Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!clyde.concordia.ca!uunet!decwrl!ucbvax!SUMEX-AIM.STANFORD.EDU!Info-Mac-Request From: Info-Mac-Request@SUMEX-AIM.STANFORD.EDU (The Moderators) Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.digest Subject: Info-Mac Digest V8 #143 Message-ID: <9008122349.AA20324@sumex-aim.stanford.edu> Date: 12 Aug 90 23:49:19 GMT Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU Reply-To: Info-Mac@sumex-aim.stanford.edu Organization: The Internet Lines: 830 Approved: info-mac@sumex-aim.stanford.edu Info-Mac Digest Sun, 12 Aug 90 Volume 8 : Issue 143 Today's Topics: [*] Gatekeeper Aid 1.0.2 RELEASED a fontain of info Locking the System Area Micron Xceed IIci-128 Cache Card for Mac IIci Murph's VAPORWARE Column for August 1990 PC Screen Dumps on the Macintosh Question on Virtual Memory Statistics software for the Mac tcsh on a/ux 2.0? Your Info-Mac Moderators are Bill Lipa, Lance Nakata, and Jon Pugh. The Info-Mac archives are available (by using FTP, account anonymous, any password) in the info-mac directory on sumex-aim.stanford.edu [36.44.0.6]. Help files are in /info-mac/help. Indices are in /info-mac/help/recent-files.txt and /info-mac/help/all-files.txt. Please send articles and binaries to info-mac@sumex-aim.stanford.edu. Send administrative mail to info-mac-request@sumex-aim.stanford.edu. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 6 Aug 90 02:54:21 -0500 From: chrisj@emx.utexas.edu (Chris Johnson) Subject: [*] Gatekeeper Aid 1.0.2 RELEASED Gatekeeper Aid 1.0.2 (c) 1990 by Chris Johnson Gatekeeper Aid is a Startup document (INIT) designed to automatically hunt and kill all known strains of the WDEF virus, as well as possible future strains and related viruses. It should be used to augment the Gatekeeper anti-virus system and may also be used to augment other anti-virus tools. Version 1.0.2 of Gatekeeper Aid is designed to correct a number of problems that surfaced in version 1.0.1. A complete list of these problems is included in the documentation. In addition, version 1.0.2 improves Gatekeeper Aid's protections and adds some new features including the ability to retroactively correct a bug in existing versions of Gatekeeper that is responsible for about 90% of all the Internal Errors reported. Users of Gatekeeper Aid are strongly encouraged to upgrade to this latest version. Users of anti-virus systems that don't automatically detect AND REMOVE the WDEF virus are strongly encouraged to use Gatekeeper Aid to augment their current systems. Also included with Gatekeeper Aid 1.0.2 is a document which provides a quick preview of Gatekeeper 2.0. ----Chris (Johnson) ----chrisj@emx.utexas.edu DISCLAIMER: My employer is neither involved with, nor responsible for, Gatekeeper and Gatekeeper Aid. [Archived as /info-mac/virus/gatekeeper-aid-102.hqx; 93K] ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 28 Jul 90 17:16:08 CDT From: Marshall Carroll Subject: a fontain of info Hi. Thank you Jim. Bruce, Larry, Mingzuo, Joe, Holla Greeny, MJV, William, Richard, FTAJK, Michael, Jonathon, Scott and Mark for all your help re my font requests and questions. Sincerely, Marshall p.s. the following excerpt from one of the replies will hopefully help other novices: Font size is measured in points, with a point being about 1/72 of an inch. Thus, a 72-point font should have letters about 1 inch tall (roughly - sometimes fonts vary from their "official" sizes). Normal font sizes are 10 point ("Elite") and 12 point ("Pica"). The most important thing you need to know about a font is whether it is a BITMAP font or a POSTSCRIPT font. A bitmap font is just a series of dots and spaces, like so: ....... ...o... ...o... .ooooo. ...o... ("." means empty space, "o" means dot) ...o... ...o... ...oo.. ....... The size of the letter depends on the size of the dots used to print the letter. On the ImageWriter, dots are about 1/72 of an inch square, so the "t" above would print out fairly small. Since our dots and spaces are arranged on an 8-by-8 grid, our "t" will be 8/72 of an inch tall (on the ImageWriter), or in other words, it would be part of an 8-point font. What if we want our "t" to be larger, or what if our dots are smaller? For example, I expect your laser printer uses dots that are only 1/300th of an inch, less than 1/4 the size of the dots the ImageWriter uses. Using dots this small, our 8-dot-by-8-dot "t" shrinks to just under 2 points tall - far too small to read. The solution, of course, is to fill in dots on a larger grid. Instead