HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: rjc@hal.gnu.ai.mit.edu (Ray)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy
Subject: Re: Unreal demo!
Date: 4 Sep 92 20:11:55 GMT
Article-I.D.: mintaka.1992Sep4.201155.17519
Organization: /etc/organization

In article <jbickers.0ewy@templar.actrix.gen.nz> jbickers@templar.actrix.gen.nz (John Bickers) writes:
>Quoted from <1992Sep3.214959.23973@usl.edu> by das9674@usl.edu (Stephenson Daniel A):
>
>> What, pray tell, is a 'plasma bob'?
>
>    A "bob" is a Blitter OBject. "plasma" is that affect one gets when
>    color cycling a bunch of pixels. FractInt (PC fractal program) has
>    a plasma setting. The balls in the PC demo "VECTOR" are bobs. A
>    while back many demos came out with the goal of displaying more
>    bobs on screen than any other demo, though my favorite one so far
>    is in CEBIT'90 where they are used to show a Juggler doing its
>    thing in a filled vector box.

  I'll add to this for anyone who's interested.


   Plasma bobs are a special kind of plasma effect.  Plasma effects are
color effects that deal with "cloud like" morphing/cycling graphics.
Imaging something that looks like a ball of fire morphing in real time
like a fractal.  
   Plasma bobs are plasma effects done with bob objects. The typical
round bob object is blitted around the screen (in a sin/cos fashion)
such that it leaves a "trail" of its former self in a light color. 
Each time the bob moves over a former "color trail" the new trail
randomly adds or subtracts a color intensity from the old one.
After the bob moves around the whole screen a few times (typically
 about <.5 sec) a chaotic fractal begins to form. The effect is
usually beautiful.  
    I first recall it being done a few years ago in C using triangles.
On fish disk 206 there is a program called "Brownian" (as in
Brownian motion) that does Plasma bob effects using overlayed
triangles. (source is included).   There are other ways to do
this effect  (see PlasmaCloud on fish disks)

   Vector Bobs are blitter objects (usually multicolor spheres) that 
have not only an x,y position, but a z coordinate as well.  The
bobs are sorted by depth and plotted. Usually bigger objects are
made out of vector bobs like stick men, flags, snakes, etc and
rotated or animated.

  
pointer:  For some of the best plasma effects I have seen in a long tome,
get the new demo from Assembly '92 on the Amiga called "Reflect".
Availible on wuarchive.wustl.edu:systems/amiga/demos/euro.


  -Ray
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy
From: gblock@csd4.csd.uwm.edu (Gregory R Block)
Subject: Re: Icon default tool paths (was Re: A4000 Specs? Who knows.)
Organization: University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee
Date: Fri, 11 Sep 1992 04:19:02 GMT

danaf@bray1a.its.rpi.edu (Frank R. Dana Jr.) writes:
: I GAVE you a "good solution" to the font problem. As I said, just allow the
: user to select the font! The font requester is a standard call in 2.04, and a
: config file in S: is no great chore. Hell, even my FILE REQUESTER (MFR, great
: little hack...) allows font selection! 
: 
: I stand by my previous statement... any program that does not allow the user
: to customize fonts under 2.04+ is NOT written properly...

I'll be blunt:

You've never tried to program anything like a GUI under AmigaDos 2.xx,
have you?  Didn't think so.

It's NEAR impossible to do a font-insensitive interface for an
application.  That means that it's near impossible to make it so that,
under a complex interface, the size and positioning of buttons is all
relative to the font size.  If, of course, it's complex.  Sure, you
can just toss buttons everywhere and have everything overlap and look
really close to crap.  But SOME people want it to LOOK good.  And
that's NEAR impossible on an Amiga.

Even ToolMaker doesn't do it.  GTB says it does, but IT doesn't
EITHER.  Those are really the only two tools one has at one's disposal
to build a GUI.  Do it by hand?  Sure, that's what I _TRIED_ to do.
And the best I could do looked like crap when a different font was
used.  One couldn't predict what would happen.  It was really awful.

So I took the easy way out.  I hardwired it.  Better that it force a
font than have it look like crap and make me look bad.

