=========================================================================
 
Today's Topics:
           Atari's Quarterly Results ($5.4 Million Lost) :)
               Sooner or later it _will_ happen to you.
                                Thanks
                    The 'PHANTOM TYPIST' (3 msgs)
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Date: 5 Feb 90 17:40:22 GMT
From:
 pasteur!helios.ee.lbl.gov!ncis.tis.llnl.gov!blackbird!udecc!udcps3!vanleeuw@ucb
 vax.Berkeley.EDU  (James Van Leeuwen)
Subject: Atari's Quarterly Results ($5.4 Million Lost) :)
Message-ID: <1990Feb5.174022.17129@udcps3.cps.udayton.edu>
 
In article <34112@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU> kawakami@earthquake.Berkeley.EDU (John
 Kawakami) writes:
>In article <485d8c5b.14a1f@force.UUCP> covertr@force.UUCP (Richard E. Covert)
 writes:
>>
>>well, once again Atari Corp has shown how much it cares about the
>>USA market by releasing its new products overseas first. I really wonder
>>just how committed Atari corp is to the USa market anyway??
>
>1.  I didn't know there was a sea between the USA and Canada.
>2.  I think Atari ships to other countries first because Atari diddles
>    too long figuring out how to market the machines here.  The Atari
>    has a serious identity crisis.
>2a. I don't think shipping to other countries is such a bad thing, especially
>    if the dollar is weak elswhere.
 
Well, here's my two cents worth.  First of all, I have worked for one of the
nation's largest ST dealers for about 9 months now, so I have a little
perspective on the issue.  One of the major reasons that equipment seems to get
overseas faster than it arrives here is a little organization called the
FCC.  Not only is the process for approval slow, it gives any company an
excuse for not releasing products on time.
 
I agree entirely that shipping overseas is a good idea, but I think that
Atari has taken it a little too far.  In their attempts to expand their
overseas market, Atari has forgotten about the US market completely.
Not only is Atari at fault in this category, many of the third party software
developers are guilty as well.  Ever seen an American version of Turbo
C/Pascal from Borland?
 
I also don't feel that delays in the introduction of products to the US market
are due to marketing.  Atari does little (read almost nothing) in marketing
in the US.  It relies heavily on the major dealers to sell the product for
them.  This alone causes many problems, particularly when the dealers know as
little about the products as the consumers.  The dealers would probably be
willing to pass on information to consumers if it were only available.
 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jim Van Leeuwen                                 vanleeuw@udcps3.cps.udayton.edu
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 5 Feb 90 22:30:55 GMT
From: voder!pyramid!athertn!alex@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU  (Alex Leavens)
Subject: Sooner or later it _will_ happen to you.
Message-ID: <17829@laurel.athertn.Atherton.COM>
 
Over the weekend I managed to completely blow away my hard drive.  It wouldn't
boot, it wouldn't talk to my ST at all, even when I ran AHDI from floppy.
 
Wouldn't do _nuthin'_.
 
?60 meg, gone, all gone.
 
Would you beleive that this has a happy ending?  I had just made
backups 2 days earlier, and hadn't done anything since.  (Well,
I'd done a little, but it was easily recoverable).  I didn't lose
anything except the 4 hours it took me to reformat and restore my
harddrive.
 
Moral:
        It can happen to you.
        It will happen to you.
        Unless you have good backups, you are scr*wed.
        Unless you have an easy way to make them, you
                won't have good backups.
        Get a good backup system, _now_.
 
The buns you save may be your own.
 
 
--
|-------------------------------------------------------------------------|
|--alex | alex@Atherton.COM |  Caution!  Falling Opinions, next 6 miles   |
|     "Ha! That's it!  Hold it right there!.....(Pronoun trouble)!"       |
|-------------------------------------------------------------------------|
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 6 Feb 90 00:42:32 GMT
From:
 zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!uflorida!beach.cis.ufl.edu!cr
 1@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu  (Christopher Roth)
Subject: Thanks
Message-ID: <22124@uflorida.cis.ufl.EDU>
 
Hello Blaine,
 
I use Uniterm 2.0e quite a bit, and I haven't had any bugs you
described.  Well, there is one thing I get...I use Uniterm with
Revolver, and I use it on Vax VMS system.  I'll be in the editor,
emulating vt200, when all of a sudden the screen will go bright and I
will crash out to the desktop.  Weird, huh?
 
