kamath@reed.UUCP (Sean Kamath) (11/05/87)
This is part one of my Great AppleFest Report on Opinion sheet. It
contains all the exhibits in the main auditorium.
Part two has the auxiliary hall, and the conferences, as well as
addresses and information.
Sean
====Cut here====
Forty days and forty nights have passed since AppleFest, and at
last I sit down to type in my 20 page tome, as Grandma Nerd called it.
According to my dictionary, a tome is one section of a book, or a small
book in itself. Well, this is about all I have to say about AppleFest,
and I guess it is pretty big.
----------
AppleFest -- not quite a dream.
I've read some other reports of AppleFest and they all seem to
have one thing in common -- a glowing wonderment like it was Christmas.
Well, I didn't get that impression. In fact, I got hardly any such
impression at all. Having had a //e for 5 years, and working with VAXen
and a PC7300 etc. has made me somewhat spoiled. I like to get into the
guts of small machines, mostly because I can't really do the same on
larger ones. Because of this, I tend to get over the heads of many
people, including tech support and other people who are supposed to be
the "guru's". So if it seems like I'm being a little condescending, I'm
sorry. I just expected a lot of people to know more than they did,
including Apple's own.
=========================================================================
I went on a whim. I asked my girlfriend, Robin, if she wanted
to go down to San Francisco. She said yes, so we went. I don't know
what I expected, but I didn't find it there -- at least, not
immediately. It got better as I found more people and talked to more
informed folks.
After driving 12 hours from Portland, we checked into the King
George hotel. When I called to get tickets, they told me about the King
George. It was right across from the Hilton and only cost $69 + tax a
night (granted, tax brought it up to $72 or some such).
The next day we went to the Civic Auditorium. I've seen riots
more organized. When I got my tickets on the VISA, they told me they
would be there at the door. When I got to the door, they had no idea
you even *could* purchase tickets over the phone. Robin and I stood
around for a while, then sat down, until, after over an hour of waiting,
we finally met the *one* woman who was handling *all* ticket and booth
problems for the show. She lamented that when they took the orders
etc., they wrote them down but never put them in a computer. My receipt
was nowhere to be found. I ended up buying another ticket. I'm still
waiting to see if I get charged twice. This month's statement should
tell me.
We went into the "main showroom" where there were four aisles of
vendors, manufacturers, publishers, and every last one of them --
salesfolk. When you walked in, you immediately saw the Apple display.
They gave us a button and a bag. As I walked around the display, I then
realized the wave of the future, if you'll pardon the expression. Ever
wonder about everyone going mac-happy on //'s? Frankly, I really don't
understand it. It's great for educational stuff, and for beginning
users, especially those who have a fear of computers. But as you get
more and more advanced, you begin to realize that, while the mouse-based
interface with windows et al. is sometimes convenient, it can also be a
real pain, and it *slows* things down. I'm not taking about keyboard to
mouse and back, I mean text vs. graphics. Try this. Put a GS in
alternate display mode (graphics) and run this simple BASIC program:
10 FOR X = 1 TO 8000
20 PRINT "X";
30 NEXT X
It runs 40% slower. It just does. (Do this in 80 column mode,
as I don't know what the slowdown percentage is in 40 columns.). And
who needs graphics *all* the time, like when you log on to a VAX to read
news? I really like the Apple's method of having a text page and a
graphics page. You can put text on the graphics page, and sometimes
it's very nice to be able to do that, but sometimes you don't need to
*at all* (like now) and shouldn't be bogged down by it. (By the way,
how come no one has come out with a "finder" like application that uses
the mousetext characters? At least I haven't seen any. It should be
really easy, and fast.) The issue can be debated from here to eternity,
and I don't think either side will "win" so much as coexist. People
will just learn there is a time for windows, icons, mice (WIM's) and a
time for them not to be used, or at least that it isn't necessary or
even desirable. It makes programming easier.
Back to our story, down off the soapbox.
They (Apple) had about 10 computers running software from other
booths. They had a Mac running MacWrite and other MacPrograms, a few
//e's running educational software, some //c's running things like the
Print Shop, and a few GS's either trying to be Macs, or running music
programs. It seemed to say "Mac's are for business, //e's for
education, //c's for junior & sis, and a GS for everything else." Oh,
well.
