=========================================================================
 
INFO-ATARI16 Digest         Thu,  5 Apr 90       Volume 90 : Issue  406
 
Today's Topics:
                        10 ugly bombs (again)
                               Atari TT
                    GCR & Stacy & HardDisk access
            Looking for software to drive a tape drive...
                           Lucasfilm Games
                          Minor GCR problem
                       PC Ditto II screen saver
                  PostScript printing from Timeworks
                      SIMMs for the STE (2 msgs)
              Splitting comp.sys.atari.st into subgroups
                               STalker
                 The reasons for my position on demos
                 Toronto Atari convention impressions
----------------------------------------------------------------------
 
Date: 4 Apr 90 17:36:25 GMT
From:
 pacific.mps.ohio-state.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!usc!cs.utexas.edu!news-ser
 ver.csri.toronto.edu!utgpu!watserv1!watdragon!tiger!swklassen@tut.cis.ohio-stat
 e.edu  (Steven W. Klassen)
Subject: 10 ugly bombs (again)
Message-ID: <22880@watdragon.waterloo.edu>
 
In article <1990Apr3.141325.7997@chinet.chi.il.us> saj@chinet.chi.il.us (Stephen
 Jacobs) writes:
>Second in frequency to questions about what some number of bombs means is
>questions about what some LARGE number of bombs means (for instance, 10).
>The ST seems to keep putting up bombs for errors in a line as they happen.
>So more than 2 or 3 bombs is as likely to mean several errors as to mean
>the particular error that would give that number of bombs.
 
Doesn't the program quit after the first set of bombs?
 
 
 
Steven W. Klassen                       +-----------------------------+
Computer Science Major                  | Support the poor...buy fur! |
University of Waterloo                  +-----------------------------+
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 4 Apr 90 21:30:48 GMT
From: mentor.cc.purdue.edu!skn@purdue.edu  (Doug Stevens)
Subject: Atari TT
Message-ID: <9255@mentor.cc.purdue.edu>
 
I am very interested in the new TT.  Does anyone know what the graphics
capablities are going to be.  The latest info I've seen was from an old
Start magazine.  So does any of you out there have the latest stats.  Also
(please don't laugh) does any one know the latest release date.
 
                            Thanks, Doug
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 4 Apr 90 15:49:14 GMT
From: att!cbnewsj!rcd@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU  (rana.c.dutt)
Subject: GCR & Stacy & HardDisk access
Message-ID: <4490@cbnewsj.ATT.COM>
 
In article <1990Apr3.110355.26669@lth.se>, qralph@dna.lth.se (Ralph Haglund)
 writes:
> when passing the Atari shop yesterday they had put some stuff, GCR or
> whatever, into the belly of a Stacy 2. All fine and nice (thou the nice
> Atari desktop was missing), but they couldn't access the hard disk!
 
According to Mark Booth (from Genie), some early Stacy models would
cause Spectre GCR to lock up if SCSI LUN 1 was enabled under the
Spectre "Hard Disk --- Devices ..." menu. So, before going into Mac
mode, select "Devices..." under "Hard Disk", and try turning off LUN 1.
(This is the reason Spectre 2.65 defaults to all SCSI LUN1 devices off,
which is a change from the Spectre 2.0 defaults.)
 
Rana Dutt
rcd@mtqua.att.com
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 2 Apr 90 16:21:47 GMT
From: portal!cup.portal.com!Xorg@apple.com  (Peter Ted Szymonik)
Subject: Looking for software to drive a tape drive...
Message-ID: <28526@cup.portal.com>
 
That makes three of us!  I contacted ICD about the possibility of
buying their mech and software - and they said - no way, we have to buy
the entire unit.  I see a huge potential market for someone who does
actually write software so that the ST could use any standard tape
drive unit - after all, the ICD adaptor is pretty much 100% SCSI and
their should be no reason why it couldn't handle a standard $250 tape
drive mech with the right software.
 
