Jaques Law Office

Jaques Law Bits 9706

© 1996 Kevin Jaques. All rights reserved excepting that this file may be copied for non-commercial purposes, unchanged. No warranties apply. I am just a user volunteering my observations and collecting those of others.

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BBEdit Lite Tip From Editor - Disk Directories

• I was trying to get a nice listing of the contents of the MugShot disk. I dragged it to the Netscape window. Netscape tried to open them all. I dragged them to the Netscape URL window. I got a nice listing, savable as HTML source code, but not in an outlined format. In other words, it didn't show the contents of sub-directories.

BBEdit Lite Tip From Editor - MultiFile Searching

• People struggle with scripting to do multi-file search and replace but BBEdit will do it for you. It isn't limited to files it creates.

Cliff Notes For the Mac

• Software Source handles Cliff Notes Studyware GRE 4.0 Macintosh ($25.00 item #3440) or Cliff Notes Studyware GRE 6.5 Win/Mac CD ($25.00 item #3665).

Hierarchical Data Format

• [Editor - This smells good.]
• Sterling, VA---Fortner Research, the "Science Data Experts", announced today the release of Noesys, the first desktop software tool for Windows and Macintosh OS that provides access and control of scientific data formatted in the popular Hierarchical Data Format (HDF).
• HDF is a powerful, open standard file format that was developed by The National Center for Supercomputer Applications (NCSA) and is used by thousands of scientists worldwide. The HDF format allows users to easily access data, organize large amounts of technical data from a variety of sources, and share data across networks.
• NASA's Earth Observing System (EOS) will soon be providing terabytes (1,000 gigabytes) of remote sensing data a day. NASA made an unprecedented decision to provide the majority of this data in a single format, HDF, and to allow for access to the data via the World Wide Web shortly after it is collected. Other groups currently using HDF include Jet Propulsion Laboratory, White Sands Missile Range, Goddard Space Flight Center, Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, and many other government agencies and universities. With this migration, soon more technical data will be stored in HDF than any other format.
• Before Noesys, the only tools available to access data in HDF format were UNIX-based utilities and a few high-end commercial products that work with HDF in a limited capacity. Programmers could also download the HDF libraries from NCSA and compile them into custom applications. Noesys eliminates these barriers to accessing HDF data. This low-cost tool allows anyone--from dedicated researcher to high school student--to access, edit, analyze, manipulate, and visualize the tidal wave of available HDF data.
• For Fortner Research, Noesys is only the first step in revolutionizing access to science data. Using this new technology, Fortner Research will develop web-based client/server technology to create science data servers. Through the data servers, users will be able to access and analyze technical data across intranets, as well as over the Internet. As other industry-specific data standards arise, Fortner Research will provide the tools necessary to access, analyze, and visualize that data.
• Through July 31, 1997, Noesys is available for an introductory price of $699 for Windows 95, Windows NT, and Macintosh OS. Current Fortner Research customers are eligible to purchase Noesys for just $199. To order, call Fortner Research at (800) 252-6479 or send an e-mail.
• To request an evaluation copy of Noesys, please contact Kathy Floam, Public Relations Coordinator, at (410) 216-9447.
• MacDev-1 (Moderated)

More Results From Mathematica Race

• An earlier post noted that currently a 9600 (233 MHz 604e) is taking the lead in Karl Unterkofler's mathematica 3.0 benchmark tests. I have analyzed the overall scores of all 46 entries (from pentium to pentium pro, ppc 601 to 604e, and SGIs). I can tell you that the mac is the winning platform to run mathematica. Here are some highlights (shorter time is better):
  •  
  • Dual PentiumPro/200/Linux 3.125s
  • Dual PentiumPro/200/NT4 6.293s
  • PentiumPro/200Mhz/Linux 3.185s
  • PentiumPro/200MHz/NextStep 3.693s
  • PentiumPro/200MHz/NT4 6.567s
  • PentiumPro/200MHz/Win95 6.651s
  •  
  • PPC604e/233/MacOS 3.031s
  • PPC604e/200/MacOS 3.622s
  • PPC603e/240/MacOS 5.281s
  • PPC604/150/MacOS 5.938s
  • PPC601/110/MacOS 11.233s
  •  
  • SGI/R10000/175/IRIX 3.785s
  •  
• The fastest machines are 604e(MacOS), pentium pro running linux or nextstep, and SGI R10000; they are on par. Win95 and NT are dogs, test time increased over 80% compared with linux or nextstep on comparable intel machine.
• PPC604 and 603e, though not the high end of the processor spectrum today, give respectable performance comparing to pentiumpro with various windows os. The PPC family has come a long way since the first generation PPC 601. The difference between the slowest 601 machine (not shown) to fastest 604e machine is almost 8 times!
• Conclusion? The pentium pro is a formidable contester to PPC 604e, but the gap may widen when Rhapsody or MacOS 8 are released. WinNT or Win95 are jokes as far as mma 3.0 is concerned.
• Wai Poon