Greg

--
(: (: (: (: Have you overdosed on smileys today?  Why NOT!?! :) :) :) :)
(:"...High adventure that's beyond compare, they are the Gummi Bears.":)
(:	gblock@csd4.csd.uwm.edu			Gregory R. Block      :)
(: (: (: (: (: (: (: (: (: (: (: (: (:) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy
From: thad@cup.portal.com (Thad P Floryan)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy
Subject: Re: Robinson Follow Up Article
Date: Sun,  6 Sep 92 03:15:08 PDT
Organization: The Portal System (TM)

In article <1992Sep6.004905.1919@maccs.dcss.mcmaster.ca>
rickan@maccs.dcss.mcmaster.ca (Mark Rickan) writes:

|  Does anyone happen to have this article at their disposal? After all the
|  hoopla about the initial post, I'd like to see exactly what he had to say.

I do, but haven't had the initiative to type it in (as I did the original
article, esp. after Robinson stated "someone scanned it in"; sheesh, I can
outtype the secretaries at my office).

He really didn't change the gist of his article, standing-by many of the
original assertions (and probably rightly so).  He couldn't really write
about the things CBM said "were coming Real Soon Now" for that would be
discussing vaporware.

After the WOC in Pasadena next week, things "may" change.

Robinson's original articles in 1984 stimulated many to the Amiga.  I'm
sure he is as frustrated as the rest of us who've been proselytizing the
Amiga for over 7 years now.
From: abs0@coos.dartmouth.edu (Kelvin Leung)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy
Subject: Re: Amiga RAM
Date: 13 Sep 92 18:56:32 GMT
Organization: Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH

das9674@usl.edu (Stephenson Daniel A) writes:

>Hi there.

>I have heard many times that the Amiga has both 'chip' ram and 'fast' ram,
>and I get the impression that the FAST RAM is much better than the chip
>ram, but somehow every Amiga HAS to have SOME CHIP RAM.  For reason I don't
>know - that is why I am asking.

>On my PC, for example, I jsut have SIMM banks you snap SIMMs into.  The
>video card has its own memory. 

>Thanks-
>.

>--
>Dan Stephenson                                           das9674@usl.edu
>" BERLIN WALL FALLS.  3 BORDER GUARDS LOSE JOBS.  CLINTON BLAMES BUSH! "
>        -George Bush, '92 Republican nomination acceptance speech

Dan, "CHIP RAM" on the Amiga is what an IBM or MAC user would call "VRAM."

The only difference is that the Amiga can use its VRAM to run program,
display graphics and play sounds, while IBM/MAC can only use their VRAM for
graphics.

Do you think the 1MB VRAM on your SVGA is worse than your regular 16MB on
the motherboard?  I don't think so.  

No flame, just fact.

Yours sincerely,
Kelvin

                                            ____________________________
 __________________________________________/ Undergraduate, Class of 94 \___ 
/____________________________________________________________\_____/________\
|  Kelvin    /   Internet: Kelvin.Leung@Dartmouth.edu       ({o   o})       |
|   Leung   /       or     abs0@Coos.Dartmouth.edu        <  #  ^  #  >     | 
|__________/_______________________________________________(vvvvvvvvv)______|
| "Unless someone like you cares a whole |  Do you see a doll? a beast?     |
|  awful lot, nothing is going to get    |                                  |
|  better.  It's not."                   |  There are always more than one  |
|      -- Dr. Seuss (The Lorax)          |  side to any story...            |
 \______________________________________/ \________________________________/ 
                         I want THE AGA chipset!!! :(
From: kludge@carson.u.washington.edu (Eric Moon)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy
Subject: Re: Unreal demo!
Date: 5 Sep 92 11:19:05 GMT
Article-I.D.: u.1992Sep5.111905.6487
Organization: University of Washington, Seattle