Right in the entrance, immediately to the left, was Corvus.
Interestingly enough, not a hard disk in sight. I found out why in this
months A+ (I broke down and bought it because I'm going to get a hard
disk, and I want a SCSI with 20 megs that I can put DOS 3.3 on as well
as ProLOS. According to them, there isn't one made. Anyone know of
one? I refuse to switch entirely to ProLOS.[see Xebec]). It seems
Corvus and AST asked not to be covered by the magazine. I guess they
want out of the business. Corvus was showing their ELAN stuff, though.
Since I only have three computers in my house, I'm not that interested
in LAN technology. I wouldn't mind Appletalk, though. More on that
later.
A little point this reminds me of. Since I only have a //e (and
Robin has a //c) I wasn't that thrilled by new GS stuff. While I plan
to either upgrade to a GS or just get one, it's not in the immediate
future. Therefore, while I went to some GS specific things, I didn't
make a vested effort to get the latest gossip. Needless to say, Robin,
like all //c owners, continually complained about the lack of stuff for
her computer. Well, one thing was introduced that at least works on a
//c. More on that later, as well.
Right next door to Corvus was Brown Wagh Publishing. They asked
me, of the Apple specific magazines, which I liked to read the most. I
told him none of the magazines per se, that all the real info comes
through the newsletters like Open-Apple and Apple Assembly Line, as well
as in the electronic medium, such as the net. The magazines are more
Flash & Trash, with advertisements to fill it out. Not that this is
bad, mind you. He nodded his head and muttered something about A+ and
how glossy the covers were, and how expensive that was.
I trotted over to booth #803, Checkmate Technology. They had
advertised a "great unveiling" at AppleFest. I listened to the guy give
his spiel about the product, and frankly, it sounded really neat. It
basically turns *any* GS RAM card into a battery backed up one. By
plugging the other card into the Checkmate card, and the Checkmate card
into the Apple, the checkmate acts as power supply and refresh signal
while the GS is off. It's actually a pretty simple idea, and I'm
surprised no one came out with it sooner. Frankly, I believe it's
because the RAM disk mania is only now becoming widespread. I
personally don't like RAM disks. I much prefer hard disks, with, oh, 20
ms seek time, and intelligent disk caching. And frankly, a 1 meg RAM
board can run you more than some 20 meg hard disks. But caching isn't a
big deal -- at least not yet. It appears that Apple is planning to add
it to ProDOS 16 sometime in the future. More on that (guess when!)
later.
I asked them why it was that both Applied and (well at least)
Coit Valley Computers were advertising 16 & 17 meg //e's (respectively)
but when I called, Applied told me it may be a few years before they
tackled the problem. The technical representative I spoke with told me
that basically everyone was waiting for the new 4 meg RAM chips. Also,
Dennis Domms (Open-Apple contributor) said when he talked to them, he
found out (from those in the know) that there is a problem with going
past 8 meg, something about the 80 column firmware or addressing scheme.
I guess we just wait and see. [Applied's catalog lists a 16 meg
Ramworks III -- it's not priced, and it says "custom". I guess they
wouldn't mind some research funds. . .]
I also asked around about the 65816 add-ons. I guess Checkmate
has sold around 50 to date. I intend to be the 51'st, at least when I
can have more than 3 meg (I guess Applied just introduced up to 5 meg,
but I don't much like them. More on that (groan) later). I really want
8, but I'll settle for 5 (maybe).
Moving up to the first aisle, we walked by several booths
dedicated to educational uses of computers. That's fine with me, I
firmly believe in their use in education. However, since I don't teach
any "real" classes (occasionally I teach Reedies something in a two day
class, but then we teach them such things as C programming and
communications), they were not of much interest to me. I therefore
apologize to those of you in the educational area that hoped to read
about the latest and greatest eduware.
I walked up to the GEnie booth. They had a //e linked up, and
were showing people how it worked. I assume that if you are reading
this on the net, then you pretty much know enough about that, at least
more then they were showing at AppleFest.
