HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: MJW19@phx.cam.ac.uk
Subject: Re: That 1000 pound sampling card
Keywords: Rip off, 16 bit 44.1 kHz sampling, SCSI
Reply-To: MJW19@phx.cam.ac.uk
Organization: The National Society for the Inversion of Cudddly Tigers
Date: Mon, 25 Jan 1993 11:32:16 GMT

In article <1jvbkhINNc7v@lily.csv.warwick.ac.uk> maupb@csv.warwick.ac.uk (Mr J L Saunders) writes:
>Do you think that maybe makers of Arc peripherals are ripping us off? I know
>for a fact that buying a SCSI disk drive from a supplier of Arc SCSI cards can
>be several hundred pounds more expensive than buying from a normal computer
>peripheral supplier.

Yes, they are. But let me explain *why*. Say you design a sampler for the PC.
(you are running your own business). You may expect to sell N-thousand units.
So you get the boards mass-produced, flow-soldered etc. You put an $M profit
margin on and earn $MxN. Now consider you design it for the archimedes. You can
expect to sell say N-hundred units. This means they cost more to make. Plus to
make the same living as the PC person your markup needs to be 10x bigger.

So Acorn manufacturers (in hardware at least) are making larger profit margins.
But if they were making the same profit margins as PC manufacturers then they
would be better off selling PC products. And then the support for the
Archimedes disappears and then the Archimedes disappears.

Mike.

PS Disclaimer -- I am not currently working for anybody. But I'm open to offers
   8-).

PPS Have you noticed how Acorn have started using the name "Archimedes" in
   press releases to refer to the Ax000-series machines now? Nice name I
   think, don't know why they haven't used it before 8-).
--
____________________________________________________________________________
\  /  / Michael Williams                     Part II Computer Science Tripos
|\/|\/\ MJW19@phx.cam.ac.uk                          University of Cambridge
|  |(__)Cymdeithas Genedlaethol Traddodiad Troi Teigrod Mwythus Ben I Waered
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
From: rsxdp@unicorn.nott.ac.uk (D.Pead)
Subject: Re: Acorn news release: Advance
Organization: Shell Centre for Maths Education, University of Nottingham
Date: Fri, 22 Jan 93 12:05:39 GMT

In article <1jm1a7INNca@oak47.doc.ic.ac.uk> ijp@doc.ic.ac.uk (Ian Palmer) writes:
>In article <21080@acorn.co.uk> bsalter@acorn.co.uk writes:
>
>Is this different to the unique machine ID in newer machines? Is it
>something new to RO3.1?
>
No - It's the ID in the new machines as far as I know
>
>I thought someone stated recently that Acorn themselves states that
>software manufacturers weren't to use the unique machine ID for
>protection (or something like that, if memory serves). So is this a
>new machine ident in ROM so that if you do get a replacement machine
>you can simply transfer the roms accross and be able to use the
>software.
>

When I heard the Acorn software protection scheme it went something
like this:

- You could install the software from the master disc on to one or more
  machines ( depending on what type of license you bought),
  but the installed copies (and their descendants)
  were specific to one machine.  You COULD run
  the copies on other machines but with
  various warning messages to make it clear that it was naughty. 
  
- The master discs could not be copied (except in as much as you could
  "install" working copies onto floppy).

- Most of the responsibility of avoiding piracy was in the hands of the
  person looking after the master discs. The scheme was aimed at
  schools where it was assumed that the master discs would be held by
  a responsible person - the system was designed to let this person
  determine easily when unlicensed software was in use, rather than to
  try and enforce things automatically.  Apparently, education advisors
  insisted on this approach.

- If you had a replacement machine or motherboard, the ID chip had to
  be transplanted.

-  Software houses were asked NOT to write software that refused to run
   on unlicensed machines.

-  Software installed on machines with no ID chip was unprotected (Maybe
   software installed on a machine with ID would complain if run on
   a system without one? This would make sense and would deter people
   from just removing the chips).

