VILLANOVA UNIVERSITY, ST. AUGUSTINE CENTER
MEETING STARTS - 09:30 - JUN 13
NOTE! SECOND SATURDAY!
For starters, we'll catch up on any news and handle general questions and problems. Then, we'll turn to the Commodore side of the house - with an opportunity for questions, problems and, hopefully, answers. During this session, we want to sample attendees interests in topics for our upcoming meetings (demos, tutorials, hardware, software - let us know what your interests are).
For the PC portion of the meeting, we want to pick up where we had planned for last month; namely, "getting started with your PC". Many of you are just starting; so we want to show and tell. Also, deal with questions and problems from our new (and not-so-new) attendees. See you there, we hope!!
MAIN LINE AMIGA USERS - Room 210
Due to the low turn out and the less than two hour time limit imposed on our May meeting, we did not abide by our intended agenda. Instead we tended to have a general discussion of topics.
So, for our June meeting we will continue from where our presentation ended in April. That is, we will continue our review of ImageFX through the use of the Catalyzer video tape. Like April we will watch a section of the tape and then replicate the presentation on the Amiga 1200. Unlike April, we will be using the latest version of ImageFX, version 3.0 instead of version 2.6.
[FINALLY, news from Gateway on their Amiga intentions!]
Beginning this month and continuing thru October, our meetings will be scheduled for the SECOND SATURDAY of the month. This change is being made because of the confluence of the Fourth of July and Labor Day holidays, plus end of school year festivities at Villanova. Please mark your calendars and re-check the dates in each newsletter.
For the foreseeable future, we will continue with our monthly meetings in the St. Augustine Center at Villanova University. The 8-bit and PC meetings will be in Seminar Room 110 and the AMIGA meeting in Seminar Room 210.
Please be sure to enter the campus from the ITHAN AVENUE main gate, then proceed to the 2-level parking building adjacent to the St. Augustine Center, on the Ithan Avenue side. Note, you may have to enter the building via the front door, as shown in the following sketch:
NOTE: maps on our webpage - http://astro4.ast.vill.edu/mlcug/index.html
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64/128/PC/Amiga Meetings 1998 Steering Committee Meetings
June 13 * June 17 **
July 11 * July 15 **
August 08 * August 12
* = second Saturday ** = third Wednesday
******************************************************************
EDITOR: Emil J. Volcheck, Jr. 1046 General Allen Lane
West Chester, PA 19382-8030
(Produced with C-128/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 --> 28800 bps), 24 hr/day
WELCOME TO - our newest member, Brad Ross, an Amigan with systems experience. He got a free lunch for his visit (as did all who went to lunch after the last meeting - the result of a committment from member Ted Dean!). Hope to see Brad at future meetings.
CONGRATULATIONS! - to long time member, Chauncy Westbook, our latest 50/50 RAFFLE WINNER! Treasurer, Stew Stewart, will sponsor a 50/50 at each meeting for all attendees.
AMIGA'S FUTURE - be sure to take a look at John Deker's column - beginning on p.8. There is a substantial item on the recent FIRST announcement from Gateway computer as to how they are thinking to use the Amiga technology they bought. We have been waiting a long time for this!
COMMODORE 8-BIT - while we are talking about future, if anyone gets a clue as to what the future for the Commodore 8-bit technology is - let us know! We did learn that, apparently, the buyer of that package (whatever it is) is the former Netherlands subsidiary of Commodore International (maybe?).
VTECH, Inc. - Vtech a local supplier of ribbons, inkjet inks and other such printer supplies - run by Gene Beals, an early strong resource for Commodore users, has moved to bigger quarters. The new address is: 1487 Sumneytown Pike, Lansdale PA 19446. The new phone numbers are: 215-362-3300 and (fax) 215-412-3656.
SUPER CPU 128! - on p.11 of last month's newsletter, we had our first listing of experiences with how the SuperCPU 128 performs with various applications. I had planned for a part 2 for this month, but our club members with SCPU's have not come thru with enough new experience data. So, I'll continue to gather as it becomes available and publish an update when I have enough for a decent column.