It was rather an interesting spectacle. Either a company went
all out and had mondo booths with tons o' equipment, or they just sort
of sat around. Broderbund is a good example. We've all heard of
Broderbund. I walked past them several times before I realized they
were even there. Another example was Compute! Publications. Unlike A+
(Ziff Davis) and InCider (CW Communications), who were out *in force*,
Compute! was so small I didn't even know they exhibited until I got
home.
Ohio Kache Systems was handing out demo disks. The demo program
was rather simplistic in terms of trying to explain caching, but then
caching is not really that simple a concept. In any case, every time I
walked by, they gave me a disk (Robin too!), and now I feel stupid for
buying the ten disks I did buy, even if they were different colors. I
feel really awkward about Ohio Kache. Why? Because I really want it,
only for a hard disk. I haven't really looked into it, as I A) haven't
got a hard disk, and B) haven't got the money. I really feel that
caching is the way to go, but you just can't cache anything less than
800K disks (then it' called a RAM disk :-) ). I guess I'm spoiled by
our VAX.
Call A.P.P.L.E was there selling cheap SCSI 20 megger's by CMS.
I now understand some things. Apparently, the Apple SCSI card is not
usable on a standard SCSI drive, only one designed for Apple's card.
Now, the CMS card is "standard" SCSI. Does this mean I can nab a really
cheap used SCSI drive and link it up to their (CMS) card? Also, I asked
an Apple Tech if the SCSI card (Apple) did DMA on the motherboard. He
told me it was all "programmed I/O". Now, I thought SCSI was DMA? If
it is, then Apple's version either does DMA on the card, or that's the
major modification they did to the SCSI interface (maybe. It probably
is cabling and termination.). In any case, the reason why this is
important will be explained "later" (See the ZIP chip).
Call A.P.P.L.E. was our first example of what was to come at
the show. SELL SELL SELL! They were selling the CMS drives for some
quantity of money, but I just read an add in Call A.P.P.L.E.'s magazine.
Computers Direct is selling the 20 meg for $499.95. Cheaper than a
Sider, and SCSI to boot.
(By the way, this is not in chronological order. Robin and I
walked a very run of the mill drunkard's walk around the place, the only
way to do it. This covers a three day sojourn into the dark and pitiful
world of Consumerism and Business. It has also been more than a few
weeks since the Fest, and I have read Fire in the Valley since then. I
has given me a little better understanding of business in the
microcomputer world. I whole heartily recommend it for reading.)
So why was it the hard sell at AppleFest? I found out at booth
#222, Open-Apple. After talking to the Open-Apple brigade (Tom
Weishaar, Dennis Domms, and Jim Luther), I found out why it was such the
hard sell there. It cost a lot to display, and many small companies had
to make it up by selling their products. The only reason Open-Apple
came was because they got a booth right next to Beagle Bros. They were
selling the "cheapest thing" at AppleFest -- posters. So I bought one.
Got one free, too. They were four pictures that had appeared in
Open-Apple before, most notably Matthew Monitor, Dr. Basic, and Uncle
DOS. However, I bought a disk from a retail outlet for 1/4 the price. .
.
Beagle Brothers was big on their new AppleWorks add-ons. Now, I
think AppleWorks add-ons are great. It shows what happens when you
allow third party development of enhancements for your product. One of
the things I love most about DCOM is that, without buying the source
(which was only $10 and well worth it), I was able to write the
Apple-Cat drivers for it. Well, Beagle Brothers were showing off their
new stuff, and that makes sense, this wasn't a show to see what been
around for two years. I talked to Rob Renstrom of software development
about PowerPrint and if they had a C.Itoh Prowriter version of it. He
said they were beta testing it right now, and he offered to send me a
copy. Turns out that they had the same set of nasty photocopies I got
(I actually got a IBM BASIC program listing, but I managed to get a copy
of the pigeon English version from a nice guy on the net.). Somehow I
thought "real" developers got "real" information from these guys. When
I called Novation once about getting the 212 to recognize carrier, the
guy said I was asking him to write the program! However, Beagle
Brothers are nice people, and I got the beta copy a few days ago, and I
think it's a very nice program. Go buy it if you want easy downloads,
otherwise wait for my version, which will come out sometime in 1994.
