Info-Mac-Request@SUMEX-AIM.STANFORD.EDU (The Moderators) (09/23/89)
Info-Mac Digest Sat, 23 Sep 89 Volume 7 : Issue 168
Today's Topics:
A motion to make TeachText the standard...
Apple's announcements today...
A Slow/Non-Starting HD40 Caused By Large System File.
Bad Apple Drives? Drive Help?
Big, fast hard drives (2 msgs)
CE QuickMail
data acquisition
Mac DSP system
NeXT-like buttons in HyperCard
nVIR A infection question.
Postscript0 File location. Where?
Printer Driver
Superdrive Problems w/Mac II
Terminally ill!
the whole apple II line.
WARNING NoteWriter Software Infected!
Word 3 & 4 co-existence tip
Your Info-Mac Moderators are Bill Lipa, Lance Nakata, and Jon Pugh.
The Info-Mac archives are available (by using FTP, account anonymous,
any password) in the info-mac directory on sumex-aim.stanford.edu
[36.44.0.6]. Help files are in /info-mac/help. Indicies are in
/info-mac/help/recent-files.txt and /info-mac/help/all-files.txt.
Please send articles and binaries to info-mac@sumex-aim.stanford.edu.
Send administrative mail to info-mac-request@sumex-aim.stanford.edu.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: 19 SEP 89 20:33:52 CST
From: Z4648252 <Z4648252%SFAUSTIN.BITNET@forsythe.stanford.edu>
Subject: A motion to make TeachText the standard...
Since this forum is frequented by developers and programmers who
provide a muchly needed service with their utilities and programs, I
pray that the same will heed a minor request of mine. Would you please
use TeachText for your text and instruction files??? Pretty please?
I don't like MacWrite. It is SLOW, takes too long to load, and I
could care less if a 'read me' file has underscores, bold faced text,
or italics. The purpose of an instructional document is to give an
overview of the program. Obviously, exceptions would occur if
diagrams are required and so forth.
But, for a straight-forward document which requires no special
formatting or graphics, wouldn't it be far better for it to be in
TeachText format? Things would certainly be faster in that text
viewer than the plp plp plp plp plp down arrowed scrolling that one
has to put up with while using MacWrite.
The same could be said for documents that are saved in "non-
standard" format: Word, WordPerfect, FullWrite, etc. Not everyone
has these programs. Save your document, if there are no graphical
reasons, in TeachText. Please?????????????
Larry Rymal: |East Texas Atari 68NNNers| <Z4648252@SFAUSTIN.BITNET>
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 20 Sep 89 20:26:20 EDT
From: dmg@lid.mitre.org (David Gursky)
Subject: Apple's announcements today...
I was at the DC unveiling of the two new Macs today; the IIci and the Portable.
While Apple (IMO) is beginning to do a better job of getting the best machines
possible to market, they have not done as well as I would have hoped with
these two entries.
Consider the following. The IIci wil retail for about $1,500 more than the
IIcx. Well, for that $1,500, I can get a video card and a Dove Accelerator
(does the Marathon run on the IIcx? If not, will Dove put out a Marathon that
does?) for a IIcx with a 32Mhz 030. Now if a 25Mhz offers a 60% increase in
speed over a 16Mhz 030, a 32Mhz 030 ought to offer about 40% increase over a
25Mhz platform.
Also consider this. The Portable announced today is equipped with only a
68000 and 1M, expandable to 2M. System 7.0 will run on this, barely, and you
will not have the advantage of virtual memory. Sure, there is a slot for
accelerators, but when you consider that you need a CMOS 68030 or 68852 in the
slot, you understand that accelerator will be very expensive.
I think Apple has a good start, but they only rate a B or B- in my book. These
two machines could have been great, instead, they are just slightly above
average.
I suppose I should add the caveat that is just my opinion, and does not
represent anyone or any organization's official thought. Just some plain
talking.
David Gursky
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 19 Sep 89 8:55:58 EDT
From: "Stephen M. Wall" (PM-CAWS) <smwall@pica.army.mil>
Subject: A Slow/Non-Starting HD40 Caused By Large System File.
