Date: Mon, 21 Mar 94 13:33:23 PST From: The Info-Mac Moderators Reply-To: Info-Mac@sumex-aim.stanford.edu Subject: Info-Mac Digest V12 #46 To: info-mac-list Info-Mac Digest Mon, 21 Mar 94 Volume 12 : Issue 46 Today's Topics: [*] Alias Dragon 1.1; a fix for remote volume aliases [*] bone-factory-icons.cpt.hqx [*] Crystal Ball 2.0.1; a helpful decision maker [*] F/A-18 demo; an air combat simulation [*] Graphic Elements; development tools amnd examples [*] Hearts-121; a card game [*] Ibo Textures; desktop patterns [*] infomac-ppat; a desktop pattern with Info-mac in stone [*] Ismini Greek font [*] LaunchPad 3.0.2; a file launching utility [*] Lemmings Data sheet (copy protection data) [*] macgzip 0.2.1 [*] next-step-icons-color-stack [*] PhotoShop PPC plug-in [*] ProGen for Macintosh v1.1 Genealogy Demo [*] rnMac 1.2b (offline newsreader) [*] rtftohtml V2.5; RTF to HTML converter [*] update appsfaq; macintosh/apps-faq 2.2.3 [*] update sysfaq; macintosh/system-faq 2.2.6 [*] update wantfaq; macintosh/wanted-faq 2.2.4 "Unrecoverable Disk Error on File ...." WHY?? (Q) Non Documented Error 903 [Q:]PowerMac LogicBoard upgrade $? all-day calander Apple 16" Monitor Popping!! apple II+ board midi kbd out to mac fried Benefits of SCSI 4.3 on Q610? Best way to clean/lube FDHD? dialup access and MacTCP programs FoxPro: A wake-up call FTP file transfer from 4th Dimension? Heizer software how to hook up two Macs by modem Image Management S/W? Letter Gothic Font Letter Gothic Font (R) MacTCP and SLIP (R) MacUser special edition for PowerPC (Where is it?) memory prices My AutoDoubler Probs News For InfoMac PAL from a Quadra 950 [A] Performa 600CD memory unlock Personal LW LS Grayscale Player Pro Users Electronic Mailing List PPC & GeoPort SCSI Manager 4.3 SCSI tape drive for DC 6150 Sharing Monitor, Disabling MonitorB si sound bug si sound bug (reply) SLIP Connection Help Strange Mac behavior (reply) SupraFAXModem 144LC (Q) utilities to block out bad sectors on a floppy (Q) Video cards with very high refresh rates (Q) video switches Viewing PostScript WriteNow 4.0 (A) The Info-Mac newsgroup is moderated by Bill Lipa, Gordon Watts and Liam Breck. The Info-Mac archives are available (by using FTP, account anonymous, any password) in the info-mac directory on sumex-aim.stanford.edu [36.44.0.6]. Help files and indices are in /info-mac/help. Mail articles for inclusion in the digest to info-mac@sumex-aim.stanford.edu. Send binaries to be placed in the archives to macgifts@sumex-aim.stanford.edu. Send administrative mail to info-mac-request@sumex-aim.stanford.edu. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 20 Mar 1994 13:45:30 -0500 (EST) From: Jim Walker Subject: [*] Alias Dragon 1.1; a fix for remote volume aliases When you rebuild your desktop, an alias to an application on a different volume loses its ability to support drag-and-drop. Alias Dragon fixes this by copying desktop information from the target volume to the volume containing the alias. Freeware by James W. Walker. You can drop a volume or folder on the AD icon, or select a volume or folder with the menu. V. 1.1: Scriptable; modeless dialogs. [Archived as /info-mac/cfg/alias-dragon-11.hqx; 14K] ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 19 Mar 1994 22:12:16 -0600 From: Michael M Eilers Subject: [*] bone-factory-icons.cpt.hqx here is a collection of icons for the grf/gui section of the archive... they are not my creation, but were found on public (non-profit non-pirate) BBS during the late 80's-early 90's. The artwork is quite astonishing, and shows a true artists flair, with a truly eclectic choice of subject matter and an emphasis on artwork vs. "usefulness." [Archived as /info-mac/gui/grf/bone-factory-icons.hqx; 95K] ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 20 Mar 1994 10:24:52 -0500 (EST) From: "ICONtact Comm. Database Asst. Mgr. and Internet Mgr." Subject: [*] Crystal Ball 2.0.1; a helpful decision maker This is Crystal Ball 2.0.1. Crystal Ball is a program which helps people make decisions. Crystal Ball is a computer generated facsimilie of the physical Magic 8-Ball. Crystal Ball runs on any system running System 7.0 or higher (really!). It's 32 bit clean and 68040 cache compatible. Change since 2.0: Fixed a single boolean operator which prevented Crystal Ball >From running on a system 7.0.0 machine. I can't believe I missed it!!!!!!!! If you want to conact me, please send email to: nwcs@utkvx.utk.edu or (preferred) nwcs@delphi.com [Archived as /info-mac/game/crystal-ball-201.hqx; 123K] ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 01 Mar 1994 12:16:02 -0500 (EST) From: WEBER_MARLIN@Lilly.com Subject: [*] F/A-18 demo; an air combat simulation Here is a playable demo of F/A 18 Hornet, a fighter simulation game, that I downloaded from AOL. It has a short read-me file that explains pretty much what do do. It is a self-extracting file. The demo doesn't list minimum system requirements. I believe at least a color Mac is required, but have no idea about memory, screen size, etc. Butch Weber [Archived as /info-mac/game/com/fa18-demo.hqx; 1555K] ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 20 Mar 94 15:34:57 CST From: Al Evans Subject: [*] Graphic Elements; development tools amnd examples Graphic Elements is a paradigm and a library for programming high-performance, framework-independent interactive graphics for the Apple Macintosh. This version of Graphic Elements includes a linkable library, documentation, and several example programs with source code. Graphic Elements requires a 68020 or better and 8-bit color capability. The example programs require System 7 or better. Think C 6.0 is required to modify and rebuild the example programs. [Archived as /info-mac/dev/src/graphic-elements-c.hqx; 552K] ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 18 Mar 1994 19:50:02 -0500 From: Kenji_Kono@postoffice.brown.edu Subject: [*] Hearts-121; a card game This is the latest shareware version of WWI Inc.'s Hearts (1.2.1) and corrects the bug which screwed up the animation on smaller monitors (LC's etc.). This version may be played on any size monitor. Have fun! [Archived as /info-mac/game/crd/hearts-121.hqx; 541K] ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 20 Mar 94 08:24:54 -0600 From: John C Seemann (Joel Kruse) Subject: [*] Ibo Textures; desktop patterns More ppats from the creator of the Huge pppat archive and Joel's ppats! These require at least an 8-bit color capable mac running System 7 and any program that can read ppats from a resource file. In Desktop Textures format. Joel Kruse jkruse@maroon.tc.umn.edu [Archived as /info-mac/gui/grf/ibo-textures.hqx; 54K] ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 20 Mar 94 11:17:20 -0600 From: John C Seemann (Joel Kruse) Subject: [*] infomac-ppat; a desktop pattern with Info-mac in stone Here is an 8-bit ppat for the archives. Info-mac Digest appears to be carved into stone. In a Desktop Textures file. Hope you all like it! Joel jkruse@maroon.tc.umn.edu [Archived as /info-mac/gui/grf/info-mac-texture.hqx; 14K] ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 20 Mar 1994 13:20:24 +0100 From: goulandr@sociologie.ens.fr (Nikos Goulandris) Subject: [*] Ismini Greek font Greeting, Nikos.Goulandris@ens.fr [Archived as /info-mac/font/ismini-greek.hqx; 199K] ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 19 Mar 94 0:07:15 EST From: J S Greenfield Subject: [*] LaunchPad 3.0.2; a file launching utility Application: LaunchPad(tm) 3.0.2 (Shareware, $11) Changes from version 3.0.1: LaunchPad 3.0.2 corrects an error introduced in 3.0.1 that prevented LaunchPad Valet from displaying an informational dialog when launched from the Finder. Description: System 7's drop-launching features are a nice idea, but there is a catch: in order to drop documents onto an application, you