Moving down the aisle . . . Awk! InCider. What can I say.
They gave out complimentary copies of their magazines. The had a GS
running a trivia program (in which I counted two wrong answers, and one
that had two correct answers, but only one was accepted.), and if you
won, they gave out t-shirts (the second an third day they gave out
clocks.). The editors were there, and it was sort of funny. Deborah
DePayster was watching me do the trivia program. It asked for my
favorite game. I had been typing in AppleTrek a lot, so this time I
typed Little Brick Out. She asked what it was. I asked her if she had
ever booted a DOS 3.3 system master disk. She said "No. Why, should I
have?". We explained that it had several games on it.
They were holding thrice daily drawings (boy, I have waited
years to use that word correctly! In writing!). Robin and I entered
every one but the very first. We didn't win anything, but who cares.
But some people were winning more than once, even to the point where one
guy came back and said "I already won this, so give it away again."
People were entering with maybe 100 or more entries. It never said you
couldn't, but they seemed to change the rules with every drawing.
Sometimes they'd let you win twice, sometimes not in the same day,
sometimes just not in the same drawing. It was weird to watch people
say "Ah, who needs that, I want something I can use." People were
acting like they were *buying* the stuff! Ug.
Springboard was there right across from InCider, and they
started holding drawings at the same time. Oh, boy, wasn't that fun!
Double ug.
In a nice little house next door. . . That was the first
impression, anyway. It was Uptime's booth. A guy was giving out cheap
hats. I said I wouldn't wear it. He asked if I was familiar with
Uptime, and I said that once I got a solicitation for it where it said I
could get it for as low as $6.37 or some such. When I took all of the
possible combinations that were offered, I never came up with $6.37. So
he ran back and came out with three disks. Well, I just got around to
trying them. Well, what can I say? I'm not sure they were worth the
price I paid for them. I guess they just aren't for me. Or Robin. She
didn't like *anything* on them.
Back up the 300 aisle, I saw this *huge* dragon on the wall. It
was the Data Transforms booth. They had drawn the dragon with Fontrix
(which got a negative review by Weishaar in the very first Open-Apple).
They were giving out samples of Printrix output (Which Weishaar gave a
very favorable review in Open-Apple not long ago -- apparently he really
likes it.) It looks *very* nice. I asked if it supported the, you
guessed it, C.Itoh. Prowriter. He said that there is a bug in the
ProWriter's ROM that doesn't allow a reliable 1/144th of an inch line
feed. The Dot Matrix Printer (which is basically a Prowriter with new
ROM and Apple's name) can do it. He said he heard it was a one byte
fix. So, I am now desperately seeking a DMP ROM so I can compare it
with what I got in the Prowriter. I wouldn't be able to make heads nor
tails of it, as I don't have a disassembler for my printers CPU, but I
could figure out a one byte patch and burn my own Prom. Unfortunately,
I have no idea how to get a hex dump of the ROM without using a prom
card.
Data Transforms is apparently having real problems getting
support from Apple because they won't do any Mac programming, and thus
won't get a LaserWriter. I said that since the GS is designed to be
used with the laser, they might be able to now. Boy, if only Apple felt
like Don Lancaster towards the LaserWriter<->//e connection!
SoftDisk, which I at least found *something* interesting on when
I bought one, was there just showing their disks (not running them on a
][). Yup, that's about it!
Xebec was showing their drives, had a few brochures out, and all
that jive, but they weren't doing the hard sell with ton's-o-'em sitting
on the floor, saying buy-buy-buy! I very much think I will get a Sider,
unless I find a SCSI drive that I can partition with DOS 3.3.
[Xebec, while being the manufacturer of the SIder, markets them
through First Class Peripherals. Upon closer examination of the handout
they gave me, they state "Unlike many other hard drives on the market,
these Siders and, in fact, *all* Siders, offer the flexibility of
working with ProDos, DOS 3.3, Apple Pascal, and CP/M, as well as MS
DOS." I haven't called them yet to ask if this is true of the SCSI
drives (in which case I may buy the D14 140 meg drive. . .)].
