The April 18th meeting will be one of CUCUG's split SIG meetings. The Amiga SIG will be covering imaging software with Mark Landman. The C64/128 SIG will be reviewing Kennedy Approach, an air traffic controller simulator. The Macintosh SIG will have Mark Bellon and Richard Rollins presenting the program Apollo, a program launcher and menu utility and much more. Come one come all.
We would also like to welcome back our renewing members: Mark Bee (Amiga 3000), Charles Earl (C64), Stephen Kohen (Mac), Don Shaffer Amiga 2000HD) and Bill Zwicky (Amiga 3000).
VIScorp USA and ESCOM AG announce letter of understanding for acquisition of Amiga Technologies by VIScorp
Heppenheim, Germany and Chicago, IL, April 12, 1996 - ESCOM AG, a German computer manufacturer and reseller and Visual Information Services Corp. (Nasdaq: VICP, Bulletin Board), a developer of interactive TV (ITV) set-top-boxes to enhance television use and viewing by providing Internet access and electronic communications function, today jointly announced that a binding letter of understanding has been signed between the companies.
The letter states that Chicago-based VIScorp would acquire Amiga Technologies, including the intellectual properties of the former Commodore Business Machines, excepted Commodore trademarks. The transaction value is approximately US $40 million. Terms were not disclosed, and the pending acquisition would be subject to approval by both companies' boards of directors.
"This intended acquisition is part of VIScorp's strategy to build market leadership in the fast-growing field of ITV", said William Buck, Chief Executive Officer. "As a result, we would own Amiga intellectual properties, including several that are currently used in our set top-box, Electronic Device (ED). We would also have control over the supplied chip sets used in ED as well as Amiga inventories and access to the company's current sales and distribution channels."
Commenting on the proposed acquisition, Helmut Jost, chief executive of ESCOM AG, said: "VIScorp has a clear vision of the Amiga technology potential for ITV applications. We are eager to support and work together over the term of the letter of understanding to ensure a smooth transition between the two companies. VIScorp anticipates the support of ongoing European sales of popular models such as the A4000T and the A1200 as well as the current developments and future releases of Amiga Technologies."
Petro Tyschtschenko, president of Amiga Technologies stated "I am looking forward to being able to take advantage of the research and development support potential that an Amiga-related company like VIScorp can provide."
Commenting that the primary objective of the proposed acquisition is to give VIScorp full access to the Amiga technology to support development of its ITV device, Mr. Buck noted: "Our intention is to rapidly develop and begin manufacturing TV set-top interactive boxes - products that give home users capabilities such as telephone reception and dial up capabilities, facsimile, video games, pay-per-view options, electronic mail, and access to on-line services, including the Internet."
Contact : Gilles Bourdin, Public Relations Tel: +49 6252 709 195 Amiga Technologies GmbH Fax: +49 6252 709 520 Berliner Ring 89 Email: gbo@amiga.de D-64625 Bensheim, Germany URL: http://www.amiga.deToC
Things have gone from bad to worse for Apple Computer. Much worse.
The company today announced that it expects to report a staggering $700 million loss for its second quarter ending March 29, a figure that dwarfs the $69 million shortfall it declared last quarter.
Apple chairman Gilbert Amelio attributed more than half of the loss to unsold inventory sitting idle in warehouses and another $175 million to restructuring charges.
The Apple chief, who was recruited from National Semiconductor last month to head the beleaguered company, said he expects to announce major changes to reverse the decline by early May.
The second-quarter loss translates to a drop of about $5.70 per share. But Amelio reassured investors and users that Apple's problems can be resolved.
"The inventory write-downs and restructuring charges are critical first steps in orchestrating the comeback of the company," Amelio said in a prepared statement where he identified manufacturing errors as the main culprit. "I'm confident at this point that I know what the problems are and that they are fixable. We plan to aggressively address these issues and take the necessary corrective actions."
But Wall Street appeared divided on whether Amelio could make good on his promises. Even before the announcement, Moody's Investors Service yesterday downgraded Apple's bond status to a junk-bond rating in anticipation of the second-quarter loss and continued pressure on profitability for the next 12 to 18 months. The company is still reviewing the rating for a possible further reduction.
At the same time, Apple stock actually rose after today's announcement to close at 25-1/4, up 1-3/8 points - apparently a reflection of Wall Street's faith that it can't get any worse.
"If you're looking at a long-term investment, it's a good idea to stick with it and see where it goes. It also might be a good opportunity to buy while it's so low," one Dean Witter broker said.
John Venator, executive vice president and CEO of the Computing Technology Industry Association, agreed that the loss spells bargains for investors and consumers. "Now is the right time to buy Apple," he said. "You should probably also take advantage of the good deals on Apple software and hardware that will come out of this announcement."
It was Apple's first-quarter loss of $69 million that prompted its board of directors to oust former CEO Michael Spindler in favor of turnaround artist Amelio. When Amelio joined Apple, he said he would take about 100 days to diagnose the company's business and warned that more losses would be posted for this quarter, an Apple spokesperson said today. But last week, financial analysts were expecting losses closer to $200 million, a full half-billion dollars less than the actual announcement.
But the company's lack of specific plans to halt the hemorrhage means that investors in Apple technology and Apple stock may still expect more surprises before the company rights itself - or not.
"There has been a team of people working with [Amelio] analyzing every aspect of the business, and none of that has been finalized yet," said an Apple spokesperson.
Gloomy earnings forecasts from the PC industry just keep on coming.
PC vendor AST Research yesterday added its name to the list of companies lowering their expectations for revenues in the first quarter of this year. The admission came fast on the heels of a similarly ominous announcement from Digital Equipment about falling revenues and decreasing PC shipments.
For Apple Computer, meanwhile, industry analysts are forecasting a loss that could top $200 million for the firm's second quarter, which ends in mid-April. The bulk of the loss will come from a $125 million restructuring cost, according to Apple, but the figure will still make the $69 million shortfall reported for the last quarter seem minuscule.
All the companies - including IBM and Compaq, the first to predict that their earnings next quarter would come in under analysts' expectations - cited softening consumer demand for PCs.
"We have encountered excess competitor inventory in the channel, overall lower demand for PCs, and greater pricing pressures than originally anticipated through the first two months of the current quarter," said Ian Diery, president and CEO of AST.
Industry analysts say all the major vendors are fighting the same battle. "It's pretty simple. The corporate desktop market is saturated," said Bruce Stephen, vice president of worldwide personal systems research at International Data, a market research firm.
Like Compaq, which has gone through three rounds of price cuts in the past month, AST plans drastic price reductions to halt the sales slump. "The slowdown has caused AST to take aggressive pricing actions to make way for new product rollouts which are planned for early in the second quarter," the company said.
The slump is also hurting components vendors.
Micronics, an established Silicon Valley motherboard and component manufacturer, said revenues for its second quarter will be lower than previous forecasts. Second-quarter revenues will be 30 percent to 35 percent lower than first-quarter levels, the company said. Micronics is a supplier to PC vendors such as Micron Electronics.
The semiconductor industry has taken a beating this quarter.
Although many analysts and vendors already indicated that PC sales had fallen off in the first quarter, the slowdown was underscored by a Semiconductor Industry Association report that the "book-to-bill ratio" - a major indicator of orders for semiconductor chips - dove to 0.80 in March, the lowest since January 1987.
The book-to-bill ratio is considered healthy at 1.00 or higher; anything below that indicates market weakness. The number raises concern about not only the chip industry but also PC sales because it indicates slackening demand for computers as well.