I have read with much interest the recent correspondence about slow and/or
unsuccessful Hard Drive startups because a colleague has had the same
experience. For background info his system is a MAC II with internal HD40 and
2 Mb of RAM, and running System 6.0.2. The problem he described began with
slow startups, sometimes failing to bootup ever, finally progressing to the
point that the system never started up at all. During the long startups his
monitor displayed the "Flashing Question Mark inside a Disk" icon, indicating
that the computer wanted a System disk to start from. Today I finally got
curious and so I booted his system from a floppy disk and went poking around
his HD40. Lo and behold, I found that his copy of the file SYSTEM had grown
to 8.5Mb. I then scanned his HD40 with my copy of Disinfectant 1.2, but it
didn't find any viruses. Writing over this System with the original floppy
disk version corrected his problem. Knowing his usage of the MAC (mostly for
short word-processing jobs, E-Mail, presentation preparation, and to jot down
small notes to himself using a "Rolodex" application), it's inconceivable to
me that he could have built up the System file to this extreme by innocent,
naive usage. I then did some more checking around, and found another MAC II
with a System file 1.8Mb in size. Again, the usage, amount of Fonts, DAs,
CDEVs, etc, don't account for the size of the file (this user lives, eats, and
breathes spreadsheets). I have installed Gatekeeper on my MAC, and am
thereby familiar with the fact that some programs do some very strange
manipulation of the Resource forks of other files, but have never heard of any
nonviral application that is capable of building up System to this extent.
Can anyone suggest a possible cause?
Steve Wall
Office of the Product Manager,
Howitzer Improvement Program
P.S. I can get a copy of the 1.8Mb System and will forward if asked.
Internet: smwall@pica.army.mil
US Mail: Attn: AMCPM-HIP-SY, Bldg 172
Picatinny Arsenal, NJ 07806
Disclaimer: All opinions expressed herein are subject to change without
notice.
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 19 Sep 89 18:55:08 GMT
From: elroy!grian!liz@ames.arc.nasa.gov (Liz Allen-Mitchell)
Subject: Bad Apple Drives? Drive Help?
This posting was prompted by many calls for disk drive help. I hope
it's useful.
[[[***DISCLAIMER***]]]
I might make some money if you read this posting and decide the service
described herein is worthwhile. But that's because
we offer a service we feel is worth the price. So do our customers.
See the end of this article for name/address/etc for more information.
This article is informational only, and is based only on the experiences
of the author. No direct condemnation of any product, company, service,
statistical acceptance method, quality control program, marketing
strategy, country, contractor, subcontractor, chip manufacturer, silicon
foundry, design team, bank, chip architect, drive architect, software
program, firmware revision level, financial statement or other portion
of the industry commonly referred to as "the disk drive manufacturers"
or "the computer industry" is expressed, implied, intended or entended.
[[[***END OF DISCLAIMER***]]]
I've been recovering data from dead hard drives for over three years,
and it's from that point-of-view that I see this situation. I don't
much see "good" drives (well, once in a moon Barry lets me see one--but
I just sacrificed my very own working drive so a Maryland video store
could live again...) I don't have any stats or hard numbers, I just
live at the bottom of the food chain where the worst cases filter. And
they have been filtering rather faster than they used to.
Never have I seen so many drives failed for so many people, nor in such
spectacular fashion--especially those on the Mac.
This doesn't seem to apply nearly so much to PC drives, nor the others
like ESDI/Big SCSI drives we work on. By far, the most drives we seei
are Mac SCSI drives, the common ones like Quantum, Seagate & MiniScribe
especially. Priam and CDC we don't see much, nor Maxtor, but then they
are built to a much higher level of quality (& priced accordingly!).
Now, I won't pretend that I know completely why, but in general my hunch
is simple: they ain't building 'em like they used to: they build them
worse. With the recent, shocking news about MiniScribe (see: LAT, SJMN,
WSJ, et al) I must sadly say I'm not surprised at the 8425S and 8425SAs
failing in numbers. I like MiniScribe the company and the people I work
with there, but if any portion of the recent news is to be believed,
it's hard not to imagine what that means for quality.
But the other, low-priced consumer drives fail, in large numbers.
Seagates, especially Apple and CMS-labeled ones, come through our door
regularly. They fail due to
overheating (especially a problem with any Mac design, as there is never
enough airflow), simple abuse, Old Movie Disease and other causes I
can't quantify yet.
The Quantum Q40 and Q80 drives (3.5" 40 and 80 meg SCSI drives used in
the CX, the SE and lately the IIx) simply stop spinning--a problem we
can deal with in our lab, often without voiding the warranty. The older
Quantum drives, the 5.25" 40 and 80 meg SCSI drives as seen in the older
II, IIx and external HD40 and 80--are particularly susceptible to
overheat. But we can often fix them, too, depending on the severity of
the problem.
Especially with SCSI drives, now, there are no guarantees. But we have
a body of experience which lets us drag data off all but the most
obstreperous Mac and PC drives. As we also fix drives (data recovered
or not), we have some experience with how they fail, from the
"postmortem" phase.
