INFO-ATARI16 Digest         Thu, 16 Nov 89       Volume 89 : Issue 662
 
Today's Topics:
                 Anti-Atari Bashing Flame (long - so
               Anti-Atari Bashing Flame (long - sorry)
                 BLITZ! Diskette Backup System (Info
                     Blitz copy cable and utility
                            clarification
                           GEM help needed
                            German company
                              How much?
                               Monitors
                    NeXT ( was Re: Vapourware!!! )
                           Tech Specialties
                           TT vs 386 boxes
                      What's wrong with the AMY?
----------------------------------------------------------------------
 
Date: 16 Nov 89 10:42:52 GMT
From:
 gem.mps.ohio-state.edu!usc!samsung!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!uwm.edu!ux1.cso.uiuc
.edu!ux1.cso.uiuc.edu!uxa.cso.uiuc.edu!uxf.cso.uiuc.edu!rjk752@tut.cis.ohio-sta
te.edu
Subject: Anti-Atari Bashing Flame (long - so
 
        Another vote for an end to this consistent Atari-bashing.  Maybe
a radical design improvement suggestion or somesuch would be in order, but
beating Atari to death with blunt words over the same issues time after
time is getting very old in a hurry.  If you want to put out specs,
please keep any non-constructive (judgement call) comments to yourself.
Some of the Bashers are just plain rude, they know they are just being
petty irritants.  Others might not realize they are being repetitive
or talking about products they know little about.  I agree with these last
few notes, lets agree to clean up our act and get a little more
constuctive.
                        Thankyou.
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 16 Nov 89 03:22:20 GMT
From:
 cs.utexas.edu!mailrus!wuarchive!texbell!sequoia!rpp386!mark@tut.cis.ohio-state.
edu  (Mark Lehmann)
Subject: Anti-Atari Bashing Flame (long - sorry)
 
About having a comp.atari.st.tech group:
 
Would everyone on the net want to have Atari officially answer technical
questions on the NET?  I have seen other companies start to do this
and it distresses me.  I feel that the USE NET should be kept the USE
NET not the Interactive Systems Net, not the IBM net, not the Atari
NET.  If they start officially doing their business here, message
volume will greatly increase along with phone bills of the
non-business nodes that are paying for the business expenses of
communications, or rather an alternative to 800 number support lines.
(Not saying that Atari has support lines already).
 
Mark Lehmann :>
 
--
+------------------------------------+-----------------------------------+
| Mark Lehmann                       |                                   |
| mark@rpp386.cactus.org             |                                   |
| ?bigtex|texbell?!rpp386!mark       |                                   |
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 15 Nov 89 23:11:00 GMT
From: inmet!hedger@uunet.uu.net
Subject: BLITZ! Diskette Backup System (Info
 
Doesn't matter.......IT'S STILL A COMMERCIAL ADVERTISEMENT!
 
------------------------------
 
Date: Thu 16 11 89 05:03:00 EST
From: U009%CCIW.BITNET@Forsythe.Stanford.EDU
Subject: Blitz copy cable and utility
 
>Subject: Blitz! Floppy Backup available (Advertisement)
>
>BLITZ is a revolutionary new back-up system for the Atari ST computer.
>BLITZ uses ONLY a special cable and software to back-up your software at
 
I built up the cable illustrated in the original posting and thought I would
send off to the company mentioned for the software, $2.00 and you can't
go wrong, right?
Then on a hunch, I called up a local, major BBS (Canada Remote Systems,
if you must know) and found 2 (yes TWO) versions of the software in the
utilities area. One is obviously the initial version and the other is an
enhanced, Turbo version.
 
First, here are some tidbits from the .DOC and .TXT files in the archives:
 
"
"                                THE HAPPY KILLER
"                                  BLITZ COPIER
"
"
"    Are  you  ready for a $22.00 copier that will copy as good,  or  in  most
"    cases better,  than a $150.00  cart?  Yes??  Well then, Blitz is
 
The wiring diagram also appeared as a drawing file suitable for printing
with PICSW7:
 
"    ....That's it!  Just print out the BLITZ.PC3 or BLITZ.IMG file and you'll
"    see how to hook up the printer plug into the drive cables.
"
 
and...
 