Peter Szymonik
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 4 Apr 90 22:29:54 GMT
From: whelk.cis.ohio-state.edu!jeffery_d_thompson@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu
Subject: Lucasfilm Games
Message-ID: <78882@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu>
 
    Does anyone know when Their Finest Hour: The Battle of Britain and
Loom are coming out? Both of these games are made by Lucasfilm Games
and I'm very anxious to get them, especially Their Finest Hour. Thanks
in advance.
                                                Jeff
Remember, X NEVER, marks the spot.(most of the time anyways)
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 5 Apr 90 04:55:05 GMT
From:
 pacific.mps.ohio-state.edu!ohstpy!miavx1!tmwhitehead@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu
Subject: Minor GCR problem
Message-ID: <1226.261a8959@miavx1.acs.muohio.edu>
 
A friend of mine is running spectre GCR 2.35(I think) with system 6.04
running multifinder on a mega 4.  The problem he is having is that he has
trouble reading very long continuous files (600-700k).  They work fine up until
the speed change, then he gets a disk error.  It reads and writes small files
fine, and it has no trouble formatting disks so that they work on other Macs.
 
Has anybody else noticed this problem?
 
Dave?
--
               ____
                /  _   _/  _/        Todd Whitehead
               / /_/ /_/ /_/        Miami University
                                      Oxford, Ohio
             If it looks like I said it, I probably did...
_____________________________________________________________________________
          I'm graduating in May as a Systems Analysis Major!
                        Anybody wanna hire me?
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 4 Apr 90 23:06:38 GMT
From: isc-br!lawrence@uunet.uu.net  (Lawrence Kelley)
Subject: PC Ditto II screen saver
Message-ID: <2817@isc-br.ISC-BR.COM>
 
I finally received my PC Ditto II upgrade last week.  After some problems
getting the clip seated, it works very well; a Norton rating of 4.2.
 
Do any of you PCD users out there have/know of a screen saver that will
work with PCD II?  I have tried several that I downloaded from the
IBM roundtable on genie, but none of them work.
 
Please help.
 
Thanks, lawrence
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 4 Apr 90 17:51:20 GMT
From:
 cs.utexas.edu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!utgpu!watserv1!watdragon!tiger!swkla
 ssen@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu  (Steven W. Klassen)
Subject: PostScript printing from Timeworks
Message-ID: <22881@watdragon.waterloo.edu>
 
I would like to be able to produce PostScript output from Timeworks,
upload it to an account with a PostScript laser printer, and print
the document from there.   However, I have had no luck.
 
I tried to install Timeworks for PostScript but end up with a
missing driver.  It seems Timeworks wants to load the driver from
the (non-existing) printer.  If I tell FontWidth that I have the
printer, then it works fine until I try printing, at which point
it tells me it couldn't load the driver and the modem lights flash,
telling me that it is looking for the printer on the serial port.
If I tell FontWidth that I do not have the printer, then it tries
to load the driver (from the printer which I just told it didn't
exist) right away, rather than when printing.
 
Can I get it to print PostScript to disk, even though I don't have
the printer?  Will it work if I can get someone to send me the
proper *.wid file?  I couldn't find the answers in the manual -
maybe I can find them on the net!  (Gee, why didn't I get Calamus?)
 
Steven W. Klassen                       +-----------------------------+
Computer Science Major                  | Support the poor...buy fur! |
University of Waterloo                  +-----------------------------+
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 5 Apr 90 02:35:13 GMT
From:
 cs.utexas.edu!samsung!munnari.oz.au!kaukau.comp.vuw.ac.nz!aaron@tut.cis.ohio-st
 ate.edu  (Aaron Roydhouse)
Subject: SIMMs for the STE
Message-ID: <1990Apr05.023513.20437@kaukau.comp.vuw.ac.nz>
 
