HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: gmarfoe@eng.auburn.edu (Gerald George Marfoe)
Subject: CU-Boulder's Mac Educational Prices Compared with Auburn's
Keywords: IPO prices, CU-Boulder, Auburn 
Reply-To: gmarfoe@eng.auburn.edu
Organization: Auburn University Engineering
Date: Fri, 11 Sep 1992 08:58:36 GMT

(Sorry if this is a repeated posting - the other Sun died on me while I
was posting this.)

Here's a very late followup to this posting on Mac prices this fall at
CU-Boulder. I'm a CU graduate myself, so I thought I'd post the prices
here at Auburn for comparison. Auburn University doesn't own the store
that sells the Macs, but has a contract with the local Apple dealer in
Auburn instead.

I've inserted the prices from the Apple Computer Higher Education Purchase
Program Individual Purchase Option (IPO) Product List, effective from 
August 17, 1992 through October 15, 1992.

>From buckc@ucsu.Colorado.EDU (Carolyn Buck-Gengler)
>Subject: Re: New BackToSchool Prices?
>Date: Wed, 5 Aug 1992 16:56:29 GMT

>The Univerity of Colorado's Buffalo Chip *finally* announced their
>back-to-school sales prices yesterday (the 4th); they are the
>highest of any I've seen posted.  One person there told me last week
>they get a 15-20% markup.  Also, the soonest I'd t\get one (if I
>order today) is "*hopefully* 3-4 weeks".  Still, for the price, I'm
>about to go order one.


                                                     CU-Boulder  Auburn
The prices here:                                      
K0129LL/A  Macintosh Classic II 4MB Hard Disk 40 CPU	1019       919
K0130LL/A  Macintosh Classic II 4MB Hard Disk 80 CPU	1129      1032
K0131LL/A  Macintosh LC II 4MB Hard Disk 40 CPU   	1129      1032
K0132LL/A  Macintosh LC II 4MB Hard Disk 80 CPU   	1279      1144
K0133LL/A  Macintosh IIsi 3MB Hard Disk 40 CPU   	1399      1260
K0134LL/A  Macintosh IIsi 5MB Hard Disk 80 CPU  	1649      1479
K0135LL/A  Macintosh PowerBook 145 4MB Hard Disk 40 	1909      1744

>all of the above have the "student aid package" preinstalled; same
>set of software described by someone else earlier; no hard copy
>manuals, documentation online only.   
>no Word (Berkeley apparently had Word on it as well)
>the typical ones that don't include keyboard don't here either.

I wonder how much of a markup the Buffalo Chip had on the SE that I bought
from them four years ago. It cost me $2098.00 during their "InCider" Sale. :-(
---

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gerald G. Marfoe                    |"Mirabile visu. Mirabilia/Et itur ad astra
InterNet: gmarfoe@eng.auburn.edu    |... Suus cuique mos. Suum cuique.../
          ggmar@ducvax.auburn.edu   |Memento, terrigena./Memento, vita brevis."
          ggmar@hoshi.colorado.edu  |- "Afer Ventus", Enya, "Shepherd Moons"
From: grabenst@umbc4.umbc.edu (Mr. Michael Grabenstein; ACS (GUEST))
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.misc
Subject: Silk Screening and Embroidery (Q)
Date: 16 Sep 92 02:17:55 GMT
Organization: Univ. of MD, Baltimore County


	Is anyone using a mac to separate colors for some
sort of slide production used in silk screening?? The separation
is done so there is some sort of blending that takes place when
the picture is printed. Any one know the hardware/software for the
mac that would do this?

	Also Embroidery (sp?) is something else we are looking at.
A program that would take a digitization and figure out where the 
stiches go and produce a file for the automatic sewing machines???


	Please e-mail me.


Later,
	Mike
	ZMEG@AACC.bitnet
	or grabenst@umbc3.umbc.edu

ps - Yes the vi list is forth comming, probably will be posted
here since there is no way I can mail to all of the people who
have responded. :)
}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{
The universe -- The ultimate fractal. 
	--Personal theroy
From: ostroff@Oswego.EDU (Boyd Ostroff)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.misc
Subject: Re: Poll on Educational Discount
Date: 13 Sep 92 14:34:56 GMT
Reply-To: ostroff@oswego.Oswego.EDU (Boyd Ostroff)
Organization: Instructional Computing Center, SUNY at Oswego, Oswego, NY

In article <1992Sep12.182537.29164@gn.ecn.purdue.edu> jonkatz@gn.ecn.purdue.edu (Jonathan W. Katz) writes:
>
>Quite simply, how long did it take for you to get your computer?

