258 lines
13 KiB
Plaintext
258 lines
13 KiB
Plaintext
RAndy's RumOR RaG
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March 1994
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NEWS IN YER FACE
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Here's an interesting tidbit I came across in a trade
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publication: last year computer games, cartridges, and CD-ROMs
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were a $4 billion industry - the size of two Microsofts.
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Intel paid Cyrix $5 million and dismissed its 338 patent
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infringement claims, then paid $500,000 to end the math co-
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processor litigation between the two companies.
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WordPerfect will release an interim release to WordPerfect for
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Windows 6 sometime next month. It will correct several bugs,
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improve performance, and contain enhancements and additional
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features, such as new Coach help functions.
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Sometime before the end of the summer, expect to see Version
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6.1 released which will include OLE support.
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In unrelated news, WordPerfect has said they will not develop
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additional DOS versions except as maintenance upgrades. Other DOS
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titles will likely not be upgraded either.
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Stac may be holding up but AddStor has shut its doors due to
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pressure from the updated MS-DOS 6.2 compression.
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Apple wonks are referring to prospective layoff candidates
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(100-200 people) as "Spindler's List".
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For the first 45 days on the market, IBM sold more than
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300,000 copies of OS/2 for Windows. They're raising the price to
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$99 for the disk version, $79 for the CD version.
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WordPerfect 6 for Unix is in beta testing and due for release
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in April.
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Symantec will not upgrade Q&A, their flat file database for
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DOS and Windows.
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On March 7, Compaq will introduce a high-end notebook called
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Masterpiece. It will have an Intel 486DX4-75 on the upper end of
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the line and a 486DX2-40 on the lower end.
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IS ANYBODY TESTING?
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A couple of weeks ago, a friend loaned me a CD he had gotten
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in a magazine. The CD contained crippled versions of software that
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you can try out before buying them. He had not been able to make
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it work and want me to give it a shot. I could install the
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software but it would tell me a file was missing (which it wasn't)
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when I went to start it up.
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I should also note that the first time I installed it, my
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CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT got zapped.
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I just got a similar CD in the mail titled CD Select. On it
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are a ton of Microsoft applications and a few from other parties.
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You call the company for the key to unlock the application and it's
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yours (after you pay for it, of course). This one I can't even get
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to install. I've tried three times and it gives me a General
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Protection Fault.
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Now, I'm not using any bizarre hardware configuration nor is
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my friend who had the trouble. It looks to me like somebody didn't
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do a very good job of testing the product before it went out the
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door.
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We're seeing this more and more in even mainstream
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applications. The companies are so hungry to get the money stream
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flowing that quality control goes out the door. Looks like the
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bean counters are running things sometimes.
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Somebody needs to wake up. . .
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DATABASE WARS TO HEAT UP
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This spring you can expect to see new database releases from
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Borland, Lotus, and Microsoft.
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Code-named "Perspectives", Borland has been developing this
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free-form database which will have no rows and columns and is not
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purely relational like Paradox. They're hoping to ship dBase V for
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DOS and Windows by early June, but insiders say that only the DOS
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version will make it by then.
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Look for Lotus to release an updated Approach with a cross-
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tab feature, OLE 2 support, and tighter links to 1-2-3. Approach
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3 will not include the LotusScript language but will have enhanced
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macro capabilities.
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Microsoft's Access 2 will work with the Visual Basic language
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and is scheduled for an early April release. You'll have Wizards
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for graphs and tables as well as a graphical relation builder.
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Almost every important on-screen object has an accompanying Wizard.
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MICROSOFT MARVEL
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Look for Chicago/Windows 4 to offer an on-line service called
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Marvel which will allow users access to technical information and
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third-party vendor support. Initially, it will be geared toward
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resellers. They're hoping to attract 250,000 subscribers.
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A second version due in 1995 would be targeted at consumers
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featuring online banking and financial information, "chat"
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services, travel services, and electronic magazines.
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MORE NEWS IN YER FACE
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Corel remains on schedule for their May release of CorelDraw
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5. Ventura Publisher will be closely integrated into the existing
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Corel modules and will link those modules and outside applications
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through OLE 2 and improved filters. The Ventura module and
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interface will be easier to use with a major performance boost
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thrown in for good measure.
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All the modules will share color management tools and printing
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engines with support for Standard Generalized Markup Language.
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I've said it before and now it's getting closer to becoming
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reality - look for Microsoft to dump Profit on Great Plains.
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Meanwhile, the guys in Redmond are in a quandary in coming up with
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a version number for the update to NT (code-named Daytona).
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What do Rod Stewart, Paul McCartney, Eric Clapton, and Bill
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Gates have in common?
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They all have CDs titled "unplugged".
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In Bill's case, it's a CD with demo software including Office,
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OLE 2, multimedia, Visual Basic, and some 32-bit NT apps.
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WordPerfect has a version of WordPerfect for PowerPCs in beta
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testing and will ship as soon as PowerPC machines are available.
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As WordPerfect has announced that they will no longer develop
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DOS products, so has Lotus decided to consolidate spreadsheet
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versions 2.x and 3.x into development for Release 4.0 for DOS.
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WINDOWS TIP
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Here's a tip that may keep you from having various application
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errors in Windows. I don't guarantee that this will work, so try
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this at your own risk.
