HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: davidli@simvax.labmed.umn.edu
Subject: Re: Convince me to stick with Atari.
Reply-To: davidli@simvax.labmed.umn.edu
Organization: Health Computer Sciences, U of MN, Mpls
Date: Mon, 11 Jan 1993 18:39:46 GMT

In article <H.ea.o3KuEmskWp2@semprini.tdkcs.waterloo.on.ca>, cherborth@semprini.tdkcs.waterloo.on.ca (Chris Herborth) writes:
>I'd like to hear some arguments convincing me to stay with a sinking
>ship, Atari.
...
>Let 'er rip folks.  If I'm going to have to replace all of my software
>anyway, I'd rather do it with _quality_ software with a decent
>interface.  Right now, a '486 system with OS/2 on it is looking _very_,
>_very_ attractive.

Try looking for a '486 system from a company which offers at least 2 years
parts and service warranty.  Because you didn't mention a price range, and also
because you mentioned the Apple Macintosh IIci in your posting, I would expect
you have somewhere in the neighborhood of $2500-$4000 to spend on the machine.

Invest in at least 500 megabytes for a hard drive, and tape backup system.
If you get interested in one of the desktop UNIX environments, you'll find that
it eats up large chunks of your hard drive.  Without a tape backup (look for a
SCSI 4 mm DAT device, or the more 'standard' 8mm tape devices), you're going to
find yourself frustrated at least once when it is of major importance to have a
backup.  A CDROM drive is also becoming 'standard equipment'.  Be sure the one
you get can handle the KODAK CDROM disks.

Don't stint on the monitor purchase.  While there are plenty of cheap VGA
monitors around, expect to pay around $800 for a good, multiply-synced monitor.
The 17" CTX Proscan we have works well at the higher screen densities, and has
the advantage of being pluggable into a IIsi (non-synced, of course).  The
reason I emphasize the monitor is that you mentioned a desire to do a bit of
animation and graphics rendering.  You can have the fastest CPU on earth and
the graphics will still be terrible if you purchased a cheapo superVGA card and
nominal monitor.

I'm not going to mention Atari at all.  You appear to feel that the company is
a 'sinking ship'.  With such an attitude (and it may very well be the correct
one), you're always going to feel 'cheated' if you purchase a new Atari
machine, regardless of how good or well-suited they may be to your
applications.

-- DPZ
From: mm68@unix.brighton.ac.uk (Lost Boy)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Mail-Server Help Needed
Date: 11 Jan 93 11:49:12 GMT
Organization: University of Brighton, UK

I have been trying (in vain) to get the mail server at 

atari@atari.archive.umich.edu

to send me the Heat and Serve C Compiler with the mail body containing the
line

send languages/sozo133i.zoo

which I was told of by someone, but I keep getting no such directory
and a BART error from the server. Can anyone help?

Also, does anyone have any other addresses for good atari software via
mail-server or ftp?
-- 
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|On the end of every wizards staff is a knob! - T.Pratchett                 |
|									    |
|Michael May, Brighton University, Sussex, England			    |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
From: caude@comtch.spk.wa.us (Chuck Aude)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Atari System for Sale
Date: 12 Jan 93 07:44:00 GMT
Organization: Waffle BBS at CompuTech Spokane, Washington

I have an Atari ST computer system for sale.  I will sell it either in
peices or as one big package.  Here is what I have:

Hardware
========
Atari Mega ST4 Computer (w/ TOS 1.4, Mega STe keyboard,
                            and GoldenImage mouse)              $500
Atari SLM804 Laser Printer                                      $500
Hard Drive case w/ ICD Advantage Plus Host Adapter
                w/ ICD Hard Drive Utilities 5.6.1               $150
Seagate ST296N 85Mb Hard Drive                                  $225
Amplified Stereo Adaptor                                         $30
2 TAC30 Joysticks                                                $25

Software
========
Calamus 1.09                                                    $100
GFA Draft Plus                                                   $15
WordPerfect 4.1                                                 $100
Red Storm Rising                                                 $25
Ultima IV                                                        $25
Planetarium                                                      $25
GFA Basic 2.0 and 3.0 w/ ref manual                              $75
UltraScript                                                      $75
BBS Express! ST 1.79                                             $75
Lots of PD stuff                                  FREE on Hard Drive
====================================================================
Total                                                          $1945

Entire Package                                                 $1800

If you are interested, I (Chuck) can be reached at:

                   509-235-8746 (voice),
                   509-235-4875 (BBS),
                   CAUDE1 (GEnie),
                   Chuck Aude at 1:346/18.0 (FidoNet),
                or Chuck.Aude@f18.n346.z1.fidonet.org (InterNet).