604e Beats Pentium MMX in MacUser PhotoShop Test

• MacUser magazine just published results of a comparison between Power Macintosh and MMX Pentium systems running Adobe Photoshop software. The following systems were used in their benchmark tests (the PowerMac's system-bus speed was 50 MHz; the PCs had 66-MHz buses):
  • * Apple Power Macintosh 9500 with a 200-MHz PowerPC 604e processor
  • * Gateway 2000 G5-200, built around a 200-MHz Pentium processor equipped with MMX
  • * Gateway 2000 G6-266, built around a 266-MHz Pentium II processor
• Bottom line, the Power Macintosh 9500/200 beat the stock 200-MHz MMX-equipped Pentium system in 16 of 17 tests. In 14 of these, the Power Macintosh 9500/200 was faster by more than 19 percent to a maximum of 82 percent. For more details, see MacUser's May 1997 article.

Rhapsody News

Overall

• A concise written overview of the yellow box and the Rhapsody operating system and roadmap is on the web and includes many of the graphics used during the WWDC sessions.
• Apple Developer News #58 970522
•  
• Currently, the Rhapsody schedule calls for a developer release in mid-1997 (with no Blue Box, and probably only supporting Power Mac 8500/8600 machines), a Premiere release for early adopters in early 1998 with some Blue Box capability for PowerPC, and a Unified release for general users in mid-1998 with full Blue Box capability for PowerPC. Apple plans to ship client and server versions of Rhapsody and has stated that the Unified release will work on today's PowerPC-based Macs and Mac clones.
• TidBITS#381/26-May-97

Rhapsody

• During the last day of the WWDC conference, Guerrino De Luca, Apple's executive vice president of marketing, demonstrated the full Rhapsody workspace and desktop running on a PowerPC processor-based Macintosh computer. He said that this engineering feat was accomplished only three days before.
• Apple Developer News #58 970522
•  
• The Unix command line was also seen (to hisses from some attendees), but Apple stressed it will be hidden in Rhapsody's Unified release, available only if users want it.
• Apple confirmed it plans to ship a version of Rhapsody for computers based on Intel chips; however (and this was arguably the big announcement for WWDC), Apple also announced it will ship a version of the Yellow Box for Mac OS.
• TidBITS#381/26-May-97

Yellow Box - The Development Environment

• De Luca, Apple's executive vice president of marketing, also said that the Rhapsody team had QuickTime up and running in the Yellow Box development environment at the WWDC.
• Apple Developer News #58 970522
•  
• The Yellow Box was shown at the WWDC on both PowerPC and Intel hardware including an Intel demo of the shoot-em-up game Quake (writing to the Yellow Box's Display PostScript while playing movies in the background), plus PowerPC demos of QuickDraw 3D and a commercial application from Stone Design ported from OpenStep in only a few days. Apple wanted to prove one thing: they had running code, not just promises. [Editor - huh? Do they mean Rhapsody? Or do they mean they recompiled Quake with Yellow Box?]
• The Yellow Box interface was described as a work in progress, but it already bears some resemblance to the Mac.
• Although the Yellow Box derives directly from OpenStep and includes NeXT components like Display PostScript and Unicode conversion. The Yellow Box will also include NeXT's much-touted WebObjects FrameWorks and Java.
• Apple plans to add several Macintosh technologies, including the QuickTime Media Layer (QTML), QuickTime VR, QuickDraw 3D, ColorSync, QuickDraw GX typography, and the V-Twin text indexing engine (on which Apple e.g. is based).
• Although it's too early to tell what this means, Apple also said all applications built for the Yellow Box will have some scriptability, and Yellow Box scripting would be carried as far as possible toward AppleScript.
• According to Apple, an application written for the Yellow Box can simply be recompiled for a different platform, or even shipped as a single, large file containing executable code for multiple platforms. (Aladdin's Leonard Rosenthol referred to these programs as "obese binaries.")
• Apple also announced no-fee licensing of the technology that allows the Yellow Box to run on top of Windows, so deploying Yellow Box applications for Windows won't cost developers extra.
• YellowBox for the MacOS? - Although no schedule was given and there are serious questions about what subset of the Yellow Box can be supported under Mac OS (threading was mentioned as a significant issue, and symmetric multiprocessing is right out), the ability to run some Yellow Box applications under Mac OS may help alleviate transition fears and give Yellow Box applications a wider market.
• Java would have full access to Yellow Box APIs, thereby making it possible to write Yellow Box applications without resorting to Objective C or other programming languages.
• TidBITS#381/26-May-97

