Info-Mac-Request@SUMEX-AIM.STANFORD.EDU (Lance Nakata & Jon Pugh) (11/21/88)
Info-Mac Digest Sun, 20 Nov 88 Volume 6 : Issue 103
Today's Topics:
DEC Raw Drive.. SORRY!
DIY 60 meg Mac SCSI recipe
generating color slides
INFO-MAC Digest V6 #100
LSP 2.0 is shipping
Mathematica/MacroMaker incompatibility
OmniPage scanner software
Problems with MacDraw II
Prototyper - Application Developer Program
Request for info about Geographic Info System packages
Spss PC+ on MAC
Train program
Viral Resources
want info on some math programs for the mac
Word 3.01 pagination goes crazy
The Info-Mac archives are still available (via anonymous FTP) at
SUMEX-2060.Stanford.Edu in the <INFO-MAC> directory.
Please send articles and binaries to Info-Mac@SUMEX-AIM.Stanford.Edu.
Send administrative mail to Info-Mac-Request@SUMEX-AIM.Stanford.Edu.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Tue, 15 Nov 88 07:54 EDT
>From: EBC2044%RITVAX@ICSA.RICE.EDU
Subject: DEC Raw Drive.. SORRY!
Upon closer examination of my drive, I have found that it is a raw, not DEC,
but Seagate drive. Now that this is setteled, I need to find a cable that goes
>From the drive to the computer.. i already have a disk drive power supply, (it
used to power an old 5 1/4" drive) And the power hook-up's are the same so
the last thing needed is the cable.. Do you know where I can get a seagate - to
- SCSI cable?! It would be alot of help.
Thanks Again!
Beth Cooke
EBC2044@RITVAX.BITNET
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 12 Nov 88 08:53 AST
>From: Stan Armstrong <ARMSTRONG%STMARYS.BITNET@Forsythe.Stanford.EDU>
Subject: DIY 60 meg Mac SCSI recipe
Here is a recipe for a 62.3 meg Mac SCSI hard disk costing less than
$600. I have built this drive, and I'm very happy with it. It is easy to
assemble and performs as advertised. The inspiration for the project was
the series of two articles "Macintos SCSI Drive Secrets Revealed" in the
Sept.-Oct. Computer Shoppers. Those articles detail many other options,
but since many people will no longer be able to get the magazines, and
since not all the information one needs was included in them, here is one
configuration that will work.
Ingredients:
Seagate ST277N SCSI HD $450
Tulin Apple Hive $119
Mac to SCSI cable $ 10
Power cord $ 4
Apple HD SC Installer free
____
Total $583
Because I am in Canada, shipping charges are different, and I can't
provide that information for U.S. customers.
Procedure:
You may order the above items from the sources listed below.
The Apple Hive is a complete under-the-Mac sized box with 30 watt power
supply, decently quiet fan (quieter than the drive), internal cables, 2
SCSI connectors, a filtered AC connector, an external SCSI address
switch, two front panel LED's (for power on and drive selected), and a
front panel power switch. The box is *sturdy* and nicely finished.
Unpack the ST277N, open the Apple Hive box with a phillips screwdriver,
mount the drive in the box with screws provided (small slot head), and
attach the internal cables as indicated by the instructions. If you want
to use the drive select LED, you will have to solder two wires to the HD
board where on-board LED is (I removed that LED first). If you are not
comfortable doing that, skip that step and do without the activity light.
The drive makes enough of a sound changing tracks so that you can usually
tell if it is active. Now close up the box, connect it to the Mac with
the SCSI cable you ordered, and to 120 AC with the power cord. Turn it
on, and you are ready to format it an install the driver.
The Apple HD SC Installer is a part of Apple's system software release
6.02. You will need to modify it slightly with Resedit to get it to
recognized the ST277N. Using Resedit, open the Installer and open CODE
resource "%A5init." Search for and replace "ST250N" with "ST277N." Close
the file, exit Resedit, and run the installer. When you have finished,
the Finder should mount your hard disk. If it does not, you may need to
turn the drive and Mac on and off a couple of times. You might even have
to repeat the formatting. (If someone can explain why this is necessary,
I would appreciate it. I had a different driver on the drive to begin
with, which may have caused the hitch, but I don't know why.) Once the
drive is mounted, open the installer again, select "Partition," remove
the existing 40 meg partition, and install a maximum sized Macintosh
volume partion. Exit. You now have a 62.3 meg Macitosh SCSI drive for
about $600.
