VILLANOVA UNIVERSITY, ST. AUGUSTINE CENTER
MEETING STARTS - 09:30 - AUG 14th
COME AND JOIN US - BRING FRIENDS
---------------------------------------------------------
THIS MONTH'S CONTENTS
In case you had not noticed, the internet is getting a lot of attention, hype and, even, valuable use. One of the favorite activities - which got its start with the old PlayNet -> Q-Link -> Apple-Link -> American On-Line progression, is on-line "chatting". It should be called on-line typing, but...
So, for August, member Tom Johnson will host a demo of what has become one of the most popular chat vehicles - ICQ (I Seek You). It is an arm of AOL, but is much broader than for just AOL members. Assuming our network connection works proerly, we hope to do a download, install, and real live demo.
Come join us in room 110
MAIN LINE AMIGA USERS - Room 210
At our July meeting we covered a fairly wide variety of topics with only a small membership in attendance. Topics included the update to the VERSION command for Y2K compliancy, a simple demonstration of the Radiance rendering program, how to troubleshoot software startup problems, how to startup software from the Shell/CLI, and the announcement by Amiga Inc that they will be using the Linux kernel for the AmigaNG.
For our August meeting we'll be open to a general question and answer session with the emphasis on helping each other resolve specific problems or learnings we may be having around the Amiga platform. If members bring their Amigas, we'll also be setup to update system software such
[continued]
If you missed the July meeting, you missed the chance to see Layton Fireng's
unannounced show and tell. Last December, he demoed the HP PhotoSmart film
scanner and some of what it could do. Since then, he's been doing a lot more
and showed us some results. Really incredible quality photos - at a price you
can probably afford. Check page 3!!
########################################
MEMBER SURVEY - if you have not yet returned your member survey (from the June
newsletter), you will be receiving a reminder phone call! In order to better
understand where our membership is heading, we need to hear from EVERY ONE OF
OUR MEMBERS!
Please dig out the form, give it some real thought and return it post-haste!
Y2K STATUS - this month, we have a couple of tidbits relating to the upcoming
year end events. The item on p.6 is particularly interesting - time to play
hard ball is coming!
---------------------------
[by Emil Volcheck]
As some of you know, I have had a PC operating since August of 1998 that thinks
the year 2000 is past history...
Back then, I set the PC's clock to the year 2000; so that it would be possible
to check whether various programs have any installation or operation problems
once 19 is not the beginning of a current year number.
That PC was running Windows for Workgroups v3.11 - and I performed Microsoft's
minor Y2K correction (one file updated) before switching the clock.
The PC negotiated the 12/31/00 to 1/1/01 transition without incident.
Since then the computer has run fine, all applications have worked OK and only
one date related hitch was noted. That was a virus check - the virus software,
when presented with a February 1999 definition file, refused to use it since it
was apparently 2 years old - at this time, the PC clock was in 2001.
Recently, I decided to convert the PC to Win95 and further decided to try doing
the installation - WHILE THE PC CLOCK WAS STILL IN 2001. This meant, of
course, that the install software was about four years old (as Win95B carried a
publish date around 1/97).
The installation - to a freshly re-formatted to FAT32 hard drive - went without
a problem. As of this writing, the system update was done about four weeks ago
and the PC is running nicely (quite spritely since I did a lean and clean
installation).
All software reinstalled so far, as well as some Win95 software that I could
not use before, is performing OK, too.
If anything unusual comes up, I'll endeavour to let folks know about it, but,
so far, all is OK.
***************************
[from the internet]
A business man from Wisconsin went on a business trip to Louisiana. Upon
arrival, he immediately plugged into the hotel room port and sent a short email
back home to his wife, Jennifer Johnson at her address, JennJohn@world.net.
Unfortunately, in his haste, he mistyped a letter and the email ended up going
to JeanJohn@world.net, a Jean Johnson in Duluth, the wife of a preacher who had
just passed away and was buried that day. The preacher's wife took one look at
the email and promptly fainted.
