info-mac-request@SUMEX-AIM.STANFORD.EDU (The Moderators) (05/10/91)
Info-Mac Digest Thu, 9 May 91 Volume 9 : Issue 105
Today's Topics:
[*] Bernoulli summary
A Few Questions....
Apple Video Graphics Accelerator
Can you help . . . .?
conversion and typesetting
Ethernet vs. Token Ring
Filemaker Pro problems
hypercard 2.0 pw lockout
Info-Mac Digest V9 #103
Info-Mac Digest V9 #104
Latest CAP
Liason
Mac and IIgs Network
MacTCP and Color SimCity
modeling of polytopes
speech
TeX
Token Ring & SE/30
What is this virus?
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----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu, May 9, 1991 12:55:54 PM
From: Adam Engst <ace%tidbits.UUCP@theory.tn.cornell.edu>
Subject: [*] Bernoulli summary
I originally wrote:
> I'm thinking about getting a removable cartridge drive and was
> wondering what people thought about the Bernoulli drives from Iomega.
> I've read all the articles in the magazines and am not concerned with
> compatibility with other people since I don't transfer large files.
> I'm more concerned with reliability and general purpose use - backups,
> specialized volumes (ie I want a publishing disk with all my fonts and
> PageMaker and all that stuff that clutters my hard disk for the few
> times a month that I use it). Cost is not a super big deal - I'd like
> to pay as little as possible, but I'm willing to pay to get a reliable
> system - I hate disk errors, particularly on large volumes.
>
> So if you've used a Bernoulli drive, send me mail and let me know what
> you think. I'll summarize if there are enough responses.
>
> Many thanks!
>
> -Adam Engst, TidBITS Editor
After seeing these responses I decided that the Bernoulli did not make as much
sense for my needs as a cheap SyQuest ($479 with on cartridge from APS,
cartridges $72 each) which I just got today. The Bernoulli mechanism seems more
reliable (as evidenced by their demo, in which a running drive is repeatedly
slammed on a table as a multimedia presentation plays from it), but the media
doesn't seem to have the level of reliability over time that the company
promises despite the superior technology. In addition, if the drives are loud,
that makes them less useful for everyday use, which I do need.
And here are the responses:
[Archived as /info-mac/report/bernoulli.txt; 8K]
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 9 May 91 14:50 EST
From: THE GOAT SLAYER <G_WERNER@cc.brynmawr.edu>
Subject: A Few Questions....
Hello there....
I have a Mac LC, and I have just switched over to TrueType.
However, a CDEV that I have entitled POPCHAR (avail. in the archives) which
allows one to see all of the font's characters, does not seem to work anymore.
Has anyone else had this problem? And will it be fixed?
Second, does anyone know of a good place to buy 4 meg SIMMs for my Mac LC?
If so, could you please let me know.
Third, when Apple releases System 7 next week, how will we be able to upgrade?
Finnally, what is FONTMONGER and where can you get it?
Thanks....
Gordon Werner G_WERNER@cc.brynmawr.edu
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 09 May 91 09:21:21 CDT
From: Peter Gerhardstein <gerhard@sunserver.psych.umn.edu>
Subject: Apple Video Graphics Accelerator
Greetings:
I am looking for documentation/assistance on the 8.24 Graphics Accelerator
by Apple. I am attempting to write to the video memory, and with every other
board, determining the correct Graphics Device and obtaining a pointer to the
start of the video memory from the Device works fine. It does *not* work
with the Graphics Accelerator installed (or am I crazy and it simply doesn't
work with the IIfx at all?). If anyone can point me in the right direction,
please drop me a line. Thanks
Peter Gerhardstein --> sunserver.psych.umn.edu
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 09 May 91 14:38:24 EDT
From: "Charles A. Patrick" <PATCHAS@vm.nrc.ca>
Subject: Can you help . . . .?
Greetings Netters,
I am hoping one of you will be able to help me locate a piece of software. I
have a recollection of reading a brief announcement in MacWorld, some months
ago, of a commercial product that tracked the elevation of the Sun.