Zip Technology probably introduced the most exciting thing at
the show. It was the best, most useful, and the coolest. It's the Zip
Chip. You've probably heard about it by now, but there will be a little
more technical viewpoint later, in the next section of this
unmentionable experience.
It has a 4MHz 65C02. Running a //c with Fantavision against a
//e without the chip, the increase was about 3.5x (At last, Robin saw
something that she could use in he //c!). It is a direct replacement to
the 65(C)02 and therefore can be used on any ][ series (so they say. I
don't know about the ][+ for sure).
Electronic Arts was there, but that was about all they were.
Didn't really notice anything interesting there.
MDIdeas was an interesting place. Not because of anything they
had in the booth, but what the president said. For enquiring minds,
read the next section.
Going up the 500 Aisle, there was A+. A+ was about the same as
InCider, sans giveaways and blaring horns. My eyes hurt from the glare
of their covers, though.
It was basically a dull aisle, until the end. Then I saw Epic
Technology. Ever hear of them? Didn't think so. They are about a year
old, and I haven't found an add for them yet! They make the only (they
claim) internal 2400 baud modem for the Apple // series computer. For
under $200. I talked to the president of the company, and we talked a
little bit about 9600 baud modems, and I asked about price discounts for
BBS Sysops. All information I got at the Fest is appended to the end of
this, including addresses and such.
Universal Music Corp. had some nice midi stuff on display. It
sure was loud in the auditorium, what with the 'S' in GS. Everyone who
had a GS was either blasting some sappy, bad, quasi-techno-flop-rock or
sad attempts at impromptu compositions. Maybe if they had played Led
Zeppelin rather than Weekly Reader Rabbit through the Bose speakers. . .
Pinpoint, my first weakness of the show. I bought Toolkit. I
claim I bought it so I could add special features to AppleWorks for
Robin. Robin, however (and probably more correctly), seems to think I
bought it to have something to tink around with, as if I don't have
enough projects as it is.
Even though it's for programmers, it's weird. It still goes
after the end-user, which I guess isn't bad. I feel that people really
ought to program *a little* to really begin to understand computers,
even if it's just a little BASIC game like "guess the number". Toolkit
seems to be designed for easy interface into such compilers as ZBasic.
If they had tried to coexist with, say Manx C, I would be a little
happier, though I still would probably work mostly in Assembler.
However, the information seems to be almost biased against Assemblers.
There is no information on making overlays in assembler, though it is
possible, and easy, with ZBasic. Oh well, it' still a nice little
package, and great if you are a programer and AppleWorks enthusiast.
They were also proudly announcing Command.com. Boy, this and
Little Blue. Seems sort of silly, but I guess it's been selling well.
It just tacks on a PC-DOS interface to ProDOS.
The last booth in the main auditorium was Applied Engineering.
I don't want to badmouth anyone here, but I know I am. This is,
however, just a long-winded expression of my opinions, and
recollections, of AppleFest. And I don't like the hard sell. And
that's what Applied was into. If they bothered to talk to anyone not
wearing a jacket, they really tried to steer the conversation to the PC
Transporter. They walked around, beaming, as if to say, "Isn't our PC
Transporter neat?" One guy (not with Applied) started getting heavy
technical into the V series chip used on the board. Now, sure, I know
enough to know that most compatibles really like to use the V chip (I
think it's the V22), but not enough to know all sorts of bugs in it,
timing problems, etc., like I do 65xxx series chips. So I asked myself,
is this a big IBM fan who wants to use his kids //e for work at home?
Then why doesn't he have a PC clone that runs at 7-10 MHz and costs
about the same? This is a theme you should have been hearing again and
again, in magazines as well as on the net. Well, whatever sells. And
I'm sure they'll sell it. Such a big promotion. And it ended not with
a bang, but a whimper.
When I tried to talk to them about anything else, they "forgot"
or "didn't know" I've talked to them on the phone more than once, and
their attitude is more one of "Hey, we're here to make money, and we're
not interested in anything you might want, if it's not what everyone
else wants." They were so busy with Little Blue at one point they told
me they may never do a 16 meg Ramworks. I don't like them. I know that
a lot of you might really like them, and I am happy that you have had
good service and good products from them, but for my money, I am going
to buy Checkmate, because I like te *people*. Just like I drive 10
miles past the nearest VW dealership to buy things. I like the other
dealership's *people*.