need to have the application on the desktop, or in some other open window. This one problem is probably the single greatest impediment to realizing the full potential of drop-launching. In the past, you had basically two choices: either fill up your desktop with an array of various application icons, to keep them available for drop-launching, or keep your desktop clean, and limit your use of drop-launching to rare occasions. LaunchPad(tm) changes all that. LaunchPad is a simple utility designed to let you keep a clean desktop, but still maintain convenient access to System 7's drop-launching features. LaunchPad serves as a drag-and-drop dock for any applications that you choose. You simply drag documents to the LaunchPad icon, and then select an application to launch from the "get file" dialog. The dropped documents will then be opened using the selected application (if possible). LaunchPad also facilitates automated drop-launching with Valet Launching(tm). With the included utility, LaunchPad Valet(tm), you can configure LaunchPad to automate your most frequent drop- launching tasks. With LaunchPad, you keep your desktop clean and take advantage of System 7's drop-launching. So why use drop-launching or LaunchPad? If this question comes to mind, then you are probably one of the many people who have yet to experience just how convenient drop- launching can be. Drop-launching makes many tasks much easier. See the enclosed documentation for useful examples. Specifications: LaunchPad(tm) requires less than 35K of disk space, and as little as 45K of RAM. LaunchPad Valet(tm) requires less than 25K of disk space. [Archived as /info-mac/gui/launch-pad-302.hqx; 94K] ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 19 Mar 1994 21:44:39 -0600 From: gamblins@nbnet.nb.ca (Stephen Gamblin) Subject: [*] Lemmings Data sheet (copy protection data) The lemmings copy protection really pissed me off. I usually lose the manual and I found it tiresome trying to find the little guys to figure out the codes. So, I spent a few hours scanning and compiling all of the codes and came up with an excel 4 spead sheet. If anyone wants a copy in a different format email me Thanks- Steve gamblins@nbnet.nb.ca [Archived as /info-mac/game/com/lemmings-data.hqx; 146K] ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 19 Mar 94 21:03:44 +0100 From: Jose A. Gutierrez Subject: [*] macgzip 0.2.1 Hello Uploaded 19 marzo 1994, macgzip update to 0.2.1 Fixed a bug which crashed Mac AV's and added documentation Bye... J.A. Gutierrez E. [Archived as /info-mac/cmp/mac-gzip-021.hqx; 31K] ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 20 Mar 1994 10:39:32 -0800 (PST) From: harrym@netcom.com (Harry Myhre) Subject: [*] next-step-icons-color-stack This HyperCard stack requires HyperCard 2.2 to run properly, because it uses color. The stack contains most of the color icons from the info-mac file "next-step-icons". [Archived as /info-mac/gui/grf/next-step-icons-hc.hqx; 66K] ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 18 Mar 1994 19:23:47 -0600 From: igorl@uiuc.edu (Igor Livshits) Subject: [*] PhotoShop PPC plug-in This plug-in speeds all built-in Photoshop functions on the Power Macintosh, such as effects, resizing, rotating, compositing, feathering, color conversion, and all built-in filters including the Blur, Blur More, Gaussian Blur, Motion Blur, Add Noise, Despeckle, Median, Sharpen, Sharpen More, Sharpen Edges, Unsharp Mask, Emboss, Facet, Find Edges, Fragment, Mosaic, Trace Contour, Custom, High Pass, Maximum and Minimum filters. The accelerator does not, however, accelerate plug-in filters, such as the Color Halftone, Crystallize, Wind, Wave, Sphereize, Extrude, Twirl, Tiles, and Pointillize filters. Similarly, the PowerPC Accelerator does not affect third-party plug-ins, suchas Aldus Gallery Effects and Kai's Power Tools. Note that the Lens Flare filter currently does not work on the Power Macintosh. Adobe Systems will post an update to this filter when it is available. [Archived as /info-mac/app/photoshop-ppc.hqx; 239K] ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 19 Mar 1994 00:06:53 -0600 From: Biggs Subject: [*] ProGen for Macintosh v1.1 Genealogy Demo ProGen is an application designed for storing Family History records. It fetures entry of unlimited personal records in a Family Tree structure, with unlimited user definable event types for each record. High quality reports with criteria searching can be printed of the data. GEDCOM standard data transfer is supported for users wanting to move data between ProGen and other Family History applications. It's files are also directly compatible with ProGen for Windows. ProGen won the Young Software Designer of the Year competition in 1991, and its student author was awarded a cash bursary prize to develop the application to commercial standards. This special demonstration version will allow entry of up to 30 records, and GEDCOM data transfer is disabled. Please put this demo onto your site for free distribution. Any queries or problems, please respond to: A.R.Biggs@herts.ac.uk Alan Biggs, GenSoft [Archived as /info-mac/app/pro-gen-11-demo.hqx; 1171K] ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 18 Mar 1994 15:07:02 -0500 (EST) From: rrwood@io.org Subject: [*] rnMac 1.2b (offline newsreader) Here's rnMac 1.2b, the latest version of this offline newsreader. It is designed to be used in conjunction with ToadNews and either UUPC or MacSlurp. -Roy Wood (rrwood@io.org) p.s. I'm glad to see that sumex is back up! [Archived as /info-mac/comm/rn-mac-12b.hqx; 161K] ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 18 Mar 1994 18:48:59 +0000 From: h.rzepa@ic.ac.uk (Henry Rzepa) (Henry Rzepa) Subject: [*] rtftohtml V2.5; RTF to HTML converter I enclose V2.5 of Chris Hector's rtf to html converter. This supports many more conversion features, including tables. [Archived as /info-mac/text/rtf-to-html-converter-25.hqx; 90K] ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 18 Mar 94 16:55:47 EST From: elharo@shock.njit.edu (Elliotte Rusty Harold) Subject: [*] update appsfaq; macintosh/apps-faq 2.2.3 Archive-name: macintosh/apps-faq Version: 2.2.3 Last-modified: March 17, 1994 Frequently Asked Questions about Macintosh Application Software comp.sys.mac.faq, part 4: comp.sys.mac.apps Copyright 1993,1994 by Elliotte Harold Archive-name: macintosh/apps-faq Version: 2.2.3 Last-modified: March 17, 1994 What's new in version 2.2.3: 1.1: What's the best text editor? Text Editor Patches is at version 1.3.1. I've added two new questions, 1.10: What's the best typing tutor? 1.11: What's the best OCR software? [Archived as /info-mac/info/sft/csm-applications-faq-223.txt; 39K] ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 18 Mar 94 16:54:12 EST From: elharo@shock.njit.edu (Elliotte Rusty Harold) Subject: [*] update sysfaq; macintosh/system-faq 2.2.6 Archive-name: macintosh/system-faq Version: 2.2.6 Last-modified: March 17, 1994 Frequently Asked Questions about Macintosh System Software comp.sys.mac.faq, part 2: comp.sys.mac.system Copyright 1994 by Elliotte Harold Archive-name: macintosh/system-faq Version: 2.2.6 Last-modified: March 17, 1994 What's new in version 2.2.6: 1.1: Why is my system using so much memory? The Mac II needs a PMMU to use more than eight megabytes of RAM and the FDHD upgrade to use large capacity SIMMs in Bank A. [Archived as /info-mac/info/sft/csm-system-faq-226.txt; 39K] ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 18 Mar 94 16:49:59 EST From: elharo@shock.njit.edu (Elliotte Rusty Harold) Subject: [*] update wantfaq; macintosh/wanted-faq 2.2.4 Version: 2.2.4 Last-modified: March 17, 1994 Buying and Selling Macintosh Computers, Software and Peripherals comp.sys.mac.faq, part 5: comp.sys.mac.wanted & misc.forsale.computers.mac Copyright 1993,1994 by Elliotte Harold Archive-name: macintosh/wanted-faq Version: 2.2.4 Last-modified: March 17, 1994 What's new in version 2.2.4: I've added question 3.7, Auctions. 