The ratio is expected to rise in the next couple of months, but the industry got more bad news yesterday when Advanced Micro Devices reported a 70 percent drop in first-quarter earnings. Net income fell to $25.3 million, down from $84.3 million in the first quarter of 1995. Net sales dropped from $627 million in 1995 to $544 million.
In addition to the fall in chip demand, AMD's problems stem from a botched strategy to deliver Pentium-class processors and increasing competition from industry leader Intel.
"We continued to feel the effects of the lack of a fifth-generation [Pentium-class] microprocessor...Our [plant] in Austin, Texas, was substantially under-utilized in the face of weak demand for Am486 core-based products," said W.J. Sanders III, AMD chairman and chief executive officer.
But the slowdown didn't effect just companies with other strategic weaknesses. Even heavyweight Motorola saw chip orders decline 5 percent. "The personal computer/workstation segment was down significantly," Motorola said in a statement.
The company reported a 3 percent rise in earnings for the first quarter. Earnings came in at $384 million, up from $372 million for the same period a year earlier. Revenue jumped almost 16 percent, however, to $6.96 billion. The company attributed the relatively flat earnings to pricing pressures in the cellular phone industry, as well as softness in semiconductor sales.
NEC, Toshiba, Fujitsu, and other major Japanese manufacturers of memory chips are planning a price reduction averaging about 40 percent this year, according to a report in the Nihon Keizai Shimbun, Japan's largest economic daily.
The companies are making these forecasts as they prepare investment and production strategies for fiscal 1996, said the report.
The Japanese memory chip manufacturers are basing their pricing predictions on the 16-megabit Dynamic RAM class of memory chips. Currently, 4Mb DRAMs are the predominant memory chip, but 16Mb DRAMs are expected to become the most widely used memory chip in the second half of the year.
Fujitsu is planning on 16-Mb DRAM prices falling as much as 45 percent from last year's levels.
Cheaper memory chips combined with falling CD-ROM drive prices and lower prices for Pentium-class processors should fuel the trend of lower PC prices this year. Processor suppliers such as Advanced Micro Devices and Cyrix are stepping up price competition against Intel.
Microsoft's Windows operating system hasn't quite taken over the world, but it pretty much has taken over Western Europe.
As of the end of 1995, Windows applications dominated 92 percent of the PC applications market in the region, according to a report released today by the Software Publishers Association. That compares with an estimated 93 percent in Eastern Europe, 89 percent in the Asia/Pacific region, and 75 percent in Canada and the United States, according to the association.
The overseas market is critical to all the large software vendors; international sales account for nearly 60 percent of Microsoft's revenue for example. Sales of PC applications in Western Europe totaled $1.99 billion in 1995, a 19 percent increase over 1994.
The survey spelled more bad news for the struggling Apple Computer, which appears to be losing ground even faster in Europe than in North America.
Applications for the Macintosh OS accounted for only 3.8 percent of sales in Western Europe in 1995, just ahead of DOS applications, with 3.5 percent. Macintosh applications account for 14 percent of the North American PC software market, while DOS accounts for 9.5 percent, according to the SPA. The survey said that revenues for Macintosh applications tumbled 35 percent in the fourth quarter alone compared to the same period the year before.
Windows applications exceeded the 90 percent mark for the first time in the fourth quarter of 1995 largely because of the release of the Windows 95 upgrade in most Western European countries in October, according to the report.
The estimates are based on confidential figures submitted by 38 primarily U.S.-based companies, including Microsoft, Adobe, Borland, Lotus, and Claris.
With its financial and management crises abated for now, Apple Computer is gearing up its MacOS licensing drive to try to attract some big-name vendors, including IBM, Dell Computer, and Gateway 2000, according to a report in the March 19, 1996 San Francisco Chronicle.
IBM is back at the negotiating table with Apple Computer for a deal to license Apple's MacOS, sources said today (April 9, 1996).
This time, sources say, the deal would not mean that IBM would directly manufacture Mac clones. Instead, the agreement would simply make it easier for IBM to promote the manufacture of such systems by other third-party vendors by sublicensing the operating system along with the PowerPC chips required to make Mac clones. Currently, clone makers are required to license the OS from Apple and then negotiate a second license for PowerPC chips from IBM or Motorola. Motorola signed a comparable licensing deal with Apple in February.
Apple officials declined to comment on the deal, but sources said the ink is almost dry.
While many Apple observers were rooting for IBM to become a Mac clone maker and immediately expand the supply of Mac systems, this more indirect vote of support might still lend credibility and convenience to Apple's licensing program. The company has signed several licensing deals, but none so far with a major U.S. PC vendor.
Recently, Apple has been trying to recruit larger vendors to its MacOS cause. Last month, Apple licensed the operating system to longtime ally Motorola. Until then, the list of MacOS licensees included stable but smaller companies such as Power Computing, the first Mac licensee, and Radius.
Still, the deal with IBM by itself can't rescue Apple from its financial struggles. Two weeks ago, Apple announced that it expects a loss of about $700 million for the current quarter, attributing the loss to overstocked inventory and management restructuring.
David Packard, co-founder and chairman emeritus of Hewlett-Packard Company and one of the United States' foremost business leaders and philanthropists, died today at Stanford University Hospital. He was 83.
Packard had been hospitalized since Saturday, March 16, and was being treated for pneumonia and complications. His children were at his bedside when he died at 11:05 a.m. PST.
A pioneering influence on today's global electronics industry and on modern management practices, Packard made significant contributions in international business and government during his storied half-century career. The electronics company that he founded with William Hewlett in 1939 in a garage in Palo Alto today is a multinational enterprise with more than 100,000 employees and fiscal 1995 revenue of $31.5 billion. The company frequently is cited for excellence in personnel practices, business management, product quality and service - all legacies of Packard's influence.
Packard, who served as deputy secretary of defense in President Richard Nixon's first administration from 1969 to 1971, published his autobiography "The HP Way: How Bill Hewlett and I Built our Company," last year.
"After leading the company for over 50 years, Dave's death is a loss to the company and to the country he loved so well," Hewlett said in a statement released by Hewlett-Packard. "As far as the company is concerned, the greatest thing that he left behind him was the code of ethics known as the HP way."
The example has been inspired countless entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley, and helped turn the area into a global high tech center. Steve Jobs, whose first job was at HP, said it was the model for Apple Computer when he and Steve Wozniak founded that company in the mid-1970s, also in a garage.
Word is that things are moving smoothly, and CMD appears to be on schedule for release of the SuperCPU 64 20MHz accelerator, slated for sometime in April of this year. The initial hardware prototype has now undergone preliminary testing and CMD is proceeding with circuit board and case design phases of the project.
CMD has also announced a preliminary price of $299 for the SuperCPU 128, slated for delivery in the third quarter of this year. Deposits of $50 for this version are currently being accepted, which guarantees the depositor a first run unit at a price no higher than the preliminary announced price. Also note that CMD will transfer deposits for the 64 version to the 128 version, but urges anyone wishing to do this to inform them quickly to avoid being shipped a 64 version.
Some additional information concerning the SuperCPU 64 has been provided by CMD, including some results of initial tests.
First, many users have asked about using a SuperCPU on a C=128 computer in 64 mode. CMD has stated from the beginning that this configuration would work, and testing the prototype has confirmed that it does.
Next, CMD had initially stated that extra RAM for the SuperCPU might be usable as a fast disk. Some users have speculated that this would then supercede RAMLink. Such an option would not fully supercede RAMLink, however, since the SuperCPU RAM would lack the power backup to retain such memory when the computer is off. Furthermore, CMD has decided not to pursue a fast disk option, citing that the required development time would not be available in the near future.
