HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: skippy@jhunix.hcf.jhu.edu (Ian Chesterton)
Subject: Microsoft Word 4.0b14 error
Keywords: disk drive floppy error word microsoft
Organization: Benedict
Distribution: na
Date: Fri, 18 Dec 1992 21:14:42 GMT

Hi All,

  We have seen a number of errors crop up due to having faulty disk drives
  (your standard 3.5" FDHD).  We run Microsoft Word 4.0b14 on a variety of 
  macintoshes (compact and modular, system 6.0.7 and up).  The scenario is 
  as follows:

  User working from floppy using Word on local harddrive.
  User attempts to save file to floppy.  Word complains of a disk 
  error - doesn't save the file AND writes back asterixes "*" in 
  some sections of the file user is currently working on.  User
  is also unable to save file (using save as) to harddrive.  The more
  times they attempt to save, the more asterixes show up...

  Of course the good solution is to fix the disk drives, but during these last
  couple of class days it has been almost impossible to get in a repair.

  My question is, WHY IS THIS HAPPENING?  What possess Word to write these
  asterixes back into the current document?  And why can't Word successful
  save the file somewhere else, like on the harddrive?!

  Does Word finally have a version that does timed backups?  Last I checked,
  Word just prompted a user to "do a save" ... I realize that a healthy
  backup policy and saving-as-you-work should be canon, but the kids
  these days ... *grin*

  Anyways, if some soul out there has a solution/rationale for our Word 
  errors, please let me know!

--- Ian ---
skippy@jhunix.hcf.jhu.edu
-- 
"Sir ... I protest!  I am not a merry man!"
					   - Worf, Q-Pid
From: jmccombi@bbn.com (Jon McCombie)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.misc
Subject: PB->Ethernet sol'ns summary
Date: 18 Dec 1992 22:04:36 GMT
Organization: Bolt Beranek and Newman Inc., Cambridge MA
Distribution: world
Reply-To: jmccombi@bbn.com. (Jon McCombie)
NNTP-Posting-Host: bbn.com


Thank you to the several people who helped me out on this question with a
reply.  Your time is appreciated.  Here is a summary of the responses I
rec'd to my question "How should I connect my PowerBook to an Ethernet."

Several companies make boxes that connect your PowerBook to an Ethernet. 
You can use either the SCSI port or a serial port ("modem" or
"printer").  The price appears to be around $300-$400 plus MacTCP (about
$100 more, if you don't have it already).  The SCSI solution is usually
prefered because the serial port bandwidth is limited to somewhere
around 300 kbps; the theoretical limit on the SCSI is 5 Mbps. 
Considerations of other items you choose to hang off the SCSI port may
affect whether you want to do your Ethernet through SCSI or serial port.

Some specific comments:

Don't buy an Asante, "I've heard bad things about them."

If you haven't already bought the PowerBook, buy a PowerBook Duo, as it
is much more easily expandable.

Use the DaynaPort E/Z (for a serial port) or the Dayna SCSI Link 3PB. 
Both work fine.

Focus Technologies and Nuvolink (?) make boxes that seem to work OK.

The Daynaport E/Z "works fine for me."

The Asante box works but is slow, the commenter is not sure whether
this is because of PowerBook limitations or because the Ethernet box is
slow.

That about covers it.  Thanks to all that replied.

Jon
jmccombie@bbn.com
From: ifbb657@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu (Douglas Floyd)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.misc
Subject: Re: IIci is Great?? Was Re: Apple Crippling Systems?!?
Date: 15 Dec 92 23:32:33 GMT
Organization: The University of Texas at Austin, Austin TX

In article <Bz173u.486@news.cso.uiuc.edu> deguzman@after (A A DeGuzman) writes:
>droth@silver.ucs.indiana.edu (David Roth) writes:
>
>>What makes the IIci so much better than the machines being put out
>>now(non-powerbook, non-quadra?

