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From: ace@tidbits.com (Adam C. Engst)
Subject: TidBITS#204/29-Nov-93
Date: Mon, 29 Nov 93 22:11:54 PDT
TidBITS#204/29-Nov-93
=====================
This week we explain Ted Nelson's new plans for Xanadu Light based
on his talk at Hypertext '93. We also clarify the details on the
Quadra 610, DOS Compatible that Apple announced recently.
Charles Wheeler passes on a true Mac story that might prevent
DOSsification, Apple asks for constructive interface suggestions
for MacTCP, a free PDA newsletter appears, and Mark Anbinder
notes that not all microphones are created equal.
This issue of TidBITS sponsored in part by:
* APS Technologies -- 800/443-4199 -- 71520.72@compuserve.com
New lower prices on Seagate hard drives in SR 2000 cases.
For APS price lists, email: aps-prices@tidbits.com
Copyright 1990-1993 Adam & Tonya Engst. Details at end of issue.
Automated info: <info@tidbits.com> Comments: <ace@tidbits.com>
--------------------------------------------------------------
Topics:
MailBITS/29-Nov-93
SuperDrive Activism
MacTCP Call to Arms
DOS Compatible Details
True Mac Stories!
Xanadu Light
[Archived as /info-mac/per/tb/tidbits-204.etx; 30K]
MailBITS/29-Nov-93
------------------
With the approach of the holiday season, we're all looking for
Macintosh gifts, ranging from games to books to accessories. I'm
probably going to regret this offer, but if you send me a
description of the top three items that you plan to give to a
friend or relative as a present, I'll compile the best of the
submissions and publish it in one of the issues in December.
Please limit yourself to a paragraph about each item and avoid
anything that can't be easily purchased via mail order, that being
the least-common denominator. To avoid hammering my personal email
account, please send suggestions to <gifts@tidbits.com>.
**PDA News, a free monthly newsletter** covering the world of
Personal Digital Assistants (including the Newton and the Tandy
Zoomer), is offering free subscriptions to all comers. To
subscribe, send them email at <73252.2301@compuserve.com> and put
"Free Subscription" in the Subject line. Needless to say, include
your name, company, address, phone, fax, email address, and if you
own a PDA in the body of the message.
**Tom Phoenix** <rootbeer@aol.com> passed on a photocopy of the
rebate form you can get from Apple if you purchased At Ease 1.0
(or a system bundled with it) between 02-Aug-93 and 01-Apr-94. You
can get between $25 and $100 back depending on your situation, if
you return this form. The only slight problem is that Apple forgot
to include a blank for your street address. Oops. Call 800/892-
4648 if you are interested in getting a form for the rebate, but
make sure to add your street address manually if you send it in.
**Autodesk** has announced an upgrade program for users of
ClarisCAD, which has slipped ever further from Claris's attention.
From 01-Nov-93 to 15-Jan-94, users of ClarisCAD can upgrade to
AutoCAD Release 12 for the Macintosh for $995 (normally $2,500).
To qualify for the upgrade, current ClarisCAD users must contact a
local Autodesk Authorized Reseller (call the number below for a
reference) and provide a proof of purchase or a serialized disk
for each copy of ClarisCAD to be traded in and a signed Upgrade
Pledge, which reads as follows (and I quote): "I would like to
purchase an upgrade to AutoCAD Release 12 for the Macintosh as a
replacement for my existing ClarisCAD. I pledge to discontinue use
of ClarisCAD and within 90 days to destroy all copies of that
computer-aided-design software." I recommend repeating the pledge
in the presence of your Autodesk Authorized Reseller while
standing on one foot with your head held high and your right hand
on your heart. The signature? For $995, my bet is on blood.
Autodesk -- 800/964-6432
**Pete Chane** <pchaneuw@macc.wisc.edu> writes: "It seems that if
Centris 660AV users download and install System Enabler 088 v.