--
caude@comtch.spk.wa.us (Chuck Aude)
IEAx for lack of a better name... (509) 624-0744
From: rchan@terapin.com (Ronald Chan)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: Flaky mouse
Date: 4 Jan 93 20:06:09 PST
Organization: BBS

 ] Recently my mouse has started to act less then obedient. It will work fine
 ]for hours (or sometimes just minutes) and then , badabing badaboom, every
 ]direction is reversed, up is down, down is up, left is.... well you get the 
 ]idea. The only way to fix this is to save what I'm doing and cold start it.
 ]
 ] Could this just be my mouse or is it something inside my box? 
 ]
 ] Any help would be greatly appreciated.
 ]
 ]
 ]Thanks.
 ] Steve Matson.

Ah ha!!!  It sounds like you have a boot sector virus.  I forget the name of
it, but if it is what I think it is... it is a typical boot sector virus that
is probably jumping around in your floppies.  this virus has a counter and
waits until it has made 5 copies of itself before it starts randomly reversing
the direction of the mouse pointer.

My friend gave this virus to me once, but he discovered it earlier since it had
a chance to make 5 copies on his system before mine.  He informed me, and I
just used a simple virus utility like Virus Kill to clean up my discs.

We've been very lucky here in Atariland that it is relatively difficult to
become infected.  With few of us around and not many people going through the
trouble, I guess we haven't gotten around to selling big virus killing software
like our cousins...


|| Ronald Chan [rchan@terapin.com    ]
||             [rchan@Spud.Kludge.COM]
||
|| A Pocket Knight  *--{--------------
From: Martin_Bartsch@mk.maus.de (Martin Bartsch)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: Spectre & TT
Date: 7 Jan 93 08:16:00 GMT
Organization: MausNet (Mitglied im IN e.V.)
X-Gateway: MausGate/News 1.16/hb

Hi!

mike@medsun.unige.ch wrote:

m>QUESTION:       How can I transvert Atari -> Mac? The floppy doesn't work,
m>the
m>internal SCSI
m>                doesn't work, Transverter refuses to recognize the
m>(functional)
m>MAC partitions
m>                on my external ACSI, ...   I think I feel an email to Dave
m>Small coming on ..

1. You can transvert Atari -> Mac and vice versa using RS232.
2. You can use MS-DOS Disks in 720K Mode using Access PC or DOS Mounter under
   Spectre, it works very well.
3. You can use Mac 720K Disks. It's not a joke, it works! Apple distribute a
   Programm with System and Finder, it's called Transverter(?) I think. In
   German its called "Dateien konvertieren". If it is running and you put an
   unformatted Disk into the diskdrive an alertbox apears on the screen. You
   can see there 3 entries like Mac 800K (standart Mac), Apple Prodos (Apple 2)
   and Mac 720K (disabled). When you click with your mouse onto the Disk-Icon
   in the alertbox, the Mac 720K mode is magically enabled. Then you can format
   your Disk as Mac 720K (even under Spectre!). But not all Macs esspecially
   old Mac Plus like this special Format. Newer Macs shouldn't have any
   problems with these disks.

Tschau,

     Martin

PS: Please excuse my bad English...
From: ken@isgtec.com (Ken Newman)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: STalker vs Uniterm?
Date: 10 Jan 93 05:43:54 GMT
Organization: ISG Technologies Inc., Mississauga Ontario

In article <1993Jan7.141838.18899@netcom.com> yonder@netcom.com (Christopher Russell) writes:
> Does anybody have any opinions here?  I have been thinking about
> plunking down a few bucks for STalker, since I spend most of my time
> on my computer logged on.  Currently I use Uniterm.  Uniterm does
> everything I need pretty much, but it has one or two bugs that bother

My opinion is that Flash 1.6 and Uniterm are the only two. See my other
post in this group.... I found the STalker 3.0 demo to be very buggy
and extremely slow. Uniterm is the fastest, so if you're used to that,
STalker will make you laugh out loud. Try Flash 1.6, it's solid as a
rock, unless you need very complete vt102 like Uniterm. (even then Flash
is pretty good).

> One thing that I would like to know about Stalker is if it will allow
> me to have a 49 line screen like I use in Uniterm... this is essential
> for me (not I have a mono monitor).

You must have better eyes than me. :) Stalker probably lets you use
GDOS fonts or something, but it will look like sh*t and be unbearably
slow. Uh, Flash 1.6 does 50 line mode also...

