NOVA - For the NeXT Workstation/NOVA - For the NeXT Workstation.iso/Newsletters/NeXTNuggetNewsDigest/vol.02.05.txt

Text File | 1992-12-27 | 20KB | 521 lines

NeXT Nugget News Digest (vol. 2, issue 5, March 30, 1992)

Hello,

This is the FIFTH issue of the 1992 NeXT NUGGET NEWS DIGEST - a
collection of items of interest for the NeXT User Group members.
There are more than 290 NeXT User Groups in 33 countries around the
world.

(Several new recipients have been added to this mailing.  If you do
NOT wish to continue receiving future issues, please send email to
[e-mail].)


     Table of Contents

     i.  "The Machine that Changed the World" on PBS

     I.  NeXT Names President & COO
    II.  Concurrence Presentation Software ships from Lighthouse Design
   III.  Pencom Systems: NY, Wall Street and London consultants
    IV.  Pencom Systems: Wall Street Sysadmin positions
     V.  PixelMagician on NeXT
    VI.  PC Week Magazine and NeXT
   VII.  Thanks to Adamation for Special offer to NeXT User Groups!
  VIII.  NeXT and the Olympics
    IX.  Position: NeXTSTEP486 Developer Support Engineer
 Quote of the Month


Conrad Geiger
International NeXT User Groups
Email: [e-mail]

___________________________________________________________________

i.  "The Machine that Changed the World" on PBS

PBS will broadcast a five part series beginning April 6th (check your local
listings) "The Machine that Changed the World". History and impact of
computers featuring among others Thomas J. Watson, Steve Wozniak, Steven Jobs,
Bill Gates, and Marvin Minsky.

Five programs are as follows:

    1)"Giant Brains" WWII to ENICA
    2)"Inventing the Future" Impact on business processing
    3)"The Paperback Computer" Miniturization brings computers to
        ordinary people
    4)"The Thinking Machine" computers vie with humans in intelligence
    5)"The World at Your Fingertips" the social impacts of computing

    A joint venture with WGBH/NOVA and the BBC.


_________________________________________________________________

I.  NeXT Names President & COO

NEWS: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Allison Thomas Associates
    Allison Thomas, [phone]

NeXT Names President & COO
Jobs selects a partner to help manage NeXT's growth

    REDWOOD CITY, Calif., March 18, 1992 - NeXT Computer, Inc.
announced today that it has hired Peter van Cuylenburg for the newly
created position of president and chief operating officer (COO).  Van
Cuylenburg will report to Steven P. Jobs, chairman and chief
executive officer (CEO), and will also join NeXT's Board of
Directors.

    Van Cuylenburg will join Jobs in a newly created "office of
the president."  All NeXT vice presidents will report to this jointly
held office, and Jobs and van Cuylenburg will share day-to-day
management responsibilities.

    "Peter is an especially good choice to be NeXT's COO for two
reasons," Jobs said.  "First, Peter's last job was running half of a
$6 billion corporation, so he has very strong operational experience.
Second, he `discovered' object-oriented software and mission-critical
custom applications independently several years ago, while working at
Texas Instruments with LISP computers, so he has a deep understanding
of NeXT's core strategy and technology vision."

    "NeXT grew fourfold last year, and we have the opportunity to
become the next billion-dollar computer company.  I need a partner
such as Peter to help me manage NeXT's growth," Jobs said.

    "I am delighted to be joining NeXT," said van Cuylenburg,
"because the computer industry has always been my over-riding
interest.  I think NeXT has a real opportunity to be one of the most
successful computer companies in the 1990s, and I am excited to work
with Steve Jobs to build NeXT into that company.  I think Steve and I
will be a great team leading a great company."


Background on van Cuylenburg

    Van Cuylenburg, 43, joined Mercury Communications as its
chief executive in December 1989.  Mercury is the second licensed
public telecommunications operator in the U.K. (the "MCI" of the
U.K.) and a subsidiary of Cable and Wireless PLC, a $6 billion
company that provides telecommunications products and services
through its subsidiaries in more than 50 countries.

    During van Cuylenburg's tenure as chief executive of Mercury
Communications, Mercury doubled its market share, more than doubled
its revenues, tripled its profits and forged strong strategic
alliances with cable TV and other telecommunications companies.
After only six years of operating a public service, Mercury grew to
$2 billion in revenues and achieved more than a 10-percent market
share in its core business, long-distance telephone service to
corporate customers.  Mercury employs 9,000 people and supplies a
wide range of communications products and services to its customers
throughout the U.K.