As for some of the test results, CMD has run some early experiments to test the compatibility of the unit, and to get some rough estimates of the amount of speed enhancement that could be achieved. One simple BASIC FOR/NEXT loop executed over 21 times faster than on a stock system. CMD explained that while the CPU runs only 20 times faster, it can achieve higher rates of efficiency by using reduced memory mirroring and due to not having to be interrupted by the VIC (the Video Interface Controller gets its data from RAM inside the computer).
CMD tested a number of commercial games as well, and found that many of them ran at normal speed with the accelerator set for 20 MHz. This is obviously attributable to interrupt-based event timing used by game programmers.
Operation of Commodore REUs with the SuperCPU at high speed has also been confirmed. Commodore's REU demo programs (the globe and pound sign demos) run blazingly fast. CMD also ran timing tests on a new demo that is currently making its way around Commodore circles, called Polygonamy. The demo rotates 3-dimensional objects in real-time using some very fast routines, and achieving a frame rate of between 12 and 13 frames per second on a stock machine. Without any optimization, the demo turned in a rate of approximately 128 frames per second using the SuperCPU. CMD says that an optimized version could probably achieve 200 frames per second or more.
[Source: Kankakee River Valley Computer Users Group "Interface" April, 1996. KRVCUG, P.O. Box 931, Kankakee, IL 60901.]
In 1988, when I first started using GEOS, I always booted up the system the way Berkeley Softworks intended me to. My 64 came with GEOS 1.3 and it worked just fine. Anytime I wanted to use GEOS, I just put the boot disk in the drive and went from there.
I really didn't think too much about it, but it scares me now to think about it. Every time I used those boot disks, I took the risk of damaging them. Sure I could make any number of work disks that I wanted and copy GeoWrite and GeoPaint and any other application or desk accessory to them. But I couldn't do anything about making a copy of my original boot disk.
Eventually, I upgraded to GEOS V2.0 for both the 64 and 128. Still, the same situation. I was still forced to boot from my original disks.
Before long, I got a 1581 drive and since I already had the Maverick package, I could use a utility that came with Maverick to make a 1581 boot disk. This was great! No more taking a chance with my original disks. They could be put safely away and only used when I needed to redo the 1581 disk.
But an even better option came along before too long. Jim Collette had designed a program that would run from within GEOS that would create a bootable disk by saving the actual GEOS kernal to a file along with some additional code that would get the kernal reloaded into memory. Now, when you run this newly created file, GEOS will boot up exactly like expected. Jim perfected the idea and it soon became what is now known as geoMakeBoot and is available from Creative Micro Designs.
The advantage to geoMakeBoot is that you can create a bootable disk with just about any disk device that is usable from within GEOS. Once you have done this, you can then make additional backup copies as you need them. The more backups, the better. Imagine if I was still forced to boot from my original disks and something happened to them. I would have to send them in to be replaced and all during the time I was waiting for replacements, I would not be able to use GEOS! Plus, the replacement costs of the disks would end up being about what the cost of geoMakeBoot is. So, by having geoMakeBoot to begin with, I prevent this from ever occurring and I have the convenience of making my own bootable disks right at home.
geoMakeBoot, at a cost of $12.95, is a utility that no GEOS user should be without. If you use GEOS, you have no excuse if you have not gotten your own copy yet. Each time you use your original boot disk, you take a chance of losing it. The copy protection won't allow you to make a copy of it without some special hardware. And besides, geoMakeBoot doesn't limit you to a 1541 drive, so you gain in that respect also.
Another side benefit from using geoMakeBoot is with some of the AUTO-EXEC files that you might normally use. If you are a 128 user and always have CENTER80 on your boot disk to fix the vertical centering of your screen, you will no longer need it. Because when geoMakeBoot creates a boot disk, the modification that CENTER80 makes will be saved in the code that is stored on the disk. Your screen will be centered when you boot up. Your default mouse driver is also saved within the code and need not be on your boot disk either. If you use DBGetFile, that code will also be saved in the bootfile.
Not all AUTO-EXECs can be eliminated; just the ones that modify the actual GEOS kernal. If you use geoSHELL, you might not want to run geoMakeBoot from it, but instead, exit back to the Desktop first. That way, the Desktop will be your default desktop in the kernal when you boot up. If not, then geoSHELL will be your default desktop and if you click on geoSHELL's close icon, you will simply exit to geoSHELL!
So, prevent yourself from trashing your precious GEOS boot disk and take advantage of geoMakeBoot today.
[Source: Lansing Area Commodore Club's "Double Click", April, 1996. LACC's address is P.O. Box 1065, East Lansing, MI 48826.]
If you read the Latest issue of Commodore World, you have seen the release of NovaTerm 9.6! This is a major landmark in Commodore 64 modem software! I won't attempt to rewrite the review of NovaTerm 9.6, nor the interview of Nick Rossi (author of NovaTerm), but I did want to at least talk about it.
There are at least four major unique features of NovaTerm 9.6 that make it stand out from previous releases.
The other new protocol, which I believe is a first for Commodore users, is YMODEM-g. This is a "streaming" protocol rather than a "block sending" protocol (Randy's paraphrase). In practical terms, think of streaming as screaming fast downloads with a high speed modem. The speed gains are achieved by eliminating some error checking, and not writing to disk while downloading. The downloaded file must be buffered into RAM, then saved to disk later. Obviously, for this to be possible, an REU is required.
Performance Peripherals, Inc. 5 Upper Loudon Road Loudonville, NY 12211 Orders only: 800-EASYWEB (800-327-9932) Technical help Voice/Fax: (518) 436-0485 Internet E-mail: p.fiset@genie.geis.com[Source: From the Southwest Regional Association of Programmers / 64-128 newsletter "Comm-Adore", April, 1996. SWRAP's address is P.O. Box 528232, Chicago, Illinois 60652-8232.]
Many Macintosh users, well known for their tenacious loyalty, have been left wondering if they should desert a sinking ship after Apple Computer's warning of devastating financial losses.
The company announced today that it expects to report a $700 million loss for its second quarter, a figure that far exceeded most industry estimates and translates to a drop of about $5.70 per share.
The news may prove the most difficult test yet of Mac users' hitherto undaunted support.
"We currently use Macs at work now, and I'm now seriously wondering if it's a lost cause," said Barry Siller, the technology purchaser for temporary employment agency Bradford Staff. "I'm concerned that as Apple's fortune goes down so will the other opportunities for acquiring good software that keeps up with the progress of other platforms. For that reason I think I'm going to reconsider our chosen platform."
Even die-hard Mac supporters in the desktop publishing industry that has long formed a core part of Apple's business are wondering if Apple can pull off a recovery. "I'm shocked. I think it's clear that one more quarter like this will definitely be the end of the game," said Peter Dyson, editor of the Seybold Report on Desktop Publishing.
But most home users and small-business owners seem worried less about the disease than the symptoms: if Apple keeps losing money, then fewer and fewer developers will produce new software for the platform. "I would like them to get a bigger share of the market so we can get more software," said Gideon Wizansky, a naval architect and Mac owner.
The industry will have to withhold its final analysis until at least early May. That's when Apple chairman Gilbert Amelio will specify his plans for fixing the company's problems.
The delay between today's announcement--which attributed half of the loss to unsold inventory--and the unveiling of Amelio's turnaround plan will fuel a month of speculation about the real story behind the massive shortfall, speculation that has already started churning.
"I find it hard to believe that the number of unsold inventory is so high," said Pieter Hartsook, editor of the Hartsook Letter.
Some Apple dealers also found the explanation hard to swallow.
