NeXT Nugget News Digest (vol. 2, issue 1, February 17, 1992) Hello, This is the first issue of the 1992 NeXT NUGGET NEWS DIGEST - a collection of items of interest for the NeXT User Group members. There are more than 270 NeXT User Groups in 30 countries around the world. If you wish to start a new NeXT user group locally or if you have a NeXT User Group but have not registered it, please send email to user_groups@next.com. (Several new recipients have been added to this mailing. If you do NOT wish to continue receiving future issues, please send email to user_groups@next.com.) conrad _____________________________________________________________________ NeXT NUGGET NEWS DIGEST, vol. 2, issue 1, February 17, 1992 Table of Contents i. NeXTWORLD Expo Update (including the NeXTWORLD Expo Index) ii. A Seybold Special NeXT User Group Announcement - February 19 I. NeXT Technical Documentation II. Imagine Multimedia software position open III. NeXTConnection numbers, for your Rolodex file IV. Companion Products From RightBrain Software V. Adobe Technical Support VI. Announcing New Executor Mailing list VII. ABSOFT ports IMSL Fortran Libraries to NeXT VIII. Visus Introduces SpeechKit for the NeXT IX. RDR announces Development Tools for NeXT X. Update on Interface Builder Tutorials XI. To Friends of MediaView: MediaView is available XII. Pages Software Development positions XIII. NeXT System Administration Education Specialist XIV. Project Manager for Persistence Software XV. First National Bank of Chicago and NeXTstep developers XVI. Software Design Engineer Position XVII. NorthStar position available XVIII. Stolen NeXT machines alert! Conrad Geiger International NeXT User Groups Email: user_groups@next.com ____________________________________________________________________ i. NeXTWORLD Expo Update Hello, As many of you may already know, the NeXTWORLD Expo was held in San Francisco January 22-24, 1992 and sponsored by NeXTWORLD magazine. Here are as few statistics from the "NeXTWORLD Expo Index" - number of NeXT user groups at the NeXTWORLD Expo: over 110 - audience count at Steve Job's keynote: 3300 - number of exhibitors on the show floor: 81 - expected attendance at the developer's conference: 300 - actual attendance at the developer's conference: 593 - number of developer sessions that had to be repeated due to unexpected demand: 5 - most requested follow-up item: Sun vs. NeXT video - number of pieces of NeXT collateral (information sheets and white papers) given out: over 85,000 - number of NeXT bags given away: over 6,000 - number of pounds of NeXT Software & Peripherals Calalogs given out: 8,276 - number of NeXT User Group volunteers: over 250 - number of hours user group members volunteered: over 1,500 There were over 250 volunteers that helped contribute over 1500 hours of service at this first NeXTWORLD Expo. I wish to express my special thanks to the following few NeXT User Group leaders, advocates, and NeXT enthusiasts whose volunteer efforts helped make the 1992 NeXTWORLD Expo a memorable event for the thousands of attendees: Dan Lavin Mitchel Roider Al Willis Kristin Kueter Steve Weissberg (co-hosted the NeXT User Group reception) Carolyn Coughlin (co-hosted the NeXT User Group reception) Mary McNamaman Alwyn Stewart John Van Heteran (did the two maps locating all 260 NeXT user groups) Joe Barello Jennifer Woodward Dave Kerkorian Jim Chan Eric P. Scott Thomas Gewecke Kristin Dyer Robert Nielsen Greg Burd Charles Perkins Mike Tatsugawa Elizabeth Mezias John Glover M. Carling Tim Reed David Pollak Cynthia Closkey Rick Reynolds Kazunori Shioya Michael Mahoney Paul Lynch Paul Beaumont Brian Dear Steve Costa Marcus Brueggemann Arthur C Kyle Shuichi Tashiro Hironobu Suzuki Paul Murphy Alex Cone Jiro Nakamura Joseph Chin Jon Rosen to the VNUS group members that drove the shuttle bus ...and to the scores of FOGNUG and BANG members There were over 100 NeXT User Groups representing 22 countries at this year's NeXTWORLD Expo. The award for the NeXT User Group that travelled the most miles with the most members to attend this year's event was shared by the Tokyo group (NeXus) and the United Kingdom group (UK NeXT User Group). Both of these groups had in excess of 35,000 member-miles. This was in spite of the largest out-of-town representation of 27 members from the Vancouver, British Columbia NeXT group (VNUS) and the 18 Albuquerque, New Mexico group members in attendance. conrad geiger ________________________________________________________________________ ii. A Seybold Special NeXT User Group Announcement From: dpp@athena.com (David Pollak) Subject: BCS-NeXT/Seybold Blow-out meeting Organization: Athena Design, Inc. One Wednesday, February 19th, The Boston Computer Society NeXT Group will hold its annual Seybold Blow-out meeting. It will all happen in rooms 202 and 204 at the Hynes Convention Center. Schedule: 6 - 7 A reception hosted by Jonathan Seybold with hors d'ovres (rm 204) 7 - The East Coast Preview of Altsys's Virtuoso Glenn Reid for Right Brain showing PasteUp Dano Ybarra UNIX products marketing Manager from Adobe David LaDuke from NeXT saying a few words Rumor of the month, prizes, a surprise or two, and much much more BCS-NeXT members will receive passes to Seybold in the mail. If you don't your BCS card will get you in the door. The meeting is open to all. If you're in Boston on the 19th, this is the place to be. A special thanks to Beth Sadler and Jonathan Seybold for hosting the meeting. -- David Pollak - dpp@athena.com - NeXTMail Compliant Attorney at Law, Director, Boston Computer Society, NeXT Group, ____________________________________________________________________ I. NeXT Technical Documentation To order NeXT Techanical Documentation: Call Addison-Wesley 1-800-447-2226 NeXTstep Reference 0-201-58136-1 $44.95 NeXT Developer Tools 0-201-58132-9 $24.95 NeXT Operating System SW 0-201-58131-9 $24.95 Sound, Music, Signal Processing:Reference 0-201-58146-9 $39..95 Sound, Music, Signal Processing:Concepts 0-201-58137-X $19.95 total $154.75 plus tax and shipping. ____________________________________________________________________ II. Imagine Multimedia software position open Imagine Multimedia, Inc. - Software position open Position open: - Several software design/programming positions are available to assist in the porting and development of multimedia software on NeXT and other Unix computers. - System adminstration and technical support positions are also avaliable. Requirements: - NeXTstep programming experience. - UNIX, X-Windows, and Motif expertise is a plus. - 2 years industry experience and media background (sound, image, animation, etc.) desired. Start Date: immediate Send resumes and cover letters to: Imagine Multimedia, Inc. 44 Frank Lloyd Wright Drive P.O. Box 473 Ann Arbor, MI 48106 (please do not call directly) or Email: resumes@imagine.com (NeXT mail encouraged) ____________________________________________________________________ III. NeXTConnection numbers, for your Rolodex file: NeXTConnection's numbers are: 1-800/800-NeXT 1-603/446-7771 FAX 1-603/446-7791 ____________________________________________________________________ IV. Companion Products From RightBrain Software USER GROUP SPECIAL PRICING! Portfolio Portfolio is a visual palette for EPS and TIFF files that fully supports the drag-and-drop metaphor. You can drag images into the scrolling window and it will display a small-scale "thumbnail" of the image for reference. You can then drag it directly from the Portfolio window into PasteUp, Mail, Adobe Illustrator, or any application that supports EPS and TIFF files. RightBrain Rulers RightBrain Rulers are horizontal and vertical guides that float above every application. Whether your creating a quick document or an elegant graphic design, RightBrain Rulers make it easier to align text, compare image sizes, and position graphics. RightBrain Rulers can be scaled to match any zoom level, and are capable of measuring in inches, centimeters, points or picas. LockScreen Lets you password protect your screen instead of logging out. Keep folders and applications open when you're away from your desk, and be confident that they won't be seen or manipulated when you're not there. LockScreen also protects your screen from burn-in with a mesmerizing random word display or your own custom graphic. LaunchPad Creates a scrolling list of active icons, including documents, folders and applications, that you can access just like icons in the Dock. LaunchPad lets you increase the workable space on your screen, while providing direct access to all your icons. ALSO, DON'T FORGET THAT RIGHTBRAIN SELLS FONTS!!! The AdobeType Library for NeXT Over 200 font packages, representing approximately 1000 type faces, from the Adobe Type Library. These are genuine Adobe fonts which have been developed specifically for NeXT Computers. Priced identical to Macintosh fonts from The Adobe Type Library. We also have a brand new FONT HOTLINE