From: pegram@uvm-gen.UUCP (pegram r)
>From article <2074@atari.UUCP>, by apratt@atari.UUCP (Allan Pratt):
>% It turns out that a policy
>% decision was made a while ago to the effect that SIMMs (the socketed
>% kind) are to be used when building STe's.  I don't know if any were
>% built before that decision, and whether SIPs were used in them.  As has
>% been pointed out, using SIMMs makes a machine upgradable without
>% solder.  It does NOT make them user-upgradable, at least not in the
>% USA, where opening the shield (or maybe the case) voids your warranty.
>
>With a 90 day warranty who cares?  Just wait it out, and with SIMMS,
>you're *much* less likely to damage your ST than with the various
>kludges that are used to add memory to older STs.  SIMMs should be
>very easy to plug in if you are at all handy.
 
90 days!!! Is that the sort of warranty offers by Atari overseas? Here
they offer 12 months. They have to, they wouldn't get away with
anything less. 90 days is the sort of limited warranty offered on
software. Computer hardware is 12 months minimum. Several Taiwan
Trendy-Brand PC Clone importers are offering 24 months. Many have
warranty extension schemes (at some cost). I know it is the same in
Australia - 12 months, standard.
 
How can a company say it has any confidence in its product if they
don't offer more than a 90 day warranty. I can't believe 90 days is normal
- is it some kind of discount offer, shorter warranty, smaller price?
 
All Atari products are sold here with these incredible double-layer
sticker things (which says - remove this, and your problems are your own)
which you abosutely cannot remove without breaking, situated over
an important screw. It remains intact for the warranty period (12
months) or you don't have a warranty.
 
>% Furthermore, policy decisions are subject to revision by future policy,
>% so I still maintain it's a bad idea to assume that an STe has SIMMs
>% rather than SIPs.
>
>Memory seems to be the most popular upgrade, and all of your
>competitors allow it, I hope the decision is not reversed *ever*.
 
Absolutely, its one of the first things I hear people ask when they
are considering an ST. - "If I buy a 520 now, can I upgrade it to a
1040 later?".
 
>% Finally, a side note: using SIMMs is not all rosy.  The advantages of
>% (dealer-)upgradability must be balanced against the disadvantages
>% inherent in socketed SIMMs.  They're less reliable: the sockets break,
>% the contacts get dirty, the SIMMs come loose, etc.  So your upgradable
>% STe is less reliable than it would have been with soldered-in SIPs,
                                                     ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
All the installed SIPs I have seen (mainly in PC clones) have been
socketed, obviously not the same type of socket as SIMMs, but the same
idea. Allan still has a point I guess. But what happens if a SIP board
needs replacing and it is soldered in????
--
_________________________________________________________________________
/ \  The Entity           | Phone: +64 4 850 988   Fax: +64 4 710 187
|@/  Aaron Roydhouse      | SMail: PO Box 11-704, Wellington, New Zealand
\__  aaron@comp.vuw.ac.nz | Quote: "Death - To stop sinning suddenly"
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 5 Apr 90 03:47:15 GMT
From: haven!uvaarpa!murdoch!astsun9.astro.Virginia.EDU!gl8f@ames.arc.nasa.gov
 (Greg Lindahl)
Subject: SIMMs for the STE
Message-ID: <1990Apr5.034715.16785@murdoch.acc.Virginia.EDU>
 
In article <1990Apr05.023513.20437@kaukau.comp.vuw.ac.nz>
 Aaron.Roydhouse@comp.vuw.ac.nz (Aaron Roydhouse) writes:
 
> How can a company say it has any confidence in its product if they
> don't offer more than a 90 day warranty. I can't believe 90 days is normal
> - is it some kind of discount offer, shorter warranty, smaller price?
 
A 90 day warranty is typical in the US. Sun offers a standard 90 day
warranty, and Apple only recently extended the standard Mac warranty
from 90 days to 1 year. Of course, both companies offer extended
coverage if you pay extra.
 
