INFO-ATARI16 Digest         Thu,  9 Nov 89       Volume 89 : Issue 628
 
Today's Topics:
                           Atari Benchmarks
                          German on the net.
                Re~2: questions, questions, questions
                            TT's VME-slots
                      What's wrong with the AMY?
----------------------------------------------------------------------
 
Date: 8 Nov 89 20:28:13 GMT
From: hpfcso!hpldola!jg@hplabs.hp.com  (Joe Gilray)
Subject: Atari Benchmarks
 
Ignac,
 
Will there be a newer version of QUICK ST posted?  There were slight
GEM graphics problems with v1.2 and v1.46 (?).  I believe that you
saw and responded to my earlier post about these problems.
 
Thanks,
-Joe Gilray
 
------------------------------
 
Date: Thu, 9 Nov 89 23:01:39 EST
From: David Megginson <MEGGIN@vm.epas.utoronto.ca>
Subject: German on the net.
 
I tried a little experiment on the net. recently, and I apologise to
anyone who took offense. I posted a message in German, and received a
variety of answers, some to my message and some commenting on my use
of German.
 
1) US: The only people who complained about the German had US e-mail
   addresses. Most of them seemed to know some foreign languages, if
   not German, but it was the _idea_ of not using English which seemed
   to offend them. I guess that this grows out of the American
   "melting pot," where any culture is welcome but they all become the
   same.
 
2) Federal Republic of Germany: No comments on the language (I think
   one person politely thanked me, but said that he did not mind
   having to work in English.
 
3) United Kingdom: No one seemed to notice that the message was in
   German. They treated it the same way as they would have treated an
   English message.
 
4) Canada: Same as the UK. No offense at the German, and no notice
   of it either.
 
I wonder if the difference between the Atari communities in Canada and
Germany (which are flourishing) and that in the US (which is stagnating)
has something to do with this difference in attitudes? To be fair, I
did receive one or two messages from Americans who did not mention the
German at all. Also, the UK is having problems but they seem to be only
at the Atari corporate end.
 
The ST seems to do better in a cosmopolitan environment. Many of the
US addresses on the net either keep pouring out complaints that the
ST is not an IBM clone, or else they fiercely attack other US ST
users for daring to mention that the ST is not an IBM clone.
 
Most of what I see coming from non-US addresses, and, again to be
fair, a lot from US addresses, is concerned with problems and issues
on the ST itself -- they write and buy programs instead of always
complaining about them.
 
          David Megginson, Centre for Medieval Studies, Toronto
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 9 Nov 89 19:23:47 GMT
From: hp-pcd!hplsla!andyc@hplabs.hp.com  (Andy Cassino)
Subject: Re~2: questions, questions, questions
 
|I got Interlink
|because it got such rave reviews, but when I found the vt100 and vt52
|emulations wouldn't work properly with Unix on the Sequent Balance, I was
|forced to abandon Interlink as a loss.  I am now using the vt100 emulation
|"mode ansi" on Flash, and it works fine with "vi" (which I am using to
|write this note).  WithInterlink, I lost my precious arrow curser movement
|and my PF keys with the best setup I could find.  (Screwed up results with
|the others).  If I recal correctly, the Interlink vt100 in ANSI mode resulted
|in nothing being shown.
|       This made Interlink unsatisfactory for use in dialing into a Unix
|system.
|----------
 
Hmmm, I use Interlink for dialing into Unix systems quite a bit, but I use
the vt52 emulator. The one time I tried the vt100 it didn't work - at all.
But the vt52 does everything I need (including use of vi and arrow keys).
The machines I log into allow me to specify my terminal at login, so I
am satisfied.
 
Flash is so inexpensive I just might try it, though.
 
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed herein are those solely of the author,
            who has no pecuniary interest in the companies mentioned.
 