Blue Box - MacOS Compatibility

• At the WWDC hands-on lab, about 500 third-party Mac OS applications, extensions, and control panels were tested on Rhapsody's Blue Box Mac OS compatibility layer, and among these, only five failed to run because of bugs in the Blue Box. (One of the applications that failed was a game, Missile Command, that was written in 1984.)
• Apple Developer News #58 970522
•  
• Apple also demonstrated Rhapsody's Blue Box running a beta of Mac OS 8, and hosted hands-on labs where developers could run Mac OS programs under Rhapsody's Blue Box. According to Apple, only five of about 500 programs tested in the WWDC labs failed due to errors with the Blue Box.
• The Blue Box is essentially a Yellow Box application designed to run under Rhapsody for PowerPC.
• Rhapsody for Intel will not include the Blue Box.
• The Blue Box uses a Mac ROM image to run the Mac OS unmodified, so users can run unaltered Mac OS applications and system enhancements with much more compatibility than Copland would have provided.
• The Blue Box should inherit benefits from Rhapsody, including enhanced virtual memory and I/O improvements. Although Mac applications will not get separate protected memory, crashing the Blue Box will not take down Rhapsody.
• As an application, the Blue Box will run in its own window, and Mac applications will not sit in the same screen space as Yellow Box applications.
• Blue Box programs will be able to communicate with the Yellow Box via Apple events and more traditional mechanisms like the clipboard, but there will be a firm line between the Mac OS and the Yellow Box.
• The Blue Box will be able to run in a full-screen mode (and Apple reps noted this included _all_ screens).
• TidBITS#381/26-May-97

Hardware

• "Apple's initial commitment to you was that the Rhapsody Developer Release would support Power Macintosh 8500 and 8600 systems. ..., we are pleased to announce that the Rhapsody Developer Release will also support Power Macintosh 9500 and 9600 systems which use an Apple-supplied display video card and driver."
• David Krathwohl Vice-President Apple Computer
• ADN 59 Supplement 970530

Support Announced

• UniPrise Systems, based in Irvine, California, has announced that it will deliver the first ODBC-compliant database access language (DAL) "middleware" to fully support and integrate with Apple's next-generation Rhapsody operating system when Rhapsody ships in 1998. The announcement represents UniPrise's continued commitment to Apple's platform and the next logical evolution of the Access/DAL product family. Today, Access/DAL Version 2 allows Windows and Macintosh clients--including 32-bit Windows and Macintosh clients--running SQL applications to access as many as 11 relational databases on 10 different server platforms.
• AppleJedi article
• Adobe promised support
• Claris promised support

Java News

• At the WWDC, Apple announced support for the Java Foundation Classes under development by Sun, Netscape, and IBM. Further it announced that Java would have full access to Yellow Box APIs.
• TidBITS#381/26-May-97

UniPrise Systems Announces Support for Rhapsody - DAL

Practical Mac Web Site

• MacAddict magazine is proud to announce a brand new web site, Practical Mac. The site focuses on troubleshooting tips and hints; it also provides instruction on common tasks, such as setting up a basic AppleTalk or Ethernet network or restoring an old photo. Can't remember what key combination you need for zapping PRAM? Not sure why you'd want to or when you should? Come to Practical Mac to find out!

Yellow Box for Mac OS News

• Gregg Williams, of the Apple Developer Group - Allegro [due mid 98] will be the first version of the Mac OS that WILL BE ABLE TO run the Yellow Box for Mac OS. Apple has made no announcement regarding the time frame in which Yellow Box for the Mac OS will be available.