--

ken@isgtec.com   [ ...!uunet.ca!isgtec!ken ]  Ken Newman
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
From: hutch@bellman.lanl.gov (John Hutchinson)
Subject: Re: Spectre GCR (Mac+ emulator) vs. Mac MS
Reply-To: hutch@bellman.lanl.gov
Organization: Los Alamos National Laboratory
Date: Mon, 11 Jan 1993 16:57:29 GMT

In article 1in8lbINN3qp@golem.wcc.govt.nz, wells_s@kosmos.wcc.govt.nz () writes:

>
>On this subject - if it ever appears, what mac' is the Falcon-supporting
>Spectre GCR (or whatever it may be called) likely to emulate!?
>
>LCII?!  Classic?!
>

The Spectre GCR is a Mac Plus emulator.  It doesn't matter if you plug it into
an 8MHz ST, a 32MHz TT or a 16MHz Falcon 030... it's still a Mac Plus that just
runs at different speeds.  To emulate the LCII or any other color Mac, Dave
will have to do some serious code overhauling plus the user will have to pick
up a set of Mac 512K ROMs.  I imagine he will do it.  The question is when. :)

---

___________________________ John "HUTCH" Hutchinson _________________________
_________________ Fair Dinkum Technologies     Member - IAAD  _______________
________________ "No worries, mate... it's from Fair Dinkum!" _______________
____________ email: hutch@bellman.lanl.gov   GEnie: FAIR-DINKUM _____________
From: dmb@case.ai.mit.edu (David Baggett)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: ADVOCACY: Re: a blurb
Keywords: PC piracy
Date: 13 Jan 93 02:31:43 GMT
Organization: MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory
NNTP-Posting-Host: case.ai.mit.edu

In article <C0rLwF.BIA@ecf.toronto.edu> alrashi@ecf.toronto.edu (AL RASHID SHAHIR) writes:
>So don't give me crap about PROVING
>it and all, cuz _hey_ I own all three Amiga, ST, and PC, and I have actually
>seen PIRATED software in original-looking boxes being taken off PC shelves!!

Oh gee, sorry for asking for evidence!  Since you say it's true, it
must be right.  You're trying to convince me of something, right?  Then
realize you're going to have to do better than "I just KNOW it's true."

>Just like you tell us not to hide shit about the ST, please don't hide shit
>about the PC's.....Jeez.

You haven't demonstrated that I am; in fact there was absolutely no
information content in your post.

Dave Baggett
--
dmb@ai.mit.edu           MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory                  
ADVENTIONS: interactive fiction (text adventures) for the 90's!
dmb@ai.mit.edu *** Compu$erve: 76440,2671 *** GEnie: ADVENTIONS
From: molin@ptb.cl.msu.edu (Michael Olin)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: A letter to Dave Baggett
Date: 11 Jan 1993 04:53:47 GMT
Organization: Michigan State University
NNTP-Posting-Host: ptb.cl.msu.edu

dcable@nyx.cs.du.edu (Dan Cable) writes:

>Yes it's true. However, that $15.00 version of OS/2 is a non-registered
>beta version which is only liscensed until January 3, 1993. You wouldn't
>want to have a pirated OS would you?

"Mr. Phelps, this CD will self-destruct on 1/3.  Good Luck."
--
  =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
                               |||      Sing a happy tune and
    molin@ptb.cl.msu.edu       |||     happy dancers will join
    Canton, Michigan USA      / | \     your trip.  -T. Golas
From: wojuacac@w273zrz.zrz.tu-berlin.de (Wolfgang Jung)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: MTOS
Date: 7 Jan 1993 12:47:14 GMT
Organization: ZRZ/TU-Berlin
Reply-To: woju@keep.fantasy.sub.org
NNTP-Posting-Host: w275zrz.zrz.tu-berlin.de

Hi
===

A long time I am reading a lot obout M"ulti"TOS, and also there seems to
be a bit of software which is written for MTOS. But till now I haven't seen 1  
Bit of MTOS (only MiNT, which runs really good at my place :-) )
How is this M'TOS' availabel (is it ???)


Gruss
	Wolfgang
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
From: BWWL@ibm.rz.tu-clausthal.de (Wolfgang Ley)
Subject: STZIP 2.1 available
Organization: Rechenzentrum der TU CLAUSTHAL
Date: Mon, 4 Jan 1993 17:22:51 GMT

Hello!
 
