HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: neilp@cs.hw.ac.uk (Neil Postlethwaite)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: Bandwidth on the NZ Server
Date: 7 Apr 92 10:32:14 GMT
Distribution: comp
Organization: Dept of Computer Science, Heriot-Watt University, Scotland

In article <1992Apr6.142344.6448@cs.nott.ac.uk> ppxpmd@mips.nott.ac.uk (P.Debenham) writes:
>Sorry folks, my editor chewed my chewing out for Neil.  Mind you I think it
>manages to get its message across despite this.
>
>How about some POSITIVE help from you Neil like offering to do the coordination
>job between archive sites that you seem to think is all so easy!!!

Hi Peter/John K/Phil B,

	Wouldn't have thought the co-ordination job would be excessively
hard. Print out the indexes (or use an editor). Find out what isn't where
and mail the administrator the files they don't have.

	I merely stated the obvious way to reduce loading on a server
that is half way round the world from most people. If Newcastle/Stuttgart
have a copy of the programs people will not piss Phil off by getting it
from him which cost a pile and ended up with the server world access being
axed. This works both ways aswell. After all the software is PD/Shareware
and it is supposed to be passed round. 

	If you post a worldwide article saying the xxxyyy piece of software
is on your server and people can't find it locally are you really surprised
that the went to the NZ server. Instead of posting the article worldwide
post it to (oznet ?, the Australasia equivalent of EUNET if one exists)
so local people to Phil get the details and mail the program to the
european Arc servers so it will be lodged there.

	I'm not knocking people who provide services to others. Merely
stating the obvious.

	Neil
From: marlow@sys.uea.ac.uk (K. Marlow PG)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: Personal Computer World
Date: 8 Apr 92 13:57:00 GMT

J.W.Harley@newcastle.ac.uk (Jon Harley) writes:

>rjb12@unix.brighton.ac.uk (Browning;f110or89;[05306) writes:
[..]
>>unbiased source of informed opinion to merely being opinionated and
>>distinctly biased.

>I agree about its hostility to Acorn which has been growing since the
>present editor was appointed. I've had a subscription to PCW since 1984 -
>the good old days of Banks' Statement, Brain Dump, TJ's Workshop, and
>Guy Kewney's Newsprint. It used to cover all micros and micro-related topics.
>Now it venomously attacks anything which hasn't got an intel processor inside.

>Add to this the shabby way VNU have sacked most of the decent staff.
>And the drastic increase of advertising (lowering the adverts:editorial
>ratio considerably).

  Humm.. makes one wonder whether one of the owners has a vested interest in
all things PC?...

>I have just let my subscription lapse, and I won't be buying it on the
>newstands either, simply because as an Acorn owner it now has nothing of
>interest to me. Don't bother trying to change it - vote with your money.

  Yep, I think I'll do the same if things carry on going down hill..
>Glad I'm not the only Acorn owner who feels this way about PCW...


>>Rich Browning (rjb12@bton.unix)   *   Madness ...


>/jon

  Keith Marlow

--
 Keith Marlow,               *  Cyclone BBS (0603) 260973
 Information Systems P/G,    *   24 hours - Arc/Beeb/PC
 University of East Anglia,  *     - using Archiboard.   
 Norwich. Norfolk NR4 7TJ    *  - soon to be on Fidonet
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
From: felixa@microsoft.com (Felix ANDREW)
Subject: Re: Personal Computer World
Date: 13 Apr 92 16:16:19 GMT
Organization: Microsoft Corp.

Someone wrote ...
>Such as? Win 3.1 is still at the Beta test sites, OS2.2 (to compete with
>Win 3.1/NT) is not appearing 'til next year and developers are only
>*just* getting their teeth into Win 3.0!!
Windows 3.1 was announced last monday (6th April) to the world at
Windows World. FYI 20K resellers were able to place more than 750K
copies of 3.1 on their display shelves. And as for end users, well
175K upgrades were delivered in time for the launch.
Thats almost a million copies sold on the week of release.