 
 
--
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
*     Christoper Roth                         *  "Machines have no
*     InterNet  :  cr1@beach.cis.ufl.edu      *   Conscience..."
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-Post No Bills-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 5 Feb 90 18:01:22 GMT
From: m2c!umvlsi!umaecs!beroll@husc6.harvard.edu
Subject: The 'PHANTOM TYPIST'
Message-ID: <9087.25cdbf72@ecs.umass.edu>
 
I too have had the problem of the Phantom Typest.  I've has my ST for three
years now, and this problem didn't show up until last month.  I was running
WordWriter St (From Timeworks) and at first I thought the keyboard locked up on
me, but then everything I typed and commands I issued were delayed for about a
minute.  I was still able to save my work, but it took a long while. I wasn't
doing anything different from my usual setup.  I don't know why it would just
start happening.
 
Please post any solutions or remedies.
 
David Beroll
bitnet BEROLL@UMAECS.bitnet
University of Massachusetts at Amherst
Student of the School of Engineering
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 6 Feb 90 00:35:51 GMT
From:
 pacific.mps.ohio-state.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!uf
 lorida!beach.cis.ufl.edu!cr1@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu  (Christopher Roth)
Subject: The 'PHANTOM TYPIST'
Message-ID: <22123@uflorida.cis.ufl.EDU>
 
I have experienced the Phantom Typist in Wordwriter ST....I will be
typing along at a pretty good clip and it will occur.  I use
WordWriter ST with Turbo ST and DC Format accessories, that's it.
I haven't tried it without these accessories, but I bet it does occur still.
 
 
 
--
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
*     Christoper Roth                         *  "Machines have no
*     InterNet  :  cr1@beach.cis.ufl.edu      *   Conscience..."
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-Post No Bills-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 5 Feb 90 22:20:40 GMT
From:
 cs.utexas.edu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!helios.physics.utoronto.ca!ists!yunexus!m
 accs!art@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu  (Art Mulder)
Subject: The 'PHANTOM TYPIST'
Message-ID: <25CDFC38.13821@maccs.dcss.mcmaster.ca>
 
In article <900204.10484196.021631@SFA.CP6> Z4648252@SFAUSTIN.BITNET (Z4648252)
 writes:
>
>    There has been an increasing amount of talk about the 'phantom
>typist' on the ST, in which the computer appears to slow down and
>whatever characters are stored in the keyboard buffer, appear, albeit
>slowly.  ...  <stuff deleted> What is
>needed is for everyone who encounters it to immediately (!!!) write down
>what was done to cause the phantom to show and post what happened.  ...
>  <stuff deleted>
>Larry Rymal:  |East Texas Atari 68NNNers| <Z4648252@SFAUSTIN.BITNET>
 
System Configuration:  Mega 2 (unmodified- has blitter) Mono monitor.
 
It has happened to me on the order of twice a year, allways allways allways
in WordWriter ST.  Everything slooooooows down - I have usually been able
to get it to save.  I don't recall anything distinctive, I'll make note
of details next time it occurs.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Art Mulder, art@maccs.DCSS.mcmaster.ca ( <- best),             art@maccs.uucp,
            ...neat.ai.toronto.edu!maccs!art       uwocc1gate%"art@maccs.uucp"
 
------------------------------
 
Date: Mon, 5 Feb 90 20:13:44 EST
From: Ravi Subrahmanyan <ravi@mcnc.org>
Message-ID: <9002060113.AA12489@alvin.mcnc.org>
 
Dear friends,
 
        Due to the large volume of articles in info-atari, SIMTEL20 is
being loaded down too much, and is unable to continue as our host.  I
have tried to find an alternate host for the past few weeks, but I
cannot find a site which (a) is accessible via the internet, so we can
manage the lists, and (b) can accommodate the load placed on it by
info-atari.  I am not very hopeful of finding a site in the next few
weeks.  When we had to move from Score last summer, we had a similar
problem, and SIMTEL20 was essentially the only reasonable place
that John Dunning found (I didn't find anything.)  Therefore, unless
we find something in the next 2 weeks,  info-atari will cease
operations as of Feb 17th, 1990.
 
        Its sad to see the list close down because of too much
interest (!).  But the load is indeed a lot (you must have noticed the
frequency of digests in the past few months), and we do not have anyone
who can go through each article and make selections for Digests (ie.
throw out really big articles.)  Formerly, Bill used to do this by hand
at Score, but that is not a reasonable option at SIMTEL20.  If we
manage to get some software written to deal with this, then we'll see
if we can start again at SIMTEL20.
 
        Sorry to be so brief.  We did have a good few years.. So long,
 
-ravi
 
 
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End of INFO-ATARI16 Digest V90 Issue #160
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