some examples of scenes you've created in Raytrace. We all know that there's alot of trial and error in creating a scene. But once in awhile you get the objects, the lights just right and its worth saving. Whether its some Wireframe data, or a 10 frame full-blown animation, ren- dered screens, or Spectrum, Neo, or other pics you use for ground, sky or texture maps, put them on a disk with your name and address. You be put on the list for the newsletter and get your disk back filled with the best works of other Raytrace users. Your 'subscription fee' becomes part of the library, and the best of the library will be mailed back to you promptly. HOW TO GET YOUR NEWSLETTER Send your disk to: GFA RAYTRACE USERS USA c/o Nick S. Smith 4406 5th Avenue South Minneapolis, MN 55409-2124 GEnie E-mail - S.SMITH65 __________________________________________________________ > A REVIEW? STR Feature "Decisions, decisions, decisions" ===================== THE ANCIENT ART OF .... ======================= by Dana Jacobson This was going to be a review of one of the new pieces of software purchased at WAACE, but, unfortunately a decision couldn't be made as to which one to review! But, after thinking about it for a few days, it was determined to narrow the choices down to two. Decisions, decisions, decisions. Which program held the most potential interest for the reader, and potential user? More time went by trying to resolve this dilemma. Better sleep on it one more day. Ah, that's better. Let's take a look at the two programs again and see what we want to do. Boot up the first. Oops, better re-- read the manual again on this one to make sure most of the details are known. Let's see if the second one is any easier to figure out... After booting this one up, getting it configured and ready to go....8:00 o'clock!! "Dinosaurs" is on!! Must see if 'Baby' is going to conk 'Not the Mama' a few dozen times! That "kid" makes the whole show. Funny episode tonight, wasn't it? Well, back to the ST. Hmmm, might as well call a couple of boards to see what's happening before it gets too late. Then back to the second program again. A lot of new messages tonight! Last board! Sheesh, it's too late to really get into this program. Tomorrow is another day. Okay, nothing on the agenda for tonight, so there's plenty of time to look this other program over. * Time passes on * There's a lot of _stuf- f_ here! The gist of the program is pretty straightforward, but better read the manual. After first couple of chapters (real dry reading), time to hit the hay. Finish both manuals tomorrow. This is starting to read like a diary!! Both manuals read, from cover to cover each. Phew! Okay, both programs are understood well enough to look around the programs and check them out. Let's do it! Hours later.....done. Chose the first program. Boot up Word Writer. Crack the old knuck- les. Plenty of cigarettes and hot tea. Ready. BLANK!! Right about now you're probably ready to pull out your hair, right? Ooh, sorry - you've already started. Call Sy Spurling. What's the purpose of all this gibberish above, you ask. Well, actually, I had a few ideas as to what I wanted to write about this week. I did make a few nice software purchases at WAACE a couple of weeks ago. I had anticipated reviewing at least one of them here. The above comments are more or less a true, albeit slightly exaggerated, synopsis of what I went through attempting to accomplish my goal. I've seen quite a number of software reviews over the years; and I've been amazed at how thorough most of them have been. It's not an easy task, especially if the reviewer doesn't take the time to really learn the program. Games are fairly easy - play it a few times and you have the basics to write about it. But, an application or utility really needs to be thoroughly "tested" to mean anything worthwhile when writing about it. You cannot keep finding 'excuses' not to explore the program and read the manual, as I did. What you write may influence a user to decide to pur- chase the program, or not. What you don't write may also play a role. You must decide what to include in the review and what to skip over. Unless extremely complicated, you can skip such items as installation processes. What the reader wants to know is what the program does, and how