In article <1992Sep5.084004.13142@qdpii.comp.qdpi.oz.au> davidme@qdpii.comp.qdpi.oz.au (David Meiklejohn) writes:
>In article <mykes.0ddu@amiga0.SF-Bay.ORG> mykes@amiga0.SF-Bay.ORG (Mike Schwartz) writes:
>>In article <1992Sep2.231332.7170@qdpii.comp.qdpi.oz.au> davidme@qdpii.comp.qdpi.oz.au (David Meiklejohn) writes:
>>>
>>> It's becomming a common response here :
>>>
>>> Amiga Advocate:
>>> "You need a 486 to do some things as fast as a stock Amiga."
>>>
>>> Real-world reply:
>>> "But, the 486 is cheaper than the Amiga!"
>>>
>>
>>Real-world reply:
>>"Which one ray-traces faster?"
>
>or "On which one does having a ray tracer running in the background speed up
>the whole operation of the machine?"  :-)

??? I seem to have missed the point of this...

ARGH!  Hardwired doesn't run on my A500... anybody know of a demo comparable to
hardwired that should run on an A500 with 512k chip ram and DOESN'T need PAL
mode?
From: ggiles@cie.uoregon.edu (Gregg Giles)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy
Subject: Re: Upgrade path from A3000 -> A4000? Ask at WOC!
Date: 13 Sep 92 17:34:27 GMT
Article-I.D.: nntp.1992Sep13.173427.20118
Organization: University of Oregon Campus Information Exchange

In article <92257.115643JBK4@psuvm.psu.edu> JBK4@psuvm.psu.edu writes:
>
>Not pin compatible but what about installing it on a ZorroIII Card or through
>the CPU slot.  

   I don't think so. The AGA aren't just plop-in chips, folks. That's why
Commodore put them on the motherboard of the A4000. These chips must have 
access directly to the Chip RAM bus of the Amiga, and I don't think that any
Amiga model has nearly enough data/address lines in the CPU slot to do what
people are calling for. It just isn't technically possible.
   Don't hold your breath on hacks. AGA is way more than a simple upgrade.
(BTW, even if it were possible to hack the AGA chips in an A3000, it would
still be impossible to get the additional graphics modes new to the AGA set.
The AGA chips >>>require<<< the additional bandwidth of the A4000. The A3000
does not physically have enough data/address lines for these new bandwidths.
The same goes for every other Amiga model on the planet that doesn't have
"A4000" on the front of it.)
   You can't turn a V4 into a V8 by saying you'll add 4 cylinders.


-- 
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gregg Giles (Dynamix, Inc.)                 BIX: ggiles 
All opinions expressed are my own.          Internet: ggiles@cie.uoregon.edu
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: barrett@iastate.edu (Marc N Barrett)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy
Subject: Re: A4000 - Early Impressions
Date: 14 Sep 92 18:14:53 GMT
Organization: Iowa State University, Ames, IA

In article <1992Sep14.074935.17241@gbrmpa.gov.au> matt@gbrmpa.gov.au (Matt) writes:
>In article <1992Sep14.064710.19465@news.iastate.edu> barrett@iastate.edu (Marc N Barrett) writes:
>>
>>   If Commodore had put a 1280x960 non-interlaced monochrome or limited-color
>>mode into the AGA chipset, and had put SCSI on the motherboard, the A4000
>>would have made a damn nice low-end machine.
>
>Even if C= had've included these, you'd still be whinging about something
>else.

   I am not whining, I'm simply stating a fact.  With a hi-res mode, Commodore
could have competed very well in the low-end UNIX market.  Without it, this
market is basically closed to them, for all practical purposes.

>>   As it is, by time you've added enough hardware to the A4000 to make it
>>usable as a UNIX workstation (a video card and SCSI card, in addition to the
>>rest mentioned above), Commdore's costs for the system make it impossible for
>>them to undercut anybody in the low-end UNIX workstation market.
>
>Since when has it been their intention to compete directly with the Unix
>market ????

   With better graphics hardware and on-board SCSI, they could have.  
Apparently Commodore agrees that they have no chance in the Unix market now,
because they do not seem to have any plans for it whatsoever.

>matt.