"=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
"=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
"=-=-=                                                       =-=-=
"=-=-=                       INTRODUCING                     =-=-=
"=-=-=                                                       =-=-=
"=-=-=           DUPLI-TWIX BLITZ ST DISK DUPLICATOR         =-=-=
"=-=-=                                                       =-=-=
"=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
"=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
"
"(The  following  product was introduced and demonstrated  at  the
"WAACE DC AtariFest, October 7-8, 1989.)
"
"Are  you tired of running ProCopy or ACopy on your latest $39  or
"$59 program or game only to find that you can't make a backup  of
 
and...
 
"Magic Media Research in conjuction with 1st STOP Computer Systems
"Ltd is gearing up for production and distribution of the fastest,
"most reasonably priced disk duplicator for the Atari ST available
"anywhere!
"
"                        What does it do?
"                        cccccccccccccccc
"It copies disks.  Fast.  Copy protection and all.  It even copies
"some disks that the Discovery cartridges have trouble with.   Our
"Discovery  cart  took  15 minutes and 40 tries  to  back  up  our
"Populous disk.   It took DupliTwix less than half a minute!   Our
"Discovery cart wouldn't back up our Batman disk at  all.   Dupli-
"Twix did it in less time than it takes the ST to format a disk!
"
"Sorry, but you can't put Mac ROMs into DupliTwix (OK, Dave?).
 
Well, it does what it says... I backed up my copies of Populous and
Bloodwych in 25 seconds each. And they booted immediately.
To be honest, Populous duped with the first? version of the program
but Bloodwych wouldn't, so I used the Turbo mode on it. That worked fine
(and was faster too). Populous was tried on the Turbo mode and it too
worked fine.
 
One minor hitch with the turbo software: it takes a long time to exit
back to the desktop. The disk directory windows re-open quickly but
no files are drawn into them for quite a while. I thought it had crashed.
I am running a .5 MB 520 with a Supra 20 hard drive.
It's not much of a problem, though, because you usually want to disconnect
the drive and reboot to check the backup anyway.
 
I took a good look and there appears to be no licencing or restrictions on
re-distribution, so the software could be uploaded. I would check on any
local BBS's first, also GEnie or C'serve. I will go back to my archives and
read the suggestion about submissions on the BITNET side and follow up. In
the meantime, If you are seriously in need, I could E-mail a UUEncoded
file to you (too many requests might clog us up, though... one hop to the
main nodes is only 2400 baud). If you are asking for the file, please
indicate if you would be willing to re-mail for me if I send you a net
name and address.
 
PS the original posting showed a 36 pin plug for the printer output
port. It is a 25 pin plug but the pins are numbered correctly... pins
26 - 36 don't exist. The listing of interconnections is right, the
assignment of colors to the plug given is numbered right but positioned
wrong. The drawing file in the archive is correct.
 
Regards, Stu Beal, VE3MWM, (U009@CCIW.BITNET),
National Water Research Institute,
Burlington, Ontario, Canada.
 
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 15 Nov 89 13:23:00 GMT
From: inmet!hedger@uunet.uu.net
Subject: clarification
 
While your at it.....how do you get text INTO a GEM window ?????
 
 
 
=====================================================================
|                                                                   |
| Keith Hedger :  ?...!?uunet!inmet!hedger   hedger@inmet.inmet.com |
|    'It is a sad, but beautiful world..........'                   |
=====================================================================
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 16 Nov 89 10:41:33 GMT
From:
 gem.mps.ohio-state.edu!samsung!rex!wuarchive!uwm.edu!ux1.cso.uiuc.edu!ux1.cso.u
iuc.edu!uxa.cso.uiuc.edu!uxf.cso.uiuc.edu!rjk752@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu
Subject: GEM help needed
 