of an 8x8 grid, use a 32x32 grid and fill in the dots and spaces so that it prints out as an 8-point "t". What this means is that if you are using BITMAPPED fonts, you need a different bitmap (grid) for each different font size you want to use. Naturally, the bigger the font, the bigger the bitmap has to be. This eats up storage space and gets generally cumbersome. Fortunately, a company called "Adobe" developed a different way of representing fonts. Instead of using bitmaps, Adobe created a way of mathematically describing the shapes of the letters themselves. This method, called PostScript, makes it possible to print our a font any size you want, without needing all those bitmaps taking up space on your hard disk. PostScript is actually a full-fledged programming language, and it's a bit too complex for me to give you a meaningful sample, but the process it goes through amounts to something like this: Move to (0, 0) Pen down Go North 5 units Pen up Go South 3 units Pen down Go East 3 units Pen up Go North 3 units Pen down Go South 5 units Pen up Done. Well, this looks more like Logo than PostScript, but the point I want to illustrate is that this description (of a capital "H", did you get that?) can be used to print an "H" any size we want. All we have to do is tell PostScript to make a "unit" be 2 points, and the above description will print a 10-point "H". If we say to make a "unit" be 4 points, the above description will print a 20-point "H". We can even set "unit" to 2.75 and get a 13.75-point "H"! ImageWriter fonts are BITMAPPED. Apple tried to set up a tradition that all BITMAPPED fonts are named after cities and POSTSCRIPT fonts are named after - well, something else. Example: Geneva is a bitmapped font, whereas Helvetica is a PostScript font. They're both essentially the same font (i.e. the letters are shaped the same) except that Geneva is optimized for printing on an ImageWriter and Helvetica is optimized (looks best) for printing on a LaserWriter. LaserWriter fonts are POSTSCRIPT fonts. Actually, on the Macintosh, all laser fonts include both a PostScript font and a bitmapped font. This is because the Macintosh itself does not understand PostScript, so it needs the bitmapped fonts to display the letters on the screen. In other words, the Mac uses the bitmap font while you are editing a document, then when you go to print it, the LaserWriter uses the PostScript version of the same font. In general, PostScript gives you much nicer printouts than the bitmapped fonts. ***** Specific answers 1) Can an ImageWriter [bitmapped] font work on a laser printer? Yes, with certain limits. The Mac automatically substitutes certain PostScript fonts for certain bitmapped fonts. Specifically, Helvetica is substituted for Geneva, Times for New York, and Courier for Monaco. If you are using a bitmapped font for which there is no automatic substitution (Venice, for instance), the Mac will still print out the font. Since the laser printer dots are only 1/4 the size of the ImageWriter dots, however, the letters will also shrink by a factor of 4. Not to worry! The Mac knows this will happen, so it compensates by substituting a font four times bigger. For example, if you want to print 12-point Venice, the Mac will actually send the printer a 48-point Venice. The printer will then shrink it back down to 12-point, and everything is cheery. But what if you don't have Venice 48? Well, the Mac will "create" it by "enlarging" the nearest size it can find. Sometimes it looks ok, sometimes it doesn't. MORAL: if you want to print bitmapped fonts on a laser printer, make sure you have the font that is four times the size of the font you want to print. 2) Do all laser fonts work on ImageWriters? Yes, because the Mac requires that each PostScript font also have a bitmap font for display on the Macintosh screen. If you can see it on your screen, you can print it on your ImageWriter. Note, however, that some fonts, such as Helvetica, are designed primarily to look good on the LaserWriter, and do not look as nice either on the screen or on the ImageWriter. 