*---== ST REPORT INTERNATIONAL ONLINE MAGAZINE ==---* """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" "The Original 16/32bit Online Magazine" from STR Publishing """""""""""""" October 30, 1992 No.8.43 ========================================================================== 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 Support BBS Network System * THE BOUNTY BBS * * TURBO BOARD BBS SYSTEM * FNET 350 ~ Fido 112:35 ~ TNET 100:2/0 904-786-4176 USR/HST 24hrs - 7 days 1200 - 19.2bps V.32 - 42 bis 16.8 Dual Standard FAX: 904-783-3319 12 AM - 6 AM EST ----------------------------------------- FNET.. 18 ~ TNET 100:3/0: ///Turbo Board BBS Support...1-416-274-1225 FNET.. 75 ~ TNET 100:28/0 Bloom County BBS.............1-415-965-9347 FNET. 350 ~ TNET 100:2/0 The Bounty **...1-904-786-4176 FNET. 489 ~ TNET 100:22/0 Steal Your Face BBS..........1-908-920-7981 FNET 1031 ~ TNET 100:1/0 <<< INTERNET - UK>>>.... 011-44-296-395-935 _____________________________________________________________________ > 10/30/92 STR 843 "The Original * Independent * Online Magazine!" """""""""""""""" - The Editor's Desk - CPU Report - SPA - 1M Members - HD DRIVE INSTALLATION - GEMULATOR REVIEW - HP LASERJET 4! - GENIE ORA CONF. - STRAIGHT FAX 1.06 - MAROONED? - APPLE TO OUTSELL IBM - 486/66 under $2m - STR Confidential -* MULTI-TOS AUTHOR JOINS ATARI! *- -* STUMPF SPEAKS UP! *- -* SIMM PRICES SKYROCKET! *- ========================================================================== ST REPORT INTERNATIONAL ONLINE MAGAZINE The Original * Independent * Online Magazine -* FEATURING WEEKLY *- "Accurate UP-TO-DATE News and Information" Current Events, Original Articles, Tips, Rumors, and Information Hardware - Software - Corporate - R & D - Imports ========================================================================== STReport's BBS, The Bounty, invites BBS systems, worldwide, to participate in the Fido/TurboNet/Atari F-Net Mail Network. You may also call our BBS direct at 904-786-4176, and enjoy the excitement of exchanging information relative to the Atari and other computers worldwide through the use of excellent International Messaging Networks. SysOps, worldwide, are quite welcome to join the STReport International Conferences. The Crossnet Code is #34813, and the "Lead Node" is # 350. All BBS systems are welcome and invited to actively participate. Support Atari Computers; Join Today! ========================================================================== CIS ~ GENIE ~ DELPHI ~ BIX ~ FIDO ~ FNET ~ TNET EURONET ~ CIX ~ CLEVELAND FREE-NET ~ INTERNET ========================================================================== ============= * ATARI EDITION * ============= 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 (October 30) UPCOMING CONFERENCE... Oscar Steele and Darek Mihocka will be in Conference in the Atari Arts Forum (GO ATARIARTS) on Thursday, November 5th, at 10:00 PM Eastern Time. They will be discussing the GEMULATOR, the floptical drive, and a new version of Stealth. Be sure to download file TOSPAT.LZH from LIBRARY 6 of the Atari Productivity Forum (GO ATARIPRO). This archive contains a text file, from John Townsend, listing the various TOS revisions and the patches that are appropriate for each. In addition, the patch files themselves are included. Contains: FOLDRxxx, CACHExxx, POOLFIX3, POOLFIX4, STEFIX, SERPTCH, SERAILFX, and MACCEL3. (Note: POOLFIX4 and SERIALFX are not from Atari, but may correct behaviour the Atari patches do not.) NEW IN ATARI 8-BIT FORUM! TEXTPRO fans rejoice. A beta of the long awaited Version 5 is now available for testing. Please see messages #20900 & 20901 in the Atari 8-Bit Forum (GO ATARI8) for more information! LYNX USERS IN ATARI 8-BIT FORUM! Just a reminder to LYNX users that message section 16 and LIBRARY 16 (both named LYNX) of the Atari 8-Bit Forum are devoted to this gaming unit! FAVORITE FILES... Be included in CompuServe Magazine! Please read and respond to message # 34449 in the Atari ST Arts Forum (GO ATARIARTS) regarding your favorite Forum files! NEW SYSOP INFORMATION FROM SUPRA Revised information and order form for sysop purchase plan offered by Supra for their SupraFaxModem V32 and V32bis. Download file SYSOP.TXT from LIBRARY 15 of the Atari Vendors Forum (GO ATARIVEN). THE ATARI PORTFOLIO FORUM ON COMPUSERVE HAS BEEN DESIGNATED AN OFFICIAL SUPPORT SITE BY ATARI CORPORATION "GO APORTFOLIO TO ACCESS THE ATARI PORTFOLIO FORUM" """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" > From the Editor's Desk "Saying it like it is!" """""""""""""""""""""" This past week, I had the opportunity to demo the recent upgrade of Calamus SL for a number of users. For material, I used the recent contest winners from the second annual ISD/DMC Creativity Contest. Even I noticed a marked inprovement in the overall performance of the Calamus SL. From loading the files, the file converter, to printing and quality of output. Mind you now, there was nothing wrong with the way the original Calamus behaved. This upgrade however, is faster yet and the grey scaling in its output is superb. In the coming weeks look for more detailed reports about both Calamus SL and Invision. Invision, its amazing. But that's another story due to appear in the immediate future. EEEEEEK! Halloween is right around the corner!! The Goblins, the Witches and the Ghouls will be out in full force. Oh yeah, please don't forget Beetlejuice. I think of joy and fun all those youngsters out there trick or treating one night a year have. Could you imagine if they could have as much fun on almost any night of the year? You know, they could. Think back about the time when you brought your first Atari computer home. Are you able to recall your feelings then? I am and I remember the fun I had with my four sons and those old, Scott Adams Text Adventures. Now, with the advent of the Falcon, perhaps this will all come to pass all over again for many new families. Man, it boggles the mind to think about that "old feeling" and then... when the ST came home for the first time, it was an ecstacy of pride mixed with the expectancy of the wonders to be seen on this new more powerful Atari computer. Ah yes.. the wonder of it all. The ST didn't let us down at all. And now we are at that threshold again. Time will tell the "tale of the tape". But I'd sure like to see those kids that'll be at my front door tomorrow night, all eagerly looking forward to using a new Falcon. All its going to take is.... ah, you've heard all that before. I'll just hope the good hopes. :-) Ralph @ STReport International Online Magazine THE STORM IS BREWING! """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" STReport's Staff DEDICATED TO SERVING YOU! """""""""""""""" Publisher - Editor """""""""""""""""" Ralph F. Mariano PC DIVISION AMIGA DIVISION MAC DIVISION ----------- -------------- ------------ Roger D. Stevens Charles Hill R. ALBRITTON STReport Staff Editors: """"""""""""""""""""""" Lloyd E. Pulley Sr. Dana P. Jacobson Michael Arthur Lucien Oppler Brad Martin Judith Hamner John Szczepanik Dan Stidham Joseph Mirando Steve Spivey Doyle C. Helms Contributing Correspondents: """""""""""""""""""""""""""" Michael Lee Richard Covert John Deegan Brian Converse Oliver Steinmeier Tim Holt Andrew Learner Norman Boucher Harry Steele Ben Hamilton Neil Bradley Eric Jerue Ron Deal Robert Dean Ed Westhusing James Nolan Vernon W. Smith Bruno Puglia Clemens Chin IMPORTANT NOTICE """""""""""""""" Please, submit letters to the editor, articles, reviews, etc... via E-Mail to: Compuserve.................... 70007,4454 Delphi........................ RMARIANO BIX........................... RMARIANO FIDONET....................... 112/35 FNET.......................... NODE 350 NEST.......................... 90:19/350.0 GEnie......................... ST-REPORT """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" STR'S "BELIEVE IT? OR.. WHAT?" <>###############################<> "There is no comparison! The Atari Falcon is far superior to the PC platform." Sam Tramiel, 08/92 "As I said before, all marketing announcements will be made at Duesseldorf. I will not comment on future models of the Falcon. WE ARE TALKING TODAY ABOUT A MACHINE..... WHICH WILL BE SHIPPING NEXT WEEK." Sam Tramiel, 08/92 """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" > CPU STATUS REPORT LATE BREAKING INDUSTRY-WIDE NEWS ================= Issue #44 Compiled by: Lloyd E. Pulley, Sr. -- IBM to Sell More Chips IBM, International Business Machines, the world's largest chip maker, says that it must boost its sales of computer chips to outside customers substantially in the next few years or it may have to trim its chip man- ufacturing capacity, the company's top chip executive said. Currently, IBM uses the majority of the chips it produces in its own products. -- HP Offers New Laser Printer Hewlett-Packard Co., who analysts estimate has a 53% share of the laser printer market in America, has unveiled its latest black-and-white laser printer, the HP LaserJet 4. The HP LaserJet 4 will sell for $2,199, which is $196 less than the HP LaserJet III, said to be the nation's best-seller in the field. HP says the new printers are faster and offer better print quality than the printers they are replacing. -- HP, AT&T Develop 100 Megabits/Second Network Technology Hewlett- Packard and AT&T's Microelectronics division have announced the development of 100 megabits per second (Mbits/s) transmission technology over voice grade, unshielded twisted pair (UPT) cabling. Both companies claim this is a first in the industry. The company claims that moving to the higher speed will be relatively painless since most low speed network users already have UTP cabling, which is required for 100 Mbit networking, in place. -- Apple to Sell More PCs than IBM this Year According to industry analyst Kimball Brown, Apple Computer is gaining on IBM and will probably sell more personal computers than the IBM, the industry's largest company, this year. Brown said that Apple shipped more pc's in the second quarter of this year than IBM did and widened the gap in the third quarter. Brown says that the reason for Apple's gain is twofold. One because Apple finally announced products based on Motorola's top-of-the-line 68040 processor. Second because IBM was late launching its new low-end product line. Brown's projections refer only to personal computers. IBM's unit ship- ments of all computers, including mainframes, minicomputers, and work- stations, still exceed Apple's. -- Next-Generation Memory Developed by NTT NTT, the Japanese electronics and telecom company, has developed a next- generation computer memory known as the hologram system. According to the company, the hologram memory can store as much as 1,000 times the volume of data that current technology optical systems can take. NTT's hologram memory uses special optical fibers which are 0.5 mm in diameter and 4mm in length, bound into the shape of a disk. Data is stored vertically in each optical fiber, with each fiber being capable of storing 60 to 100 units of data. According to NTT, the fiber is designed for the maximum possible data storage. Made of strontium-barium-niobium and cerium, combined into a crystal format, the fibers can store data almost indefinitely. As well as traditional computer data, the hologram disk can store visual and audio data. This could result in the appearance of ultra-small video disks, possibly 1cm in diameter, but with a storage/recording capacity far in excess of current videodisks. -- Microchip Prices Soar Some microprocessor and memory prices have soared after the US Depart- ment of Commerce's preliminary determination that Korean microchip makers were dumping (selling below cost) chips on the US market. There is talk of imposing tariff's on these companies after the first of the year. While no actual tariffs has yet been imposed, the Department of Commerce has ordered Korean companies to post bonds based on the preliminary es- timates of illegal dumping discounts. These bonds will be preliminary tariffs, a tariff which could be refunded depending on what the Depart- ment of Commerce's final determination turns out to be. Goldstar would have a bond of 52.41%; Hyundai, 5.99%, Samsung, 87.40%; and an average of 61.88% for all other Korean manufacturers. While there are no confirmed reports yet of the Korean manufacturers raising prices, some US companies are reporting that end user microchip prices are already soaring and suppliers are not guaranteeing prices for more than a day or two at a time. Some reports say that prices are 60% higher than just last week. This leads to speculation that some US chip makers are taking advantage of the international chip turmoil by raising the cost of domestically made chips. -- First 66 MHz 486 Computer For Under $2,000 Lightning Computer has announced shipment of a computer billed as the first 66 MHz 486 PC to be priced at under $2,000. Available by mail order for $1,995, the new Lightning Omnicache 486DX comes standard with a 170 MB hard drive, 4 MB of RAM (expandable to 32 MB), 64K of cache (expandable to 256K), an SVGA monitor, a Windows accelerator, and a 1.2 or 1.44 MB floppy drive, among other features. For additional fees, the system can be customized with options ranging from drives and monitors to accelerators and memory boards. Other standard features consist of an eight-slot ISA bus motherboard with AMI BIOS, a full-sized chassis with six drive bays and a 250-watt UL power supply, a heat sink for cooling, an 101-key enhanced keyboard, and a combination card with IDE, FDD, two serial ports, one parallel port, and one game port. -- SPA Membership Hits 1,000 The Software Publishers Association (SPA) announced this week that the association's roster has topped 1,000 members. The SPA, which acts as the industry representative to the federal government and works to stop software piracy, was begun in 1984 with only 25 member companies. -- Electronic CEO's Want Bush For President According to the second poll of CEO's for electronic companies that was conducted by the American Electronics Association, most favor George Bush's re-election - but the majority expect Bill Clinton to be the actual winner. ______________________________________________________________ > ONLINE WEEKLY STReport OnLine The wires are a hummin'! """"""""""""""""""""""""""""" PEOPLE... ARE TALKING ===================== On CompuServe ------------- compiled by Joe Mirando From The Atari Productivity Forum ================================= We've all seen it happen: a good and loyal Atari computer user decides to leave the Atari platform. Now I'm not saying that this is in any way unique to the Atari world. It happens everyday on every platform. But enough of that. The problem at hand is how to transfer all of the precious data and text files that we've collected through the years to the new machine. William Hungate writes: "I used an Atari ST with Wordwriter for my word processing chores until about a year ago when I switched to a Mac LC and Writenow. Question--how do I, can I, transfer my considerable library of Atari/Wordwriter files to the Mac? Any help much appreciated." Well, among the other hundreds of wonderful qualities that we Atarians possess is the ability, and at times, the need to jump right in and help one another. Hal Dougherty jumps in and tells William: "I have an ST and a Mac Classic. It's not very hard to transfer files between the systems. On the Atari side, just print the file to disk. That way you will have a pure ASCII file. Then run the Apple file exchange program on the Mac. Format a low density disk in MS-DOS format. Put the disk in your ST and copy the text files you want to use on your Mac. (This only works if you have a ds dd drive) Use the file exchange program to move the files to the Mac hard drive. Now back to the Mac. Some programs will let you load text files and some have to find the right file type and creator. I use Mac Tools from Central Point software to change the file type and creator. Or you can use RESEDIT. I've killed more things with resedit. Good luck!" ST Informer's Brian Gockley tells William" "There is a program called MACSEE that is available form