"Our recent experience has been exactly the opposite. There isn't enough inventory, and there is too much demand. This is the best year we've ever had," said a salesman at one of Northern California's largest Mac-only retail chains. "I'd like to get my hands on the people supplying inventory and shake them. We sold out of all the newest computers, the 7200, the 7500, and the entry-level Power Mac Powerbook. Everything we get our hands on we sell," he added.
The loss will also inevitably reopen questions about Apple's prospects for a merger, several weeks after discussions with Sun Microsystems ended in failure.
"Even if there were absolute catastrophe at Apple, somebody would buy the technology from the ruins and keep it alive," said Geoffrey Burr, senior vice president of sales and marketing at Power Computing, the first company to begin manufacturing Macintosh clones.
Burr said Apple's financial problems are being exploited by the Windows community to scare off potential new users. "Most of the people who predict the demise of Apple are the Windows people," he said.
It's too early to tell if users will be frightened off by Apple's financial problems, but after today many are waiting for action on Apple's part to demonstrate that it can turn itself around.
John Roylance, editor of the Wall Street Watch newsletter, echoed the concerns of many fellow loyalist Mac users: "I still think Macintosh is ten years ahead of Windows, which I also use, but Apple will have to be a software manufacturer in the future."
With the advent of new 603e and 604e PowerPC chips from IBM and Motorola, Apple Computer is hoping to introduce Power Macs later this year that break the 200-MHz speed barrier.
Both companies said they will release 603e or 604e PowerPC processors with speeds of at least 200 MHz this year.
"We're not sure which speed will be on which chip, but on one of those chips - if not both - people can expect late this year 200 MHz," said Jim Smith, a spokesperson at the IBM Microelectronics division.
An Apple spokesperson characterized the goal as a "technical possibility" rather than actual product plans but acknowledged that speed is on the company's agenda.
Two Mac clone makers, Power Computing and DayStar Digital, have already beaten Apple to the 150-MHz plateau with their current PowerPC 604 systems.
Apple's fastest machine is now the 604-powered Power Mac 9500, clocked at 132 MHz. "We're looking at 150 MHz by the end of the second quarter or the beginning of the third, but not necessarily by using a different chip," the spokesperson said. "The 604 chip can be bumped up to 150 MHz."
DISCUSSION: In general, the startup process will likely take longer on Macintosh computers with a lot of RAM and hard drive storage space. At startup, both the memory and the integrity of the hard drives are checked. The memory check validates and determines how much memory is present. So, a computer with 256 MB of memory will take somewhat longer to startup than a 16 MB computer. Additionally, the status of the "file system dirty" flag is checked to determine the integrity of the hard drives.
The "file system dirty" flag is set in the file system disk structures when a disk or partition is opened and mounted. This flag indicates that some active disk structures are RAM resident, that files open for output are present, and that data needs to be flushed to the drive when the volume is closed and dismounted. In the normal shutdown process, the Finder flushes all RAM-resident disk structures to the disk, closes and dismounts the volume, and resets the "file system dirty" flag.
The major difference between a normal and abnormal restart (after a system freeze) is the validation of the integrity of the disk file system. If this flag has not been reset, then it is assumed that a proper close and dismount by the Finder did not occur. The state of the file system data structures are in doubt because there may have been open files for output when the crash occurred. At this point, the drive is checked to ensure the integrity of the disk file structures. This process takes longer if you have a larger hard drive and/or have a lot of files on the hard drive. The normal startup process is faster because the volume integrity is assured and no recovery checking is necessary.
All SCSI drives attached to the computer are checked in this manner. For the startup volume, this process happens before "Welcome to Macintosh". For the other volumes, this process happens as the Finder launches. Thus, you are likely to see a further delay, accompanied by intensive disk activity, as the Finder launches.
So, to avoid loosing or corrupting files, Apple recommends that you shutdown the computer by selecting Shutdown from the Special or Apple menus.
[Source: This message was sent to recipients of the infoalley mailing list, maintained at infoalley@lists1.austin.apple.com. The purpose of this mailing list is to send to all subscribers a copy of the text version of the Information Alley, Apple's technical support journal.]
As to the current state of Apple, Mr. Goodell provides two distressing observations:
The fact of the matter is, Apple fought the war of the desktop - and lost.
"The glitzy $200 million Hollywood-style rollout of Microsoft's Windows 95 was a crushing blow. It had taken Microsoft 10 years - 10 years! - but it had finally copied the Mac's operating system. Now, to most computer users, there was no longer any meaningful distinction between a Mac and a PC. Apple ran ads in the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal touting the superiority of the Mac. And it was true, the Mac was still simpler, more elegant, easier to use and more reliable than anything Microsoft had produced (or probably ever will). But that's an aficionado's view. To Johnny Shopper strolling through CompUSA, the distinction is meaningless. The 10-year old war was over. Gates had finished them off."
And of the new saviour...
"Most unseemly of all, however, is that Amelio arrived open-mouthed at the trough. If he had dropped in Lee Iacocca-style and offered to work for $1 a year plus stock options, the Apple faithful might have followed him to the ends of the earth. Instead, Amelio made sure that no matter what happens, he gets his share. According to Business Week, the board agreed to pay Amelio a combination of salaries and perks that could bring him $10 million a year. Plus a $10 million payout if Apple is purchased during the next year. This is not exactly a deal that endears him to an Apple employee who makes $50,000 a year and is trying to rise a family in Silicon Valley, where starter homes begin at $250,000. Many looked on with disgust when, just a few weeks after Amelio's appointment was announced, while he was rumored to be focusing on a strategy for Apple's comeback, he found time to shop for a $5 million-plus estate at Lake Tahoe."
Topics from how Steve Jobs views his old company to the recent buy-out negotiations with Sun Microsystems are covered. "The Rise and Fall of Apple Inc." is must reading for the Macintosh maven.
While we don't have any CeBit reports ready for Amiga Report yet, the biggest news was the Amiga Walker prototype on display.
Amiga Tech isn't far enough along that they're showing off PowerAmiga hardware yet. The Walker is a stopgap measure, one more AGA machine to carry the line across.
The design is quite unconventional. The Walker a black appliance, totally unlike a desktop computer. Pictures have been placed on Aminet and on the Web.
Walker Specsheet
While IRC conferences, speculation, and FAQs have abounded, not all of the information in them has been complete or accurate. So Amiga Report went straight to the source - Michael Metz, Amiga Product Manager at Amiga Technologies. He provided this quick look at the specifications of the Amiga Walker.
Here's a short summary:
The new system will run on a 40 MHz base with a bridge to the AGA chips.
The design is meant to be accepted by new users. The idea was that each user has a very intense relationship to his Amiga so the design should be something which supports this relationship. Pictures are available on the net.
Sites which contain Walker information and pictures include -
http://www.amiga.de/de/Aktuelles/Walker-GB.html
- (The official page is located here)
http://www.doremi.co.uk/walker/
http://www.ozramp.net.au/~morden/
http://www.bangor.ac.uk/~eeu013/walker
The Walker FAQ, not entirely complete, is at -
http://www.intercom.no/~andersb/walker.html
10-Mar-96 - According to a recent article in Computerworld, things are not so rosy for Germany's Escom AG, parent company of Amiga Technologies and one of Europe's largest PC box suppliers. The problem is related to increased competition from outside Europe for the hearts and minds of European PC buyers, driving profit margins down.
In particular, Taiwan's Acer Incorporated is making big strides for a share of the PC market in Europe. Acer chairman Stan Shih said, "This is the year of Europe for Acer." Acer is spending $40 million on a new plant in France and also stepping up its marketing efforts, concentrating on the consumer business.