3) Do laser fonts have to have the string "laser" in their name? No. Most don't. 4) What are Adobe fonts and how are they different from other fonts? Adobe is a private company that publishes PostScript fonts. Their competitors are Bitstream, Casady & Greene, and worthy companies whose names escape me at the moment. Do Adobe fonts work only on the LaserWriter? No, they will work on any PostScript-compatible printer, including some of the HP laser printers, all the way up to Linotronic and Compugraphic 2500 dpi imagesetters. Also EduCorp (800-843-9497) is a good source for PD fonts and other PD software; they have a free catalog that will give you a look at some of the fonts before you invest in them, and the cost per disk can be as low as $7 (multiple fonts per disk). Final hint: get Adobe Type Manager, especially if your laser printer is not PostScript-compatible. ATM is like having a little bit of PostScript built into your Mac: it lets you display fonts in any size you want, without needing all those bitmaps. It comes with the fonts Times, Helvetica, Courier, and Symbol, and works with any Adobe PostScript fonts. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 28 Jul 90 18:22:03 EST From: Peter Sweeney Subject: Locking the System Area Greeting from Miami University in Ohio!! We have a LAN of Mac SEs at Miami. Each Mac has local 20 meg Hard Drive. Using SilverLining, we have partitioned each drive into 3 volumes: Local System Area, 0Temp Data, and Local Programs. Using Cirrus Volumes, we have locked the Local Programs partition. Using ResEdit, we made the System Folder (in Local System Area) invisible. The 0Temp Data partition is available for student use. Here's the problem: we would like to lock the Local System Area partition as well. However, we also need to use the Chooser DA, because we have several print devices available. As some of you know, you can't use the Chooser from a locked disk. Is there a way, or a program that will allow us to lock the Local System Area AND use the Chooser? Any response is welcome. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Peter Sweeney | Microcomputer Consultant | Diplomacy: A-H, Hiroshima 901 Arrowhead Drive #25 | BITNET:ps9zrhmc@miamiu Oxford, Ohio 45056 | INTERNET:ps9zrhmc@miamiu.acs.muohio.edu (513) 523-4456 | ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 28 Jul 90 02:33 PDT From: Gann Matsuda Subject: Micron Xceed IIci-128 Cache Card for Mac IIci Just installed the Micron Xceed IIci-128 Cache Card into my IIci, and I immediately noticed an improvement in performance. The Micron card has 128K of 25ns static RAM that fits into the cache connector slot on the IIci logic board. The card comes with a cdev that controls the card. Using the cdev, you can enable or disable the cache, activate/deactivate SANE traps and turn on/off the icon at startup. With the limited experience I have had with the Daystar card and now with this one, I can say that a cache card does not speed up overall performance that much. You probably won't notice much difference in many uses (bootup, opening/closing programs/files, etc.). However, when you are using a program that is disk intensive or does a lot of number-crunching, you will be blown away, although the IIfx blows everything away. For example, Excel recalculations were nearly instantaneous in some of my larger spreadsheets. Panorama's performance, especially when moving from screen to screen and when running macros was accelerated considerably. Performance increases were also noticable in 4D. Anyone using SPSS 4.0 will also be very happy. In MS Word, hyphenation and spelling were sped up. ATM also renders screen fonts faster. Scrolling in CricketDraw, once unbearably slow, is now quick and smooth. Don't have anything to work with in FreeHand, so I can't test that yet. I have yet to test PageMaker 3.02 and 4.0. The CDEV that accompanies the card is ok, but don't try to run it AFTER the Aask Init from CE Software If you do, it will bomb with an error code of ID = 10. After speaking with Micron's tech support, I found that they didn't know about that problem. However, they do recommend running the CDEV first because it supposedly improves performance. Despite that, they should still fix the CDEV so that it doesn't bomb just because it wasn't run first (whether the problem is with the Micron cdev or Aask, I don't know. Whereever the problem lies, the two companies should put their heads together and fix it. Micron needs to include a utility application so the user can test the card. Simple tests for the card, just enough so the user knows the card is working properly should suffice. Such a utility could also help tech support diagnose problems with the card when an owner calls. The documentation for the card is poor. It is a little 6 page pamphlet that details the warranties for the card and the software, but tells little about the card itself other than how to install it. There should be some detailed information