Nothing I saw in the "Advance" leaflet seemed to contradict this.

NOTE: this is my recollection of what I heard at an Acorn developers
meeting last year.  Don't take it as gospel.
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
From: MJW19@phx.cam.ac.uk (Michael Williams)
Subject: Re: That 1000 pound sampling card
Keywords: Rip off, 16 bit 44.1 kHz sampling, SCSI
Reply-To: MJW19@phx.cam.ac.uk
Organization: The National Society for the Inversion of Cudddly Tigers
Date: Tue, 26 Jan 1993 16:41:41 GMT

In article <1993Jan25.141717.1881@maths.tcd.ie> chughes@maths.tcd.ie (Conrad Hughes) writes:
>Last figures I heard, there were a few hundred thousand Archimedes
>out there and more than a few tens of millions of PCs, so the margin
                               ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ >hundred million?
>is even worse - the Arc manufacturer can only expect a market size
>perhaps a hundredth that of a PC manufacturer..

Ah yes, but the PC market also has more manufacturers fighting for the same
market which brings the ratio back down.

Mike.
--
____________________________________________________________________________
\  /  / Michael Williams                     Part II Computer Science Tripos
|\/|\/\ MJW19@phx.cam.ac.uk                          University of Cambridge
|  |(__)Cymdeithas Genedlaethol Traddodiad Troi Teigrod Mwythus Ben I Waered
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
From: smb@cs.nott.ac.uk (Simon Burrows)
Subject: Re: Protection (was Re: Acorn news release
Organization: Nottingham University
Date: Sun, 24 Jan 93 13:17:52 GMT

In article <1993Jan23.153937.76@condor> blacka@logica.co.uk writes:
>>  Free upgrades
>Only if you have ARTWORKS

That isn't completely fair - this new version of Impression is only really
needed by Artworks owners, so they are trying to discourage everyone from
upgrading by imposing an administration charge for non-Artworks owners.

(I hope that CC get a move on with producing a new version of Impression
with bugfixes and some new functionality)

Simon
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Simon Burrows   smb@cs.nott.ac.uk  psyhsmb@unicorn.nott.ac.uk  +44 533 712030
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
From: awenn@matilda.vut.edu.au (Andrew Wenn)
Subject: Modula3 for RISCiX
Organization: Victoria University of Technology
Date: Thu, 21 Jan 1993 07:03:38 GMT

Here is a summary of the replies to my query about modula3 for RisciX
or RiscOS. I am currently in the process of building a system on our
R260. Will let interested people know how it goes.

By the way the IP address for gatekeeper.dec.com is 16.1.0.2 and the files 
are in the directory pub/DEC/Modula-3/release.


From mybg@doc.ic.ac.uk Wed Jan 13 00:58:01 1993
To: awenn@matilda.vut.edu.au
Subject: Re: Acorn + modula3
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Organization: Department of Computing, Imperial College, University of London, 
              UK.

Modula-3 has been ported to RISCiX.  There is a version of the Modula-3
boot distribution labelled ARM.  It is available by anonymous ftp from
gatekeeper.dec.com.  However, I have not tried to build it, mainly because
there is a beta version of Modula-3 release 2.10 around and I am waiting
for it to be released formally to replace the current version, 2.07.  In the
meantime, in case it interests you, there has been quite a lot of progress
on GNU C for RISCiX, and that includes C++ and Objective-C.  It *may* be
ready in a couple of months.  A few months later, there could well be a
RISC OS version.

Michael Ben-Gershon
mybg@doc.ic.ac.uk  /  mybg@cs.huji.ac.il



From dhmyrdal@pvv.unit.no Wed Jan 13 05:01:32 1993
To: awenn@matilda.vut.edu.au
X-Charset: ASCII
X-Char-Esc: 29


Try guttorm@hp825.bih.no
He began porting the language, but did not finish... As I understand it,
he still hopes that "one day..." - he might be willing to help.