It read: "Arrived safely, but it sure is hot here!"
[from Chops & Gneiss Times, via Rock Buster News, via Golden Spike News, via
Rock Chips, 7/99]
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
FOR SALE: the club has been receiving quite a lot of Commodore stuff -
software, computers, disk drives, monitors, printers, etc. - from former
members or other folks who spotted us in the Delaware Valley Computer User.
So, if you are in need of replacements or augmentation, please contact Charles
Curran - he has most of the stuff and the prices are VERY reasonable!!!
***************************
Our July meeting was set up as an unstructured (well, slightly structured...)
session for questions, problems and, hopefully, some answers. Members had been
invited to bring problems hints or whatever.
We had a lot of good discussions. One of the highlights has already been
referred to on p.1 of this issue - namely, the show of high tech printing by
Layton Fireng. His summary is printed immediately following.
As always, we urge members to use our monthly meetings - AND the BBS - AND the
website - as resources to help get more value out of their computing efforts.
Unfortunately, the increasing complexity of our systems is not promoting
increased reliability - and not always increased ease of use. So, until
computing becomes more automatic and intuitive, your user group should be a
valuable personal resource. AND also an opportunity to share your learnings
with others - a user group should be a 2-way street for the flow of help!
PRINTING WITH ALPS
by Layton Fireng
[ejv: the following is a summary for the "show and tell" that Layton did at our
July meeting - as a non-scheduled tidbit]
At the July meeting, I displayed an 8x10 color print of Emil Volcheck. The
picture was taken at the December 1998 meeting, as part of a demonstration of
the HP PhotoSmart scanner. The photo was taken with a Leitz 35mm, f/1.4
Summilux lens on Kodak 100 color negative film, with normal processing. The
negative was scanned in at 2400DPI, producing a file of 116,556,628 bytes (111
MB). The file was in .PSD format, which is a Photoshop proprietary file. The
image was shown to be 7202x5675 pixels, RGB, 8 bits/channel.
The print was a nominal 8x10 printed on an Alps 1300 printer using dye
sublimation. Dye sublimation has long been used in the graphics industry for
pre-press proofs, and for presentation pieces. The process is highly respected
and has largely replaced the Kodak dye transfer process. The prints are true,
durable, do not run and are color stable. Another process commonly used is one
that uses wax, this process produces beautiful prints, but lacks durability.
Both of these processes employ printers costing from $5000-$25,000, and up, for
really good work. The pricing has largely taken these modalities out of all but
commercial use. The same being true for the dye transfer print, which started
at $125.00 for an 8X10.
As an aside, Playboy when making their center fold, would shoot the picture on
8x10 reversal film, then have a 36x42 dye transfer print made of it. This
print was then airbrushed, and the separations were made from it. With the film
costing about $5.00 a sheet and there being 20-50 shots made, it is easy to see
that this kind of work gets real expensive real quick. TV guide also used Dye
Transfer prints for it's covers. I know of one photographer who gets
$20,000/day plus expenses plus materials. So in a world where these kind of
expenses are routinely incurred, a $50,000 print proofer is small potatoes.
Comes the Alps, this machine which lists for about $450.00, prints dye
sublimation at 600dpi. Is it equivalent to the more expensive machines? That is
why I passed the print around. In a world where kerning type offers an
adjustment in increments of .001 inch, and a laser scan can cost $15,000.00,
perhaps they would be found deficient. But to me they look pretty good. That
someone in our group can purchase a printer (street $230.-$400) and for about
$2.00 in materials produce a first class print, is to me astounding. It is my
experience that ink jet prints, look like ink jet prints. These prints look
like photographs. That is why I passed them around, without comment, no one
picked it up. The only thing that was done on the outside was the processing of
the negative. If someone does not want to buy a scanner. Do not, I say, do not
get anything other than a true negative scanner, I know there are attachments
and supplements offered. DON'T EVEN LOOK AT THEM. HP makes a transparency
attachment for their flat bed scanner. It costs about $500.00 and scans at
about 600dpi, this is fine for X-rays and 8x10's, but it just isn't there for
6x6 and 35mm.