dedicated to fonts: 1-800-525-FONT. Glenn Reid NeXTMail: glenn@rightbrain.com RightBrain Software 415-326-2974 (NeXTfax 326-2977) ____________________________________________________________________ V. Adobe Technical Support Members of the Adobe Technical Support are available to assist you with your NeXT Illustrator, NeXT Font, and Adobe TouchType questions. If you would like to report bugs or have issues that you would like to route directly to Adobe, please send them to techsuppt@adobe.com or call 415-961-4992 and press 3 at the beginning of the recording to get directly through to the NeXT support group. Our support hours are M-TH 6am-5pm, Fri 6am-2pm Pacific Standard Time. We welcome your comments and suggestions on how to improve our products. -Adobe Technical Support ____________________________________________________________________ VI. Announcing New Executor Mailing list From: barry@ictv.com I've started an executor mailing list for anyone who has purchased a copy of executor or is just interested in listening in. The purpose of the list is to share information about executor, different Mac applications that work under executor, and anything else that people want to discuss. I know that I am interested in sharing things that I've learned. I imagine that there are others who would like to do the same. To have your address added to the list send a request to: executor-request@ictv.com To post to the list send to: executor@ictv.com ____________________________________________________________________ VII. ABSOFT ports IMSL Fortran Libraries to NeXT Absoft Corporation has ported the IMSL Complete FORTRAN Libraries Group to the NeXT environment. The IMSL Libraries consist of nearly 800 exhaustively tested FORTRAN subroutines for use with applications in the fields of mathematics, the sciences, and statistical analysis. Prices start at - for a single user license. Volume discounts and site licenses are available. For further information contact: Wood Lotz, Absoft Corporation Tel: (313) 853-0050 Fax: (313) 853-0108 Email: absoft!wlz@uunet.UU.NET ____________________________________________________________________ VIII. Visus Introduces SpeechKit for the NeXT Visual Understanding Systems introduces SpeechKit, a powerful new developer's tool for adding speech recognition to your applications. SpeechKit makes it fast and easy to build applications that use speech recognition in a natural and comfortable way. SpeechKit is speaker independent - it recognizes women, men, even people with accents, without training. SpeechKit's ability to recognize continous speech allows users to speak naturally without pausing between words. SpeechKit builds its vocabulary directly from your application's command list. You can develop grammars up to 1000 words without having to become a speech expert. With smaller grammars, your application can recognize commands almost before the user finishes speaking. SpeechKit uses the hidden markov model technology rated as the Business Week Technological innovation of the year. Call Visus at (412) 488-3600, or 1-800-36VISUS (1-800-368-4787) ____________________________________________________________________ IX. RDR announces Development Tools for NeXT (Demo versions of these are located on the cs.orst.edu archive site under /pub/next/submissions.) For Immediate Release Contact: Chris Walters Phone: (703) 591-8713 RDR, Inc. ANNOUNCES FAMILY OF DEVELOPMENT TOOLS FOR THE NeXT WORKSTATION RESTON, VA., December 4, 1991. At the NeXT Federal Expo, RDR, Inc. introduced PowerPalettes. PowerPalettes is a series of loadable palettes for use with Interface Builder, the powerful application development tool provided with the extended release of NeXTstep system software. PowerPalettes consists of five palettes designed to provide developers access to useful graphical interface components. Members of the PowerPalettes family include RDRSwitchView, RDRSoundPalette, RDRSelector, RDREnvelopeEditor, and RDRGadgets. The RDRSwitchView palette assists programmers in managing off screen views and the presentation of those views on the screen in response to user actions. The RDRSoundPalette consolidates sound recording, playback, and editing capabilities into a group of user interface components. The RDRSelector provides a mechanism for users to select items from an onscreen list, with options provided for bulk loading of large data sets. The RDREnvelopeEditor allows the user to edit the X Y pairs which define signal