--
UUCP: {decvax allegra ucbcad ucbvax hplabs ihnp4}!tektronix!reed!kamath
CSNET: reed!kamath@Tektronix.CSNET || BITNET: reed!kamath@Berkeley.BITNET
ARPA: tektronix!reed!kamath@Berkeley <or> reed!kamath@hplabs
US Snail: 3934 SE Boise, Portland, OR 97202 (I hate 4 line .sigs!)BHUBER@ECLA.USC.EDU (11/06/87)
Thanks for your posting about Applefest. I enjoyed the content as well as the style. Bud
JDA@NIHCU.BITNET (11/23/87)
As requested, I am re-posting the following AppleFest report. Apparently, it
did not make it to all ARPAnet subscribers.
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From: Sean Kamath <tektronix!reed!kamath@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU>
Subject: My Great AppleFest Report and Opinion sheet (GAFRO)
Comments: To: info-apple@BRL.ARPA
To: 'Doug Ashbrook' <JDA@NIHCU>
This is part one of my Great AppleFest Report on Opinion sheet. It
contains all the exhibits in the main auditorium.
Part two has the auxiliary hall, and the conferences, as well as
addresses and information.
Sean
====Cut here====
Forty days and forty nights have passed since AppleFest, and at
last I sit down to type in my 20 page tome, as Grandma Nerd called it.
According to my dictionary, a tome is one section of a book, or a small
book in itself. Well, this is about all I have to say about AppleFest,
and I guess it is pretty big.
----------
AppleFest -- not quite a dream.
I've read some other reports of AppleFest and they all seem to
have one thing in common -- a glowing wonderment like it was Christmas.
Well, I didn't get that impression. In fact, I got hardly any such
impression at all. Having had a //e for 5 years, and working with VAXen
and a PC7300 etc. has made me somewhat spoiled. I like to get into the
guts of small machines, mostly because I can't really do the same on
larger ones. Because of this, I tend to get over the heads of many
people, including tech support and other people who are supposed to be
the "guru's". So if it seems like I'm being a little condescending, I'm
sorry. I just expected a lot of people to know more than they did,
including Apple's own.
=========================================================================
I went on a whim. I asked my girlfriend, Robin, if she wanted
to go down to San Francisco. She said yes, so we went. I don't know
what I expected, but I didn't find it there -- at least, not
immediately. It got better as I found more people and talked to more
informed folks.
After driving 12 hours from Portland, we checked into the King
George hotel. When I called to get tickets, they told me about the King
George. It was right across from the Hilton and only cost $69 + tax a
night (granted, tax brought it up to $72 or some such).
The next day we went to the Civic Auditorium. I've seen riots
more organized. When I got my tickets on the VISA, they told me they
would be there at the door. When I got to the door, they had no idea
you even *could* purchase tickets over the phone. Robin and I stood
around for a while, then sat down, until, after over an hour of waiting,
we finally met the *one* woman who was handling *all* ticket and booth
problems for the show. She lamented that when they took the orders
etc., they wrote them down but never put them in a computer. My receipt
was nowhere to be found. I ended up buying another ticket. I'm still
waiting to see if I get charged twice. This month's statement should
tell me.
We went into the "main showroom" where there were four aisles of
vendors, manufacturers, publishers, and every last one of them --
salesfolk. When you walked in, you immediately saw the Apple display.
