HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: as@comlab.ox.ac.uk (Andrew Stevens)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: The new Acorn Machine
Date: 18 Nov 92 11:34:00 GMT
Organization: /usr/local/lib/rn/Organisation
Originator: as@opal.comlab

In article <1992Nov17.113305.27450@csd.uwe.ac.uk> r_voisey@csd.uwe.ac.uk (R Voisey) writes:
>Last time I looked, SCO-V was pushing half a grand WITHOUT compilers.  The
>programmer's toolkit (compilers/assemblers/linkers/debugger) was an extra
>couple of hundred.  If you then buy opendesktop (the route SCO suggest) you're
>looking at a tag around the same as RiscIX.
>
>Having said that, you can get Linux for free - I believe someone is working
>on an X11R5 port for it as well.  It's not in the class of SCO, but it's
>not bad either - probably the best freeware product I've seen to date.

Actually, X11R5 is available free for most of the Intel Unixen commercial
and freeware.  The package is called Xfree86 (now in version 1.1).
What is still in beta are the drivers for some varieties of SVGA
card.

Ditto for the FSF compilers and tools. 

>>The other point is that if RISCiX was a LOT cheaper,
>>and it was available for the A5000, they would have the
>>cheapest Unix workstation going, and I know a lot
>>of people who would be pleased with it.
>
>By all accounts, Acorn are interested in tackling the workstation market with
>a high spec machine, rather than a cheap'n'nasty solution.


Hear hear.  The A5000 under UNIX would be daft.  4M of RAM is pretty
tight under the tightest of UNIXes (which RISC/iX isn't) and a max.
RAM of 8M is plain silly in the UNIX market.
>If they were, for
>example, to release a high spec machine based around ARM600, 24 bit graphics
>with onboard accelerator (something from Intel, perhaps - but not i486), 
>plenty of RAM and RISCiX only (workstation peeps don't want RISCOS) and price
>it below a Sun 3 sparcstation then I think they'd have a good chance of making
>a killing.  It would be nice if they launched it, say, early next year.  Pure
>speculation you understand.

However, I have my doubts about Acorn making a ``killing''.  Even if the
machine has a lot better bang/buck than SUN I suspect Acorn would be in
grave danger of being squashed by the big boys in the workstation market.
Remember unlike in PeeCee land, modern architectures aren't anything
novel and the pace of progress drastic.

I'd say Acorn would be better off sticking with their strengths
and developing the RISC OS line to really compete with Commodore
and the PC's in the home edu market.  Who'd even *notice* a
me-too UNIX machine from Acorn?


Andrew


-- 
        Andrew Stevens               INTERNET: Andrew.Stevens@uk.ac.oxford.prg
      Programmming Research Group       JANET: Andrew.Stevens@uk.ac.oxford.prg
     11 Keble Road, Oxford, England     UUCP:  ...!uunet!mcvax!ukc!ox-prg!as
     OX1 3QD   +44 0865 272563
From: smb@cs.nott.ac.uk (Simon Burrows)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: Computer Concepts
Date: 16 Nov 92 16:02:43 GMT
Organization: Nottingham University

In article <1e887pINNfpe@oak22.doc.ic.ac.uk> ijp@doc.ic.ac.uk (Ian Palmer) writes:
>
>The only thing that really annoys me about CC is their insistence on
>finding the worst possible protection method for their products (ie.
>dongles and crappy printer cables). 

I agree about the printer cable, but not about dongles. What other
technique do you suggest that they use to protect their investment?
Copy protection? Awful. Embedded name/number? Ineffective. Through
the use of dongles, they have probably sold 3? times as many copies
of Impression as they would have done otherwise, which is how they
have been able to continue improving it, as well as providing technical
support which most people seem to find acceptable.

Simon
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Simon Burrows   smb@cs.nott.ac.uk  psyhsmb@unicorn.nott.ac.uk  +44 533 712030
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: banksie@khantazi.welly.gen.nz (Philip R. Banks)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: Acorn Pocketbook
Date: Sat, 21 Nov 1992 13:34:05 +1300
Reply-To: banks_p@kosmos.wcc.govt.nz
Organization: My Arc.

jna10@cl.cam.ac.uk (J.N. Abley) writes:

> Has anybody actually seen an Acorn Pocketbook?

   Yes.

> What are the differences between it and the Psion series 3?

   I have no idea. I have never seen a Psion series 3.

> And can you buy a link which will work nicely between a Psion 3 and
> an Archimedes?

   No idea I am afraid. However the Pocketbook is a very cute machine. Kinda
pointless from my point of view but then I am sure other people will find uses
for it... ;-)

    Philip

--
Philip R. Banks  Syntax: mail < banks_p@kosmos.wcc.govt.nz >            @@@@@/|
                                                                        @@@@/#|
                                                                        @@@/##|
What price the crown of a king on his throne, when you are chained in   @@/---|
the dark all alone? ---A.P.P.                                           @/    |
From: zzassgl@uts.mcc.ac.uk (Geoff Lane)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: Replay Harrier @ Newcastle
Date: 13 Nov 92 21:16:22 GMT
Organization: Manchester Computing Centre, Manchester, England, M13 9PL.


