HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: thughes@dcs.warwick.ac.uk (Tom Hughes)
Subject: Re: Dongles affecting
Organization: Department of Computer Science, Warwick University, England
Date: Wed, 27 Jan 1993 15:24:57 GMT

In article <1993Jan27.100315.1552@cs.nott.ac.uk> smb@cs.nott.ac.uk (Simon Burrows) writes:
>Computer Concepts have enough size and power ('clout') to do virtually 
>whatever they like. Whether that is a good thing or not is very debatable
>- take for example the matter of the 3D Style Guide. Acorn's 3D guide is
>not identical to CC's, but it almost certainly would never have been
>written if it wasn't for CC's actions.

Well we probably ought to thank CC for drilling some sense into Acorn
there. I believe that CC have altered there ABI system so that there
3D style matches Acorns now (latest versions of Impression and
Artworks use this I beleiev).

Tom.

============================================================================
Tom Hughes, CS3

thughes@uk.ac.warwick.dcs            57 Shakleton Road
csugk@uk.ac.warwick.csv              Earlsdon
                                     Coventry
(0203) 673584                        CV5 6HT
============================================================================
From: u2prh@ohm.york.ac.uk (Paul R Hedderly - H601/92)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: ACORN RESPONSE TO !3DICONS
Date: 22 Jan 93 09:46:04 GMT
Organization: Electronics Department, University of York, UK

From article <1993Jan21.152836.7705@unix.brighton.ac.uk>, by rjb12@unix.brighton.ac.uk (Titch):
> To all those who requested a copy of the !3DIcons toolsprites, I am sorry
> to tell you that because of the following email I received I am unable to
> distribute them.

> Please do NOT distribute material which has come into your possesion,
> by whatever means, which you believe to have originated in Acorn, and
> which is not explicitly marked as being freely re-distributable.  It

You WOT

> In due time I expect Acorn will release an "official" set of 3D tool-
> sprites (which may differ from what you have, in any case).  But it
> hasn't happened yet, and when it does, there will be a well-defined
> distribution mechanism.  Please do not give anyone else a copy of what

I'm sorry - mayby I missed the point but why can't these sprites - which
may or may not be the real beta sprites - be passed around? Is there a
problem with letting ppl have them and then giving them a proper
replacement set?

> Obviously I cannot personally force you to comply with this request
> (it would be up to Acorn's legal department to deal with that) but I
> suggest that it is your own best interests to do so.  Acorn has in the
> past taken legal action against people infringing its copyrights.

Nope - you can't force him to, and I do wonder how serious that threat
is.

> Sincerely,
> 
> Mark Taunton.

> Rich Browning (rjb12@bton.unix)   * The Intel Plentium: Ethernet controller  

Hmm - I am an ardent Acorn fanatic - wouldn't dream of buying anything
else, but really. Does Acorn have to be so petty and secretive?

	Lost for words
		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)	
					
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
From: chughes@maths.tcd.ie (Conrad Hughes)
Subject: Re: TeX with more than 65531 words of memory
Organization: Dept. of Maths, Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland.
Date: Wed, 27 Jan 1993 16:21:20 GMT

alla0008@student.tc.umn.edu (Graham Allan) writes:

>TooLs GmbH sells a commercial port of TeX which is more recent than the
>armatures one. I don't know what version it is though.
If I remember correctly it was 2.93 or summat like that, but they
may well have updated it since April 1990..  I'm trying to contact
them myself to see if the product still exists, but the email
address they gave (tex@tools.uucp) hasn't replied to me.  Does
anyone know anything about their TeX?  In what way does it improve
over armatures?

Conrad
-- 
,--------------------. Suicide City, Paranoid State. Geddout! trip to, heave'n'
|chughes@maths.tcd.ie| ho, up, down, to'n'fro you have no word please leave us
+-=>Conrad  Hughes<=-+ here close our eyes to the octopus ride isn't it good to
`-------<SICK>-------' be lost in the wood isn't it bad so quiet there . . .
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
From: torh@syma.sussex.ac.uk (Tor Houghton)
Subject: Nethack
Organization: University of Sussex
X-Newsreader: Tin 1.1 PL5
Date: Wed, 27 Jan 1993 10:23:12 GMT

                      I WANT NETHACK 3.1 FOR THE ARC!!!