The bugs of STZIP 2.0 hav been fixed in V2.1.
Stzip 2.1 is available via anonymous ftp from 'ftp.tu-clausthal.de'
(139.174.2.10) /pub/atari/archivers/zip/stzip21.lzh or via email
to 'mail-server@ftp.tu-clausthal.de'
  'send /pub/atari/archivers/zip/stzip21.lzh'
  'end'
 
Bye,
  Wolfgang.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
       Wolfgang Ley                               e-mail:
       Teichstrasse 9
W-3392 Clausthal-Zellerfeld                     BWWL@ibm.rz.tu-clausthal.de
       (Germany)                            or  BWWL@sun.rz.tu-clausthal.de
       Phone: +49 5323 82132 (voice)        or  Ley@rz.tu-clausthal.de
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Tracker Music within GFA/STOS, how?
From: mcsdc1ph@dct.ac.uk
Date: 7 Jan 93 12:13:30 GMT
Organization: Dundee Institute of Technology


Hi.

Does anyone know of a routine which will allow tracker music to be played
from within GFA basic, and/or STOS?

Is it merely a question of know the proper locations within the tune code,
or will I need a specific player routine with in the basic code?

I use an Ste.

By the way, how many channels has the STe got?  In a certain demo called
Dynamite, they claim to have 8 independant channels.  Is there and editor
for this type of wonder musix?

Thanks.

Feekzoid


Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
From: jmw@tasman.cc.utas.edu.au (John Mark Williams)
Subject: chkdsk
Organization: University of Tasmania, Australia.
Date: Tue, 5 Jan 1993 01:26:16 GMT

Whenever the discussion comes round to defragmenting hard disks and otherwise
maintaining these cantankerous beasties, inevitably chkdsk from Atari is
recommended. However as I understand it, it is only available to registered
developers. If that is not so, can anyone tell me where I can get it?
If it is true, perhaps Atari could be persuaded, in the interests of public
relations, to make it more freely available to the rest of us who occasionally
have disk problems too.

Thanks,
--
John M Williams, 
School of Health Sciences, University of Tasmania
J.M.Williams@med.utas.edu.au

Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
From: gregs@eskimo.com (Greg Sumner)
Subject: Re: ST Upgrading
Organization: -> ESKIMO NORTH (206) For-Ever <-
Date: Fri, 8 Jan 1993 03:58:45 GMT

dmb@case.ai.mit.edu (David Baggett) writes:


>Epsilon is an example of this better software.  Boycott Microsoft if
>you don't like them, but don't take your hatred of them out on the
>Intel machines themselves.

>Dave Baggett
>--
>dmb@ai.mit.edu           MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory                  
I wouldn't say I hate them, I'd say I'm strongly opposed to buying one.
It looks like a no-win situation.  In the end, you get the most power
and support from the clone line for an astoundingly low cost.  The clone
merchants are busy running each other out of town and we benefit.  The
problem is that I like my Atari much better.  Which is why I'm still
using it.

Eventually, when I upgrade, it will not be to another Atari.  As much as
I'd like to buy one, there's no way in hell I'm going to buy a computer
that nobody will write software for.  My first computer was an Atari 800
and I've always owned one (5 now.)  But I've've never understood the fanatical
Atari fans.  People, it's not a religion it's a business.  And a really
poorly run one.  If they don't put out they don't get my cash, period.
Up until now Atari has treated me great.  But as the local dealers drop
like flies, I can sure see the handwriting on the wall.  Which is another
reason I'm against getting a clone - because if I want to keep using a
computer eventually I'll have to buy one.  

As for the GUI argument, I personally could care less.  I don't need icons
at all.  But to use the newer software for the clones you are going to
need to run windows.  And you can bet that Microsoft will be there with
new ways to suck your money every step of the way.  And when Microsoft,
with it's strangehold on the market, continues to develop software that
requires faster, bigger, and more expensive hardware, will I be surprised?
It's such a crying shame to see all that lighting-fast hardware being
wasted on a bulky, inefficient shell for an antiquated OS.  

It's very clear to me that the IBM/Clone systems are in the business of
raking in dough while ignoring common sense.  
-- 
Gregory Sumner  *  gregs@eskimo.com
Yoyodyne Propulsion Systems, Inc.
Seattle, Wa.
From: dmb@case.ai.mit.edu (David Baggett)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: RFD: What to do with comp.binaries.atari.st/comp.sources.atari.st?
Date: 10 Jan 93 17:11:14 GMT
Article-I.D.: life.1iplbiINN58q
Organization: MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory
NNTP-Posting-Host: case.ai.mit.edu

In article <hjv.726673126@groucho.phil.ruu.nl> hjv@phil.ruu.nl (Hendrik Jan Veenstra) writes:
>And now we're at it: how about a group comp.sys.atari.flames ???  So we
>can get back to the regular interesting stuff in c.s.a.st...