Compuseller West that will allow you to read MAC floppies and copy to and from them or a Syquest. You must have a 1.44 meg floppy drive, to read the MAC floppies. It really works well! On the other hand, you could purchase a utility called DOS mounter (or some other) for your MAC, which allows you to read and write to any IBM format disk (which the ST will create for you). This might be the best way for you." Don't you just hate it when you upgrade to a new operating system and find out that the program you love the most won't work with the new OS? I mean, the program that runs our entire office I can live without but don't take away my favorite game! While we in the Atari world are luckier than most in this regard, there are bound to be some incompatibilities with any upgraded OS. Rafael Hermoso asks: "Does anyone know if CyberPaint's incompatibility with the STes is due to the graphics on those machines or the TOS? I'm trying to decide between buying a Mega STe or a Mega 4 ST with TOS 2.06 and wanted to know which was more compatible with the programs I own now." Albert Dayes of Atari Explorer Magazine tells Rafael: "Missionware is working on an update to make CyberPaint work on all the Atari machines ST thru the FALCON. I don't know the date of release though." One of the things that I've always liked about my ST is that you don't get cryptic error codes when you have a problem... the computer tells you exactly what the problem is... right? Well, not always. John Amsler asks: "What's TOS error #35? (I cleaned out my AUTO folder and ACC slots down to nothing, yet the program PRIMES still won't run under TOS 2.06 on a MegaSTe; it bombs and gives me that error window.)" That busy guy from Atari Explorer, Albert Dayes, replies to John: "TOS 35 = no handles left. I wonder if the file bombs.txt is on-line here. It gives a list of all the TOS errors and what they mean and it gives the meaning of the bombs (eg 2 bombs = bus error). I'll see if the file exists if not I'll just upload my copy." Well, nothing cryptic about that, is there? There are no handles left. Does the computer use these handles to lift bugs out of the system? John Amsler asks: "No handles left." What are "handles?" The program I'm trying to run calculates prime numbers between within a user-selected range. It ran fine on a 1040ST/TOS 1.04." Once again coming to the rescue, Albert Dayes tells John (and the rest of us): "A handle is a device driver more or less. Also I have found from past experience that a corrupt file also causes TOS 35 errors. You might try getting a new copy of the program and see if it still has problems. I don't like the definition of handle I gave in the first sentence. I should look it up to be sure on the definition." Sysop Bob Retelle asks Albert: "Are you sure it's TOS error 35, or a GEMDOS error that is the "No handles" error..? I'm at work now, so I don't have any of my reference materials handy, but I seem to remember researching this error once before and finding that while there IS an "error 35" with that description, it's actually a different error.. My experience with "TOS Error #35" has always been a corrupted file like you mentioned, or trying to RUN a file that's been archived (ie, downloading an Arc'ed file with a .PRG extension and trying to execute it). (You'd be surprised how often that happened during the early days of learning to use ARC..!)" Albert checks his source and tells Bob: "I'm pretty sure it is a TOS error #35 (GEM error). According to the Concise Atari ST, 68000 Programmer's Reference Guide it is. I think the bombs.txt file just lists it as a GEM error. Maybe its a GEMDOS error similar in the way one would think of PC-DOS or MS-DOS. My experience is the same as yours with regards to getting TOS #35 errors and discovering it is a corrupted file." Brian Gockley of ST Informer Magazine adds: "I looked it up in the ST manual, and found 35 was an "undefined error". Big help there! I get 35 when the program can't find it's support files." Albert Dayes tells Brian: "With it undefined I guess we have the honor of giving a definition. (grin) We could have a contest called name that TOS #35 error." Brian gets into a jocular mood and replies to Albert: "Remember that program that replaced the cherry bombs with little Leonard heads? We could call it Leonard's Folly!" On the subject of archive programs, Richard Gunter tells us: "I've been working with the STZIP 2.0 program (available in Lib 4 in the file ZIP2_0.TOS). So far, I'm quite pleased with it, and have been giving it a bit of a workout with files from the IBM OS2 forums stuff we need at work. Has anyone been having trouble with this program? If so, I'd like to know about it; I'm working on an article and would like to alert my readers to its "gotchas". Please be as specific as you can in describing your problems. System configuration you're using, whether there's any indication of interference with other programs such as DAs and AUTO programs, what was the nature of the difficulty, and what workarounds (if any) you know about. In my own testing, I experienced one failure in adding comments but haven't been able to reproduce it. Also, the utility that makes a self-extracting file out of a ZIP file only works with the "deflate" algorithm. I'm using a Mega 2 ST with 4MB, TOS 1.4, a Supra 120 HD. Normal software configuration includes the TOS 1.4 patch files, CodeHead ramdisk, Hotwire, Pinhead, UIS III, Fujidesk, Cal 6.2, and the Control Panel. Please let me know about your problems with STZIP 2.0 as soon as possible so I can investigate (try to reproduce) and include your experience in the article." Herbert Mueller answers: "If you select files from either one of the two listboxes on the left and right of the screen, you can deselect them all by clicking on the word 'Select' below each box. Works fine most of the time. However, if the box is empty, e.g shows the contents of an empty directory, and you click on the word, it would bomb you out. I use a Mega ST4 with TOS 2.06 with various accessories. I must say that ST-ZIP is a great program and I use it quite often with no serious problems." From the Atari Arts Forum ========================= Have you ever stopped to think about what a great computer the ST is for businesses? Just think about it: It is easy to use and it is relatively inexpensive. The two things that bosses like the most! So why aren't more of these industrial wizzards using STs? The answer can be summed up in one word: SOFTWARE. Oh, sure, there is software out there. But bosses don't seem to like going searching for software. There are those, however, that look for the best, not just the most popular. Sven Bauer posts: "I have friend who owns a restaurant, and is looking for a computer and some easy-to-use business software. I suggested Atari of course, but I'm not aware of any good business software...Can anyone help me out?" Albert Dayes asks Sven: "What kind of software? Spreadsheet, database or specific to running a restaurant?" John Damiano tells Sven: "I know that there is a point of sale program available but I can't remember the vendor right off hand. It was supposed to be very complete. Maybe Beckemyer Development." Brian Gockley jumps into the conversation and says: "Nice & Soft has a very good point of sale / Inventory program, and there are two actual Restaurant Touch screen systems out there. Nice & SoftIgor Tertysznyj Nice & Software 1295 Britannia Rd. Campbelville, ON L0P1B0 Work phone: 1-416-332-0075 CRICIT" From the Atari Vendors Forum ============================ Do you remember how bummed out we were when we found out that Atari was coming out with TOS 2.06 but you couldn't use it unless you had an STe or higher machine? I do. That's why I was so psyched when I heard about the TOS EXTENSION CARD (TEC) from CodeHead Technologies. Evidently I'm not the only one. Beth Jane Freeman posts: "Hi Charles & Company, Just got my Codehead TEC. I've opened the box and glanced at the instruction book. Another job well done, guys!!! Installation will have to wait until I get back from the World Fantasy Convention. A friend of mine who used to work for an Authorized Atari Repair service will install it for me. I just know I'll be pleased with it. Warp 9 was fine program. BTW, how do you run the upgrades from version 3.61? It doesn't like the upgrade programs posted here. None of them say to start with vers. 3.61 (what I've got). Even so it's a real boon, esp. w/Pagestream!" CodeHead Extraordinaire, Charles F. Johnson replies to Jane: "Check the Warp 9 press release in the library here, announcing version 3.70. There are a few major new features in version 3.70 (primarily an extensible screensaver, similar to After Dark (tm) for the Mac or PC). It isn't a free upgrade; the post-3.70 patches are for people who've already received the upgrade from us. Enjoy the new TEC, and thanks for the compliments on our manual!" Well friends, that's about it for this week. I keep meaning to mention that we'd like to hear from you with feedback about this column or STReport in general. If you've got something to say, drop us a line. Comments about this column can be sent via E-Mail on CompuServe to me at 3637,2262. Tune in again next week to hear what they are saying when... People Are Talking ________________________________________________________________ @ @ ******** @@ @@ ******** ***** @@@@@ @@@ **** ***** @@@@@@@@@@@@@@ * *** **** @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ *** ** @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ ********* ** @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ ** @@ ******* ** ** @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ ******* ***** ******* ** ## @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ ******************* ** ##### @@@@@ #### @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ *************** =############# @@ ### #### @@@@@@@@@@@ *********** -####################################################### ** -################# ######## ########### ** =########## #### ########### ** ** ### ########### ** ** ### ########### ** ** ### ########### ** ** ### ########### * ** ** #### ########### **** ** ** #### ########### *** ** ** *** #### ########### ** ** ** ***** ##### ########### ** ** ############### ** **** ########### **** ***** ####### ***** #### ## @@@@@@@ @@ @@ @@ @@@@@@@ @@ @@ @@ @@ @@@@@ @@ @@ @@ @@ @@ @@ @@ @@@@ @@ @@ @@ @@@@@@@ @@ @@ @@ @@@@@@ @@ @@ @@ @@@ @@@@ @@ @@ @@ @@ @@ @@ @@ @@ @@@@@@ @ @@ @@@@@@@ @@@@@@@ @@@@@@ @@@@@@@ @@@@@ @@ @@ @ @@@@@ ### ######### 1992**1992*1992**1992 1992**1992**1992*1992**1992 1992**1992**1992**1992**1992*1992 ###### ###### \*\ ###### /*/ ###### \*\ ###/**\ /*/ ###### \*\ /*/\*\ /*/ /**\ |***\ |*| |**\ ###### #####\*\/*/ \*\/*/ |*||*||*==*| |*| |* *| ###### ###### \**/ \**/ \**/ |*|\*\ |****||**/ ###### ###### ###### ###### ______ ###### ###### /******| |****| |***\ |*| |****| /****| ### |***\ |*== |*==*| |*| |*== \*\ \***\ |****| |*|\*\ |*| |****| |****| \***| ###### |*********/ #### ###### ###### ###### ######### ### ### ### ### ### ### ### ### ### ### ### ####### ##### ######## ###### ### #### ##### #### ### ### ### ### ## ## ### ## ## ### ### ## ## ## ### ## ## ### ### ### ### ## ## ### ## ## ### ### ## ## ## ### ## ## ### ### ### ##### ### ## ## ###### ### #### ### ## #### ### ### ### ### 1992 WORLD SERIES CHAMPIONS!!! THE TORONTO BLUE JAYS!!! 1992 WORLD SERIES CHAMPIONS!!! ROBERTO ALOMAR DEVON WHITE JOE CARTER MANNY LEE DAVE WINFIELD CANDY MALDONADO JOHN OLERUD ALFREDO GRIFFIN KELLY GRUBER DAVID WELLS JACK MORRIS ED SPRAGUE DAVID CONE TURNER WARD TOM HENKE PAT BORDERS PAT TABLER MARK EICHORN DEREK BELL JUAN GUZMAN MIKE TIMLIN RANCE MULLINIKS DUANE WARD CITO GASTON TODD STOTTLEMYRE JIMMY KEY DAVE STIEB PAT GILLICK *********************************************************************** IMPORTANT NOTICE! ================= STReport International Online Magazine is available every week in the ST Advantage on DELPHI. STReport readers are invited to join DELPHI and become a part of the friendly community of Atari enthusiasts there. SIGNING UP WITH DELPHI ====================== Using a personal computer and modem, members worldwide access DELPHI services via a local phone call JOIN -- DELPHI -------------- Via modem, dial up DELPHI at 1-800-695-4002 then... When connected, press RETURN once or twice and... At Password: type STREPORT and press RETURN. DELPHI's Basic Plan offers access for only $6.00 per hour, for any baud rate. The $5.95 monthly fee includes your first hour online. For more information, call: DELPHI Member Services at 1-800-544-4005 DELPHI is a service of General Videotex Corporation of Cambridge, MA. Try DELPHI for $1 an hour! For a limited time, you can become a trial member of DELPHI, and receive 5 hours of evening and weekend access during this month for only $5. If you're not satisfied, simply cancel your account before the end of the calendar month with no further obligation. If you keep your account active, you will automatically be enrolled in DELPHI's 10/4 Basic Plan, where you can use up to 4 weekend and evening hours a month for a minimum $10 monthly charge, with additional hours available at $3.96. But hurry, this special trial offer will expire soon! To take advantage of this limited offer, use your modem to dial 1-800-365-4636. Press once or twice. When you get the Password: prompt, type IP26 and press again. Then, just answer the questions and within a day or two, you'll officially be a member of DELPHI! TOP TEN DOWNLOADS (10/28/92) STR842 NEW SWEDISH MONO EMULATOR DROIDS ATARI EXPLORER ONLINE 9216/9217 PAULA20D.LZH CINDY CRAWFORD SPECTRUM GEMDOS MANUAL CYBERNETIX SILKMOUSE 2.6 MEGA DEPACK V2.0 All of the above files can be found in the RECENT ARRIVALS database for at least one week after the posting of this list. Please Note that in the case of online magazines, only the most current issue in the database at the time of this compilation is considered for the Top 10 list. Also, for all files, a submission is eligible for the Top 10 list for only four weeks after its original uploading. DELPHI- It's getting better all the time! *********************************************************************** > INSTALLATION OF HD DRIVE STR InfoFile Souping up the MSTE """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" INSTALLING A HIGH DENSITY DRIVE IN A MEGA STE ============================================= by Kevin J. Conway Some time ago, I owned a 130XE and though that its 90K disks were more enough to hold everything that would ever want. Now that I have an ST, no floppy disk seems to be big enough to hold all of the stuff that I might want to stuff on it. The new Mega STe has Tos 2.06, the Ajax chip and a 1.44 Mb disk drive. Some of the older machines, such as what I bought, have Tos 2.05, no Ajax chip and a 720K disk drive. The avail- ability of these three components is fairly good, but, despite rumour, and conjecture, it is only necessary to exchange the Ajax chip for the Western Digital floppy controller, and install a high density drive. Any standard 3.5 inch, 1/3 height high density floppy drive should work in your system. I purchased a Panasonic device and am quite pleased with it. Be aware that the Epson drive that Atari uses in the Mega has a custom faceplate. This faceplate will only fit on a Epson drive. To my understanding, the high density Epson drive is an Epson SMD-340. If you choose to use a drive other than Epson, you will either have to remove the faceplate from the drive, or cut the casing on your Mega to fit the drive's faceplate. The disk ejector button in the drive that I purchased does not fit through the hole that is provided for Atari's mechanism, so I have to poke a screwdriver through the hole to push the button. Since I have over six months left on my warranty, I am reluctant to deface the machine as of yet. In strict legal terms, I voided the warranty when I removed the top cover and put the new drive in, but in my mind it is far easier for the dealer to return a machine will still looks to be stock should I have major problems in the future. To get the high density drive working in your Mega STe, you will need to do the following: 1. Replace the Western Digital floppy controller chip with an Ajax chip. This chip is located under the hard drive cover. Your dealer can identify and replace this quite quickly. 