On the other hand, Escom is projecting big losses on its operations - perhaps even triple what was originally announced - in part due to sales coming in nearly a billion marks lower than expected. Escom is also looking for $69 million in loans to make it through these rough times. According to Computerworld, Escom may have overextended itself with the acquisition of British retail chain Rumbelows and has yet to see much income from Amiga Technologies and its new Commodore line of PCs because of component shortages and delays in production. Price wars on PCs have further hampered efforts at breaking even.
This was announced by the company on last Friday (3/1/96). Reasons given were the bad Christmas season 1995, a weaker demand for PCs, a general fall in prices and initial losses for several acquisitions.
High inventories of unsold products have been build up, which have to be depreciated now. This adds heavily to the losses.
After some years of heavy growth, 1996 will become the year of consolidation, said the company.
Some shareholders and banks will support Escom with 100 million DEM, 60 million will be raised by issuing extra shares, 40 million will consist of bank credits.
However, as related to Amiga Report by Amiga Technologies Press Officer Gilles Bourdin, the board did indeed vote to keep Schmitt on.
Bochum/Heppenheim, 7 March 1996. ESCOM AG today increased its capital with a cash outlay by DM 59,994,000. The nominal amount of the capital increase is DM 30,300,000. The new shares have been taken over by Commerzbank AG for the issue consortium and will be offered to shareholders at the earliest possible date after presentation of the 1995 annual report. The increase in capital is part of an agreement between the company, its associates and bankers by which the company acquires new resources amounting approximately DM 100 million.
Manfred Schmitt, principal shareholder in ESCOM AG, has simultaneously transferred 16 per cent of the base capital to the BV Beteiligungsgesellschaft mbH, a subsidiary of the Bayerische Vereinsbank AG, and a further 2.5 per cent of the base capital to Siemens Nixdorf Informationssysteme AG in Paderborn and Munich, whose shareholding is hereby increased to 12.5%. In so doing, Manfred Schmitt's share has been cut by nearly 30 per cent. A further major shareholder is Quelle Schickedanz AG & Co in F=FCrth, whose share at 25 per cent remains unchanged.
By this action shareholders and banks have created the right conditions to give ESCOM AG a more solid financial base and an extension of its circle of shareholders enabling it to develop its business successfully.
13-Mar-96 - According to Reuters, Germany's Siemens Nixdorf AG announced that they had purchased 10% of Vobis AG which will allow them to increase economies of scale when purchasing parts, supplies and other goods. This came after another announcement that Siemens had also purchased a 12.5% stake in Escom AG, parent company of Amiga Technologies.
"Our strategy with Escom and Vobis is on the purchasing side," Siemens chairman Gerhard Schulmeyer told reporters at the company's briefing at the opening of the CeBIT technology trade fair. "The PC business is driven by volumes and logistics. Whoever controls volume will be the winner. We could not control volume alone." He also went on to say that the PC business in Europe is getting tough as competition - much of it from the US and Japan - drives profit margins down. Theo Lievin, chairman of Vobis AG said, "We in Germany want to do something together against the Americans and the Japanese." Both Vobis and Escom have large retail chains in Europe.
The Reuters story made no mention of the new alliance's effect on the Amiga or Amiga Technologies.
Managing director of "Escom AG" forced to resign
Founder of discount-retailer for computers draws consequences from last years high losses - Helmut Jost announced to be the successor.
Berlin - After high losses of 125,000,000 DM, the Managing Director of the computer company located in Bochum, Manfred Schmitt, is going to leave the company by the end of the month. Yesterday, Escom announced that the Board of Directors appointed Helmut Jost as the new Managing Director from the first of April. 43 year-old Mr. Jost was already active once in Escom's Board of Directors from 1993 to 1995, before taking over the management of IBM's PC-business.
An Escom spokesman in Heppenheim said, that Escom-Founder Schmitt had offered his position by his own wish after the huge deficit, and announced he wants to take the full responsibility. Escom, with a turnover of 2,350,000,000 DM, were following some ambitious goals, but went out of financial breath on them. Schmitt pushed the building up of their own retail chain in Great Britain, for example. Though these investments seemed to be the strategically correct steps into foreign markets, they took too much capital, and didn't bring enough income. The English PC market proved itself to be just as tired as the German one nowadays. Generally, the weak demand and the enormous drop of prices on the PC market forced down Escom's turnover and margins. Escom-Chief Schmitt's Multimedia-Plans also proved as too high. Their potential partner RWE Telliance, a daughter of electricity provider RWE, retired from their interest because of Escom's financial situation. Banks and shareholders promised the company 100,000,000 DM of financial support (60,000,000 DM from a raise of assets), to overcome the financial bottleneck.
The telephone company from Kiel by the name of "Hagenuk", which Manfred Schmitt privately bought out from the "Preussag" in Oktober, caused further irritations among Escom's stockholders "Quelle" (25%) and "Siemens Nixdorf" (SNI, 12.5%). It was Schmitt's plan to let the company sell cellular phones via his Escom shops, about which the aforementioned two shareholders didn't agree at all.
Even after his retirement to the board of shareholders, Schmitt is still currently holding 23% of Escom's assets. Escom's share price raised up to 13DM yesterday, after 12.7 DM on Tuesday.
Helmut Jost has been in the European PC Business for many years. After moving up the ranks at Commodore (where he was ultimately the Managing Director of Commodore GmbH and Vice President International), Helmut Jost accepted a post on the board of ESCOM AG in 1993, where he was responsible for the Sales and Marketing functions and for the management of subsidiaries. Since November 1995, he has been head of IBM's German PC business.
In Helmut Jost, ESCOM has succeeded in winning back a man with an outstanding knowledge of the company and its markets.
Info: Dr. Bernd Wirsing / Public Relations ESCOM AG Tiergartenstr. 9 D-64646 Heppenheim Tel +49 6252 709 193 Germany Fax +49 6252 709 417 6252 709 417ToC
Upon learning of Escom's sale of Amiga Technologies to Visual Information Services Corp. USA for approximately US $40 million, reaction within the Amiga community was anything but good. Some see the progression of sales of Commodore International to the parochial Escom and now to a niche set-top-box maker as the precipitous slide of a once shining personal computer technology into the grave of a dedicate appliance. The published comments of VIScorp officials with their near total emphasis on set-top-box technology only deepens the gloom for those primarily interested in the Amiga as a computer system. Some have said this definitively kills the Amiga. It is sure that the delays that result from yet another sale will only cripple further the Amiga's attempt to rise again.
One can see in Escom's sale of everything but the Commodore trademarks the completion of their attempt to purchase just those same assets for $1.4 million late last February/early March 1995. It is also clear that Mr. Jost wasted no time in ridding Escom of its non-PC properties. The Amiga community can only hope that VIScorp will license or sell the computer portion of whatever is left after they pick the bones of whatever they want, that is, if there is anyone left to pick up the torch from a funeral pyre. The return of the Amiga to the land of its birth is as poignant as the return of any American killed on foreign soil.
Jim Huls:
Just thought I'd let y'all know that it appears that Carl Sassenrath works for VISCorp. He was one of the guys on the original guys on the AmigaOS programming crew. If memory serves correct, he was mostly responsible for Exec. Not sure about that. He went on and I believe was largely responsible for CDTV. Now before anyone gets high hopes about this, it's largely felt that Carl doesn't really give a crap about the Amiga anymore. Set-top boxes are his thing, so whether we see him involved with any development of the AmigaOS in directions we would like remains to be seen. I did get it confirmed with Jason Compton that Andy Finkel is working with AT. No one knows yet though whether AT will remain in Germany or be forced to move to the states. Stay tuned!