(Lacking line-of-sight games for the arc entirely..)

T.

-- 

----------------------------------------------------------------------
email: torh@cogs.susx.ac.uk           "Then we will wonder if machines
                                       will steal each others dreams."
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
From: leo@dcs.warwick.ac.uk (Leo Hendry)
Subject: Re: Acorn v Research Machines
Organization: Department of Computer Science, Warwick University, England
Date: Fri, 22 Jan 1993 12:24:21 GMT

In article <1jogf7INN415@oak10.doc.ic.ac.uk> ijp@doc.ic.ac.uk (Ian Palmer) writes:
>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

If a school is going to buy an Acorn machine they will probably buy an A3020,
costing about #500 with monitor.  If they are going to by RMs, the cheapest
usable machine is their 386SX which probably costs #800 at least.  This on
it's own probably accounts for the difference.

>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.

This is difficult to believe, but absolutely true - they actually market
machines using intel chips which are not PC compatable!!  ie. all the
disadvantages with none of the advantages of PCs.
  However, I think their more recent machines are more compatable.

>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 :-) ).

The reason why education buys RM is that individual schools etc. don't have
any choice - There is a county policy on which make of machines are bought
which is arrived by somebody who doesn't know anything about computers.
  This should in theory have changed with LMS but it doesn't seem to have (at
least not at my old school - I suppose they've got so many now that they have
to stick with them.)

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

Hey, this is great - anybody else want to spread information that, if it fell
into the wrong hands, would severely restrict the usability of Nimbuses in
schools?

- Leo
From: phudj@csv.warwick.ac.uk (Mr P A Smith)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Ros3.1 (Re: Acorn news releses: Advance)
Date: 26 Jan 1993 11:19:40 -0000
Organization: Computing Services, University of Warwick, UK
Distribution: world
NNTP-Posting-Host: colwick.csv.warwick.ac.uk
Keywords: Ros 3.1 for A5000



In article <1k0v6mINN480@bnsgd245.bnr.co.uk> Dave Kennard writes
>Re: my post of last week - my cheque fo L20 was written on 2nd September
>1992 - to their credit (but not their bank balance!) NCS have not yet
>cashed it.  Indeed, if they are unable to supply my with the RO 3.0 to 3.1
>upgrade within the next 5 weeks, they will have to ask me to write another
>one!
>
>As I said last week..
>
>ACORN,  WHERE ARE THE A5000 RO3.1 UPGRADES???
>
>WE WANT THEM - PREFERABLY NOW!!!!
 
Could the problem be people like me who refuse to pay 30 quid for the manual when
with a little nouce and help from people who already had ROs 3.1 I managed to
work it all out myself.
I ordered my the A5000 Ros3.1 upgrade for my humble A310 at the Acorn user show
last year and received it in mid December from Arxe systems and that was due to a
delay as i had disappeared in their paper work. When I rang up they had an
upgrade on their shelf and I had it 9.00 the next morning. i had fitted it half
an hour later aswell as the carrier board I already had. 

 Paul

+----------------------------------------+----------------------------------+
|   Paul Smith, Maths and Physics.       | You fitted your RiscOs 3.1 with  |
|   Undergraduate at Warwick             | a hammer ? Surely thats not      |
|   Janet    :phudj@uk.ac.warwick.csv    | safe.                            |
|   Internet :phudj@csv.warwick.uk       |                                  |
+----------------------------------------+----------------------------------+
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Cut and Paste... ???
From: jwil1@cs.aukuni.ac.nz (TMOTA)
Date: Fri, 22 Jan 1993 01:41:20 GMT
Organization: Computer Science Dept. University of Auckland