1.1, it will change their computer from a Centris to a Quadra in
About This Macintosh. Programs that report system info like Now
Profile and TattleTale will also use the new Quadra name." [The
enabler is available on <ftp.apple.com> in:
/dts/mac/sys.soft/7.1.system.enablers/
Apple says only that version 1.1 adds support for the Quadra 660AV
and doesn't provide any other details, although Ric Ford reported
in MacWEEK that it included "other, undocumented fixes as well."
-Adam]
**Borrowing Microphones** -- Mark Anbinder <mha@baka.ithaca.ny.us>
writes: Purchasers of Apple's new low-end Macintosh systems will
be surprised if they try to use a borrowed Apple microphone in
the computers' microphone jacks. The Performa 475 and 476, LC
475, and Quadra 605 computers require the new PlainTalk microphone
in order to record sounds using the microphone port, but don't
include it. Microphones bundled with previous Macintosh models
won't work, because the PlainTalk microphone has a longer plug
(.75" rather than .5") and the old plug doesn't properly seat
inside the new jack. The PlainTalk microphone is available as a
separate item, in addition to being bundled with several of
Apple's newer high-end Macs. The item number is M9060Z/A, and
the microphone should be available from any Apple reseller.
SuperDrive Activism
-------------------
Jamie McCarthy <k044477@hobbes.kzoo.edu> passed on a quote from
the Dec-93 AppleDirections newsletter that might gratify those on
the nets who complained vociferously about proposed plans to
eliminate the auto-eject mechanism on the SuperDrive.
Just to be crystal clear about this, the new SuperDrive
disk drives require no change in the way you deliver your
software. Despite earlier reports, Apple will not be making
the transition to manual-eject drives that read only
MFM-format disks, largely because of feedback from customers
and developers. The new Apple SuperDrive will read disks
formatted using either GCR or MFM (that is, the format
used by DOS/Windows systems) standards and will continue
to feature automatic ejection of floppy disks.
I'm not fond of the manual inject mechanism used in the new
SuperDrives, but the dust cover is good, and less expensive Macs
and replacement parts are useful as well. It's nice to see Apple
listening to feedback.
MacTCP Call to Arms
-------------------
Apple has done a tremendous job in producing the updater for
MacTCP 2.0.4 (it works on virgin copies of MacTCP 2.0.2, which is
the version included with the Internet Starter Kit for Macintosh),
and although no one denies that accomplishment, there has been
much griping on the nets about MacTCP's interface.
Garry Hornbuckle, Apple's MacTCP product manager, met the griping
with a concrete challenge posted on comp.sys.mac.comm - if you
don't like how MacTCP is configured, Apple wants to hear your
_specific_ suggestions. General complaints aren't useful, but if
you can point out a specific problem that you've faced and offer
specific ways of dealing with that problem, Apple seems to be
willing to listen. We at TidBITS applaud such a move since it
indicates a willingness to open a direct dialogue with interested
Mac users. Other groups at Apple would do well to emulate this
policy; after all, we're the people that must use Apple's
products. We don't wish to imply that Apple doesn't have a lot of
great ideas, just that, as Garry said in his posting, Apple
doesn't have a monopoly on all the good ideas. As a matter of
fact, if there are other such public suggestion email addresses at
Apple or other companies, and if the maintainers of those
addresses wish, we'll be happy to publicize them to increase the
net community participation.
So, if you can meet Garry's challenge and offer specific
constructive suggestions for the next version of MacTCP, send them
to:
tcpideas@seeding.apple.com
There are some ground rules that you should also know.
* By submitting the suggestion, you are granting Apple the right
to incorporate the suggestion into its products in the future.
* You are granting your permission to Apple for the good of
Macintosh-kind, for the good of MacTCP, for forever, and for
free.
However, Garry did say that he might be able to swing some cool
t-shirts for the best suggestions. He promised to read each and
every suggestion, and to respond to the best ones. Let's not pass
up this chance to provide early feedback for a product that is
fast becoming an essential part of the Macintosh experience for
many people.
