mfriedel@slate.mines.colorado.edu (Fried Mike Microwave) (02/11/91)
I'm one of the fortunates, or rather fortunate to be, owner of a NeXT Colorstation. Now our capus representation, or rather the 'only' retail source for students on campus is rather indifferent about the subject when the thing will actually arrive. They just say ' we don't know'. So I was wondering if anybody knows the shipping dates on those machines. Little note on the side. We have about 3 times as many NeXT's on Campus than CU Boulder (That is CSM) but no NeXTonCampusConsultant, CU Boulder has two. @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ mfriedel@basalt.mines.colorado.edu (translates to Michael Friedel at the Colorado School of Mines @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
jjfeiler@nntp-server.caltech.edu (John Jay Feiler) (03/20/91)
For anyone that's keeping count, I got my Colorstation today. (I ordered at the Caltech Computer Office about december 25) Now I'm waiting for my Fujitsu 2263 to show up. Speaking of which, I'm planning on formatting the HD in two partitions. How large a partition do I need to fit the entire 2.1 Extended distribution? One more dumb qustion: how do I change the name of my machine from "localhost" to something else. In all the /etc/rc* scripts, it keeps telling me that I shouldn't change the hostname there. John Feiler
anderson@dogie.macc.wisc.edu (Jess Anderson) (03/20/91)
In article <1991Mar20.094519.24033@nntp-server.caltech.edu> jjfeiler@nntp-server.caltech.edu (John Jay Feiler) writes: >One more dumb qustion: how do I change the name of my machine from "localhost" >to something else. In all the /etc/rc* scripts, it keeps telling me that >I shouldn't change the hostname there. Fire up NetManager, click Local, up comes the panel for localhost change the name there and Save. I think a reboot panel (click yes) appears at that point. That's how I did it. -- Jess Anderson <> Madison Academic Computing Center <> University of Wisconsin Internet: anderson@macc.wisc.edu <-best, UUCP:{}!uwvax!macc.wisc.edu!anderson NeXTmail w/attachments: anderson@yak.macc.wisc.edu Bitnet: anderson@wiscmacc Room 3130 <> 1210 West Dayton Street / Madison WI 53706 <> Phone 608/262-5888
eps@toaster.SFSU.EDU (Eric P. Scott) (03/30/91)
In article <1991Mar20.094519.24033@nntp-server.caltech.edu> jjfeiler@nntp-server.caltech.edu (John Jay Feiler) writes: >One more dumb qustion: how do I change the name of my machine from "localhost" >to something else. In all the /etc/rc* scripts, it keeps telling me that >I shouldn't change the hostname there. Change the HOSTNAME= line in /etc/hostconfig from -AUTOMATIC- to the desired name. -=EPS=-
esb31658@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Eric S. Brown) (04/26/91)
In all of this talk about the color capabilities of the NeXTStation Color, I have noticed a discrepancy. From what I have read, the NS color can display 4096 colors simultaneously from a palette of 16.7 million. This would indicate to me that there is a color lookup table with 4096 entries of 24-bits (not including alpha channel) which would coincide with the information from someone at NeXT (I forget who) who said that the NS Color has 8-bit RAMDAC's for each red, green and blue. If all of this is true, then the 16-bit color value (12-bits color, 4-bits alpha) is not 4-bits red, 4-bits green, 4-bits blue and 4-bits alpha. It would mean that this value is just an entry in the lookup table and completely indepedent of the color that it represents. This also means that you can display ANY 4096 of the 16.7 million possible colors on the screen at any one time (including 256 shades of grey). Someone please correct me if I am wrong. Eric S. Brown esb31658@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu .sig out to lunch
louie@sayshell.umd.edu (Louis A. Mamakos) (04/26/91)
This can't possibly be this hard to understand. The user-level model for color is you have 4 bits each R, G and B, plus 4 bits for the alpha channel. Deep in the guts of the hardware there is a mapping function which takes the "ideal" RGB values and transforms them to accomodate the non-linearity of the phosphers on the screen. This isn't something that user-level code gets to diddle or even see. While the mapping function (color pallette) might have 8 bits of resolution, that is irrelevant to you. For all that we know, it might have 9 and half bits of resolution. It doesn't matter. It's not accessable. If the response of the phosphers on the screen were correct, you wouldn't need the thing in the first place. This is like worrying how many bits are on your hard disk when you're counting the "extra" bits used for sector identification, ECC correction, etc. It doesn't do you any good to worry about those bits 'cause you can't use them anyway. You only worry about the formatted, usable, capacity of the drive. User-accessable Color pallettes are a kludge anyway IMHO. I think that its wonderful that you don't have to worry about screwing with them in the first place on the NeXT. louie
madler@nntp-server.caltech.edu (Mark Adler) (04/26/91)
In article <1991Apr25.195907.29367@ni.umd.edu> louie@sayshell.umd.edu (Louis A. Mamakos) writes: >This can't possibly be this hard to understand. The user-level model >for color is you have 4 bits each R, G and B, plus 4 bits for the >alpha channel. Deep in the guts of the hardware there is a mapping >function which takes the "ideal" RGB values and transforms them to >accomodate the non-linearity of the phosphers on the screen. This >isn't something that user-level code gets to diddle or even see. > >User-accessable Color pallettes are a kludge anyway IMHO. I think >that its wonderful that you don't have to worry about screwing with >them in the first place on the NeXT. I agree that CLUT's are a kludge. However, what people want to know is if they can look at 256-gray level images on a (much cheaper than NeXTdimension) color slab, without dithering. (For example, 800x800 JPL images.) The first question is, "can the hardware do it?". The second is "will the software let me?". If those are "yes, no", then the third question is "how can I get around it (there's always a way for the persistent hacker)?". There is a CLUT in the color slabs, but to answer the first question you need to know if the chip has three 16x8 rams or one 4Kx24 ram to feed the three 8 bit D/A converters. This determines if the machine is capable of 16 or 256 shades of gray. Even if it is 4Kx24, the answer to the second question is no. So an answer to the first question is needed before hacking away at how to get around the restrictions and answer question three. Mark Adler madler@pooh.caltech.edu