It is debugged.  People know what works and does not work with a //ci.

>>Isn't the IIvx faster and have some nice features the IIci didn't?
>>What, besides the fact that it was revolutionary at the time, makes it
>>such a good machine _now_


>1) Even though the IIvx has 32-megahertz processor, the data bus is only 16
>megahertz, which slows the machine down to just-over IIci speeds.

I talked w/ someone who worked at MacLoser.  He said the vx is TOTALLY
32 bit.  Same w/ the Performa 600.  The P600 lacks the cache and the
80387 coprocessor.  Only the Classic II has a crippled bus.

>2) IIci's have a cache card slot, that for around $150, speed them up roughly
>25%, making it virtually equal to the IIvx. (Note that for the past year, all
>IIci's shipped with cached cards installed).

IIci's are the machine to get if you want compatibility with almost
all Mac software out there.  It does not need a (INIT?) to boot with,
like the P600 or the IIvx.  Sorry, not INIT, system enabler :-).

>3) IIci's have 8 simm slots; IIvx has 4.

True.  It has 4 MB built in on chips, and 4 slots.

PS:  In a couple of months, you will be able to do a MB swap to upgrade
to a Quadra 800, when it comes out.

The //ci is slower than the vx IMHO unless you do your simms correctly.
If you do not have 1MB in Bank A and whatever in Bank B, your performance
will slllloooooowwwwww down due to swapping.  The vx uses VRAM.

If I had to take a choice between the two, I will flip a coin.

My DM .02



-- 
              ifbb657@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu  (Douglas Floyd)
              Disclaimer:  I speak for myself

Windows NT is a great reason to leave your 486-66 EISA turned off.
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.misc,comp.sys.ibm.pc.misc,misc.invest
From: parkyn@fraser.sfu.ca (Dale Parkyn)
Subject: Re: History was made today...
Organization: Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, B.C., Canada
Date: Thu, 17 Dec 1992 16:18:02 GMT

hacker@access.digex.com (Dark Hacker) writes:

>dividend.  On the very same day, Apple Computer stock closed at 55
>points per share, 4 points higher than that of Big Blue.
*** Don't you wish you bought Apple a while back?
*** Don't you wish you had any money NOW to buy IBM?

>When the Apple Macintosh was first introduced, IBM derided this computer
>as "a toy" claiming that mice were too difficult for users to comprehend
*** The original Macintosh was 'useless'. That why it was quickly changed
*** to the 512K, 512Ke, Plus. Now you have something that is 'starting'
*** to become useful.

>But who's laughing now?  IBM is on the skids and scrambling to stay
>alive.  Apple Computer is experiencing record sales and revenues
>thanks to their new Powerbook computers.
*** Many companies are struggling to stay alive by changing products
*** to meet growing needs for power-use by users.

>institutions, IBM is suddenly finding it has to (gasp) compete and, if
>it learns its lesson at all, will have learned it too late.
*** IBM is such a varied product company. I suspect it knows how to
*** compete. Not everyone who competes is going to finish first in
*** everything they try.

Dale's opinion's are only opinions. They vary depending on when I last ate.
parkyn@sfu.ca

** Geez. I wish I had some money to invest in the stock of a company
   whose stock is at a LOW. You know - buy low sell high...
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.misc
Subject: Re: Soft_PC. How compatible is it?
From: kanala@sc2a.unige.ch
Date: 16 Dec 92 19:38:17 +0200
Organization: University of Geneva, Switzerland

>>
>>>Soft-PC was mentioned a number of times.  Although it's likely to be slow,
>>>just how compatible is it?  
>>
>>100%.
>>
>>>Do any users of Soft-PC have any comments?
>>
>>OK, I'm not a user I work for Insignia. But the emulation is solid.
> 
> Not true. An Apple systems engineer said that the low-level disk editing
> routine in Norton Utilities (the PC version) became confused when it saw raw
> Macintosh disks.
> 
> So make that 99.9999%.