I urge our SCPU owners (4-128 and 2-64) to let me know what they learn - good and bad about their systems and SCPU units.
NEWS FROM THE INTERNET - the internet is loaded with news and information (not all of it reliable) and Commodore does not lack for such sources. One (called tifcu - The Internet For Commodore Users) you may find of value - as long as you have an email account somewhere - is the Commodore listserv moderated by Gaelyn Gasson and sponsored by Video cam in Australia and Brain Innovations in the US.
Like all list servers, you subscribe to the service (free) and get emailed all the postings to the list (including any that you choose to make). If you would like to get access to this one, send an email message to:
listserv@mail.jbrain.com
In the first line of the message, type the following:
subscribe tifcu firstname lastname
Where firstname and lastname are yours. If it goes thru, you will receive an email acknowledgement. In a day or so, you will start receiving packets of postings to the list.
There will be samples of the packets at the next meeting for your examination.
****************************** For the past few months I have been walking around the LOADSTAR Tower
with one eye over my shoulder and the other on Peter Rokitski, former
Mojo of Softdisk for the Apple IIe. This rather uncomfortable
position was due to Peter's not-so- subtle hints that I may come to a
nasty end [before] LOADSTAR passes Softdisk to become the world's
hoariest disk magazine ever.
Uh oh. I just showed the previous paragraph to Jim Weiler and he said
that I may have to change his listing on the LOADSTAR masthead to
"archfiend" from "archfriend" since he, too, was a Mojo for Softdisk
for the Apple IIe. He and Peter took special pride in Softdisk's 166-
issue record for disk magazine longevity and vowed that no upstart
"Commodore" magazine would overtake Softdisk -- at least not without
at least one attempted murder.
But despite these two formidable foes, known throughout the Apple
world for their cutthroat efficiency and decadent drollery, LOADSTAR
and its longtime editors (Jeff and I) have survived -- indeed,
thrived -- and now LOADSTAR takes its place as the longest-lived disk
magazine in the history of the planet. So I'd like to take a month to gloat about this inspiring feat. The
Apple computer preceded the Commodore by a year or two and Softdisk
began the Apple disk magazine about 30 months before LOADSTAR was
started in 1984. As long as Softdisk was being published, LOADSTAR
had to live with a number about 30 less than Softdisk did, and it was
difficult. But now the shoe of megalomania is on the other foot...and
it fits quite nicely, thank you.
So I hope you'll join me in patting ourselves on the back -- after
all, we couldn't have done it without you, our dedicated readers --
and looking forward to extending our all-time record, perhaps to the
height of 200 issues or more. There may be disk magazines with more
issues in the future, but I doubt it; the future seems to be
media-less. Computing has turned into telecommunicating and online
shopping. I can't see people wanting things on disk (or even CD) when
optical cables can bring everything directly to your TV. Let's face
it; a computer used to be an alternative to watching TV -- now it's
the same thing.
But enough of the future. With this issue, LOADSTAR becomes the
hoariest disk magazine ever and it's going to keep getting hoarier.
I, for one, like the grey, Gabby Hayes look.
****************************** One of the joys of the modern computer age is the endless supply of
acronyms and jargon to use and confuse. Here are some common ones: [wisdom courtesy of DoctorMike@aol.com - who has a seemingly infinite
source]
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ FOR SALE: C-128 outfit, with flat 128 plus JiffyDos, 1571 and 1581
disk drives 1902A RGB monitor, Supergrafix printer interface, Mach
128 cartridge, Epyx Fast Load (for 64), modem and much software! Any
reasonable offer will be considered, call Tom Johnson, 610-525-3440.
FOR SALE: MLCUG has a lot of hardware and software that is available
for you to purchase at very attractive prices! We'll have detailed
lists at the next meeting - here is some of the hardware, the
software list is too long to show!