TexEdit Version - 2.0 or 2.0.2b4 beta

• Tex-Edit Plus 2.0 is now out of beta and available on info-mac. The beta version is at 2.0.2b4.

AT to ADB

• [Editor - Evidently, AT is the PC keyboard signal protocol/connection. ADB is Apple Desktop Bus]
• In a kiosk project ...we needed a keyboard ... to be compact and VERY, VERY tough. The only product we could find was a "bubble membrane" keyboard by Preh Technologies that had no moving parts and fit our needs perfectly. Unfortunately it is PC only (not ADB).
• ...USAR Systems ... make an excellent product called AppAdapt that converts PS/2 devices (keyboards, mice) to ADB. On top of having an excellent product, their customer service was top drawer. I needed one device for testing immediately. Deborah Rothman of USAR put through a special order and shipped it to me the same day. The next morning I had it up and running on one of our Mac-based kiosks in 2 minutes.
• Alek Grguric

Pilot LogBooks

• [Editor - This is not about the USRobotics Pilot. These are programs for people who fly planes.]
• There is a shareware FileMaker database called "The Flight Logbook" at shareware.com (search the Mac archive for "flight-logbook").
• The Claris' website has a template "AirNav.1" for Claris Works or "LogBook.FP3" Filemaker Pro.
• FliteLog is put out by Mentor Plus and cost $89 (at least it did). It also comes as part of FlightStar also by Mentor Plus.
• Frank Czosek

Let's KISS v. 2.0 = SpreadSheet 2000

• Spreadsheet 2000 from Casady & Greene, officially abbreviated S2K, is actually version 2.0 of Let's Keep It Simple Spreadsheet, officially abbreviated Let's KISS, or LKISS, or just plain KISS.
• It was basically written by Steve Wilson of Emergent Behavior, reaffirming the place of small developers. And, the fact that Spreadsheet 2000 was written with Prograph CPX, my favorite Mac development environment (see TidBITS-312_), is a delightful bonus.
• Most spreadsheet programs use hidden formulas. You are presented with a blank grid of cells, into each of which you can put either a number or a formula describing a calculation based on other cells. A cell containing a formula, though, shows only the result of the formula's calculation. That number can then be used in still other formulas, and so on. This means that you must learn a formula language, which is often difficult. More important, it means that a spreadsheet is hard to explore and easy to harm: since you cannot usually see the formulas (and even when you can, it is hard to trace a cell's formulaic dependencies), you may accidentally make a change that causes a formula to give a bad result, or one that overwrites a formula altogether.
• Spreadsheet 2000 presents a completely empty window. Into this window you place, by drag & drop from palettes, any of a number of objects, and by dragging arrange them as you like, much as in a drawing program. These objects are principally either rectangular grids of cells, or operators (such as "+", "*", "avg", and so on) represented as small named rectangular panels. You then click to draw connecting lines leading from grids to operators, and from operators to other grids ("output" grids). You can put numbers into the cells of grids - but not if they are output grids (output grids automatically take on a different color). So, the results of calculations are specially marked and automatically protected. Also, the structure of each calculation is visible as a physical flow of data: from an input grid or grids, through an operator, to an output grid.
  • The chain of grid-operator-grid can be extended as long you like;
  • a grid may serve as input to more than one operator
  • an operator may require input from more than one grid.
  • you can select a segment of chain and "crunch" it, replacing it by a single custom operator (double click to edit in a separate window). By judicious naming and arrangement of crunched custom operators, you can create visual calculation structures which remain neat and easy to understand; yet the details remain available by quickly drilling down, opening the edit windows of custom operators to any desired level.
• Spreadsheet 2000 also provides a second way to avoid clutter. This is called a report, though I prefer to think of it as a view. The main window (called the Master) is replaced by one containing just a designated subset of elements
  • A document can have many different named reports
  • You can enter data in a report
• I mentioned earlier that spreadsheet elements are added by drag & drop from palettes.
  • You may create your own palettes to store elements you might need later (libraries, in other words).
  • can also contain special elements, such as charts that automatically show simple but effective graphs of any grid connected to them.
  • There are also notes - simple text rectangles useful for placing comments and instructions - and graphics.
  • formatting icons are used in the chain
  • you can tear off a formatting palette
• **True Grid** -- All data entry and display is, as already stated, by way of grids.
  • You can type data directly into a grid cell
  • you can cut and paste data between grids and another applications (S2K does some intelligent processing of clipboard contents);
  • you can also export grid data as tab-delimited text files.
  • A grid can be resized to any rectangular dimensions in terms of the cells it contains: it can be a single cell, a single column, a single row, or a full rectangle.
  • Labels can be attached to any grid's top, side, or both, letting you specify what each column or row denotes; with output grids you can attach labels yourself, or tell an operator to allow its input's labels to "flow through," so that the operator's output grid reproduces them.
• One of Spreadsheet 2000's cleverest features is the intelligent behavior of its operators with respect to grids.
  • Take, for example, the "+" operator: what it does depends on the shape you give its output grid. Imagine you have a 5-by-4 grid of numbers connected into a "+" operator. If the "+" operator is then connected to a single-cell grid, that cell will display the sum of all 20 input cells. If it is connected to a single-row grid, that grid is automatically resized to 5-by-1, and displays the sum of each column of the input. If it is connected to a single-column grid, that grid is automatically resized to 1-by-4, and displays the sum of each row of the input.
  • Other operators that take multiple inputs react to the shapes of those inputs. For instance, the "A+B" operator, which adds two inputs, will add two single-column grids by making the output a single column each of whose cells contains the sum of the corresponding pair of cells. It will add a rectangle grid to a single-column grid by making a rectangle grid, summing corresponding pairs of cells one column at a time. It will add a single-column grid to a single-row grid by making a rectangle grid, each cell containing one of the possible sums of pairs. And so on.
  • The extraordinary thing is that, although this sounds very involved when I describe it, in action it is immediately obvious and intuitive. S2K gives you a sense of doing the right thing, of knowing what you mean (often better than you do yourself!).
  • Native operators include standard numeric functions (arithmetic, trigonometric, exponential, rounding)
  • "form" operators act as a shortcut in the composition of elementary algebraic expressions; basic statistical functions (such as average and standard deviation) are included too.
  • Grid operators let you count cells, columns, and rows; combine or decompose grids; copy, rotate, and sort grids; and extract grid parts by various match criteria.
  • Logical operators let you perform Boolean tests and even build "if-then-else" constructs.
  • Loop operators generate automatic fill data, and let you construct cumulatively computed output grids (such as a running bank balance).
  • a large selection of pre-built custom operators is included; these can be used as shortcuts, and (being constructed from the native operators) they are also valuable study models.
• Many model solutions are also included. More user-created templates can be found on Casady & Greene's Web site.
• Demo versions of S2K for both 68K and PowerPC-based Macs (a little over 2 MB) are available
• In our checking, the street price for Spreadsheet 2000 ranged from $60 to $75, and there's currently a $30 rebate if you own another spreadsheet. The LKISS upgrade is $20 (free if purchased in 1997).
• Matt Neuburg - TidBit Article