About a year ago, I worked for a company where I have used SoftPC and SoftAT
on a Mac II, then on a Mac II fx. On the fx, the Norton benchmark was about
8.6 to 8.8 (1=PC XT), and the emulation in version 2.3 was solid. It ran all
the programs I have tried, even programs I wrote in dark ages on a IBM AT
(Ryan-McFarlan Fortran, MS Fortran).
However, it may have problems with some MS-DOS development environments
like Borland Turbo Pascal when attempting to write directly to screen pixels
and such wild things.
Otherwise, the emulation is splendid, it has Extended Memory, can run Windows,
and even emulates the kch-kch IBM startup sound for nostalgic users...

Roman Kanala, COMIN, University of Geneva, Switzerland, kanala@sc2a.unige.ch
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.misc,comp.sys.mac.advocacy,comp.sys.mac.system,comp.sys.mac.hardware
From: wondertr@fraser.sfu.ca (wondertree learning center)
Subject: Re: Mac & IBM Info (added Info)
Organization: Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, B.C., Canada
Distribution: na
Date: Mon, 14 Dec 1992 17:22:06 GMT

Responding to the question of if any basic Macs support 24-bit color
(or 32-bit for that matter)
 ... the anwser is a resounding YES!!!
 
BOTH models of the Quadra line support 24-bit color with their built-in
displays... on either 14" or 16" inch monitors and 16-bit color on the 21".
 
As to wether or not MACs support for 24/32-bit color is built in ...
every try opening a 24-bit TIFF file on a PC with only an 8-bit card
you can't do it (at least with programs I've used) but you can with any
MAC beacuse the Color QuickDraw handle the conversion for you...
THAT's BUILT-IN!!!!
 
TED

Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.misc
From: erics@sco.COM (eric smith)
Subject: Mac Postscript to Unix file?
Organization: The Santa Cruz Operation, Inc.
Distribution: comp
Date: Mon, 14 Dec 1992 22:07:47 GMT


Can anyone suggest a method for transferring a Postscript file from
a Mac IIci to a Unix system, preferably by serial (modem) connection?
I have the PS output of a WriteNow file on my Mac, and I want to
transfer it to a Unix system where it can be printed on a PS printer.
The Unix system has xmodem and kermit, but not zmodem apparently.
I was unable to transfer the raw file using either xmodem or kermit.
However I was able to uuencode the file with UUTool, then transfer it
with kermit, but the resulting uudecoded file seemed to be mostly garbage.
Please help. Thanks.

-----
Eric Smith
erics@sco.com
erics@infoserv.com
CI$: 70262,3610

Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.misc
From: Jon Gotow <gotow@ansoft.com>
Subject: Re: MAC emulators on unix?
X-Xxdate: Thu, 17 Dec 92 06:13:30 GMT
Organization: Ansoft Corporation
X-Useragent: Nuntius v1.1.1d13
Date: Thu, 17 Dec 1992 06:15:41 GMT

In article <1992Dec16.161953.13720@mcs.kent.edu> Stephen Scott,
sscott@mcs.kent.edu writes:
>Has anyone heard anything about LIKEN - this claims to be a macintosh
>emulation environment for unix systems.  I found it in a SUN World ad
>by a company called Andataco.  However, the "fine print" at the bottom
>of the page says - "Liken is a trademark of Xcelerated Systems Inc." 
>So I assume that Andataco is the marketing firm.

I've got a demo copy of Liken coming this week (I hope).  They faxed
me their compatibility list and it looks pretty good (though DeltaGraph
Pro doesn't run on it).  It can only run System 6.0.7 right now, but 
they told me that it should be up to System 7 and run in color this
spring (I'm trying to get on their beta list for the next release).