I'm taking a poll of everybody who has eaten at McDonalds: quite simply how
long did it take for your order to be ready? :-)

Seriously, what kind of useful response do you expect from such a general
question?  It depends completely on when and where you order, the availability
of the model in question and (no doubt) lots of other factors.  When I got
a IIcx several years ago it took a little over a week.  I remember a time
about 4 or 5 years back when there was a 6 to 8 week wait on Mac Plusses.
Las year I know people who ordered Classics and got them in a couple days.

.............................................................................
....Boyd Ostroff / Technical Director / SUNY Oswego Department of Theatre....
...............Voice: (315) 341-2987 /  Fax: (315) 341-3394..................
..............ostroff@oswego.oswego.edu / ostroff@cboard.UUCP................
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.misc
From: ednstras@kraken.itc.gu.edu.au (Michael Strasser)
Subject: System extensions clash?
Organization: ITC, Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia
Date: 11 Sep 92 03:53:12 GMT

We are having great problems with a machine here.  It is a IIfx with 8MB
running System Z-7.0.1 with tune-up.

We suspect clashes between some third-party extensions but crashes and other
symptoms are not consistent and difficult to pin down.  Example problems are:
whacky screen behaviour in Word 5.0 (these don't happen when the system is
booted without extensions); crashes at various stages during startup,
sometimes in the Finder.

One principal suspect (we're checking all of them) is MultiClip, which we
have in version 2.1.7.A.  We are also running Norton Backup Scheduler,
Norton FileSaver and RemvInit (for a PLI drive).

Does anyone know of any clashes between any of these extensions?

Thanks in advance,

-- 
Mike Strasser                       Internet: M.Strasser@edn.gu.edu.au.
Faculty of Education                Fidonet:  3:640/308.2@fidonet
Griffith University
Brisbane, Australia
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.misc
From: Glen.Stewart@f175.n2240.z1.ieee.org (Glen Stewart)
Subject: RE: Info on a program named "NewsWatcher" for the Mac
Organization: FidoNet node 1:2240/175 - The Associati, Grand Blanc MI
Date: Sun, 13 Sep 1992 21:06:29 GMT

I have NewsWatcher here.  Feel free to call anytime.

--  
=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=
 Glen Stewart - Internet: Glen.Stewart@f175.n2240.z1.ieee.org
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.misc,comp.sys.mac.wanted
From: Peter Purgathofer <purgi@iguwnext.tuwien.ac.at>
Subject: Re: Wanted: handwritten font (a little urgent...)
X-Xxmessage-Id: <A6D0FB5E7C01B604@berlin.tuwien.ac.at>
X-Xxdate: Mon, 7 Sep 92 12: 28:14 GMT
Organization: Institute for Assessment and Design of Technology
X-Useragent: Nuntius v1.1.1d9
Date: Mon, 7 Sep 1992 10:27:46 GMT

Thanx everybody, who has emailed me (or answered here...). I have found a
(very!) suitable font for my needs (Dupuy from the umich mac-archive). 
So --->   :) :) :)
From: werner@rascal.ics.utexas.edu (Werner Uhrig)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.misc
Subject: what to do with a uuencoded AppleSingle file emailed from AppleLink?
Date: 11 Sep 1992 00:52:35 -0500
Organization: UTexas Mail-to-News Gateway
Reply-To: werner@rascal.ics.utexas.edu (Werner Uhrig)
NNTP-Posting-Host: cs.utexas.edu


I received in email from AppleLink a file described as a uuencoded AppleSingle
file, a document of  Image Press  application type (?).

I have not yet found a way to view those files; trying to convert the
uuencoded file back into some usable format with available UNIX or Mac
utilities did not succeed.   UUDECODE on the UNIX side and a binary down-
load followed by an attempt to use MacBinary failed (no big surprise there).