well. Concentrate on that. Unique features should also be included. Is this program an upgrade of an older version? What new features are now present? Does it have memory requirements? Does it run with all versions of TOS? Can it be used on mono and color systems? Run better on a hard drive? These are some things that must be considered when doing a review. If you're looking for excuses, as I did, to find a way not to learn the program enough to write about it, you shouldn't review the program until you do. It would be unfair to the readers and the software/company. What was my excuse? I needed a topic to write about this week. I thought that I could do a review but realized that there was no way to really get the meat of one of these programs; so I kept putting it off. Here it is late in the week, and I still don't have a review. So, what better way to help prevent others from doing the same thing but to point out a few of the pitfalls! And, I also have an article for this week and bought myself some more time to play around with these new programs! Until next time... ________________________________________________________ > STReport's Editorial Page "SAYIN' IT LIKE IT IS!" ========================= From the Editor's Desk ---------------------- I can remember back to when I got my first ST.... I WAS one of those diehard 8 bit users who felt he could do anything he wished with his 8 bit and didn't need an ST. Picture this... I had just booted "Star Glider" (I believe that's the name).. and the digital voices began singing the theme song. I was total- ly mezmerized... and I might add, at that time the ST was riding high on the crest of its phenominally successful introduction to the computer market. The point of this discourse is to illustrate how the Tramiels indeed had the whole 'ball-o-wax' right in their hands and seemingly, let it slip on by. The ultra successful intro of the Atari ST put the company right on top and at that time, had they really advertized aggressively... I feel they'd easily be where Apple is now, if not in a much better position. Sure hindsight is very clear, but how many situations must become reality before any experience is gained? Truly, Atari is a company marketing a very fine product but, at the same time, some of their underlings insist on treating their customer base and supporters of the company like dirt. The company, at times, appears to be hanging on by its fingernails and still, the underlings are as ar- rogant and argumentative as those poor souls in the Middle East. Almost to a point where one of their "illustrious reps" found it necessary to threaten folks rather pointedly in public. Its sad and very unfortunate to be happening. The success story for the ST was indeed a 'fairy-tale' like event. You know, one of those... "it only happens once in a lifetime" type things. I am glad to have been a part of it. It was great... watching all those very well respected computer publications praise the "new kid on the block" with being the greatest package and value available. The hard- ware is still a super great value. The latest group of offerings are ex- ceptional values and will compete with most anything in the same market bracket. The users realize this, in fact, most all of us do. What needs addressing is the petty politics and ego trips. The "tempest in a teapot" must be brought to close. Now. As an aside, I'll use my ST computers for many years to come, and I know I'll be using a marvelous computer system thats tailored to fit my needs and provide the greatest benefits. The most important thing I'll take comfort in is knowing the high quality support from the developers and other users has always been first rate and shows no signs at all of diminishing. Thanks for your ongoing support Ralph...... """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" > STR Mail Call "...a place for readers to be heard" ============= STReport's MailBag ================== #: 22842 S17/ISD Marketing 25-Oct-91 13:04:51 Sb: #22829-CONVERT2X Fm: mark hammond 100010,2517 To: Bob Brodie [ATARI] 70007,3240 Bob, Frankly, I would rather that you hadn't 'muddied' the waters on this one. However, seeing as you saw fit to get involved ...............here we go 1). The distributors for DMC in the UK are Signa Publishing. And