Oh, you can get the MacTCP 2.0.4 updater at <ftp.tidbits.com> in:
/pub/tidbits/tisk/mactcp/
DOS Compatible Details
----------------------
We've been combing the woods for details about the Quadra 610, DOS
Compatible Mac that we wrote about in TidBITS #202_, which should
ship in early 1994. One of the most useful sources of information
has been the MacWEEK forum on ZiffNet/Mac (GO ZMC:MACWEEK), and
especially postings from Henry Norr of MacWEEK. When combined with
information from Pythaeus, the following has become clear.
The DOS card allows some sharing of information between the Mac
and DOS environments, much as do SoftPC and Orange Micro's PC
card. However, the DOS Compatible card cannot display the DOS
session in a Macintosh window, which would make copying text and
graphics between the two environments clumsy on a single monitor
system.
Switching between monitors is not instantaneous; there is a
unexplained but perceptible several second delay between the two
environments. Unfortunately, if you have two monitors, you cannot
use the PC monitor in the Mac environment at all, which is a
shame, considering the incredible utility of multiple monitor
desktops.
The Quadra 610, DOS Compatible will come with 8 MB of RAM
standard, and you can set the allocation between the Mac and the
PC although it comes preset at 4 MB of RAM for each environment.
If you install more RAM on the Mac motherboard, either environment
can use that memory, but if you install RAM directly on the DOS
card, then the PC environment must use that RAM and cannot share
the main Mac RAM. I'd be surprised if you can reset the allocation
without rebooting, although that might be a task for OptiMem from
the Jump Development Group (a utility that reduces the amount of
memory applications require - I'm investigating it for a review so
stay tuned).
Although the card can use the Mac's CD-ROM drive via Microsoft's
CD-ROM drivers for DOS, there's currently no software support (and
it may not even be possible in hardware) to use Ethernet via DOS,
which limits the utility of the card in the big business
environments that require DOS compatibility for new machines. The
card, because it fits in a Quadra 610 (and presumably in the
660AV), is only 7" long; thus it may not work as easily in the
longer NuBus slots in other Macs. Apple isn't marketing to those
other machines, and there's no telling if the card requires a
68040 in the Mac or not.
Communications and printing operate as you might expect. You map
the PC COM 1 and COM 2 ports (probably only one at a time) to the
Mac's modem port, so that you can use a modem from within DOS.
Print jobs go to whatever printer you select in the Chooser, and
if it's a PostScript printer, you must configure your PC programs
with PostScript drivers as well. If you use a QuickDraw printer,
the DOS programs will print to it as if it were an Epson, the
least-common denominator on the PC side of things. In either case,
the DOS environment assumes it's using a non-existent parallel
port.
Like the default setup in SoftPC, the PC hard disk is a single
file in the Macintosh environment. However, unlike SoftPC (at
least the older version I last used) it seems that Apple has in
some way implemented it as an external file system (a neat trick
that makes it a window in the Finder so you can treat DOS files
like Mac files). Opening the hard disk file doesn't immediately
open a window, but instead creates a new disk icon with the same
name. Double-clicking on that icon opens a Finder window
displaying the DOS files and subdirectories. I presume that it in
some way supports the internal floppy drive, although it's
possible that Macintosh PC Exchange is involved in some way. I
don't know if you can define a Mac folder as another drive within
DOS, as you can in SoftPC, but with the external file system
that's not quite as much of a problem as it would otherwise be.
One thing to keep in mind if you're considering purchasing this
system is that SoftWindows for the PowerPC should ship at the same
time or shortly after the release of the PowerPC in early March of
1994. Insignia showed SoftWindows at Comdex and reports from
several people indicate that it felt as fast as a 486. Insignia
itself is currently talking about 33 MHz 486 speeds, and that's on
the 66 MHz PowerPC 601 chip. With the 80 MHz (or 95 MHz chip that
IBM was showing) the speed of SoftWindows can only improve, unlike
the speed of the DOS card. Paul Kerr of Insignia, the SoftPC and
SoftWindows product manager, said that benchmarking an emulated PC
against a real one is a tricky process, and some functions end up
faster while others end up slower. However, it's likely that
SoftWindows will support networking and run in a Macintosh window,
thus making it a cleaner fit with the Macintosh operating system.