For a moment, I thought I had found a solution, when after downloading
the uuencoded file and dropping it on UULite 1.3 to convert it, a file
with a GIFconverter icon was created; but double-clicking resulted in
an error message from GIFconverter: "wrong format"...
Suggestions, anyone?
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.misc
From: gmarfoe@eng.auburn.edu (Gerald George Marfoe)
Subject: CU-Boulder Mac Educational Prices Compared to Auburn's
Followup-To: New BackToSchool Prices?
Keywords: IPO prices, CU-Boulder, Auburn
Reply-To: gmarfoe@eng.auburn.edu
Organization: Auburn University Engineering
Date: Fri, 11 Sep 1992 08:41:54 GMT

Here's a very late followup to this posting on Mac prices this fall at
CU-Boulder. I'm a CU graduate myself, so I thought I'd post the prices
here at Auburn for comparison. Auburn University doesn't own the store
that sells the Macs, but has a contract with the local Apple dealer in
Auburn instead.

I've inserted the prices from the Apple Computer Higher Education Purchase
Program Individual Purchase Option (IPO) Product List, effective from 
August 17, 1992 through October 15, 1992.

>From buckc@ucsu.Colorado.EDU (Carolyn Buck-Gengler)
>Subject: Re: New BackToSchool Prices?
>Date: Wed, 5 Aug 1992 16:56:29 GMT

>The Univerity of Colorado's Buffalo Chip *finally* announced their
>back-to-school sales prices yesterday (the 4th); they are the
>highest of any I've seen posted.  One person there told me last week
>they get a 15-20% markup.  Also, the soonest I'd t\get one (if I
>order today) is "*hopefully* 3-4 weeks".  Still, for the price, I'm
>about to go order one.


                                                     CU-Boulder  Auburn
The prices here:                                      
K0129LL/A  Macintosh Classic II 4MB Hard Disk 40 CPU	1019       919
K0130LL/A  Macintosh Classic II 4MB Hard Disk 80 CPU	1129      1032
K0131LL/A  Macintosh LC II 4MB Hard Disk 40 CPU   	1129      1032
K0132LL/A  Macintosh LC II 4MB Hard Disk 80 CPU   	1279      1144
K0133LL/A  Macintosh IIsi 3MB Hard Disk 40 CPU   	1399      1260
K0134LL/A  Macintosh IIsi 5MB Hard Disk 80 CPU  	1649      1479
K0135LL/A  Macintosh PowerBook 145 4MB Hard Disk 40 	1909      1744

>all of the above have the "student aid package" preinstalled; same
>set of software described by someone else earlier; no hard copy
>manuals, documentation online only.   
>no Word (Berkeley apparently had Word on it as well)
>the typical ones that don't include keyboard don't here either.

I wonder how much of a markup the Buffalo Chip had on the SE that I bought
from them four years ago. It cost me $2098.00 during their "InCider" Sale. :-(

---

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gerald G. Marfoe                    |"Mirabile visu. Mirabilia/Et itur ad astra
InterNet: gmarfoe@eng.auburn.edu    |... Suus cuique mos. Suum cuique.../
          ggmar@ducvax.auburn.edu   |Memento, terrigena./Memento, vita brevis."
          ggmar@hoshi.colorado.edu  |- "Afer Ventus", Enya, "Shepherd Moons"

Xref: sparky comp.sys.mac.misc:16317 comp.sys.mac.wanted:8280 comp.editors:2190
From: vanover@bcsaic.boeing.com (Jann VanOver)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.misc,comp.sys.mac.wanted,comp.editors
Subject: Re: good vi editor for the mac
Date: 9 Sep 92 17:36:56 GMT
Organization: Boeing Computer Services AI Center, Seattle

In article <1992Sep8.210501.2783@cucbs.chem.columbia.edu> pollard@cucbs.chem.columbia.edu (Tom Pollard) writes:
>bell@teal.csn.org (Bell Scott) writes:
>
>>pollard@cucbs.chem.columbia.edu (Tom Pollard) writes:
>>> somebody (?)  writes:
>>> >I want a good vi . . . for the mac.
>>> 
>>> .................................  There are a lot of things that are much
>>> easier to do in a good mainframe editor, like vi and especially emacs, than
>>> in a standard Mac 'word processor'.
>>
>>
>>	To Tom:  Just what can't you do in MSWord 5.0 that you can do in emacs?
>>

EXCUSE ME - but can you please take this all somewhere else? 