Kevin Hisel:
Hard to say about Carl. Here's what his homepage says about his Amiga experience:
"Commodore Amiga, Inc., Manager of Operating Systems. Designed and implemented one of the first Multitasking Operating Systems for personal computers. The design included pre-emptive multitasking, message based communications, dynamically loading libraries and devices, interrupt system."
No mention of CDTV.
As far as not "caring" about the Amiga, maybe now he does. Just yesterday, he added THREE links to CUCUG (amiga.html, amimonster.html and ar.html) on the VIScorp home page. We're listed right after Escom.
Well as everyone has heard by now, AT has been acquired by VIScorp. What some of you may not realize is that the Director of Software for the company is none other than Carl Sassenrath, the father of the Amiga's Exec, and that makes the Amiga's OS one of the most efficient operating systems around. We all know that!
Here is a copy of a message I sent to Carl and his reply. If this all comes true, we may have something to cheer about!
Carl, I recently read about the buyout of Amiga Technologies by VIScorp. As a longtime Amiga user, I know of your early involvement with the Amiga and Exec. In fact, I still have your Guru Book #1. Although I know the Amiga is in very capable hands, I'm still apprehensive about its future. Will the technology just go into the design of Set-Top TV boxes, or will you still be developing the computer?
I hope we hear from you soon because I'm sure there are a lot of nervous Amiga users out there now. If you want me to pass anything along to the nets, CompuServe, or whatever, please let me know and I'll post it for you. Thanks!
What I have been telling people is not to worry. We are all Amiga lovers here. Unlike ESCOM or even Commodore, VIScorp does not have a single IBM PC person in the development group. We are all solid Amigans from the very beginning. I developed the Amiga's Multitasking OS, CDTV system, AmigaLogo, Bay, OptCD, ISOCD, etc.). Personally speaking, I don't plan on killing the Amiga. In fact, I'm hoping to build one killer Amiga!
Carl Sassenrath, Director of Software, VIScorp
URL: www.vistv.com
PS: Please post this anywhere and everywhere, as I am getting swamped with the same email question from so many dedicated Amigans! Keep the faith! This is for the better!
Valid Addresses:
EMAIL: carl@sassenrath.com (Please try this one first)
or: carl@pacific.net (Only, if the above fails)
or: carl@vistv.com
URL: www.sassenrath.com
or: www.vistv.com
POST: PO Box 1510, Ukiah, CA 95482, USA
NOTE: NO LONGER ON Compuserve, AOL, AppleLink, BIX, CIX or videostream.com
Carl Sassenrath (carl@sassenrath.com)Here are the names of the VIScorp engr. team:
Jim Ventola (jiventol@nyx.cs.du.edu)
For Newbies: Carl Sassenreuth is the author of EXEC in Amiga's OS. He is one of the originals of the Amiga; he is an Amiga immortal. A good omen, I believe.
Greg Hope (gregh@sci-fi-bbs.zip.com.au)
No mate, that is probably a lot different to the underground rumblings. The guy may WELL have written things for Amiga in the past but of late, he has not really been linked positively with Amiga.
Harv R Laser (Harv@cup.portal.com)
For chrissakes, Greg, what do you want? What do ALL you people want who think VIScorp is going to bury the Amiga? Carl's been with it since the beginning. He's flat out said in this newsgroup that they are ALL Amiga people at VIScorp. "Not really been linked positively with Amiga." uh-huh. Check your medication, sir. Carl wrote the multitasking kernal. How much more positively linked do you want to get?
Greg Hope (gregh@sci-fi-bbs.zip.com.au)
Still, anyone deserves a chance and I stick by what I said earlier: RESULTS COUNT and WORDS are for POLITICIANS. We all thought Escom would save us but it soon became apparent that they wouldn't, didn't it? Wait for the results. My guess, at this stage - and I emphasize that this is a GUESS and not an informed comment - is that we are dead. I intend to stick with my A2000/030 until next year no matter what (unless it irretrievably dies on me which isnt likely) but I bet I have to change to some other platform then. I just hope I am wrong.
Harv R Laser (Harv@cup.portal.com)
When Commodore folded, they said the same thing. When ESCOM bought Commodore they said the same thing.
The last time I bothered to check, a small company in Germany was producing Amigas and selling them. Did I dream this?
I, for one, will firmly stand behind VIScorp and cheer them on. I suggest, if you wish to see the Amiga carry on and grow to new heights, you do the same.
What boggles my mind are the people who post to this group, who seem to be ready at a moment's notice to proclaim the Amiga dead, and whoever owns her to be incompetant.
Get a grip. Either you WANT the platform to survive, or you don't. If you don't, then buy another machine and knock yerself out. But if you do, at least pretend to appear to try to support the company(ies) who are keeping her alive.
Harv (harv@cup.portal.com)
http://www.portal.com/~harv
Yesterday morning after reading the Amiga Tech and VIScorp press releases on the proposed sale, I sent email to Gilles Bourdin, Amiga Tech's PR guy. I asked him two questions, and made one suggestion. I got replies this morning.
me: "Shall we be confident that VIScorp will keep you guys making Amigas?"
gbo: "Daily business will go on as usual. Nothing will change much."
me: "Will Amiga Tech stay in Germany?"
gbo: "Yes."
me: "If it's VIScorp's intention to keep Amiga computrs in production, then
you or someone needs to say so, publically, and fast."
gbo: "Well, then I say it."
John Shepard jrshepar@indyvax.iupui.edu
http://www.iupui.edu/~jrshepar
Right now, it looks like Amiga Tech itself remains in Germany doing exactly what it's doing anyway, the whole Viscorp thing basically amounts to a brain transplant... from what we've read here, is that an accurate analysis?
Harv R Laser (Harv@cup.portal.com)
From all the reliable evidence, so far, I'd agree with your analysis, Mr. Holmes :)
But not just a brain transplant.. a wallet transplant too.
Dennis Grant (dgrant@cycor.ca)
http://www.cycor.ca/TCave/
And with any luck, a heart transplant as well. Third time's the charm. :)
I received this mail from Mr. Radigan:
From ********@********
Tue Mar 19 22:20:19 1996
Date: Tue, 19 Mar 96 23:17:46 0500
To: jlewis@cucug.org
Subject: Re: Terminus Registration
> I would like to register the shareware program Terminus.
> Are you the author?
Yep, that's me.
> I promise I won't bug you if you are no longer developing it,
> but I consider it an awesome modem program. (My letter,
> with check was returned by the post office).
Thanks for the kind words, but unfortunately I've had to put Terminus on the Amiga to rest. I've thought about doing a port to OS/2, but I'm waiting to see if the BeBox becomes a player (I like working outside the mainstream).
- Jack Radigan -
The March 21st meeting began with the traditional introduction of officers. President Rollins also introduced the new members joining this evening and the guests testing the CUCUG waters.
After the introductions, the floor was opened to our regular Question and Answer Session. This portion of the meeting is dedicated to the airing of any computer related problem or information.
Kevin reported that Escom - Amiga Technologies' parent company - is suffering financial troubled. Escom has been hit by heavy foreign competition for the US and Asia.
Kevin also informed those present that Iomega is partnering with Escom to put ZIP drives in their PCs. The hope is that this will trickle down to the Amiga as well.
CUCUGAMI#155: A-Start (A Windows 95-like program launching bar. A-Start needs an 8-color Workbench, using the MagicWB color palette.), ClickForMenu (a commodity for your WBStartup drawer which will hold open your menus when you click on your right mouse button until you select something or scroll away. It's only 3K), Grocery (a grocery list maker. It will print a list by your walking pattern through the store.), and Scrotax (a game).
