HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: mlelstv@speckled.mpifr-bonn.mpg.de (Michael van Elst)
Subject: Re: Amiga 4000/Atari Falcon
Organization: Max-Planck-Institut f"ur Radioastronomie
Date: Sun, 23 Aug 1992 15:27:53 GMT

In <1992Aug23.005131.10593@usl.edu> das9674@usl.edu (Stephenson Daniel A) writes:
>Would you please eleaborate on this 'Fountain'.  While Amiga people
>may have heard of Adobe Type Manager, *I* sure haven't heard of 'Fountain.'
>Are they evuivalent, I guess?

Fountain is the standard program in AmigaOS2.0 to maintain/install CG Fonts.
You will find it in the System drawer. It is meant for 3 specific tasks.
It lets you install Fonts from distribution disks. It allows you to set
up a list of font sizes for programs that don't allow YOU to enter an
arbitrary size (but simply show you this list to select from). And it allows
you to prerender bitmaps which will occupy HD space but are loaded faster.

>Is the Fountain Type Manager availble via ftp?  Are there fonts to download?

As I said: Fountain is part of AmigaOS2.0. I have yet to see an ftp site
that offers CG fonts (besides some PD Postscript fonts that got converted
but have no hints and thus look ugly in small point sizes). You can buy
about 200 (300 ?) Fonts from Agfa/HP.

Regards,
-- 
Michael van Elst
UUCP:     universe!local-cluster!milky-way!sol!earth!uunet!unido!mpirbn!p554mve
Internet: p554mve@mpirbn.mpifr-bonn.mpg.de
                                "A potential Snark may lurk in every tree."
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy,comp.sys.amiga.misc
From: gfm@hal.gnu.ai.mit.edu (George Francis McBay)
Subject: Re: Atari Falcon Discount Supermachine  Re: Sydnes is gone?!!
Organization: /etc/organization
Date: Wed, 19 Aug 1992 01:59:36 GMT

In article <1992Aug18.225632.10150@newshost.unh.edu> ggg@kepler.unh.edu (Gregory G Greene) writes:
>   I think its safe to say that alot of A600's are going to be bought for
>   playing games, not running productivity software.  So having a lot of
>   games break on the A600 doesn't make much sense.

	Yes, but this is in no way Commodore's fault.  It is the fault of
all the lousy game programmers who do not listen to guidelines, and don't
mind having a target audience of 1.3 68000 A500 users (They are slowly coming
around as 1.3 A500s are becoming rarer and rarer)
From: andy@cbmvax.commodore.com (Andy Finkel)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy
Subject: Re: CDTV is dead.
Date: 19 Aug 92 23:00:42 GMT
Reply-To: andy@cbmvax.commodore.com (Andy Finkel)
Organization: Flying Cat, Inc.

In article <1992Aug19.085215.1845@drycas.club.cc.cmu.edu> spice@drycas.club.cc.cmu.edu writes:
>In article <34476@cbmvax.commodore.com>, andy@cbmvax.commodore.com (Andy Finkel) writes:
>
>So Andy , what do you think of the Atari Falcon? That was you on GEnie during
>Sam Tramiel's conference wasnt it?
>
>                                 Scott Corley

Yes, it was me.  I was mostly chatting with Neil, though. But I was hoping 
Sam would give the price.  (he didn't)  I had one (slightly mean)
question to ask, but unfortunately there wasn't time.  

(The question was "How close in features are the 25 developer units to the
 production consumer units ?"   But I decided the question was mean :-))


As to what I think:  If the price is right and there's enough
software, I believe a 16Mhz 68030 machine with
a fixed point DSP chip _can_ compete successfully with an A600.

The software compatibility issue is going to be a big one;  it reminds
me of the early days of Multifinder.  "It's not how well the dog talks,
its that it talks at all."  :-)

			andy
-- 
andy finkel		{uunet|rutgers|amiga}!cbmvax!andy

"Some people think MS-DOS is a necessary evil.  They are wrong.  MS-DOS
 is _not_ necessary."