        I am a registered MWC purchaser also, and I recieved no notification.
I have heard *rumors only* that there may even be an ANSI "C" version on the
way.  Any confirmation ?
        As far as apparent bugs.  I typed the line setting the environmental
variable TIMEZONE for the Chicago area into my profile.  The example given
is for Chicago, but it didn't work even though my built-in clock was set
properly and I typed the example in verbatim.  It was off by several hours.
I even had the year set correctly.  I found that if I ignored TIMEZONE in
my profile, then it would work properly.
        I have version 3.0.5
 
------------------------------
 
Date: Thu,16 Nov 89 10:19:52 GMT
From: R.D.Chafer%sysc.salford.ac.uk@NSFnet-Relay.AC.UK
Subject: German company
 
I am trying to get in touch with a German company called
   Verlag Heinz Heise GmbH & CokG
in Hannover. A telephone or Fax number would be ideal.
 
      Thanks in advance
                          Robert Chafer
 
=========================================================================
From:  Robert Chafer
 
    Computing Centre             Telephone: +44 61 736 5843 x 672 or x7328,
    University of Salford,
    Salford M5 4WT
    UK
 
E-mail:
    JANET:   chafer @ uk.ac.salford.sysc
    ARPANET: chafer%uk.ac.salford.sysc @ nss.cs.ucl.ac.uk
    BITNET:  chafer%uk.ac.salford.sysc @ uk.ac
        or   chafer%uk.ac.salford.sysc%ukacrl.bitnet @ cunyvm.cuny.edu
 
------------------------------
 
Date: Wed, 15 Nov 89 23:34:12 est
From: "...how real?" <jacob%cs.brandeis.edu@RELAY.CS.NET>
Subject: How much?
 
Maybe I just wasn't paying attention, but... has anybody ventured a guess as
to how much the TT is gonna cost (ballpark) ?
 
Jacob
 
 
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 16 Nov 89 10:42:16 GMT
From:
 gem.mps.ohio-state.edu!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!uwm.edu!ux1.cso.uiuc.edu!ux1.cso
.uiuc.edu!uxa.cso.uiuc.edu!uxf.cso.uiuc.edu!rjk752@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu
Subject: Monitors
 
/* Written  2:29 pm  Nov 13, 1989 by Dave_Ninjajr_Flo@cup.portal.com in
 uxf.cso.uiuc.edu:comp.sys.atari.st */
I hate to waste net space this way, but does anyone else get as tired as I do
reading BobR's negativistic comments? There are a few righteous points, but
I've read them all at least a dozen times........
/* End of text from uxf.cso.uiuc.edu:comp.sys.atari.st */
 
        Guess it must be hard to find NEW complaints all of the time about
a company as good as Atari.  Thus, they have to rely on old, outdated
arguments with vague references to past follies :)
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 16 Nov 89 03:55:40 GMT
From: wuarchive!texbell!sequoia!rpp386!mark@psuvax1.cs.psu.edu  (Mark Lehmann)
Subject: NeXT ( was Re: Vapourware!!! )
 
>Check out comp.sys.next for the full & accurate scoop.
>
>(I don't own a NeXT.  Heck, I've never even SEEN one.  I'm just an interested
>watcher from the sidelines.)
 
Thanks for the information, Steve.  I have heard rumors about the hard drive
being installed in every cube, but I couldn't find a reliable source.  I'll
check out comp.sys.next.
 
By the way,  I have seen the NeXT.  It was at a computer show in Austin Tx.
The sales representative was from an Apple background and really didn't
know the technical background of the computer, just the names of the software
that the store he represented sold, which was just the operating system.
 
The Next took a seemingly endless time booting.  The optical drive seemed
to really drag.  Over all, I wasn't impressed with the machine because of
the demonstrator and because of the slow drive access.  I got so board,
that I started to talk to a salesman selling Bottled water for healthy
computer office environments.  I won't judge NeXT on that demonstration,
though.  I think it was just a bad environment for that machine.
 