For the curious, this is a moderate speed drive. Its rated and measured
average access time is 40 ms. It is faster than both the FX-20 and the
Photon 30 we have at work. It is faster than the same drive formatted
with SF&I software. I used SCSI Evaluator for the comparisons. The drive's
average read time is about 1800 Kbits/sec and its average write time is
about 1200 Kbits/sec over a good range of block transfers using a
MacPlus.
I am very happy with all the sources I used for this equipment, but you
may find others more convenient. I includes these only so that you will
not have to do all the digging I did to find *somebody* to supply each
item. The relevant sources are as follows:
Seagate ST277N SCSI hard drive from:
Hard Drives International
1208 E. Broadway Rd. #110
Tempe, AZ 85282
(800) 234-DISK
(602) 784-1038
[includes 1 year guarantee]
[tech support available free for
cost of your phone call
(602-967-3133)]
Apple Hive box from:
Tulin Corporation
2392 Qume Drive
San Jose, CA 95131
(408) 942-9025
[includes 6 month guarantee]
MacPlus to SCSI cable & power cord from:
Altex Electronics, Inc.
10731 Gulfdale
San Antonio, TX 78216
(800) 531-5369
Apple HD SC Installer
Your local Apple dealer
One more resource gives me confidence in the project. Seagate has a free
tech support number (800-468-34720. Their people bent over backwards to
help me sort out some software problems I was having earlier in the
project.
Thanks to Ephraim Vishniac and Jussi-Pekka Mantere who got me over the
software hurdles.
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 11-NOV-1988 09:00 +0100
>From: "3077::PBAUMANN" <U0055%DGOGWDG5.BITNET@Forsythe.Stanford.EDU>
Subject: generating color slides
Hi folks!
The first problem. I'm interested in generating color-slides with the
Mac. Does somebody know which companies sell something like this
and how the results are?
Thanks for your help!
Peter Baumann U0055@DGOGWDG5 (DecNet-Goettingen, WestGermany)
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 15 Nov 88 23:52 EST
>From: Robert W. Kerns <RWK@F.ILA.Dialnet.Symbolics.COM>
Subject: INFO-MAC Digest V6 #100
Date: Wed, 2 Nov 88 08:28:18 gmt
From: Stephen Page <sdpage%prg.oxford.ac.uk@NSS.Cs.Ucl.AC.UK>
Subject: Problems with MacDraw II
To make it worse, different versions of the operating system are available in
the UK and US: it's all very well for Claris to ship MacDraw II in the UK,
but users are far from happy when the product arrives with a slip announcing
that the product may not run properly unless a system version which has not
been released in the UK is installed.
Any thoughts?
Yeah. You've got it GOOD! If you were in Japan using KanjiTalk (the
support for the Japanese language), you'd be stuck with System 3.2!
This ancient dog (nearly two years out of date) will run very little of
the software that I own. I have to keep it on a separate drive, and if
I switch startup drives and reboot, I can't switch back! (Well, I can
boot off a floppy...). The control panel predates the ability to set
the startup drive.
The user-interface is crufty, the support for the language is poor, it
only provides JIS level 1 (about 3300 characters or so) and in general,
your typical Nihongo laptop provides much better support for Japanese
text entry.
Does anyone know of any better Japanese software for the Macintosh, or
should I buy a Toshiba laptop in Akihabara?
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 18 Nov 1988 08:35:03 EST
>From: Bob Rahe <CES00661%UDACSVM.BITNET@Forsythe.Stanford.EDU>
Subject: LSP 2.0 is shipping
According to a note I saw on the LVT forum on CI$, LSP 2.0 was
shipping as of Wednesday 11/16. They claimed stuff was going out the
door..... We'll see, I've had my order in for a while.
Bob
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 13 Nov 88 14:23 EDT
>From: <BELSLEY%BCVMS.BITNET@Forsythe.Stanford.EDU> (DAVID A. BELSLEY)
Subject: Mathematica/MacroMaker incompatibility
There appears to be an incompatibility between Mathematica and the new INIT,
MacroMaker, that comes with System 6.0.2. When MacroMaker is installed,
Mathematica freezes during the process of opening the Kernel. This does
not happen when MacroMaker is removed. Furthermore, it only happens when
one attempts to open Mathematica directly from the application icon, but
does not happen when Mathematica is opened indirectly by double clicking
a Mathematica document.