________________________________________________________________________
Jon Gotow            |   "Do not free a camel of the burden of his hump;
Ansoft Corporation   |    you may be freeing him from being a camel."
gotow@ansoft.com     |                       - G. K. Chesterton
Xref: sparky comp.sys.mac.misc:20596 comp.sys.mac.hardware:24053
From: rcamama@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu (Robert Camama)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.misc,comp.sys.mac.hardware
Subject: Getting a Mac + to record solar cell performance?
Date: 14 Dec 92 16:56:46 GMT
Followup-To: comp.sys.mac.misc
Organization: The University of Texas at Austin, Austin TX


	I have a little problem that I need to use a Mac to resolve, but
I am in need of ideas to carry to get started.  The problem involves testing
some solar cells.... 


	The cell testing is to match cells together for mounting on the
University of Texas Sunrayce '93 entry, the Texas Native Sun.  The car
is getting a substantial revamping from now until qualifying trials 
in April 1993, a revamping that includes a batch of new solar cells
to mount on the car as a primary energy source for the car.  All I
need now is a means of

	1)  Sweeping thru a given cell's I-V characteristics, from
		(V,I) at short circuit to (V,I) at open circuit,
	2)  A means of recording the results of the I-V sweep, and
	3)  A means of automatically determining the fill factor
		from the data obtained from #1.
	
	My budget is presently under $300 (a hobbyist's budget) but
I might be able to push for more.  Right now, I have a Mac+ readily
available for recording data, but little else.  I have been wondering 
about the possibility of creating an interface that uses both serial
ports for the sole purpose of recording current and voltage (I'd 
go try my hand at commercial control cards and an A-D converter, but
I'd need to talk the project's faculty supervisor into agreeing to 
fund the endeavor.  I have doubts as to wether I could succeed in convincing
him...)
Any Ideas, published or otherwise?

Thanx in advance,
R. Camama
From: dws@menlo.cadre.com (David W. Smith)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.misc
Subject: Re: OK to pass diskette through airport X-ray?
Date: 17 Dec 92 19:01:56 GMT
Article-I.D.: menlo.1992Dec17.190156.12058
Organization: Cadre Technologies Inc., Menlo Park Operation

In article <1992Dec17.055403.2955@CSD-NewsHost.Stanford.EDU> Chen-Kuang Yu
asks about passing diskettes through airport security.

I keep a diskette in the back of my personal organizer, and pass it through
airport security fairly often.  My experience has been that after about
six months of life in the binder, which includes roughly 20 passes through
_domestic_ x-ray security machines and lots of temperature fluctuation abuse,
a diskette will go bad.  The diskette also visits a variety of Macs, whose
drive heads may not have been cleaned in a while, so there are lots of possible
sources of contamination.  I doubt that X-rays are the primary culprit.

I've heard that some x-ray machines outside of the U.S. use substantially
higher doses.

-- 
Dave Smith, Cadre Technologies Inc. - Database Tools Division
4500 Bohannon Drive, Suite 150, Menlo Park, CA  94025
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.misc
From: bskendig@netcom.com (Brian Kendig)
Subject: Scrolling text makes bursts of static on my radio -- HUH?!
Organization: Starfleet Headquarters: San Francisco
Date: Sun, 20 Dec 1992 19:46:40 GMT

Okay, this is a *really* weird one...

I have a Mac IIvx running 7.1.  A little over a meter to the left of
it I have a JVC PC-V88 stereo radio and dual tape deck that has
absolutely nothing to do with the computer whatsoever.

When any text in any window on my Mac scrolls, I get a very short
burst of static over my radio speakers.  This happens if I type past
the bottom of a TextEdit window and make it scroll up a line, or arrow
past the top or bottom of the window, or click on the scroll bar
arrows or above/below the thumb.  If I hold one of the scroll bar
arrows down, then I get repeated short bursts of static.

This is annoying, but also very very intriguing.  What could my
computer possibly be doing when it scrolls text that it is not doing
at any other time?  And why would this be interfering with my radio
reception?!?