    Based on his success at Mercury, van Cuylenburg was promoted
in September 1991 to group director of Cable and Wireless PLC,
Mercury's parent company, with responsibility for running all of
Cable and Wireless' telephone companies in the 24 countries belonging
to the OECD (Organization for European Cooperation and Development).

    Prior to joining Mercury Communications, van Cuylenburg spent
16 years at Texas Instruments, most recently as a vice president and
member of the "Office of the President" of TI's Information
Technology Group.  In this role he was responsible for TI's worldwide
computer business, including commercial UNThe Machine that Changed the
World mini-computers, advanced technical workstations and advanced
software development packages.His organization at TI was an early pioneer
in custom applications for vertical markets, making use of the object-
oriented programming capabilities of TI's LISP workstations.

    Van Cuylenburg, a British national, graduated from Bristol
Polytechnic in 1971, where he also received the Institute of
Electrical Engineers' award for "Outstanding work in the study of
Electrical Engineering."  In January 1992 he was invited to accept an
honorary doctorate in technology from Bristol Polytechnic.


 NeXT Strengthens Management

    Van Cuylenburg's appointment further strengthens NeXT's
senior management team, following January's appointment of Marcel
Gani as CFO and February's promotion of Mike Slade to vice president
of marketing.  Gani spent 12 years at Intel serving in a number of
senior financial positions, including director of internal audit for
Intel's U.S. corporate headquarters and director of finance and
administration for Intel Europe.  Slade spent more than seven years
at Microsoft, most recently as director of corporate marketing in
charge of corporate strategy and marketing for system software.
Slade joined NeXT in May 1991.

    In addition, Rich Page, a NeXT founder and formerly vice
president of hardware engineering, was promoted in January to vice
president and general manager of NeXT's newly formed Hardware
Division.  NeXT's Hardware Division combines all of NeXT's hardware
engineering, manufacturing and distribution into one streamlined
organization.

    NeXT Computer, Inc. designs, manufactures and markets
professional workstations based on the revolutionary NeXTSTEP
object-oriented system software.  NeXT computers are used by medium
and large organizations to develop and deploy mission-critical custom
applications, which can run alongside a robust suite of advanced
productivity applications.  NeXT is headquartered at 900 Chesapeake
Drive, Redwood City, California, 94063.


___________________________________________________________________

II. Concurrence Presentation Software ships from Lighthouse Design

(Editor -  check out the demo version of Concurrence and the sample files
that are also there on the archive site: sonata.cc.purdue.edu.)

Lighthouse Design Ships Concurrence Presentation Software for NeXT STEP
Computers

March 16, 1992-- Lighthouse Design, Ltd., the creators of Diagram!,
today began  shipping Concurrence, the first integrated outlining
and presentation software available for the NeXT platform.  Concurrence
takes full advantage of NeXT's  multimedia capabilities and allows
users to create high-quality on-screen presentations complete with
sound recordings and file links, or output to any PostScript output
device, from printers to 35mm slide makers.

With a built-in outliner that goes feature-for-feature with most word
processors, Concurrence is made for creating and maintaining structure, from
documents such as legal briefs and discussion agendas, down to simple to-do
lists. Rearranging topics is a simple as picking them up and dragging them
around the screen. In addition, Concurrence's outliner features rapid
collapse and expand topics, auto-labelling, level formatting, and
EMACS key bindings.

Using the audio capabilities built into every NeXT computer, Concurrence
supports the desktop-based creation of on-screen presentations with voice
and sound accompaniment. In addition, Concurrence supports the "drag
and drop" incorporation of any encapsulated PostScript (EPS) or tagged
image file format (TIFF) image.  For screen-based presentations,
Concurrence features a wide variety of PostScript slide transitions
such as dissolves, wipes and scrolls. Slide sorting can be done on a
slide-by-slide basis, or entire modules of slides may be moved together
for more rapid sorting than conventional "light table"-type sorters allow.
Applying styles to large presentations is simplified by using master
slides for each presentation view. Users may create an unlimited number
of master slides.

Concurrence easily maintains multiple presentations and outlines as views
within the same document so that changes made to one presentation or outline
are automatically propagated to all other views of the document.