The freeze takes place shortly after the MacroMaker "tape" icon occurs in
the menu bar.
I did not have this touble using sytem 4.2. I am only so late in discovering
it with 6.0.2 because since installing 6.0.2 I have, until today, always
opened Mathematica indirectly, by double-clicking a document.
The particulars: Mac II, 5/50Mb, system 6.0.2, Mathematica v. 1.03 with
3.5Mb allocated.
Fortunately, the loss of MacroMaker seems of little consequence. Until it
can work across context switches, it is of little use.
david a. belsley
boston college belsley@bcvax3.bitnet
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 17 Nov 88 11:57 EST
>From: Peter Szolovits <psz@ZERMATT.LCS.MIT.EDU>
Subject: OmniPage scanner software
Received: from YALEVM.YCC.YALE.EDU by graf.poly.edu (Mailer X1.25) with BSMTP
id 9406; Thu, 03 Nov 88 19:52:38 EDT
Received: by YALEVM (Mailer X1.24) id 7635; Thu, 03 Nov 88 17:44:48 EST
Date: Thu, 03 Nov 88 17:41:56 EST
>From: Greg Mouning <GAM@YALEVM>
Subject: MAC or PC scanners
To: INFO-MAC@POLYGRAF
I heard there is a MAC scanner which uses a program called OMNI for optical
character recognition. Has anyone seen a demonstration? Is there one
available for the IBM PC? Is there another list available I should subscribe
to related to scanning in general? Any information would be appreciated,
thanks.
I have been using OmniPage from Caere Corp (somewhere in Northern Calif)
for a month or so. It's the best OCR software I've seen thus far,
though it's still not perfect. I use it on my Mac II with an Apple
scanner. It also directly supports the HP scanner, and will work on any
TIFF file generated by anyone's scanner, though this makes things a
two-step process that's shortcut when you use the Apple or HP. When I
bought the system, they were planning on releasing a PC version, though
I think it was going to come as a 68020 co-processor board for an AT bus
with essentially similar software to what they use on the Mac.
Therefore, list price was announced as something like $2K (board +
software), compared to $800 for the Mac version. I think you can get
about 20% off at dealers on the Mac version, and I don't know if the PC
versions is out yet.
The big advantage of this software is that it seems to have smarts that
allow it to handle arbitrary font sizes (from 6 to 72pt), arbitrary
fonts (including italics, bold, etc.) and proportional spacing, kerning,
and even ligatures (things like "ffl" that all run together). It
requires no training (in fact, it can't be trained), and on the whole
does a good job. With freshly-typed courier from an IBM typewriter it's
almost perfect, with a sloppy Xerox copy of typeset Times Roman it's
usable but requires significant cleanup with a spelling corrector and
some common sense. With some fonts, it has a nasty predeliction for
reading "e" as "c", "N" as "ll", and so on, and there's essentially no
way to help it out except by post-processing. It also automagically
figures out where there is text on the page and successfully ignores
pictures; this works wonderfully well. I've found that it does VERY
badly when trying to scan finely printed small-font books, because the
contrast settings in it are just not flexible enough. In this case, I
can make it work much better by scanning the document using Apple's
AppleScan software, where I tune up the threshold setting till the
scanned characters look good, and then OmniPage does a good job of
reading the resulting TIFF file.
Overall, it's very convenient to use, works very well on the easy cases
and usefully-well on hard ones. I went around MacWorld Expo in Boston
last August testing all the OCR software I could get my hands on, and
this was an order of magnitude better than its next-best competitors. I
wish it were better still, but we have to leave room for the future.
------------------------------
Date: 16 Nov 88 19:10 EST
>From: PCHRISTENSEN%ATL.decnet@GE-CRD.ARPA
Subject: Problems with MacDraw II
Owners of MacDraw II should be aware that the first release of Draw II
has some EXTREMELY SERIOUS BUGS that were recently corrected by version
1.0v4.