>> OS/2 runs Dos and Windoze programs quite happily, without being
>> architecturally held back because of it. Windoze NT will (probably)
>> do something similar.The word 'emulator' comes to mind here.
>...but Win 3.0 still crashes regularly - and OS/2 HAS been known to
>fall over, whatever is claimed elsewhere.
Although os2 supports 3.0 - who wants to run that, when 3.1 is now here?
I'm not sure what is meant by the word 'emulator'. I'm sure the man from
IBM knows WHY os2/2.0 has good win3.0 support 8-)

>> The average PC spec is now 80386SX with 4MB,a VGA monitor and a 60MB
>> disk. Where have you been the last 3 years ???
>Ahem. There are far more 286s out there than 386s.
As far as I know out of the 70million PC's out there (clones etc) most of
them are not 386,486,586 based - Intel havent shipped that many chips.

>> >(a bit like your average business man who knows nothing about
>> >computers).
>>   Nor would it seem, does your average student .... :-)

Evidently the International Business man does (tee hee hee hee hee 8-) )

This was for your information and does not put me in the category of
'I hate Arcs and love PC's' or 'Win3.1 is better than your windows
system' OK. Nor is this a statement from the people for whom I work.


Have fun and write good code
	Felix

Oh yeah - it also shipped in 7 languages simultaneously (that includes
the documentation) Neat huh?
From: rogersh%p4@uk.ac.man.cs (rogersh)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: Unix on the Arc
Date: 15 Apr 92 12:00:30 GMT
Organization: Department of Computer Science, University of Manchester UK

In article <9204140405.AA25224@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU> lithgow@uslp.UUCP writes:
:[In message "Unix on the Arc", Andy Mell writes:]
:>        I was thinking to myself the other night, it would be nice if 
:>someone/some people got one of those sources running on the Archimedes.
:>...
:>The PC 386BSD is being written by several people all over the world, take
:>a peek at comp.unix.bsd to see what is going on. Obviously a lot of work
:>and experience is involved to get a whole OS running on the archimedes.
:>
:>        Do you think its possible to embark on such a venture? and do you
:>think its worthwhile? I do, and I know a few other people who read this
:>newsgroup do too.
:>
:>How about a healthy discussion? :-)
:
:I think we would be *much* better off writing an inovative, leading edge
:(ie. crashing every 2 minutes) OS with POSIX.* compatibility rather than
:porting a derivative, primitive, and unstable (ie. crashing every 2
:minutes) OS such as PC 386BSD, or the GNU beast, etc.
:
:Before you leap up and down about how much extra time that would take:
:think about how long it took to write Minix, then think about how long it
:takes to port 386BSD, and then compare the usability (ie. speed, resource
:use, cost, and robustness) of each system, and finally compare how much
:you learnt in each case. I think you'll find that Minix wins hands down.
:(386BSD's terminal driver doesn't even work!  What's more, it doesn't
:even use Streams!)
:
:(Personally, I think we'd all be better off writing
:extensions/modifications to RISC OS, itself, than wasting effort on
:something else. For example, engineer pre-emptive multitasking into RISC
:OS, modify the graphics subsystems so that they can handle multiple
:clients simultaneously, a POSIX compatible file system, etc.)

	Funny you should say that - I've got a preemptive kernel
running on my machine which provides real POSIX compliance (POSIX/BSD
signals, fork(), FS, etc.) and the BSD socket library is in a sort
of half ported state... It runs under the desktop and relies on the
WIMP to schedule the UNIX processes (it also allows the UNIX processes
to do RiscOS things and WIMP programs to call polls themselves).
However this IS vapourware at the moment and it's all very shaky,
very non-distributable, very raw. Also finals are coming up as are
job interviews, so don't expect anything before September (when RO3
is due for release anyway).
	The terminal driver provides pseudo tty functionality and
could be packaged as a stream module. I've got a WIMP vt100
emulator running multiple windows.