As I recall, the input "parameters" were:
the LATITUDE of the point of observation;
the DATE of observation; and
the DIRECTION faced by the observer.
The output was a simulation of the progress of the Sun across the heavens and
continuously updated elevation or azimuth readings.
I have searched through most recent back issues of both MacWorld and MacUser.
I have asked around among fellow-Mac-users. I have posted the question on the
local user group Bulletin Board. All to no avail, so much so that I am
beginning to wonder whether I am imagining things . . . .!
More to the point: has anyone heard of this piece of software, or indeed any
other that performs the same type of function.
Please respond to me directly. Thanks.
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 09 May 91 18:16:25 BST
From: Donald Peterson <PetersonDM@computer-science.birmingham.ac.uk>
Subject: conversion and typesetting
I have to edit an academic book on a Mac IIcx and produce camera ready
copy at the end. The contributions will arrive on disc from different
word processors, and the final result should be well typeset. So I
have two tasks, on which I'd be very grateful for advice.
(1) Text Format Conversion. I'd anticipate using Word or Macwrite to
do the basic editing: is there an easy way of doing the conversions?
Is there a utility for doing such things as removing the paragraph
breaks at the ends of lines in ASCII files from a Unix system,
removing or converting control codes etc.?
(2) The final text will be nothing fancy, just a straight text book,
but the paragraph formatting (automatic tracking, kerning, leading,
hyphenation etc) should be good, or else we'll have to pay a lot to a
publishing house to do it. The output should have the sort of quality
available in LaTeX, which I'd rather not use for this task.(I've been
told that Adobe screen fonts make a difference? I can't understand
why, but if so, where can I get them?)
So would it help to run the final edited document through
Quark or PageMaker or even Interleaf? If so, can anyone advise
settings which would be appropriate? I'm not looking to do manual
kerning etc., just standard settings to process the document
automatically. Or is the output of Word just as good as that of these
DTP programs for a plain book.
I'd appreciate any advice on these points.
Donald Peterson.
------------------------------
Date: 09 May 91 20:44 GMT
From: KURAS@applelink.apple.com (Kuras, Patrick)
Subject: Ethernet vs. Token Ring
>The recent postings on token ring vs. ethernet only begin to scratch the
>surface of the networking problems likely to be encountered by Mac users.
>MacTCP, for instance, does not support the standard Internet protocols
>TCP/IP with Apple's tokentalk card (or any other T'ring card at the moment).
This is true, but it needn't remain that way. That's a software issue that no
one has seen fit to solve as of right now.
>In practice this means that the encapsulated T'ring packets produced by
>a dedicated mac running MacTCP with tokentalk can only be understood by
>another Mac with the tokentalk card. Not very useful in the kind of
>computing environment likely to be found at a university with an IBM
>mainframe. To get on the token ring, a Mac must send tokentalk packets
>to a router (Gator Box, etc.) which cost nearly $20,000. PCs with
>a token card can get to the T'ring with nothing more than an inexpensive
>bridge.
Well, you're sort of right here. But in reality the only reason a Mac user
would have TCP/IP would be to get at IP services. There's no point in having it
just to communicate with other Macs, even if you could do that.
More to the point, though, you ought to go out and price AppleTalk
router/gateways. The router/gateway that encapsulates and de-encapsulates
TCP/IP stuff in AppleTalk DDP is nowhere near $20,000. You may be referring to
a cisco AGS+ or something like that (which will do this), but a FastPath or a
GatorBox can be had for under $2000.
I hope this improves your outlook somewhat.
pat
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 9 May 91 15:39:42 EDT
From: Francis Taylor <narf@media-lab.media.mit.edu>
Subject: Filemaker Pro problems
I'm posting this for a friend:
Two SEs on our net have repeatedly gotten their systems corrupted by
using Filemaker Pro. The setup is as follows: one SE (who has had no
problems) opens the database files on an Appleshare server. Everyone
else hits the network button to open the database after that.
Everyone is running system 6.0.4 with minimal (and similar) INITs.
Several SEs have not had any problems. I'm stumped and Claris tech
support hasn't heard of this problem. Has anyone experienced anything
like this? Thanks in advance.
Please send replies to: Nate Goldshlag <75016.60@CompuServe.COM>
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 9 May 91 08:30:56 +0800
From: bcarter@claven.idbsu.edu
Subject: hypercard 2.0 pw lockout
> I just locked myself out of my program in Hypercard 2.0. I wanted to
>...
>How do I delete the password??!? HELP!
>
>George Lai ST701640@brownvm
Actually, there is no password set, you've just locked the userlevel. Hold down
the command key when selecting the file menu from the menubar, and Protect Stack
will reappear. Select it and reset the userlevel. You're back in business.
Also, there are several stacks around with XCMDs that blow away the protection
if you do manage to forget an assigned password (the flip side of this is don't
count on password protecting slowing anyone down much).
Bruce Carter - Internet: bcarter@claven.idbsu.edu - Bitnet: duscarte@idbsu
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 9 May 1991 19:43:50 GMT
From: John_Mansfield@emal.sprl.umich.edu (John F. Mansfield)
Subject: Info-Mac Digest V9 #103
In article <9105072118.AA10555@sumex-aim.stanford.edu>, info-mac-request@SUMEX-AIM.STANFORD.EDU (The Moderators) writes:
> Date: Thu, 18 Apr 91 03:49:33 CDT
> From: 231b3679@fergvax.unl.edu (Mike Gleason)
> Subject: [*] font-cascade.hqx
>
> With all those neat TrueType fonts starting to arrive, I looked for any
> application that could display a fontsize larger than 127 points. Word,
> MacWrite, SuperPaint, or MacDraw couldn't do it, so I had to whip up this
> program, Font Cascade, just to see some really big characters. Font Cascade
> can open up other suitcase files, in addition to the fonts installed in your
> System. I've added some other goodies, like displaying whole ranges of sizes
> and styles at a time. This little 8k program helps me decide which TrueType
> fonts will make it into my System, perhaps it will be of use to fellow netters.
>
> Enjoy!
> _mike gleason, 231b3679@fergvax.unl.edu
For those of you who might be interested, Wayne Rasband's program Image
supports text with larger than 127 points. It does bitmap the text as it
draws it but you can view some pretty sizable letters! ie you can fill the
screen with one letter.
Just thought you might like to know.
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 9 May 1991 14:44 EST
From: Mehboob Alam - Macintosh Monster <MD_MALAM@vaxc.stevens-tech.edu>
Subject: Info-Mac Digest V9 #104
> From: Marc Cooper <MAC566F%SMSVMA.BITNET@forsythe.stanford.edu>
> Subject: Token ring and ethernet
> The recent postings on token ring vs. ethernet only begin to scratch the
> surface of the networking problems likely to be encountered by Mac users.
> MacTCP, for instance, does not support the standard Internet protocols
> TCP/IP with Apple's tokentalk card (or any other T'ring card at the moment).
> In practice this means that the encapsulated T'ring packets produced by
> a dedicated mac running MacTCP with tokentalk can only be understood by
> another Mac with the tokentalk card. Not very useful in the kind of
> computing environment likely to be found at a university with an IBM
> mainframe. To get on the token ring, a Mac must send tokentalk packets
> to a router (Gator Box, etc.) which cost nearly $20,000. PCs with
> a token card can get to the T'ring with nothing more than an inexpensive
> bridge.
! A GatorBox costs between $3000 and $2000; for educational
institutions, they should tend towards $2000. Furthermore, that's not
the only option available. NRC (Network Resources Corp.) sells
several routing options. The most attractive is the software router
(I forget the exact name) which does full routing and extraction of
MacTCP packets from AppleTalk packets and sends them out as TCP
packets. I don't know if this works with your TokenTalk setup, but it
costs list $795.00. It requires a dedicated EtherTalk board (Asantes
are the best combination) and can run in the background of a existing
AppleShare server.
> When the T'ring backbone goes through my building, our dean will
> probably ask us what are the benefits of networking and how
> much does it cost? The copper to fiber connection together with the
> bridge is likely to be inexpensive enough to justify the cost since
> we probably have 100 pc's in the building. How will I justify a gateway
> or expensive router for a couple of Macs?
This router can be installed anywhere on your network, as long as the
Macintosh needing it can see the router on AppleTalk.
> My only real hope for networking at the moment is that a) Apple will
> improve MacTCP to support native token ring packets, or; b) Computer
> Services will decide to go with ethernet instead of tokenring.
> Acknowledge-To: <MAC566F@SMSVMA>
Call Frank Terlecki (617-878-0988) at NRC in Mass. That's the only
phone number I have at the moment. He should be able to work on your
specific need and discuss an appropriate solution. We haven't bought
anything from them yet, but the above mentioned software router looks
very attractive.
Mehboob Alam
MD_MALAM@STEVENS
MD_MALAM@SITVAX.STEVENS-TECH.EDU
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 9 May 91 12:07:16 MDT
From: Clay Calhoun <jcc@ssds.com>
Subject: Latest CAP
Where can I obtain the latest version of CAP?
-clay
(jcc@ssds.com)
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 09 May 91 10:28:32 EST
From: Pete Tamas <V5296E%TEMPLEVM.bitnet@ricevm1.rice.edu>
Subject: Liason
What is liaison (sp?)? I understand it is a cdev used in networks, but I
could use additional info & comments, bug reports, version 3.0 vs. 2.0,
etc. Thanks--Pete
Acknowledge-To: <V5296E@TEMPLEVM>
------------------------------
Date: 09 May 91 20:44 GMT
From: KURAS@applelink.apple.com (Kuras, Patrick)
Subject: Mac and IIgs Network
>I'm interested in networking a "Woz" IIGS running the "old" SCSI card and
>a 32MB CMS drive with a MAC IIcx with Sony/Apple 40MB internal drive. Best
>possible results would be a sharing of an IW-II printer and allowing the
>IIGS and IIcx to share space in the external CMS drive. Cost is always a
>factor! Any help/suggestions from your readers would be great.
Networking the IIgs and the Mac to share an AppleTalk ImageWriter II is no
problem. You just need the ImageWriter LocalTalk option card for your printer
and a LocalTalk or compatible network connector for each device.
Sharing the hard disk is a bit more sticky. Using System 7's FileShareing
feature, you can store IIgs files on the Mac's disk. The Mac acts like an
AppleShare file server, and the IIgs just logs on with its AppleShare client
software. There is no way for the IIgs to serve files for the Mac, though, so
if you wanted to use the CMS drive for both, you'd have to put it on the Mac
and get at it over the network for the IIgs. I would still recommend, however,
that you have a hard disk local to the IIgs, so this is probably not a workable
solution.
Good luck with the printer, though.
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 9 May 91 08:33:22 +0800
From: bcarter@claven.idbsu.edu
Subject: MacTCP and Color SimCity
>1) We use the MacTCP driver extensively here on all models of macs except
>SE/30's. I'm not able to get it to work correctly on the one SE/30 we have
>(system 6.0.5 - finder 6.1.5). It is not a network problem and I'm pretty
>sure that there are no init problems. Has anyone gotten MacTCP to work on an
>SE/30? Does anyone know of a reason that it shouldn't?
>Patrick Bray bray@think.com
We have a site license for MacTCP (1.0.1) and have it running on several types
of machines. I personally have it running on 2 SE/30's here in the lab one
running system 6.0.7 and the other running System 7 (AdminTCP can't be opened
under System 7 it seems on any machine by the way. Apparently a fix for this is
due from Apple in June). I can't think of any reason why it wouldn't work for
you unless possibly if you have an old version. By any chance do you have any
of the Liason material installed? We have had some problems running MacTCP on
machines that have Liason incorrectly or partially installed. When in doubt,
start stuffing INITs and CDEVs into a "disable" folder and see if it works with
a clean system folder.
I don't have a clue on your SimCity problem, though. I've got the color version
running on a IIcx, but we don't have a IIsi on which to test it.