If you feel we can be of help, please contact us. We have info sheets
on the service upon request. I hesitate to publish more about pricing
&c because of the "no commercial use" covenant on UUCP, but I will be
happy to reply in mail.
Alex Pournelle
Vice-President for Research & Development
Workman & Associates
Phone: 818-791-7979
2400baud BBS (24 hours)
791-1013
Facsimile: 794-2297
BIX: w.and.a conference
UUCP: elroy!grian!alex, or, if you prefer
alex@grian.cps.altadena.ca.us
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 19 Sep 89 5:31:30 PDT
From: cpdaux!steve@apple.com (Steve Lemke)
Subject: Big, fast hard drives
>I am looking for a new hard drive to be used on my AppleShare file server.
>It needs to be blazingly fast (under 20 ms) and between 100 and 200 megs.
>It also needs to be reliable and come with some decent software.
>Does anyone have any experience with drives that meet these criteria?
>Thanks in advance.
Check out MicroNet drives. You can find their ads in either MacWeek, MacWorld,
or MacUser. They're in the (714) area code, and you can email me if you can't
find their ads. They specialize in high performance, high capacity drives,
such as the CDC Wren series. These drives start at 105mb, and go all the way
to 600 and 1000mb (1gig). Access times are as fast as 10ms (uncached). They
are available as internal drives for the Mac II or external drives. In
addition to fast seek times, they also boast some of the fastest data transfer
times, which is critical to performance - once the head is there, it also is
capable of moving some data rather quickly.
Just a satisfied customer, having bought a drive last summer and recommended
them to several other people (nobody's complained yet)...
--
----- Steve Lemke ------------------- "MS-DOS (OS/2, etc.) - just say no!"
----- Internet: cpdaux!steve@apple.com GEnie: LEMKE
----- Or try: apple!cpdaux!steve CompuServe: 73627,570
----- Quote: "What'd I go to college for?" "You had fun, didn't you?"
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 19 Sep 89 05:22:02 GMT
From: Scott Truesdell <truesdel@ics.uci.edu>
Subject: Big, fast hard drives
Bob Bolt <BBOLT%UALTAVM.BITNET@forsythe.stanford.edu> writes:
>I am looking for a new hard drive to be used on my AppleShare file server.
>It needs to be blazingly fast (under 20 ms) and between 100 and 200 megs.
>It also needs to be reliable and come with some decent software.
>Does anyone have any experience with drives that meet these criteria?
>Thanks in advance.
You want a CDC Imprimis Wren series hard disk. Several popular Mac
developers offer these drives in internal and external models. The
Imprimis reputation speaks for itself: large, fast, reliable.
There almost isn't a 2nd place.
One company who does a very good job is MicroNet, in Irvine, California.
Their phone number is (714) 837-6033. They won't sell direct, but
can steer you towards a dealer.
--scott
--
Scott Truesdell
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 19 Sep 89 14:53:04 edt
From: Steve Ebbets <ebbets@B43.NRL.NAVY.MIL>
Subject: CE QuickMail
Hi Netters,
Anybody out there have experience with CE Software's
QuickMail and/or StarNine Technologies Mail*Link SMTP?
I am exploring mail forwarding from Unix to Mac. Any
help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Steve Ebbets
U.S. N[C[C[C[C[C[C[C[C[C[C[C[C[C[CLab,
Washington, DC
------------------------------
Date: 19 Sep 89 15:25:00 EST
From: "ZZT" <zzt@stc10.ctd.ornl.gov>
Subject: data acquisition
One good way to acquire data with the Mac that I know of is to use National
Instruments' LabVIEW. It's a program with a graphical language that knows
all about GPIB and is probably the easiest (though most expensive) solution
available.
Jon Tischler (ARPANET) zzt@ornl.gov
------------------------------
Date: 19 Sep 89 13:37 -0700
From: hedstrom@sirius.uvic.ca
Subject: Mac DSP system
My supervisor informed me yesturday that we have about $20k to spend on a
DSP workstation. Being a Mac enthusiast since the 128k days, I would like to
base it on the IIx (or IIi -)). Problem, I can't seem to find any list of
suppliers of DSP development systems (both harware and software). I would
really appreciate any recommendations (names, experiences, etc.) from people
who are using (or planning to use) Macs for DSP work.
_____________________________________________________________________________
Brad Hedstrom, University of Victoria, ECE Dept.
Internet: hedstrom@sirius.uvic.ca
UUCP: ...!{uw-beaver,ubc-vision}!uvicctr!hedstrom
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 19 Sep 89 17:01 CDT
From: John DeSoi <desoi@cssun.tamu.edu>
Subject: NeXT-like buttons in HyperCard
Someone thought there exists some kind of tool for producing NeXT-like
3D buttons in HyperCard. I have not seen one. Does anyone else know
anything about this?