If someone has an answer to the original question -- "a good vi editor
for the mac" please answer it.  Otherwise - take it to
comp.editor.religious.wars.

-- 
---------------------------------------------------------------------
VanOver@atc.boeing.com
       "Why don't y'all go home?"     Bette Davis in The Little Foxes
---------------------------------------------------------------------
From: tjfs@tadtec.uucp (Tim Steele)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.misc
Subject: Re: Powerbook 100 discontinued
Date: 8 Sep 92 23:01:09 GMT
Organization: Tadpole Technology plc

In article <Z2RiqB1w165w@mantis.co.uk> mathew@mantis.co.uk (mathew) writes:

   "Apple has dropped two of its best-selling Powerbook models, just a year
   after their inception [...] The Powerbook 100 and 140 are out; the latter has
   been replaced by the 145 [...]

   "News of the Powerbook 100's discontinuation was a surprise to many Apple
   dealers, because of the model's enormous popularity.  'We've taken the last
   150 and are confident we can clear the stock,' said Robert Green, technical
   director at Apple dealer KRCS Sams Group."

			    -- PC Dealer, September 2nd.

   Well, looks like it's yet another case of "Apple shoots self in foot".  I'm
   glad I bought mine in time.

Goodness me, a man with good taste in computers as well!

Where did you get yours?  What sort?  

I'm on the point of buying one, but with the bizarre distribution in
the US it's hard to find the best price & availability.

Tim
From: fj05+@andrew.cmu.edu (Faisal Nameer Jawdat)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.misc
Subject: Re: MACS COST TOO MUCH (NOT!)
Date: 9 Sep 92 05:42:18 GMT
 <ewright.714845483@convex.convex.com> <1992Aug27.202129.12780@CS.ORST.EDU>    
 <ewright.714954330@convex.convex.com> <92241.112023ASI509@DJUKFA11.BITNET>  
 <la4tfoINN43d@appserv.Eng.Sun.COM> <922 <ajro
Organization: Sophomore, Physics, Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA

Edward V. Wright:
not just unaware!
abusive, too!
where's that stupid 'kill' menu function...
bye bye
From: rgoldstone@OAVAX.CSUCHICO.EDU (Robin, Girl Wonder)
Subject: Re: Mac Mail Systems: Which one to choose?
Reply-To: rgoldstone@OAVAX.CSUCHICO.EDU
Organization: California State University, Chico
Date: Tue, 15 Sep 1992 15:03:24 GMT

In article <1992Sep14.041357.4174@trl.oz.au>, ssuther@brahma.trl.OZ.AU (S. Sutherland) writes:
>
>I understood that the forthcoming release of Microsoft Mail for PC
>networks (v3.0) also included a Macintosh client that worked 'directly'
>with MSmail (assuming a common network platform like Novell).
>
>Am I right or wrong?

That is what I have heard from Microsoft.  My impression from MS is that
all future mail efforts will be on the PC platform, with a client for the Mac.
At first I was kinda disappointed that they were "abandoning" the Mac mail
platform, which we have been using since it first came out.  But the more
I think about it, I don't really care what platform the server is on, as
long as the Mac client is nice.  The latest release of PC Mail has some
really nice features.  If they match those features in the Mac client, then
I'll still be happy with Microsoft Mail.
***********************************************************************
Robin Goldstone, Systems Software Specialist
California State University, Chico  Computing Services
rgoldstone@oavax.csuchico.edu
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.misc,comp.sys.mac.apps,comp.sys.mac.system
From: sjk6119@ritvax.isc.rit.edu (Scott J. Kleper)
Subject: QuickTime and SuperCard/HyperCard
Reply-To: sjk6119@ritvax.isc.rit.edu
Organization: Rochester Institute of Technology
Date: Fri, 4 Sep 1992 15:15:33 GMT

> I just got SuperCard yesterday, and I was expecting something a little      
> closer to hypercard. I do have the HyperCard XCMD's for QuickTime, but      
> I'm not sure how to use them with SuperCard. I tried importing them,        
> and that didn't work. I even tried copying them to a HyperCard stack,       
> and then translating that to SuperCard, but then how would I make a 
> button to play a movie. The QT tools stack doesn't recognize the 
> SuperCard stack with the resources as being a hypercard stack! I know
> that there are scripting commands to play a movie, but they seem too
> confusing. Could somebody help me or simplify those scripting 
> commands?
> 
> One more thing. I was trying to use Wild Magic instead. Some QT mooV's
> would copy and paste, but others wouldn't. Do they have to be 160X120?
> Is 2.0 the latest version of Wild Magic? Thanks in advance.