Concurrence's "Prepare for Mail" feature allows users to assemble
self-contained presentations and distribute them via NeXT Mail to NeXT users
running Concurrence anywhere in the world.  In addition, users can create
auto-repeating on-screen presentations for applications such as conferences
and information centers.


Availability:

Concurrence is currently shipping and available. For price information
contact NeXT Connection at (800)800-NEXT or [phone]. Concurrence
requires NeXTSTEP 2.0 or later. Academic discounts are available to
qualified individuals and institutions. Companies and institutions
interested in site licenses should contact Lighthouse Design directly
at [phone].


___________________________________________________________________

III.  Pencom Systems: NY, Wall Street and London consultants

Pencom Systems Inc, the leader in NeXT software development and support
(developers of co-Xist for NeXT) has full time and consulting positions
available in the New York metropolitan area and London.

Please email,fax or mail your resume to:

    Larry Cohen
    Pencom Systems Inc
    150 Broadway, Suite 600
    New York, N.Y.  10038

    Phone - 212-513-7777
    Fax -   212-227-1854

    Email address: uunet!pencom!larry or
        pencom![e-mail]

___________________________________________________________________

IV.  Pencom Systems: Wall Street Sysadmin positions


                        SYSTEMS ADMINISTRATOR OPENINGS
                                ON WALL ST.

   Skills needed include:

         * UNIX operating system:  SunOS (4.x), NeXTStep, AIX, or System V.
         * Networking/communication:  TCP/IP, NIS (YP), NFS, Ethernet
         * Shell scripting, light C programming.

   Job tasks include:

         End-user support/administration, disk/file system maintenance, backup
         and recovery, system performance tuning, configuration of the network,
         installation of software, installation of workstations and network
         devices, and testing and troubleshooting of software and hardware.
         Must be able to work in a very intense, dynamic environment, working on
         the  trading floor with the traders.

   Send resumes to:     PENCOM SYSTEMS INC.
                        150 Broadway, Suite 600
                        New York, NY 10038

                        Attn:  Sharon Fox
                               Tina Leifer

                        Fax - 212-227-1854

                       email:  uunet!pencom!tina
                               uunet!pencom!sharon

___________________________________________________________________

V.  PixelMagician on NeXT

Introducing PixelMagician  -  a universal picture file viewer and
translator for NeXT computers.

Pixel Magician lets you view graphic files in other formats,
import them and treat them as if they were created on your NeXT.
Or export pictures created on NeXT to other platforms in the
appropriate file format, color map and bit depth.

Use the convert window to quickly browse or preview any picture.
Convert entire directories by simply dragging and dropping.
The Image Inspector allows you to control the Color-Space, Palette
options, bit depth and dithering method  for any image. With the Scaling
Inspector you can precisely control the dimensions of each image.

Support for industry standard formats such as TIFF, TARGA, GIF and PICT.

Works through the NeXT Services menu to bring non-native file
formats directly into your page layout, word processing, drawing,
painting and imaging applications.

Features:

    Multiple image conversion
    Precise Scaling: Percents, Pixels, inches, cm, points, picas
    Rotate in single degree increments
    Duplicate
    Error Diffusion Dithering
    Grayscale support
    Screen grabbing
    Image quantization
    Alpha channel support
    Drag/Drop
    Miniwindow thumbnails
    File extension aliases
    Works through NeXT services.

File Formats:

    TIFF ( B&W, Grayscale, Paletted, RGB )
    EPS/PS
    BMP
    PICT ( Raster Only )
    Targa
    PCX
    PNM,PBM,PGM,PPM
    PXM
    Windows BMP
    Sun Raster
    GIF
    IFF
    Macp
    XBM
    XWD


Release date: March 30th, Currently shipping beta versions.
Current version:  V1.00.X08

Latest Demo version of PixelMagician available on archive server:

    sonata.cc.purdue.edu ( 128.210.15.30 )

Location:

    /pub/next/2.0-release/demos


For more information and pricing please contact:

    Bacchus, Inc.
    2210 Wilshire Blvd. #330
    Santa Monica, CA 90403

    Voice:    310 820-9145
    Fax:    [phone]
    E-mail    [e-mail] or
        bacchus![e-mail]

___________________________________________________________________

VI.  PC Week Magazine and NeXT  (retrieved from the net)

There is a small but quite effective article that once again legitmizes
the NeXT Computer (NeXTSTEP) advantage in the March 2, 1992 PC Week magazine.