it so happens that it was from them that i purchased my TT 8M + Eizo 6500 etc. Reason being that they have the best reputation amongst high-end Atari dealers in the UK. And were originally designated as sole distributors for the TT (although it now turns out that you buy one from any ole 'box shifter'). These people have been supporting Calamus etc. since day one, probably longer than ISD have; however when I called them to inquire about a CVG->EPS convertor, they didn't know what I was talking about. Hence my plea to Nathan. I prefer Pagestream to Calamus, but would like to make use of Outline Art, which, of course, only produces Calamus CVG's. BTW. One of the reasons for the former is that there are only 2 bureau in the UK for Calamus, and they are expensive compared to the hundreds of Postscript bureaux. Besides which, I find the Calamus interface particularly nasty to use, if only SoftLogic would fix some of the bugs, and put out some of the many things that have been added to their 'wish list', they would have an even more wonderful product. 2). Mike Dale is the owner of Signa Publishing, and is a very respected name in the UK Atari scene (the now defunct ST World mag, used to be nicknamed - Mike Dale World). BUT...if I fancy a good wingeing session about the problems of using Atari in the real business world, Mike is the person I go to see, cynical is not the word for him, he is positively warped, too many years of trying to present the Atari as a serious busi- ness alternative has left him a mentally crippled man. And mention Atari UK to him, and well I couldn't repeat a word of what spews from his lips. I have now crossed out the Atari Help Line number from my address book. Examples: Q. "I need a GDOS driver for HyperChart on an HPLJ2" A. "We do'nt have one, try the PD libs" A. (PD libs) "There isn't one !" Q. "Can I use 4M SIMMS in my TT?" A. "Maybe, i'll get back to you" ....never heard a thing Q. "Could you let me have the number for GEnie in the States" A. "No, we don't have it" I could go on about Silica Systems, who I believe are your main distributors here, but i've got work to do. Nuff sed. Regards, Mark. Synkra Publishing. Conf : Atari 16/32 Bit Msg# : 23054/23132 Lines: 6 Read: 1 Sent : Oct 27, 1991 at 10:47 PM To : Roy Holierhoek From : Shawn Zweers at Radio STation ~NIAGARA~ Subj : Re: <23049> Advertising.... Well, today, in the SUN I saw a Sear's advertisement.. And guess what I saw in this Sear's Ad? An Atari 1040STE with Mouse, and the new colour monitor!! AND! Guess what?? You could even read Atari! Everywhere! Even the symbol on the mouse! Monitor! And Keyboard!! Conf : Atari 16/32 Bit Msg# : 23180/23183 Lines: 13 Read: 1 Sent : Oct 31, 1991 at 12:18 AM To : Tom D'Ambrosio From : Zenobot at The O-Mayer V 592: Los Angeles Subj : Advertising.... Atari doesn't deserve us... They don't deserve the army of utterly dedicated Atarians that form the core of Atari computer users. They reward our dedication being screwing us over time and time again... I'm not surprised to see certain users "defecting" to other platforms. I will stick to the ST personally because it's cheap, fast, and ideal for my needs (which are somewhat limited, for now...). Z (Enough is enough. Atari can do what they want, I don't care anymore...) ________________________________________________________ STReport's Staff The regulars and this week's contributors! ---------------- Publisher - Editor ------------------ Ralph F. Mariano PC DIVISION AMIGA DIVISION MAC DIVISION ----------- -------------- ------------ Robert Retelle Charles Hill R. ALBRITTON STReport Staff Editors: ----------------------- Michael Arthur Lloyd E. Pulley, Sr. Dana P. Jacobson Lucien Oppler Brad Martin Judith Hamner John Szczepanik Dan Stidham Contributing Correspondents: ---------------------------- Michael Lee Richard Covert Roger Stevens Brian Converse Oliver Steinmeier Tim Holt Andrew Learner Norman Boucher Ben Hamilton Neil Bradley Eric Jerue Ron Deal Robert Dean Ed Westhusing James Nolan Joe Mirando Vernon W. Smith IMPORTANT NOTICE ================ Please, submit letters to the editor, articles, reviews, etc... via E-Mail to: Compuserve.................... 70007,4454 GEnie......................... ST.REPORT Delphi........................ RMARIANO BIX........................... RMARIANO FIDONET....................... 112/35 FNET.......................... NODE 350 NEST.......................... 90:19/350.0 ____________________________________________________________ > STReport CONFIDENTIAL "REPORTING ABOUT ATARI...NOT FOR ATARI!" ===================== * "Rumors - Tidbits - Predictions - Observations - Hot Tips" * ======================================================== - Little Rock, AR. TOS 1.62 HAS PROBLEMS? ---------------- TOS 1.62 apparently has a grievous bug which keeps it from working on any processor but the 68000, although it is supposed to work on any of the 680xx series. TOS 1.6 was fine, but apparently someone may have linked in the wrong code, it seems the TRAP #1 (GEMDOS) handler doesn't check the $59e magic word (it says which type of processor is being run - long or short stack size), and thus doesn't know how to work correctly for the long stack size. This just means a bit of a headache for someone who wants to plug in a 68010, or someone who has a new processor board without a new ROM set... from an 'anonymous developer.' _____________________________________________________________ > A "Quotable Quote" ================== "I NEVER GIVE THEM HELL;.... ....I JUST TELL THEM THE TRUTH AND THEY THINK IT IS HELL..." .....Harry S. Truman __________________________________________________________ > FALL SPECIALS! STR InfoFile * NEW Prices MORE Products & SPECIALS! * =========================== HOLIDAY SPECIALS! ** EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY! ** ABCO COMPUTER CONSULTANTS P.O. Box 6672 Jacksonville, Florida 32236-6672 Est. 1985 _________________________________________ Voice: 904-783-3319 10 AM - 4 PM EDT BBS: 904-786-4176 12-24-96 HST FAX: 904-783-3319 12 PM - 6 AM EDT _________________________________________ HARD DISK SYSTEMS TO FIT EVERY BUDGET _________________________________________ All systems are complete and ready to use, included at NO EXTRA COST are clock/calendar and cooling blower(s). *-ALL ABCO HARD DISK SYSTEMS ARE FULLY EXPANDABLE-* (you are NOT limited to two drives) (all cables and connectors installed) * ICD HOST ADAPTERS USED EXCLUSIVELY * OMTI HIGH SPEED CONTROLLERS * * ICD ADSCSI+ HOST ADAPTERS * FULL SCSI COMMAND SET SUPPORTED * * SCSI EMBEDDED CONTROLLER MECHANISMS * WE PAY SHIPPING!!! >BLUE LABEL UPS!< Deluxe 2 bay Cabinet w/65w auto-switching PS TIME PROVEN to be the most reliable! Model Description Autopark Price ================================================== SGN4951 51Mb 24ms 3.5" Y 479.00 SGN6277 65Mb 28ms 5.25" Y 519.00 SGN1096 85Mb 24ms 5.25" Y 549.00 SGN2055 105mb 12ms 3.5" Y 649.00 SGN6277 120Mb 12ms 3.5" Y 789.00 SGN1296 170Mb 12ms 3.5" Y 1019.00 ================================================== FULLY ASSEMBLED SCSI DRIVES DEDUCT $60.00 ADD $35.00 for 4 BAY SUPER CABINET w/250+w PS EXOTIC TOWER CABINETS AVAIALABLE Call for Info! PLEASE NOTE: The above is partial listing only! FULLY ASSEMBLED SCSI DRIVES DEDUCT $60.00 ADD $35.00 for 4 BAY SUPER CABINET w/250+w PS EXOTIC TOWER CABINETS AVAIALABLE Call for Info! PLEASE NOTE: The above is partial listing only! CPU ACCELERATOR & MEMORY UPGRADES AVAILABLE & INSTALLED >> ABCO now offers 1040 & MEGA STe Computers << (when available) Call for ABCO's Introductory prices! ATARI COMPUTERS * STILL THE BEST VALUE! If you don't see what you want listed here, call us. Odds are, we either have it or, can get it for you! AT THE BEST POSSIBLE PRICE! "We service what we sell" ****** SPECIAL - SPECIAL ****** * SYQUEST 44MB (#555) >> ABCOFILE "44" << REMOVABLE MEDIA DRIVE * - SYQUEST 44 MB DRIVE - ICD ST ADSCSI PLUS H/A - ICD Utility Software - 3' DMA Cable - Fan & Clock - Multi-Unit Power Supply (1) 44 MB Syquest Cart. --->> SPECIAL! NOW ONLY __$ 645.00__ <<--- **** SCSI UNITS -> ONLY $585.00 **** WE PAY SHIPPING!!! >BLUE LABEL UPS!< COMPLETELY ASSEMBLED AND READY TO RUN! Cart and Utility Software Included! EXTRA CARTS: $ 74.50 DRIVE MECH ONLY: $ 349.95 ****** SPECIAL - SPECIAL ****** * TWIN SYQUEST 44MB REMOVABLE MEDIA DRIVES ... PROGRAMMER'S DELIGHT * SPECIALLY PRICED ** $1019.00 ** Includes TWO cartridges! * SYQUEST 44MB REMOVABLE MEDIA DRIVE AND HARD DRIVE COMBINATIONS * - Syquest 44 Model [555] and the following hard drives - 50mb SQG51 $ 819.00 85mb SQG96 $ 1019.00 LOWBOY - STANDARD - DUAL BLOWER CABINETS CUSTOM CONFIGURATIONS AVAILABLE WE PAY SHIPPING!!! >BLUE LABEL UPS!