-- 
_/_/_/  Brian Kendig                             Je ne suis fait comme aucun
/_/_/  bskendig@netcom.com                de ceux que j'ai vus; j'ose croire
_/_/                            n'etre fait comme aucun de ceux qui existent.
  /  Nolite te bastardes     Si je ne vaux pas mieux, au moins je suis autre.
 /    carborundorum.                                             -- Rousseau
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.misc
From: pw4963@sarah.albany.edu (Peter G. White)
Subject: Powerbook 100 hd desktop mounting
Organization: State University of New York at Albany
Date: Sat, 19 Dec 92 02:44:30 GMT

What is needed to mount a pb100's hard drive on a desktop mac.  I called
macconnection and they told me I would need a cable, adaptor, and a terminator
which would run about $100.  I thought all that was needed was a hdi-30
25 pin SCSI cable?  What's the deal?

-Peter

_______________________________________________________________________________
Peter White                                Internet:pw4963@uacsc1.albany.edu
State Univ. of New York at Albany          Bitnet:pw4963@albnyvms
_______________________________________________________________________________
From: watanabe@cs.uiuc.edu (Larry Watanabe)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.misc
Subject: Re: History was made today...
Date: 20 Dec 92 17:42:41 GMT
Article-I.D.: cs.BzKJv6.ECI
Organization: University of Illinois, Dept. of Comp. Sci., Urbana, IL

wats@scicom.AlphaCDC.COM (Bruce Watson) writes:

>In article <parkyn.724609082@sfu.ca| parkyn@fraser.sfu.ca (Dale Parkyn) writes:
>|hacker@access.digex.com (Dark Hacker) writes:
>|
>|*** Don't you wish you had any money NOW to buy IBM?
>|
>That's a 65 percent drop since its high in 1987 which is about as low
>as things can get. The problem is that it may take quite a while
>to rise.

I don't know enough about how to analyze IBM to tell if it 
is really low or not. In Barron's, it reports:

"A money manager we know who did short IBM - in the 80s - and covered
too soon - 60 (he's a nice fellow but suffers from an
atrocious lack of greed) - is still skeptical of the stock.
He expects the dividend to be cut in half and points out that
means the shares at 48 or so would be yielding 5%, hardly
enough in his book to support a stock that may at best
earn $2.50-$3 next year. He doesn't see why IBM should
sell at more than 10 times earnings."

What is this money manager saying?

Earnings $2.50-$3, P/E = 10, price = $25-$30, 
Earnings $2.75,    P/E = 10 price =  $27.50

He is saying there is no reason why IBM should sell
for more than $25-$30.

Pretty frightening.
I think this is a little too pessimistic.

Let's accept the earnings forecast of $2.50-$3

Looking at some comparable P/E ratios in the computer industry,

Amdahl:			8
Apple:			13
Atari:			5
Commodore:		5
Compaq:			20
Dell:			20
Hewlett Packard: 	19

I would say that IBM is not as bad as Amdahl, because it 
has more R & D and a lot of resources.
A more reasonable comparison might be a company like Apple. 

Earnings $2.50-$3, P/E = 13, price = $32.50-$39
Earnings $2.75,    P/E = 13 price =  $35.75

So, IBM could get a lot lower according to this probably
flawed analysis. Maybe someone with more skill/knowledge 
at this sort of thing could provide a better estimate.

But, I think it would definitely be dangerous to buy
IBM on the grounds that "it is about as low as it can get".

-Larry Watanabe watanabe@cs.uiuc.edu
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.misc
From: leonardr@netcom.com (Leonard Rosenthol)
Subject: Re: MAC emulators on unix?
Organization: Netcom Online Communications Services (408-241-9760 login: guest)
Date: Fri, 18 Dec 1992 05:26:27 GMT

In article <74600003@hpl-otis.hpl.hp.com> blalock@hpl-otis.hpl.hp.com (Travis Blalock) writes:
>In comp.sys.mac.misc, leonardr@netcom.com (Leonard Rosenthol) writes:
>
>> [ my comments about programs that are resource compressed]
>>
>
>I don't understand this.  Why is this more difficult than any other part
>of the emulation?  
>
	It isn't conceptually more difficult at all...