The current versions of SoftPC Professional and SoftPC With
Windows suffer in comparison with the DOS card in terms of
performance (Insignia claims 386 speeds), but include a pre-
configured copy of Windows and are more flexible and cheaper. And
of course, you can upgrade to SoftWindows for PowerPC when it
ships this spring.
Information from:
Henry Norr -- 76117.1770@compuserve.com
Paul Kerr -- 70274.3044@compuserve.com
Pythaeus
True Mac Stories!
-----------------
by Charles Wheeler, World Associates -- Charles_Wheeler@dbug.org
Although it could have been written by Apple's ad agency, the
following is a true story. Only the names have been changed to
protect the innocent, although the conversation has been shortened
for the sake of brevity. The main points are all completely
factual.
I received a phone call from a DOS-based consultant who was
evaluating a FileMaker Pro installation at the offices of one of
my clients. The database system consists of 13 Mac IIsi's and one
Quadra 700. Other branches of this business use various different
DOS systems, few, if any, of which work consistently. Hence the
call from the DOS-based consultant; the parent company had hired
her to implement a system that worked, ignoring the Macintosh and
FileMaker Pro system that has worked perfectly for several years
now.
DOS-based consultant: "I noticed those computers have a graphical
user interface. Is that Windows for the Mac?"
Me (after long incredulous pause): "No, that's the Mac OS. It's
built in."
There followed a long explanation of how Apple bundles the
Macintosh operating system and graphical interface with every
Macintosh they sell, a concept that flabbergasted my caller. It
was a state she would get used to.
DOS: "What kind of network boards do those machines have plugged
into them?"
Me: "No boards. The network hardware is built into every
Macintosh."
This one really threw her. The concept of plug and play is so
foreign to the PC world that Microsoft is just now (after 13 years
or so) in the process of designing a Plug and Play specification
for hardware and software vendors that will enable systems to
automatically configure themselves when boards and peripherals are
plugged in. [I believe the Plug and Play spec will be equally as
successful as the idea of PC compatibility and the Sony Beta VCR
format. In other words, not at all. -Adam]
DOS: "What network software are you using?"
Me (sigh): "Built in. We could use System 7, but in this
particular case, we're using the networking capabilities of
FileMaker."
Major mind-slam here - the idea of mentioning network services
without invoking the hallowed name of Novell - or at least
mentioning Microsoft or Banyan or IBM - just didn't click.
AppleTalk may not be the end-all of network software, but it's
pretty easy, it's relatively transparent, it works, and you don't
need a fifteen-foot shelf of manuals to work with it. AppleTalk is
also the second-most common network protocol in the world, I hear,
based on number of end nodes.
DOS: "Who's the network administrator?"
Me: "Well, we don't really have one. We plugged the machines in a
couple of years ago and they just worked. We upgrade software and
make additions and modifications to the database, but the network
pretty much takes care of itself."
More explanation followed, since AppleTalk networks, especially
simple LocalTalk networks like this one, seldom need full-network
administrators. This particular network doesn't even use System 7
File Sharing (also built in) so there's essentially nothing for a
network administrator to worry about other than the occasional
kicked-out cable.
I pass this true story on not to bash DOS, or this particular
person's lack of Mac knowledge, but as a reminder to myself and
other Mac diehards that, no matter how often we curse the fizzy
bomb and the occasionally clumsy or inconsistent interface,
there's still a lot of nonsense we never see in our Macintosh
lives. I hope we can continue to enjoy this level of internal
support for basic operations on the Macintosh, and perhaps
conversations and stories like this might help others in danger of
DOSsification.
Xanadu Light
------------
The high point of Hypertext '93 was of course the talk given by
Ted Nelson after the reception in his honor. Nelson is a
thoroughly engaging speaker, and he devoted much of the first half
of his talk to providing the audience an overview of the 32-year
history of Xanadu, Nelson's electronic publishing world view. I
won't attempt to summarize that history since a bit of it exists
in TidBITS #30_ and Nelson's books, including Computer Lib/Dream
Machines (one book) and Literary Machines, are required reading
for anyone in the field.