2.3: Going prices? As usual prices on used computers drop by about $25-100 on various models. In particular continuing price cuts on the Quadra 605 are really pushing the value of a used Mac down. Also note that printer prices are also coming down, driven both by newer, cheaper printers (HP DeskWriter 520, HP DeskWriter 560C, and the Apple LaserWriter Select 360) and by the old stock Apple is dumping into the market. 3.9: New Equipment Prices Prices are dropping faster than I'm able to keep up with as Apple dumps inventory and prices in preparation for the PowerMacs. Quadra 605, 610 and 660AV prices are already down $100-$200. Expect further across the board cuts of $50 to $500 on current models in the very near future. Some models may be discontinued but dealers should till have stock (and good deals) for some time. After all, many still have Centris's in stock. PowerMacs have arrived and as expected Apple is having trouble meeting demand. Pricing is a little high initially but should ease up some by summer. The color StyleWriter Pro and the Houdini DOS compatibility card are beginning to arrive at dealers. Pricing is quite reasonable for both. [Archived as /info-mac/info/csm-wanted-faq-224.txt; 53K] ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 21 Mar 1994 10:47:58 GMT From: qraast@kiba2.ericsson.se (Anders Stegen) Subject: "Unrecoverable Disk Error on File ...." WHY?? "F.J. Lalor" wrote: >However: No-one addressed the second part of my query >- which was basically "What exactly does this error >message mean, why did it happen and how can I prevent >it from happening again"? And before the helpful Mac- >gurus out there reach for their keyboards I should >explain that I can be pretty nifty at using applications >but I don't know the first thing about computing and >little enough about how the hardware does its stuff. >Hopefully there is someone out there who is twisted >enough to enjoy this sort of pedagogic challenge 8-). I'll give it a try: Basically this error means that Word gets confused beacuse it cannot understand the information in your file. How can that be? Word itself have written the file so it should be able to read it? Correct, but your Mac have somehow managed to save some other data in the middle of your file. How can that happen? First a simplified description of how files are stored on your Mac (skip to next paragraph if your head starts spinning :-): A Mac disk holds quite a large number of data chunks called "disk blocks". They each hold 512 bytes (characters) of data and are numbered 0..x (where x might be, say 81919 for a 40MB drive). Since each block only holds 512 bytes you usually store your file in several blocks linked together. To save you from the trouble of remembering which blocks hold your data there is a "file system" on the disk. The file system stores file information like name, start block, filesize (in number of blocks) etc. in special "folder" files (called directories on non-mac machines). It also keep a record of which disk blocks are used by file data and which are free. (Side note: when you trash a file you simply changes its blocks to the "free" area. That's why you can recover a trashed file as long as it's blocks haven't been used for some other file.) Now, sometimes the file system tables get corrupted and your Mac will store disk blocks in the wrong places. This can be caused by; program bugs, hardware hickup like power line glitches or yourself switching off the power to your Mac instead of using the shutdown menue. Unfortunately there is not much to do to prevent this. Maybe install a line power disturbance filer and always use the shut-down command before powering off. What you *can* do, and should do regulary (or when suspicious) is to run the DiskCheck utility that came on your Mac system disk. There are also disk utility packages (like Norton Utilities) including a "disk doctor" which peeks through your disk. These utilities will detect (and more important: repair) disorders and errors on your hard disk. Altough sometimes errors are so serious that the file data will be lost anyway. How can you tell that your file system is bad? Well, most of the time you can't! A computer can (seem) to function pretty well with a damaged file system. The signs are: errors of the kind you reported (strange file contents) or program hangups (not too uncommon anyway :-/). Hope this helps /Anders ------------------------------ Date: 21 Mar 1994 07:24:00 +0100 (MET) From: EICKHOFF@dornier.de Subject: (Q) Non Documented Error 903 Hello, I'm currently programming a small application that deals with sending data to other apps via apple events. I have implemented two counterparts, a sender and a receiver, which so far work well. (Compiler Think C 6.0.1) After applying some changes in the programs hierarchy (just moving some parts of the code of the sender to subroutines for better readability) the communication between the components now fails. The sender now is able to startup the receiver, but sending data to the receiver fails. The data never arrive on the receiver's side. The whole programs crash. the program ... unexpectedly terminated .... ERROR 903 The nice thing is that error 903 is neither documented in the think reference nor in Inside Macintosh Vol. 1 to N. Any ideas, hints, background info? Jens Eickhoff (eickhoff@dornier.de) ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 20 Mar 1994 07:19:54 GMT From: oracle!sbuchan@.us.oracle.com (Steve (Oracle-CA) Buchan) Subject: [Q:]PowerMac LogicBoard upgrade $? Has anyone heard about the availability and price of the logic board upgrades for the VI/VX? also, does this upgrade come with SoftWindows? How much memory comes on the logic board? any other goodies (more mother goose CDs!)? Thanks -- Steve ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 20 Mar 1994 11:59:43 -0500 From: norm@helix.nih.gov (Norman Friedman) Subject: all-day calander Please, is there a "all-day" for us old system 6.x users. Sounds like a very nice application to have, but cannot be loaded into system 6. Answer please to: norm@helix.nih.gov thanks ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 21 Mar 94 07:31:37 CST From: Mack Willingham Subject: Apple 16" Monitor Popping!! Help!!!1 My 16" color display is popping like it is arcing. It comes and goes, and only lasts a min or so. The displayed image kindof shrinks then returns to normal. Has anybody else had this problem? Is it serious? TIA Mack Willingham ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 21 Mar 1994 12:04:05 -0600 From: Paul M Sheldon Subject: apple II+ board midi kbd out to mac fried I have long used a tandem configuration of mac and apple to make midi music sequences and compositions. It is a syntauris system and I don't have their current phone number. Syntauri, I believe, went amiga and I hope the user group will help me diagnose what is wrong, so I know what to replace or repair. Capacitor 6 burned up on this board and now the metratrak sequencer player software freezes after loading so I can't use my 5 octave keyboard. I replaced the capacitor, which I assumed the same as all the others (guessed). Whether there were surrounding catastrophic effects from voltage shifts on transisitors might be in question, so maybe replacing the capacitor happened too late after the capacitor did other damage. Even when I remove this whole board, metatrack freezes (but it may very well expect boards to be in certain places from my responsibility in a setup program, so this isn't surprising. I have a lot of music software that doesn't involve keyboard or midi out and I could go back to those instructions and do further isolations on what boards are involved. For example, I would like to see if the syntauri piano kbd into the apple card right next door got fried or something in the apple motherboard got fried. That capacitor completely burned up. Isolations make something a smaller problem and then you can cod from someone in the world who wanted cash for a real upgrade, pretty cool. I like my old apple, it has some cherished memories about my growth with computers. Well, maybe someone has some facts for me. Send and I'll summarize to the net. Thanks in advance. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 19 Mar 1994 20:38:45 -0800 From: bjturner@lynx.cs.usfca.edu (Benjamin J. Turner) Subject: Benefits of SCSI 4.3 on Q610? I recently ascertained that my Quadra 610 has the new SCSI chip which supports SCSI Manager 4.3, but I'm wondering what good I would be likely to see if I were to use Apple's drivers rather than SilverLining. Since the Q610 doesn't have DMA like the AVs do, is there really much to gain by using it? If so, what? Thanks. Benjamin Turner bjturner@lynx.cs.usfca.edu ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 20 Mar 1994 18:03:42 -0600 (CST) From: wrr3118@tamuts.tamu.edu (William Richard Jr Russell) Subject: Best way to clean/lube FDHD? I'm currently prepping my old SE/30 for my little sister, and while I'm opening the case anyway to exchange some memory and effect repairs to the analog board, I thought I'd clean out the floppy disk drive. Various sources have claimed that using a vacuum cleaner near digital components is a major error... drawing air over the components is a quick ticket to electrostatic destruction. At the same time, blowing air into a disk drive could create all sorts of problems; dust could be forced into cracks and corners, and small parts could be bent. So what's the best way to clean out an old FDHD drive? Brushing? Careful vacuuming? Air-blowing? And, in addition, I want this drive to last several more years. Are there any points on the drive which might need additional lubrication (the drive is almost 5 years old now)? What would be a good lubricant (WD40? Graphite dust? Heavy grease?) Experienced help would be appreciated. Rick Russell *** rick-russell@tamu.edu ** IRCnick: Cobalt ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 20 Mar 94 23:01:24 PDT From: ace@tidbits.com (Adam C. Engst) Subject: dialup access and MacTCP programs In Regards to your letter <199403200124.AA05520@nwnexus.wa.com>: > Point 2: I understand that on dial-up access accounts for the Internet, > Fetch, TurboGopher and like programs do not function. These require a SLIP > account to operate. My question is this: Is(are) there programs that > operate in a similar fashion on dial-up accounts? Is this even possible > given the way TCP/IP operates on the Macintosh (or other platforms for that > matter)? Right. There are a few programs that provide email and news (most notably Eudora and MicroPhone, although several others exist as well) via a dialup connection, but there is nothing I know of that does FTP or Gopher or WAIS or WWW... Sorry! cheers ... -Adam -- Adam C. Engst, TidBITS Editor -- ace@tidbits.com -- info@tidbits.com Author of The Internet Starter Kit for Macintosh -- tisk@tidbits.com ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 20 Mar 1994 15:58 From: IJW6RHW@mvs.oac.ucla.edu (Ron Webster) Subject: FoxPro: A wake-up call Dear Mac users, Microsoft's FoxPro database management program is an IQ test. If Mac users are as bright and perceptive as they profess to be, then FoxPro will be Microsoft's undoing. It's embarrassing enough that we have adopted Word as the premier word processing application--so doing conveys the impression that Mac users are, collectively, a bunch of toy addicted geeks who consider toolbars and table layout features as essential word processing tools, wherease margins, headers and footers, and page numbering are frills. But the success of Word is merely an embarrassment; if Mac users endorse FoxPro, however, then we deserve to be run roughshod over by DOS and Windows. FoxPro is one of Microsoft's first true dual-platform releases. As such, it is a stellar example of just how much of what is good about the Mac must be sacrificed in order for a Mac program to mirror its Windows counterpart. With a single product, Microsoft has (a) revealed that what it knows about DBM could fit inside a thimble, with enough spare room to turn cartwheels, (b) demonstrated beyond question that its primary strategic emphasis is to focus its considerable financial clout on marketing rather than on product development (with the exception of Excel, Microsoft doesn't have a single Mac product that would have achieved popularity had it come from any other house), and most notably, (c) provided the clearest demonstration to date of the inherent inferiority of the Windows platform. With FoxPro, gone is the friendly and familiar File Save dialog box, replaced by the horrors of full-path specifications, which DOS users will recall with unlimited displeasure: The user no longer merely types a name into a text box after maneuvering through the Mac's HFS via the File Save dialog box's pop-down directory menu--rather, the user must enter or edit a cumbersome string of the sort Macintosh HD:Ron's folderLibraries folderBooks folderquery.frx Gone, too, are Cut, Copy, and Paste, at least as useful and practical functions. And what is it about DBM software that compels its developers to impose fixed field lengths on the user? There must be some sort of cosmic radiation that emanates from the words *database management software* and turns intelligent humans into idiots (and idiots into who knows what). There are exceptions, there are DBM programs that permit variable-length fields, but these are rare, and FoxPro is not among them. The documentation will also revive DOS nightmares in those who came to the Mac from that camp, as it all too often seems irrelevant to the software it purports to explain. For example, the Expression Builder, which is the syntactically delicate foundation of report formatting, is barely mentioned-- it warrants a chapter, but it gets two pages. In fact, the documentation of various key features is scattered, sparse, vague, and sometimes non-existent, and what is documented doesn't always function as described. But the most flagrant and perplexing deviation from Apple's Human Interface Guidelines involves file management. For whatever reason, there is a growing trend among Mac software developers to reduce the user's control over events, and the first to go is usually control over saving files. Intuit's Quicken is the earliest prominent perpetrator of this crime, and DBM software seems to carry with it the mind-set that users shouldn't have direct control over when a file gets updated. As it happens, my IQ is greater than the number on Warren Moon's jersey, so I can't be expected to comprehend why certain Mac software developers think they are doing Mac users a favor by "freeing" us of the need to save changes when a file is edited. The perception seems to be that selecting Save from the File menu is just too taxing for us, given our frail and fragile nature. For these software developers, perhaps the Tab key should be renamed Save, because merely pressing the Tab key in some applications can result in the file being updated. At the most rudimentary level, what is being overlooked is that this plays hell with file synchronization and back-up. This is such a serious design flaw that it largely negates everything else about a program, no matter how good. In sum, if you insist on trying FoxPro for yourself, do it now while it is only $99.00. But be warned, at $99.00 it is overpriced by several hundred dollars. FoxPro is only adequately conceived, and it is very poorly implemented. Ron ============= ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 18 Mar 94 17:29:08 CET From: Alfred Mayer Subject: FTP file transfer from 4th Dimension? We are currently developing a 4D database application and need a way to transfer files between the Mac and a Unix host under program control (preferably using the FTP protocol). Does anyone know of a product that lets you do FTP transfers and does NOT requires interaction with the user? We would be interested in either 4th Dimension Externals or a C Library. Thanks, Alfred ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 21 Mar 1994 15:59:43 -0500 (EST) From: LAN Supervisor Subject: Heizer software > I need to contact Heizer software, the guys that do/did all the Excel > stuff. I used to have a catalog, but it's gone... Heizer Software P. O. Box 232019 1941 Oak Park Boulevard, #30 Pleasant Hill, CA 94523 800/888-7667 510/943-7667 Josephine Colmenares / Fordham University colmenares@fordmurh.bitnet / colmenares@murray.fordham.edu ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 20 Mar 1994 18:49:01 -0600 From: Bienvenu Jay Subject: how to hook up two Macs by modem My mom wants to hook up modems to her Performa 600 at work and LC (soon to be LC II) at home and establish file sharing between the two computers, including using applications on one Mac that reside on the other Mac's hard drive. How would she go about setting this up, and what products (software) does she need? (As specific details as possible would be appreciated.) TIA. -- Jay ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 21 Mar 1994 20:07:15 GMT From: Clint Laskowski Subject: Image Management S/W? Can anyone tell me of software for use on Macinosth which helps a group manage all of its images (photos, logos, line art, etc.)? We already know of Aldus FETCH and Apple's PhotoFlash! Is there a better place to ask this question? Thanks! -- * CLINT LASKOWSKI * Internet: ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 19 Mar 1994 23:36:21 -0500 (EST) From: Byron C Mayes Subject: Letter Gothic Font > I am looking for a shareware or freeware version of Letter Gothic (or > something similar), which is the fixed-pitch face found on many IBM > Selectric typewriters. Type 1 is preferred, TrueType is OK. > > I need a 12-point type that spaces at 12-pitch (Elite) *monospaced*. A > scan of the archives and summaries has yielded no likely suspects. > > Any suggestions? Oddly enough, no one seems interested in making a decent monospaced typeface anymore. The better for typography in general, I say. :) But seriously... Since you say "shareware OR freeware" I assume that you're willing to pay a small fee. Adobe's Type Set Values Pack includes Letter Gothic and can be had from the major US Mac software mailorder houses for about $40 (Mac Zone is having a 5% off sale for new customers this month). That's not much more than what some of the better shareware fonts are asking, and you get 29 other typefaces (including Prestige Elite), ATM, and Adobe quality in the bitmap screen fonts (I've got some other fonts from other type houses [MAJOR type houses] and the bitmaps look dreadful!). It only includes regular (no bold or slanted), but from your description, this might not be important to you. For some REALLY cheap-*ssed fonts, you can get the KeyFonts collection for about $50. Its 100-font count includes Letter Gothic in regular, bold, slanted, and bold slanted styles plus 96 other fonts (each style of a family counts as ONE font), including a clone of Orator -- another monospaced face -- called "Oracle". I cannot vouch for these as I refuse to buy clones, but they are cheap. There's a section on Compu$erve called FontBank online which sells fonts for about $12.50 a piece (that's ONE style from a family) and you can download them and have them whenever you need them. You're billed for them through CIS so it's ALMOST like getting them for nothing! I don't know if they have a Letter Gothic, but it's worth checking out. Commercial really seems to be the only way to go if you REALLY must have Letter Gothic. Otherwise you're stuck with Courier and Monaco. Best of luck. Byron C. Mayes University of Delaware Pleae reply to: bcmayes@admin.udl.udel.edu ...and NOT what it says in the "From:" line tingram@services.dese.state.mo.us | or | 101-8673@MCIMail.com ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 21 Mar 1994 13:21:46 +0100 From: cbuser@ezinfo.vmsmail.ethz.ch (Christian F. Buser) Subject: Letter Gothic Font (R) tingram@services.dese.state.mo.us asked: >I am looking for a shareware or freeware version of Letter Gothic (or >something similar), which is the fixed-pitch face found on many IBM >Selectric typewriters. Type 1 is preferred, TrueType is OK. > >I need a 12-point type that spaces at 12-pitch (Elite) *monospaced*. A >scan of the archives and summaries has yielded no likely suspects. If you don't find something as freeware or shareware, you can still buy the "Adobe TypeSet Value Pack" (version 3.6) It was 109 Swiss Francs here in Switzerland, and I guess you can get it for US$ 50 (or less?) over there. It includes many decorative headline fonts, 3 ornaments and symbols fonts, and the following text fonts: - Gill Sans Condensed - Joanna Regular - Joanna Italic - Letter Gothic - Prestige Elite (all are type 1 Postscript fonts). Hope this helps. Best regards, Christian. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 21 Mar 94 02:20:58 PST From: Sandro_Menzel@mti.wa.com (Sandro Menzel) Subject: MacTCP and SLIP (R) > Here is the problem : we want to set up a FirstClass BBS (on a Mac :-) ) > with a access to the Internet. At our college, we have a dial-up access > to a Sun Unix workstation already on the net. BUT, that machine does not > know nothing about a SLIP or PPP connection. > > Is it possible to get access to the net with MacTCP and a SoftArc UUCP > gateway thru this dial-up connection? Setting up FirstClass on an Internet connection (IP address) enables users to connect to the server via the Internet. It would a an Internet BBS, if you follow the direction - into the server. An advantage to having your FC server on the net is that there is no delay with incoming and outgoing Internet-based e-mail. Unfotunately, there is no way to do the 'cool' Internet stuff (Telnet, FTP, Gopher, WAIS, etc) from within FirstClass. Even worse, I don't see any way to do this in the future of FC - without some serious re-writing of the code/interface. To answer your question more directly, nothing is available beyond the ability to send and receive mail-based files and news groups. Period. > If not, how much can it cost to install a SLIP connection on a Sun > Workstation? Dunno. Take care. Sandro Menzel | Network Administrator smenzel@mti.wa.com | Media Technologies, Inc ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 21 Mar 1994 15:46 EST From: Don't Panic! Subject: MacUser special edition for PowerPC (Where is it?) Dear Netters, Did I misunderstand a former post in the digest, or was there supposed to be a MacUser special to come out on the newsstand when the PowerPC was released a week ago? Being a MacUser subscriber, I wonder if they will or have already released such a special edition to other subscribers. Just curious, as I haven't seen anything from them since the April 1994 edition with the Color Printers article. This is true of both the newsstands I go to, and my mailbox. Am I missing something, or will the next MacUser be the May edition? Thank you. Sincerely, ABRODY@VAX.CLARKU.EDU ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 21 Mar 94 10:06:34 -0500 From: reiserdb@ttown.apci.com (David B. Reiser) Subject: memory prices Does anyone know the cause of the latest bit of nonsense in memory prices? I finally decided I couldn't live in 8MB any more (primarily a FoxPro ailment, but there are other offenders). Last Tuesday or Wednesday I called one of the nationally known vendors and got a price that still seemed a little high from the epoxy plant scare. After I decided that I'd live with it, I called back Thursday, and prices had jumped almost 15%! Any time a commodity jumps that much that quickly, somebody is jerking my chain. I haven't heard any rumors elsewhere, so I turn to the usually- all-knowing-net for enlightenment. Dave reiserdb@ttown.apci.com ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 19 Mar 1994 19:36:51 -0600 From: bkim@ddsw1.mcs.com (Brian Kim) Subject: My AutoDoubler Probs Please disregard my previous request for help with AutoDoubler. I tracked the problem down to some newly installed Adobe Multiple Master fonts. They seem to interact in some strange way with AutoDoubler. When both AD and MM fonts are installed, they collectively take up somewhere over 1MB of RAM. But, when AD doesn't load, the MM fonts don't seem to take up much more memory than should be expected and vice-versa. Anyone have a clue as to why this happens? 