about what the card does (you can't assume that everyone who obtains one will know EXACTLY what it does) and how it does it. It should clearly explain what types of applications will take the most advantage of the cache card and why others aren't accelerated as much. Technical support seems to be ok. Micron has a toll-free number! Wow! I haven't seen one of those for tech support in a LONG time! Although I didn't reach a tech right away, one did call me back within an hour. That's A LOT more than I can say for MANY other companies. I wish there were on GEnie, however. Their warranty, as stated in their manual, is for one year. However, if you send in the registration form within 30 days of purchase, Micron will extend the warranty to 5 years. Why don't they just offer a 5 year warranty? The only reason I can think of that they use this "warranty scheme" is that some of the mail- order companies offer 30-day money-back guarantees if you aren't satisfied. Perhaps this is Micron's way of enticing you to keep the product. To me, they don't need to do this. Look like they've got a high-quality product that works the way it is supposed to. It turns a stock IIci into a much faster machine. Compared to the Daystar card, the price is right. The last retail price I've seen for the Daystar card was $995, although I've seen it for as low as $754 (I think there may be a few mail-order places that sell it for a bit lower). The Micron card retails at $719, but Mac Connection is currently selling it for $589. In addition, the Daystar card has 64K RAM, and the Micron card has 128K RAM. Byte for byte, the Micron card is a better buy. Barring any unforeseen problems in the near future, I wholeheartedly recommend the Micron Xceed-IIci-128 cache card for anyone that works with databases, statistical, math, graphics, or any other disk-intensive or number-crunching work. If you don't, save your money. Gann Matsuda UCLA Asian American Studies Center BITNET: IYI4DTN@UCLAMVS ARPANET: IYI4DTN@oac.ucla.edu INTERNET: IYI4DTN@UCLAMVS.BITNET GEnie: G.MATSUDA P.S. I have no connection with Micron, other than owning this product. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 26 Jul 1990 17:47:00 EDT From: Murph Sewall Subject: Murph's VAPORWARE Column for August 1990 VAPORWARE Murphy Sewall From the August 1990 APPLE PULP H.U.G.E. Apple Club (E. Hartford) News Letter $15/year U.S. - $18/year Canadian P.O. Box 18027 East Hartford, CT 06118 Call the "Bit Bucket" (203) 569-8739 Permission granted to copy with the above citation "Windows puts a stake in the heart of OS/2. I don't see OS/2 going anywhere." - Sun Microsystems VP Bill Joy MS-DOS 5.0 Beta testers say DOS 5.0, intended for release this fall, is smaller, faster, and has an array of nifty new utilities. The new version frees memory on 286 and 386 machines with at least 64K of extended memory by relocating part of the operating system above the conventional 640K address space. On a 1 Mbyte machine, DOS 5.0 leaves as much as 630K for applications while DOS 4.01 on the same computer allows less than 584K. Virtual Memory windows in Windows 3.0 will each gain about 40K according to Microsoft product manager Mark Chesnut. Other features include a full screen editor, replacement of GW Basic with Microsoft's Quick Basic, context sensitive on-line help, and an "unformat" command which allows users to recover hard disk data in cases of an inadvertent format command. The final version also may include memory management features that permit loading memory resident software and network drivers in memory above the DOS address space. - PC Week 2 July Slimmed Down OS/2 IBM showed a five to ten percent faster version of OS/2 which takes less than 2 Mbytes of RAM at June's PC Expo. Big Blue is shipping beta versions of OS/2 1.2 to independent software vendors but has declined to comment on a possible commercial release date. - PC Week and InfoWorld 25 June Windows 3.1? Bill Gates told developers at July's OS/2 LAN Manager conferene that Windows will be upgraded in "less than a year." The new version will include True Type scalable-font technology as well as size and performance enhancements. - InfoWorld 16 July Multiuser OS/2 Citrix Systems is developing a multiuser version of OS/2 that could challenge low-end Unix systems by offering small businesses comparable capabilities for about one-tenth the price. Citrix has licensed OS/2 source code from Microsoft and hopes to offer compatibility with existing character-based OS/2 applications and eventually