	-Huw


[ H.J.Rogers  INTERNET: rogersh%p4@cs.man.ac.uk                    ]
[    ,_,      JANET: rogersh%p4@uk.ac.man.cs                       ]
[  :-(_)-o   "I'll be back..."                                     ]
[   _} {_    "Computer Science is an engineering discipline."      ]
Organisation: European Space Technology Centre (E.S.T.E.C)
Date: Wednesday, 8 Apr 1992 16:45:24 CET
From: <NWHITELE@ESTEC.BITNET>
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: Personal Computer World

The best was surely the mini-reviews of Windows utilities.
When the reviewer got round to the Norton Desktop (In my humble opinion
the only product that makes Windows 3.0 usable), he said "why bother
buying this, Windows will do all this eventually"! Quite right too!
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
From: zrzm0111@helpdesk.rus.uni-stuttgart.de (MUFTI)
Subject: Re: New FTP site for the Archie
Organization: User Helpdesk Comp. Cent. (RUS) U of Stuttgart, FRG
Date: Wed, 15 Apr 1992 08:06:25 GMT

In article <3452@daily-planet.concordia.ca> nizar@concour.cs.concordia.ca (SABRA nizar.) writes:

> [ ... something about uts.mcc.ac.uk ...]
>
>	Would there be any disadvantages of uploading some of the software
>available on the Newcastle server to this site? (I could do most of the work,
>if necessary). This would provide Acorn users with an FTP site which provides
>fast (yes, the machine's connection to the internet is quite fast) and
>efficient means of circulating software.
>

Unfortunatly I haven't that fast internet-access (maybe the gateways between
me and UK have the blame ?), but if the moderator of this site can tell me,
what tapes he can read, I can send him a tape with the stuff of the
ftp/mail-server rusmv1.rus.uni-stuttgart.de.

so long
MUFTI
From: neilp@cs.hw.ac.uk (Neil Postlethwaite)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: Acorn
Date: 12 Apr 92 10:08:48 GMT
Organization: Dept of Computer Science, Heriot-Watt University, Scotland

In article <9204100916.AA01741@solan10> dhmyrdal@SOLAN.UNIT.NO (Dag H}kon Myrdal) writes:
>In article <1992Apr9.105257.5196@cs.hw.ac.uk> Neil writes:
>[...]
>>	Totally agree. The old chesnut about price reduction is valid too.
>>For about #1500 (ex VAT) an A5000, 2Mb, 40Mb IDE, Colour Multisync, LC
>>pack. For #1599 Viglens product of the month. 486/33, 4Mb, 100Mb HD, Colour
>>SVGA, Windows 3, Dos 5. (choice of 3 case styles Genie Micro 1599, Genie
>>Exec and the other one add **ONE** pound only !!!
>>
>>	Not really much of a choice is it. I'd go for the Viglen personally
>>and run Solaris 2.0 for i3/486 when it finally appears.
>>

	Quoting myself. Like it.

	See new issue of Byte. Solaris for Intel is now upon us and shipping.

	Like SunSoft say, 'We are already there'.

	Neil
From: J.W.Harley@newcastle.ac.uk (Jon Harley)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: Personal Computer World
Date: 7 Apr 92 09:32:50 GMT
Organization: University of Newcastle upon Tyne, UK, NE1 7RU

rjb12@unix.brighton.ac.uk (Browning;f110or89;[05306) writes:
>Right, people. It's flame time again. But (J. Kortink & I. Rawlings take
>note) directed against, IMO, a source of constant annoyance to Acorn
>supporters everywhere: Personal Computer World magazine.
>
>Over the last two years or so, to my intense displeasure, the above
>magazine has seen fit to do its best at destroying Acorn's market
>presence. By ignoring the Arc in those articles in which the machine
>has every right to be mentioned, or by trying to be smart when replying
>to letters that have the audacity to support Acorn and its place in the
>computing world the magazine has managed to transform itself from an
>unbiased source of informed opinion to merely being opinionated and
>distinctly biased.