Transend delivers 67 kbps modem - Sort of

• Transend Corporation advanced modem speeds to new heights, without the need for digital connections at either end, with their announcement Tuesday of the Transend Sixty-Seven, delivering speeds of 67 kbps both upstream and downstream, over existing analog phone lines. The Transend 67 solves the increasing speed and bandwidth problems of present-day Internet users, while utilizing the existing ubiquitous analog network. The Transend 67 also makes widespread, economical video teleconferencing possible for all sizes of companies.
• NEWSpot Morning Edition @ 5/28/97
• Ohhh that sounded cool, didn't it? But I checked out out. Guess how they can get DOUBLE the maximum speed that even the largest and best modem companies can manage? Simple! They use TWO PHONE LINES! They have two standard modems and use duct tape to hold them together in one box and sell them at 8 times the price. Sigh.
• Dr. Robert Hamilton, D.C.

New single-chip, fast ethernet transceiver

• Level One Communications Inc., a developer of Ethernet IC communications technology, announced Tuesday a breakthrough in Fast Ethernet performance. The company introduced a flexible 10/100-TX single-chip CMOS Ethernet transceiver that operates at distances in excess of 140 meters and can also be designed into 100BASE-FX fiber equipment. The new LXT970 Fast Ethernet transceiver supports standard Ethernet (CSMA/CD) and full-duplex operation at 10 Mbps and 100 Mbps. Unlike other 10/100 Ethernet transceivers, the LXT970 includes a fiber-compatible, ECL-type interface for use with 100BASE-FX networks.
• NEWSpot Morning Edition @ 5/28/97

OpenDoc Collection - It Still Won't Die

• OrbitPak, a CD-ROM compilation of Mac-only component software, is now available with a special offer for Evangelistas!
• OrbitPak includes 21 OpenDoc-based software apps, including Apple's own Cyberdog!
• Through June 1997, EvangeListas can order the CD-ROM for just $69.95 and receive a second copy free! The offer includes two free T-shirts. Called the OrbitPak 2Pak, the promotion is a great way to evangelize great Mac-only software!
• For more information, visit the OrbitPak home page at Apollo Technologies, Inc.