Presentation Manager applications. IBM has said that it intends to provide multiuser capabilities in OS/2 but has not said how or when. Citrix expects to ship late this year or early in the first quarter of 1991. - InfoWorld 2 July OS/2 NT Microsoft insiders are predicting a multiprocessing version of OS/2 completely rewritten in C by the first quarter of 1992. This operating system is tentatively known as OS/2 NT (for "New Technology"). Meanwhile, Microsoft chairman Bill Gates has acknowledged that the 32-bit OS/2 2.0 may not be ready until next summer. Mr. Gates says, the long awaited operating system will ship "certainly in the next six to 12 months. It's possible we won't make the (1990) target date." - InfoWorld 2 and 16 July Nine Times the Desktop. Inner Media is planning to ship an OS/2 Presentation Manager desktop expansion utility this month named "WideAngle." WideAngle allows user to scroll horizontally across up to nine replications of the standard Windows 3.0 display. WideAngle requires only 60K of RAM and will be priced at $129. - PC Week 9 July Much Faster Laser Printers. Adobe Systems head, John Warnock, says that within one year his firm will ship a new printer controller based on the MIPS R3000 RISC chip. The new controller and new version of PostScript will run three to seven times as fast as current Motorola 68020 models yet cost about the same. - MacWorld July HP IIP meets HP III. Hewlett-Packard plans to announce the LaserJet IIID this month. The new eight page per minute printer combines the dual-sided printing capability of the model IID with the graphics quality of the LaserJet III. The new printer will retail for a few hundred dollars less than the $3,595 price of the current LaserJet IID. Next spring, there also will be a four page per minute meld of the LaserJets IIP and III (the LaserJet IIIP, naturally). - InfoWorld 18 June and PC Week 25 June More Powerful RS/6000s. Industry research analyst Brian Jeffrey of International Technology Group predicts that IBM will effectively double the performance of its RISC workstation line next year. A family of more powerful systems as well as advanced low-cost models are planned to debut next Spring. The new models will drop the chip count from nine to five and the price to as low as $4,000 for a 20 MIP diskless workstation. - PC Week 25 June Higher PS/2 Display Resolution. Future PS/2's will support a new 1,024 by 768 display standard called XGA which should be as commonplace in two years as VGA is today. - PC Week 9 July Unspun. Apple has announced that it's Claris software subsidiary will not be spun off as a separate company after all. The change means that Claris will not develop for Windows 3.0 and Presentation Manager as aggressively as it might have done. Claris will develop software for Windows and other platforms only insofar as it helps link Macintoshes to other environments. - PC Week 2 July and InfoWorld 2 and 9 July Quicktime. Apple is formalizing a cross-platform set of multimedia standards called Quicktime and has announced plans to incorporate better sound features, real-time image data compression and television playable output into future modular Macintoshes. According to Apple vice president Don Casey, the planned technology will reduce the memory size required for an image by up to 90 percent. Apple also plans to selectively license the technology for inclusion in future operating systems. - InfoWorld 25 June Legal Clones of Mac ROM Chips. Asian developers have finally succeeded in reverse engineering legitimate clones for Macintosh ROMs. Rumor has it that Apple may participate in a licensing agreement to mass market Mac Plus level computers of Far Eastern manufacture. - PC Week 9 July Better Amiga to Macintosh Compatibility. ReadySoft has announced A-MAX II and A-MAX II Plus for the Amiga. The A-MAX II is a software update of the existing A-MAX. The new software supports MAC digitized sound, MAC formatted partitions on Amiga hard drives, and access to MAC SCSI peripherals (scanners, hard drives, and printers) through an Amiga SCSI port. A-MAX II Plus uses the new software and also offers new hardware. The board contains two MAC compatible serial ports and an AppleTalk-compatible port. With the A-MAX II Plus, compatibility with MAC modems and printers is improved, and the Amiga can run MIDI and networking software permitting Amigas to join LANs along with (or in place of) Macintoshes. Prices have not been announced (A-MAX has a list price of $200). The A-MAX II should be available in a