Any expressed opinions are mine; but feel free to share.
I disclaim all responsibilities, all shapes, all sizes, all colors.
From: mykes@amiga0.SF-Bay.ORG (Mike Schwartz)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy
Subject: Re: Arthur C. Clarke, Vistapro, and NPR
Date: 12 Aug 92 10:31:03 GMT
Organization: Amiga makes it possible
X-NewsSoftware: GRn 1.16f (beta) by Mike Schwartz & Michael B. Smith

In article <1992Aug10.193043.7520@newshost.unh.edu> ggg@kepler.unh.edu (Gregory G Greene) writes:
> >I dunno why you'd post this in .advocady... c.s.a.graphics would be better.
> >But at any rate, Virtual Reality Labs Inc.'s Vista Pro began life as
> >an Amiga-only program called "Vista" (which is probably still
> >marketed by them) but has grown tremendously in the last few years
> >to its current incarnationas Vista Pro 2.0. It's also available for
> >MS DOS machines but the Amiga version has far more features.
>
> 	Virtual Reality just sent me a product sheet about Vista Pro for
>      MS-DOS.  I was thinking about getting it for my 486.  What does the
>      Amiga version have that the MS-DOS version doesn't?
>

Fewer colors or fatter pixels.

> 							G.Greene
>
> >
> >Harv

--
Amiga programmer of: GRn, MailMinder, Budokan, Beyond Dark Castle, Dark Castle
Sega Genesis programmer of: Dick Tracy and Marble Madness.
Mike Schwartz  (ames!zorch!amiga0!mykes or mykes@amiga0.sf-bay.org)
1124 Fremont Ave.
Los Altos, CA 94024
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy
From: kdarling@garfield.catt.ncsu.edu (Kevin Darling)
Subject: Re: Price of CD-I
Organization: North Carolina State University
Date: Thu, 20 Aug 1992 20:19:29 GMT

Michael.Witbrock writes:
> Philips just dropped the list price of CD-I players by $300 to $699
> [NYT business section, Tues Aug 18].
> I hope that Commodore does something similar to CDTV (for purely selfish
> reasons of course; I'd like a cheap CDTV compatable CD-Rom drive for my
> A3000, and I'd like to see CDTVs become the main consumer amiga, because
> of the salutary effect that would have on the quality of games [...]

I'd like to see them do something similar to the new Tandy and Packard Bell
"multimedia" computers.  The new Tandy line is called "Sensation!" (don't
you just hate names with a "!" :-) and the first model priced at $1999 has:

 486 with 4MB RAM, expandable to 32MB
 3.5" hidens floppy
 107 MB hard disk
 CD-ROM drive
 MPC sound, stereo line out, vol control, mic and headphone jacks on front
 2400 baud modem with voice mail, fax, and software
 serial, parallel, joystick, MIDI ports
 SVGA with 16million colors, accelerator
 Tons of software, clipart, 1-800 directory, sound effects, etc
 Optional $400 PC/TV add-in board w/tuner

This kind of plug-and-play stuff is beginning to sound pretty good, even
to an old Motorola-computers-only hacker like me.

kevin <kdarling@catt.ncsu.edu>
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy,comp.sys.amiga.misc
From: jerry@connection.prospect.com (Jerry Shekhel)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy
Subject: Re:  Amiga 4000/Atari Falcon
Date: 21 Aug 92 15:26:12 GMT
Organization: Molecular Simulations, Inc.
X-Posted-From: connection.prospect.com
X-Posted-Through: sol.ctr.columbia.edu

In article <root.02bh@rkamiga.UUCP> root@rkamiga.UUCP (Rick Kelly) writes:
>>
>>I was actually talking about the PC UNIX version of X11, not a DOS-based
>>X server.  For PC UNIX, there is a fantastic version of X11.5 on the
>>Internet, called X386 1.2E.  Excellent support for most SVGA cards, including
>>special ET4000 speedups.  SVR4 binaries are available.
>
>Does the ET4000 chipset have any advantages over the S3 chipset for X11
>speedups?
>