They gave us a button and a bag. As I walked around the display, I then
realized the wave of the future, if you'll pardon the expression. Ever
wonder about everyone going mac-happy on //'s? Frankly, I really don't
understand it. It's great for educational stuff, and for beginning
users, especially those who have a fear of computers. But as you get
more and more advanced, you begin to realize that, while the mouse-based
interface with windows et al. is sometimes convenient, it can also be a
real pain, and it *slows* things down. I'm not taking about keyboard to
mouse and back, I mean text vs. graphics. Try this. Put a GS in
alternate display mode (graphics) and run this simple BASIC program:
10 FOR X = 1 TO 8000
20 PRINT "X";
30 NEXT X
It runs 40% slower. It just does. (Do this in 80 column mode,
as I don't know what the slowdown percentage is in 40 columns.). And
who needs graphics *all* the time, like when you log on to a VAX to read
news? I really like the Apple's method of having a text page and a
graphics page. You can put text on the graphics page, and sometimes
it's very nice to be able to do that, but sometimes you don't need to
*at all* (like now) and shouldn't be bogged down by it. (By the way,
how come no one has come out with a "finder" like application that uses
the mousetext characters? At least I haven't seen any. It should be
really easy, and fast.) The issue can be debated from here to eternity,
and I don't think either side will "win" so much as coexist. People
will just learn there is a time for windows, icons, mice (WIM's) and a
time for them not to be used, or at least that it isn't necessary or
even desirable. It makes programming easier.
Back to our story, down off the soapbox.
They (Apple) had about 10 computers running software from other
booths. They had a Mac running MacWrite and other MacPrograms, a few
//e's running educational software, some //c's running things like the
Print Shop, and a few GS's either trying to be Macs, or running music
programs. It seemed to say "Mac's are for business, //e's for
education, //c's for junior & sis, and a GS for everything else." Oh,
well.
Right in the entrance, immediately to the left, was Corvus.
Interestingly enough, not a hard disk in sight. I found out why in this
months A+ (I broke down and bought it because I'm going to get a hard
disk, and I want a SCSI with 20 megs that I can put DOS 3.3 on as well
as ProLOS. According to them, there isn't one made. Anyone know of
one? I refuse to switch entirely to ProLOS.[see Xebec]). It seems
Corvus and AST asked not to be covered by the magazine. I guess they
want out of the business. Corvus was showing their ELAN stuff, though.
Since I only have three computers in my house, I'm not that interested
in LAN technology. I wouldn't mind Appletalk, though. More on that
later.
A little point this reminds me of. Since I only have a //e (and
Robin has a //c) I wasn't that thrilled by new GS stuff. While I plan
to either upgrade to a GS or just get one, it's not in the immediate
future. Therefore, while I went to some GS specific things, I didn't
make a vested effort to get the latest gossip. Needless to say, Robin,
like all //c owners, continually complained about the lack of stuff for
her computer. Well, one thing was introduced that at least works on a
//c. More on that later, as well.
Right next door to Corvus was Brown Wagh Publishing. They asked
me, of the Apple specific magazines, which I liked to read the most. I
told him none of the magazines per se, that all the real info comes
through the newsletters like Open-Apple and Apple Assembly Line, as well
as in the electronic medium, such as the net. The magazines are more
Flash & Trash, with advertisements to fill it out. Not that this is
bad, mind you. He nodded his head and muttered something about A+ and
how glossy the covers were, and how expensive that was.
I trotted over to booth #803, Checkmate Technology. They had
advertised a "great unveiling" at AppleFest. I listened to the guy give
his spiel about the product, and frankly, it sounded really neat. It
basically turns *any* GS RAM card into a battery backed up one. By
plugging the other card into the Checkmate card, and the Checkmate card
into the Apple, the checkmate acts as power supply and refresh signal
while the GS is off. It's actually a pretty simple idea, and I'm
surprised no one came out with it sooner. Frankly, I believe it's
because the RAM disk mania is only now becoming widespread. I
personally don't like RAM disks. I much prefer hard disks, with, oh, 20
ms seek time, and intelligent disk caching. And frankly, a 1 meg RAM
board can run you more than some 20 meg hard disks. But caching isn't a
big deal -- at least not yet. It appears that Apple is planning to add
it to ProDOS 16 sometime in the future. More on that (guess when!)
later.
I asked them why it was that both Applied and (well at least)
Coit Valley Computers were advertising 16 & 17 meg //e's (respectively)
but when I called, Applied told me it may be a few years before they
tackled the problem. The technical representative I spoke with told me
that basically everyone was waiting for the new 4 meg RAM chips. Also,
Dennis Domms (Open-Apple contributor) said when he talked to them, he
found out (from those in the know) that there is a problem with going
past 8 meg, something about the 80 column firmware or addressing scheme.
I guess we just wait and see. [Applied's catalog lists a 16 meg
Ramworks III -- it's not priced, and it says "custom". I guess they
wouldn't mind some research funds. . .]
I also asked around about the 65816 add-ons. I guess Checkmate
has sold around 50 to date. I intend to be the 51'st, at least when I
can have more than 3 meg (I guess Applied just introduced up to 5 meg,
but I don't much like them. More on that (groan) later). I really want
8, but I'll settle for 5 (maybe).
Moving up to the first aisle, we walked by several booths
dedicated to educational uses of computers. That's fine with me, I
firmly believe in their use in education. However, since I don't teach
any "real" classes (occasionally I teach Reedies something in a two day
class, but then we teach them such things as C programming and
communications), they were not of much interest to me. I therefore
apologize to those of you in the educational area that hoped to read
about the latest and greatest eduware.
I walked up to the GEnie booth. They had a //e linked up, and
were showing people how it worked. I assume that if you are reading
this on the net, then you pretty much know enough about that, at least
more then they were showing at AppleFest.
It was rather an interesting spectacle. Either a company went
all out and had mondo booths with tons o' equipment, or they just sort
of sat around. Broderbund is a good example. We've all heard of
Broderbund. I walked past them several times before I realized they
were even there. Another example was Compute! Publications. Unlike A+
(Ziff Davis) and InCider (CW Communications), who were out *in force*,
Compute! was so small I didn't even know they exhibited until I got
home.
Ohio Kache Systems was handing out demo disks. The demo program
was rather simplistic in terms of trying to explain caching, but then
caching is not really that simple a concept. In any case, every time I
walked by, they gave me a disk (Robin too!), and now I feel stupid for
buying the ten disks I did buy, even if they were different colors. I
feel really awkward about Ohio Kache. Why? Because I really want it,
only for a hard disk. I haven't really looked into it, as I A) haven't
got a hard disk, and B) haven't got the money. I really feel that
caching is the way to go, but you just can't cache anything less than
800K disks (then it' called a RAM disk :-) ). I guess I'm spoiled by
our VAX.
Call A.P.P.L.E was there selling cheap SCSI 20 megger's by CMS.
I now understand some things. Apparently, the Apple SCSI card is not
usable on a standard SCSI drive, only one designed for Apple's card.
Now, the CMS card is "standard" SCSI. Does this mean I can nab a really
cheap used SCSI drive and link it up to their (CMS) card? Also, I asked
an Apple Tech if the SCSI card (Apple) did DMA on the motherboard. He
told me it was all "programmed I/O". Now, I thought SCSI was DMA? If
it is, then Apple's version either does DMA on the card, or that's the
major modification they did to the SCSI interface (maybe. It probably
is cabling and termination.). In any case, the reason why this is
important will be explained "later" (See the ZIP chip).
Call A.P.P.L.E. was our first example of what was to come at
the show. SELL SELL SELL! They were selling the CMS drives for some
quantity of money, but I just read an add in Call A.P.P.L.E.'s magazine.
Computers Direct is selling the 20 meg for $499.95. Cheaper than a
Sider, and SCSI to boot.
(By the way, this is not in chronological order. Robin and I
walked a very run of the mill drunkard's walk around the place, the only
way to do it. This covers a three day sojourn into the dark and pitiful
world of Consumerism and Business. It has also been more than a few
weeks since the Fest, and I have read Fire in the Valley since then. I
has given me a little better understanding of business in the
microcomputer world. I whole heartily recommend it for reading.)
So why was it the hard sell at AppleFest? I found out at booth
#222, Open-Apple. After talking to the Open-Apple brigade (Tom
Weishaar, Dennis Domms, and Jim Luther), I found out why it was such the
hard sell there. It cost a lot to display, and many small companies had
to make it up by selling their products. The only reason Open-Apple
came was because they got a booth right next to Beagle Bros. They were
selling the "cheapest thing" at AppleFest -- posters. So I bought one.
Got one free, too. They were four pictures that had appeared in
Open-Apple before, most notably Matthew Monitor, Dr. Basic, and Uncle
DOS. However, I bought a disk from a retail outlet for 1/4 the price. .