2. Find the small set of dip switches in the hard drive bay. Flip switch seven to on. It should be the only one that is on. This will enable high density formatting. 3. Remove the top cover from your Mega and remove the floppy drive. The floppy drive is connected to the main system by a data cable and a power cable. It is, in turn, attached to the top cover by a mounting assembly. Don't try to move the top cover too far without disconnecting these first. Also, there is a small led attached to the top cover that serves as the power on light. You should disconnect this also. 4. Check to see that the new drive is set as D0 (drive zero). Also make sure that the RDY jumper is removed. 5. Mount the high density drive in the place of the Atari mechanism. Note; the data cable has a thin red line on one side. This is connected to pin 1 on the 34-pin connector. The drive should indicate either where pin 1 or pin 2 should be connected. Make sure that the side of the data cable that has the thin red line is attached on the same side as pin 1 or pin 2 of the drive. Reconnect the power cable to the drive. This cable only goes in _one_ way. Make sure you don't force it in, as it should clip into place quite naturally. If it is reversed, you will fry the drive when you power up your Mega. Quite costly and quite smelly too. 6. Put the top cover back into place and test the machine. You should now be able to format High Density disks in High Density. When you format from the desktop, you will see that you have the option of single sided, double sided and high density. Again, this option only appears if you flip dip switch 7. If when you test the drive, nothing happens, the data cable may be in the wrong way. This does not harm the drive. Just flip it over and it should work fine. If not, you have a problem. It's probably not a good idea to put the screws for the top cover back in until you have the drive working properly. It saves aggravation on having to put them in and take them out over and over again. Having done all of the above and successfully tested the drive, you should be able to read and write High Density disks on your STe and exchange disk with IBM systems. I have heard some people complain that have had problems reading STe-formatted high density disks on an IBM. There is a program in the public domain called FDCPATCH will load the High Density floppy cookie into the cookie jar. Apparently Tos 2.05 does not update the cookie jar properly, resulting in problems when reading on IBM systems. With the FDCPATCH program loaded, I have been able to write to High Density disks and load them successfully on IBM systems. I also have been able to save from the IBM and load on the STe without problems. Having a High Density disk allows me greater disk storage for hard drive backups as well as allowing me to exchange data more efficiently with other systems. My STe is a business workhorse; having the High density floppy makes this workhorse all the more valuable. Now, having pulled the Epson mechanism out of the STe, you will have a spare drive that can be used a 'B' mechanism. It is quite simple to hook this up. To do this, you will need the following supplies and tools: 1 - 34 pin drive connector 1 - Six-foot Atari ST disk drive cable 1 - Four pin drive power connector (small) 1 - Four pin female power supply power connector (large) 1 - Ohmmeter 1 - Soldering iron and solder You will need to do the following: 1. Cut the drive cable in half. 2. Expose the wires from the cable and strip the ends. 3. Solder the exposed ends of the wires to the 34-pin connector as per the instructions below. 4. Remove the plate covering the VME bus on the back of the STe. This is also the Serial 2 port. Disconnect the data cable for the Serial Port 2. 5. Pull the spare power supply cable through the back of the STe. This will be used to power your floppy. 6. Solder the large female power and the small drive connector together. Make sure that you have the right connections as a mistake will blow your drive. Using cables from an old power supply or buying new cables will allow you to solder the wires together by colour this will save costly mistakes. 7. Plug it all in and test it. You may find that your solder connections are loose, break or just not good enough and may need to do them over again. Following these instructions should give you a working 'B' drive from your spare Epson mechanism. The pin out of the atari plug is below. 10 11 8 9 6 12 13 7 2 3 1 The following connections need to be made: Atari Plug 34-pin Connector 1 30 2 32 3 3 4 8 5 10 6 Not Connected 8 16 9 18 10 20 11 22 12 24 13 26 14 28 A more complete description of the steps to creating a 'B' drive can be found in the 'teacdriv' archive on Canada Remote Systems. This documentation is provided for information only. I will make no guarantees as to the suitably or applicability of this information to your system. Following these instructions _will_ void your warranty. Copyright, 1992 Kevin J. Conway Bibliomaniac Library Consultancy This file may be reprinted in full provided the copyright statement appears. ______________________________________________________________ > GEMULATOR!! STR Review "..quite an achievement, ..released too early" """""""""""""""""""""" GEMULATOR! RUN ST Software on your IBM CLONE FACT or FICTION? by Don Liscombe A first hand report on the new product for your PC - Gemulator . A hardware/software combination that allows you to run Atari ST software. My evaluation is being performed on a 486-50DX EISA machine, with an ATI Wonder XL video card using a Microsoft bus mouse. General information: Gemulator consists of 2 parts, one being an 8 bit card which holds the TOS roms and is sold by PMC, and the 68000 emulator software comes with the package (Revision 1.0 - Unregistered). Darek Mihocka, of Branch Always Software, sells the Gemulator software as shareware for $59.95, which will entitle you to printed documentation, and the next software update. Software updates beyond this point, are $15. The software loads in and allows you to select items, such as INSTALL (a specific TOS version), BOTH(floppies), SWAP(A: and B: drives), FULLSCREEN or WINDOW mouse control, COLOR or MONO, QUICK (screen redraws for some applications), SPEED (test), REGISTER (information), and QUIT to DOS mode. Included in the software, is a machine language monitor program which is accessible from the Gemulator main menu. Depressing the F11 key, will bring you back to the Gemulator menu, while the F12 key will reboot your "ST". Installation: The TOS ROM board is easily installed, in any ISA/EISA slot which works with an 8 bit card. The circuit board is of a quality design, and all chips on the board are socketed. The board as shipped, comes with Atari TOS 2.06, and sockets exist for up to a total of 4 versions of TOS. (A total of 8 sockets are on the board for ROMS, 2 of them used by TOS 2.06) Written documentation is rather limited, and should you wish to add additional TOS ROMS to the circuit board, the picture they give displaying the position of the 6 chip rom set, is barely legible. They would have been far better off with a hand drawing, than a poor scan of a photo. Look & Feel: The display quality is excellent, both from DOS mode, and from a Window. One problem Darek makes note of, is when you double click, quite often, the system does not appear to recognize it. Adjusting the double click speed with the control panel will remedy this problem, but you will have to set up a boot disk so that it is adjusted each time you boot up. GEM screen redraws are slow, and need the assist of a screen accelerator such as Warp 9 or Turbo ST. Running Gemulator in a Window, makes the screen display crawl (no one said running a graphics display in a Window would be fast) using Windows 3.1, but it seemed to run a bit faster in an OS/2 Dos Window (sorry Microsoft). Requirements : For this 2 mb ST emulator, you will need at least 5 megabytes of RAM, which will require you to make use of your PC hard drive, to emulate RAM using a virtual device driver supplied. With 8 Megs of RAM, Gemulator does not require the virtual ram. The software will work with either 3.5" or 5.25" floppy drives, and disk I/O speed seems about normal. A 486 33Mhz is reccommended for overall ST 100% speed. Positive Comments : Gemulator emulates the ST quite well. Although Darek has some touchups to put on some routines, he has done an excellent job so far, in getting this emulator up and running ST software. I works well with OS/2, as long as you remember to adjust your DOS settings to give Gemulator the 5.25 megs of XMS memory it wants to load into. As PCs get faster and faster, Gemulator will be able to run your ST software faster as well. Negative Comments : My opinion, is that this product, although quite an achievement, was released too early. When your advertisements indicate that "Gemulator makes your favorite Atari ST software 100% PC compatible", "Share PC's disk drives, hard drives and printers", "Reads all ST disks", "Runs Pagestream,Calamus,...Flash,...GFA Basic,...LDW Power,etc ", and the released version fails to live up to the expectations, there are going to be a lot of disappointed people. Listed are some of the problems I have encountered so far. WINDOWS mode When you are running Gemulator in a window, the Atari mouse pointer (which becomes active when you move the Windows mouse pointer inside the DOS window), drifts away from the windows mouse pointer. This becomes annoying, having 2 different pointing devices on the screen, both moving as you move the mouse, apart from each other. The good news is, that you can use the Atari mouse alternate keys to align the 2 pointers back together(ALT-arrow keys). The bad news, is for my system, they were not long drifting apart. This problem occurs on running in an OS/2 DOS window as well. HARD DRIVE ACCESS Darek does not have the hard drive portion of the Gemulator software completed yet. What he allows you in version 1.0, is the read only, the first 32 megabytes of your C partition. This will be remedied sometime before the end of 1992, when he introduces a driver which will allow you to read and write to all IBM hard drives, and read from CDROM drives. Using the HDX boot program, I managed to get the drive C icon on the screen, but most of the time I accessed drive C to read, I was stopped promptly, by an Alert box "Your output device is not receiving data [cancel] [retry] ". This problem was remedied by switching to the Supra boot program. Many of the programs listed as being supported, require a hd for proper installation to the best of my knowledge (eg. Pagestream, Calamus, LDW power, Word Perfect). NO RS232 SUPPORT Although Flash is listed as a program you can run on your PC in both pamphlets handed out at product shows, and PMC advertisements, there is no support for the RS232 port at all, nor is there a mention of support being added in future revisions. Perhaps this was an oversight, perhaps not. GFA PROBLEMS GFA version 2.0 seems to run ok with Gemulator, but versions 3.05, 3.5 and 3.6 have problems. The program will load in, and the screen will clear and freeze up. I have found through several tests, that using the Gemulator WINDOW mode mouse, and by clicking on the left mouse button after the screen goes blank, the editor screen will come up. This forces you to run GFA from a window, but due to the mouse pointer problems, and the slowness that the windowed screen offers, this is not very usable. This would appear to be a minor timing problem, that should be easily remedied. COPY PROTECTED DISKETTES Gemulator does not read most copy protected disks. Considering the two computers use completed different floppy controllers, it is doubtful that protected disk support will be added. It was interesting to see Gemulator load in Dungeon Master to the introduction, but then the mouse got very confused, and it would not recognize my disk as the original disk after checking for copy protection. Flight Simulator loaded up, and the screen displays looked fine, but the mouse up/down was inverted, and the keys for the throttle would not respond at all. It would appear there are still a fair number of problems to resolve on the keyboard/mouse routines, before Gemulator will handle the larger portion of games(that it can get by the copy protection on). Some games which would load in, and use VBIs to have smooth scrolling, seemed to flicker excessively. This was also evident on the load in sequence of Gunship by Microprose. HI DENSITY FLOPPY SUPPORT Although Gemulator supports read and write access to the IBM high density 5.25" and 3.5" drives, you can only format your floppies in 360K & 720K from the Atari format disk screen. TOS 2.06 has support for high and low density floppies, so perhaps this will be added in the future. WHAT IS NOT EMULATED (above the hard drive & RS232 restrictions) Sound, Midi, joysticks & the blitter chip are not emulated. According to the text file on the disk, over the next year, support will be added for the audio, midi, and the joystick. Also, Darek was working on the blitter emulation to speed things up at the Toronto Atari Computer Exhibition(spring 1992), but I see no mention of it in any of the information I have. Suggestions for Gemulator : Hopefully, as Darek adds in these new features, he will have them as selectable items on his software menu, so that if you wish to run business applications, you do not need to enable the sound/midi/ joysticks/rs232,etc, thus getting as much speed out of your application as possible or at least, minimize memory requirements. A save configuration would be useful from the Gemulator main menu, and would load in as a default. Attain more beta testers with various system configurations, so that software revisions do not get out with an extensive number of bugs. Send out software updates A.S.A.P., before too much negative press dampens out sales. Add in support for high density 3.5" floppy formatting from TOS 2.06. Summary : Gemulator has been shipping since mid-September 92, and yet, in my opinion, several of the advertised features, have yet to be implemented or be debugged. The next software release, will speed the program up for use with the 486 and allow you to emulate a 4 meg ST. Although the hardware requirements for 100% ST speed are high, it is a programming marvel, and whether or not this product is for you, you will have to be the judge. I bought Gemulator in the hopes of using it for programming cross development adding in both RS232 and hard drive support. From what I have learned about the current product, I'll have to wait for support in the form of new software updates over the next 6-12 months. Article by Don Liscombe SysOp of The Brewery BBS - AtariNet 51:5/0 - Fnet node 66 416-683-3089 HST Dual 14.4 - Supporting the Atari ST & IBM PC Gemulator is available from Purple Mountain Computers,Inc. 15600 NE 8th St. Suite A3-412 Bellevue, WA 98008 voice 206-747-1519 Gemulator information can be obtained either from PMC, or Branch Always Software(Darek Mihocka) 14150 NE 20th St. Suite 302 Bellevue, WA 98007 voice/recording 206-885-5893 OS/2 is copyrighted/trademarked by IBM Corp. Windows is copyrighted/trademarked by Microsoft Corp. This article may be reprinted/duplicated in any format, as long as the entire document is unchanged, and displayed in its entirety, including this notice _________________________________________________________________ > STUMPF SPEAKS UP! STR Spotlight Alwin Stumpf speaks up.... """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""" Below we present a Fidonet post from Alwin Stumpf Msg #91 / 1-93 Time: 25 Oct 92 20:00:00 From: Alwin Stumpf @ ST To : All Subj: ATARI's Zukunft ---------[ATARI_EXPERT.GER]----------- * Originally from Area 'Atari.Soft' * Originally to * Forwarded by Thorsten Bella on 2:245/8.35, 27 Oct 92 00:30:02 From: Alwin Stumpf @ ST To : All Subj: ATARI's future Dear ATARI users, I am sure you are aware that I am no longer working at ATARI Corp. Different personal and inner company reasons made me do this, not so easy a step. I understand the current German ATARI market is categorized as one of the strongest markets anywhere, and I am sure that makes it hard to understand why I left. I appreciate your feelings deeply. My decision to leave ATARI was strengthened as a result of it being decided to stop FALCON production because people noticed that the planned customers weren't ready to invest between 2300 and 3500 German Marks ($1300 and $2000). These persons would most likely buy a MS DOS compatible computer or even a Macintosh instead of putting a low end machine with very limited uses in their house. At this time however, a few FALCONS are being delivered to a few select, handpicked German dealers, these belong to the first production run and are without, as announced, MultiTOS. Instead, they are being delivered with the single tasking TOS 4.0x. The number of machines are limited and will be the only ones available for the time being. You most likely will not understand this unusual strategy, but why should we produce thousands upon thousands of FALCONS that can't be sold? The FSM-GDOS and MultiTOS production had to be stopped in the last minute because 1) a renegotiation with Mr. Eric Smith (copywrite) and 2) differences between ATARI and Bitstream. Naturally ATARI knows that MultiTOS, for the entire semiprofessional area, shouldn't be underestimated and that the MT project will be taken up again. The SUTRA project is still under high pressure development and should come out around the first of April 1993. The entire ATARI product line is still going to be 'fully supported' as much as possible, although the 68030 class of computers will have to be held back until it is believed they have a fairly good chance in the market. At this time, the need for powerful machines seems to be satisfied by the TT and ATARI is having it hard enough as it is. I hope I was able to give you a small picture into ATARI's future and I beg of you not to doubt in ATARI's credibility. Think positive! I wish you all much luck With friendly grusses Alwin Stumpf (former General Manager, ATARI Germany) *********************************************************************** :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. If you use American Express to pay your GEnie bill............ 2. Guess Who Won the GEnie Presidential Straw Poll...............