CUCUGAMI#156: ACM (Air Crash Manager - an air traffic control game. It's a lot more fun than "pretending" to Install), Maxi-Mal (a coloring book program for children), RSQ (a black and white ChopLifter clone), and Toona (a guitar tuner program).
After Kevin's presentation the floor was then turned over to Macintosh Librarian Mark Bellon, who had 3 disks for this evening.
CUCUGMAC#23: NIH-Image Aid ( a reverse-engineered "Photoshop" image processing program), Refinance Pro (financial program), and Verifile (a file comparison program).
CUCUGMAC#24: Sound View (a program to analyze sound in real time), Enigma 2.5 (a game), Legend (a graphical adventure game for kids), Easy AFF and Binary Pump.
CUCUGMAC#25: Square Wars PLUS (a game), Max Recipe, Macro Editor (an F-key programmer), Key Quencer, Focus Dictaphone (a program to make your Mac into a dictaphone), and Versatile Pro.
After Mark's disk demonstration, President Rollins pointed out the work Kevin Hisel has been doing on our Web site. Kevin's endeavors have received recognition from Net Guide magazine, being awarded their 4-Star Award for excellence. Kevin received a justly deserved round of applause from the membership.
The program for this evening was conduced by Quentin Barnes and dealt with his infrared controller, a TV remote and a whole lot more. As the evening progressed, it became more and more clear, this was a virtuoso performance.
Quentin began by showing a little infrared sender gizmo he whipped up with $3 in parts from Radio Shack. He said his Amiga could run this thing out of the joystick port, the disk drive port, the parallel port, audio-out or just about any other port that is available, thanks to the AirLink software package. Quentin happens to use the joystick port where he gets he requisite 5 volts off the fire button pin.
The software is the real "score" for this set up. The AirLink 3.0 package that Quentin uses costs $65. It reads your TV remote with its sampler and then can turn around and command the little infrared sender like a "cloned" remote. Quentin's little $3 sender has a range of about 10 feet. The user interface looks just like a remote. Quentin drew his own remote display for the screen. The AirLink package provides you with some you can use, or reprogram, as you see fit. Quentin says it takes about 5 minutes to program an entire remote.
As another string in his bow, Quentin uses the "On The Ball - Personal Information Manager" scheduler package. He uses this software to send ARexx commands to AirLink at scheduled times. He showed us one of the ARexx scripts he uses called "Create port VCR.1 for processing AREXX commands for controlling the VCR". He went through the script and showed us how it worked. As an aside, he mentioned he like buying RCA equipment because their remote language has an explicit ON command, an explicit STOP and an ON/OFF toggle. All of which, he finds very useful in his ARexx script. Afterwards, he kindly offered the script, or a modification of it, to any member who was interested.
When the inevitable questions began, someone wanted to know "why" he went to all this trouble. Quentin said his Amiga is absolutely precise: he has it call for the atomic time daily. His VCR clock drifts 20 seconds a day, so it becomes a problem in short order for recording shows. He also has ten shows he likes to record on a regular basis and his VCR only has 8 programmable slots. With his Amiga, his hardware and software, he now has an unlimited amount of program events. And, when you add in his GVP PhonePak, he can call in to his system remotely and change his VCR programming. He can also have his Amiga page him when he receives voice mail.
Jim Lewis asked how Quentin got the atomic clock time. Quentin answered with more software and more scripts. He has Terminus, driven by a script, call the Fly By Night BBS; do a time log-in with a capture file going; he parses the time out of that file; calls up the AmigaDOS DATE command to reset the time on his Amiga; then he drops connection. He says the whole process causes him to be a 1/2 a second to a second slow, but that's no big deal.
After that, the conversation drifted off with Quentin expressing his desire to get into X10 controllers. All in all, it was quite impressive. Thanks, Quentin, for showing what an Amiga owner can do with a little ingenuity and quite a bit of know-how.
The March meeting of the CUCUG Executive Board took place on Tuesday, March 26, 1996, at 7PM, at Kevin Hisel's house (address and phone number, both in the book). Present at the meeting were Richard Rollins, Jim Saxon, Mark Bellon, Jim Huls, Mark Landman, Kevin Hopkins, Jon Sago, Kevin Hisel, Emil Cobb, and Jim Lewis.
Richard Rollins: Looking forward to the agenda for next month's meeting, Rich said the Amiga SIG will have Mark Landman doing imaging software. The C64/128 SIG will be reviewing Kennedy Approach, an air traffic controller simulator. The Macintosh SIG will be Mark and Richard presenting the program Apollo.
Richard stated that Mark Bellon did a good job showing CyberDog at the last Mac SIG meeting. He said there was an audible reaction to Mark's being able to pick up a URL off of a web page and simply drop it into his bookmarks, no typing or menus needed. The discussion that followed about CyberDog, prompted a comment about how large the distribution is, so Mark volunteered to upload it to the club's BBS to make it available to club members with restricted net access or those who are getting poor transmission rates due to net demand for the file. Remember, on the club's BBS, you are the only user at the time, so the only traffic is you on that single lane "highway."
Richard ask for feedback on the meeting room set up this time. Everyone seemed to think it was OK. One member commented that he thought the noise level was improved (lowered) with this particular arrangement.
Richard asked about the club's continuing quest for tax exempt status with the IRS. Mark Landman reported that there was nothing yet on that front. As to our tax return, Mark said he has filed for an extension, hoping that something will come through soon.
Richard also noted that we are getting ready for our raffle in May.
Jim Saxon (MAL1): Jim said he is still working at Best Buy. His hours are 10 am. to 6 pm., Sunday through Wednesday. Any club member that needs anything from Best Buy should touch base with Jim. Other than that, Jim said he was glad to be here again. [We're glad to have our Member At Large back again, too.]
Mark Bellon: Mark reported that library sales were pretty good for the three disks offered at the meeting. He said he will be adding quite a few disks this month, bringing the collection up to disk #65. Mark also informed us that the ZIP disks are becoming more and more popular - "quite the form factor" in Mark's own words.
As a final aside, Mark reported that QuickDraw 3D 1.04 has now been released.
Jim Huls: Jim stated that the Macintosh Web Page is coming along slowly.
He also reported that he has been in contact with the User Group Connection, both by phone and email, attempting to get us registered as a Macintosh support group.
As the discussion wandered afield, Richard commented about the comparable performance of the newest version of SoftPC for the Mac. Mark stated that you would get a better price for performance from a Pentium PCI card.
Mark Landman: Mark began his segment of the meeting by stating again that he had filed for an extension with the IRS for our tax return. He has also sent in our tax exemption paperwork; we are now waiting.
Mark then gave the usual Treasurer's report. In doing so, he noted that we have paid up our room rent through May of next year, so we have a home for the foreseeable future.
Mark brought in the April issue of Video Toaster User magazine and pointed out a mention it makes of our club's web site. Congratulations again to Mr. Kevin Hisel for what can only be termed his brilliant work on the CUCUG Web site.
As an aside, Richard requested that the newsletter include directions to the meeting hall from I-57 for those people attempting to find us from out of town.
Mark reported that response to the formation of a Video SIG had been luke warm. It will probably go forward with the meetings being held the first Thursday of each month, with the initial site being Mark's house. More on this as things develop.