few weeks, and the II Plus before Christmas. - found in my electronic mailbox Apple II Tidbits. Apple has scheduled a press conference for this month, probably to announce HyperCard IIgs which was shown, more or less publicly, at the KansasFest developers conference. Apple insiders have been using an HFS (Macintosh file format) FST (File System Translator) on the IIgs for more than a year. Now that it's starting to be shown to a few outsiders, maybe it will included with the anticipated new operating System 6.0. The Apple IIgs will disappear from German price lists in September, and there's a report that European sales personnel were unofficially referring to the Macintosh IIgs even before John Sculley's address at April's AppleVision. - found in my electronic mailbox Secretive Spinoff. Former Apple superstar programmers Bill Atkinson, Andy Hertzfeld, and Marc Porat aren't saying what their new spinoff firm, General Magic Inc., plans to make except that it will bear the trademark "Personal Intelligent Communicator." Apple, is General Magic's largest shareholder, and retains a license to make and market the resulting technologies. Apple spun off General Magic because whatever the Personal Intelligent Communicator is, it doesn't fit Apple's mainstream business. - Wall Street Journal 12 July and InfoWorld 16 July Luggable CRT Quality Color. Dolch Computer Systems has announced 20 pound 80386 and i486 computers with 10-inch active matrix color displays. Due for delivery this fall, the 25 MHz 80386 model will retail for $7,995 and the 25 MHz i486 model will be $12,995. The active matrix color display alone has a price tag of $3,995. - PC Week 18 June Batteries Not Included. Airis Computer's $1,899 Model VH-286 6.5 pound laptop which will begin shipping in September is most noticeable for its ability to run more than 12 hours on 10 standard alkaline C-cells as well as six to eight hours off a rechargeable Nicad battery pack. The VH-286 price includes 2 Mbytes of RAM, a 20 Mbyte hard drive with 256K hardware disk cache, a 2,400 baud internal modem, and 11 inch diagonal VGA display. Traveling Software's Laplink is bundled with the VH-286, and a 1.44 Mbyte 3.5 inch floppy is available only as an optional external unit. Later this fall, AST will offer a seven pound 386SX laptop in a 9 by 12 inch form factor that also runs on alkaline batteries. The AST machine will incorporate a 1.44 Mbyte floppy, a 40 Mbyte hard drive, 2 Mbytes of RAM and a VGA display along with an attachable trackball pointing device. - PC Week 25 June and InfoWorld 2 July Shirtpocket Computer. Intel is designing an 80386-based hand held computer that measures only 2 by 3 by 1 inch. The pocket computer scheduled for release next year will support VGA. - PC Week 9 July Handwriting on the Computer. IBM researchers have developed handwriting recognition techniques that recognize discretely written characters which are touching or even overlapping. The technique does not yet recognize cursive script. Grid and Sony already have machines with handwritten input, and Go and Aegis plan to introduce models this fall. Rumor has it that, this fall, Apple will offer a stylus input option as well. The handwriting recognition software will be shipped by Communication Intelligence Corporation. Perhaps Apple's handwriting reader will be bundled with the new Mac laptop being made by Toshiba? - InfoWorld 25 June and 2 July Character Recognition Utility. Ocron has begun marketing its optical character recognition (OCR) engine to both software and hardware vendors as a kernel that could be built into other systems. An OCR utility within a word processing program could allow it to translate a scanned or FAX image into a file that could be edited. Perhaps Apple will adopt the Ocron kernel -- Apple's own flatbed scanner was spotted recently attached to a IIgs (resolution up to 300 dots per inch), but the IIgs software used with it is described as very buggy. Maybe InWord, primarily designed for hand-held scanners (see below), would work better? - InfoWorld 2 July and a whisper to my electronic mailbox Character Recongition Software for Apple II's. This September, WestCode Software of San Diego will ship InWords, Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software for the Apple IIe and Apple IIgs. The software developed by Alan Bird of Better Bye and Timeout fame is designed primarily for use with hand-held scanners. A price has not been announced, but a company source indicated a figure in the vicinity of $120 is probable. - posted