Bruce Carter - Internet: bcarter@claven.idbsu.edu - Bitnet: duscarte@idbsu
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 9 May 91 8:07:24 EDT
From: Peter Beck (LCWSL) <pbeck@pica.army.mil>
Subject: modeling of polytopes
I am looking for software to construct polytopes from polygons.
I want to investigate the dissections and the space filling properties of
the constructed polytopes.
thanks
<PBECK@PICA.ARMY.MIL>
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 09 May 91 18:17:55 BST
From: Donald Peterson <PetersonDM@computer-science.birmingham.ac.uk>
Subject: speech
Can anyone recommed a program for the Mac which reads text and
'speaks' it by speech synthesis. Is there by any chance one for
languages other than English?
Donald Peterson.
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 9 May 91 15:32:57 CDT
From: "sendhil revuluri" <revu@midway.uchicago.edu>
Subject: TeX
Thanks to everyone who pointed me to OzTeX, available via anonymous FTP at
tank.uchicago.edu, in the /pub/OzTeX directory. (Can you see YOUR nose without
a mirror? I sure can't. And this is why I didn't see it on my very own machine.)
Also endorsed was
> TeXtures, from Blue Sky Research, is a great implementation of TeX
> for the mac, from the best software company I've ever dealt with,
> and they have an educational discount that's around $95, or at
> least it was a couple of years ago. Well worth the money.
>
> -les niles@parc.xerox.com
>
> Just a satisified customer
Take your pick!
Sendhil Revuluri
revu@midway.uchicago.edu
University of Chicago
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 09 May 91 11:41:37 EST
From: Murph Sewall <SEWALL%UCONNVM.BITNET@forsythe.stanford.edu>
Subject: Token Ring & SE/30
We're still at the point of LAN adoption. The campus supports Token
Ring and Ethernet, but the Computer Center is recommending Token Ring
for our building (eventually 70 PC's, 10 Macs). The message from Marc
Cooper saying Apple's TokenTalk card does not properly support TCP/IP
packets is disturbing. Is that true if the LAN software is Novell
Netware 386?
Another problem is there does not appear to be a TokenRing card for
our SE/30s (correct?). In theory, it ought to be possible to make a
NuBus adaptor for an SE/30 direct slot which would allow a NuBus Token
Ring card to be used with an SE/30. Has anyone heard of such a thing
(vendor address and phone number would be nice)?
I have this nagging feeling that Ethernet would be less hassle, but our
Computer Center people swear Token Ring is the way to go. Can anyone
name a site running mixed PC and Mac LANs on Token Ring on which both
the PC's and the Macs can telnet and ftp?
Given our "brink of disastor" financial situation, the hardware for the
LAN is (relatively anyway) major bucks. If we go wrong, the Computer
Center's techies are going to say "well, we *thought* it would work..."
but we will be *stuck* with the bill :-( I feel like someone who's doctor
has recommended open heart surgery; I'm willing to listen to the expert, but
I'd be happier with a second (or third, fourth...) opinion.
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 09 May 91 09:28:23 EST
From: Murph Sewall <SEWALL%UCONNVM.BITNET@forsythe.stanford.edu>
Subject: What is this virus?
On 8 May 91 17:43:47 GMT you said:
>Can anyone identify a virus which causes an occasional crash after
>it displays a crudely drawn "unhappy face" on the right hand side of
>the menu bar. Disinfectant 2.1 did not find it, and SAM Virus Clinic
>crashes every time I have it scan what I suspect is the infected drive.
>What is this virus and how does one remove it?
On the logic that most reported "viruses" are problems caused by some
other virus... What INITs and cdevs have you got in your System Folder?
What was the LAST thing you installed before you had this problem (and
WHERE did it come from?).
As a first step toward really checking for a virus; download the current
version of Disinfectant (2.4). I don't see anything in Disinfectant's
documentation which could account for the symptoms as you report them,
but from what I understand of the MDEF virus, it could conceivably be
modified to create the symptoms you've reported.
If you reinstall System, Finder, and DA Handler, does the problem disappear?
If so, the John Norstad and the other "virus detectives" might like to have
a look at your the System, Finder, and DA Handler that have the problem.
------------------------------
End of Info-Mac Digest
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