-Scott J. Kleper
sjk6119@ritvax.isc.rit.edu

p.s. sorry about the weird format, I don't know what the hell is going on.
Xref: sparky comp.sys.mac.misc:16383 comp.sys.ibm.pc.misc:12507 comp.sys.amiga:255
From: erh0362@tesla.njit.edu (Elliotte Rusty Harold)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.misc
Subject: Re: Conway's "Life" for the Mac
Date: 5 Sep 92 22:33:25 GMT
Organization: New Jersey Institute of Technology

In article <5131@news.duke.edu>, jfw@neuro.duke.edu (John F. Whitehead) writes:
> Does anyone have a version of "Life" for the Mac (the program inspired
> by John Conway)?  I can't find any in the usual ftp locations.
> 
> Thanks!
> 
> -- 
>  ________________________________________________________________________
> |   John      jfw@neuro.duke.edu          Duke University Medical Center |
> | Whitehead   jfw@well.sf.ca.us           Department of Neurobiology     |
> |________________________________________ Durham, North Carolina ________|


	There is no such thing currently available as far as I know.  However I 
have been working on such thing off and on for the last year or two and
I have an ALMOST fully functional version that I could send to you if you
really, really want it.  Printing currently only works in faster or best 
mode on the ImageWriter and there are no print dialogs, just what appears to 
be a hung Macintosh while the computer thinks about printing and spools the 
file off to the printer.  Also one of the mouse tracking loops isn't as tight 
as it should be, and there's no way to force a straight line to be drawn.  
Finally I was hoping to write up a decent set of docs 
and clean up the code before releasing it.
Version 1.0 should be out "Real Soon Now."  

Elliotte Rusty Harold		Department of Mathematics
elharo@m.njit.edu		New Jersey Institute of Technology
erh0362@tesla.njit.edu		Newark, NJ 07102
From: rbhumbla@ucsd.edu (Ravinder Bhumbla)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.misc
Subject: Re: LaTeX
Date: 15 Sep 92 17:03:11 GMT
	<Mike_Peters-140992055221@kohlsranch.az.stratus.com>
	<15SEP199208120784@oregon.uoregon.edu>
Reply-To: rbhumbla@ucsd.edu (Ravinder Bhumbla)
Followup-To: comp.sys.mac.misc
Distribution: usa
Organization: Aerospace Structures Lab, AMES Dept, UC San Diego
NNTP-Posting-Host: harpo.ucsd.edu
In-reply-to: npreyer@oregon.uoregon.edu's message of 15 Sep 92 15:12:00 GMT

npreyer@oregon.uoregon.edu (Norris Preyer) writes:

# There is a good PD TeX: OzTeX is on all the major TeX servers, such as
# ymir.claremont.edu and niord.shsu.edu, and on some mac/TeX servers
# like midway.claremont.edu.  The latter site has a number of other
              ^^^^^^^^^
# interesting mac tools.

I think he meant to say midway.uchicago.edu.  This is a major
repository for TeX-related Mac stuff.

--
--
Ravinder Bhumbla	rbhumbla@ucsd.edu    U. of California, San Diego
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.misc
Subject: Where's FilterTop?
From: psweeney@miavx1.acs.muohio.edu
Date: 6 Sep 92 15:26:14 -0500
Organization: Miami University Academic Computer Service"

Any news on the FilterTop project?

Supposedly, this was going to be an intelligent
deBinhexer, unStuffer, etc.

Looked really neat.  Or, at least, sounded neat.

Any word?

Any response is welcome.

Peter Sweeney
psweeney@miavx1.acs.muohio.edu
From: Apgar@Apple.com (Gar)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.misc
Subject: Re: System 7 compatibility
Date: 10 Sep 92 22:13:06 GMT
Followup-To: comp.sys.mac.misc
Organization: Apple

In article <1992Sep3.202954.16955@gdstech.grumman.com>,
billd@gdstech.grumman.com (Bill D'Camp) wrote:
> 
> I seem to recall someone mentioning a file which listed known
> incompatibilities with System 7.  Can anyone tell me where I might FTP
> this file??