****************************** For the May meeting, we had a shortened session as the University had
need of the seminar rooms for final exams, giving us barely two
hours. As a result, we skipped trying to do any formal demos. The
meeting was mostly a (free) flowing discussion and Q & A - which
got rather active (!) at times.
As usual, we had a (short) discussion period for our Commodore users.
This was followed by a question period mostly from our newer PC users
- struggling with the behavior of their (complicated) new Windows 95
machines. It appears that we can serve a very useful function to
members by allowing plenty of opportunity to deal with such
questions. The more significant information we'll try to capture in
the newsletter. As a sample of this direction, note the following
item.
****************************** Years ago, the owner of a new IBM or compatible computer was greeted,
on powerup, with an enigmatic A> prompt, with blinking cursor.
This was reportedly very obscure and confusing. If you got a
Commodore, then you were greeted with a friendlier prompt: READY with
a blinking cursor (this is friendly???).
Now, however, with a new PC, you are most likely to be greeted with
Windows 95 and some "friendly" icons and the helpful word : START.
With, of course, no indication as to what to start ...
Oh well, once you know you are to click, or double-click, the mouse
cursor on these friendly objects, things begin to move.
As you start learning your new system, there are things you should do
- and likely many questions about what to do. We hope that the Q
& A demos in our monthly meetings will help.
We are trying to tackle the club's new PC, just as you might. Here
are some things we did, or may be doing - ask about them at the
meetings:
NOTE: any opinions expressed above are those of the editor! They are
subject to change from either new knowledge or persuasion from the
members!
****************************** If you have been a user of a hard disk drive on a PC or a Mac, you
(should) know about defragging. Defragging is shorthand for
defragmentation - or putting all the files on the hard drive back
together and nesting them next to each other. Purposes: speed up
file access and increase efficiency of using your hard drive space.
HOWEVER, if you are a user of a Commodore style hard drive (mainly
the CMD HD series of drives, tho the older Xetec Lt. Kernal drives
are probably similar), it is possible that no one mentioned it to
you. This in spite of the fact that these drives are no more immune
to fragmentation than any other computer hard drive.
Unfortunately, there appear to be no software tools to aid you in
defragging your CMD hard drive - as there ARE for those OTHER
computers. You have to do it the hard (no pun intended) way!
I have a CMD HD-40/85 hard drive (that is an HD-40 case, with an 85
MB internal hard drive), which has been used for years without ever
being defragged. Even tho I originally set the drive up with a
"defragger" partition when I first got it. I was thinking that some
day I might actually want (or need) to defrag the drive and this
would make the process easier.
Where does the defragger partition come in? Well, to make a long
story short - the largest size partition you can have on a Commodore
(excluding Commodore's "other" computer, the Amiga) style hard drive
is 16 MB. Hence, if you have a hard drive larger than the earliest
5-10 MB hard drives for Commodore computers, you have to partition
it. This is extremely easy to do with the HD-Tools utility that
comes with the CMD drives.
So, as soon as I had my CMD drive working, I deleted ALL the
partitions it had - leaving a (vast!) 85 MB wasteland - as most of it
could not be accessed. Then I created four (4) 16 MB partitions
(each with 65,000+ blocks available) - using up 64 MB of the 85 MB
available. I left the remainder available for smaller partitions
(like 1541, 1571, 1581, etc.) for special uses. Brilliantly enough,
I named the partitions "disk 1" thru "disk 3" and "defragger". The
latter name was to remind me that the fourth partition was not for
data - but for that day in the future when I do want to defrag!
On 1998 May 28, that day arrived! The first partition on the HD had
been used all these years for saving gazillions of small files
(mainly daily email and buffer capture files from BBSs' and the
internet). These had been saved, edited, deleted and resaved, etc.,
etc. An ideal process for fragmenting files. So, here is what I did:
What is next? Well, there is partition 3 - with all my word
processing files that have been saved, edited, resaved, deleted, etc.
for all these years, too!