Hardware Database - Cards, Bays, etc.

• I am pleased to announce that there are now over 250 PCI cards listed in the MacOS Compatible PCI Product Directory , and the list is continuing to grow!. An invaluable resource for researching, evaluating and comparing available hardware products for PCI Power Macintosh computers, the PCI Product Directory is the most complete listing of PCI cards available.
• In addition to listing PCI cards, the directory has recently been expanded to also list PowerBook PCI cards, CardBus products, PowerBook Expansion Bay products that use PCI and CommSlot II products. Thanks to several innovative products, the advantages of PCI are now available to a much wider audience.
• PowerBook 3400 Owners be sure to have a look at Magma's PXB-7-PBDT "dock". It allows seven normal PCI cards to be attatched to a PowerBook 3400.
• David Slik

Mac OS 8 Beta 5

• If you're a registered Apple developer, you can download the Mac OS 8 beta 5 release from the Developer World web site. You must enter your Developer World ID to access this "members only" area.
• Apple Developer News #59 - 970529

Delta Compression Update - VOODOO 1.8

• New Release of VOODOO Version Control Software UNI SOFTWARE PLUS just announced the immediate availability of the new version 1.8 of its popular version-control tool, VOODOO. This new version now supports Apple Events and AppleScript, and its essential parts are now PowerPC native.

AppleScript Fixes Coming to Size Limits

• You are correct about the size of modern disk drives overflowing the integer result of the capacity and free space properties of the Finder's disk class. [Editor, if the drive is too big, and you ask AppleScript, it will return a negative number.]
• In Finder 8.0, the Finder will return the capacity and free space of a disk as a real, to prevent overflows. (We didn't make it simply a bigger integer because we'll overflow that eventually as well. It will take us a hell of a long time to overflow 1.79x10^308 bytes per volume (I don't know my suffixes that well, but that's more than a yeta yeta yeta yeta yeta yeta yeta yeta yeta yeta yeta yetabyte (where a yetabyte is 2^80, or the eighth in the named series where each name is 2^10 larger than the previous series, i.e. kilo, mega, giga, tera, peta, etc.)
• Chris Espinosa | Manager, AppleScript | Core OS Engineering, Apple Computer, Inc. | (408) 974-3520 phone (408) 973-9875 fax
•  
• [Editor - subscriber complained that when the event log window was open (for debugging purposes), it can hit its size limit of about 3KB of text, at which point it stops the script without advising the scripter or user of where the problem arose. It just says size exceeded.]
• This is fixed in Script Editor 1.1.2, part of upcoming Mac OS 8.0. You may also want to investigate Scripter or Script Editor, much more full-featured script editors.
• Chris Espinosa | Manager, AppleScript | Core OS Engineering, Apple Computer, Inc. | (408) 974-3520 phone (408) 973-9875 fax
•  
• There is a bug in AppleScript 1.1 having to do with a calculation involving an uninitialized variable overflowing on computers with more than 512MB of total memory (Real or Virtual). The bug is fixed in the Mac OS 8 release (AppleScript 1.1.2).
• The workaround is to limit the computer memory space (Real or Virtual) to 512MB.
• This comes via InfoAlley May 23 which for some reason was not delivered until May 31
• Robert Durnford

Desktop Pattern Observation

• I use the pattern that looks like stones or pebbles. It came with the system. I noticed one day, as I gazed blankly at the screen, that the stones appeared to be set back about a foot behind the monitor. I soon deduced that the pattern is much like those 'hidden picture' stereographs. You know the ones you stare at, focussing behind them, until you suddenly see a 3d image. Like those, a desktop pattern, which repeats every 2 inches or so, will feed similar images to each eye when the eyes are focussed beyond the actual monitor.

Vicom Internet Gateway 3.8.4

• Vicom Technology announces the release of version 3.8.4 of its VICOM Internet Gateway, the MacOS software that allows multiple users of a LAN to connect to the Internet simultaneously. This new major release includes the following enhancements:
  • (a) Global Host Access Rights facility which allows access to the Internet to be limited by the use of wildcards and domain names as well as IP addresses. This is particularly important for schools, educational institutions, parents and anyone else who wishes to provide access but control it at the same time;
  • (b) ability to create multiple Ethernet ports on a single Ethernet card;
  • (c) improved support for cable modems by enabling the VIG to act as a DHCP client as well as a DHCP Server;
  • (d) unlimited number of ports;
  • (e) support for CHAP protocol
  • (f) improved interface.
• Updaters from versions 3.6, 3.7 and 3.8 are available at no charge and a free demo is available.
• Brian Morris
• 1-800-818 4266
• [Editor - I don't use this but it sounds great. If it stinks, somebody clue me in.]

Fusion 2.0

• [NetObjects is a WYSWYG HTML editor offering site management features.]
• Last week NetObjects shipped Fusion 2.0
• New features include:
  • a spelling checker
  • drag & drop
  • better support for frames
  • capability to import existing sites as a whole
• A 30-day trial version is available (as a 14.5 MB download) from the NetObjects Web site.
• The new version requires a PowerPC-based Macintosh, wants 16 MB application RAM, and a full install takes a startling 90 MB of disk space. The expected retail price for Fusion 2.0 is $495; inside the box is a coupon for a $100 rebate, good through 31-Jul-97. NetObjects -- 415/482-3200 -- 415/562-0288 (fax)
• TidBITS#382/02-Jun-97

Global Village Firmware Updates

• Firmware is software that lives in some kind of persistent memory; unlike RAM, turning off electricity doesn't erase the contents, but (unlike ROM) applying certain charges or triggering a pin on the chip allows new code to be installed. If you use a PowerPort Platinum or Platinum Pro PC card, Global Village has a firmware update that upgrades the 28.8 Kbps modem to 33.6 Kbps
• Additionally, they've released a beta version of the PowerPort PC Card control panel that temporarily fixes a "port busy" error when using Open Transport/PPP (see TidBITS-354_). The following assumes you're using Open Transport 1.1 (1.1.2 is the latest version) and System 7.5.5 or later.
• The PowerPort PC Card update is a 1.2 MB download containing an application that updates the PC Card's firmware. The new Global Village firmware adds the protocols and routines necessary to support 33.6 Kbps modem speeds - that is, if you have a phone line and provider that can support it. (Now that I'm updated, I get 31.2 Kbps consistently, which is almost 10 percent faster than 28.8 Kbps).
• If you use OT/PPP (which I highly recommend), the 33.6 Kbps update also comes with a modem script that you must use. Copy the script "GV 28.8/33.6 for ARA 2.1/OT-PPP" to the Modem Scripts folder in your Extensions folder, and then use the Modem control panel to select the new script. Otherwise, OT/PPP will not recognize the new speed and won't initiate PPP correctly.
• The beta PowerPort PC Card control panel fixes the "port busy" problem that's been reported frequently by folks using the PowerPort PC Card with OT/PPP. Essentially, the problem causes the Mac OS to think another application is using the serial port, which prevents you from using your modem.
• TidBITS#382/02-Jun-97

Change Your Welcome Screen

• I've been trying to modify my "welcome to mac O/S" screen (the words, not the picture). There used to be a program called Welcome that did this, but no longer seems to work under 7.6.1.
• Tom Martin
•  
• I have posted a set of new "welcome screens" to info-mac some month ago. Its readme file that tells you how to get the strings you want to change and what should be done.
• Adriaan Tijsseling

Server-less Chat Client

• Abbott announces AtChat for Mac! AtChat is a new type of Internet chat client that does NOT require a server. It lets you chat with almost anyone on the Internet, and transfer files, using direct person-to-person connections.
• Group chat is also supported, as are chat robots. We currently have a chat robot providing customer service and we plan to release it as a commercial product. Anyone interested in this can email us for more information or if you are interested in beta testing.
• AtChat Mac will be priced at $39.
• AtChat Mac will be available for Mac OS 7/8 in early August (Macworld/Boston.) A Rhapsody version is under development.
• Abbott Systems Inc.

Sorry, that's all the time I have.

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