>Once the emulation of a target platform is complete,
>anything else is irrelevant.  
>
	That's true, IF the emulation were complete.

>For instance, the current version of Liken
>emulates a Mac Classic.  i.e.  Software that runs on it has the same
>resources available that would be available on the Mac Classic.  If the
>emulation of the target platform is 100% then any thing that runs on the
>Mac Classic will run on the emulator.  Of course, the emulation is not
>quite 100% so there are some incompatibilities.  
>
	There are two issues in terms of "completeness" - one is that ALL
of the routines on the original platform are implemented, the second is that
they are implemented fully, including all known bugs..

>What is it about "resource compressed" products that would
>fall outside of this model? 
>
	Well, it turns out that resource compressors uses a low level hook
that has existed since the Mac128K, but that was never publically documented
in Inside Mac.  It is used by the Resource Manager itself, but companies that
do emulators can't find that out, since that would fall under that grey area
of "reverse engineering".

	So this means that this particular routine is not implemented on the
emulator and so the software crashes.  This is a case of imcomplete 
implementation.  I would assume that they may be able to support this in the
future, IF Apple choose to official document this (and other) information.
 
-- 
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Leonard Rosenthol			Internet: 	leonardr@netcom.com
Director of Advanced Technology		AppleLink:	MACgician
Aladdin Systems, Inc.			GEnie:		MACgician

Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.misc,comp.sys.mac.hardware
From: coburnn@spot.Colorado.EDU (COBURN  NICHOLAS SCO)
Subject: Results of Outbound going out of business sale
Organization: University of Colorado, Boulder
Date: Fri, 18 Dec 1992 22:09:50 GMT


Just got back from Outbound's going out of business sale here in
Boulder, Colorado.  

I guess the strangest thing about it was that there were probably
5 Outbound computers for sale, and at least 75 Macs!

Even stranger is that people were paying about $2000 for the few
Outbound notebook computers that were available.  I think that 
price is outrageous considering that they come with no warranty,
or serviceability (is that a word?) whatsoever.  

Just goes to show that maybe Macs were not meant to be cloned.

BTW, the sale is going on thru Saturday for those interested.

Nick
From: leonardr@netcom.com (Leonard Rosenthol)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.misc
Subject: Re: MAC emulators on unix?
Date: 17 Dec 92 17:05:15 GMT
Organization: Netcom Online Communications Services (408-241-9760 login: guest)

In article <BzE426.6uo@ansoft.com> Jon Gotow <gotow@ansoft.com> writes:
>In article <1992Dec16.161953.13720@mcs.kent.edu> Stephen Scott,
>sscott@mcs.kent.edu writes:
>>Has anyone heard anything about LIKEN - this claims to be a macintosh
>>emulation environment for unix systems.  I found it in a SUN World ad
>>by a company called Andataco.  However, the "fine print" at the bottom
>>of the page says - "Liken is a trademark of Xcelerated Systems Inc." 
>>So I assume that Andataco is the marketing firm.
>
	I haven't actually used LIKEN, but it and all of the others 
emulators have a problem that will be hard for them to overcome, and that's
supporting "resource compressed" products.  This includes, but is not limited
to: System 7, ResEdit, MORE, Norton Utils, Public Utils, StuffIt (Lite/Deluxe
and Expander), all Salient/FGS products and the list goes on...

-- 
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Leonard Rosenthol			Internet: 	leonardr@netcom.com
Director of Advanced Technology		AppleLink:	MACgician
Aladdin Systems, Inc.			GEnie:		MACgician
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.misc