Did anybody notice this in the recent announcements:

"The movement of text and data between applications is also made quick and
 easy - either via a "cut and paste" method, or by CSV data transfer."
		     ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Hmmm... copy/cut/paste *between* applications?
Surely Acorn aren't doing a 180 degree turn on us after trying unsuccessfully
to convince us that copy/move/delete is Gods gift to His creation?
-- 
themasterofthearcanejwil1@cs.aukuni.ac.nzthismessagewassentonrecycledelectrons
From: robertej@cs.aston.ac.uk (Ewen Roberts)
Subject: Re: Acorn v Research Machines
Reply-To: robertej@cs.aston.ac.uk
Organization: Aston University (Comp Sci)
Date: Mon, 25 Jan 1993 11:44:55 GMT

In article 3943@aston.ac.uk, tippinme@cs.aston.ac.uk (ME TIPPING,,,,) writes:
>I once asked my mum why the school where she works bought RM instead of Acorn stuff. She replied that because the school gets broken into regularly, they'd opted for RM computers as no thief would consider them worth stealing..........
>
>Mike T.
>
>
They had a network of Nimbi at my old school, I never saw it go a whole day without failing horribly in two years. ;)

Ewen R.
From: rjb12@unix.brighton.ac.uk (Titch)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: Acorn v Research Machines
Date: 22 Jan 93 15:10:34 GMT
Organization: University of Brighton, UK

Yup - a pity it doesn't state what kind of profits are made by each company.

I've got this funny feeling that Acorn would then have smile on *their*
faces :-)

Rich.

-- 
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Rich Browning (rjb12@bton.unix)   * The Intel Plentium: Ethernet controller  
Department of Computer Science    * or fiendish knitting pattern?          
University of Brighton            * What!? It's a PROCESSOR???            
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
From: thompsmr@uhura.aston.ac.uk (Mark Thompson)
Subject: Re: Acorn User
Organization: Aston University
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.1 PL241235]
Date: Tue, 26 Jan 1993 11:41:47 GMT

Mik Davis (davism@uhura.aston.ac.uk) wrote:
:   An interesting quote from the news pages of Acorn User (February 93)
: 
:   "...Acorn are planning to increase their TV coverage this year, so stay tuned"
: 
:   Does this mean another Ad. campaign? Or something else...
: 
: 
: 

	Probably just more episodes of Micro Live with Fred "charisma of a dead
fish" Wossname presenting it. Whoopie.

--
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|   Mark Thompson, Aston Uni, Dept. Elec. Eng   ThompsonMR@uk.ac.aston.spock  |
| "PC Owner?",'Yes',"Good. Out of the door, line on the left, one cross each."|
-------------------Disclaimer: It was like that when I got here----------------
From: ajdh@bnr.co.uk (Andrew J D Hurley)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: R140 boot problem
Date: 25 Jan 93 10:30:13 GMT
Organization: BNR Europe Ltd, London Road, Harlow, England.
NNTP-Posting-Host: 47.164.64.53

In article <C1ABx9.F07@news2.cis.umn.edu> alla0008@student.tc.umn.edu (Graham Allan) writes:
>The address exception is, I think, somewhere in the RMA, so could be a
>module causing the problem. I don't know what your problem is, but the
>things I would try are:
>1) perform a R-power on to reset the CMOS-RAM.
>2) try removing the ethernet card and see if it works then.
>
>This are the two most obvious things I can think of! If these don't help,
>it might be useful to know exactly at what point you get the error message
>- do you get the "RISC OS 2 4096K" message up, do any filing systems
>announce themselves, etc?

Thanks, I have replaced the static RAM batteries and performed various
power on resets including R-power on and Delete-power on to no avail.
The behaviour is slightly different but I still get the address exception.
I get the "RISC OS 2 4096K" message then the exception (ie no filing system)
but if I do a CTRL-*-reset I get the supervisor prompt and no errors. From
the supervisor I can read the hard disc but when I try to go into any
sub directories I get a disc error.