If you want to do nice work, you can order a CD of your film when you have it
processed. It will cost about $30.00. Each negative will have 5 different
scans, they are sharp and clear and if you have a good camera every bit of
detail will be there. If you want to do little prints, you can order the floppy
from Kodak, it is only a couple of dollars. However the scans are JPGs. This is
a lossy file, in that it uses a compression mode whereby data is removed.
However, you might get very nice wallet size prints, and you get to control the
whole process. The special Alps paper in the small (4x6) allows you to make
prints for less than a $1.00. Depending on the program you use, you could put
several prints on one sheet, which is very nice. The really nice thing is that
YOU CAN DO IT ALL.
For the record, I made the print using Photoshop 5, on an Alps 1300, on Alps
8.5x11 Photopaper. For dye sublimation printing, you must use Alps ink and
paper. You can however use their "photo realistic" mode and print on regular
paper with their regular inks. To my knowledge no one makes any replacement
inks (ribbons) for the Alps.
[ejv: more such tidbits are in store - come on out to our meetings and WATCH
for them!!!]
***************************
Author unknown
[Reprinted from: The CEBUG Chronicle via LCCUG, April 1999]
This article found on the Net starts off talking about 28.8k modems, but
continue reading even if your modem is a slower (or faster) one.
If you use a 28.8 kbps modem and rarely get 26.6 kbps or 28.8 connects, the
reason is almost always a result of phone line quality. 28.8 modems are
pushing the limits of today's telephone system. Getting 28.8 baud connections
requires pristine phone line conditions end to end. For this reason, many
people will never see 28.8 or even 26.6 CONNECTS with their 28.8 modem.
The part of the telephone system which you may be most able to improve is your
telephone premises wiring. If you rarely get 28.8 or 26.6 connects try the
following:
Premises wiring - Faulty premises wiring, bad phone jacks, plugs cheap or old
antique phones or too many phones or other devices cause problems. Here's how
to determine if your premises wiring or equipment is affecting your CONNECT
quality.
Find the telco wiring block where all your premises wiring connects usually
outside or inside your house near where the phone line comes in. Run a good
quality phone cable directly between the block and the phone jack that serves
your modern, routing so as to avoid other electrical wiring and devices - and
then disconnect all other premises wiring from the telco block. Note that only
two conductors are necessary in modem residential systems (normally green and
red). Good quality twisted-pair phone wiring is best. if this gives you faster
connects, then your premises wiring or your phone equipment is causing you
trouble.
Reconnect wiring and phone devices incrementaly while retrying the modem to see
if you can find the culprit. Examine each plug and jack, and reset each several
times where visible. inspect the routing of the phone wiring to insure it
steers clear of other wiring and electrical devices. if you find some of your
equipment or premises wiring is contributing to the problem, the solution is to
replace or eliminate the equipment and/or wiring.
Using a Teleprotector - There is a another solution that I have used to
eliminate problems without eliminating premises wiring or equipment. I have an
antique pay phone which was causing a problem, but I did not want to eliminate
that treasure from my system. I ran a new, dedicated line from the telco block
to my modem jack. Then, I bought a $10 device from Radio Shack, called
"Teleprotector" (Cat. No. 43407).
The Teleprotector is designed to protect fax and data transmissions from
interruptions. The device is a small cube with a phone jack on one side and a
short phone cord with a plug coming out the other side. When installed in a
phone line, the Teleprotector disconnects the phone line downstream of itself,
when any upstream device is off-hook.