*SURVEY 3. Internet Open Beta - Price Change.............................INTERNET 4. GEnie has the Remedy for Your Medical Information Needs.......MEDICINE 5. HALLOWEEN Fun, -=PRIZES=-, Monsters & More in.................CHAT 6. Save Precious Memories + SAVE MONEY on a Camcorder at.........JCPENNEY 7. Boo...Come win prizes at our Halloween Haunted House..........HOME 8. A spine-chilling night in the adult space fantasy.............FED 9. Even Ghouls and Goblins fear Halloween in.....................GEMSTONE 10. HalloWEIRD night: ghosts, monsters, & aliens on the...........LEFT 11. Investors Nervously Await Tuesday's Election Results..........SOS 12. Join in the Spooky Spirit this Halloween in...................DGATE 13. PRIZES/FUN at the HALLOWEEN COSTUME PARTY 10/31, 11pm in......FAMILY 14. Home Electronics SAVINGS - In Time for the HOLIDAYS at........SEARS 15. Special offer, for MEMBERS ONLY in............................SOFTCLUB Welcome ****** ******** ** ** ** To the ** ** ** ** ** GEnie ****** ** ST ** ** ** ATARI ** ** Roundtable ** ** ** ****** ** ** ** ** *** ** *** The Official Online Resource of Atari Corporation *** ** *** Atari ST Roundtable Real Time Conference Special Events Calendar Monday, November 16th....... -> * LIVE FROM COMDEX * <- -- Sam Tramiel -- Wednesday, Nov. 18 - Keith Gerdes {TraceTech} will be our guest to discuss his latest projects. These include DATA DIET v2.0 and DATA RESCUE. He is the author of numerous programs such as, Squish, DC Formatter, and DCopy Shell; just to name a few! Regular Open Conference every Wednesday night, 10PM EDT, 7PM PDT DTP conference every Monday at 10PM eastern in room 3. New Files in Your Library ------------------------- No. File Name Address Description ----- ------------ ----------- ------------------------------------- 26327 MYSTIC.LZH G.ABBOTT1 Dungeon Master type RPG 26324 EDGESALE.TXT MAG.SOFTWARE Diamond Edge on Sale - ONLY $44.95! 26323 3DFLPTCL.TXT MAG.SOFTWARE New Floptical Drive Available!!! 26317 INTEGRTY.LZH D.PANKE INTEGRITY File Verifier 26311 BLITZ14U.ARC E.MONACO Powerful Defragmenter/Optimizer 26310 STAR_2K.LZH J.WROTNIAK Sky mapper/browser - updated 1992! 26309 ST2K_FIX.LZH J.WROTNIAK Replacement file for old STAR_2K.LZH 26308 111MEGHD.NEW LOTSABYTES 111 meg HDs in SCSI case $385.00! 26305 SCHIPATA.LZH E.KRIMEN Schoonschip: algebraic manipulations 26304 SDOCSATA.LZH E.KRIMEN Documentation for Schoonschip. 26303 README.SCH E.KRIMEN README file for Schoonschip 26302 AMIATA.TXT E.KRIMEN Distribution info for Schoonschip. 26301 PETRA.LZH E.KRIMEN Lets ST users use Paula MOD players. 26300 PAULA20B.LZH E.KRIMEN Paula 2.0b Noisetracker player. 26299 LIGHTCYC.LZH E.KRIMEN Tron Lightcycles game. 26298 GEM_LOAD.LZH E.KRIMEN Shows CPU load in a GEM window 26295 PARLOR12.ARC D.A.BRUMLEVE Insect-matching game for ages 3-8 26292 HERCULES.LZH D.COLASONO HERCULES SCANNED AT 300DPI IN IMG 26287 STRVIEW2.LZH E.GOODMAN1 New BETTER version of STR_VIEW.LZH 26286 AEO_VIEW.LZH E.GOODMAN1 Finally, an Atari Explorer Viewer! 26285 ASC2WW1.ARC J.SIEBEN ASCII to Word Writer Conversion Kit Darlah's Treat of the Month - EDGEDEMO.LZH GEnie Information copyright (C) 1991 by General Electric Information Services/GEnie, reprinted by permission *********************************************************************** > 600x600 DPI! STR InfoFile HP LaserJet 4 and 4M printers """"""""""""""""""""""""" NEW GENERATION OF HP LASERJET PRINTERS OFFERS 600-DPI PRINT QUALITY AT PRICES BELOW 300-DPI PRINTERS Improved Network-Printing Capabilities and Automatic Language and Interface Switching Make Printers Attractive to All Businesses Hewlett-Packard Company today introduced the HP LaserJet 4 and 4M printers -- RISC-based, 600(dpi) laser printers for Intel-based personal computer (PC), Macintosh and network-computing systems -- at prices lower than many 300-dpi printers. The HP LaserJet 4 printer with enhanced HP PCL 5 printer language replaces the HP LaserJet III printer, the market's top-selling printer. The HP LaserJet 4M printer offers integrated Adobe PostScript Level 2 software, 6 Mbytes of memory and automatic language and interface switching for use in Macintosh and mixed computing environments. Standard features of the HP LaserJet 4 and 4M printers provide users with the following: - Superior print quality at processing speeds up to six times faster than the HP LaserJet III printer. The printers' true 600-dpi printing capability is enhanced by microfine toner and HP's Resolution Enhancement technology. HP-designed RISC-based formatters enable the printers' 8-ppm engines to process 600-dpi print jobs as fast as comparable 300-dpi printers even when printing most complex, mixed-text and graphics pages. - Easy connection to mixed computing environments. The HP LaserJet 4M printer automatically switches between parallel, serial and LocalTalk so PCs and Macintoshes can be attached directly to the printer. The HP LaserJet 4 printer automatically switches between parallel, serial and optional HP JetDirect interfaces that support a variety of network operating systems. PostScript also is available to upgrade the HP LaserJet 4 printer for use in mixed environments. Both printers automatically switch between enhanced HP PCL 5 and PostScript. - Increased paper handling that is four times the 200-sheet capacity of the HP LaserJet III printer. The printers come standard with two paper trays that hold 350 sheets. Options include a third tray that holds 500 sheets for a total capacity of 850 sheets and a power envelope feeder that holds 75 envelopes. IMPROVED PRINT QUALITY ---------------------- To ensure the best print quality possible, the HP LaserJet 4 and 4M printers use a new 600-dpi designed engine rather than an upgraded version of a current 300-dpi engine. Print quality is further improved with HP's Resolution Enhancement technology, which smooths the edges of laser-printed text and graphics. The printers also use microfine toner particles that are 20 to 30 percent smaller than particles used in typical laser-printer toner form other companies. Microfine toner sharpens edges of text, improves photographic quality of images and results in less toner scatter. The printers have 45 scalable typefaces -- the most typefaces offered in any HP LaserJet printer -- including 35 Intellifont typefaces and 10 standard TrueType typefaces contained in Microsoft Windows 3.1. The printers transparently process Intellifont or TrueType typefaces when both formats are used on the same page. The standard typefaces for the HP LaserJet 4 and 4M printers support a wide variety of word processing, presentation, spreadsheet and other typical office applications. (See Typeface List in this section.) Integrating TrueType and Intellifont in the printer provides Windows 3.1 users with automatic WYSIWYG on the computer screen and improves printer performance and type flexibility. The HP LaserJet 4M printer also includes the standard 35 PostScript typefaces. Optional PostScript Level 2 software from Adobe is available for the HP LaserJet 4 printer at $499 (U.S. list). The PostScript option is a user-installable SIMM that plugs into the printer's formatter to make upgrading simple, inexpensive and fast. FASTER DOCUMENT PROCESSING -------------------------- Delays that are common with many printers as they process complex graphic documents are eliminated with the Intel 80960 KA-20 MHz RISC processor used in the HP LaserJet 4 and 4M printers. The following features also speed performance: - Enhanced HP PCL 5 printer language that has been optimized for the faster graphics performance - Integrated PostScript Level 2 that offers four times the speed of the HP PostScript cartridge when used with an HP LaserJet III printer - Speedier parallel port that transfers data up to 156 Kbytes/sec., about 10 times faster than a standard parallel port - Faster printer drivers that are more efficient in handling print requests The HP LaserJet 4 comes standard with 2 Mbytes of memory and can be upgraded to 32 Mbytes. Most 600-dpi text and graphic documents can be printed with the standard 2-Mbyte memory because of the compression capabilities of enhanced HP PCL 5. The HP LaserJet 4M printer comes standard with 6 Mbytes and can be upgraded to 22 Mbytes. Users can add industry-standard SIMM memory in increments of 1 Mbyte, $109; 2 Mbytes, $199; 4 Mbytes, $299; and 8 Mbytes, $569 (all U.S. list prices). SIMPLE CONNECTION TO BUSINESS COMPUTING ENVIRONMENTS ---------------------------------------------------- Bi-Tronics parallel and serial ports and a modular I/O (MIO) slot are standard with the HP LaserJet 4 printer. The Bi-Tronics parallel port provides bidirectional communications capabilities so the printer can send printer-status messages to users' computer screens when it needs servicing, additional paper or toner. MS-DOS users also can change printer settings from their PC using HP Explorer, a free software utility included with the printer. (See Section III for more information on HP Explorer software). The printer's MIO slot lets users add optional HP JetDirect cards that support Novell NetWare, IBM LAN Server and Microsoft LAN Manager running on Ethernet or Token Ring as well as HP-UX, Sun OS and Santa Cruz Operation (SCO) Unix running on Ethernet. The cards range in price from $695 to $895 U.S. list. HP JetDirect AppleTalk cards using LocalTalk or EtherTalk connections are available for $230 and $695, respectively. Because the cards are integrated into the printers' design, no extraneous cables, boxes or power supplies are required. The HP LaserJet 4M printer comes standard with parallel and serial ports and a factory-installed HP JetDirect LocalTalk card. INCREASED PAPER HANDLING ------------------------ A multipurpose tray that holds 100 sheets or 10 envelopes and a 250-sheet letter-size tray come standard for a total capacity of 350 sheets. The face-down output tray holds 250 sheets. An optional assembly can be attached under the printers to expand the paper capacity by 500 sheets for a total of 850 sheets. The assembly and one 500-sheet tray that holds letter-, legal-, A4-, or executive-size paper are available for $349 (U.S. list). A power envelope feeder that holds 75 envelopes in a variety of U.S. and European sizes also is available for $349 (U.S. list). OTHER ENHANCEMENTS AND SUPPORT ------------------------------ The HP laserJet 4 printer includes several other improvements over the HP LaserJet III printer, including: - free drivers for Windows 3.0/3.1, WordPerfect 5.1 and Lotus 2.X, 3.X. All HP LaserJet III drivers are compatible for immediate support of the HP LaserJet 4 printer. Macintosh and Windows drivers are included with the HP LaserJet 4 printer PostScript upgrade kit and HP LaserJet 4M printer. - free printer-matching screen fonts for Windows 3.0 and 3.1 are available upon request. - a vacuum fluorescent front-panel display that is easier to read in all types of lighting conditions. - a smaller footprint -- 16.3 in. width by 15.8 in. depth by 11.7 in. height. The printer weighs 35 pounds, 15 pounds less than the HP LaserJet III printer. - a selection of user manuals and key caps that include language versions in English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Danish, Finnish, Swedish, Norwegian, Dutch and Portuguese. The font panel will display messages in all 11 languages. AVAILABILITY ------------ The HP LaserJet 4 and 4M printers and all accessories are expected to be available today from HP-authorized dealers and distributors worldwide. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ---------------------- For more information on the HP LaserJet 4 and 4M printers, contact your HP dealer. Technical data sheets for the printers are available via Fax from HP FIRST (Fax Information Retrieval Support Technology). Dial (800) 333- 1917 from a touch-tone phone in the U.S. or Canada and select "1" for HP FIRST. If you are calling from outside the U.S. or Canada, dial (208) 344-4809 from your Fax machine and select section 1. The HP FIRST document ID number for the HP LaserJet 4 printer data sheet is 1320, the HP LaserJet 4M printer data sheet is document ID 1321. TYPEFACE LIST ------------- The HP LaserJet 4 and 4M printers have 45 scalable typefaces including 35 Intellifont and 10 TrueType typefaces contained in Microsoft Windows 3.1. Line printer 16.67 pitch, a bitmapped font, is also included. Intellifont Scalable Typefaces TrueType Scalable Typefaces Albertus Extra Bold Arial Albertus Medium Arial Bold Antique Olive Arial Bold Italic Antique Olive Bold Arial Italic Antique Olive Italic Times New Roman CG Omega Times New Roman Bold CG Omega Bold Times New Roman Bold Italic CG Omega Bold Italic Times New Roman Italic CG Omega Italic Symbol CG Times Wingdings CG Times Bold CG Times Bold Italic CG Times Italic Clarendon Condensed Coronet *Courier *Courier Bold *Courier Bold Italic *Courier Italic Garamond Antiqua Garamond Halbfett Garamond Kursiv Garamond Kursiv Halbfett *Letter Gothic *Letter Gothic Bold *Letter Gothic Italic Marigold Univers Medium Univers Bold Univers Bold Italic Univers Medium Italic Univers Medium Condensed Univers Bold Condensed Univers Bold Condensed Italic Univers Medium Condensed Italic * Fixed pitch scalable typefaces. All other typefaces are proportional. HP LASERJET 4 AND 4M PRINTERS AND ACCESSORIES U.S. List Prices Part Product Price C2001A HP LaserJet 4 printer (includes: 2MB RAM, $2199.00 Bi-Tronics (bi-directional parallel) and RS-232/RS-422 serial interfaces, one toner cartridge, one 100-sheet/10 envelope multi- purpose tray, one 250-sheet paper tray, power cord, driver and documentation). C2021A HP LaserJet 4M printer (includes: 6MB RAM, 2999.00 LocalTalk, Bi-Tronics (bi-directional parallel) and RS-232/RS-422 serial interfaces, Integrated PostScript Level 2 Software from Adobe, one toner cartridge, one 100-sheet/10 envelope multi- purpose tray, one 250-sheet paper tray, power cord, driver and documentation). 