< Listed above are a sampling of the systems available. Prices also reflect various cabinet/power supply configurations (over sixty configurations are available, flexibility is unlimited) ALL UNITS COMPATIBLE WITH --> SUPERCHARGER - AT/PC SPEED - GCR LARGER units are available - (Custom Configurations) *>> NO REPACKS OR REFURBS USED! <<* - Custom Walnut WOODEN Cabinets - TOWER - AT - XT Cabinets - Atari SLM 804, SLM 804PCV Laser Toner Kits Memorex 2108, 5287 Oasys Laserpro 5287, 5308, Express 830, Express Series II Silver Express, Gold Express ** $54.95 shipping Included ** Atari SLM 605 Laser Toner Kits AT&T 593, CAF Laser, DSI Laser, DTP Systems, Epson EPL-6000 Facit P6060, Fontx Syslaser, Harris3M 2006, M-Tally MT905 Microtek Turbo PS, OAS Laserpro Executive, Packard Bell 9500 TEC LB 1305, Toshiba PageLaser 6 ** $41.95 shipping included ** (TWO Toner Carts Incl.) Panasonic Laser Toner Kits Panasonic KX -P 400 series, Panafax UF-750 Facimile ** $41.95 shipping included ** -- ALL TONER KITS * IN STOCK * -- * Toner Starter Kits-$62.95 * * Replacement (804) Drums-$186.95 * ABCO's Replacement Toner Advantages =================================== A Few Pointers about the NEW and SUPERIOR replacement Toner Cartridges for the SLM 804 and SLM 605 Laser printers. Quality ------- o Better density the OEM Toner under all testing conditions. (AVG 1.40-1.50) o Formulation completely compatible with the OEM initial toner and supply toner. This replacement Toner may be added to the Laser Printer along with OEM initial toner or supply toner. o The NEW replacement initial toner will maintain a high level of quality "much longer" using the replacement toner. o Much smaller drop in density is realized when printing in the continuous mode. Test Pattern: 10 graphic pages 1000 text pages (3 alternating pages) Time Schedule: 330 prints continuously 1 hour pause, 3-4 times a day normally 1000 copies a day maximum 1400 copies a day OEM ABCO'S NEW STANDARD --- ------------------- Density 1.30 - 1.40 1.40 - 1.50 Yield 92.1 g/1000 copies 95.3 g/1000 copies Waste toner 20.3 g/1000 copies 14.3 g/1000 copies Transfer Rate 78% 85% >> MANY other ATARI related products STOCKED << ALL POWER SUPPLIES UL APPROVED -* 12 month FULL Guarantee *- (A FULL YEAR of COVERAGE) WE PAY SHIPPING!!! >BLUE LABEL UPS!< QUANTITY & USERGROUP DISCOUNTS AVAILABLE! _________________________________________ DEALERS and DISTRIBUTORS WANTED! please, call for details Personal and Company Checks are accepted. ORDER YOUR NEW UNIT TODAY! CALL: 1-800-562-4037 -=**=- CALL: 1-904-783-3319 Customer Orders ONLY Customer Service 9am - 8pm EDT Tues thru Sat ABCO is EXPANDING!! CALL FOR INFORMATION! GOOD NEWS! ========== ABCO Computer Consultants now has a SUPER computer goodies catalog available. Drop us a note and we will mail your copy to you! You'd be surprised at the variety of products we offer at substantial savings. Don't wait! Send for your catalog now and get the great Christmas Discount Coupons. It'll make Santa feel great about the holidays! ABCO COMPUTER CONSULTANTS ========================= P.O. BOX 6672 Jacksonville, Florida, 32205-6672 904-783-3319 """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" STReport International Online Magazine Available through more than 10,000 Private BBS systems WorldWide! """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" STReport "YOUR INDEPENDENT NEWS SOURCE" November 01, 1991 16/32bit Magazine copyright 1987-91 No.7.43 """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" Views, Opinions and Articles Presented herein are not necessarily those of the editors/staff, PCReport, STReport, AMReport, MCReport. Permission to reprint articles is hereby granted, unless otherwise noted. Each reprint must include the name of the publication, date, issue # and the author's name. The entire publication and/or portions therein may not be edited in any way without prior written permission. The entire contents, at the time of publication, are believed to be reasonably accurate. The editors, contributors and/or staff are not responsible for the use/misuse of infor- mation contained herein or the results obtained therefrom. """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""