I agree about its hostility to Acorn which has been growing since the
present editor was appointed. I've had a subscription to PCW since 1984 -
the good old days of Banks' Statement, Brain Dump, TJ's Workshop, and
Guy Kewney's Newsprint. It used to cover all micros and micro-related topics.
Now it venomously attacks anything which hasn't got an intel processor inside.

Add to this the shabby way VNU have sacked most of the decent staff.
And the drastic increase of advertising (lowering the adverts:editorial
ratio considerably).

I have just let my subscription lapse, and I won't be buying it on the
newstands either, simply because as an Acorn owner it now has nothing of
interest to me. Don't bother trying to change it - vote with your money.

Glad I'm not the only Acorn owner who feels this way about PCW...


>Rich Browning (rjb12@bton.unix)   *   Madness ...


/jon
   _________________________________________________________________
  / -- Jonathan Harley  ____   One cannot be precise and           //    //  //
 / J.W.Harley@ncl.ac.uk \bi/  still be pure.      --Marc Chagall  // // //////
/_x8504_____B2t+w-g+svrp \/ __________________________________///////////  //
From: mcg@waikato.ac.nz
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: A5000 disk format recognising
Date: 10 Apr 92 10:45:24 +1200
Organization: University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand

> 	I can't see any reason why the Arc cannot read Mac disks. The
> drive is varaible, yes, but only on a track by track basis. I'm sure......

	IT CAN'T READ FLAMING MAC DISCS, O.K.!?!?


Believe me, if it could, I'ld save myself half an hour each time I try to
transfer files!
From: rra2@dcs.exeter.ac.uk (Robert Raymond)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Risc Developments A3000 20MB HD
Date: 8 Apr 92 12:02:02 GMT
Organization: Computer Science Dept. - University of Exeter. UK



I purchased a Risc Developments IDE 20MB internal hard drive for an
A3000 in March. At first all seemed fine. Then problems began to
appear. The day before the hand in date of an expert system I had
been developing a bad sector appeared right in the middle of the
source file.

After this first problem, it settled down for a while. Then it started
becoming highly unreliable. A number of files appeared which could not
be deleted and a bad sector was appearing on average once every day.
(The undeletable files did not have corrupted sectors in them.) I
contacted Risc Developments and they told me that this was the first
they had heard of any such problems. They told me that if I sent the
drive back to them they would test it and probably get a drive back to
me in ten days. This was not acceptable, I am currently working on my
third year project and need a hard disc.

As a result I wrote a utility which backed up a directory on the hard
disc to floppy every ten minutes, but I found that this was also a
pain. (My code was crashing the machine hence the BU utility!!) So
with my lack of confidence I now keep all source code on floppy, all
of the time and only use the hard disc for the compiler and libraries.

Once I have finished my project I will send my hard disc back. I
accept that every now and again an inferior hard disc will be produced
and sold, but I feel that the problem with undeletable files and the
fact that Risc Developments suggested ten days to test the drive
and ship another drive (maybe the same unreliable one) back as
unacceptable.

Rob.

Robert Raymond			JANET : rra2@uk.ac.exeter.dcs
Computer Science Department	UUCP  : rra2@izar.uucp
University of Exeter		BITNET: rra2%uk.ac.exeter.dcs@ukacrl
From: astevens@acorn.co.uk (Ashley Stevens)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: Isaac Asimov is dead
Date: 15 Apr 92 09:12:56 GMT
Distribution: comp
Organization: Acorn Computers Ltd, Cambridge, England

In article <1992Apr10.174613.20828@unix.brighton.ac.uk> rjb12@unix.brighton.ac.uk (Browning;f110or89;[05306) writes:

>Isaac Asimov died on 6th April (if you already know that, my apologies).
>
>His sad death is a hard thing for me to grasp; it was he (often
>accompanied by Arthur Clarke) that held my hand during my first forays
>into science fiction. His books continue to enchant me, as they have done
>ever since my early school years.
>
>I am annoyed at the media here in Britain: I can't remember seeing anything
>on television about Mr. Asimov's death; it seems to have been obliterated
>by election coverage and I think that's very wrong.