It's old, but it still has some useful information.

sys7-compat-info.hqx

[Archived as /info-mac/report/sys7-compat-info.hqx; 60K]

Apgar@Apple.com                   I said it, NOT Apple.
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.misc,comp.sys.ibm.pc.misc,comp.sys.amiga
From: mmoore@epx.cis.umn.edu ("None of ya Bizness")
Subject: Re: Atari Falcons $799... WHO CARES! Just try to emulate it.
Organization: University of Minnesota
Date: Thu, 10 Sep 1992 20:20:27 GMT

In article <1992Sep3.040702.4617@mnemosyne.cs.du.edu> jyoung@nyx.cs.du.edu (Jeff Young) writes:
>
>Falcon has 16 mhz 68030, 32 mhz 56001 DSP, SCSI2, 8 channel 16 bit stereo
	    ^^^^^^^^^^^^^

What?!!!  That's _all_?  Man if it's only 16Mhz then forget it!! You
can't do anything on a 16Mhz computer these days.



-- 
Malcolm Diallo Moore, CIS-Univ. of Minn.                mmoore@epx.cis.umn.edu
				            	
	"Arresk the Presidink!"
				-- Popeye the Intelligent Hoodlum
QUIT
 Intelligent Hoodlum
Organization: Senior, Psychology, Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.misc
Date: Sat,  5 Sep 1992 19:06:22 -0400 
From: Eric Andrew Morgan <em31+@andrew.cmu.edu>
Subject: Persuasion 2.1 Problems

I own a Mac IIci with 4 megs RAM.  It is one of the older ones that came
out before they started bundling the cache cards with them.

I was trying to run the slide show for the Persuasion 2.1 demo/tutorial,
and the screen just goes black and wont do anything.  Any ideas on what
the problem could be?

-- Eric


Eric Andrew Morgan
Psychology Department(Cognitive Science), Class of '93
Carnegie Mellon University
Xref: sparky comp.sys.mac.misc:16547 comp.sys.mac.system:11882
From: triantos@acsu.buffalo.edu (Nick B Triantos)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.misc,comp.sys.mac.system
Subject: Re: rebuild desktop :-( or :-) ?
Date: 15 Sep 92 16:04:23 GMT
Organization: The University at Buffalo
Originator: triantos@lictor.acsu.buffalo.edu

Recently, sjk6119@ritvax.isc.rit.edu (Scott J. Kleper) writes:

   I remember amout three months ago, I was having some problem
   and the company recommended that I rebuilt the desktop file.
   It seemed to solve more problems than I expected! All of a 
   sudden, some great new icons appeared, and things generally
   worked better. Reading further about it, I learned that it's
   recommended to be done once a month. So I figured last week
   that it was long overdue, and I had better rebuild the desktop.
   This time things were different :-(. No new icons appeared.
   Instead, everything from HyperCard Stacks to Word documents 
   would say "The application that created... could not be found."
   Isn't this information stored in a resource? Why was it 
   altered. I have been using drag-and-drop since, but it's a 
   pain. How can I "teach" the computer to open them in whatever
   application?

Well, I only rebuild my desktop when it gets corrupted.  The desktop files
maintain information about applications such as:  What do the icons for the
app, its support files, and documents look like?  What apps can open certain
types of documents.  If you've lost icons, and documents don't auto-launch the
proper apps, get the utility called SaveABndl.  I believe that the newest
version is 1.3.  Now that your desktop is rebuilt, you drag an app onto the
SaveABndl icon, and it will manually fix the icons/auto-launch problems.  It
repairs the BNDL bits of the app (which tell the desktop that the app has some
good info about icons, etc.)  It will then let you either quit or restart the
Finder (desktop changes only show up if you restart the Finder, otherwise they
should after the next restart).

Hope this all helps.  Oh yeah, SaveABndl should be at mac.archive.umich.edu and
sumex.stanford.edu.  Look in the utility directories.

Hope this helps!
-Nick


--
Nick Triantos    internet: triantos@acsu.buffalo.edu
                 AOL:      Triantos
"Scientists tell us that the fastest animal on earth, with a top speed of
120 ft/sec, is a cow that has been dropped out of a helicopter." - Dave Barry
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.misc