In previous versions of DrawII, if you used multiple layers, cut or
deleted objects and then immediately saved your document, the file would
be corrupted beyond hope of recovery. The next time the file was opened,
objects were missing or on the wrong layer, and any attempt to zoom,
print, or save would crash the machine.
If you've had a file corrupted, the only way to recover what's left is
to select objects in each layer BY DRAGGING OVER THEM WITH THE MOUSE
(DON'T choose "select all"), cutting them, and then pasting them into a
new document. Repeat this for the whole document, and all layers. In
order to avoid crashes DO NOT use the zoom or reduce buttons on your
corrupted file.
After losing several large documents (over 3000 objects), I was finally
able to track down the problem and relay it on to Claris Technical
Support, which in turn was able to reproduce the problem. This week,
Claris released version, 1.0v4, which supposedly eliminates this bug.
Other problems are addressed by version 1.0v4. ImageWriter printing is
now fully supported (you can print in Standard quality and you can use
50% reduction). Patterns are now accurately kept when importing from
other programs. Importing and exporting of PICT files has also been
corrected (no more "moving pages"). Since I haven't gotten the upgrade
yet, I can only relay what I've been told by the folks at Claris.
Also note that a corrected version of the MacPlot driver is also
available. The version that came on the original distribution did not
work properly...it could not be configured and would corrupt background
printing.
It is good to see that Claris is so prompt to address the problems of
their star player, MacDraw II. Unfortunately, they are only sending the
corrected version to owners who have called them and reported problems.
So if you're a registered owner of MacDrawII, CALL CLARIS AND ASK FOR
THE NEWEST VERSION. It is being sent free of charge.
Now if they could only attack Paint and Write :-)
Paul Christensen
GE Aerospace/Advanced Technology Laboratories
ARPAnet: PCHRISTENSEN%ATL.DECNET@GE-CRD.ARPA
------------------------------
Date: 11 Nov 88 15:19:52 GMT
>From: rogerson@PEDEV.Columbia.NCR.COM (rogerson)
Subject: Prototyper - Application Developer Program
I have seen advertisments for a program called Prototyper which
allows the interactive building of Mac interfaces. I do not
remember which company makes this product. I am interested in
how well this program works, what this program does, what the
limitations are, and any related information. Is it possible to
get a demostration version from the company?
Danke Sehr
-----Dale
Rogerson-----
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 18 Nov 88 17:39 EST
>From: Pete Miller, Academic Computing <PMILLER@BOWDOIN>
Subject: Request for info about Geographic Info System packages
We are just beginning to look into using the Geographic Information
System (GSI) in connection with some courses at Bowdoin. Do you know
of any Macintosh packages for GSI? Do you have any special recommendations
about plotters and high-res monitors for Mac systems?
Reply to PMILLER@BOWDOIN or Pete Miller, Manager of Academic Computing,
Bowdoin College, (207) 725 3785. I'll archive the replies and forward
them to anyone else who is interested in them.
Thank you.
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 18 Nov 88 12:58:05 LCL
>From: Gunnar-Petersson%LINNEA.LIU.SE@Forsythe.Stanford.EDU
Subject: Spss PC+ on MAC
Vaporware? There was an earlier message claiming SPSS was about to
release the unabridged SPSS-X V 3.0 under OS/2 (same source as the
mainframe version). That's what I'm personally waiting for (on a 25 MHz
PS/2 or a Mac III -- I'd rather have the Mac, but I'll settle for the PS/2).
** Original Message **
This week I had an discussion with the SPSS Stockholm Office.
They happened to mention that there is going to be a MAC-version
of the SPSS PC+ package to be released something like late spring
1989. Good news for all MAC-fans that have missed a real
statistical package for the MAC. I was so surprised, in the light
of earlier comments from SPSS, that I forgot to ask more detailed
questions. Well, I guess it's not official yet, perhaps they
were just testing reactions and they got a positive one!
Gunnar Petersson
Computer Centre
University of Link|ping
Sweden
GPL@SELIUC51.BITNET
[The Far Side shall return (I hope)]
Murph Sewall Sewall@UCONNVM.BITNET
Business School sewall%uconnvm.bitnet@mitvma.mit.edu [INTERNET]
U of Connecticut {rutgers psuvax1 ucbvax & in Europe - mcvax}
!UCONNVM.BITNET!SEWALL [UUCP]
-+- My employer isn't responsible for my mistakes AND vice-versa!