****************************** I did a simple compliance test on my A2000 with A2386 BridgeBoard.
Here's what I found using the transition date from 31 Dec 1999 to 1
Jan 2000.
A2386 BridgeBoard - a PC hardware emulation for the Amiga. It uses a
real 386SX & uses the Amiga for I/O emulation support of
keyboard, mouse, floppy & hard drive in my case.
PASSED Case 1 of previous msg A2000 - test of Amiga Operating System Last time, I did not discuss concerns related to databases. For an operating system this would include the sorting of files by date stamp. At question here is whether the operating system will sort files and place year 2000 files before or after 1998 & 1999 files. THE BIG NEWS - THE FUTURE OF THE AMIGA
The following INet posting was sent to me by Bill Bacon, who I would
like to thank. It's a report on the May 15th presentation in London
by Gateway and Amiga International at the World of Amiga show. There are logs of the IRC conferences that took place, where Fleecy
and I reported on the show and answered some questions, at: Jeff Schindler then stepped up to make the announcements we were all
waiting for (well, except those journalists who had been to the
lunchtime event). He thanked Petro, and then introduced the Amiga
Inc employees present. Marilyn Flint (Manager), Joe Torre (Hardware
Engineer), and Darreck Lisle (Events Coordinator) were all there.
Gateway was represented by Jim Collas, Senior Vice President, and
Steve Johns, Head of Corporate Development. Jeff then announced
three new employees - Fleecy Moss (Project Manager), Dr Allan
Havemose (Head of Technology and Development), and Bill McEwen (PR).
The business plan that has now been approved for funding by Gateway
is the 15th in a series of refinements by Jeff. Unfortunately not
all of it could be revealed as some details (about a third of the
information that was intended to be announced) have yet to be agreed
with outside companies. The rest is expected to be finalised within
about a month.
Jeff Schindler showed a series of slides (using Powerpoint, sadly)
summarising his points. I noted down much of the content of these so
I could remember what was said. The key question for Amiga is, how
can it regain a lead? The next question that can be asked is, what
defines an Amiga? Amiga Inc decided it was not specific
technologies, but the vision: awesome technology, freedom of choice,
an enthusiast following, a worldwide community, and so on. So the
goals for future Amiga technology are these: ease of use,
affordability, high- performance multimedia, an open architecture,
evolution to meet new standards, and of course fun.
What is the market that Amiga can attack now? Amiga Inc identified
the so-called "digital convergence" market. This is the fusion of
Internet access, digital media and entertainment, with real computers
underneath, of course. It is predicted that there will soon be an
electronic paradigm shift, with ubiquitous digital appliances. Among
products that might run AmigaOS in the future are: Internet
appliances, games machines with Internet and DVD support, set-top
boxes, sub-$500 computers, combined TV/game/computers for the bedroom
or kitchen, PC/TVs, and of course the conventional tower, desktop and
portable computers.
To do this, AmigaOS needs to run on cheap, fast hardware. Amiga Inc
has discovered, through Gateway's connections, a chip in development
that can offer incredible speed at a low price starting from next
year. (It's being kept secret by the company developing it -
apparently, partly for fear of losing their current good relations
with Intel before the chip is in production.) Quoted performance
statistics were: 5-10 times faster than current high-end PC hardware,
400 million pixels per second 3D rendering (in 24 bit colour, with
whatever 3D effects you want), and decoding of 4 MPEG2 streams at the
same time. It can also support high-speed Internet access using ADSL
or similar protocols. Of course hardware isn't everything. Amiga
Inc will need to provide breakway OS technology - "convergence-ware"
that will be perfectly suited to the sort of new products that were
mentioned above. This will mean a new OS core and new APIs.
The next slide showed how Carl Sassenrath had reacted to the news.