What interested me was the reaction Nelson received in the crowd.
I don't mean the public questions and comments, but the asides and
looks various members of the audience traded during the talk.
Members of the hypertext community seem to view Nelson with a
complicated mix of awe and devotion (after all, he is the father
of hypertext) combined with an almost cruel pity and ridicule. I
suspect this mockery, which was seldom voiced loudly, but was
evidenced in eye-rolling and smirks, stems from the fact that
despite his long involvement with hypertext, Nelson has never
shipped a product. Xanadu has been vaporware longer than many of
us have been alive. The reaction concerned me, because even though
Xanadu has yet to appear, that fact is independent of Nelson's
ideas, just as much theoretical physics is more or less
independent of practical application at the moment. It may mean
that he's a theoretical hypertext scientist, but there's no shame
in that. I sensed a vague paranoia in Nelson, but one that is
probably justifiable if his ideas have received similar reactions
(and most likely, even worse ones) in the past. It's a shame, and
let me attempt to convey his concepts in relation to the new
Xanadu, now called Xanadu Light. Much of this information comes
from the handouts Nelson provided with his talk.
To bring you up to date quickly, it seemed as though the hope for
Xanadu lay with Autodesk, the CAD giant that purchased it back in
1988. Unfortunately, after investing five years and five million
dollars, Autodesk dropped the project in 1993. Nelson didn't say
specifically, but I have the impression that all that development
effort remained at Autodesk; all he managed to get back was the
trademarked name. In large part because of that, I suspect, Xanadu
Light is now based on garden-variety database programs and using
the Internet for worldwide access. Nelson mentioned something
about searching for stuff via Gopher and then telnetting in or
using a dialup BBS to actually retrieve the information - I'm sure
a custom front end would appear quickly.
Within Xanadu, people can have three roles - readers, publishers,
and suppliers. As a reader, you connect to the entire Xanadu
universe by connecting to one Xanadu supplier. You can browse
hypertext links indefinitely from document to document. No records
are kept of your hypertext trail or of the items you send for, and
you can keep what you receive (a receipt token helps you file it
for future reference).
As a publisher, you may link to, comment on, or append information
to any published document. Quoting documents by what Nelson calls
a "transclusion pointer" automatically links your document to the
original and pays the original publisher for the data, and
although you have no control over who links to your documents, the
documents themselves are kept inviolate. Everything is handled by
links. You may publish anything within the law (which Nelson notes
is going to be a big issue in the future), and you take
responsibility for the contents of anything you publish, just as
in traditional paper publishing.
As a supplier, you can locate your business anywhere and allow
your customers to connect to you in any way. You can charge what
you like for storage of published documents and for connection
time, and you have complete control over credits and payments. In
an attempt to avoid the mega-companies that currently dominate
publishing (apparently there are about 40 "important" publishing
companies out of a set of some 70,000), Nelson specifically
designed Xanadu on a franchise system. Anyone can set up as a
supplier with some hardware and a connection, and anyone can set
up as a publisher
In brief then:
* The publisher pays for storage, the reader pays for delivery,
along with a small per-byte royalty. Nelson recommends rates in
the range of 1/10,000 of a cent per byte for text, perhaps one
cent per minute of video.
* The reader may send for any portion of any document and pays for
just that portion, not the entire document. However, since the
rates are so low, there's no concept of browsing and then choosing
what you want to buy. You pay for everything you see.
* Anyone may quote anything in the Xanadu network by transclusion
(virtual inclusion - it's a hard concept to convey without an
illustration, perhaps think of it as a publish & subscribe type
link) from another publisher's document. Royalties continue to
flow automatically to the original publisher of information.
* Anyone may publish links to anything in the Xanadu network (but
remember, original documents remain inviolate, so you don't have
to worry about your data being corrupted by virtual graffiti).
* Every document has an owner, the publisher, and that person pays
for its storage on a Xanadu host machine.
* Every link is also owned as a part of some document.