---
| Marc Barrett -MB-  |  email: barrett@iastate.edu
--------------------------------------------------
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy
From: gblock@csd4.csd.uwm.edu (Gregory R Block)
Subject: Re: Unreal demo!
Organization: University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee
Date: Mon, 7 Sep 1992 19:20:38 GMT

nan@matt.ksu.ksu.edu (Nan Zou) writes:
: Apple's QuickTime format uses JPEG compression, and it works, how well is
: another matter.
: 
: This HAM8 mode is the one giving 256K pseduo true colors, right?  That's 18
: bits per pixel, not a whole lot less than 24 bpp, correct me if I'm wrong.

HAM8, by using 8-bits per pixel, simulates 18 bits per pixel, just as
HAM simulates 12.  It takes far less bandwidth and is far more usable.
The other side of the die, however, says that artifacting, which can
be minimized, is possible.

Greg

--
(: (: (: (: Have you overdosed on smileys today?  Why NOT!?! :) :) :) :)
(:"...High adventure that's beyond compare, they are the Gummi Bears.":)
(:	gblock@csd4.csd.uwm.edu			Gregory R. Block      :)
(: (: (: (: (: (: (: (: (: (: (: (: (:) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :)
From: kent@swrinde.nde.swri.edu (Kent D. Polk)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy
Subject: Re: PC (OS/2) / Amiga debate -- hopefully a rational debate, an I an ideali
Date: 11 Sep 92 16:07:24 GMT
Organization: Southwest Research Institute, San Antonio, Texas

In article <1992Sep11.150828.19975@ra.msstate.edu> skip@tacky.cs.olemiss.edu (Skip Sauls) writes:
>In article <18pa3vINN8ep@pollux.usc.edu> addison@pollux.usc.edu (Richard Addison) writes:
>
>< lots of stuff deleted >
>
>Trivia Question : Where did the name Winchester come from?
>
>Clue : It does not refer to the Winchester Rifle.  For the longest 
>time I believed that there was something in the drives which was
>similar to the firing mechanism in a rifle.  :-)

Actually it did refer to a Winchester Rifle - the 30-30. You see, the first
drive of this type (forgot who made it) was placed in a combination 30MB
fixed/30MB removable drive unit. Thus '30-30'. It was a 'joke' which stuck.

Kent Polk: Southwest Research Institute
Internet : kent@swrinde.nde.swri.edu
UUCP     : $ {cs.utexas.edu, gatech!petro, sun!texsun}!swrinde!kent
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy
From: barrett@iastate.edu (Marc N Barrett)
Subject: Re: More AmigaWorld Lies
Organization: Iowa State University, Ames, IA
Date: Fri, 4 Sep 1992 23:09:30 GMT

In article <1992Sep4.045605.10294@unlinfo.unl.edu> summ50@cse.unl.edu () writes:
>barrett@iastate.edu (Marc N Barrett) writes:
>
>>In article <1992Sep3.193828.2070@unlinfo.unl.edu> summ50@cse.unl.edu () writes:
>>>Hmmmm....  Let me see.....   Computers 'R' Us in Lincoln is an Amiga dealer,
>>>and Double E Computers in Omaha is an Amiga dealer.....
>>>
>>>Gosh, that's already TWICE as many Nebraska Amiga dealers as you claim,
>>>Marc.
>>>
>>>(And, yes, I have even visited both of them recently, and they are both
>>>still around!)
>
>>   The guy who runs Computers 'R' Us has been forced so close to bankruptcy
>>that he has been running the dealership out of his HOUSE!!  I'm sorry to say
>>this, but he not qualify as a real dealer any more, since he does not even
>>have a storefront.
>
>>   It is also obvious that you have not been to Double E Computers lately.
>>I have.  Double E has shifted almost all of their efforts toward sales of 
>>HP products.  If you walk in and ask them anything related to Commodore or
>>the Amiga, they give you a look like you just walked into their store and
>>asked if they support Segas and Nintendos.  They are still officially an
>>Amiga dealer, but they don't stress it.
>
>>---
>>| Marc Barrett -MB-  |  email: barrett@iastate.edu
>>--------------------------------------------------
>
>That "guy" who owns Computers 'R' Us has a name--it's Roger.  And he has
>been running his business out of his house for at least 2 or 3 years...
>I don't think he is any closer to bankruptcy now than he was then...
>and just as real a dealership now than it has ever been...