He was present at a demonstration of the predecessor to this chip,
along with Amiga Inc, and reportedly said: `It will be fun to again
see the Amiga "blow the socks off" everything else that is out
there.' He said that REBOL Technologies will support the new
AmigaOS, which might interest you...
Now comes the controversial bit. There is a long way from the
current (1992/93) Amiga OS and hardware to this new cutting-edge chip
and an OS with "convergence-ware", and that jump needs to be made in
18 months. The plan is to do this in two steps. Current technology -
AGA, OS 3.1, and 680x0 - is described as "Amiga Classic". The first
step from this will be to the "Amiga Bridge", which will consist of
an x86 PC running OS 4.0, with an optional "Amiga Classic" bridge
card. This will be the development platform for the next step. The
use of the bridge card means that it can also run existing programs
very fast, so it may well be useful to non-developers too. The
second step is to OS 5.0 running on a new architecture in "digital
convergence" products (which still include conventional computers).
This will be basically software- compatible to the last 4.x release.
What are the building blocks for these two steps? Backward
compatibility is provided by the bridge card (based on the Siamese or
InsideOut PCI cards in development) or by UAE (which should run just
fine on the new chip!). For the development platform, an OS kernel
will be licensed from another company to save time. The choice of
kernel is yet to be announced. All along the way, there will be
software upgrades to meet future standards. The backing of the Amiga
developer community is an essential. Key targets for OS 4.x will be: OS 3.1 compatibility; advanced
multimedia performance; support for open standards (such as OpenGL);
real-time, threaded, protected, pre-emptive multi-tasking; a new GUI;
full Internet support. I believe the planned features for OS 3.5
will be included in 4.x. OS 5.0 will be the final result of all the
additions made to OS 4.0, but will run on the new chip instead of on
x86 PCs.
There was brief mention of the importance of user groups and the
existence of the UGN as an interface to Amiga Inc - though not an
exclusive one. There was a UGN meeting on Sunday morning, but I
didn't go to that. Jeff also sought to reassure Amiga distributors
that there was still plenty of opportunity to sell "legacy" software
and hardware, because new developments will retain backwards
compatibility. The possibilities for new products are of course
greater.
Next to speak was Dr Allan Havemose, the new Head of Technology and
Development. He has previously worked for Commodore-Amiga, building
up the European developer network, and leading the OS development
team for releases 2.1-3.1. He didn't add much to what Jeff Schindler
had said, and unfortunately I didn't take notes of what he did say!
Some more details that came out in response to questions. (These
aren't verbatim, but a combination of my notes and memory.)
Q. Why aren't you supporting the PPC as a development platform? Q. How do you plan to get a new kernel etc all in place by November? Q. What happened to OS 3.5? Q. How can a little company like Amiga Inc get access to this mystery
chip? And who is making it? Intel? Q. What will Amiga Inc do to get PC software companies to port to the
Amiga? Q. Who's making the bridge card, and what processor will be on it? 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.
DISKOVERY: THE GLOATING MONTH
by Fender Tucker
[extracted from LOADSTAR 64, issue #167]
And there's no end in sight!
JARGON RULES!
AMIGA = A Merely Insignificant Game Addiction
APPLE = Arrogance Produces Profit Losing Entity
CD-ROM = Consumer Device - Rendered Obsolete Monthly
COBOL = Completely Obsolete Business Oriented Language
DOS = Defective Operating System
IBM = I Blame Microsoft
ISDN = It Still Does Nothing
MACINTOSH = Most Applications Crash, If Not The Operating System Hangs
MICROSOFT = Most Intelligent Customers Realize Our Software Only Fools Teens
MIPS = Meaningless Indicator of Processor Speed
PCMCIA = People Can't Memorize Computer Industry Acronyms
SCSI = System Can't See It
WINDOWS = Will Install Needless Data On Whole System
WWW = World Wide Wait
By the way, I forgot to add that the modern computer age is also an
endless supply of "humor"! Need I say more?