* Connecting to one Xanadu node connects you to all nodes, and
thus all documents and data objects. This inherently implies some
sort of global name space for objects, I would assume.
* All data structures are welcome and connectable; there are no
closed objects. This will prevent what Nelson calls the
"Balkanization" of electronic media, where the data objects are
inherently proprietary and isolated.
Copyright always comes up in these sort of discussions about
Xanadu, but the system handles copyright and royalties
automatically and unobtrusively. Since every document has a known
owner, and since there's no reason why you wouldn't quote
something as opposed to retyping it (it's thinkable, but I imagine
it would become culturally taboo to do so), any owned data will
always remain owned. Royalties (set by the publisher) flow
automatically from the reader to the publisher on a per-byte
basis, and give the reader the right to backup and one printout as
well, although there's no reason alternative arrangements couldn't
be made.
Xanadu Light, then, is essentially four public database tables,
plus content bytes stored in standard and nonstandard files. Each
document lists its contents in a public table, and users may query
the database using standard queries or SQL queries for more
complex searches. As I understand it, some sort of client software
would be responsible for presenting this information and allowing
you to browse and search among it.
From Nelson's handouts, then, here are the four database tables.
Grand directory of all documents (public table)
---------------------------------------------------------------
Author | Title | Document | Date of | Owner | Size (may
| | type | publication | | be misleading
| | | | | in hypermedia)
---------------------------------------------------------------
Sequential pieces of a document (royalty bytes)
Note that a document may include part of any other document,
simply by including that part in this table. Permission to
do so is assured by our publishing contract.
-------------------------------------------------------------
Type | Owner | Author | Publisher | Where | Size | Royalty
of | | | | stored | | per byte
piece | | | | | |
-------------------------------------------------------------
Document's outbound links
A document may contain any number of links of any number of
types. Each link connects to particular sets of bytes in
this or other documents. Note that link contained in one
document may connect material between two others.
---------------------------------------------------------
Type of link | left endset (bytes, | right endset (bytes,
| node, document) | node, document)
---------------------------------------------------------
Document's inbound connections (harpoons)
This table records all the links and transclusions citing
this document from elsewhere. Since these connections are
made by the choice of others, the others pay for their
presence in this table.
-----------------------------------------------------------
Type of connection | left endset (bytes, | right endset
(transclusion, or | node, document) | (bytes, node,
link of whatever | | document)
type) | |
-----------------------------------------------------------
I realize that's not a totally satisfactory explanation of it all,
and Nelson didn't intend it to be. However, I would like to say
that this article is a perfect example of what Xanadu would be
good for. Rather than try to recreate ASCII tables, I could merely
have quoted them so that you all saw the originals, and so that
the royalties could go directly to Ted Nelson. As it stands, I'm
going to have to hope that this article stirs enough interest
among folks who are in a position to help out with Xanadu. For
more information and contracts, send a self-addressed, stamped,
envelope to:
Xanadu On-Line Publishing
3020 Bridgeway #295
Sausalito, CA 94965 USA
Nelson said he had to give up on email when he found himself with
over a thousand unanswered email messages in his mailbox, although
I wonder how answering snail mail is any easier - I'd drown if I
got 50 pieces of personal snail mail every day.
Among other various comments, two stood out. When asked what he
thought of the World-Wide Web, which was developed at CERN in
Switzerland and which provides hypertext browsing of documents
spread over the entire Internet, Nelson said that he thought it
was an excellent step forward, and suffered from only two major
problems. First, the Web is not fine-grained enough, and second,
you can't follow its links in both directions, which Nelson claims
is a necessity. I'm not quite sure how to explain the criticism of
the Web not being fine-grained enough; he didn't explicate
further. The second comment was classic Nelson. When someone
brought up CD-ROM publication, he responded, "CD-ROM is pre-
Columbian. When you get to the edge you fall off."
$$
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----------------------------------------------------------------
Adam C. Engst, TidBITS Editor -- ace@tidbits.com -- info@tidbits.com
Author of The Internet Starter Kit for Macintosh -- tisk@tidbits.com