'm running Sys. 7.1, AutoDoubler 2.0.3 and used to have the Adobe Minion Expert and Myriad Multiple Master fonts installed. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 20 Mar 94 19:40:08 EST From: kiss4@aol.com Subject: News For InfoMac To: InfoMac Digest Please post the following information in your discussion area on InterNet. This information concerns a series of real cool products that we recently began shipping - solar panel charging units/carrying cases for use with Apple's PowerBook or Newton computers. Thanks for your help!!! PRODUCTS OFFERED BY KISS: 1) Solar panel charging units for all-in-one PowerBooks (models 100, 140, 145, 145B, 160, 165, 170, 180, 165C, & 180C). This product is known as the SunPack PB. The suggested retail price for a SunPack PB is $229. They are available direct from KISS for only $189. The two solar panels produce 6.75 volts of power at .9 amps. Enough juice to run your PowerBook as long as you practice good battery conservation techniques. 2) Solar panel charging units for Apple MesagePad or Sharp ExpertPad (they work well with original MessagePad, MP 100, and MP 110). Two products; SunPack provides a solar panel that can run or recharge your MessagePad, plus a unique carrying case that provides enough room for your Newton plus all the accessories that you need; SunPack Jr. provides the same solar panel technology as the SunPack but does not provide the carrying case aspects of SunPack. Both products produce 6.75 volts of DC power at .45 amps. Enough power to run your Newton as long as the Sun shines! SunPack carries a suggested retail price of $199, SunPack Jr. has a suggested retail price of $159. The products are available direct for only $149 and $119 respectively. 3) The PAD Pouch is a great alternative carrying case for the Apple MessagePad or Sharp ExpertPad. The PAD Pouch can be carried over your shoulder, strapped to your belt or on the strap that is included. It provides two pockets, one for the MessagePad, one for accessories such as fax modem, PCMCIA cards, extra batteries, or the AC adapter. The PAD Pouch carries a suggested retail price of $32.95. It is available direct from KISS for only $25.00 A more complete description of all products is included in the SunPack Info. stack or SunPack Newton Book which are available in this folder. To order any of these products or to receive literature on them, send us an Apple Link, or call us at 1-800-FAR-OUT 2 (800-327-6882) ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 20 Mar 1994 13:42:00 -0800 From: robk@stack.urc.tue.nl (Rob Kouwenberg) Subject: PAL from a Quadra 950 [A] Hi ! Dataman ( WHO ? ) wrote : >I've heard rumors that NTSC or PAL can be achieved on Quadra 950 built in >video. >Can anyone give me some details on how to do this? Thanks. >From Macintosh Quadra Built in Video ( could be the file ./mac/sys.soft/video/quadra-extra-1-0.hqx @ ftp.apple.com ? ): NTSC : 4&7 grounded PAL : 4 - 7 - 10 all connected ( not grounded ) or just 4-7 connected Gray video is then at pin 5 with 6 the ground shield. For color an rgb to pal converter is necessary. Adios ! RK [ robk@stack.urc.tue.nl,Gr.Adolfstraat86,5616BX,Eindhoven,Holland ] ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 20 Mar 1994 08:48:32 -0500 (EST) From: Robert Twichell Subject: Performa 600CD memory unlock My Performa 600CD has a bad habit, seldom happens, maybe once per month. 1st noticed when using the latest version of SuperSpool about 1 month ago, maybe 2. When printing a large document, generally graphics, print speed would be very slow so pulled down "About this MAcintosh" to check the spool memory usage and it wouldn't open getting the dialog box requesting that I quit some applications. One by one I had to quit all the applications before I could read "About this Macintosh". Apple customer service told me that Superspool wasn't " unlocking RAM". I trashed SuperSpool and went back to Apple's Print Monitor. Yesterday I had exactly the same problem with Print Monitor when trying to print a screen shot, 2 pages worth of graphics. Printer went at a crawl. I tried to open "About this MAcintosh", and got the same dialog boxes about quitting applicationas until I quit all 4, then I could read the RAM usage. Noticed that the RAM allocated to the system was about 1 meg more than normal; 3833k which dropped back to 2885k when printing stopped. Who can help me? tnx, Bob ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 20 Mar 94 22:26:08 EST From: stngiam@MIT.EDU Subject: Personal LW LS Grayscale More neat stuff found at the info.hed.apple.com gopher ... The Laserwriter Select 300 printer driver works on a Personal Laserwriter LS as well, and best of all, supports grayscale printing on the LS. Results aren't as nice as on a 600 dpi HP Laserjet 4M, but I don't have another 300 dpi printer around to compare apples with apples rather than oranges, and I certainly can't argue with the upgrade price. In black and white mode, printing speed with the LW 300 driver is definitely slower than with the LW LS 7.2 driver, though, so I'm keeping the LW LS driver for normal usage and reserving the LW 300 driver for grayscale images. The LW 300 driver also seems to support printer sharing, but I haven't tried that yet. I imagine there will be another performance hit, too. The path is: USA Service, Support and Training/Apple SW Updates/ Printing Software/LW 300 v1.2.sea.Hqx at the info.hed.apple.com gopher (NO anonymous ftp). Version 7.3 of the Chooser is required, also, so pick that up at the same directory, if you need it. Shih Tung Chem E Best l'il Tech School on the Charles p.s. Has anyone tried the Xante Accel-a-Writer Printer upgrade that claims to add 600x600 dpi and Postscript compatibility to any Laserwriter ? ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 20 Mar 94 18:41:45 WET From: jamal@gnu.ai.mit.edu (Jamal Hannah) Subject: Player Pro Users Electronic Mailing List For users of the shareware music "module" editor called "The Player Pro", there is now an email mailing-list, offering help with bugs, features, and information about updates, as well as general discussion of MOD file editing on the Mac. This list is stable and currently has a low-volume of traffic, though it may grow in time. (probabaly will be mostly active when a new version of the software comes out.) The author of the Player Pro, Antoine Rosset, is on the list, as well as the authors of such programs as "The Sound Trecker 2.0.1" and "MacTracker 1.1.1" To request to join the list, please send your desired email-address to: pp-users-request@gnu.ai.mit.edu The sound-trackers mailing list is still on hold. (sorry) - Jamal Hannah ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 20 Mar 1994 12:09:49 -0500 (EST) From: wkf2298@ultb.isc.rit.edu (W.K. Fry) Subject: PPC & GeoPort I just downloaded the GeoPort Install disks for the PowerMac from ftp.apple.com. I'm currently using a LineLink 144e on my PowerMac and was considering whether the GeoPort Telecom Adapter was worth the purchase. I tried (so correct me if I'm wrong), I cannot currently use the Express Fax software with my LineLink, although I can setup the control panel to use my external modem. (If there is a way to use the Express Fax software with a third-party modem, PLEASE let me know.) I also noted a comment in the Read Me that said it does NOT due V.17 (14400 bps). So what does the Express Modem do? 9600 with V.42 and V.32? How much does using the Express modem slow down the system? How reliable is it? How much memory will it eat up? Gee, Apple seems to miss a lot of opportunities by trying to be proprietary. I would be thrilled if they integrated the fax software in and allowed scripts (like those for ARA) for third parties to be able to share the common interface. Apple always gets SO close. . . - William K. Fry ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 19 Mar 1994 19:36:42 -0800 From: 2gitarz@uclink.berkeley.edu (Jason Stone) Subject: SCSI Manager 4.3 Hi everyone, Could someone please tell me where I could obtain a copy of SCSI Manager 4.3? I have looked in ftp.apple.com as well as sumex and I can't seem to find it. Please send replies to me directly. Thanks in advance, Jason Stone 2gitarz@uclink.berkeley.edu ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 19 Mar 1994 23:35:04 -0500 From: "Marc D. Field" Subject: SCSI tape drive for DC 6150 >>I have what probably amounts to a lifetime supply of DC6150 tapes. What I >>can't find is a SCSI based tape drive that connects to a MAC and supports >>these tapes. I've seen the drives for Sun SCSI (there's one on my desk). >>Could this be used with a special cable? Any leads woudl be appreciated. >I'd say that ANY SCSI device can be used with a Mac, if you have a SCSI >cable. Does SUN SCSI look different from Mac SCSI at the drive? Many higher capacity drives will support lower capacity tapes. If you need to buy another drive for your Mac, you don't necessarily have to find a 150 MB drive. ...MF ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Marc D. Field School of Law mfield@virginia.edu University of Virginia ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 21 Mar 1994 10:08:45 -0500 (EST) From: "Russell S. Aminzade: Trinity College of VT" Subject: Sharing Monitor, Disabling MonitorB Charles C. Hsieh wrote: > I have a PC and Mac sitting on my desk and I know of monitors that would > work with both. Now, is there some kind of switcher that would connect > the monitor to both Mac and PC and allow me to see either with a dial, much > like a printer swticher? Or am I dreaming? We have someone here who is doing this. It's a simple matter to set up the switch if you have a multiscan monitor. Bob is constantly flipping back and forth. It's just an ordinary 9-pin switchbox that you might use for a modem. Of course, we don't know for sure we aren't frying the monitor or the motherboard, but he's been using it for a year :-) He uses a shareware init to disable the internal monitor. I can't remember the name, but write him (green@moose.uvm.edu) for details. I think it's called "blackout" or something similar. And by the way Adam, there is one situation where you might want to disable the SEs internal monitor and where just having it "connected at a corner" won't do -- Bob has the SE on the floor, and the monitor on his desk. Before he found this shareware package the cursor had a habit of getting "lost." It was down on the floor, of course. Russell Aminzade: Academic Computing Coordinator, Trinity College of Vermont ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 21 Mar 94 10:03:05 -0800 From: Bill Rausch Subject: si sound bug The IIsi speaker uses a very simple method to get the electrical signal from the motherboard to the speaker - sort of spring loaded contacts. The problem is that the contacts don't stay in contact very well. You can open the box, remove everything including the motherboard, and then clean the contacts (with a pencil eraser for example) and reassemble, but the problem will come back. You can pound the table hard enough to bounce your Mac and that also works sometimes - plays hell with your monitor's lifespan though :-) The best thing is to disassemble your Mac and solder a couple of little tiny wires between the bottom of the motherboard and the speaker to make a solid electrical connection between them. Note: there are some other leads coming off the motherboard at the same place. These are used to turn on the little power/disk access light on the front of the IIsi. I didn' t bother soldering them. ---- Bill Rausch, SW Engr, wnr@fred.nfuel.com, 509-943-0861 Numerical Applications, 825 Goethals #A, Richland, WA 99352 ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 20 Mar 1994 12:57:39 -0400 From: dicklang@panix.com (Dick Lang) Subject: si sound bug (reply) Miron, I read you note in the info-mac digest#45 regarding an F-key to blast the audio port to get it working again. Not exactly an elegant solution... I remember reading somewhere that this problem was caused by bad contacts. Since this bug was not bothersome to me; I forgot about it. Then one day while I was disassembling my si (to install a faster clock chip),I noticed that the speaker wires and the power-on LED are connected to the mother board by metal fingers!! Nice design... Have you noticed that your power-on LED blinks on and off intermittently? Same problem!! So when I replaced the mother board I cleaned these contacts and just for good measure I bent the metal fingers up a little to increase the contact pressure. VOILA! No more sound bug; and as a bonus my power-on LED stays on too. Good luck, and remember to ground yourself.(careful where you attach the wire!) - Dick - _____________________________________ Stony Brook, LI, NY 11790 If the wind is howling; I'm not here! ------------------------------ Date: 21 Mar 1994 01:51:16 -0600 From: Scott_Wilton@oui.com (Scott Wilton) Subject: SLIP Connection Help [I really should be able to get the answer to this question from the vendor but they don't seem to be very knowledgable about MacTCP and I have gotten very frustrated experimenting to try to figure out what's wrong...] I have a SLIP account setup with Northwest Nexus thanks to the hand-holding provided by Adam Engst in his wonderful book "The Internet Start Kit." This works great except for the fact that using this connection requires a long distance call to Washington. Until recently, this was the best and cheapest option for my area (St. Louis, MO) because there weren't any vendors with local POPs. A company called CRL from Larkspur, CA, has recently established a POP in St. Louis and I am trying to get a SLIP account working through them. They have assigned me an IP number and I have set the gateway address and DNS servers according to the info which they provided. When I try to login via NCSA Telnet, I get connected and provide my login name and password. Their system [which runs Sun OS if that matters] responds with "Establishing a SL/IP connection" but I get no further. When I try to use InterSLIP, I seem to establish a connection and get logged in correctly, but cannot use Fetch, Turbo Gopher, etc. so it is hard to tell what the problem might be. Has anyone established a SLIP connection through CRL? Any thoughts on what I might have configured wrong? ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 20 Mar 1994 12:57:53 -0400 From: dicklang@panix.com (Dick Lang) Subject: Strange Mac behavior (reply) Paul Koch writes in behalf of his father, who has this problem. > Date: Thu, 17 Mar 1994 23:05 EST From:John.ksi@KSINET.COM To: > pkoch@cdcnet.uniandes.edu.co Subject: Mac symptoms > > OK, I have the Mac. When I turn it on, I get the usual smiling Mac icon, > then the "Welcome to Macintosh" window. Next, along the bottom I get an > icon of a Mac with a disk in front of it, then to the right of that I > get a second icon. I can't really describe this icon because it only > appears for a fraction of a second before both icons disappear. > > Then, where the "Welcome to Macontosh" once was, there is now a blank > white window against an otherwise greyish screen. The black borders of > this window is flashing as if it's in a perpetual state of redrawing it. > Across the top of the screen, there is a blank white bar but there's > nothing there to click on - no icon, no verbiage, just empty white bar. > > So that's all I have: a blank screen with a white window and a white bar > across the top. The arrow does indeed move in response to the mouse. > But, of course, there's nothing to click on. WOW!! Same thing happened to me. Nearly tore my hair out over it since the Mac is my primary machine. Sounds from your description like you are new to using a Mac. You probably have access to the net via a different type of machine. A PC perhaps? That's OK of course...since your probably not going crazy waiting for an answer to your question. I quess your newness from your description of the icons at the bottom of the screen. These are called inits which are small extension programs that enhance the operating system of the Mac; similar to TSR programs on the PC. These things load before the user interface program called the Finder loads. The Finder builds the desktop display screen that we use to manage files and programs during a Mac session. Your problem is that something has messed up the Finder program. You are going to need a floppy disk with a System file and a good Finder file. You might not have this if you got this Mac from your son. We call this disk an emergency startup disk that will allow the Mac to start using the system file and the finder file that are on it; instead of the hard drive. This disk should be in the floppy drive before you press the start button or switch. Now that you have the Finder running you can make a copy of it (drag the icon onto your hard disk) and replace the bad one that is lurking in the system folder of your hard drive. The safest way to do this is to drag the old Finder to the trash. Then drag the new Finder to the system folder This will fix your problem. When you restart, the floppy will eject and the Mac will load and run the new Finder from your hard drive. Good Luck - Dick - _____________________________________ Stony Brook, LI, NY 11790 If the wind is howling; I'm not here! ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 21 Mar 1994 14:59 EST From: Don't Panic! Subject: SupraFAXModem 144LC (Q) Dear Netters, I was considering trading my old QuickTel Xeba 9696XV for a SupraFAXModem 144LC, or a modem that has some things I would need. I would like to know if the SupraFAXModem 144LC or other modems have the following capaibilities: 1. It would have to be able to use the call-waiting feature to redirect phone calls to my answering machine when I am logged in from my modem elsewhere - i.e. so people don't get a busy signal when I use my modem. 2. V. 42bis MNP 5 compression, equivalent or better reliability 3. Hayes Command set compatibility (such as AT%Q%L, and +++) 4. FaxSTF v. 2.2 compatible. Please let me know via e-mail if there are modems that you know of that can do all of the above. Thank you. Sincerely, ABRODY@VAX.CLARKU.EDU ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 21 Mar 1994 15:55:01 -0500 (EST) From: LAN Supervisor Subject: utilities to block out bad sectors on a floppy (Q) > Is there any utility that will block out back sectors on a floppy better > than Finder? Somehow, I don't feel that Finder is very reliable in doing > this job. I recall an init called BAD. I believe it's available in the archives. Josephine Colmenares / Fordham University colmenares@fordmurh.bitnet / colmenares@murray.fordham.edu ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 19 Mar 94 20:15:34 EST From: abboud@cedrus.cedrus.com (Hisham A. Abboud) Subject: Video cards with very high refresh rates (Q) Dear netland, Does anyone know of a video card that supports very high refresh rates? Something as high as 120Hz would be great, but I'd like to know about any monitor that has a higher refresh rate than 75-80 Hz. Thanks in advance. Hisham A. Abboud, Cedrus Corp. [Internet: abboud@cedrus.com] ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 21 Mar 94 09:56:42 -0500 From: reiserdb@ttown.apci.com (David B. Reiser) Subject: video switches A friend of mine has his NEC 4xx monitor hooked up to both a IIci and a 486 box. He uses a switch from Black Box Corp. (412-746-5500) to connect them. NEC provides an adaptor which converts the standard VGA video plug to one that's compatible with the Mac. If I'm reading the catalog right, the part number for the switch is SK-SW780A ($139). You'll also need an extra video cable, which will add some more to what seems to me to be an expensive switch box. But it's still cheaper than a second monitor. There may be cheaper sources of video switches, but when we were looking a year or two ago, I couldn't find one. I have no connection with BB, other than as an occasional customer (satisfied with the quality on every occasion). Dave reiserdb@ttown.apci.com ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 21 Mar 1994 01:58:09 -0800 (PST) From: Brian Veenker Subject: Viewing PostScript What's the easiest way to look at a postsript file. I don't have a PostScript printer.. Brian Veenker ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 20 Mar 1994 19:13:32 -0500 (EST) From: "Tad Davis" Subject: WriteNow 4.0 (A) John Thoo asks: > (1) How do you find WriteNow overall? I like it a LOT. But don't get it if it doesn't do what you need, because otherwise you'll just be frustrated and mad at all the people who bragged about it. WN does a terrific job within a limited compass; the emphasis is on composition of text rather than desktop publishing or organization of long, complex documents. Based on some of your questions, I'm not sure it would be appropriate. > (2) Can one paste PICTs, etc., in the new tables of version 4.0? Haven't tried this myself, and can't vouch for how well it works. But the manual says you can insert MacPaint, EPS, and PICT graphics into WN, and into table cells as well. > (3) Can one adjust the amount of super- and subscripting (e.g. by points)? Yes. Actually WN has been able to do this at least since version 3, maybe earlier (I don't remember). > (4) Can one super- and subscript a PICT, etc. Yes. But the reason you can do this is actually bad news for what you want to do. WN treats a graphic as a single text character. So ruler settings and other character operations apply. But many other operations don't. > (5) Can WriteNow flow text around (irregular) objects? No. A graphic is a single character. With some patience and ingenuity, you might be able to arrange table cells in such a way as to create the "effect" of flowing text. But it's not a project I would encourage. > (6) Does WriteNow suppoprt sidebars? Again, you might be able to figure out a way to do this with tables. There's no explicit function for sidebars. > (7) Can WriteNow create indexes, TOCs, etc., and cross-reference? No. > (8) Does WriteNow have a (simple) draw module? No. All it can do are borders (around table cells) and horizontal lines. > (9) Can WriteNow import EPS files? Yes. WN is a great program. But if you're doing real page layout stuff, it isn't the program you need. Tad Davis davist@umis.upenn.edu ------------------------------ End of Info-Mac Digest ******************************