envelopes for use with the NeXT Music Kit. The RDRGadgets palette allows programmers to easily add graphical objects such as lines, rectangles, and circles to their user interfaces without using an external draw package. PowerPalettes will ship in the first quarter of 1992. University discounts are available for non-commercial use. PowerPalettes PowerPalettes are a series of loadable palettes for use with Interface Builder, the standard tool for application development shipped with every extended release of the NeXT Operating System. RDRSwitchView During the development of applications, it is frequently necessary to provide a custom view which is used to display a series of other views in response to a user action. A common use for this type of view is in the development of object inspectors, or other applications where available screen space is limited. RDRSelector The RDRSelector fills a much needed gap for developers in all application domains. The RDRSelector provides a visual list which the user can select values from. The programmer has complete control over the visual attributes of the selector, including title placement, border type, and color, and the behavior of the selector such as single or multiple selection mode, target, and actions. RDRSoundPalette The NeXT machine has very powerful multimedia capabilities, which include the ability to sample sound from on board microphones. Until now, application programmers who have wanted to include sound annotations or sound processing in their applications have had to create custom views which access the objects of the Sound Kit. The RDRSound palette provides flexible and powerful packaging of all the necessary components of the Sound Kit for inclusion in application programs. RDRGadgets InterfaceBuilder is an extremely powerful program which allows the rapid development of user interfaces and application programs for the NeXT computer. However, a number of user interface elements are not present either in the application kit or directly in InterfaceBuilder. The RDRGadgets palette provides a number of these types of objects, which are useful in the design of user interfaces. These include line, box, and circle views which can be manipulated directly by the programmer within InterfaceBuilder. RDREnvelopeEditor An envelope is a function which describes how a particular parameter affects a sound over time. RDREnvelopeEditor provides a way for users to graphically create and edit envelopes for use with the NeXT Music Kit. Chris Walters Email: walters@rdr.com ____________________________________________________________________ X. Update on Interface Builder Tutorials From: Eric Scott of FOGNUG (San Francisco NeXT User Group) >Can anyone point out the errors in the IB tutorial in the NeXT Developer's >tools book? When I tried to run the calculator project, it doesn't calculate >and it quits when I click the button. I checked my project and it seems okay. NeXT subsequently released a significantly updated/corrected replacement, available for anonymous FTP from sonata.cc.purdue.edu [128.210.15.30] as pub/next/docs/NeXT_IB_Tutorial.tar.Z Also, check out Mike Mahoney's excellent presentation in pub/next/Newsletters/SCaNeWS/IB_tutorial.ps.Z -=EPS=- ____________________________________________________________________ XI. To Friends of MediaView: MediaView is available After the passage of far too much time, I have finally placed a copy of MediaView on nova.cc.purdue.edu in the submissions directory. I'll have more information on sample documents, extending MediaView, etc. in a day or two. Right now though, I'm heading off to the slopes for a few hours of skiing. Please send all comments and questions to me at rlp@lanl.gov. Dick Phillips ____________________________________________________________________ XII. Pages Software Development positions Pages Software Inc. (aka the Banzai Research Institute) is still looking for a few good NeXT developers to help our rapidly growing development team change the world, one obejct at a time. Qualifications are (in rough order of priority): * significant NeXT programming experience * strong background in data structure design and manipulation * prior work on a commerically-shipping software product * experience in developing document manipulation, layout, editing code * multi-platform experience (X/Motif, Windows, Mac) * fondness for pizza, barbeque, noodles and/or sushi We still offer a great work environment, beautiful location, competitive