92298A HP LaserJet toner cartridge with microfine toner; 150.00 approx. 6,000 pages at 5% coverage. C2063A 1 MB Memory SIMM 109.00 C2064A 2 MB Memory SIMM 199.00 C2065A 4 MB Memory SIMM 299.00 C2066A 8 MB Memory SIMM 569.00 C2080A Adobe PostScript Level 2 Language SIMM 499.00 C2082A Power Envelope Feeder for Com-10, Monarch, DL, 349.00 C5 and B5 sizes C2083A Letter, executive and A4 multi-size 500-sheet 349.00 paper tray and paper tray assembly C2083B Legal, letter, executive and A4 multi-size 349.00 500-sheet paper tray and paper tray assembly C2084A 500-sheet multi-size replacement paper tray 129.00 (letter, executive, A4). Requires optional tray assembly C2083A or C2083B C2084B 500-sheet multi-size replacement paper tray 129.00 (legal, letter, executive, A4). Requires optional tray assembly C2083A or C2083B C2085A 250-sheet multi-size replacement paper tray 99.00 (legal, letter, executive, A4) C2085B 250-sheet replacement paper tray (letter) 99.00 C2085C 250-sheet replacement paper tray (A4) 99.00 HP JetDirect Cards J2337A Novell NetWare-Ethernet /802.3 LAN, 695.00 Thin LAN (BNC) and 10Base-T (RJ-45) ports J2338A Microsoft LAN Manager, 3Com 3+ Open LAN 695.00 Manager - 802.3 LAN, Thin LAN (BNC) and 10Base-T (RJ-45) ports J2339A EtherTalk, Thin LAN (BNC) and 10Base-T 695.00 (RJ-45) ports J2340A HP-UX, SunOS, and SCO UNIX-Ethernet Lan, 895.00 Thin LAN (BNC) and 10Base-T (RJ-45) ports (HP-UX and SunOS UNIX operating systems require a digital-audio tape or cartridge at a price of $100.00) J2341A LocalTalk 230.00 C2059C Novell Netware - Token Ring 895.00 C2059D IBM LAN Server, Microsoft LAN Manager, 3Com 895.00 3+Open LAN Manager - Token Ring HP ADVANCES THE STANDARD FOR HIGHER RESOLUTION OFFICE PRINTING New HP LaserJet 4 and 4M Printers Come Standard With 600-dpi Resolution, Resolution Enhancement Technology and Microfine Toner Print resolution, which is expressed in dots-per-inch (dpi), is a criteria often used when comparing laser printers. However, laser-printer manufacturers have developed different ways to achieve higher resolution output, such as technologies that vary dot size and placement, variation in toner particle size, software algorithms to manipulate dot placement and improvements to the capabilities of the printer engine. 300-dpi Resolution ------------------ The advent of the HP LaserJet printer with 300-dpi capability changed the appearance of office documents and set the standard for business documents. Users readily accepted this new standard because their documents looked better and were produced faster with laser printers than with dot-matrix of daisy wheel printers. Printers with true 300-dpi resolution produce dots on a 300 x 300-dpi grid, meaning 300 dots of toner can be placed vertically and horizontally per inch. This translates into 90,000 points of data per square inch, making individual characters sharper and clearer than lower resolution impact printers. Enhanced Output --------------- Over the years, manufacturers developed add-on or add-in boards that offered even higher resolutions -- 600-, 800-, 1,000- or 1,200-dpi -- for additional costs. These boards plugged into a PC or laser printer to provide higher quality output. Previously, application software was needed to support higher resolutions when using printer add-in boards. However, new laser printers with engines designed specifically for 600-dpi output are compatible with all office applications regardless of whether the applications support 600-dpi. This compatibility is possible as the resolution is engine dependent and can translate 300-dpi commands into 600-dpi output. Other technologies also were developed, such as HP's Resolution Enhancement technology (RET) and microfine toner to enhance the appearance of 300-dpi output at no additional cost to the user. RET varies the size and placement of the dots produced by the printer, creating smoother curves and edges on individual characters. Microfine toner uses smaller toner particles which produce finer dots that further sharpen the edges of text, improve the photographic quality of images and reduce the amount of toner particle "scatter" that appears on a page but doesn't produce characters. Microfine toner particles are 20 percent to 50 percent smaller than particles used in typical laser printers. 600-dpi Standard ---------------- True 600-dpi means that a printer's engine is designed to produce 600 dots per inch. The pixel grid for 600-dpi output is four times finer than that used for 300-dpi and the engine uses finer toner particles to take advantage of more precise dot placement. Better control of smaller dots translates into better 600-dpi output. Some printers use "addressable resolution" of 600-dpi, which improves the appearance of 300-dpi by placing 300-dpi dots on a 600-dpi grid. Software algorithms use a dot depletion scheme to create the appearance of 600-dpi by strategically depleting dots that create the stair-step effect on curves known as jaggies. By eliminating these dots, curves are smoother and points are sharper than 300-dpi output, but not as fine as true 600-dpi. While true 600-dpi improves print quality, it also creates four times the amount of data -- 360,000 points for each one inch square -- compared to 300-dpi. In order to maintain the performance users have come to expect with their printers, it's imperative that 600-dpi printers process data at a much faster rate. In the past, users had the choice of purchasing higher quality printers, but at significant cost increase. This cost positioned higher resolution printers for use with certain applications versus use in the general office printer market. The HP LaserJet 4 and 4M printers come standard with true 600-dpi resolution, RET and microfine toner all of which produce better text and images than any currently available 600-dpi printers. The printer also offers data compression allowing it to print most 600-dpi jobs with the 2- Mbytes of memory that comes standard with the printer. By including 600- dpi resolution as standard on the printer, HP may again revolutionize office printing. HP EXPLORER SOFTWARE FACT SHEET =============================== HP Explorer is a software utility for the HP LaserJet 4 printer that provides printer installation and configuration instructions, access to traditional printer front control panel settings and detailed information on topics such as printer features, printer tasks and typefaces as well as a limited troubleshooting for common printing errors. HP Explorer software consists of three main sections: - Remote Control Panel. Allows the user's PC to act as a remote printer front control panel for the new HP LaserJet 4 printer. Users can view and change many printer settings, such as page orientation and typeface, from PCs connected directly to the HP LaserJet 4 printer. This ability is possible through the bi-directional communication capabilities of the HP LaserJet 4 printer. - Setup Program. Automatically configures the HP LaserJet 4 printer to the users' PC. It offers to modify the AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS files for the user. It provides step-by-step instructions on how to load the software directly on to the users' hard disk drive. - Travel Guide. An on-line HyperText database designed to explain the features of the HP LaserJet 4 printer and how to use them. It gives instructions on how to accomplish common printing tasks and provides answers to frequently asked questions regarding HP LaserJet printers for limited troubleshooting. Information can be obtained by selecting highlighted text or by using the next topic in the HyperText database. HP Explorer software is shipped with each HP LaserJet 4 printer on a 5.25" disk. Additional information and the HP Explorer software can be downloaded from the HP Peripherals forum on CompuServe. GO HPPER to access the HP Peripherals forum and download L4EXP.ANN from the LaserJet library NEW HP JETDIRECT CARDS CONNECT THE HP LASERJET 4 TO 10BASE-T AND THIN ETHERNET NETWORKS Hewlett-Packard Company today announced four new HP JetDirect network-peripheral interface cards that connect HP printers directly to 10Base-T and thin Ethernet networks. The new HP JetDirect cards support the HP LaserJet 4 printer announced today, the HP LaserJet IIISi printer, the HP PaintJet XL300 printer and the HP DesignJet 600 plotter. With an HP JetDirect card installed, HP printers can be connected directly to a network where the printer is most accessible to users. This location flexibility eliminates the need for a direct connection between the printer and a file server, which often is in a location inconvenient for users. No additional cables, software, PCs or external boxes are required to connect the printer to the network. Improved Performance on a Local Area Network (LAN) -------------------------------------------------- By using an HP JetDirect card instead of slower parallel or serial ports, the printer can accept data at a faster speed and provide maximum output performance. Actual output performance depends on the speed and configuration of the network printing/plotting environment. HP JetDirect cards decrease the load that normally is placed on a server during network printing or plotting by as much as 20 percent. Unlike a parallel interface that transmits one byte of data at a time, the HP JetDirect card transfers data in large blocks across the network. The result is that the server requires less processing time. With faster data transfer across the network, the HP JetDirect cards allow HP printers to output complex documents with text and graphics at or near printer engine speed. Better Network Management and Diagnostics ----------------------------------------- HP JetDirect cards provide printer diagnostic information to network administration utilities, such as Novell's COMCHECK. Printer-status information is accessible at the user's workstation. SNMP network- management compatibility is provided with the HP JetDirect card for computers based on a UNIX operating system. The HP JetDirect cards collect network-configuration information, network statistics and error messages that can be referenced on the printer's self-test page. The new HP JetDirect cards for Ethernet networks are equipped with a SIMM socket to allow for easy addition of enhancements to the network environment. PC managers and LAN administrators can install a new SIMM easily onto the HP JetDirect card for future upgrades. The cards are designed for Ethernet networks running Novell NetWare, Microsoft LAN Manager, 3Com 3+Open LAN Manager, Apple EtherTalk, and UNIX operating systems, including HP-UX, SunOS and Santa Cruz Operation UNIX. Integrated 10Base-T and thin Ethernet ports provide easy connection to the most widely used Ethernet networking media: twisted-pair cable and thin coaxial cable. HP JetDirect cards plug directly into the modular I/O slot located at the rear of the printer. U.S. List Prices and Availability --------------------------------- The new cards are expected to be available beginning Nov. 2, 1992, from HP-authorized dealers. HP JetDirect card (J2337A) for Novell NetWare/Ethernet $695.00 HP JetDirect card (J2338A) for LAN Manager/Ethernet 695.00 HP JetDirect card (J2339A) for AppleTalk (EtherTalk) 695.00 HP JetDirect card (J2340A) for UNIX/Ethernet 895.00* *(The HP-UX and SunOS operating systems require a digital-audio tape or cartridge at a price of $100.00 U.S. list.) # # # RISC stands for reduced-instruction-set computing. SIMM stands for single-in-line-memory. WYSIWYG stands for what-you-see-is-what-you-get. Adobe and PostScript are registered trademarks of Adobe Systems Inc. in the U.S. and other countries. MS-DOS is a U.S. registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation. HP-UX is based on and is compatible with USL's UNIX operating system. It also complies with X/Open's XPG3, POSIX 1003.1, FIPS 151-1 and SVID2 interface specifications. UNIX is a registered trademark of UNIX System Laboratories Inc. in the U.S.A. and other countries. X/Open is a trademark of X/Open Company Limited in the UK and other countries. Lotus is a U.S. registered trademark of Lotus Development Corp. Microsoft is a U.S. registered trademark of Microsoft Corp. These new printers are being noticed. from CIS, #: 29260 S17/ISD Marketing 28-Oct-92 17:39:06 Sb: #29221- 600 DPI Fm: Nathan-DMC Publishing 76004,2246 To: Tony Barker 75300,2630 Good timing on your request Tony. In fact, just yesterday one of the Programmers took home all the HP developer documentation specific to the HP III and HP IV to write brand new drivers for both of those excellent printers. And before you ask, I have no idea when it will be ready :-) but I do have an HPIII eagerly waiting the opportunity to test the results of his efforts. By the way, the standard Calamus HPII driver works on the HPIII and automatically takes advantage of the higher resolution available. I have not yet even seen the HP IV. Thank you for asking. Nathan @ DMC Publishing __________________________________________________________________ > ORA Conference STR Feature Bob Luneski of Oregon Research Associates' """""""""""""""""""""""""" ========================================================================== (C) 1992 by Atari Corporation, GEnie, and the Atari Roundtables. May be reprinted only with this notice intact. The Atari Roundtables on GEnie are *official* information services of Atari Corporation. 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) Wait for the U#= prompt. Type: XTX99587,CPUREPT then, hit RETURN. ========================================================================= Wednesday Night Real Time Conference October 22, 1992 Host - Brian H. Harvey Guest Speaker - Bob Luneski of Oregon Research Associates' <[sysop] B.HARVEY7> Hi everyone. I just lost my upload file. So we will play it by ear. I wish to welcome everyone to Bob Lunesk of ORA RTC. Welcome Bob, do you have a few words? <[Bob] ORA.TECH> It is a time of great change and excitement at Oregon Research. In the span of 8 weeks we have gone from representing one product: Diamond Back II to respresenting nearly fifteen. We are very proud to add Diamond Edge, Ultimate Virus Killer, and the entire line of high quality software from HiSoft to our portfolio and remain absolutely dedicated to providing the highest quality software and user support for the Atari ST line of computers. <[sysop] B.HARVEY7> I will start it off with the first question. How have the sales been on Diamond Edge? (Anyone can /rai to ask a question.) <[Bob] ORA.TECH> The reaction to Diamond Edge in the market has been outstanding. It has far exceeded our original sales projections and we are extremely pleased. <[sysop] B.HARVEY7> Great Bob. Is it close to DB II? <[Bob] ORA.TECH> Not nearly, Diamond Back II is a mature product that has been in the market for over four years. <[sysop] B.HARVEY7> OK Lyre. Bob: At one time their was a virus program created by a Mr. Woodward with a similiar name to Ultimate Virus Killer. Is this the same program? Or something Ora Tech has created themselves? <[Bob] ORA.TECH]> Ultimate Virus Killer is a product that we are distributing in North America for Douglas Communications in the UK. It has been the dominant Virus detection and destruction package there for several years. <[Dave] D.SHORR> Bob, do you have upgrade info yet for owners of Devpac ST and Lattice C? <[Bob] ORA.TECH> We have nearly completed the final pricing negotiations with HiSoft and should have upgrade information within a week. <[sysop] B.HARVEY7> OK, your turn for a question Lou. Thanks Brian. Hi Bob. Bob, I am sure you tired of hearing how great Diamond Edge is..Thanks. <[Bob] ORA.TECH> After two years of working on it, I'm never tired :-) Bob, it is by far the most important utility program I own but I am most impressed by the work on the manual. There is information there that is essential reading for an HD owner and I wish Atari would consider packaging your software with their harware. <[Bob] ORA.TECH> Thanks Lou, we worked very hard to produce a superior