   That's not what he said at the June meeting of AUoH.  The guy went on a
tear-jerking tirade about how he was being so heavily undercut by Tenex and
Grapevine that he was having trouble feeding his kids, and so on.  He started
practically BEGGING people to buy his stuff so that he could stay in business!
If having to resort to getting sales out of people by begging and pleading is
not called being on the edge of bankruptcy, I don't know what is.  And if he
really is not on the edge of bankruptcy, then Roger is a dishonest scum 
for trying to force charity purchases out of people when he doesn't absolutely
need them.

>/-----------------------------+---------------+-------------------///-------\  
>|    ___  __   ___  __   __   |               | Multitasking __  ///        |
>|   |    |  | |    |__   __|  |  Unsafe at    | my life      \\\///  Amiga  |
>|   |___ |__| |     __| |__|  |  any speed... | away !!!      \XX/   3000   |
>|-----------------------------+---------------+-----------------------------| 
>|    Eric Elliott            summ50@cse.unl.edu         GEnie: E.ELLIOTT7   |
>\---------------------------------------------------------------------------/
 
---
| Marc Barrett -MB-  |  email: barrett@iastate.edu
--------------------------------------------------
From: kcd@cbmvax.commodore.com (Ken Dyke - Amiga Networking)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy
Subject: Re: Way to go Commodore! Yeah...right.
Date: 14 Sep 92 01:38:22 GMT
Reply-To: kcd@cbmvax.commodore.com (Ken Dyke - Amiga Networking)
Organization: Commodore, West Chester, PA

In article <1992Sep13.204454.7061@microsoft.com> iank@microsoft.com (Ian Kennedy) writes:
>-- 
>/* IanK@Microsoft.com		*/
>/* The AA chips are here! Too bad they won't work in my A3000	*/
>/* Once again C= screws its entire user base. Way To Go!	*/
>/* Now I know how the A1000 owners felt. Oh well.		*/

Okay folks, this is getting out of hand.  I think it's time for a reality
check:

The A3000 was designed nearly two years ago, and the A500/A200 years before
that.  At that point C= didn't even have working AA silicon.  How can you
expect to just be able to plug'n play new chipsets every time one becomes
available?  I would have loved to upgrade my A1000 to A3000 status when
the A3000 bacame available.  I couldn't.  So, I bought an A3000, which I am
still paying for.  I would also like to upgrade my A3000 to the AA chipset,
but I can't.  That's life.  As technology advances, machines become obsolete.

That same thing applies to almost anything you purchase these days. A perfect
example of this is the automobile.  So that I buy a brand new car this year
for $15,000.  Then, only six months after I bought it, next year's model
comes out, but also has ABS and air-bags for no extra cost.  Is the auto
manufacturer obligated to let me upgrade my car? No.  Am I likely to go bitch
and complain because I can't upgrade? No. I can think of dozens of examples
of the exact same situation.

Would you guys like it if technology just sort of "froze" in it's current
current state forever?  Better yet we could all go back to caves and fur
skins. We wouldn't have to worry about things like new chipsets, upgrades,
etc.

BTW, Ian.  I consider your signature to be very unprofessional.  I'm sure you
wouldn't appreciate it if people working at other organizations placed
nasty comments about Microsoft in their .signature's.  

As always, these are my own opinions and not those of Commodre-Amiga, Inc.

-Ken


-- 
Kenneth Dyke                                  All of the above opinions are my
Commodore-Amiga Networking Group              own and not necessarily those of
email: kcd@cbmvax.commodore.com               my employer.

        "You'll get over it.  If not, you'll learn to live with it."
From: mbs@adastra.cvl.va.us (Michael B. Smith)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy
Subject: Re: A4000 Specs? Who knows.
Distribution: world
X-NewsSoftware: GRn 1.16f (beta) by Mike Schwartz & Michael B. Smith
Date: 7 Sep 92 11:03:41 EDT
Organization: Private UUCP Node

In article <mykes.0dg9@amiga0.SF-Bay.ORG> mykes@amiga0.SF-Bay.ORG (Mike Schwartz) writes:
> This is my ovservation, based upon 2 months of owning my PC clone...  Word
> for windows, which is bundled WITH windows, is functionally identical to
> ProWrite 3.2 with the following differences:
>
> 1.    ProWrite has a spell checker and thesaurus.
> 2.    ProWrite supports multicolumns
>
> That's IT.