John F. DeSoi
Laboratory for Software Research
Texas A&M University
College Station, Texas 77843-3112
(409) 845-4306
INTERNET: desoi@cssun.tamu.edu
BITNET: desoi@tamlsr
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 19 Sep 89 08:59 EDT
From: What will become of Sir Launcelot now? <CHGARNETT%AMHERST.BITNET@cunyvm.cuny.edu>
Subject: nVIR A infection question.
Hello all.
We've had an attack of the nVIR A virus here. Apparently the Apple dealer
who installed the software on the Macs we sold our students infected the
master hard disk, and all of these machines had the virus in a single
application.
The question is: Will running around to all these machines with something
like Disinfectant and eradicating the virus with it cure the problem? So far,
I've cleaned nearly 80 machines, and not a one has shown an infection in
any files except this one we know about. But, everything I've read about these
viruses says that they infect the system file, as well.
Anyone know anything about this? I'd be most appreciative of advice.
Thanks.
Craig Garnett
Amherst College
CHGARNETT@AMHERST (Bitnet)
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 19 Sep 89 11:43 EDT
From: KSBOLDUAN%AMHERST.BITNET@cunyvm.cuny.edu
Subject: Postscript0 File location. Where?
This is my first message to the info-mac conference, and I have a couple
of questions that I hope someone out there can figure out.
1) When you generate a Postscript file by holding down the F key while
printing to the Laserwriter, is there a default location for the
Postscript0 file ? It seems to almost always end up in the same folder
as the application, but occasionally it ends up in the system folder.
Is there any way to know exactly where it will end up, or more importantly,
is there a way to CHANGE the default. I have to send my Postscript files
via Kermit over to a VAX, and it would be very useful if I could have them
be generated in the same location, REGARDLESS of which application
I was using. Any suggestions ?
2) I also would like to change the icon of the Postscript0 file to something
more informative than the default "document" icon. What makes the Postscript
files unique so that I can give them a common icon ? That is, wouldn't
there be a problem assigning an icon to files that were generated by different
applications ?
Thanks for any help. You can respond directly to me, but I think the net
would benefit from this information.
Kevin Bolduan, Amherst College
BITNET: KSBOLDUAN@AMHERST
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 19 Sep 89 13:23:18 EDT
From: HAINES%MAINE.BITNET@forsythe.stanford.edu (Terry Haines)
Subject: Printer Driver
I am looking for a printer driver that will allow me to set page length
on an ImageWriter II. I want to be able to print on tractor-feed 3 x 5
cards. Any information would be appreciated.
Terry Haines, Dept. Zoology, University of Maine, Orono, ME 04469
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 19 Sep 89 07:38:54 PDT
From: LOUIE CASAGRANDE <casagrande%crcvax@nssdca.span.nasa.gov>
Subject: Superdrive Problems w/Mac II
I just received my Superdrive and installed it in my Mac II. The only problem
is that it won't read DOS discs (from the desktop using DOS Mounter) or read
or format DOS or HD discs from AFE. The drive works fine on a IIcx, but the
Superdrive from the IIcx has the same problems on my II. Also, my Superdrive
doesn't work on one other person's II (and that's the extent of my testing).
My dealer doesn't seem to be able to come up with anything other than that
something may be wrong with my computer--a scenario I'd like to avoid. Does
anyone out there know about compatibility of the Superdrive with the II? Do
I have to spend another $1K (of my company's money) for this thing to work, or
is there a jumper of some sort I have to connect?
Thanks in advance.
Lou Casagrande (516)346-6379
Grumman Corporate Research Center Mail Stop A02-26
Bethpage, NY 11714-3580
"CRCVAX::CASAGRANDE"@NSSDCA.GSFC.NASA.GOV
CASAGRANDE@CRCVAX.SPAN.NASA.GOV
NSSDCA::CRCVAX::CASAGRANDE
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 19 Sep 89 14:25:26 PDT
From: SUNDAR_PRASAD@mtsg.ubc.ca
Subject: Terminally ill!
We have a MacIIx and a VAX on ethernet and as a good (we thought it was at that
time) communications solution, we spent nearly a thousand bucks (Canadian) on
a product called Alisa TSSnet which implements DECNET on the Mac. I had visions
of seeing VAX files as icons on the Mac screen and VAX terminal sessions
on the Mac with full colour and graphics support. Of course none of that came
true and what we have finally achieved are capabilties that could have very
well been done by running TCP/IP on both the VAX and the Mac (shareware for
these are floating around). I have tried using 3 terminal emulator programs
(qvt, Kermit0.9(40) and zterm0.8 copied from sumex), but they lack graphics or
colour. Also, when I try to use the VAX screen editor, the program quits with
a message saying that it does not recognize the terminal as an ANSI CRT.