    %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
    % Andy Cassino                                                  %
    % uucp: hplabs!hplsla!andyc  domain: andyc%hplsla@hplabs.hp.com %
    % Hewlett-Packard              Lake Stevens Instrument Division %
    % 8600 Soper Hill Road                   Everett, WA 98205-1298 %
    % (206) 335-2211                                                %
    %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 9 Nov 89 22:17:01 GMT
From: philmtl!atha!rwa@uunet.uu.net  (Ross Alexander)
Subject: TT's VME-slots
 
gl8f@astsun8.astro.Virginia.EDU (Greg Lindahl) writes:
>Right, and a HOME USER with a TT/P doesn't need the things you plug into
>lots of slots. Why should a HOME USER then waste money on slots they won't
>use?
 
Well, perhaps you and I disagree about what a Home User is :-).  I
myself would like a few slots - say three to five - because I like to
hack hardware.  And because SCSI isn't The Greatest Thing Since Sliced
Bread to me (to others, it may be, the world is big enough for both
opinions to coexist).
 
Something I would very much like to have on a VME card is a modem -
not a modem for the phone line (how passe' :-), but a nice quick
56kBaud HDLC radio packet modem.  I want it on a card so it can do dma
directly to the buss, and generate interrupts only on frame
boundaries. 8000 character interrupts per second is hard on a machine
that's trying to do other work (like pay attention to the keyboard).
 
I'd like some uncommitted ttl i/o ports - say about 32 bits worth.
I'd like an ethernet card, and maybe a multiport serial card.
I'd like some a/d and d/a, and maybe a DSP (digital signal processor)
coprocessor board.
 
Now maybe you can stick all this stuff on SCSI.  I don't know, I seem
to remember some rules about a total of 8 targets + initiators.  Maybe
that was SCSI-1, and has been relaxed.  I'd still feel uncomfortable
building the scsi adaptors, and the targets do need some local
intelligence, don't they?  I don't know whether I could make all that
fly, and it would be nice if I could just go straight to the buss
rather than screw around with talking to the scsi controller,
especially for coprocessors.
 
Anyway, I think I'm a home user.  I'll probably go with the TT/X iff I
buy another Atari at all.  The TT/P sounds like a fun box for the
right person, if the prices truly are in line.  Pricing is pretty soft
right now, though.  I wonder if AllanP or KenB could give us a price
_range_?  Probably not ;-).  I promise to bitch about the price
regardless [100 :-)].
 
        Ross
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 9 Nov 89 21:23:25 GMT
From: hp-pcd!hplsla!andyc@hplabs.hp.com  (Andy Cassino)
Subject: What's wrong with the AMY?
 
|Brand loyalty aside, why would anyone sit around and continue bitching
|at Atari when they can go out and buy an Amiga 2000 or A2500 and just
|stuff whatever goodies they want in the mondo-expando slot thingies?
|...
|Also, has anyone noticed how difficult it is becoming to even find ST
|magazines?  I work on Wall Street so I pass by some of the largest
|newstands in New York City every day.  Many of them have either cut
|down on the number of ST mags they carry or eliminated them all
|together.  Walking around Grand Central Station for an hour and not
|being able to find one ST magazine does not bode well for my lil' ST.
|...
|Chris Mauritz
|----------
 
Well, not all of us are sitting around complaining about Atari, lots of us
are using our computers for all the various and sundry (and not so sundry)
things we bought them for. Me, I use a computer all day long and a
flicker-mundo display is the last thing my eyes need to deal with in the
evening. I *really* appreciate Atari's rock solid, crisp mono monitor.
(You may infer what I think about some other displays; I'm not interested in
a flame war.)
 
ST magazines? Well, maybe Wall Street is the center of the financial world,
but I can walk into any B. Dalton in a suburban shopping mall and buy
more ST mags than I want or need.
 
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed herein are those solely of the author,
            who has no pecuniary interest in the companies mentioned.
 
    %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
    % Andy Cassino                                                  %
    % uucp: hplabs!hplsla!andyc  domain: andyc%hplsla@hplabs.hp.com %
    % Hewlett-Packard              Lake Stevens Instrument Division %
    % 8600 Soper Hill Road                   Everett, WA 98205-1298 %
    % (206) 335-2211                                                %
    %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
 
------------------------------
 
End of INFO-ATARI16 Digest V89 Issue #628
*****************************************
=========================================================================