No, quite the opposite.  The ET4000 is just the fastest of the "dumb"
VGA's.  It has no on-board blitter or line-drawing hardware, just fast
video RAM access and some special registers which assist in moving screen
data.  It runs standard VGA software, especially games, faster than any other
VGA I've seen, and it runs hi-res stuff like Windows very well with an
optimized driver.  Also, a motherboard or local-bus VGA implementation using
the ET4000 can map the 1MB (or more) video RAM into a linear host address
space, so the programmer doesn't have to worry about about switching 64K
banks.  This improves performance substantially, but unfortunately it is
a feature that cannot be used in ISA implementations.

The S3, on the other hand, is a coprocessor, with on-board hardware for
doing blits, fills, lines, etc.  It doesn't do much for standard VGA
software, but Windows, X11, and some specific DOS packages (like AutoCAD) are
blazing fast with it.

>
>Rick Kelly		Rick's Amiga		Framingham, Mass.
>
--
+-------------------+-----------------------+--------------------------------+
| Jerry J. Shekhel  | Molecular Simulations | Time just fades the pages      |
| Drummers do it... | Inc.  Waltham, MA USA | in my book of memories.        |
|    ... In rhythm! |     (617) 890-2888    |              -- Guns N' Roses  |
+-------------------+-----------------------+--------------------------------+
|           ...! [ princeton mit-eddie bu sunne ] !polygen!jerry             |
|                            jerry@polygen.com                               |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
From: root@rkamiga.UUCP (Rick Kelly)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy
Subject: Re:  DIR
Distribution: world
Date: 14 Aug 92 12:28:41 EST
Organization: Rick's Amiga

In article <1992Aug13.021424.21609@newshost.unh.edu> ggg@kepler.unh.edu (Gregory G Greene) writes:
>>>As for cpu power, the 486-50 beats it by quite a few marks.  A 040-25 only
>>>has the performance of a 486-33 cpu.  But if you compare a 040-33, well
>>>that may be another story.  
>>
>>heh heh, but the day you show me that 040-33 Amiga, I'll haul up 
>>an Intel 80486DX2-66Mhz machine.. :) :) :)
>>
>>(They really do exist, you know)
>>
>
>	Not to mention the fact that the 040 Amiga is selling for $5100.
>    I'll bet you will be able to get a loaded 486DX2-66 for a lot less
>    then that.

What I find interesting is that Intel used a different pinout for the
486DX2-66.  You can't just drop it into a 486DX-33 machine.  They say
that they will be shipping a version next year that will be pin compatible
with the 486DX, and which will be a drop in replacement.

This gives clone manufactures a year to sell 486DX2-66 machines, before
they have to compete with a drop-in replacement chip.

--
Rick Kelly		Rick's Amiga		Framingham, Mass.

		think!unixland!rmkhome!rkamiga!root

Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy
From: gerald@seas.gwu.edu (Gerald G. Washington)
Subject: Re: DIR
Organization: George Washington University
Date: Fri, 14 Aug 1992 15:38:49 GMT

jerry@connection.prospect.com (Jerry Shekhel) writes:
>gerald@seas.gwu.edu (Gerald G. Washington) writes:
>>ggg@kepler.unh.edu (Gregory G Greene) writes:
>>>	Not to mention the fact that the 040 Amiga is selling for $5100.
>>>    I'll bet you will be able to get a loaded 486DX2-66 for a lot less
>>>    then that.
>>
>>Of course, but that is useless of one wants AmigaDOS.
>>
>
>Which, of course, is useless if one wants to run applications like Word,
>Excel, CorelDRAW, FrameMaker, Borland C++, etc.
>
>Seriously, Gerald, how long can you play with the OS until you start looking
>for something else to do with the machine?