Headline reads:
    "Taligent Board Suits Up for PINK OS Campaign" by Beth Freedman

Excerpt:

    "Pink, which will comprise of hundreds of object subclasses  that
    are processor-independent, is best compared to NeXT, Inc.'s
    NeXTSTEP operating system, the sources said.  Like NeXTSTEP,
    Pink can be easily extended or adapted by modifying existing
    object classes or by adding custom objects for specific requirements
    such as networking or multimedia, they explained".


___________________________________________________________________

VII. Thanks to Adamation for Special offer to NeXT User Groups!

Thanks go to Mark Richards of Adamation for making his 96% and 98% off
offers to NeXT user groups for one copy of "Who's Calling" and "LiveWire"
software products for the NeXT.  A reminder -  this offer is valid
until April 30, 1992 for each NeXT user group.  Here is Mark's contact
information:

    Mark Richards
    Vice President Sales
    1435 Center St.
    Oakland, CA 94607
    Phone: [phone]
    FAX: [phone]
    Email: [e-mail]

___________________________________________________________________

VIII.  NeXT and the Olympics

>From Geoffrey Knauth with the Boston NeXT group:

    From: [e-mail] (Geoffrey S Knauth)
    Subject: another notch up for NeXT in sports

USRowing has been using my NeXT machine to compute speed order and
national team trial race results for a year, but they've been unsure
about Olympic trials, citing a commitment to existing PC and Mac
approaches.

Well, today, they changed their minds, and a NeXT computer will help
at Olympic Trials, May 1-3 in Princeton.

Geoffrey S. Knauth, Marble Associates, Inc.
[e-mail], [phone] work, [phone] home

(Editor: Improv is one of the apps that is used to provide almost
instant results information and analysis to the judges, crowd and competitors.)

___________________________________________________________________

IX.  Position: NeXTSTEP486 Developer Support Engineer

NeXT Computer, Inc. currently has a full time position opening with
the Developer Support Team in the Redwood City, CA office.  Please
read on if you are interested in helping engineers port their software
or write drivers for NeXTSTEP486.


Overall Description:

Provide timely and accurate technical development support to external
developers so they can quickly write drivers for their boards or port
their applications to NeXTSTEP486.


Deliverables:

In general:

* Answer technical questions about writing drivers for boards to use
  on NeXTSTEP486 systems.
* Answer technical questions about porting to NeXTSTEP486 from
  NeXTSTEP and other UNIX platforms.
* Prepare technical papers and other proactive materials that will
  help developers port and write drivers.


Before first release of the system:

* Create at least one template driver as an example for external
  developers.
* Author technical paper on how to do driver development for
  NeXTSTEP486.
* Author technical paper discussing the main porting issues.
* Learn tools and system by answering questions about porting to
  NeXTSTEP from other UNIX platforms.


Skills Required:

* Experience writing drivers and/or doing system programming on
  4.3BSD UNIX systems specifically on Intel platforms. (Mach
  programming ability is a plus as well).
* Demonstrable ability to learn new areas of an Operating System
  quickly.
* Excellent problem solving skills
   - able to answer questions in areas which they do not have
     expertise by doing research.
   - able to deduce the root of a problem from a phone or email
     interaction.
* Excellent ability to communicate with software and hardware
  developers who ask technical questions by email and phone
   - able to determine the context of the question so that the right
     question is answered, not simply the one that is asked.
   - able to write or verbalize the answer at the technical level of
     the person asking the question.
   - able to log the history of the interaction so that others on the
     team can learn from it too.
* Ability to work independently in a dynamic environment. Ability to
  juggle multiple tasks.


Please email, FAX or send your resume and cover letter to:

        [e-mail]
        FAX: [phone]

        Kate Smith
        Manager, Developer Support Team
        NeXT Computer, Inc.
        900 Chesapeake Drive
        Redwood City, CA.  94063

___________________________________________________________________
end of vol. ii, issue v

This issue's quote was found by [e-mail] (Joseph Chin):

"The best analogy I can think of is that UNIX remains a bunch of
bricks without any mortar at all.  It's a nice wall, but it
sure doesn't make a good building to live within .... NeXTSTEP
offers the mortar that's missing in X/Open windows... using the
NeXT computer offers a computing experience -- a seamless
computing experience"--SunWorld vol. 53, March 1992.