If I try to start the desktop I get a grey screen and then it hangs.

In my search for the cause I have also tried each of the following with no
effect:

1) Dissasemble and re-seat ARM3 board (a big old monster from the early
days I guess).

2) Replace RO2 roms with a "spare" set I had lying around from my
A3000 upgrade.

3) Remove ethernet board.

4) Remove back plane.

As far as I can see this leaves RAM (which is soldered in and would be a
pain to replace), MEMC (how much are these and where can I get one) and
IOC (ditto). At the moment this machine is not my property and I am
very loath to spend lots of money on it so any clues anyone has would
be greatly appreciated.

While I am asking questions, if I want to upgrade the R140 to RO3.1
do I need any sort of carrier board? The sockets seem to have space
for bigger ROMs but I thought the R140s were pre-big socket days.




-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Andrew J D Hurley ,   <><         |  Email:   A.J.D.Hurley@bnr.co.uk
                                  |   or      Andrew.Hurley.EG40@bnr.ca
BNR Europe Ltd., London Road,     |  route:   uunet!ukc!bnr!ajdh
Harlow, Essex CM17 9NA, UK.       |  Phone:   +44 279 402535
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
From: chughes@maths.tcd.ie (Conrad Hughes)
Subject: Re: That 1000 pound sampling card
Keywords: Rip off, 16 bit 44.1 kHz sampling, SCSI
Organization: Dept. of Maths, Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland.
Date: Mon, 25 Jan 1993 14:17:17 GMT

MJW19@phx.cam.ac.uk writes:

>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.
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
is even worse - the Arc manufacturer can only expect a market size
perhaps a hundredth that of a PC manufacturer..

Those figures are probably way out of date; if anyone has up-to-date
info I'd be interested to see it..

Conrad
-- 
,--------------------. Suicide City, Paranoid State. Geddout! trip to, heave'n'
|chughes@maths.tcd.ie| ho, up, down, to'n'fro you have no word please leave us
+-=>Conrad  Hughes<=-+ here close our eyes to the octopus ride isn't it good to
`-------<SICK>-------' be lost in the wood isn't it bad so quiet there . . .
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
From: tb@liszt.thorn-emi-crl.co.uk (Tim Browse)
Subject: Hard disc errors
X-Status: NS
X-Mailer: Aster*x 2.0 (360)
Date: Thu, 21 Jan 1993 16:10:31 +0000



Erm..someone - can't remember who - was asking about a hard 
disc error along the lines of "error at 4/0000C00"...the bad news is 
that C00 is where FileCore puts the boot block, and if it can't read 
this, it won't access the disc. 

As someone suggested, re-formatting might help - perhaps even 
just format the first track, and you should keep most of your data, 
as the root directory is miles away in the middle of the disc.  You 
could have trouble if a directory is in the first track cos you'll end 
up with a slightly knackered disc which can't be fixed by FileCore. 
Best thing to do is mark all the first track sectors as defects before 
you re-format it, and this will tell you which files (if any) use the 
first track. Unfortunately you then can't use the first track anymore.

Or you could get a disc editor and try re-writing the sector back 
(with the correct values for the boot block - see PRMs).

Anyway, by far the best thing to reformat.  However, if that doesn't 
fix it and you've got a persistent physical error at address &C00, 
then sadly your disc is shafted, and won't work with FileCore, and
hence Risc OS.

I'm sure someone at Acorn will correct me if I'm wrong...

Tim
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 12:48:35 GMT

In article <1993Jan23.153937.76@condor> blacka@logica.co.uk writes:
>This is not the impression I have of CC's support (sorry about the
>awful pun).
>
>When I first bought Impression, it worked fine, until I tried to print
>- Impression complained about lack of dongle when I turned on the
>printer. 

It's looking very likely that CC are going to drop the dongle altogether.
There are apparently a number of reasons, and I suspect that one of these
is that a relocatable module which emulates their dongles has now become
very widespread.