Ah ha, so your argument is that the Amiga has no applications.  I knew many
people were uninformed about the Amiga, but I thought the advocacy fanatics
knew a bit more.  The Amiga has applications, and the Amiga has Bridgeboards,
emulators, etc.

I bet a software emulator would run pretty well on that 040...

-- Gerald
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy
From: dtiberio@libws2.ic.sunysb.edu (David Tiberio)
Subject: Re: No AA machines in September -- NOT!
Organization: State University of New York at Stony Brook
Date: Tue, 18 Aug 1992 06:46:04 GMT


>In article <1992Aug15.193839.18798@mnemosyne.cs.du.edu> jyoung@nyx.cs.du.edu (Jeff Young) writes:
>>
>>Maybe when I starting high school I will try Latin!  WHAT is
>>meaning of IDES of September if you know it??!
>

	[in response to Jeff Young]

	The seasons change every four months, and the 15th day of the month
that the season changes in is clled the Ides of that month. Ides of March
became famous from a Shakespearean play; either Ceasar or Hamlet, and had
something to do with a ghost appearing on that day or someone dying on that
day. But I haven't done that stuff since I was in high school.

-- 
      //   David Tiberio  SUNY Stony Brook 516-473-5156 AMIGA  DDD-MEN   
     //  bounce-resistant:    dtiberio%libserv1.ic.sunysb.edu@sunysb.edu
   \X/	    Perot for President 1-516-399-2259 Long Island, New York

 	PPPP  EEEEE RRRR   OOO  TTTTT    IIIII N   N      999  2222
	P   P E     R   R O   O   T        I   NN  N     9   9     2
	PPPP  EEEE  RRRR  O   O   T        I   N N N      9999  222
 	P     E     R R   O   O   T        I   N  NN         9 2
 	P     EEEEE R  R   OOO    T      IIIII N   N     9999  22222
Xref: sparky comp.sys.amiga.advocacy:21803 comp.sys.amiga.misc:12824
From: bn@mndcrme.uoknor.edu (Bo Najdrovsky)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy,comp.sys.amiga.misc
Subject: Re: Atari Falcon Discount Supermachine  Re: Sydnes is gone?!!
Distribution: world
X-NewsSoftware: GRn 1.16e (7/4/92) by Mike Schwartz & Michael B. Smith
Date: 17 Aug 92 15:49:30 CST
Organization: No organization... just my Amiga 3000/25 running UUCP 1.15D

In article <1992Aug15.064210.27576@uwm.edu> gblock@csd4.csd.uwm.edu (Gregory R Block) writes:
>
> : Here's the specs on the Atari Falcon 030:
> :
> :   CPU:  Motorola 68030 running at 16 Mhz
> :   32-bit Bus

I just find it a bit ironic, that while Atari is finally coming out with
a 16 MHz  68030 machine, Commodore is already droping the 16 MHz product in
favor of the 25 MHz machines.

I must say that I concur with Gregory on his assesment of the Falcon. I
don't think that the A4000 has anything to worry about. It seems to me
that Atari just rushed it to the market too fast (like the orig. ST) and
the product shows it. Also, how does a company expect to seriously compete
in the PROFESSIONAL market when their top of the line computer has
an OPTIONAL hard drive??? I don't think that any office would want to
run a computer off floppies these days.  Imagine buying an A3000 without
a hard disk. Sort of a damper on performance, don't you think?

--
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
|  Bo Najdrovsky  bn@mndcrme.uoknor.edu bn@okcforum.uoknor.edu|    //	  |
|							      |   //	  |
|      "I remember now, I remember how it started..."         | \X/ AMIGA |
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy
From: torrie@cs.stanford.edu (Evan Torrie)
Subject: C= Financial Results
Originator: torrie@Xenon.Stanford.EDU
Organization: CS Department, Stanford University, California, USA
Distribution: comp
Date: 20 Aug 92 06:10:31 GMT

  I guess MB hasn't read the news today; otherwise he'd be posting.

