334 lines
17 KiB
Plaintext
334 lines
17 KiB
Plaintext
RAndY's RumOR RaG
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August 1994
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NEWS IN YER FACE
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WordPerfect's flashy slide show at PC Expo was produced
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using a Macromedia product, not their own Presentations. Hmmm .
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. .
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---------------
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Beta testers report that a PIM is being included as an
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applet with Chicago which has the look of a pen-based interface.
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This leads some to speculate that Chicago will include features
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for the handheld crowd. Also included is a remote access
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architecture which includes infrared communications for wireless
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messaging. Wordpad is another new applet which combined Write
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and Notepad.
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This fall, Adobe will release Photoshop 3.0 for Macintosh,
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PC, and PowerPC. Distributed on CD-ROM, this new version will
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feature multiple layers, new color correction tools, and an
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improved user interface. They suggest that Windows users have a
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Pentium, Windows NT, and 32 megs of memory.
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---------------
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Microsoft recently granted NexGen (producer of 586
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generation microprocessors) the right to use the Windows
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Compatible logo with the Nx586 processor. As I recall, this
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processor is fully code compatible with the Pentium but does not
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have a math co-processor.
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Philippe Kahn said to then-Novell CEO Ray Noorda after he
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shrugged off Kahn's suggested merger of the two companies: "Why
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don't you like me? You're like my father!"
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Aldus is looking to sell their Freehand Graphics software in
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order to ward off antitrust and other legal problems which could
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block their merger with Adobe. The original developers of
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Freehand Graphics (Altsys) has a non-competition agreement with
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Aldus which would be violated with their Adobe merger, since
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Adobe has Illustrator.
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Altsys also collects Freehand royalties which accounted for
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half of their 1993 revenue of $7.5 million. Freehand accounts
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for only about 15% of Aldus' revenues.
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If Altsys regains rights to Freehand, they could license the
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software to an Adobe/Aldus rival or sell the package under their
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own name. But, says James Von Ehr, president of Altsys, "They
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want me to pay a whole lot of money for Freehand that I'm not
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willing to pay."
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Look for Quarterdeck to apply their memory management
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expertise to limited memory devices such as portable computers
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and PDAs, helping them tap the Internet and other information
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sources via an easy-to-use GUI.
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"We have plenty of guys with ponytails and earrings" - Steve
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Solazzo, IBM marketing director, multimedia applications.
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OS/2 UPDATES AHEAD
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An IBM banner at the recent PC Expo in New York exclaimed
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"Flight 4.0 to Chicago has been delayed." Looks like IBM is
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going to use Microsoft's troubles getting Chicago to market as an
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opportunity to sell OS/2.
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Look for several new versions of OS/2 to surface this year.
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Available this summer will be OS/2 for Symmetrical
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Multiprocessing which I mentioned last month. This product is
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aimed at Windows NT, which Microsoft is still promising to
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upgrade before this fall. Look for a list price in the $395-$795
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range (depending upon the number of processors supported). IBM
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claims it will support up to 16 processors!
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A new version of OS/2 for Windows (with a new name) will be
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here by October. It will be smaller and faster and require less
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memory. Enterprise OS/2 will also run in 4 megs of memory and
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will be similar to the full-blown version of OS/2 available now.
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Finally, by year's end you'll also see OS/2 for PowerPC (but it
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might be early 1995).
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Microsoft is not visibly shaken about possible competition
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as predicted Brad Chase, general manager of the Personal Systems
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group at Microsoft, "Chicago will break every sales record in the
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book."
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OS/2 CD
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OK, I've become an OS/2 convert so it is now incumbent upon
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me to talk about OS/2 software.
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Check out the Hobbes OS/2 CD-ROM. I don't know what it
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costs (a friend loaned it to me) but you've got about 3,000 files
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covering every category from development tools, utilities,
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drivers, games, comm programs, and much more.
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Most of the programs are shareware and many are crippled
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(until you send payment to the author). Some of the programs are
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quite good. My favorite is a character-based communications
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program called Livewire. It reminds me of the DOS Procomm.
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There are drivers for everything from video to sound card CD
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interfaces and tons more. You'll find tips on optimizing OS/2
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and other interesting and helpful documentation. There's even an
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IBM Corrective Service update which corrects some minor problems
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and upgrades you to OS/2 2.11.
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This particular CD is available on a subscription basis and
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is distributed quarterly. Decent OS/2 software can be hard to
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find and this disc is a good place to start.
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MORE PC IN PCS
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I get tremendous flack every time I make a statement
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concerning homosexuality (either in the RaG or on the local
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BBSs). What does this have to do with computers? I don't want
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to read this stuff in a computer publication.
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If this bothers you, you might as well skip to the next
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section right now.
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Back in 1991, Lotus was the first major company to grant
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health insurance to homosexual couples. Microsoft and Apple have
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similar policies. This year, Microsoft publicly opposed
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Initiative 608 in the state of Washington which stated that
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homosexuals have no rights above any other citizen and that
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homosexuality could not be taught in the schools as a health
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behavior.