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In SYSTEM.INI under the [386Enh] section, insert a line that
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says:
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MaxBPs=768
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MaxBPs stands for Maximum Break Points, which are small chunks
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of memory (approximately 10 bytes each) that Windows uses to save
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the state of a Virtual Machine. Usually, Windows will allocate 4KB
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for breakpoints but you only end up with about 158 for your own
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operations (once Windows consumes what it needs).
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A breakpoint is consumed and never restored every time Windows
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crosses a virtual machine boundary. For example, starting a DOS
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session consumes a breakpoint as does exiting the session.
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Checking swap file settings in Control Panel eats up another
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(assuming that a real-mode disk read is required). So you can see,
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these breakpoints get consumed quickly during the course of a day's
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work. Once your breakpoints are consumed, mysterious error
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messages can become frequent.
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If you're having trouble with frequent error messages, give
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this a shot - it may help.
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THE REST OF THE STORY
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You've surely heard about Microsoft losing the lawsuit with
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Stac over patent infringement. You've heard that Microsoft must
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pay $120 million to Stac. What they didn't tell you is that Stac
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must pay Microsoft $13.6 million for stealing trade secrets.
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Considering that Microsoft has $2.8 million in cash reserves,
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this judgement is chump change.
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Meanwhile, resellers and distributors are wondering what will
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happen with MS-DOS 6.2 product in the channel. Microsoft said it
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would stop selling copies of DOS with the technology in question.
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The new product minus DoubleSpace will be called DOS 6.21 but might
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not be ready for a couple of months.
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Microsoft and Stac disagreed about whether product already in
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the channel is covered by the damage settlement. Microsoft is
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expected to ask the judge to reconsider the verdict and the amount
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of the damage claim. Microsoft is also expected to ask the judge
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for an injunction against Stac to block them from selling copies of
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Stacker 4. Stacker 3.21 was found by the jury to misappropriate
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Microsoft trade secrets.
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There is speculation that Microsoft would consider licensing
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compression technology from a third party (maybe even Stac) as some
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form of settlement. Since DOS 6 shipped with integrated
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compression, sales of Stacker fell as much as 50%.
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Meanwhile, IBM is readying PC DOS 6.3 for a late March release
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which will include compression technology unrelated to the lawsuit.
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MONEY 3
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Microsoft has revised their Quicken-wanna-be by adding a
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number of financial functions.
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Microsoft Money has a set of financial planning Wizards that
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simplify savings and retirement planning, mortgage comparisons, and
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loan evaluation and tracking. Setting up a budget is easier than
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before. They have enhanced the charting abilities and now let you
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track multiple investments.
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A new feature is the addition of Bank On-Line, Quotes On-Line,
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and Pay On-Line which let you perform various banking functions via
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modem. These services are only available from a select few banks
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and are charged at monthly fees (let me get this straight - I help
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the bank do their bookkeeping and I pay for it?).
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The changes are not real extensive. You get pretty
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backgrounds when you write out a check and many other functions are
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now more graphical. Unless you need some of the investment-related
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functions you're probably better off sticking with the version
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you're using. I have used Microsoft Money since the beginning of
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1993 and find it quite helpful for keeping track of how much money
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I have at a given moment (it's not much but I want to keep track of
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every last penny).
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ELECTRONIC IMAGING
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Earlier this month I had the opportunity to visit the big city
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(Seattle) and see some new photo-electronic technology.
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I've seen prints produced on dye sublimation printers what
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were almost photographic quality. A non-professional would have
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trouble telling the difference (fortunately for you, I am a trained
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professional). One problem with dye-sublimation prints is that
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they are somewhat fragile.
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I saw a printer by Fuji that completely astounded me. You
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could not tell an electronically-produced print from a real
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photographic print.
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The printer is about the size of a small copier on a cart and
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uses distilled water in its process. An included scanner lets you
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print a sample page and run it through the scanner to keep your
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color balance consistent. Even prints made from an electronic
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camera were excellent, although distinguishable from prints made
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from a PhotoCD. The PhotoCD prints had excellent gradation,
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detail, and sharpness. It was almost frightening for one who is in
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the business of professional photography.
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The day is not far off when a professional photographer could
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go into a studio, photograph a client against a black background -
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electronically display proofs, combine the image with a background
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from a PhotoCD. Then you could electronically retouch the selected
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pose and print it on one of these printers. The customer would not
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be able to tell the difference.
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There were two shortcomings I could see to the whole process.
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(Well, three - the machine was made by Fuji and I think Fuji film
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sucks.). The printer is limited to an 8x10 size image area so
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large prints are out of the question.
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The main limitation is the price - $21,000.
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NEXT MONTH
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I don't know what I'll be talking about next month. I'm not
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aware of any major applications that will be passing through.
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Guess we'll both have to wait and see . . .
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=================================
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DISCLAIMER
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RAndY's RumOR RaG is published on a monthly basis by AINSWORTH
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COMPUTER SERVICES and is available on various local BBS's, GEnie,
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and America Online as well as 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, Diamond Stealth Pro VESA VLB (1 MB), 105
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MB 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, Sceptre SVGA
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display, Microsoft mouse, WordPerfect for Windows and transmitted
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through a US Robotics HST Dual Standard 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, America
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Online, phone, 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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America Online: RumOR RaG |