Simon
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Simon Burrows   smb@cs.nott.ac.uk  psyhsmb@unicorn.nott.ac.uk  +44 533 712030
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: andyf@uk.sun.com (Andrew Fox - Sun UK - Answer centre)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: Dongles affecting Printing
Date: 25 Jan 1993 11:55:14 GMT
Organization: Sun Microsystems Ltd.
Distribution: world
Reply-To: andyf@uk.sun.com
NNTP-Posting-Host: yama.uk.sun.com



In article 13276 ssudavss@csug.cs.reading.ac.uk (Captain_Kwok) writes:

>Has anybody out there noticed a little anomily that happens sometimes to
>my system. I have an A5000, RO3.1, Canon BJ10EX and copies of Artworks and
>Impression 2.
>
>Sometimes when I try to print something to the printer it won't print anything.
>When I look at the printer queue it says that it has done about 4% ( I assume
>this has been downloaded to the printer).
>
>Now for the strange part.......
>
>It does this every time I try it until ... I run ArtWorks. This seems to
>open up the parallel port and all printing is tickety boo. If I remove the
>Artworks dongle I don't get this problem.
>
>Note. I don't have to have Artworks loaded all of the time, I just have to
>have run it and quit.
>
>Any Ideas?

I have also noticed this problem.

I am using an A5000, RO3.1, DeskJet 500C and Impression 2.

I don't think that the problem lies with the dongle, though.
It would appear that the A5000 or maybe RO3.1, just doesn't know about
the printer, unless it is switched on when you power up the A5000.

On power-up, the A5000 forces the DeskJet to do it's initialisation tests
again and after that all printing operations work fine.

Power up the A5000, then the printer and you will get the symptoms described
above.

As far as ArtWorks is concerned, perhaps it re-initialises the printer port
when it looks for the dongle, and hence the printer gets noticed.

Perhaps someone more versed with the printer hardware can tell us what's
really going on.

Andy.

+--------------------------------------------------+-------------------------+
|     /\       Andrew Fox,			   | Disclaimer:	     |
|    \\ \      Product Support Engineer,	   |			     |
|   \ \\ /     Sun Microsystems Ltd.,		   | These opinions are mine |
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+----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
From: r_voisey@kiwi.uwe.ac.uk (R Voisey)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: Acorn v Research Machines
Date: 27 Jan 93 11:08:06 GMT
Reply-To: r_voisey@csd.bristol-poly.ac.uk
Organization: The University of the West of England, Bristol (The Magic Roundabout)

In article <1993Jan21.173350.3032@cs.nott.ac.uk>, smb@cs.nott.ac.uk (Simon Burrows) writes:
|> RM is Number One in Education:
|> 
|> Annual Sales Revenue:
|> 
|> RM............50 million UK pounds
|> Acorn.........35 million UK pounds  

So, bearing in mind that Acorn sells more machines to education than RM
(according to independent research), what RM are saying is that their
machines  are more expensive than Acorns.  Fair 'nuff.

Bob

-- 
  Robert J. Voisey  :  r_voisey@csd.uwe.ac.uk
         -- Probug Software Developments --
162 Staplehill Rd, Fishponds, Bristol, Avon, England
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
From: S.J.Schofield1@lut.ac.uk
Subject: Re: Skyfall PD
Reply-To: S.J.Schofield1@lut.ac.uk (Steve)
Organization: Loughborough University, UK.
Date: Wed, 27 Jan 93 10:16:22 GMT

In article <1993Jan25.041107.182@turtle.fisher.com> barrett@turtle.fisher.com writes:
>Has anybody out there had any problems with Skyfall PD in Birmingham. I
>ordered some 1.6 Mbyte PD disks back in November and have received nothing
>from them. Is this a take your money and run outfit ?
>
I have used Skyfall severall times and I have always had a very quick reply -
they started about two years ago (I think).  Though as to your problem - I
have not used them since July and then I had a delay of one week because the
guy who did it was on holiday.

Steve

Panic - Only on week days and occastionaly during Lunch at weekends