WHAT interesting stuff?  Talking about all the great new software for
Atari computers, I suppose?  The only thing I've seen here in the past
year -- besides disussion about why Atari sucks -- is talk about the
Falcon, which you can't even come close to buying in most parts of the
world.  Those of you who CHOOSE to stay in a market dominated by the
World's Worst Company shouldn't complain when people point out Atari's
inadequacies.  After all, YOU own an ST/TT/Falcon because it does what
YOU want, not because of what other people think about, right?  It's
really NOT a religion, right?

(Followups to c.s.a.flames. :)

BTW, if you want a new group, read news.announce.newgroups and learn
about the hideously annoying (and flame-prone) process you have to go
through before you can create it.  If you're going to try, I suggest
you call the new group comp.sys.atari.advocacy to match the amiga and
mac groups.

Dave Baggett
--
dmb@ai.mit.edu           MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory                  
ADVENTIONS: interactive fiction (text adventures) for the 90's!
dmb@ai.mit.edu *** Compu$erve: 76440,2671 *** GEnie: ADVENTIONS
From: Bob_BobR_Retelle@cup.portal.com
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: STReport???
Date: Sun,  3 Jan 93 22:27:49 PST
Organization: The Portal System (TM)
Distribution: world
  <H.eg.wgo5n4n7hdk@jonh.wimsey.bc.ca> <72823@cup.portal.com>

Dave Flory posted a very amusing article:
 
Thanks for the laugh, Dave..  that was very funny..!
 
BobR
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
From: george@electro.electro.com (George Reimer)
Subject:  ICD software source
Keywords: ICD
Organization: Electrohome Ltd., Kitchener, ON, Canada
Date: Mon, 4 Jan 1993 17:57:43 GMT

A year or two ago I contacted ICD by voice and then
subsequently by modem in order to download 
support software for a salvaged SCSI Mac Drive.

The people at ICD were courteous and helpful
and the new improved software worked first time.

The BBS number that they gave me was:

	815 - 968 - 2229

I don't remember that there were any
unusual restrictions.

-- 

     _______________________________________ 
    |---|---|line--upon--line---|---|---|---|   watmath!watcgl!electro!george  
  |---|--building the foundations-|---|---|---|     george@electro.com
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
From: nino@vmars.tuwien.ac.at (Marinos Yannikos)
Subject: Re: The compatibility story (Falcon & A1200)
Organization: TU Wien, Vienna, Austria
Date: Mon, 11 Jan 1993 10:44:07 GMT

borgen@stud.cs.uit.no (Boerge Noest) writes:
: In article <1993Jan10.110720.14311@umiami.ir.miami.edu> dlk0ms9s@umiami.ir.miami.edu writes:
: [...]
: If your Falcon does 95% then I'm tempted to suggest that you come from
: another planet. I'm not saying that it is impossible, but I have a hard
: time accepting it.
: Most problems comes from the fact that
: - self-modyfying code blows up with caches (turn them off)
: - the stack frame is different (no hope for these shitty programmers)
: - it runs faster and timing depending on the processor speed blows up. This
: is especially bad on custom loaders (more shitty programmers)

Then again, most games don't use self-modifying code (ok, perhaps some of
the games from former demo-coders), the stack frame isn't particularly
interesting for games either (Can't think of any serious reason, this
should only give vector-bending software a hard time), and the timing
won't be so much of a problem either, because 1. most games run in the
VBL (so the speed depends on the display frequency), 2. those which don't
won't run THAT much faster, since the Falcon is only 4-5 times faster
than the ST in the ST modes... :)

: A very big number of Amiga games have been done on the ST by the same
: programmers so you'll have your share of crashing games.

Well... Actually I don't think the old games are so important - except
a few good ones (Dungeon Master ...) there isn't anything that will
look or feel particularly good after you've seen some real Falcon games...

: Programs that use the OS give the OS writers a chance to help them even if
: they screw up in some way. Of course, some are beyond all hope.

I agree... 

: >[ Mark Santora                                                       ]
: -- 
: |/// borgen@stud.cs.uit.no (Boerge Noest) | Amiga B2000			 \\\|
: |//  Box 218, 9001 Tromsoe, Norway	  | Remember to :-) when needed	  \\|
: |/   The worlds northernmost university	  | Life is worth living.	   \|
: #Disclaimer: This university and me does not agree.

-My