Greg Lindahl
gl8f@virginia.edu                  I gave my lunch for space-sickness research.
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 4 Apr 90 20:07:16 GMT
From: haven!wam!dmb@ames.arc.nasa.gov  (David M. Baggett)
Subject: Splitting comp.sys.atari.st into subgroups
Message-ID: <1990Apr4.200716.20696@wam.umd.edu>
 
Well, it's come up again.  Somone's hinted at breaking this newsgroup
into subgroups.  This idea hasn't met with much support in the past,
but maybe it's time to (once again) reconsider.
 
I think a division between technical topics, game discussions, and
rabid political flames might be nice.  Maybe comp.sys.atari.st should
split into three groups:
 
        comp.sys.atari_st.general       (Games, rumors, questions, etc.)
        comp.sys.atari_st.wizards       (Technical)
        comp.sys.atari_st.politics      (Rabid political & financial discussion)
 
or perhaps
 
        comp.sys.atari_st.religion      (Rabid political & financial discussion)
 
:-) (sorry, couldn't resist).
 
Things like the monthly "welcome to comp.sys.atari.st" Q & A document
would get posted to comp.sys.atari_st.general.
 
Note that I don't really feel strongly either way about this.  It's
just a proposal.  Feel free to criticize (flame?) or endorse it.
 
A few questions to ask ourselves:
 
        1) Is there enough newsgroup traffic to warrant this?
        2) Will people pay any attention to it, or will everything just
           get cross-posted?
        3) Will it be annoying to have to read 3 groups instead of one?
        4) What will happen to info-atari digests?
 
Comments?
 
Dave Baggett
dmb@cscwam.umd.edu
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 4 Apr 90 22:26:32 GMT
From:
 cs.utexas.edu!usc!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!jarthur!dcrevier@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu
 (Dan Crevier)
Subject: STalker
Message-ID: <5813@jarthur.Claremont.EDU>
 
Is anyone using the new terminal program STalker?  It sounds like a nice
program, but I was wondering if it had good VT-100 emulation, and if it
could keep up with 19200 baud.
 
Dan Crevier
dcrevier@jarthur.claremont.edu
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 4 Apr 90 19:53:07 GMT
From: zephyr.ens.tek.com!orca.wv.tek.com!pogo!bluneski@uunet.uu.net  (Bob
 Luneski)
Subject: The reasons for my position on demos
Message-ID: <8817@pogo.WV.TEK.COM>
 
In <7376@ubc-cs.UUCP>  buchanan@cs.ubc.ca (John Buchanan) writes:
 
>       You are right that there is a fine line between moderation and
>censorship.  In my books Steve has made the right decision.  The net should
>not be used for a blanket distribution of commercial software.
 
To the best of my knowledge there has been never been any commercial software
distributed on the net. That would be VERY VERY wrong and Steve has done
an outstanding job as moderator.  However, a demo is not commercial software,
it is simply a demo: A demonstration of capability contributing to the flow
of information by adding to the knowledge base of an individual.
 
The exchange of information, it's what the net is all about.
 
 
____________________________________________________________________________
  Bob Luneski
  Diamond Back Support:  bluneski@pogo.WV.TEK.COM
                         Genie: B.LUNESKI1
 
  The opinions expressed herein are my own and in no way reflect the
  opinions of Tektronix, Inc.
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 4 Apr 90 22:40:30 GMT
From:
 zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!sunybcs!sybil.cs.Buffalo.EDU@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu
 (G. Brandon Brooks)
Subject: Toronto Atari convention impressions
Message-ID: <20785@eerie.acsu.Buffalo.EDU>
 
        TORONTO ATARI USERS CONVENTION : My Impressions
        -----------------------------------------------
 
    I was one of the attendees in Toronto at the 1990 Canadian Atari Users
Convention on Sunday, April 1, 1990 (this past weekend). I came back with
several impressions both good and bad of Atari's management and their
computers.
    My background: I currently own an Atari 8-bit system since 1979 which
has seen little use since 1988 when I bought a Commodore Amiga. My best
friend owns an Atari ST.
 