Here is how I used the device. I marked the cord side of the cube "telco" and
the jack side "phones". I inserted the plug end of the line coming out of the
Teleprotector into the jack on the other side of the Teleprotector. Then I cut
the resulting cord loop in half and stripped the wires of the cut ends which
resulted in the Teleprotector having stripped phone wires sticking out both
sides. Next, I removed all premises wiring from telco block except for the new
line going to my modems. I connected the wires on the side of the Teleprotector
marked "telco" to the telco block and connected the wires coming out the other
side to all of the premises wiring I had disconnected. Note: Most residential
phone systems only use the green and red wires - you can ignore the black and
yellow wires (just leave them unconnected).
Done! Now, whenever my modem has the line. All other phone wiring and devices
in the house are switched off-line by the Teleprotector. My average connect
rate used to he 24k baud - now it is rare when I get less than a 28k baud
connect. Another benefit - now all of the other phones in the house are dead
whenever my modem has the line, so it anyone lifts a phone it doesn't mess up
my data connection. Lots of benefits from a $10 expenditure!
Telephone Co. Line Quality - If you determine that your premises wiring is not
causing problems and you still get low' connect speeds, you can try a few other
things like calling a known quiet number and listening carefully - if you hear
hissing, humming, a radio station or other background voices you have a line
problem (you may have a line problem even if the line sounds quiet). Reporting
noisy cdnditions will probably he sufficient to get the phone company to look
into the 'problem'. You may be able to get them to test and improve your line
but he aware that all they guarantee to provide is a line meeting voice quality
standards, and also they may want go charge you for the testing if they find no
line problem. So you telling them your modem can't get 28.8 connections
probably won't motivate them. However, it has been reported that the phone
company will generally be responsive to fax problems, so report those if you
have them. Your connect speeds will frequently be lower when you are distant
from your telephone exchange, and when your call must pass through more than
one exchange.
---------------------------
Will Your Broker Close on Jan. 1?
If your brokerage firm isn't ready for the Year 2000, the Securities and
Exchange Commission will shut it down. Under new rules unanimously adopted by
the SEC on July 27, federal securities regulators will go to court beginning
Dec. 1 to close brokerage firms that are not Y2K-compliant. "Any firm that
cannot achieve Y2K compliance in a timely fashion will be required to cease
doing business by Dec. 1," SEC Chairman Arthur Levitt said before the vote. "A
few firms' lack of readiness could have adverse consequences for countless
others. We simply cannot allow firms to continue to operate if they threaten
theintegrity of the system or if they are not able to assure customers' access
to their funds and securities." The SEC estimates that just 1 percent of the
3,900 brokerage firms will be unprepared for the millennial date change. The
new rulesalso apply to transfer agents that are not banks. Transfer agents are
responsible for keeping records of shareholders of corporations and for issuing
or canceling stock certificates when shares are bought and sold. --Cathryn
Conroy [reprinted from Compuserve "What's New"]
By John Deker, AMIGA SIG Leader
(continued from p.1)
as datatypes and libraries and to help with the installation of software. I'll
have a copy of Envoy and a parallel cable for setting up a mini-LAN to make
software transfers easier.
NEW VERSION COMMAND
Version 40.3 of the VERSION command is now available from the Amiga Inc Web
site at:
http://www
.amiga.com/diary/developers/Version_v40.3.lha
This version command is a Y2K drop-in replacement for the version command that
shipped with OS2.0 through OS3.1. It replaces the version command that shipped
with those systems and insures that the year portion of version dates that are
returned to the system as 00 through 77 are recognized as the years 2000
through 2077. This is critical information for the standard Amiga INSTALLER
command which is used to install most software.
RADIANCE
As promised, we did a brief demonstration of Radiance version 2.0 which was
ported to the Amiga several years ago. We used an often used demonstration
file to create a very simplistic room containing a box and sphere. Using the
RVIEW command we rendered the image in memory, first on an Amiga low resolution
NTSC screen of 320x200 and later on an Amiga high resolution NTSC screen of
640x400. The lacking CPU power of even the Amiga 68060 is noticeable when
rendering compared to many modern PC clones. Also noticeable was the limited
screen resolution selection when rendering to memory. Only basic NTSC (and
maybe PAL) screens were available. I suspect that rendering to a file would
allow much higher resolutions to be used.