You obviously didn't watch the Late Show Monday evening.

What's it got to do with comp.sys.acorn anyway?

Are you suggesting that Acorn releasing a good computer is a piece of
science fiction? ;-)

 

__________________________________________________________________________
Ashley Stevens                                        astevens@acorn.co.uk      
Acorn Computers, 645 Newmarket Rd, Cambridge, UK.        Tel.(0223) 214411
From: ee88jmf@brunel.ac.uk (J M Fielder)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: Personal Computer World
Date: 14 Apr 92 11:52:03 GMT
Reply-To: ee88jmf@brunel.ac.uk.brunel.ac.uk (J M Fielder)
Organization: Brunel University, Uxbridge, UK

In article <92099.164524NWHITELE@ESTEC.BITNET> NWHITELE@ESTEC.BITNET writes:
>The best was surely the mini-reviews of Windows utilities.
>When the reviewer got round to the Norton Desktop (In my humble opinion
>the only product that makes Windows 3.0 usable), he said "why bother
>buying this, Windows will do all this eventually"! Quite right too!

In that vein....

Why bother buying Artworks, Draw will do it all eventually.....

Why bother buying Impression / Ovation, edit will do it all eventually.....

Comeone Acorn, we want every piece of software free with the OS. What, you
can't write all that lot, well, may as well go buy a PC with Windows cause
PCW says that Windows will eventually do everything :-)

Joust
The above is all a joke......
From: gjocc@brt.deakin.edu.au
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: re MIDI and the Arc
Date: 15 Apr 92 18:52:16 GMT
Organization: Computer Services, Deakin University, Melbourne

In article <1992Apr15.125818.7434@waikato.ac.nz>, shunger@waikato.ac.nz writes:
> If I were to choose from Studio 24+ and !Inspiration I would go for
> Inspiration.
> 

   Stuff deleted
> 
> -----------------------------
> 
> If anyone wants a copy of the demo of Inspiration I'll probably post it
> in the next day or so.
> 
> Note a MIDI interface is required for the demos.
> 
> 
> Stephen Hunger

I am very interested in getting hold of the !Inspiration demo.

(I wonder when my serial Port MIDI interface/sampler will get back from being
 repaired? (The sampler was stuffed))

Do you mean post it to comp.binaries.acorn?

Does anyone know what the story is with comp.binaries.acorn in Australia?
We never get any postings! I have checked on a few other Australian sites
that I have NNTP access to and they have the group but it is always empty.

Greg O'Sullivan
(gjocc@brt.deakin.edu.au)
From: mcg@waikato.ac.nz
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Correction to last posting....
Date: 10 Apr 92 12:41:40 +1200
Organization: University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand

In article <1992Apr10.104524.7354@waikato.ac.nz>, mcg@waikato.ac.nz writes:
>> 	I can't see any reason why the Arc cannot read Mac disks. The
>> drive is varaible, yes, but only on a track by track basis. I'm sure......
> 
> 	IT CAN'T READ FLAMING MAC DISCS, O.K.!?!?
> 
> 
> Believe me, if it could, I'ld save myself half an hour each time I try to
> transfer files!

Correction:
	
	Ye olde Standard A5000 can't read MAC discs. With a software/hardware
addition, it can (read mac HD discs).


	I stand corrected, sorry....

		Martin.
From: stephenm@p4.cs.man.ac.uk (M. B. Stephens)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: >>A5000 disc format recognising
Date: 15 Apr 92 11:53:56 GMT

Sorry for following up my own article but I put the wrong distribution on
it. I hope some people outside of Manchester will be interested in this.