$ TRADING POST $
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
6 computer - C-64 w/PS $25
18 disk drive 1541 - various $20
1 interface - Cardco $ 5
1 interface - MSD $ 5
6 joystick $ 2
1 modem - Panasonic 1200 bps $10
1 monitor - amber - Panasonic $10
1 monitor - screen filter $ 5
1 plotter - Commodore 1520 $10
2 printer - Commodore 1525 $10
2 printer - Commodore 803 $10
2 printer - color - Okimate 10 $10
1 printer - Okimate 120 $20
1 printer - Star Gemini II $25
2 computer - VIC-20 TBD
1 64K RAM/video for VIC-20 TBD
1 computer - Plus4 $25
NOTE: you can read or download a more complete listing from
MLCUG/MLAUG's BBS. You can contact Charles Curran to order any items
of interest (610-446-5239).
64/128/PC MEETING
******************************
YOUR NEW PC - WHAT'S FIRST?
By Emil Volcheck
We will review each in future meetings. Members are invited to share
their thoughts and experiences with all of us. "What did you do
right in the beginning?"
---------------
COMPUTER BIG LIE #9 - "This old computer isn't good for anything".
It used to be that the kids got the old computer. Now, the very
things kids want to do with a machine - like playing the latest
version of DOOM - demand the newest and fastest computers. But, an
old computer is a great thing for a business to have around as a
backup in emergencies or for word processing, the least demanding of
all applications.
DEFRAGGING YOUR HARD DRIVE!
By Emil Volcheck
Job completed - with 52,213 blocks free - and nice empty
subdirectories for all the future file downloading (of which there is
more and more these days)!!!
Not tomorrow - maybe next week (month? year?)!
YEAR 2000 READY? - II
From: John Deker
PASSED Case 2 of previous msg
FAILED Case 3 of previous msg; Case 2 becomes the Y2K work around
The Amiga passed all 3 cases.
Other Y2K test issues to be addressed.
So, here are some additional concerns:
Can you think of any other scenarios?
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By John Deker, AMIGA SIG Leader
---------------------------
Here's my (rather hurried) report on Friday's announcements. It's
based on the notes I made at the time, plus additional details I
remembered, plus some clarifications I got later from Fleecy Moss and
Joe Torre. It could probably be improved quite a bit, but I haven't
got time to do that right now.
<URL:http://www.primenet.com/~jweb/woa98news.html>.
---------------------------
The presentation took place in a large hall on the first and second
floors of Novotel. Petro Tyschtschenko was first to speak; he began
by presenting gifts to the World of Amiga organisers (Peter Brameld
and Norah Hodgson). Then he summarised what Amiga International had
been doing in the past year, mentioning shows, the website, new
licenses, the success of Amigas in the Indian video market, and
continuing sales of Amigas for kiosk systems.
The software timetable is as follows:
Developer program begins Q3 of 1998
OS 4.0 release November 1998
OS 5.0 ready late 1999
The developer program will be handled by ICOA together with Amiga
Inc. It will provide support for porting applications and creating
native applications for OS 4/5. Developers will also be involved in
the process of designing APIs for the new platform. Developer kits
and complete systems (PC + bridge card + OS) will be available from
Amiga Inc. There was a meeting on Saturday morning where an outline
of OS plans was presented, but for the time being that information is
not public.
A. We're negotiating with P5 for support for the PPC. There should
be news in a month.
A. We're teaming up with another OS corporation to use their kernel.
BeOS, Java OS, Linux and others are under consideration. (Note, this
is just for OS 4.0.)
A. OS 3.5 has been dropped. We looked at the plans and realised it
wouldn't be worth doing, when we need to get OS 4.0 done by November.
A. Gateway and its business partners are negotiating for the rights
to use this chip. We can't say who is making it, but it's not Intel.
A. We can use Gateway's contacts to try to persuade them to allow
these ports, and we will support Amiga developers who want to work on
them.
A. Mick Tinker and Steve Jones are working on it. It can use a 68040
or 68060.
==================================
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