    The Atari booth was impressive. Atari had 3 Lynxs running and allowed
anybody to try them out with several games that they had there to demo.
I was VERY impressed at the quality of the Lynx. Great sounds, graphics,
and game playability. The Atari IBM compatibles, Atari STes, Mega STs,
etc. were all on display. A business-type approach seemed Atari's plan.
 
                 ATARI ADVERTIZING
                 -----------------
    An hour later, 5 of Atari's representatives talked to an audience of
about 200 concerning Atari's plans and goals in the future. Atari's new
philosophy is to "TARGET markets for each of our products, and then
to go out and advertize SPECIFICALL for those markets". It took Atari
FIVE YEARS to recognize this!?!?!?!?
    I see several flaws in Atari's plans of segmenting their target
audiences. Atari has TOO MANY product lines. The specific markets they are
after with which computers:
        (a) Atari IBM Compatibles       (IBM Market)
        (b) Atari STes                  (Home market/Game market)
        (c) Lynx                        (Game market)
        (d) Mega ST (STe?)s             (CAD/Business market)
        (e) Portfolio                   (Portable IBM market)
        (f) Stacy                       (Portable ST market)
        (g) Atari TT                    (CAD/higher-end market)
        (h) ABAQ/Atari workstation      (workstation market)
 
    EIGHT markets for such a small company as Atari is? Look at the
main competitiors of Atari and see where they focus:
         Nintendo: Focuses strictly on the game market both portable
                   and home game market type, along with Sega and NEC.
         Commodore: Main focus is the Commodore Amiga in the home end
                    and multimedia/desktop presentation/graphics end.
         Apple: Macintosh with desktop publishing, and the Macintosh II
                with multimedia.
         IBM: Business market
 
    How can Atari afford to have 8 separate divisions of its advertizing
dollar? They can't. Atari has to concentrate on one, maybe two places to
try and get a market edge in, and only THEN try and expand. Do you see
Commodore coming out with many separate lines? No. Commodore is a small
company. They have an Amiga 500 for the home, and an Amiga 2000 for higher
end work. And new systems like the 2500/3000 are still compatable with the
other Amigas and can be advertized along with them. Commodore is thinking
about coming out with a game system of their own, ALSO compatable with the
Amiga line. Commodore can advertize all their products at once because they
can all be the same. Can Atari do this? No. The Lynx, ST, TT, Portfolio,
etc. are all different architectures. They all need different advertizing
campaigns. Atari has a limited advertizing budget. Atari has, overestimating
this a bit, a $10 million advertizing budget per year. Only about $1.5
million can be devoted to any one product. That's not enough. Atari is
trying to get into TOO many areas too quickly.
    Atari's representatives seemed very unknowledgeable during the
conference. Atari did not have any knowledge (as in they never heard of)
of the Motorola/Hitachi dispute over the 68030 when asked about it. Atari
among all people should keep an eye on this type of news, especially when
it might impact the Atari TT - which uses the Motorola 68030 chip.
    In my opinion, Atari doesn't have a good grasp over how to handle
selling the computers it makes. Atari LOOKS impressive once you go and
see their booth and their computers, but if nobody knows about them it's
to no avail.
 
                 COMPUTER NEWS
                 -------------
    The Atari TT was given a release date of late 1990 (as in December).
The Atari TT will be shipping to developers around July or August of this
year. No price or even in-the-ballpark estimate of the price of the TT was
given.
    The Stacy it seems will NOT be an STe, rather an ST. It will NOT have
a battery for about a year as it takes too much power to run a hard drive
with a portable computer.
 
    Atari has a great line of computers. I was very impressed at the show.
If they become aware of how to market them (look how well Apple does with
inferior products) and stop developing new models - and support the ones
they have made, at least for a few years, Atari will become successful.
 
                         - Brandon!
 
------------------------------
 
End of INFO-ATARI16 Digest V90 Issue #406
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