>In <6780.9204131505@susssys1.rdg.ac.uk> ssurawls@susssys1.reading.ac.uk (Mister E) writes:

>>A PC owning friend gave me some discs to for me to put some JPEGs on for
>>him.  He gave me ten discs. On each of those discs was parts of Word for
>>Windows, takes up about 15 discs! Try running it on anything less than a 4
>>meg machine and you are in trouble. My friend has an 8 meg PC with 32 meg
>>virtual memory, and still the programs are always swapping out of memory.

I use a 2Meg single floppy PC (386sx) with Word for Windows and MicroGrafx
Designer (better than Draw but EXPENSIVE) running on a network (so add the
network drivers to the DOS & Windows 3 overheads). With both programs active
in memory, one holding a 100 page document and the other a simple A4 size
line drawing, there is NO swapping.

The ARC is still a better machine but this box I keep next to my computer
went BEEP BEEP BEEP when I read the above.

>>I'm not even going to mention my Amiga owning friends.
Probably because they aren't your friends after this posting :-)

Mark.
stephenm@p4.cs.man.ac.uk
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
From: sgccreg@citec.oz.au (Rob Geraghty)
Subject: MIDI and the Arc
Organization: CITEC
Date: Tue, 14 Apr 1992 23:38:38 GMT
Summary: Doesn't *anyone* have a MIDI package on an arc?
Keywords: MIDI

Just recently someone posted asking for information on MIDI packages for
the Arc.  I've lost the original posting - did you get any responses?
I've been trying to get *someone* to tell me what the Arc MIDI software
is really like but it seems no-one on the net has any.

I have had some responses from people however -

There are two "professional" MIDI packages for the Arc.
Inspiration - graphically based, uses standard MIDI file format.
EMR Studio 24+ (?) - also graphically based, does not use standard MIDI
                     files but there is a utility to convert them.  

Both these packages do notes on staves and are multitasking.  The EMR
product can use the internal sounds as well as driving MIDI - I don't
know if Inspiration can.

People have mailed me to say that from hearsay, each is awful and wonderful.
So I still have no means to pick between them.

Inspiration is distributed by Ampsound in the UK
EMR's software can be purchased direct from EMR
I have seen some other people distributing both.

There are demo programs for both of these packages - I have been trying to
get my local dealer to get these for the last six *months* and no success.
I need to get a MIDI studio up and running ASAP so I can get rid of my old BBC
and start composing again.

UK companies seem to be *extremely unhelpful* when it comes to export orders.
Don't you *read* the faxes, guys?

Help! Anyone!

Rob

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rob Geraghty                     | The Meaning of Life:
CITEC                            | Animal variation is adaptation
GPO BOX 279 Brisbane             | Machine variation is complication
Qld Australia 4001               | Human variation is imagination
Net: sgccreg@citecuc.citec.oz.au |
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Wed, 15 Apr 92 00:35:59 +0100
From: kai@nicedel.north.de (Kai Schlichting)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Automount (was:Re: Scandal: Acorn betrays customers! (:-))
Organization: Archimedes !RUCP Users

> julian@bridge.welly.gen.nz (Julian Wright) writes:
> 
> > Also (and here's a really potentially controversial option) perhaps a
> > configurable option to "Auto mount" a disc when it is inserted in the
> > drive, opening it's root filer window if this is the first time the disc
> > has been seen. After all, what's the first thing you do after putting a
> > new disc in the drive?
> 
(ripped this out of a followup)
Hmm, I think there's a !Automount utility by NOAH,that exactly does this:
opening root of inserted disk ,closing it when you remove it...
bye,Kai.

--------------------------------------------------------------- 
Tel.:  +49 421 556803 (voice)
E-mail: kai@nicedel.north.de (private UUCP site)
       j08i@dhbrrz41.bitnet (not valid;gets forwarded to rs550)
       j08i@rs550.zfn.uni-bremen.de (University)
---------------------------------------------------------------