He went on to designing !StrongED2, the well-known shareware editor, and this
has taken all his spare time since :-)


Hope this helps...




-- 
--Dag Haakon Myrdal,       dhmyrdal@pvv.unit.no         -
-  Werchsmeister Emeritus, Omega Verksted,              -
-  Idrettsveien 29,        N-5037 BERGEN, NORWAY        -
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Xref: sparky comp.sys.acorn:10559 comp.sys.acorn.tech:1419
From: py92djm@cen.ex.ac.uk
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn,comp.sys.acorn.tech
Subject: Re: Monty Pythons most used sentence
Date: 26 Jan 93 12:48:02 GMT
Organization: University of Exeter, UK.

I thought it was, "and now for something completely different"
                           ^^^
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn,comp.sys.acorn.tech
From: derijkp@reks.uia.ac.be (Peter De Rijk)
Subject: Re: Monty Pythons most used sentence
Organization: U.I.A.
X-Newsreader: Tin 1.1 PL5
Date: Tue, 26 Jan 1993 09:23:18 GMT

Helmut Springer (zrzs0111@helpdesk.rus.uni-stuttgart.de) wrote:
: "And now to something completely different"
: 
: In past there were a few questions about PD/shareware/freeware modula2 compiler.
: I heard there is (was) a port of m2c (translator modula to c) to the 
: archimedes/RISCOS, but it doesn't run proper (crunshing memory sometimes or 
: something like this ...)
: I also heard also, there is (was) a port of gnu-emacs, also with problems.
: On the one hand, I understand, that porters don't want to be blamed for 
: such bugs, but if a package, which can be ported to other hosts without 
: problems and compile without warnings, we should blame either 
: the library, the compiler or the prinziples of the system (most that ...).   

I am working on a specialist editor. It is written in fairly standard C 
(about 240K code) and runs on VMS and ULTRIX. I ported it to the Archimedes 
in one day! I am still working on a proper version for MSDOS (spit!)

:                            The tragic part of not publicing not perfect
: ported PD/shareware/freeware programs is, that other people would real need 
: this programs (also if they have to try some things twice before they run ...)
: 
: "And now to something completely different"
: 
: Has someone build a module with a "save, easy useable, not crunshing"
: method to request memory (for RISCOS 2.00)?
: If you request memory with OS_Module, the memory can't given back, if a 
: other module gets loaded.
: If you request memory with WIMP_SlotSize, you may run into programs which
: sits already in the memory (cause of BBC 6502 compatibility ?) and twice
: this method has no garbage collection ...
: It seams, that good old MSDOS v. 2.00 has better memory allocation routines
: than this one on the archimedes 8-(

AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT
FLAME ON
If there is someting about MSDOS that I find really, totally, utterly
disgusting its memory allocation. Just try to get some thing more than blocks
of 64K, or try to use more than 1M. Enter the fascinating world of segmented
memory architecture, EMS, XMS and DOS extenders. Even the most hardened
MSDOS addicts I know admit that memory handling on a PC is a pain in the neck.
FLAME OFF
(Sorry for this, I am currently having problems with MSDOS memory management.)

I use WIMP_Slotsize in a little BASIC program. I've never had prblems with it.
Are you sure this can run into other programs memory (I doubt it).
Try to take a look at the flexalloc system. Maybe that's what you need. (I
havent used this myself yet.)

Peter
From: u2prh@ohm.york.ac.uk (Paul R Hedderly - H601/92)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Resets and Wimpwaves
Summary: erm see subject
Date: 27 Jan 93 22:03:16 GMT
Organization: Electronics Department, University of York, UK

Ok a couple of questions for you brianz out there.

1) I can't find any documentation, but it appears that if I do a
ctrl break using the right hand ctrl, it only does a soft reset (ie
keeps all the modules and sprites, variables etc....), but using the
left ctrl gives me a hard reset - ie like a ctrl and the reset
button! Is the an expected phenonemon, a RiscOs3 newbie
(undocumented of course! like most of RO3's usefull features, and
bugs) or am I going ottt again?