  Just to summarise, Commodore's stock dropped around 25% today
to $6.785 after reporting a loss of $21.9 million for the 
4th quarter of 92.  Revenues were $140.7 million for the quarter, 
and $911 million for the year (down from $1.05 billion in 1991).

-- 
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Evan Torrie.  Stanford University, Class of 199?       torrie@cs.stanford.edu 
Embrace rationalism, reject superstition.           Break away from the past.
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy
From: gblock@csd4.csd.uwm.edu (Gregory R Block)
Subject: Re: CDTV is dead.
Organization: University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee
Date: Mon, 17 Aug 1992 02:30:59 GMT

mykes@amiga0.SF-Bay.ORG (Mike Schwartz) writes:
: MB definately stretches the truth.  His posts COULD be very good if he
: chose to word them differently - there is a lot of fact in them.  For
: example, his continuously saying that CBM spends 2.2% of profit on R&D
: is correct...

He does HAVE facts, yes.  Just not nearly as many to make the claims
that he does sometimes.  Nobody doubts that he had some facts with the
CDTV posting of his.  He knew who was fired... However, to translate
that into the vision of the CDTV's death was a...  stretch.

: You want to get lied to?  Become a developer.  CBM is just as bad as MB
: ever has been.  I'll back up what I just said, too.  In Jan., at the CES
: show in Las Vegas, CBM showed preliminary machines to selected developers.
: Not ALL developers, mind you...  Those machines had more features than
: the new ones will.  That's promising something and not delivering.  Want

Apple has done many similar things in the past, with the same kinds of
results.  It's just showing off ideas, not necessary ones that are
going to be produced.

: more?  CBM told EA in 1985 that the A1000 would have a price tag of $1000.

Holding a long time grudge, are we?

: So, EA jumps on the bandwagon and pumped big money into Amiga product and
: advertising.  Then the A1000 comes out at a price of > $2K.  Wonder why
: EA doesn't stand behind the Amiga anymore?  CBM did the same thing with

It is obvious that C= isn't the same company it was then, either.

: CDTV - promised an entry price of $700.  The machine sold for > $1K and
: was missing features (HW compression/decompression) that were promised.

I didn't know that HW c/d was promised at all.  But you're right about
the entry price, I think.  Can't really remember.

It wasn't long, however, until the price dropped to that.

: EA didn't bite the second time...  What is true of EA is true of ALL
: US developers/publishers.

That's obviously NOT true.  Generalizations like that can be a bigger
mistake than you would care to believe.  Do you really believe that
EVERY developer believes the things you mention to be ex deos?

Greg

--
(: (: (: (: Have you overdosed on smileys today?  Why NOT!?! :) :) :) :) :)
(:	  "Flesh-pressing:  It's not just for politics anymore."         :)
(:	gblock@csd4.csd.uwm.edu			Gregory R. Block         :)
(: (: (: (: (: (: (: (: (: (: (: (: (:) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy
From: edmondse@woods.ulowell.edu
Subject: Re: C= Financial Results
Organization: University of Lowell
Distribution: comp
Date: Fri, 21 Aug 1992 16:04:11 GMT

In article <1992Aug20.062944.4276@usl.edu>, das9674@usl.edu (Stephenson Daniel A) writes:
> In article <torrie.714291031@Xenon.Stanford.EDU> torrie@cs.stanford.edu (Evan Torrie) writes:
>>  I guess MB hasn't read the news today; otherwise he'd be posting.
>>
>>  Just to summarise, Commodore's stock dropped around 25% today
>>to $6.785 after reporting a loss of $21.9 million for the 
>>4th quarter of 92.  Revenues were $140.7 million for the quarter, 
>>and $911 million for the year (down from $1.05 billion in 1991).
> 
> I noticed this too.  And you know C= knew about this for a while.
> Perhaps that spurred the A3000T'040?
> .
> 
>>
>>-- 
>>------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>Evan Torrie.  Stanford University, Class of 199?       torrie@cs.stanford.edu 
>>Embrace rationalism, reject superstition.           Break away from the past.
> 
> 
> --
> Dan Stephenson das9674@usl.edu 
> "Is it that Blake has a genius for leadership, or merely that *you* have a 
>  genius for being led?" -Avon, from Blakes 7                           



Commodore is going to continue to slide unless they take bold action, i.e.
spend some of the executives high salaries on R&D, software, and Advertising.
As you all are painfully aware word of the Amiga and its virtues just isn't
getting around in a way that makes people want to buy the machine.