to America OnLine 11 July Many Mbytes in a Small Package. Quantum Corporation has announced 330 Mbyte and 425 Mbyte hard drives built into a 3.5 inch disk drive form factor. The SCSI versions of the Prodrive 330 ($1,350) and Prodrive 425 ($1,595) will be sampled in August with volume production scheduled for November. Evaluation units of AT-bus versions will become available in the fourth quarter. - InfoWorld 2 July Fast Magneto-Optical Drive. Early next year, Ocean Microsystems expects to ship an optical-magneto cartridge drive which claims access speeds comparable to those of most IBM PS/2 hard drives. The Vista 130 will store 128 Mbytes per cartridge and has an average access time of 28 milliseconds and a data transfer rate of 512K per second. The drive will be priced at about $3,000 and cartridges will retail for between $120 and $130 each. - InfoWorld 16 June Massive Storage. The current Compaq Systempro supports up to eight internal and 16 external synchronized 210 Mbyte drives for a total capacity of 4.28 gigabytes. Now, Compaq senior vice president Gary Stimac says the company will extend its storage architecture to support a nearly tenfold increase in capacity. Expect the Systempro to support up to 40 gigabytes of storage by the end of this year, or early next year. - InfoWorld 9 July What Happened to Norton Utilities 5.0 When Symantec acquired Norton earlier this year, the new owners decided they didn't like the proposed packaging for the next release of Norton Utilities. Version 5.0's appearance has been briefly delayed while the box is being made prettier. Norton for the Mac may not appear at all. Apparently, Symantec plans to merge the best features of Norton's features into a new release of their SUM Macintosh utilities. - InfoWorld 2 July Integrated Desk Set. Zedcor is planning to release a $399.95 (specially reduced >From $400) set of seven integrated programs for the Macintosh tentatively called "Desk." The package includes Zedcor's 32-bit color paint and draw programs as well as word processing, spreadsheet, charting, communications, database, and calendaring functions. - MacWorld July Ventura for Windows and OS/2. A Windows 3.0 version of Ventura Publisher was shown at June's PC Expo. The program has been rewritten to be a true Windows product and is expected to ship early in the third quarter. An OS/2 version will ship later in the third quarter. - InfoWorld 25 June Adobe Type Manager for Windows. Adobe intends to ship their $99 rasterizing utility, Adobe Type Manger, for Windows in September. - InfoWorld 25 June PM SAS. An OS/2 Presentation Manager version of SAS multivariate statistical applications has been sent to beta testers at over 200 sites. Users of the OS/2 product will be able to take advantage of OS/2's multitasking, dynamic data exchange, and graphic user interface. The OS/2 Extended Edition Database Manager also is supported in the program which is due for a fall debut. - InfoWorld 25 June R:base Update in the Works. Microrim has sent it's recently released R:base 3.0 back to the lab to improve its speed and reduce its RAM demand. Version 3.1 should be ready by late summer. According to product manager Scott Fallon, version 3.1 will reduce RAM demand from 520K bytes to fewer than 480K and also have faster performance and an improved user interface. The new version will retail for $795; upgrades will be free to current users of version 3.0. - PC Week and InfoWorld 25 June Not Bug Free. dBase IV version 1.1 (the "bug fix") has bugs of its own. Look for yet another version by the Ashton-Tate developers' conference in September. - InfoWorld 25 June /s Murph [Internet] or ...{psuvax1 or mcvax}!uconnvm.bitnet!sewall [UUCP] + Standard disclaimer applies ("The opinions expressed are my own" etc.) ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 27 Jul 90 16:58:22 PDT From: Scott Herzinger Subject: PC Screen Dumps on the Macintosh My wife is a technical writer, and she faced the same problem not too long ago. She tried several things, but as I recalled the one that worked the best was a product called MacChuck which provides a PC console interface within a Mac window. You plug a cable between your Mac serial or printer port and PC COM1 or COM2. I can't remember all the details but I think there's something that you run at boot time on the PC, or maybe later, a la CTTY. Then you run MacChuck on the Macintosh. The PC ends up thinking that the Mac window is its console. Unlike a PC emulator, the PC software is indeed running on the