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Oracle recently aroused the wrath of some of their employees
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when they sponsored a gay pride display at a company facility.
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Diversity Manager (what is that?) Vicki Yee sent a memo stating,
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"Gay and lesbian employees who are uncomfortable in the work
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environment. . . are not as productive as other employees."
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I have about had it with politically correct companies and
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municipalities putting a stamp of endorsement on a behavior which
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has been proven harmful to those who engage in it. Just a few
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years ago, this was a behavior that one was ashamed of. It's a
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sad world. (Send your hate mail to me, not to whoever carries
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the RaG.)
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INNOVATIVE & USEFUL MULTIMEDIA
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I have no problem with multimedia software but too often
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it's a gee-whiz thing. It's cool to look at and play with but
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serves little or no useful purpose.
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From Australia comes PICS (Parts Interpretive Catalog
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System), a windows-based multimedia catalog for companies needing
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parts cataloging. PICS digitally stores and retrieves complex
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parts, equipment, and inventories for businesses ranging from
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auto dealerships to coal mines. The system uses a run-time
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version of SQLBase from Gupta and works on a 486 with Windows.
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Users can point and click to retrieve exploded images of
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equipment along with CAD drawings, color images, video and audio
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demonstrations. The system enables companies to publish catalogs
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of up to 200,000 pages on a CD-ROM using industry-standard
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interfaces allowing integration with legacy systems such as
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inventory, order entry, and manufacturing.
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It sells for $1,100 per PC with maintenance available for
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15% of the purchase price per year.
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MORE NEWS IN YER FACE
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"We're using Microsoft Mail. We eat our own dog food, so to
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speak." - Bill Gates explaining that's he's also a client of
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Microsoft, not just their CEO.
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Microsoft is thinking about dropping the price of Windows NT
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to make it a stronger competitor with Novell's NetWare. Insiders
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say that the 10-20 user network price may drop to the $900-$1000
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range (current price is $1,495).
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Novell is considering a 64-bit version of NetWare for an
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undetermined future date - which could require a complete re-
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write of the network operating system to take advantage of 64-bit
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processors. Such a product would require third parties to
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rewrite NetWare Loadable Modules and other applications to take
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advantage of 64-bit processors.
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Lotus may soon have a challenge to the OS/2 spreadsheet
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world with the August introduction of Mesa 2 for OS/2. This will
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be a native 32-bit, object oriented spreadsheet from a company
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that has become quite popular in the NeXT world. Athena
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Marketing Director Tracy Kugelman says that this is a full-
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featured OS/2 application and "It's not a port." Mesa will
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feature a workbook-like GUI in the form of a layered spreadsheet
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with tabs, taking advantage of multithreading capabilities.
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Pro OS/2 IBMers have been wearing T-shorts bearing the
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motto: "Chicago - Been there, done that."
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Intel and WordPerfect are negotiating to include Intel's
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conferencing software on a new CD-ROM suite called PerfectOffice.
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Corel will slip in a maintenance release of CorelDraw when
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they ship Ventura in August.
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Egghead and Microsoft will be distributing 300,000 copies of
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a CD-ROM interactive catalog beginning in October. An additional
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200,000 will be distributed through sources other than Egghead.
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The catalog will be available to customers for $14.95 for a
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single issue and $29.95 for a one-year subscription.
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Multimedia Know-It-All will look at product areas such as
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sporting goods, musical instruments, and travel. It will also
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contain information about thousands of computer products
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including descriptions, photographs, reviews, prices, and
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technical specifications.
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Intel is getting ready to position the Pentium as the low-
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end of the business and consumer markets in preparation for the
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release of the P-6. The 60mhz and 66mhz lines will be
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transformed into manufacturing 75mhz Pentiums.
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Speaking of the P-6, Intel has started the quest for a name
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for this new processor. Remember, the last time they had an
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internal contest among employees and Andy Grove didn't like any
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of the names and used an outside firm to come up with the Pentium
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moniker.
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I hear that Novell and Lotus are still looking at each other
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with the possibility of a merger.
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Here's a new acronym for IBM: I Built Microsoft.
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Did you know that IBM recently approached Microsoft about
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the possibility of porting Chicago to the PowerPC. Apparently
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IBM's own OS/2 for the PowerPC will be delayed later than
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expected. Microsoft officials insist that Chicago is an x86-
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specific product. To do this port, IBM would need access to
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Chicago's source code. I wonder how they could benefit from
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that?
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CHICAGO UPDATE
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Beta testers are reporting that while the code is quite
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stable for a product at this stage of development, there are some
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major problems in the current beta release. Testers have already
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submitted 60 pages of known problems with the operating system.
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One major problem is the inability to use long filenames.