The TSSnet documentation refers to terminal emulators like VersaTerm-Pro and
Mac240 that seem to support graphics. Before we spend big-bucks again on a
terminal emulator program, I would like to hear from other users who have come
into contact with TSSnet, VersaTerm-Pro and other communications programs for
the Mac (on DECNET or TCP/IP) with their views on how we can make at least
some of our Mac-VAX dreams come true. Any help will be greatly appreciated.
Sundar_Prasad@mtsg.ubc.ca
******************************
Dept. of Civil Engg., U.B.C. *
Vancouver, B.C., CANADA *
******************************
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 19 Sep 89 12:58:14 EST
From: Dave Whitney <dcw@sun-bear.lcs.mit.edu>
Subject: the whole apple II line.
> I think that apple should kill the whole apple II line. Instead they
>should implement II in a mac or some such standard on every machine. That way
>they could still support the environment without wasting alot of development.
>Some say they still have a place in the high school - but the truth is they
>are loosing popularity. The way to continue them is to slowly integrate the
>macs into the schools as apple II clones and a whole lot more. Just a thought
>from the bored...
I disagree. For starters, putting the // in the mac would require some
pretty fancy acrobatics as the // has all sorts of quirks that the
original design had. For example, there is a text-only display (no
graphics). The screen is *not* linearly addressed. Trying to get the
mac to do *everything* that a // can do may be more costly than you
think
Secondly, the // is not losing popularity. The //GS just underwent a
motherboard revision, and the OS has been upgraded to version 3.0.
These two items are making the //GS more useful than was originally
thought. When first delivered, the OS was too sluggish. A friend of
mine said, "oh, it's just like a Mac, only slower."
What we have now is a computer that can do what most schools need for
a very affordable price. If Apple is going to kill the // (and perhaps
let it survive inside a Mac), it's going to need to drop the price of
the Mac something fierce, lest they wish to lose a giant portion of
their market. Murphy Sewall, wish to eloborate (I have know working
knowledge of economics).
Dave Whitney
dcw@sun-bear.lcs.mit.edu ...!mit-eddie!sun-bear!dcw dcw@athena.mit.edu
My employer pays me well. This, however, does not mean he agrees with me.
I wrote Z-Link & BinSCII. Send me bug reports. I use a //GS. Send me Tech Info.
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 19 Sep 89 10:46 EDT
From: <PJORGENS%COLGATEU.BITNET@forsythe.stanford.edu> (Peter Jorgensen)
Subject: WARNING NoteWriter Software Infected!
A few words of warning for potential and actual NoteWriter users.
We bought two copies of NoteWriter Software and both disks were infected with
Scores and nVir. Attempting to install the (copyprotected) software on a Mac
II running Vaccine failed, and rendered the original unusable. The backup disk
which we ordered was also infected.
The publisher has been very unhelpful. Their tech support doesn't know
anything about viruses, virus protection programs (like Vaccine) or most of
what else we tried to ask them.
Peter Jorgensen
Microcomputer specialist
Colgate University - Hamilton, NY 13346
AppleLink - U0523
BITNET - PJORGENSEN@COLGATEU
tel - 315-824-1000 ext 742
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 19 Sep 89 05:31:32 MST
From: Bruce Long <ICBAL%ASUACAD.BITNET@forsythe.stanford.edu>
Subject: Word 3 & 4 co-existence tip
If you happen to be like me and need both Word 3 and Word 4 on your HD
because of problems with Word 4.0 (see IM Digest #120), you will
probably have a strong preference as to which version of Word is the
"default"--that is, when double-clicking on a Word document, which version
of Word will open it. I personally prefer Word 3 as default, but I know
others who prefer Word 4 as default.
When the Mac boots, the Finder reads the HFS directory in alphabetical
order. Whichever version of Word is encountered first, becomes the default
version of Word. So if both versions of Word are on the same HFS level, be
sure the version you prefer has a name which will cause it to be encountered
first ("Microsoft Word" will be encountered before "Word", etc.). If your two
versions of Word are in different HFS levels (different folders), be sure the
folder with the version you prefer will be encountered first.
Bruce Long
Department of Mathematics
Arizona State University BITNET: ICBAL@ASUACAD
------------------------------
End of Info-Mac Digest
******************************