PC. Just the screen is on the Mac. One gotcha is that it only works for character-based stuff, but MacChuck does have fonts containing all the PC extended characters. So, you can do a couple of things: just steal the fonts from Mac- Chuck and diddle with your screen dumps in your text processing system. Or you can use MacChuck and use Mac screen dumps instead of PC screen dumps. Good luck, Scott Herzinger scotth%crl.labs.tek.com@relay.cs.net Computer Research Lab, Tektronix, Inc. PO Box 500 MS 50-662, Beaverton, OR 97077 ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 27 Jul 90 21:19:16 EDT From: Sari Khoury <3XMQGAA%CMUVM.BITNET@forsythe.stanford.edu> Subject: Question on Virtual Memory I know that virtual memory is not possible without a PMMU chip but how do programs like ImageStudio 1.5 and PageMaker 4.0 use VM on Pluses, SE? In the PageMaker 4.0 readme file, it says that when Pagemaker runs out of memory, it will swap memory with the disk. Why can't apple use this same technique so Plus and SE users can use it. If I get enough responses, I'll summarize to the net. Thank you. ------------------------------------------------------------------- Sari Khoury 3XMQGAA@CMUVM.BITNET Art Department skhoury@postcard.engin.umich.edu Central Michigan University bushido!khoury@umich.edu Mt. Pleasant, MI 48858 ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 28 Jul 90 00:28:06 EDT From: Detlef_Sprinz@ub.cc.umich.edu Subject: Statistics software for the Mac To all number crunchers: A month ago, I posted a request for some help regarding information on statistics software for the Mac. Many persons answered, including developers. Below you find a summary and some directions for further readings. Some persons suggested good reviews to be found in: 1. MacUser, April 1990, 114-136 2. MacWeek, June 5, 1990 (vol 4, no. 21), and 3. InfoWorld, March 19, 1990 (vol. 12, issue 12). These three reviews cover the major market segments and are clearly written; however, I abstain from a personal recommendation. The choice of program depends on the type of statistics you wish to use frequently, compatibility with the PC and the mainframe computers, cost considerations, RAM requirements, and the way the software shall take advantage of the Mac interface. In summary, however, most reviews agreed that Systat 5.0 is a good all-rounder, and a cheaper version (Fastat) is also available. Other software (DataDesk and JMP) are more appropriate for exploratory data analysis. However, there is no substitute for reading the reviews after you have determined *your* specific needs. A few addresses or telephone numbers to contact software publishers for demos follow: 1. Data Desk by Odesta Corp [ (800) 334-6041] You may contact the developer, Paul Velleman, at QP2@CORNELLA (from my address node, I guess it must have arrived here via Bitnet) 2. RATS by VAR Econometrics [ (708) 864-8772] A point of clarification with regard to Shazam 6.2. It is much more Mac-like than the previous version, however, it is *not* freeware. It may be given to you at no cost (except for a bland disk) *iff* -your university has a site license, and if they -do not charge you for its use. A university site license is available for $ 1,200 and a personal copy costs $ 295. Please contact the developer directly at Ken_White@MTSG.UBC.CA for details. The University of Michigan provides Shazam 6.2 without charge to its students, staff, and faculty. Since we sign an agreement, we are not allowed to give it away. Happy crunching... and do not forget about the theories you test when you get carried away by some of the programs. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 27 Jul 90 17:57:16 PDT From: cwilson@nisc.sri.com (Chan Wilson) Subject: tcsh on a/ux 2.0? I've finally got this Mac fx up and running A/UX, and it looks pretty slick; automagically uses nis, nfs, etc. Trouble I'm having is compiling tcsh to run on it. On the final link, it gives the following error: undefined first referenced symbol in file rewinddir tw.parse.o ld fatal: Symbol referencing errors. No output written to tcsh Make: Update of tcsh terminated with exit code 13 Make: Target tcsh is on line 94 in /pub/tcsh/Makefile Make: Stopped in directory /pub/tcsh. Has anyone patched tcsh to run on a/ux 2.0? Thanks... - --Chan Chan Wilson SRI Intl. Network Information Systems Center 333 Ravenswood Ave., EK289 Internet: cwilson@nisc.sri.com Menlo Park, CA., 94025 Phone: (415)859-5921 ------------------------------ End of Info-Mac Digest ******************************