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Older Microsoft or compatible clients "may have problems
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connecting to and using a shared directory with a long file name
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as the directory" says one report. Creating a long filename will
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give an error message if an OS/2 namespace is not loaded on the
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server, some multimedia applications will not be able to save
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files with long filenames. Using DoubleSpace in MS-DOS 6.x will
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destroy long filenames in Chicago.
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Also, several aspects of OLE 2.0 such as the common dialog
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for Insert Object, Paste Special, Convert, Links, and Object
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Properties have not yet been implemented. Drag-and-drop has not
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yet been fully supported in the Chicago version of InfoCenter,
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not is the ability to embed objects or links.
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Applications are also having trouble, such as Adobe's
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Acrobat 1.0 not functioning correctly; and Word 6.0a will crash
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when you add a new data record to a form letter document.
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Symantec's C++ version 6.1 and Norton Utilities version 8.0
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"refuse to run under any version of Windows except for 3.1."
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Of course by now you've likely heard that Chicago will be
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delayed until after the first of the year. Some are even saying
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that it will be in the April-June period before it gets to the
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shelf. Microsoft says they won't ship until they have a month's
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worth or product manufactured. Even Steven Ballmer said, "I'd
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say there is not a chance we'll have [Chicago] in the stores
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before January."
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ANTI-VIRUS ROM
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McAffee Associates has come up with a single chip solution
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to the problem of virus detection at boot-up. ROMShield plugs
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into the vacant boot-ROM socket on Ethernet adapters and prevents
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virus infections by installing itself as an extended BIOS before
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the system accesses the boot and master boot records. If a virus
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is detected, ROMShield suspends the boot process to allow the
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user to remove the virus.
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The chip has special OEM-definable algorithms for preventing
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false alarms but company officials say that it "doesn't
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substitute or eliminate the need for postboot virus protection."
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The device sells for $69.99.
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PROCOMM PLUS FOR WINDOWS 2
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It's been quite some time since Datastorm introduced their
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Windows-based telecommunications package. How could they
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possibly improve on this excellent product?
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Of course the ability to fax from either applications or
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from within Procomm has been added. Also added is a configurable
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implementation of the IND$FILE protocol for communicating with
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IBM mainframes. The Action Bar is now customizable, but the
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icons are too large for my taste (and thereby waste valuable
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screen real estate).
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The first thing you'll notice is that the program runs
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considerably faster than its predecessor. There are numerous
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options for customizing the program to the way you want it.
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Unfortunately there seems to be no way to get rid of the scroll
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bars at the right and bottom of the screen. For those with
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internal modems, the bottom right of the screen can display modem
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lights which emulate those on an external modem. Fortunately you
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can turn this whole line of useless information off. You can
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attach a WAV file to various events such as file download finish,
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carrier detect, etc.
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Host mode now carries an option for implementing a fax-back
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service. In fact, the whole process of rendering a document to
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be faxed seems much faster than other fax programs.
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The ASPECT language has been changed. I hope you kept your
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WAS files because the installation process will convert them for
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use in the new program. If you're like me and dumped your source
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files after you compiled them, you'll have to start all over
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again. Some scripts will require rewriting.
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Speaking of the dialing directory, it has been greatly
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enhanced to allow data, fax, and voice numbers as well as other
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information about people you call.
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The default terminal font is the most ugly, unreadable thing
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I've ever seen. You'll want to switch to something like Terminal
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- just about anything is better than the default.
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One thing missing is support for RIP graphics which are so
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popular with BBSs these days. Overall, they've done a great job
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of upgrading an already great product. It chews up a little more
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hard drive space, but the increased speed and functionality are
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worth it.
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NEXT MONTH
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Sorry this won't get here in time, but in the September
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issue I'll be looking at Woodstock, the CD. I should also have
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Mad Dog McCree II - The Lost Gold to review. Beyond that, we'll
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just have to wait and see what happens.
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=================================
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DISCLAIMER
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RAndY's RumOR RaG is published on a monthly basis by
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AINSWORTH COMPUTER SERVICES and is available on various local
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BBS's, GEnie, and in Modem News.
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In case anyone cares, RAndY's RumOR RaG is produced on a 486-
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50 with 8 megs of memory, 420 MB Connor IDE hard drive, 105MB
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Toshiba IDE hard drive, TEAC 1.2 MB and 1.44 MB floppies, Pro
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Audio Spectrum 16 running a Hitachi 3750 CD ROM drive, Trident
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VLB video card, Sceptre SVGA display, Microsoft mouse, Word for
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Windows and transmitted through a US Robotics HST Dual Standard
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modem.
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Opinions expressed are those of the author. Comments should
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be addressed to Ainsworth Computer Services on GEnie, via phone,
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analog mail, or whatever method makes you feel good.
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AINSWORTH COMPUTER SERVICES
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605 W. Wishkah
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Aberdeen, WA 98520-6031
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(206) 533-6647
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GEnie Address: RAG
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