salaries, stock options, medical and dental benefits, and your own office (well, once we move into our new building). Expect long hours, hard work, short deadlines, lots of fun, boon companions, and lunch on Fridays. If you're going to be at NeXTWORLD Expo this week, please feel free to grab any of the Pages staff, who will be attending in force (Bruce Webster, Bruce Henderson, Greg Kostello, Kevin Berg, John Choi), or to drop off your resume (attn: Bruce Webster) at our hotel, Inn at the Opera, 333 Fulton Street (about 2 blocks north west of the Civic Auditorium). Please respond via e-mail (if possible); NeXTmail welcomed. Bruce F. Webster (bwebster@pages.com) Director, R&D, Pages Software Inc. 3914 Murphy Canyon Road, Suite A-160 San Diego, CA 92123 VOX: 619/492-9050 FAX: 619/492-9124 ____________________________________________________________________ XIII. NeXT System Administration Education Specialist NeXT Computer Inc. is seeking a highly-skilled and energetic person to join the Customer Education team. The role of the Networking and System Administration Education Specialist is to deliver and develop courses on administering and supporting stand-alone and networked NeXT computer systems. The Systems Administration Education Specialist will participate in evaluating the effectiveness of training and course materials, and help evolve the curriculum and programs to meet the needs of NeXT's customers, and track new NeXT software and hardware products. The skills required to fill this position successfully include: + Excellent written and verbal communication skills + Ability to deliver classroom training + Knowledge of UNIX networking and systems administration + Ability to develop and design course curriculum The experience to fill this position successfully includes: + Technical computing, preferably in UNIX network and systems administration + Public presentation or training experience. In addition, experience of a variety of network administration, hardware troubleshooting, and administering NeXT computers are all desirable. This position requires a person who cares about people, and thrives in a team- oriented environment. Some travel is required. Direct resumes or inquires to: Marc Majka NeXT Computer Inc. 123 Saginaw Drive Redwood City, CA 94063 or e-mail (WriteNow, WordPerfect, Frame, or PostScript only, please): Marc_Majka@NeXT.COM ____________________________________________________________________ XIV. Project Manager for Persistence Software THE OPPORTUNITY Persistence Software (formerly Fulcrum Innovations), a developer of object oriented software tools for the Sun and NeXT, has a need for a senior software engineer to act as technical product manager for our NeXT products. This position offers significant opportunity and challenge for an entrepreneurial engineer. We are building an object oriented extension to Oracle and Sybase. We have received considerable interest in the product and have sold three licenses based on the NeXT prototype alone. Our primary focus is on delivering a product on the Sun platform, yet we see a real opportunity in the NeXT market. We are looking for a software engineer with strong technical and managerial capabilities who can take reponsibility for the NeXT product and make it a success. RESPONSIBILITIES The NeXT Project Manager will be responsible for overseeing the product launch and subsequent development of the Persistence product on the NeXT. This will include: - Completing product development on the NeXT platform (currently have a robust prototype, need to add support for dbkit). - Assisting in marketing, sales and support for NeXT customers - Creating a vision for Persistence Software in the NeXT marketplace, including planning additional products, hiring and managing the NeXT development team. WHAT WE NEED We are looking for the following specific skills: 1. Software development experience: significant experience in building commercial software, from analysis and design to product launch and customer support. 2. Relational database experience: Extensive experience in designing and building relational database applications (preferably on Oracle, Sybase or DB2). 3. NeXT experience: familiarity with Objective-C, NeXTstep, mach and the Appkit would be preferred. Failing this, a strong background in Unix and C++ or Smalltalk development. 