2) I can't remember who wrote the `Wimpwaves' proggy - It is most
excellent! (I can sit and watch it go mad for hours!) I was just
wondering if it would be feasible to stick it in as a backdrop, and
put impulses where and whenever the mouse is clicked (even if the
click is going to another application if possible). It just struck
me that this would be quite impressive (Arm2's, like mine may not
cope but such is life!)

I'm looking forward to your answers already......(that sounds too
american - ARRGGHHH)

-Bungle!!

-- 
Alias ---- Paul Hedderly		Anyone got a spare `Victoria'
      (or u2prh@ohm.york.ac.uk)		that they wanna sell cheap?
      (or prhedder@nyx.cs.du.edu)
From: sproven@cs.strath.ac.uk (Simon B Proven IE91)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: Acorn news release: Advance
Date: 22 Jan 93 16:37:19 GMT
Organization: Comp. Sci. Dept., Strathclyde Univ., Glasgow, Scotland.

In article <1993Jan22.132034.21810@cs.nott.ac.uk> smb@cs.nott.ac.uk (Simon Burrows) writes:
>It sounds more like the person who wrote the news release got their
>terminology wrong. It would be a major development if each set of
>ROMS had a unique ID number - but then, what about users of older
>versions of RISC OS? 

Advance won't work on RISC OS 2.

-- 
--Simon Proven sproven@cs.strath.ac.uk
  Health warning: being in a car can damage your health (BMA)
From: ijp@doc.ic.ac.uk (Ian Palmer)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: Acorn v Research Machines
Date: 22 Jan 1993 09:57:59 -0000
Organization: Department of Computing, Imperial College, University of London, UK.
NNTP-Posting-Host: oak10.doc.ic.ac.uk

In article <1993Jan21.173350.3032@cs.nott.ac.uk> smb@cs.nott.ac.uk (Simon Burrows) writes:
>
>On the side nearest the Acorn stand, RM had a large screen which kept
>flashing up:
>
>RM is Number One in Education:
>
>Annual Sales Revenue:
>
>RM............50 million UK pounds
>Acorn.........35 million UK pounds  
>
>Acorn often reminds us that it is number one in education, so it must
>depend on which method is used to determine the ordering..
>(assuming that RM are telling the truth!)

The thing that I remember about RM, apart from being expensive crap,
was that their so called 'PC compatable' (the RM Nimbus) wasn't. Thus
all software needed to be redone for them (marketed by RM) (this is
based on what I was told at the time, and as I always tried to avoid
the things at all cost, couldn't verrify it for myself). Thus, if this
is still the case, a large chunk of the 50 million will be for
software, which in the case of Acorn machines is supplied by companies
other than Acorn.

RM can't escape the fact that the majority of schools buy Acorn
equipment. Also, an annual sales revenue doesn't tell you much about
their annual sales to education. (Although I can't imagine anyone
outside of education buying from RM, but then again I can't see why
anyone in education buys from RM either :-) ).

Ian

P.S. I also remember that on the BBC emulator for the Nimbus
that if you did 'CALL !-4' it crashed the network :-)

-- 
                            E-mail : ijp@doc.ic.ac.uk
 ___           __       Snail mail : Department of Computing, Huxley Building,
  /  _   _    /_/ _   / _ _   _  _   Imperial College, 180 Queens Gate,
_/_ (_|_| )  /   (_|_(_| ) )_|/_)    London. SW7 2BZ. England.
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
From: smb@cs.nott.ac.uk (Simon Burrows)
Subject: Re: Customising RISC_OSLib, BETT 93
Organization: Nottingham University
Date: Thu, 21 Jan 93 11:26:31 GMT

In article <1993Jan20.171035.4653@westminster.ac.uk> gpcec@westminster.ac.uk (Tom Kirby-Green) writes:
>	Arxe's up and coming graphics boards are interesting, seems ideal
>for people who want more colours but have standard monitors ( or Acorn's
>multisync )- and at around 100 quid it seems a steal.