Word for Windows does not come bundled with Windows (it costs $208 even with
our site license discount).

Write for Windows, does come bundled.

Word definitely has a spell-checker and support for multi-columns. I've never
had a need for a thesaurus, so I don't know if it is there or not.
--
  //   Michael B. Smith
\X/    mbs@adastra.cvl.va.us  -or-  uunet.uu.net!virginia.edu!adastra!mbs
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy
From: cpca@marlin.jcu.edu.au (Colin Adams)
Subject: Re: Enough AGA!  WANTED:  WRKBNCH2.1 SPEED INCREASE INFO!
Organization: James Cook University
Date: Mon, 14 Sep 92 06:33:19 GMT

In article <1992Sep13.233301.58851@cc.usu.edu> slbfn@cc.usu.edu writes:
>
>  Those are nice features, but what I am looking for is SPEED!
>  I am assuming (not to make an ass out of me and you or something)
>  that SOME code has been changed for better efficiency.  So, what
>  speed increase is there?  Any?  

asl.library is much faster.  Most of the speed increase is via
the 3.0 rom though.

>  Or is 2.1 just 2.04 with some
>  "extras" programs, a library, and new preference editors.

Yeah, that's about it.  Very useful if you live in a non-english
speaking country though.

>  And, when can I order 2.1?  And what cost?

Why do people ask these questions?  As soon as anybody knows, they'll
post the information.

>	Travis Carter

-- 
Colin Adams       Honours Student - James Cook University of North Queensland
  "And if I seem a little strange, well that's because I am." - The Smiths
From: seifert@gn.ecn.purdue.edu (Michael S. Seifert)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy
Subject: Re: Interlace video (Was Re: PC (OS/2) / Amiga debate)
Date: 7 Sep 92 19:49:05 GMT
Organization: Purdue University Engineering Computer Network

In article <+b3y23q@rpi.edu> danaf@rpi.edu writes:

>Could we please cut down on the random editing? This is the SECOND time I`ve
>had to send mail to sound like a complete moron.
>
>-- 
>/////////////////////////[[[[[[[[[[]]]]]]]]]]\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\
>(718)             (212)                        (516)             (518)
>=======Amiuser============Frank R. Dana, Jr.============Doc Ami=======     
>--------My opinions rarely reflect those of any sane person,----------
>	   living, dead, or undead... that's gonna CHANGE.


When you say things like this, you obviously dont need our help to sound like
the great dull one.

mike seifert, supra-genius
From: kevint@hpsad.sad.hp.com (Kevin Taddeucci)
Date: Mon, 14 Sep 1992 18:22:32 GMT
Subject: Re: aga chipset for amiga
Organization: HP Signal Analysis Division - Rohnert Park, CA
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy

Ok, here is the scoop I got a WOC on the possibility of an AA chipset 
upgrade for the A3000. Defiantly not possible. I asked both Peter Cherna 
and I believe it was Michael Sinz (correct me if I'm wrong Mike). I even 
specifically asked about the possibility of a card for the co-processor 
slot. Their answer was that it would not be possible as it would require 
to many jumpers to the mother board. 

Well, it looks like the only other alternative for us A2000 and A3000 
owners is DIG, so I asked Peter about this and he stated that 3.0 was 
created with DIG in mind but there was still some work to be done. 

       ----------------------------- ------------------------------------
      | Kevin J. Taddeucci          | e-mail: kevint@hpsad.sad.hp.com    |
      | Hewlett Packard Firmware QA | HPDesk: Kevin TADDEUCCI /HP5300/A0 |
      | Telnet: 794-4192            | HP Mailstop: 2LR-N                 | 
       ----------------------------- ------------------------------------

Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy