SEWALL@UCONNVM.BITNET (Murph Sewall) (09/28/89)
VAPORWARE Murphy Sewall From the October 1989 APPLE PULP H.U.G.E. Apple Club (E. Hartford) News Letter $15/year P.O. Box 18027 East Hartford, CT 06118 Call the "Bit Bucket" (203) 569-8739 Permission granted to copy with the above citation Virus Alert! Is it Columbus Day (October 12) yet? Are you using an MS-DOS computer? According to Tom Patterson, a security specialist at Centel Federal Systems of Reston, Virginia, a self-propagating, network-transferable virus (possibly two viruses) is may erase track 0 of thousands of hard disks when the system clock says it's October 12. The virus reportedly originated with a group of European hackers in August and spreads by adding either 1,168 or 1,280 bytes of code to .COM files (except for COMMAND.COM or any other .COM file with a 'D' as the seventh character). Information about the Columbus Day Virus, also known as DataCrime 89, or the Icelandic Virus, is available from Centel Federal Systems (800) 843-4850 - InfoWorld 11 September and PC Week 11 September Gigabit Network. Although BITNET, which links colleges and universities in the US, Canada, and Europe, may continue to plod along at 9,600 baud, the Office of Science and Technology has proposed that Congress authorize a 1-gigabit (100 megabaud) network to become fully operational in 1996. The Office is asking $1.9 billion over five years for the Federal High Performance Computing Program which includes plans for faster supercomputers and better software as well as about $390 million for the National Research and Education Network. Although the network will be developed for research purposes, plans call for it to be open to commercial applications by the turn of the century. - InfoWorld 11 September The NeXT Step. Even though its first machine's operating system is barely finished, NeXT is on the verge of introducing a new computer built around the Motorola 68040. The NeXT-40 will be four times faster than the 68030 machine and will permit the instruction cache and data cache to be accessed simultaneously. NeXT is ready to announce now, but Motorola is insisting that the press conference be delayed until the 68040 is actually being shipped. Volume production is slated for the first quarter of 1990. - PC Week 4 and 11 September Faster Mac II's. Siclone Sales and Engineering recently introduced a 33 MHz accelerator for the Macintosh IIcx which plugs directly into the 68030 socket. A 50 MHz version will be coming soon. - InfoWorld 11 September Atari ST Laptop. This month Atari is expected to announce an Atari-ST compatible laptop computer (code-named "STacey") for $1,500 ($2,000 for a model with a 20 Mbyte hard disk). The CPU will be an 8Mhz Motorola 68000. An optional cartridge will permit the STacey to run Macintosh software (if you can get the ROM chips). - Random Access 9 September The Littlest IBM. IBM Japan has developed a six pound "notebook" sized AT clone computer built around the 80286 CPU. It will run for two hours on its rechargeable battery and could be introduced in the U.S. by year's end. IBM also plans to offer a battery powered 80386 Laptop PS/2 next year. - InfoWorld 28 August and Random Access 9 September Unobtainable RT-3s. Although IBM is scheduled to announce its line of microchannel based RISC machines (see last month's column) this month, they won't be ready to ship until 1990 due to lingering bugs in the NextStep user interface. Rumor has it that the "spokesperson" for the new line will be cartoon character Hagar the Horrible (No, No! You fools, first you pillage, THEN you burn!). - PC Week 28 August [Late breaking (post publication deadline) news: the Oct 16 press conference for the RT has been postponed. There remains a possibility that the announcement will be made before the end of this year, but more likely 1990.] DEC Age of Aquarius. Digital Equipment Corp. will be only a month behind IBM (see above) in announcing a new line of RISC-based machines. The DEC System 9000 series, code-named Aquarius, will be announced in November for shipment next May. - PC Week 4 September Should You Wait to Buy the Even Better Future Model? Remember the ambitious "game plan of migration" for IBM PS/2 line described by former entry systems president William Lowe in February 1988 (see the March '88 Vaporware column)? The current "scorecard" for products promised by the end of 1989 is four of 11. Lowe left IBM for Xerox, and current IBM executives "...have to claim ignorance" about Lowe's unfulfilled prophecies. - InfoWorld 28 August The '286 is Dead, Long Live the 586. According to Microsoft chairman Bill Gates, Microsoft will no longer be supporting 80286 architecture two years from now. He expects the i586 (see August's column) to begin appearing in commercial machines in early 1991. Intel's senior vice president, David House, told Unix developers last August that the i686 containing 22 million transistors will appear in late 1995 or early '96. By the turn of the century Intel expects to deliver the 100 million transistor i786 running at 250 Mhz while occupying only 1 square inch. - InfoWorld 28 August and 4 September Applescript. Apple will release a Hypertalk-based user scripting language for controlling both applications and system functions "shortly after" the early 1990 release of Macintosh System 7.0. The language will require System 7.0 and will contain statements for executing standard Mac commands as well as commands that are specific to particular applications. Apple is considering supplying an "engine" which will compile and execute scripts upon request by compliant applications. - InfoWorld 21 August A More Perfect Version. Word Perfect version 5.1 is expected to ship later this year. The new version adds table support and links to spreadsheets along with pull-down windows and a large number of minor enhancements. However, Word Perfect 2.0 for the Macintosh won't make it until sometime next year. Look for a new drawing, charting, and presentation graphics package called, you guessed it, Draw Perfect at Comdex in November. - InfoWorld 21 August and 11 September and MacWeek 12 September Word 5.0 for Xenix. Microsoft Word 5.0 for the Xenix (a variant of Unix) operating system is in beta test and expected to ship by the end of the year. Xenix versions of Microsoft Works and Excel also will be forthcoming, but schedules have not been set. Excel spreadsheet information will be transparently portable across local area networks between the DOS, OS/2, and Unix versions of the program. - InfoWorld 4 September Is There a Market for OS/2 Applications? Informix Software has finished developing an OS/2 Presentation Manager version of its popular Macintosh spreadsheet - Wingz but has shelved plans to offer it until a viable OS/2 market develops. OS/2 is in the process of undergoing an apparently endless series of improvements and enhancements (referred to by one industry pundit as "dribbleware") that is keeping the operating system in "eternal beta." - InfoWorld 28 August Borland Does Windows. After proclaiming that they would not develop applications for Microsoft Windows, company officials recently announced that they would begin developing languages and programming tools for Windows as well as MS-DOS and OS/2. Borland also announced plans to ship a version of the C++ programming language. - InfoWorld 11 September Lotus Suit Slows Intro of VP-Expert for the Mac. Officials of Paperback Software blame the cost and distraction of defending themselves against Lotus's "look and feel" suit for the delay in releasing their VP-Expert application for the Macintosh. The company now hopes for a first quarter release. When it is completed, VP-Expert/Mac will allow nonprogrammers to create expert systems using "if/then" rules, while more sophisticated users can use a Pascal-like object oriented language. - InfoWorld 28 August Ashton-Tate Rhymes with Late. FullWrite 2.0 isn't even ready for beta testing yet, so there's little chance of meeting the projected year-end release. Executives are debating whether to develop an interim improvement for the less than successful dBase Macintosh or await a dBase IV Macintosh which might not get finished by the end of next year. A-T president and chairman, Ed Esber, has indicated that when dBase IV/Mac is released it will be compatible with DOS and OS/2 versions but not with the existing Macintosh version. - InfoWorld 21 August and MacWeek 12 September ___________________________________________________________ (~~~~) / \ ( 0 0 ) | (Prof) Murph Sewall <Sewall@UConnVM.BITNET> | (| > |) ___/ Marketing Department <Sewall%UConnVM.BITNET@CUNYVM.CUNY.Edu>| ( \__/ ) <___ School of Business ...psuvax1!uconnvm.bitnet!sewall | (____) \_ U. of Connecticut *standard disclaimer applies* / \__________________________________________________________/ (This .sig "borrowed" from Johnson Earls <Jearls@Polyslo.CalPoly.Edu> Thanx!) "Studies show 80 percent of all Americans know about home computers. That's higher than the percentage of Americans who know about sex."