(subject to change without notice; void where prohibited)
"Close enough for government work" - source unknown (naturally ;-)
------------------------------
Date: Wed 16 Nov 1988 15:45 CDT
>From: GREENY <MISS026%ECNCDC.BITNET@Forsythe.Stanford.EDU>
Subject: Train program
A while back someone was asking if there was a program available to simulate
model trains on the mac....I was looking thru my Mac World and came across
one....here we go..
Abracadata
Box 2240, Dept MW
Eugene, OR 97402
$49.95 + $3.55 s/h VISA/MC/AMES
1-(503) 343 - 3030
This is not an endorsement of aforesaid product, nor an advertisement for it.
Just informational....do what you wish with it and Caveat Emptor...
Bye for now but not for long
Greeny
Bitnet: miss026@ecncdc
Internet: Miss026%ecncdc.bitnet@cunyvm.cuny.edu
Disclaimer: see above...
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 15 Nov 88 15:22 CST
>From: John Norstad <JLN%nuacc.acns.nwu.edu@Forsythe.Stanford.EDU>
Subject: Viral Resources
Someone asked for a list of known Mac viruses and their resource
identifications, so that users of Virus Detective could update the
list of suspicious resources, and so that users of ResEdit would know
what to look for.
Here's what I know about Scores and two strains of nVIR:
Scores infected system files:
Type ID Size Files
---- ---- ----- -------------------------------------
INIT 6 772 System, Note Pad File, Scrapbook File
INIT 10 1020 System, Desktop, Scores
INIT 17 480 System, Scrapbook File
atpl 128 2410 System, Desktop, Scores
DATA -4001 7026 System, Desktop, Scores
Scores infected application:
Type ID Size
---- ---- -----
CODE n+1 7026
where n = the id of the first unused CODE resource. For example,
if the application has CODE resources numbered 0,1,2,3,4,5, then
n=6 and the viral CODE resource is numbered n+1=7.
nVIR infected System file:
Type ID Size A Size B
---- ---- ------ ------
INIT 32 366 416
nVIR 0 2 2
nVIR 1 378 428
nVIR 4 372 422
nVIR 5 8 8
nVIR 6 868 66
nVIR 7 1562 2106
nVIR infected application:
Type ID Size A Size B
---- ---- ------ ------
CODE 256 372 422
nVIR 1 378 428
nVIR 2 8 8
nVIR 3 366 416
nVIR 6 868 66
nVIR 7 1562 2106
Unlike Scores, nVIR does not infect any files in the system folder
other than the System file itself. The two columns "A" and "B" above
are the sizes for what I call "nVIR strain A" and "nVIR strain B".
Hope this helps.
John Norstad
Academic Computing and Network Services
Northwestern University
Bitnet: jln@nuacc
Internet: jln@nuacc.acns.nwu.edu
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 16 Nov 88 14:32:28 est
>From: jprice%heyl.dnet@gw.wmich.edu
Subject: want info on some math programs for the mac
Can anyone send me information on the following packages for a Mac?
Epic, LinearKit, and Multigrapher
Please send any info to:
jprice%heyl.dnet@gw.wmich.edu
Thanks.
Janet Price
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 14 Nov 88 16:00:22 -0600 (CST)
>From: David Wilson <WILSON/DAVID@scarecrow.waisman.wisc.edu>
Subject: Word 3.01 pagination goes crazy
> The symptoms are these: occasionally (apparently dependent on minor
> changes to the document) Word leaves out part of the footer on some pages,
> breaks the page part-way through, reprints (!) part of the text from the end
> of one page on the top of the next, and then continues fairly normally.
Version 3.0 of my application "Spelling Champion" had a bug that caused
symptoms like this. If you are using "Spelling Champion", please get
version 3.1. For legal owners, the upgrade is free.
Once the document file is messed up, deleting and inserting text is not
likely to fix the underlying problem. One way to fix the file without
losing all of the formating information is to use SAVE AS and save it as a
WORD 1.0 document. Then open that document with WORD 3.0 and WORD converts
the document back to WORD 3.0 format, resulting in a correct document file.
------------------------------
End of Info-Mac Digest
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