manual. <[Anna @ AtaAd] A.MASON4> Bob, How often should I run Diamond Edge to optimize/defragment my HD? <[Bob] ORA.TECH> Anna, That depends on your usage. <[sysop] B.HARVEY7> Do you have another question Anna? <[Anna @ AtaAd] A.MASON4> Hmmmm...yes. Probably would only need to run it once or twice a month then? <[Bob] ORA.TECH> Partitions that have a great deal of file modification activity will fragment more quickly than others. I personnally do optimizations weekly on my C drive and Daily on my work drives. However, software development fragments disks very quickly. <[Anna @ AtaAd] A.MASON4> Okay....thanks for the info on a super program. <[sysop] B.HARVEY7> OK, your turn for a question Alan <[Alan] A.HASKELL> Hello Bob, I bought UVK at Glendale, When will the labels be sent? <[Bob] ORA.TECH> The UVKs sold at Glendale without labels should have already been sent V5.5 disks with new labels. I'll verify yours was sent. <[sysop] B.HARVEY7> Bob, with DB II How about floppy support? <[Bob] ORA.TECH> Well of course Floppies are one of the primary backup media that DBII supports. <[sysop] B.HARVEY7> Sorry, I wasn't clear I want to b/u my floppies to HD not vice versa. <[Bob] ORA.TECH> That's has been requested by a number of people and is in the project plan to allow backing up from floppy to HD. You can do it indirectly by "restoring" that floppy since DBII restore functions work on any GEM disk. <[Dave] D.SHORR> Bob, what is Knife ST? <[Bob] ORA.TECH> Knife ST is a very powerful disk sector editor. It is the only one that we are aware of that supports sector editing of BGM sectors with the level of power it provides. <[sysop] B.HARVEY7> Bob, how would you compare DE with the competion? <[Bob] ORA.TECH> Well, we feel that Diamond Edge provides a superset of everything currently available in other packages and provides functionlity that none else does, such as undelete and hard disk partitioning. <[sysop] B.HARVEY7> Price-wise, the BEST! You can talk now Lyre. Bob: In regards to viruses, are their any for the ST/STe/TT that affect hard drives? If their are, will UVK destroy the virus? Or does UVK operate only on floppies? <[Bob] ORA.TECH> We have tried to provide the product in a carefully designed user interface that allows both power users and novices to access all of the functions equally. UVK recognizes many viruses that can effect the hard drive. These are listed in the back of the manual. The most dangerous of those are the link viruses. <[Bob] ORA.TECH> These attach themselves to the end of files and can enter your system through means other than floppies. UVK can recognize and kill these on both floppies and hard drives. Thanks Bob. <[sysop] B.HARVEY7> Anna <[Anna @ AtaAd] A.MASON4> Bob, now that DE has been released, can you tell us about any other projects you may have 'in the works'....or are you taking a well-deserved breather... <[Bob] ORA.TECH> We never take time to breathe :-) We are actively working on enhancements to Diamond Edge and on Diamodn Back III Plus a new program. <[Anna @ AtaAd] A.MASON4> DB III!! Can you tell us something about it? <[Bob] ORA.TECH> I knew that would stir some interest :-) <[sysop] B.HARVEY7> Any hints? <[Bob] ORA.TECH> We are converting Diamond Back to a windowed environment, adding SCSI tape backup support, Multi-TOS compatiblity for background backups, Overhauled visual graphical backup and restore path selection means, 4x improvement in restore speed+ <[sysop] B.HARVEY7> Lyre Bob: On the comment of DBIII and "windowed environment"...do you mean that it will no longer be dialog based? [Bob] ORA.TECH> To provide a Multi-TOS frienly environment we need to go to a windowed system that limits the use of modal dialog boxes. Thanks. <[sysop] B.HARVEY7> What type of enhancements to DE, Bob? <[Bob] ORA.TECH> We will be expaning Diamond Mirror to include the capability of performing a full disk medic pass on bootup for all configured drives. We will be expaning the undeletion capabilities to include real time trash monitoring, we will be adding the capability of clicking on a portion of the disk map and having that come up in a disk sector editor. plus much more. <[sysop] B.HARVEY7> So, I can undelete in any program or just DE? <[Bob] ORA.TECH> You can undelete any program now :-) <[sysop] B.HARVEY7> Thanks Bob, Lyre again. (Anyone else just /rai). Bob: concerning DE undelete, will it operate on non-standard Atari drives? I've got a Supra and they mark a file with a different character then Atari uses. This has caused me not to be able to use some undelete programs. <[Bob] ORA.TECH> I've never encountered that. The Supra I have uses DOS standard E5 Hmmmm, I'm not sure. I've tried a few undelete programs, but they wouldn't work. On a sector editor I see a character that roughly looks like an "O" with swish kinda thing on top. Is that the character you're talking about? <[Bob] ORA.TECH> Yes, E5 is displayed as a "sigma" those math geeks among us (like me) know what that is. :) So DE will work on my Supra then, correct? <[Bob] ORA.TECH> Absolutely. Thanks <[sysop] B.HARVEY7> Bob, please give us a tidbit about THE new product. <[sysop] B.HARVEY7> What is it? <[Bob] ORA.TECH> THE new product we have under development is well, kind of a secret. I am opposed to discussing things like that publically too long before it is a reality. I will say that it is not a disk application, but a personnal/busines finance and accounting manager. <[sysop] B.HARVEY7> I see your point. Can't blame someone from being interested. [grin] <[Bob] ORA.TECH> No prob :-)) <[sysop] B.HARVEY7> I guess I will not upgrade my current finance program. Bob, did you already discuss sysquest to syquest backups in DB? Is it currently possible with DBII. <[Bob] ORA.TECH> Not with a single mechanism. There are a number of reasons from a hardware use/abuse standpoint that I am opposed to unnecessary Syquest platter swaps. However, enough of our client base has requested it that it will be added. Hmm, I see what you mean. How much abuse would be expected if a person had 10 megs of RAM? <[Bob] ORA.TECH> Every time that you insert or remove a platter, the disk shutter opens and is exposed to particulate contamination. They are real hard disk and dust inside the cartridge WILL kill it. If you look inside your syquest after many months of operation, you will see a significant dust buildup. I vacume mine out about once every couple of months. Compressed with 10 meg of ram you could do 15 meg at a time. But you would still not recommend it, right? <[Bob] ORA.TECH> That's right. However, because enough of our client base has requested it, and because we are dedicated to provideing the features that our users need, we will be adding the capability. <[Beta-Bob] B.O.B.> In addition to being your faithful Beta Tester, I also Use PCTools at work. It has a neat feature where in between disk swaps it keeps chugging away at files. I guess writing then temporarily to the HD & then spools them off to the next inserted Floppy. Any chance of something like this in DB? <[Bob] ORA.TECH> With the introduction of Multi-TOS that behavor can become a reality. Part of the problem with standard TOS is that during a disk swap you are sitting in a "modal AES dialog box". That means that no other processing can take place untill the user completes the requested action. With Multi-TOS concurrnet processes will become a reality. <[Beta-Bob] B.O.B.> thanks. <[sysop] B.HARVEY7> Then you must have a falcon to be working on Multi-TOS compatibility, right? <[Bob] ORA.TECH> Actually, I do not have my Falcon yet (very soon now). But have been working with Multi-TOS for several months on my TT. <[sysop] B.HARVEY7> What are your comments re: Multi-Tos? Is it great or OK? <[Bob] ORA.TECH> Well, I'm somewhat limited by nondisclosure of what I can say. However, I will say that I am impressed with it and that it brings an important capability to the future of the ST: True preemptive multi-tasking and concurrent processing. It opens up significant product opportunities for background backups and other concurrent processing needs. I'm a happy camper with it :-) <[sysop] B.HARVEY7> Thanks Bob, Dave? <[Dave] D.SHORR> Question for the Atari Disk Doctor:): is an upgrade to TOS 2.06 required for high density floppy support? I'm using 1.06. <[Bob] ORA.TECH> Yes, To use the Atari AJAX high density disk controller and high density disk you need TOS 2.06. Third party high density solutions are available that do not require TOS .206 <[sysop] B.HARVEY7> Bob, is willing to continue a little longer, so if you have a question ask now by raising your hand /rai. I have a question; what is the turn around time for mailing out DE? I trashed a partition at the beginning of this conference. <[Bob] ORA.TECH> Well, yesterday it was one day. But we ran out of the first press run and are getting the second in on Monday. After that it will return to 1-2 days processing time. <[sysop] B.HARVEY7> thanks Bob. B.HARVEY7> Dave, your turn. <[Dave] D.SHORR> Bob, will there be any demos of the HiSoft programs available? <[Bob] ORA.TECH> We are working with HiSoft to discuss which products can have demos prepared. It is difficult to create a meaningful demo of a compiler, but demos of Harlekin 2 are possible. A wonderful all in one ACC personal time manager/To do list organizer <[Dave] D.SHORR> Thanks Bob, my DE order went out on Monday. Thanx again for coming tonite! <[sysop] B.HARVEY7> Bob, do you have much info on Harlekin? Is it a memory hog or is it quite small? I know it does a lot. <[Bob] ORA.TECH> You can configure it to consume whatever memory you want to allocate to it. It comes configured out of the box to use 125K. ST Informer is running a three part review of it, it has that much to cover. <[sysop] B.HARVEY7> Wow! <[sysop] B.HARVEY7> We're drawing to a close for the formal portion of the Oregon Research Assocites' RTC. Before I put the room into Frenzy Mode, do you have any closing words, Bob? <[Bob] ORA.TECH> I would like to thank everyone attending tonight and all of the people who have supported us over the years. The final pricing and product availability for HiSoft products will be announced by the end of next week. We will post a press release in the Library as well as in Cat2 Topic 42. We hope to be moving to larger support area soon. It'll be kind of sad leaving old CAT2 Top42 but progess and user support take priority. Many thanks, <[sysop] B.HARVEY7> I can't wait to see the pricing! I wish to thank you Bob, for making it here tonight. I also wish to thank all the attendees for their questions and patience. ========================================= Oregon Research Associates' Technologies products include: Lattice C Devpack 3 HiSoft Basic 2 HighSpeed Pascal FTL Modula-2 HiSoft C WERCS Knife ST Harlekin 1 & 2 ProFlight True Paint ========================================== Wednesday, October 28 is the Purple Mountain Computers Inc RTC. A good time to talk with Darek Mihocka about GEMULATOR; Don Crano about STEALTH PMC; and Oscar Steele about Floptical drives and PMC 's other products. ATTENTION: All RTC attendees for that night will receive a DISCOUNT on GEMULATOR and STEALTH from PMC! _________________________________________________________ > STRAIGHT FAX 1.06 STR InfoFile Now supports the Atari Falcon030 """""""""""""""""""""""""""""" STraight FAX! Version 1.06 ========================== This version is a maintenance upgrade from Version 1.05 which was released at the WAACE AtariFest '92 on October 10, 1992. Version 1.06 adds enhancements to support the Atari Falcon 030 and the new AES 3.30 (Application Environment Services) contained in the Atari Falcon 030's TOS 4.0x and Atari's Multi-TOS. STraight FAX! is a send/receive FAX communication program for Atari TOS based computers. STraight FAX! works with industry standard Class 2 send/receive FAX modems and Sierra based SendFAX Modems. The STraight FAX! allows sending of FAX documents composed of standard monochrome Image files, monochrome DEGAS/DEGAS Elite compressed files, ASCII Text files (full GEM character set supported), GEM Metafiles (requires GDOS) and our own FAX file format. In addition, the STraight FAX! includes "Print to Disk" printer drivers for the following applications: Calamus 1.09x, Calamus S/SL, PageStream 1.8x, PageStream 2.x, FSM/Font GDOS based applications such as Word Flair II and Original GDOS based applications such as Calligrapher. These drivers are used from with in the application to print pages of a document to our FAX file format. The STraight FAX! can also automatically generate a Cover Page that is sent at the start of each FAX document. The STraight FAX! also supports scanning devices such as Hand Scanners (via ScanLite from Dr. Bob) and Full Page Scanners (using our Canon IX-12/IX-12F scanner driver). Scanned images may be saved as FAX files for sending in a FAX document. In addition, when a hand scanner is used in conjunction with a scanning tray, the left side and right side scans may be automatically merged into a full page without any manual adjustment! FAX documents composed of the above file types may be created up to 255 pages in length. A FAX document may be broadcast to up to 100 destination FAX machines at a time, immediately or scheduled at a later time when rates are less. Received FAX documents may be viewed on screen at various scaled views, converted to Image format or printed using GDOS and the appropriate driver for the printer being used. The STraight FAX! supports full logging of all FAX transfers and utilizes an enhanced GEM user interface, with popup menus and keyboard selection of commands. The STraight FAX! is available from Joppa Software Development for a suggested list price of $89.95. Version 1.06 Enhancements ========================= - The menu title in above the desk accessory menu has been changed to "STFAX" from "Desk". This allows a user to know that the STraight FAX! is the active application when running under Multi-TOS. The "About" menu entry has been changed to "About ST FAX!...". - The "Cycle Windows" command (Alt-N) will cycle the active View Windows by bringing the bottom window to the top. On cpus with AES versions 3.30 and higher (Multi-TOS and the Falcon 030), the windows can be made to cycle in the reverse direction (i.e. send the top window to the bottom) by holding either Shift Key when selecting this command. - A new command "Select All" (Control-A) appears in the Edit Menu. This command will cause the Clip Area to be sized to the full size of the graphic in the top View Window. - A few of the dialog box objects have been colorized to take advantage of color monitors. - The STraight FAX! has now been modified to work with the Atari Falcon 030 computer running under TOS 4.0x. In addition, buttons will be drawn using the new 3D button capability present in AES versions 3.30 and higher (i.e. Multi-TOS and the Falcon 030). The 3D buttons will not change to the selected mode (i.e. depressed) unless the left mouse is pressed while over the button. - The Send and Receive Logs will now show the status of transfers that have experienced unrecoverable errors (such as disk read/write errors and modem communication errors) and user aborts. - During the immediate (non-scheduled) FAX Send operation, the Send FAX Status will display the date/time that the next transfer attempt will occur during re-send attempts. - A few minor bugs have also been eliminated. Version 1.05 Enhancements ========================= - If either Shift Key is held down when selecting the Save command in the Prefs menu, the File Selector will appear allowing the system preferences to be saved to a user selected preferences file. The user selected preferences file may be later passed as a parameter to the STraight FAX! (via the new GEM Desktop drag and drop method). - In the Page Preferences dialog, a new option exists for the Failed Pages Popup Menu. 