4. Fit with company culture: passionate, jellybean consuming, entrepreneurial. If you are interested, please contact: Christopher Keene Persistence Software 1650 S. Amphlett Blvd., Suite 100 San Mateo, CA 94402 fax: (415)341-8432 email: lodstar!ckeene@uunet.uu.net ____________________________________________________________________ XV. First National Bank of Chicago and NeXTstep developers The Capital Markets Group of The First National Bank of Chicago is looking for NeXT application developers for financial trading applications. Development is on NeXT machines using NeXTStep, Objective-C and Sybase. LOCATION: Chicago's Financial District REQUIRED: NeXTStep development experience Objective-C programming experience C experience Excellent communication skills Ability to work as part of a project team. Self-motivated with the ability to work under time-contraints. DESIRABLE: Financial trading experience (options/swaps) Familarity with Sybase -- DB-Lib and Transact-sql or SQL RDBMS knowledge E-MAIL YOUR RESUME TO: djc@fnbc.com (Please indicate if you will be available during NeXTWorld Expo) OR, SEND COVER LETTER AND RESUME TO: Pauline Philipps-Zabel Systems Application Manager First National Bank of Chicago One First National Plaza -- Suite 0581 Chicago, IL 60670 ____________________________________________________________________ XVI. Software Design Engineer Position Position: Software Design Engineer (1-4 years experience) When: March 1992 Location: San Jose, California Qualifications: - US Citizen - Computer Scientist/Engineer - Masters preferred - Independent Design and Development experience - Extensive experience with Unix/Mach - NeXT - NeXTStep, Unix computers with X-windows and GUI - Objective-C, but C++ acceptable - User Interface Design & Development - Database experience preferred - Network Architectures - Travel within USA - Security clearances desirable Environment: PDH, Inc. is a small software development company specializing in systems solutions using the NeXT computer. Our customers are both commercial and government. We provide an excellent opportunity to have an impact on the direction of a company. Will be able to work closely with customers as well as with the team on internal products. Contact: Peter Murray or Kathy DeMartini PDH, Inc. 2635 North First Street Suite 224 San Jose, CA 95134 Tel: (408) 428-9596 Fax: (408) 428-9599 E-mail: kdemarti@polyslo.csc.calpoly.edu ____________________________________________________________________________ XVII. NorthStar position available NorthStar Tech., Inc. is a new company located in Manhattan (New York City) doing software development and consulting on the NeXT Machine. NorthStart Technologies is looking for full-time software developers with NeXT Machine experience. Those interested should contact Khurshed Birdie (president) or Tim Mukherjee (manager, software engineering) at (212) 297-6193. Resumes and replies can be FAXed to (212) 986-1952 or mailed to: NorthStar Technologies, Inc., 420 Lexington Avenue, Suite 300, NY, NY 10170. ____________________________________________________________________ XVIII. Stolen NeXT machines alert! Be on the lookout for stolen NeXT machines... This is a repost of a report of the theft of some NeXT equipment from a University of Houston Lab around 12-26-91 @ 5am. This list contains a complete list of part numbers and serial numbers of the NeXT equipment stolen, The ethernet addresses are also included, for vendors requiring hostid registration. If you are know of any infomation regarding this, please contact the University of Houston Police Dept@(713)-749-4111. Description---------------------------- PN----- SN-------- EtherAddr---- NeXT cube-24mb,256 OD,40mb scsi drive N1000 AAK0002356 CPU AAX??????? 0:0:F:0:89:4A NeXT cube-16mb,40mb scsi drive N1000 AAK0006216 CPU AAX0014546 0:0:F:0:A1:AD NeXT cube-16mb,256 OD,40mb scsi drive N1000 AAK0018572 CPU AAX0013109 0:0:F:0:8E:82 NeXTstation-16mb,floppy,100mb scsi driv N1100 ABB0011633 0:0:F:0:D8:F9 NeXT Monochrome Monitor N4000 AAA5002221 NeXT Monochrome Monitor N4000 AAA5008326 NeXT Monochrome Monitor N4000A AAA7002116 NeXT keyboard 196 AAE0211169 NeXT keyboard 196 AAE9307772 NeXT keyboard 196 AAE5002218 NeXT Mouse 193 AAF0210699 NeXT Mouse 193 AAF3102598 NeXT Mouse 193 AAF3102036 NeXT 400 dpi Laser Printer N2000 AAC0001524 ---------------------------------------------------------- Charles Chambers (713)-749-2531 University of Houston chambers@uh.edu College of Engineering chambers@tree.egr.uh.edu (NeXTMail) ________________________________________________________________________ end of volume 2, issue 1