Radiance can be found on Aminet as RADIANCE-BIN.LHA.
Of note when using Radiance is the importance of getting an easily implemented
PIPE command for the Amiga. The Amiga PIPE command implementation works
differently than that of a PC or Linux. To get similar functionality, I
installed a program from Aminet called PIPE-1.5.LHA. This program enables PC
type constructs in Radiance such as:
!genbox blueplastic box .5 .5 .5 | xform -rz 15 -t .5 .75 0
where "|" denotes that the output of genbox is to be "piped" to the input to
xform.
Since documentation for Radiance is not included with the Aminet distribution,
downloading documentation from:
http://radsite.lbl.gov/radiance/
is a good place to start. For starters, try the tutorial found at:
http://radsite.lbl.g
ov/radiance/refer/tutorial.html
TROUBLESHOOTING STARTUP
When troubleshooting any system problem, a general approach to use is what I
call "the divide and conquer" method. That is, try to break a problem down
into its component parts and verify which parts are functioning properly.
In the case of the Amiga startup, there are 3 sets of software executed from
disk. In sequence they are the files loaded by Startup-Sequence, the files
loaded by User-Startup, and the files loaded from the SYS:WBStartup drawer.
When troubleshooting a software related startup problem, one method that works
for me is to use the Amiga's early startup mode (depress both left & right
mouse buttons at the start of boot up) to boot without Startup-Sequence. I
then use the RENAME command to rename the User-Startup file and the WBStartup
drawer to something the system won't find. That done, I check to see if the
Amiga will reboot using just the Startup-Sequence file.
If problems persist, one technique is to restart again using the Amiga's early
startup mode to boot without the Startup-Sequence file and use the editor, ED,
to embed ECHO commands throughout the Startup-Sequence file. This way, the
next time you boot normally you can tell just how far Startup-Sequence gets
executed by observing the screen output of each ECHO command before the startup
fails. With enough ECHO commands embedded in Startup-Sequence you should be
able to determine which command is causing a failure and hopefully identify the
needed fix.
STARTING APPS FROM THE SHELL/CLI
We spent some time discussing and demonstrating the use of the Shell's Command
Line Interface (CLI) to start applications. Most users quickly learn how to
use a mouse to start a program, but sometimes when a program fails to startup
the Shell helps identify the problem. Many programs will provide useful output
to the CLI window that can often aid in troubleshooting the problem.
One concept that is important to remember when using the CLI to start a program
is the concept of the file PATH. During the startup sequence the Amiga defines
a default search path to be used when looking for a file. Also, when using a
Shell or CLI window, the Shell or CLI is associated with a specific directory
or drawer. You can change the associated directory with the Current Directory
(CD) command. Unless a file path is explicitly used to start a program and
only the filename is used, the Amiga will first look in the Current Directory
for the program. If the Amiga cannot find the program there, it will search
the predefined path established at bootup.
If you know in what directory a program resides and it is not in the current
directory or the search path, it is sometimes possible to start the program
using the full file path and filename. An example of a full file path and
filename is:
SYS:C/info
Since the C directory is also assigned as a logical drive, it would be possible
to use the path and command as:
C:info
However, probably the best way to run a program is to make the program's
resident directory the Shell's current directory as demonstrated by the
following command set:
CD SYS:C
or
CD C:
and then type
info
The value of this is that if the program needs to find a configuration file or
other files, it is more likely to find them by first making the Current
Directory the same as the program's resident directory.