Where were Arxe Systems? I spent the whole day looking for them, and even
asked the Acorn Information Providers, but to no avail. Lost without trace!

Hopefully I'll see Arxe on Saturday.

Simon
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Simon Burrows   smb@cs.nott.ac.uk  psyhsmb@unicorn.nott.ac.uk  +44 533 712030
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
From: awenn@matilda.vut.edu.au (Andrew Wenn)
Subject: Modula2 or Oberon for RISCiX/RISCOS
Organization: Victoria University of Technology
Date: Thu, 21 Jan 1993 07:09:36 GMT

Can any one help with sources for the above languages - I would prefer
RISCOS ones but I guess most of you are addicted to C (yuk!!!).



---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Andrew Wenn          Victoria University of Technology
                     Footscray Campus.
                     awenn@matilda.vut.edu.au

                     phone 03 688 4342
                     fax   03 688 4804
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: Acorn news release: Advance
From: jwil1@cs.aukuni.ac.nz (TMOTA)
Date: Tue, 26 Jan 1993 23:05:22 GMT
 <1993Jan22.132034.21810@cs.nott.ac.uk> <1jovi8INN1cr@oak42.doc.ic.ac.uk>
Organization: Computer Science Dept. University of Auckland

ijp@doc.ic.ac.uk (Ian Palmer) writes:

>What I find odd is that several Acorn releases of late state that they
>require Risc-OS 3 (version 3.1 or later). This would suggest that
>Acorn have stoppped supporting RO2 wholesale,

Good. Trying to maintain RO2 compatability severely restricts use of the new
RO3 features, and I for one don't want to wait for another 3 years before
some truly RO3.10 compatible software is available.

>and also that there must
>be some big difference between RO3.00 and RO3.1.

Well, just for starters, there are things like the 3-d icon borders, which
under 3.00 were 'B' validation strings, and under 3.10 are 'R' ones.
Just these 'small' things make for great headaches trying to ensure that
your software runs perfectly on the 3 different OS versions that are
currently rife. Easiest solution: Don't try. Just make it compatible with
the latest OS release and take advantage of all the new features that you
need.
-- 
themasterofthearcanejwil1@cs.aukuni.ac.nzthismessagewassentonrecycledelectrons
From: CDLatham@cen.ex.ac.uk (C.D.Latham)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: Acorn news release: Advance
Date: 26 Jan 93 14:40:09 GMT
	<1993Jan24.124224.12738@cs.nott.ac.uk>
	<1k0f8lINNe5f@oak45.doc.ic.ac.uk>
Organization: Computer Unit. - University of Exeter. UK

[ ... Endless raving about RISC OS 3.1 upgrades being hard to get deleted ... ]

Last week I sent a fax to Intelligent Interfaces, Eastleigh for 2 x A5000
RISC OS 3.1 upgrades.  The upgrades arrived the next working day.  Now I
suggest that you don't all rush and order from I.I., because then they will
run out, but it is worth shopping around.  Try IFEL or Dabhand computing for
starters; they are usually fairly reliable.  There does seem to be a slight
shortage of upgrades, but with a tiny little bit of effort you can get them.

Christopher                                          C.D.Latham@exeter.ac.uk
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
From: altman@cryton.demon.co.uk (Hugo Fiennes)
Subject: Re: Acorn news release: Advance 
Distribution: world
Organization: The Serial Port
Reply-To: altman@cryton.demon.co.uk
X-Mailer: Simple NEWS 1.90 (ka9q DIS 1.19)
Date: Thu, 28 Jan 1993 11:49:01 +0000

In article <C1GMJz.6FJ@cen.ex.ac.uk> MMBCorle@cen.ex.ac.uk writes:

>In article <727652882snz@cryton.demon.co.uk>, altman@cryton.demon.co.uk (Hugo
> Fiennes) writes:
>
>> In article <1jm1a7INNca@oak47.doc.ic.ac.uk> ijp@doc.ic.ac.uk writes:
>
>[...]
>
>>>In another of these releases (the one about the PC card), what I
>>>really don't understand is : what's new?
>>>
>>>It says, basically, the the 'NEW' Acorn PC card IS the Aleph-1 PC
>>>card, which has been on sale for ages - so what is this press
>>>release all about ???
>
>> (a) From what I hear, they're at least 100 quid cheaper
>
>> (b) They come in A3000-minipodule form too, allowing you to have an
>> A3010 with dual processors for example :-)
>
>> Hugo
>
>I also got the impression that they'd be able to use existing
>expansions better; for example, I was told that you'd need to bolt an
>Ethernet interface on to the back of the "old" PC cards, but the Press
>Release mentions "using an existing Ethernet interface..."
>
>Anyone care to illuminate / confirm / deny?
The new PC card is very very minimal - 386/486SLC chip, big 'pc on a chip'
chip, an ASIC and an EPROM. Seeing as on both cards the Arc is emulating
much of the PC i/o, I would think that the ethernet stuff (novell?)
would be the same on both.

Hugo

-- 
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                     "Did I say that? My lips didn't move..."
Hugo Fiennes - The Serial Port                      altman@cryton.demon.co.uk
                                                or altman@cix.compulink.co.uk
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: aoliver@acorn.co.uk (Ashley Oliver)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: Acorn v Research Machines
Date: 22 Jan 93 13:24:51 GMT
Organization: Acorn Computers Ltd, Cambridge, England

In article <1993Jan21.173350.3032@cs.nott.ac.uk> smb@cs.nott.ac.uk (Simon Burrows) writes:

>
>At the BETT Show, the Acorn stand is side-by-side with the RM stand. For
>anyone who does not know, RM are Acorn's biggest competitors in the UK
>education market.
>
>On the side nearest the Acorn stand, RM had a large screen which kept
>flashing up:
>
>RM is Number One in Education:
>
>Annual Sales Revenue:
>
>RM............50 million UK pounds
>Acorn.........35 million UK pounds  
>
>Acorn often reminds us that it is number one in education, so it must
>depend on which method is used to determine the ordering..
>(assuming that RM are telling the truth!)

Yes, lies, damned lies, and statistics.

RM's figures are quite correct. However, RM choose revenue as a measure.
You should know that RM include total revenue - not just 'pooters, but
also software, services and peripherals. Software hardly figures in our sales,
as we encourage third parties to develop applications. Further since RM 
sell direct, their 50M is 'end-user price'. Our revenue figures would be 
at distributor/dealer prices.

Acorn 'traditionally' looks at number of units sold, i.e. number of 
computers. It is on that basis that the positions are reversed.

Ashley Oliver
Education Business Unit
Acorn Computers
From: spxasb@thor.cf.ac.uk (A Bhattal)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: 256 colours and C
Date: 28 Jan 93 16:46:32 GMT
Organization: University of Wales College at Cardiff
X-Mailer: Cardiff Computing Maths PP Mail Open News Gateway

Can anyone tell me how to get all 256 colours from C (version 3)?

I can change to a 256 colour mode, and get 64 colours (bbc_gcol(0, n),
where n = 0 ... 63), but don't know how to use bbc_tint.

bbc_tint seems to expect two ints, what are these, and what values
should they take ?

Thanks,
        Amardeep
From: A.G.Catchpole@bradford.ac.uk (Adrian Catchpole)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: Acorn User
Date: 26 Jan 93 16:26:13 GMT
Organization: University of Bradford, UK
Originator: 92079460@mail
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.1 PL6]

Mark Thompson (thompsmr@uhura.aston.ac.uk) wrote:
: 
: 	Probably just more episodes of Micro Live with Fred "charisma of a dead
: fish" Wossname presenting it. Whoopie.
: 

Nah, they'd call it Workstation Live these days.
And it'd probably have Carol Vorderman on it. Fwoor! 8-)

-- 
-- Ade