'Re-Send Failed Pages w/Cover Page' will cause a new Cover Page to be sent before the remaining pages of a FAX transfer made to complete a previously partially completed transfer, if a Cover Page has been specified for the FAX document. - In the Page Preferences dialog, a new popup menu exists: Page Height. The Page Height Popup Menu specifies the height of a FAX page that is transferred (i.e. Letter, Legal, A4 or B5). The Page Height is used during ASCII Text to FAX conversions to determine the number of text lines per page, for GEM Meta File to FAX conversions, for Image and DEGAS to FAX conversions and for the Full Page Scan maximum page height. The heights will be displayed in Inches or Centimeters as per the Units parameter in the General Preferences dialog. - In the Receive FAX Prefs, a new option exists for the Auto Receive Popup Menu. 'Selectively Enabled' allows the user to specify the time interval that the Auto Receive mode is active. When this mode is specified, the start (from) and end (to) times may be entered by clicking on the Up and Down Arrow Buttons in the Receive Time field. The 'Always Enabled' option is the same as the 'Enabled' option from earlier versions of the software. - In the Print Preferences dialog, a new popup menu exists: Page Size. The Page Size Popup Menu allows selection of the size of the paper used in the printer of the selected Printer Device. The choices are Default, Letter, Legal, A4 and B5. The Default choice will utilize the Default Page Size (that is displayed at the bottom of the dialog box) that is currently configured into the selected GDOS printer driver. Note: some GDOS printer drivers may ignore the Page Size and use an internal page size that is not configurable. - When selecting files via the File Selector, a File Type Warning alert box will be displayed if the extension of the selected file is not the proper extension for the type of file being selected. This alert box will present three button choices: Select - Re-Display the File Selector to select another file. OK - Use the File Selected as is. Cancel - Cancel the File Selection. The user may change the default button choice by holding down the Alternate Key while making the selection. The default button choice will be saved with the system preferences. - The user may abort from an ASCII Text to FAX Conversion by holding down the Undo Key. - In the Receive Log, a new command is in the Receive Log Popup Menu that appears when an entry in the log is double-clicked on. This command, Rename, allows the name of the FAX files that are received to be renamed to a user specified name. When this command is selected, the File Selector will appear allowing the user to specify a new name that the received FAX files for the log entry should be renamed to. - The maximum number of View Windows that may be opened has been increased from 4 to 7. - The Send Log and Receive Log limits of 500 entries has been removed. The Log sizes are now only limited by available memory. The Loading, Saving and Re-Ordering times have also been reduced. - The user may now print the entire Send/Receive Log or only the selected entries in the Log. When there are selected entries, the alert box that is displayed when the Print button is selected will allow three button choices: All - Print the Entire Log. Select - Print only the Selected entries in the Log. Cancel - Cancel the printing of the Log. - The STraight FAX! now incorporates more detailed error message alerts. - The STraight FAX! will now recognize all serial ports on the Atari TT/030 and Atari Falcon 030 computers. - The FAX/Print Image problem with GDOS disturbing the status message dialog has been corrected. - The STraight FAX! now supports improved Wild Card support for selecting multiple FAX Files at a time from the Send Multiple Files dialog box. Multiple FAX files may be specified at a time from the File Selector by manually entering a file extension of ".J??". All FAX files starting with the extension of ".J01" through ".J99" that exist will be loaded (up to the 33 file limit). Multiple FAX files may also be specified from the File Selector that is presented when the (Print) FAX command is selected in the File menu. - The Company Name field in the FAX Phone List will now allow ordering of proper names as follows: A name entered as: Last_Name|First_Name will appear in the Send FAX Status and Cover Page as: First_Name Last_Name This will allow sorting the Phone List by a Last Name. Full Page Scanner Support ========================= Joppa Software Development currently has available a scanner driver program for use with the STraight FAX! to allow direct scanning from a Navarone/ Canon Full Page Flat Bed (IX-12F) or Sheet Feed (IX-12) Scanner. Drivers for other full page scanners are being considered for development. The Navarone/Canon IX-12 Series Scanner Driver has a suggested list price of $19.95 (US) and is available for a limited time for only $14.95 (US)direct from Joppa Software Development. FONT GDOS ========= Atari Corporation's FONT GDOS is available direct from Joppa Software Development to registered STraight FAX! owners. The three disk FONT GDOS package comes complete with an Installation program, the FONT GDOS program, three Desk Accessory/Control Panel Module utilities for customizing the FONT GDOS setup, bit mapped screen and printer fonts in various point sizes for Swiss and Dutch styles, printer drivers for several popular printers and printed documentation for installation and use. The FONT GDOS package may be ordered direct from Joppa Software Development for $10.00 (US). Upgrade Policy ============== Registered STraight FAX! owners may upgrade to Version 1.06 by sending their master disk and $2.00 (US) to Joppa Software Development. Registered users outside the continental US should contact Joppa Software Development at the above contact points for upgrade handling fees. Registered users may also purchase the latest revision of the STraight FAX! users manual by sending the Cover Page from the current users manual to Joppa Software Development along with $5.00 (US). Purchase of a new manual is optional, as all enhancements are covered in the README.TXT file that is included on the Master Disk. Registered users should also contact JSD at the above On-line addresses to inquire about free updates via E-Mail. All prices are US funds, no checks drawn on foreign back accounts will be accepted. All other products are Copyright by their respective companies. STraight FAX! (TM) Version 1.06 (c) 1992 Joppa Software Development P.O. Box 214 Dallastown, PA 17313-0214 Tech Support Line (717) 428-3231 FAX Line (717) 428-0424 GEnie: JOPPA-SOFT Compuserve: 73047,2565 _________________________________________________________________ > MAROONED??!! STR Spotlight A MACAROON OR BIG BLUE?? """""""""""""""""""""""""" If you feel marooned working on the Atari platform you will find the following editorial interesting to read. You will probably also find it depressing. If the Macintosh world is shrinking, where DOES that leave us in the Atari world?? The following editorial appeared in the October/92 issue of; Personal Engineering & Instrumentation News. Phone:(603) 427-1427 "MACINTOSH STAGNATION" ====================== by Paul G Schreier, Editor "Covering a trade show is one of the more hectic parts of working as a magazine editor. Generally, even before the show starts your dance card is pretty well full of apointments--you bounce from booth to booth or to private suites listening to pitches on the latest products or upcoming plans. If you're lucky, a few hours remain free for simply roaming the show floor, looking for a few gems, oftem from small firms who don't have the expertise for plugging into the press or who decided at the very last minute to bring along a new product." "In contrast, the recent MacWorld show in Boston was a breeze to cover. And while some other recent shows have been slow from a personal-engineering, standpoint this one was almost boring. Beyond products with a more-general appeal, such as graphing/plotting software and equation editors, there was little new for me to look at. True, the Consortium for Laboratory and Industrial Applications on the Macintosh held several meetings that were reasonably well attended, but it seemed to me that those people represent a hard core of Mac fanatics rather than a cross section of the technical user population as a whole." "While preparing for the show, I called several companies that have traditionally exhibited, but many of them have decided not to particapate anymore. Some saw lots of people pass through their booths, most of whom were curiosity seekers more than anything else. Those exhibitors gathered too few hard sales leads to make exhibiting worth the time and expense. " "From my office I can verify reduced interest in the Mac by the number of press releases for new Mac-based products, which has dropped off dramatically. I can't think of the last time somebody introduced a new data-acq board for the NuBus, or the last time a CAE vendor came out with design-automation software for that platform. It's even hard to think of any blockbuster Mac product for technical users that came out in the last year or so. Instead, I'm watching firms that were dedicated to the Mac port their products to the PC, while some broad- based firms take successful Mac products over to Windows, and yet others have simply abandoned Mac product lines (and regret having made the effort at all)." "There's no doubt that the Mac market for technical products is stagnating. I'm not positive why. Some suppliers, especially those in design automation, complain bitterly about the lack of marketing support Apple provides. But I think the answer lies closer to simple economics: the base of users with DOS/Windows systems exceeds those with Macs by an incredible margin, and the gap is widening. Macs still are no bargain, and unless you really need one (they continue to excel in graphics-intensive applications--we produce this entire magazine on the Mac), you're hard pressed to justify it. Maybe multimedia will bring new life into the Mac, but I'm not overenthused about that area, either." "The Mac's market penetration also ties into Apple's greed, which seems to have backfired. That company kept margins high at the expense of a broadened user base. It didn't face factors, such as clones, that would drive it to keep prices more competitive. Until now, perhaps. Apple's just come out with a new "low-cost" line, apparently in response to the growing popularity of Windows. But I suspect it's too little, too late." "This situation saddens me. I like to see more options available for our readers not fewer. And I will admit that I enjoy working on my Mac more that I do my DOS/Windows machine--but I'm working as an editor primarily with a word processor and page-layout software, not as a systems designer or reseacher. Meanwhile, if you're looking to invest considerable money in a Mac-based system for technical applications, I'd suggest you reexamine that decision. Look hard at the hardware and software support out there for your task, and be forewarned: don't expect a whole lot more in the near future." \\\OPINION/// A lot of us in the Atari world have felt the same general frustration as expressed in this editorial. Computer technology comes and goes with increasing frequency..i.e., is updated with increasing frequency. Because IBM's and compatibles (which unfortunately included MS-DOS) got such a jump on everybody else in the PC market- place it has been an uphill struggle for every other computer company aspiring to capture the hearts and pocketbooks of consumers...After all how many computers is/was the average person going to buy when purchasing a home computer? And what would be compatible with what they use at work? We all know that the longer we own a computer and spend our hard earned money for software to run on it, the harder it is to decide to abandon that in favor of another platform. We become software driven so to speak. We will buy a faster more powerful version of our computer but we will cling to our software until it is painfully obvious that it has been passed by.(8 bit users are a good example of how tenacious this tendancy is) Atari and Apple (according to the editorial) have seemingly been oblivous to this very fact:(as pointed out) the user base is what determines whether software development will cover a broad range of applications and how well it will be supported or updated. There are a few ST developers that have hung in there but most have had to "port to PC" to make a living. The result is that updates then become written first for the PC market and secondarily for the ST. (There are a few exceptions to this too, but not many.) A sad note is that there were quite a few very talented developers who were forced by financial necessity to abandon the ST market. I'm sure that some felt bitter at the lack of Atari's efforts to increase that user base in this country. And even if their new pride and joy, the Falcon, becomes a viable platform for writing or porting to, these developers may never return because of that bitterness. What a loss to the Atari community. There were always gaps in software for the ST. There never was much in the way of engineering software such as schematic capture, pc board layout, mechanical engineering simulation/analysis, high powered engineering math packages, etc. (DynaCadd is a bright exception, but note that it is now available for the PC and, maybe I'm wrong, but I think practical considerations force that version to now get prime development time while ST/TT versions follow. If I am wrong I will stand corrected ahead of time.) CAD-3D had it's shining moment being a trend setter but in the end its author helped in the development of 3D Studio for Autodesk. Again, no doubt to help put bread on the table. You would think that that would bring some notoriety to Atari computers but it obviously hasn't. Even some of the more mainstream software such as word processing, spreadsheets and databases had just caught up to some degree before they too were abandoned and passed again by the fast moving world of PC/Windows software. Thank goodness that there does seem to be hopeful champions out there who are willing to pick them up and continue their development. Desktop Publishing is the one area where ST software has been competitive with the other platforms. When Calamus hit the scene it even set some precedents for other software to emulate. Will the Falcon 030 swoop into the market at just the right time? (As noted in the above editorial Apple is also coming out with a mulitmedia computer.) Or will many people have the reaction that Mr. Schreier has to multimedia: that he isn't "overenthused" about it? I think the best case scenario would be that the Falcon DOES catch on enough to develop a real user base. And then Atari tries to build more bridges to the DOS/Windows world than they did with the ST. Applications with DOS/Windows file format compatability would be a very important consideration for a clone user when deciding whether or not to consider a Falcon. (There is some file format compatability in ST applications but not enough and not always up to date with the latest in the DOS/Windows world.) In spite of what I said above about Atari being oblivous to the fact of user base being the foundation upon which all else is raised, I would qualify it by the following: If any of us who has felt Atari has not done nearly enough to promote the platform we all love were suddenly put in charge of the company what exactly would we do to change the equation? The harsh reality is, as Mr. Schreier points out, the base of users with DOS/Windows systems exceeds by a very large margin all other platforms. It is ubiquitous. As with all large consumer movements it has a life of its own. I seriously doubt that the Falcon 030, no matter how well done it is, will make much of a dent in that DOS/Windows world. (a truly practical and cost effective IBM emulation add-on would increase the odds, but when the odds are almost astronomical to begin with what does that mean?) I do not believe this is nay-saying; just realistic. I think an apt comparison is the battle a few years ago over video recording format-- VHS or Beta...which would it be. Even with all of Sony's money they could not stop VHS from becoming the popular format. Now, almost everyone who owns a VCR uses the VHS format. How easy do you think it would be to get people to buy