Mark Lehmann :>
--
+------------------------------------+-----------------------------------+
| Mark Lehmann                       |                                   |
| mark@rpp386.cactus.org             |                                   |
| ?bigtex|texbell?!rpp386!mark       |                                   |
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 16 Nov 89 08:26:37 GMT
From: unmvax!ariel!hydra.unm.edu!seattle@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU  (David G. Adams)
Subject: Tech Specialties
 
In article <8911150804.AA02823@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU> MCCABE@MTUS5.BITNET (Jim
 McCabe) writes:
>
>Being the young freshman that I was, I stupidly sent them the extra
>money.  I should have talked to some government business agency about
>them and tried to put them out of business.
>
>Overall, I would stay as far away from Tech Specialties as possible.
>They are crooks, and their hardware is just average, certainly not
>worth the seemingly endless nonsense you have to endure to get your order.
>
>-- Jim
 
I purchased my Tech Specialties 1MB upgrade from a local dealer here in
Albuquerque for $263.07 on March 18, 1988 for my 520ST.  This included
dealer installation and the clock option.
 
I have had NO trouble with the unit at all, and am recently thinking of
using the UPGRADEABLE aspect of this unit to move on to 2.5MB.
 
I see no problem.  Of course, I'm not dealing directly with Tech Specialties.
I am (was) very happy with the service my dealer gave me - if there was a
problem with the unit, my dealer would've taken care of it.
 
 
By the way, anybody want to buy my old 256k RAM chips?  I figure I can
make up about 1/2 the cost of my upgrade if I can sell them ($80/free delivery).
 
Dave
 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| seattle@hydra.unm.edu   |     Kirk - Mr. Spock, Eliminate his heartbeat.     |
| Dadams10@GEnie   LotE   | "Modern love is automatic"  - A Flock of Seagulls  |
| Seattle        Live it! | Don't bug the University  'bout nuthin' I've said. |
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| seattle@hydra.unm.edu   |     Kirk - Mr. Spock, Eliminate his heartbeat.     |
| Dadams10@GEnie   LotE   | "Modern love is automatic"  - A Flock of Seagulls  |
| Seattle        Live it! | Don't bug the University  'bout nuthin' I've said. |
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 16 Nov 89 10:41:11 GMT
From:
 gem.mps.ohio-state.edu!brutus.cs.uiuc.edu!rpi!uwm.edu!ux1.cso.uiuc.edu!ux1.cso.
uiuc.edu!uxa.cso.uiuc.edu!uxf.cso.uiuc.edu!rjk752@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu
Subject: TT vs 386 boxes
 
        Here is some text from the Oct 89 issue of ST Log.
 
"       As most of you know, this is the last issue of this magazine
in its current form.  As of next month, ST-LOG will be merged with
ANALOG Computing to form a comprehensive Atari-specific publication.  If
you read... The U.S. Atari market is not large enough to support two
Atari-specific magazines from the same publisher.  Specifically, advertising,
which provides an important portion of every magazines earnings, is an at
[sic] all-time low.
...
        The new ANALOG Computing will be much larger than the magazine
you're holding in your hands.  It will contain 132 pages, 48 of which will
be in full color.
..."
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 16 Nov 89 10:42:37 GMT
From:
 gem.mps.ohio-state.edu!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!uwm.edu!ux1.cso.uiuc.edu!ux1.cso
.uiuc.edu!uxa.cso.uiuc.edu!uxf.cso.uiuc.edu!rjk752@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu
Subject: What's wrong with the AMY?
 
/* Written 12:22 am  Nov 13, 1989 by Bob_BobR_Retelle@cup.portal.com in
 uxf.cso.uiuc.edu:comp.sys.atari.st */
 
Maybe you're easily satisfied with the three or four Atari magazines that
are left in the market...   unfortunately, you've got to cross ANALOG and
ST-LOG off your list, since Atari Corp's capricious treatment of the US
marketplace has forced ANALOG out of business after many years of trying to
support Atari.
 
/* End of Bob's text */
 
        As I pointed out in a previous note, you are quite wrong.  Analog
and ST-LOG are merging into a bigger, better Analog Computing.  I have
the October 1989 issue to prove it.  If you didn't see my other note, then
I can repeat the text from ST-Log again here for your reading enjoyment.
Just leave me E-mail or a note.
 
------------------------------
 
End of INFO-ATARI16 Digest V89 Issue #662
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=========================================================================