AMIGA INC DUMPS QNX FOR LINUX
QNX WOOS PHASE5
It almost plays like a soap opera. In late 1998 Amiga Inc announced that they
were interested in the QNX OS kernel to be the basis for the AmigaNG OS. With
changes in Amiga Inc's management, the decisions of earlier management came
under review beginning in January 1999. After six months, Amiga Inc has
announced that they've dumped QNX in favor of the Linux kernel based on their
perception that Linux would provide better early market penetration.
Since QNX and Phase5 have apparently been left out in the cold by Amiga Inc's
actions, it is not surprising to learn that these two companies are now in bed
together to produce a classic Amiga running PPC and a QNX based OS. These
moves look to be designed to at best send a message to Amiga Inc that it
reconsider the direction it is taking, and at worst will result in a division
of the currently small existing Amiga market as users will be faced with
following the Amiga name owned by parent company Gateway, or following what
appears to many to be the "true spirit" of Amiga computing, namely the QNX -
Phase5 consortium.
Things are changing so rapidly right now in the Amiga market place that it is
way too early to forecast what the end result will be. Will Gateway's Amiga
Inc reconsider the direction they've chosen? Will there be two paths to choose
from for Amiga users? Will the resulting chaos of a split Amiga market be too
much, and both companies eventually fold? Only time will tell. I expect to
see a lot of action and changes in the Amiga market over the next six months.
FUTURE MEETINGS
If you have either software or hardware for your Amiga that has taken your
fancy, please bring it to our attention. I'm sure your specific interests will
be of interest to others. Let me know if this is the case at the next meeting,
or leave me email on our BBS. Remember, a user group is only as rewarding as
the sum of the efforts of its individual members.
DIRECTIONS FOR ST. AUGUSTINE CENTER MEETING ROOMS
Meetings are in the St. Augustine Center at Villanova University. The 8-bit
and PC sessions will be in Room 110 and the AMIGA meeting in Room 210.
Enter from the ITHAN AVENUE main gate, then proceed to the 2-level parking
building adjacent to St. Augustine, on the Ithan Avenue side.
NOTE: maps on our webpage - http://astro4.ast.vill.edu/mlcug/index.html
August 14 * August 18
September 11 * September 15
October 9 October 13 **
* = second Saturday ** = second Wednesday
**********************************************************
EDITOR: Emil J. Volcheck, Jr. 1046 General Allen Lane West Chester, PA
19382-8030
(Produced with C-128D/SCPU 128, RAMlink, HD-40/85, 1571, FD-4000, THE WRITE
STUFF 128, XETEC Super Grafix, Canon BJ-200ex, Swiftlink and Motorola 288
modem)
MLCUG BBS: 610-828-1359 (300 --> 33600 bps), 24 hr/day
WWW: http://astro4.ast.vill.edu/mlcug/index.htm
PUBLICITY: Robyn Josephs 565-4058
DISK ORDERS: Charlie Curran 446-5239; Bill Bacon 441-5908
VILLANOVA SPONSOR: Prof. Frank Maloney, Dept. of Astronomy
MLCUG STEERING COMMITTEE:
PRESIDENT: Emil Volcheck 388-1581 SECRETARY: Charles Curran
446-5239
TREASURER/MEMBERS:Dewitt Stewart 623-5145 AMIGA SIG/SYSOP: John Deker
828-7897
INTERNET: Peter Whinnery 284-5234 DATABASE: Layton Fireng
688-2080
AT LARGE: Tom Johnson 525-3440
---------------------------------------------------------
FABULOUS PHOTOS
ANNOUNCEMENTS & COMMENTS
########################################
YEAR 2000
EMAIL, OOPS!
$ TRADING POST $
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
64/128/PC MEETING
***************************
THE MODEM CENTER
YEAR 2000 #2
======================================
_ __ _ <>_ __ _
/\\ |\ /|| || / ` /\\
/__\\ | \ / || || || ___ /__\\
/ \\_| \/ ||_||_ \__//_/ \\_
======================================
----------------------------------------------------------
64/128/PC/Amiga Meetings 1999 Steering Committee Meetings