Richard brought up his desire to construct an email list of members for the purpose of rapidly communicating with everyone and mailing out meeting reminders. Kevin Hopkins pointed out that the email addresses of most members are now included in our membership roster and on our web site as well, so Richard's project could be easily accomplished. Richard said he would construct the list within the program Eudora, rather than a UNIX mail list. All this points up the need for members who have email addresses to please provide them to Kevin Hopkins so you can be included. And for those that don't have an email address to get one. Remember - Prairienet is free.
Mark Bellon mentioned that CU-Online's service has improved by an order of magnitude recently.
KLS Electronics on Washington and Colorado, just off Philo Road, gets high marks for their repair service.
Kevin Hopkins: Kevin presented the exchange newsletters and delivered the mail to the appropriate parties, as usual.
As newsletter editor, Kevin reported that he had lowered the newsletter's printing costs by one third this month by switching printers (again). Thanks to the nice folks out at Staples. A historical perspective of our cost migration downward was also given.
As keeper of the list, Kevin reported that we had 5 members renew their memberships in March and we had three new members join. We also had 3 visitors at our March meeting. The updated list is available for Board members on the BBS. Richard requested the Lost-Souls list. It too is on the BBS in the section restricted to Board members.
Addressing new business, Kevin stated that he felt the club's A2000 is in "sad" shape. Due to the "crippled" accelerator in the machine, it has repeatedly crashed on disk demonstrations for the past three months. Because of that, Kevin made the recommendation that the club purchase an A3000 advertised for sale by a member at the last meeting and sell the A2000 to help defray the cost. The cost differential is negligible. Kevin also returned the club's old PC, formerly used as the BBS machine, and said it should be sold as well. Jon Sago took this machine and will sell it on consignment. In the discussion that followed, it was discovered that Jim Saxon had an A3000 that he was willing to sell for even less than the machine that originally caught Kevin's attention (just over half as much). The advantages of the A3000 are that it is an 030 native machine and it has a built in SCSI port that can use a ZIP drive straight up. This purchase accedes the $200 limit placed on the Board, so it will be brought up for a vote at the next meeting.
The discussion about the A3000 sparked another discussion about purchasing a ZIP drive for the club. Mark and Richard would like to stop bringing in their personal equipment for the Mac SIG and, now that the Amiga Library is on ZIP disk, it seems an advantageous purchase for the group to make. The drive can not only be used for the Mac and Amiga SIGs, but it can also be used to backup the BBS (currently done to tape - can you say slow). It will also allow Mark to "sneakernet" large files onto the BBS with the use of PC Exchange and without the interminable upload times of a modem. Jon Sago offered the club a price the Board couldn't refuse. The purchase was approved unanimously.
Kevin then turn his attention to the Mac Web Page on the club's web site. There presently is an entry on the Main Page for the Amiga Web Directory and the C64/128 Web Directory, so Kevin proposed that there be one for the Macintosh Web Directory. Currently there is an entry for the Macintosh SIG, but this leads to 11 pages of information about the SIG and how to join the club. At the very end is the link to the Macintosh Web Directory. It seems that this should be streamlined by unburying this link and putting it in its rightful place one the Main page. In the discussion that followed it was stated that the link has not been brought forward because the page is still under development. But the fact that it is available indicates that its near completion. Jim Huls gave assurances that the Macintosh Web Page would be officially launched within the month.
Kevin then reported that he had ordered PageStream for Macintosh. Delivery date is reported to be within four weeks. Kevin also purchased PowerPrint so that he can print from the club's PowerMac to his Laserjet printer. This last item brought up a discussion of how Kevin was told by every store he went to that they had never heard of a Macintosh printing to an IBM compatible printer. At Computerland he was told quite authoritatively that "it couldn't be done." Don't believe everything you get told by a store clerk.
As a final item, Kevin reported that David Packard, of Hewlett-Packard died.
Jon Sago: Jon said didn't have much to report. He did say, "Jaz drives are great. I backed up a CD yesterday." Much laughter followed that announcement.
Kevin Hisel: BBS usage - "I haven't a f*#king idea. I don't check it anymore."
Library sales were "medium." The "Saint of CUCUG" award goes to Ed Serbe for his unflagging support of the Library. Here's a guy who has purchased all of the CUCUGAMI disks on floppy, has inherited another nearly complete collection from his brother Vic who has since left the Amiga arena, and now goes and buys the Amiga Library on a ZIP disk. On top of that, he has donated several megs of his own animations to be distributed through that very same Library. What a guy! Thanks Ed.
Turning to the Web site, Kevin reported that the April 1996 issue of Net Guide magazine has awarded our site their 4 Star Award for quality on the Net. We also now have an official mirror site of our pages in Europe, Video Online in Italy (http://www.vol.it/mirror/amigaweb/amiga.html). Our site now has about 16 megabytes of content.
As Chairman of the Spring Computerfest, Kevin reported that the annual mailing was completed last week and we have already received some responses. Among the first to support our group and its efforts with the Amiga Web Directory is Fargo Electronics (http://www.fargo.com/fotofun.html). They have kindly donated one of their FotoFUN color printers (a $500 value). We deeply appreciate their support.
Emil Cobb: Emil showed the sign modified for the club's use which he created with the Banner Mania program.
Emil reported that 40 people attended the March meeting.
He wants to remove some of the club's C64 based equipment from storage at his house. It was decided to sell as much of it as we can. Jon Sago will assist us in this endeavor. The club's spare C128 will be placed in the upcoming raffle. We will retain one C64 system and one C128 system for club use. Anything left over will be given to member Paul Neubauer as spare parts since he has so graciously repaired equipment for the club and members in the past.
Jim Lewis: Jim began by asking a question about the feasibility of using a SCSI Apple Laserwriter on a PC clone. Mark Bellon said he doubted that it would work. He said, "That printer was barely supported by Apple and getting it to talk properly to a PC wish not likely."
There was an extended discussion of ZIP drives, Jaz drives and other drive technologies.
Jim closed his portion of the meeting by stating that he thought Quentin Barnes had done an "exemplary program" and he wanted to say, "Thank you very much, Quentin."
Meetings are held the third Thursday of each month at 7 p.m. at the IBEW Local 601 Union Hall (352-1741), located at 2901 Research Road in the Interstate Research Park in northwest Champaign. To get there, go north on Mattis over I-74 and turn right at the second stop light, onto Interstate Drive. Then take the first "real" left at Research Road. The Electrician's Hall is the third building on your left. There's a big flag pole right out front and it's directly across the street from one of Hobbico's signs. You should park and enter the building in the back.
ASCII text files of all recent Status Register newsletters are available for downloading on our BBS or our WWW site. Other user group newsletter editors may leave a comment to the BBS Sysop to request free access. To initiate a newsletter exchange, just send us your newsletter. As a matter of CUCUG policy, a newsletter exchange partner will be dropped after three months of no contact.
This newsletter was prepared with PageStream 2.22 on an Amiga 3000 25/100 and output to an HP Laserjet IIP plus. Pagestream was donated to CUCUG by Soft-Logik Publishing Corporation.
For further information, please attend the next meeting as our guest, or contact one of our officers (all at area code 217):
President: Richard Rollins 469-2616 rrollins@cucug.org Vice-President: Emil Cobb 398-0149 e-cobb@uiuc.edu Secretary/Editor: Kevin Hopkins 356-5026 kh2@uiuc.edu Treasurer: Mark Landman 398-2910 mlandman@prairienet.org Corporate Agent: Jim Lewis 359-1342 jlewis@cucug.org Board Advisor: Jim Huls 892-8730 jhuls@cucug.org Librarian/Sysop: Kevin Hisel 352-1002 khisel@cucug.org Mac Librarian: Mark Bellon 337-5804 mbellon@urbana.mcd.mot.com
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