As a famous ex-ploitician once said, this is paraphased but accurate in its
message "In this world there are lions and tigers and rabbits....". C= is a
rabbit.

The guys running C= appear to be paralyzed similar to the way a small furry
animal is paralyzed by a cars headlights seconds before impact.

Have a nice day.

Eric Edmonds
UMASS at Lowell
Dept of Nuclear Engineering


Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy
From: mlelstv@speckled.mpifr-bonn.mpg.de (Michael van Elst)
Subject: Re: Where is 1024*768?
Organization: Max-Planck-Institut f"ur Radioastronomie
Date: Fri, 14 Aug 1992 20:57:53 GMT

In <mykes.0c6m@amiga0.SF-Bay.ORG> mykes@amiga0.SF-Bay.ORG (Mike Schwartz) writes:
>And you won't be able to drag around windows rendered in this ham mode too easily.
>Nor will your CLI windows scroll very fast or cleanly (image wise).  The BIG difference
>is the GUI can run on a true 15-bit mode display, while HAM is ONLY good for still
>pictures (or pageflipped animation).

Well, that is your point of view. SuperHAM has 64 pure colors which is
more than _sufficient_ for any current GUI. And SuperHAM is about _twice_
as fast for animations as a 15-bit display. I consider the 15-bit display
be useful for animations only. Even your average GUI will be evil slow
since it has to 'animate' the whole dataset when scrolling your text
windows while the bitplane architecture can optimize and have say 2 or
4 color panels for a window (with some minor overhead for non-aligned
borders).

Regards,
-- 
Michael van Elst
UUCP:     universe!local-cluster!milky-way!sol!earth!uunet!unido!mpirbn!p554mve
Internet: p554mve@mpirbn.mpifr-bonn.mpg.de
                                "A potential Snark may lurk in every tree."
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy,comp.sys.atari.st
From: ac999a07@umbc5.umbc.edu (ac999a07)
Subject: Fax Software
Organization: Univ. of MD, Baltimore County
Date: Wed, 19 Aug 1992 20:53:31 GMT

Along with Straight FAX from Joppa Software Development... there is a program
called FastFax from Michtron (or whoever they may be now.).  I also read in
a magazine at one point of another company comming out with a background fax
program.  Dunno...



Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy,comp.sys.amiga.misc
From: Hans Ridder <ridder@zso.dec.com>
Subject: Re: CDTV is dead.
Originator: ridder@zowie.zso.dec.com
Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation - DECwest Engineering
Date: Fri, 21 Aug 1992 17:55:48 GMT

In article <1992Aug21.021701.4770@tronsbox.xei.com> bleys@tronsbox.xei.com (Bill Cavanaugh) writes:
>It would be interesting to see how many of the $20 registered
>developers have produced code.

Probably none, since there is *no* such thing as a $20 registered
developer.  Becoming a registered developer costs ~$70/year, last I
checked.

>For many people, registering is a legal way to obtain official header
>files to use with DICE, and a way to keep from re-inventing the wheel.

You're probably thinking of the $20 Native Developer's Update Kit.
Despite the word "developer" in it's title, buying it doesn't make you a
developer.

>BTW, I'm >not< an RD.

I guessed that.

> *         Bill Cavanaugh       bleys@tronsbox.xei.com          *

-hans
-- 
  Hans-Gabriel Ridder				Digital DECwest Engineering
  ridder@rust.zso.dec.com			Bellevue, Washington, USA
  {pacbell,pyramid,uunet}!rust.zso.dec.com!ridder