a VCR with another format with all of the current "software" being overwhelmingly based on the VHS format? Where are we, then? (How many times have you seen that question posed in magazines!) Well, I have felt a lot of resentment in the past because my choice of computer was ridiculed without just cause by narrow-minded clone and (yes,some)Mac users. They wouldn't take the name Atari seriously. But in fairness I was probably the only person they knew who had an Atari ST. And even if they had expressed an interest in going to see one (which of course they didn't) they would have been hard pressed to find a convenient dealer location to see one. The loss of dealers is a whole other story. Now, though, I have settled in with the facts as they are. If I had had the extra time the past few years I would have done all I could to try to "fill in the gaps" in ST software. I truly love the ST and if I had more programming expertise I would try to write engineering software just for the love of the computer so that more users who need to "bring work home" from their jobs need not have a clone. The positives to the Atari market (yes, I do see positives) are: there is much more of a "family" feeling....A smaller user base naturally has more of a community about it....Even if the Falcon takes off beyond our expectations (and I think we all hope it succeeds) I would hate to see the Atari market get "too" big....Software support is generally less formal and more personal. Software improvements due to one or two individuals suggestions are more likely to be listened to and acted upon....I don't have everyone at my office wanting to know if they can get a copy of the latest software that I buy. (Piracy in the clone world is matter-of-fact, second nature; especially if it appears on one of the computers at work. After all, every worker will honestly "need" that at home to continue his/her work there.) I use Orcad schematic capture and pc board layout software at work, as well as Microsoft Word and Pagemaker for Windows. But I have resisted getting a clone for use at home. On the contrary, I was able to use my ST to write a utility in GFA Basic to use with Orcad. And since I did purchase the DOS version of GFA to "try", as per GFA's offer last Christmas, I ported it over to my PC at work. (It's the only thing I've done so far which makes it one expensive, little utility!) This is more than I expected to write but a chord was struck in me by the editorial above. I hope other Atari users can take solace from reading it as I did. I guess it's true that misery loves company. I sincerely hope that the Falcon 030 will do well for Atari. I also hope that the Mac world survives because, like Mr. Schreier, I think it is better to have MORE alternatives not fewer. Maybe there is a window (pardon the pun) of opportunity here for Atari. I may likely be interested in buying one, as per my argument above about being software driven. I will hang on to using my ST and its software just as long as I possibly can...I like using it and will continue to do so as long as the software I have meets my needs. Who knows? Maybe I or SOMEONE will still be able to do something about that software gap. A well written application for the ST should port over to the Falcon without much trouble. Best wishes to all you Atarians out there! greg matthijetz G.MATTHIJETZ Permission to reprint this editorial was granted by Mr. Schreier on the conditions that it be reprinted in its entirety and that I include the circulation phone number for "Personal Engineering and Instrumentation News" in case anyone is interested in inquiring about subscribing. (Courtesy professional subscriptions are available to those who qualify.) ______________________________________________________________ > STReport CONFIDENTIAL "Rumors Tidbits Predictions Observations Tips" """"""""""""""""""""" - San Francisco, CA PLAGIARISM RUNS RAMPANT! ----------------- Two very well known editor/publishers, one hard copy and one electronic, are quite upset after it was discivered this past week that their material was being used in another Atari hard copy publication without permission. One item in particular, a report about a recent Atari Show, had mis-spellings in it and those very same mis-spelled words appeared verbatim in the offending editor's publication. While the identities of all concerned are being withheld to facilitate an amicable settlement of this matter, further coverage will be afforded the situation if the offended parties so desire. - Palentine, IL. IMPORTANT NOTICE FROM MISSIONWARE SOFTWARE Hi everyone... Just wanted to post a quick notice regarding upgrades from 2.0to 2.01... I'm going to be out of town on business for two weeks beginning next Monday, October 26. I'll be returning on November 6. Although regular orders will continue to be shipped while I'm gone, I won't be able to do any upgrades until I return. Therefore, if you send in your disk for upgrade and it doesn't get returned promptly, please don't panic! We'll get them turned around as soon as we get back. If you could spread the word around a bit about this, I'd appreciate it. BTW, although I'll be out of town during this period, I will be traveling with my trusty old Stacy and will continue to communicate with all of you via GEnie. I may not be able to get on daily, but I'll do the best I can. Thanks for your understanding. As you know, Missionware Software prides itself on customer support and we regret not being able to handle all of your needs during this period. - Detroit, MI. CFJ'S SCHEDULE ------------ A NOTE FROM CHARLES: -------------------- Hi folks. This note is to let you know that I'll be offline until November 17th, because I'll be on tour playing guitar with the jazz-fusion group Hiroshima. Just in case anyone's interested in coming to the show, here's a schedule: 10/29 - Joliet, Illinois; Rialto Square Theater 10/30 - Detroit; Fox Theater 10/31 - Chicago; China CLub 11/1 - Cleveland; Front Row Theater 11/3 - Buffalo; (no theater listed yet) 11/4 - New York City; Paramount Theater 11/5 - Boston; Berklee Performing Arts Center 11/6 - Richmond, VA; Byrd Theater 11/7 - Washington, DC; Warner Theater 11/11 - Atlanta, GA; Center Stage Theater 11/12 - Atlanta, GA; Center Stage Theater (NOTE: the Atlanta dates may be on the 8th/9th instead...) 11/13 - Orlando, FL; Bob Carr PAC 11/14 - Ft Lauderdale, FL; Broward Center for Performing Arts 11/15 - Tampa, FL; Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center If you need immediate assistance during this time, please call the CodeHead Technologies office at 213-386-5735, between 9am and 1pm PST. See you when I return! - Charles @ CodeHead Tech - Rochester, NY KODAK & ATARI NEGOTIATING CD PACKAGE? ------------- Old 'super snoop is at it again... seems Atari may very well be involved in negotiations with Kodak Corp. relative to CD Rom technology as it relates to Photography etc.. - Lake Tahoe, NV ATARI _IS_ ALIVE & WELL! -------------- Contrary to the "populist" beliefs, Atari Corp. is really quite strong financially speaking. Everybody seems to have forgotten the "Tramiel Trust". Jack Tramiel a very wealthy businessman before he purchased Atari, never really invested the bulk of the family fortune into Atari. Time/Warner financed the entire deal at the time of purchase. Therefore, it would stand to reason that a substantial infusion of capital will occur when it is deemed necessary by Jack Tramiel. "Atari will have marketshare in 1993" it has been heard said in 'certain circles'. - Ontario, Canada AUTHOR OF MULTI-TOS TO JOIN ATARI --------------- Eric R. Smith, has made it known that he will join Atari on or about the second of November 1993. Smith noted he was making the final preparations to make the move to the USA, (Visa, etc..). "Its not a temporary thing being done to get Multi-Tos done, I'll be working on a wide variety of software projects including Multi-Tos." Smith said. - Los Angeles, CA C-LAB is NO MORE..... --------------- Reported by D.R. Kerr, C-Lab, developers and manufacturers of the most successful Atari MIDI sequencing programs, Creator and Notator, is no more. According to the newsletter from Steinberg/Jones, makers of the competing Cubase, C-Lab folded within the last few weeks due to "bickering about finances." Gerhard Lengling, who ran C-Lab, is apparently looking to start another venture. There is no word whether it will involve the Atari platform. Hopefully, something good will arise out of the ashes of this devastating loss to the music and Atari worlds. Notator 3.1 was recently hailed in Keyboard magazine as the best MIDI sequencing program available on any platform. They were also frequent advertisers in the magazine as well and appeared at numerous Atari shows across the country. C-Lab products were recently supported by Ensoniq here in the United States. Presently, there are two active developers of Atari MIDI programs remaining -- Steinberg/Jones and what was Hybrid Arts, Inc., Barefoot Software. Dr. T stopped developing for the Atari within the past year. What does this mean? Besides the obvious loss of support and excellent products to musicians, it is quite a blow to Atari. Atari's only real foothold in the U.S. is through its MIDI abilities. With the best Atari developer for MIDI gone under, that's one less assortment of software to support the Atari platform. - Sunnyvale CA REVAMP OF AEO RUMORED TO BE IN THE WORKS ------------ Rumored personel changes, being heard of for the last three weeks, were brought to the attention of Ron Kovacs, Atari Explorer Online editor. When efforts were made to verify the rumors with AEO's editor, the replies from Kovacs were inconclusive as he would neither confirm nor deny the various "rumored" changes being made. Subsequent calls to Atari also provided no solid information relative to the rumored changes as we were told; "as of yet, no solid decisions have been made." """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" STReport's "EDITORIAL CARTOON" """""""""""""""""""""""""""""" > A "Quotable Quote" ABOUT SALES & ADVERTISING... """"""""""""""""" "He who has a thing to sell and only whispers in the well, is not so apt to get the dollars, as he who climbs the tree and hollers!" sent in by... Jimmy Carter """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" > ABCO SPECIALS! STR InfoFile * NEW 1992 Prices! MORE Products! * """"""""""""""""""""""""""" ------------------------------- ** EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY! ** NOTICE: ABCO will BEAT OR MATCH * ANY * Advertised or Invoiced price * WE WILL NOT BE UNDERSOLD! 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 & DESIGNS 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) - Available for all Platforms - -* ICD LINK & ADSCSI PLUS HOST ADAPTERS USED EXCLUSIVELY *- WE PAY SHIPPING & INSURANCE!!! >UPS!< (Cont. USA) VISA - MASTERCARD - NO SURCHARGE! *_*_*_* ABCOFILE 80mb Hard disk System - $ 419.95! Assembled Ready to run! Includes either the ICD ADSCSI PLUS _or_ THE LINK & DMA Cable Installed in our NEW "Super Style" Case! *_*_*_* *** NEW!!! ULTRA MODERN "SUPER STYLE" ABCOFILE CASE *** DELUXE 2 bay Cabinet W/65w Auto PS & Blower $119.00 Case & ICD LINK or ADSCSI PLUS Host [Hard Disk Ready] $259.95 -STAND ALONE PRODUCTS- Model Description Autopark Price ================================================== SGN4951 51Mb 3.5" Y 419.00 SQN1096 83mb 3.5" Y 519.00 SQN2055 120mb 3.5" Y 574.95 SQN1296 213mb 3.5" Y 839.00 SQN4055 340mb 3.5" Y 1310.00 ================================================== Standard "Shoebox Cabinet style is also available Call for pricing applicable to IBM - MAC - AMIGA IDE - SCSI - ESDI MODERN TOWER CABINETS AVAILABLE Call for Info! PLEASE NOTE: The above is partial listing only! Many other configurations available. 20mb - 3.5gb NOTICE - NOTICE - NOTICE - NOTICE """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" SPECIAL PURCHASE! * 83mb - 1345mb * Hard Disk Mechanisms Call for SUPER PRICING!! Limited Time Only!! IDEAL FOR USE IN: IBM - MAC - AMIGA! FULLY ASSEMBLED SCSI DRIVES w/o ICD LINK Available ADD $35.00 for 4 BAY SUPER CABINET w/250+w PS EXOTIC TOWER CABINETS AVAILABLE Call for Info! PLEASE NOTE: The above is partial listing only! FAST TECHNOLOGY ACCELERATOR UPGRADES AVAILABLE & INSTALLED ***** >> ABCO proudly offers: ATARI PRODUCTS << MAC PRODUCTS - AMIGA PRODUCTS - PC PRODUCTS Call for ABCO's * HIGHLY COMPETITIVE PRICING! * ABCO COMPUTER SYSTEMS * STILL THE BEST VALUE! ***** Original Atari Mouse replacement: $35.00 NEW! If you don't see what you want listed here, call us. Odds are, we either have it or, can get it for you! * GUARANTEED * AT THE BEST POSSIBLE PRICE! * ** 800-562-4037 ** "WE SERVICE WHAT WE SELL" ****** SPECIAL - SPECIAL ****** * SYQUEST 44MB (#555) >> ABCOFILE "44" & "88" * * REMOVABLE MEDIA DRIVES * --->> LIMITED TIME SPECIAL! NOW ONLY 44MB $ 559.00 <<--- 88MB $ 659.00 WE PAY SHIPPING & INSURANCE! >UPS!< (Cont. USA) COMPLETELY ASSEMBLED AND READY TO RUN! Cart and Utility Software Included! 44mb CARTS: $ 69.50 88mb CARTS: $ 109.50 44mb MECH ONLY: $ 339.95 88mb MECH ONLY: $ 439.95 ****** SPECIAL - SPECIAL ****** * TWIN SYQUEST 44MB REMOVABLE MEDIA DRIVES ... PROGRAMMER'S DELIGHT * SPECIALLY PRICED ** $895.95.00 ** Includes: * TWO * cartridges! * SYQUEST 44MB REMOVABLE MEDIA DRIVE AND HARD DRIVE COMBINATIONS * - Syquest 44 Model [555] and the following hard drives - ** 50mb SQG51S $759.00 105mb SQG105S $959.00 ** Or, YOUR choice of Hard Disk Mechanism! LOWBOY - STANDARD - DUAL BLOWER CABINETS CUSTOM CONFIGURATIONS AVAILABLE ** ANNOUNCING THE NEW! -> ABCO CD-ROM! ** :Special Introductory offer: ABCO CD-ROM $489.95 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) * IBM - MSDOS - AMIGA - ATARI - APPLE - MACINTOSH * ALL UNITS COMPATIBLE WITH --> SUPERCHARGER - AT/PC SPEED - GCR LARGER units are available - (Custom Configurations) *** --> COMPLETE IBM CLONE SYSTEMS AVAILABLE! CALL FOR PRICING & AVAILABILITY 386/486 33Mhz - 50Mhz - 66Mhz *>> NO REPACKS OR REFURBS USED! <<* Atari SLM 804, SLM 804PCV Laser Toner Kits Memorex 2108, 5287 Oasys Laserpro 5287, 5308, Express 830, Express Series II Silver Express, Gold Express ** $41.95 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 Facsimile ** $41.95 shipping included ** -- ALL TONER KITS * IN STOCK * -- * Toner Starter Kits-$62.95 * * Replacement (804) Drums-$186.95 * ABCO is PROUD to announce the acquisition of the exclusive U.S.A. distribution rights for ** Bitblit Software's ///Turbo Board BBS. ** This fine Atari ST BBS system software and user support is available through ABCO to all Turbo customers in the USA. Call for current pricing. ALL POWER SUPPLIES UL APPROVED Now Available BUSINESSES, LEASE TO OWN WITH AT&T -* 12 month FULL Guarantee *- (A FULL YEAR of COVERAGE) WE PAY SHIPPING & INSURANCE! >UPS!< (Cont. USA) QUANTITY & USERGROUP DISCOUNTS AVAILABLE! _________________________________________ DEALERS and DISTRIBUTORS WANTED! please, call for details MASTERCARD & VISA ACCEPTED - NO SURCHARGE! Personal and Company Checks 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! SEND FOR YOUR NEW ABCO CATALOG TODAY! """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" STReport International Online Magazine -* [S]ilicon [T]imes [R]eport *- """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" STR Online! "YOUR INDEPENDENT NEWS SOURCE" October 30, 1992 Since 1987 copyright (c) 1987-92 All Rights Reserved No.8.43 """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" Views, Opinions and Articles Presented herein are not necessarily those of the editors/staff of STReport International Online Magazine. Permission to reprint articles is hereby granted, unless otherwise noted. Reprints must, without exception, include the name of the publication, date, issue number and the author's name . STReport and/or portions therein may not be edited in any way without prior written permission. STReport, at the time of publication, is believed reasonably accurate. STReport, its staff and contributors are not and cannot be held responsible for the use or misuse of information contained herein or the results obtained therefrom. """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""