The Replay demo is now available via anonymous ftp from uts.mcc.ac.uk in the
file pub/riscos/replay_harrier

As usual give your email address when asked for a password and MAKE SURE YOU
TRANSFER THE FILE AS BINARY AT ALL STAGES.

A list of the other RiscOS stuff available can be found in the file README.


Replay is a remarkable product!

-- 
Geoff. Lane. | Internet: zzassgl@uts.mcc.ac.uk | Janet: zzassgl@uk.ac.mcc.uts
UTS Sys Admin,  Manchester Computing Centre,  Oxford Rd,  Manchester, M13 9PL
During a week's TV I want to be entertained, bored, delighted, disgusted, made
happy, saddened, enlightened, mystified, else they aren't doing the job right.
From: rsxdp@unicorn.nott.ac.uk (D.Pead)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: RISC OS 3 Impression...
Date: 20 Nov 92 17:41:54 GMT
Organization: Cripps Computing Centre, University of Nottingham

In article <1992Nov19.155320.13510@cs.nott.ac.uk> smb@cs.nott.ac.uk (Simon Burrows) writes:
>
>Why couldn't the unique ID number be incorporated into a removable piece
>of the computer (like a dongle)? This would get around many of the
>problems of unique ID numbers, and multiple dongles.
>
Apparently the ID chip can be transplanted - When I heard Acorn talking about 
their protection scheme they said that dealers were under instructions
to swap the ID chips over if they ever had to replace the main board
on a machine taken in for repairs.

Don't know if this means that the chip is socketed.
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
From: vulch@kernow.demon.co.uk (Anthony Frost)
Reply-To: vulch@kernow.demon.co.uk
Subject: Acorn Pocketbook
Organization: VCS Kernow
X-Mailer: ReaderS for the Acorn Archimedes
Date: Thu, 19 Nov 1992 22:48:21 +0000

 
  > Has anybody actually seen an Acorn Pocketbook? What are the
  > differences between it and the Psion series 3? 
 
I haven't ssen one (except at the AU show) but on a BBS earlier today
someone was saying theirs had just turned up. The Acorn version has a
spreadsheet instead of the diary and doesn't have the OPL compiler built in
I believe.
 
  > And can you buy a link which will work nicely between a
  > Psion 3 and an Archimedes? 
 
At the AU show an Acorn Suit (as opposed to a blazer!) told me that the
hardware validation for the link had been done on the Acorn version but
there was no reason why it shouldn't work on an ordinary series 3.
 
        Anthony

Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
From: alla0008@student.tc.umn.edu (Graham Allan)
Subject: Re: Reading Mac disks (low density)
Organization: University of Minnesota
Date: Sat, 21 Nov 1992 18:10:32 GMT

In article <5633@krafla.rhi.hi.is> adamd@rhi.hi.is (Adam David) writes:
>In <1eiviiINNd7g@iraul1.ira.uka.de> S_TILLENBURG@iravcl.ira.uka.de (|S| Stephan Tillenburg) writes:
>
>>The Mac emulator SPECTRE GCR on the ATARI ST is a piece of hardware fitted to
>>the ROM PORT. If you want to read Mac disks, you have to fit a cable from the
>>SPECTRE - Hardware to the Floppy-Out ( no bug, OUT believe it or not ) of the
>>ST. As the speed of rotation in of the drive is fixed in the ST, the transfer
>>rate to the floppy is modified, the GCR - coding may be done by hardware or 
>>software, don't know. 
>
>I think the GCR coding is done in software, the transfer rate is hardware
>generated under software control. If someone can come up with the ARM code
>to drive one of these beasts, the hardware connections are trivial by
>comparison. But quite honestly, it would only be worth the trouble if a
>Mac emulator existed for the Arch. Whether the 680x0 would be done in
>software or hardware remains to be seen. Software emulation would be less
>of a pain on the newer ARM chips which have configurable byte order.
>Since it is such an easy thing to do, I am rather surprised that no-one
>has made a Mac-on-a-card to fit inside an Acorn machine. The basic model
>would be a 68000 CPU with ROM sockets and some RAM, and would rely on the
>Acorn machine for all I/O. This ought to be just as easy to do as a PC
>card, there is even a set of Macintosh compatible ROMs out there that
>can be licensed without running into legal hassles with Apple.

There have been rumours for years of a Mac emulator (in software) "within
Acorn". Whether anyone really believes it or not is another matter! It's
certainly an intriguing idea. There certainly are *some* pieces of Mac
software which it would be useful to have access to from time to time.
Though most of them (eg Mathematica) would be 99% useless on a software
emulator! What I would give for a Mathematica port... dream on!

Graham						allan@mnhep8.hep.umn.edu

Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
From: smb@cs.nott.ac.uk (Simon Burrows)
Subject: Re: RISC OS 3 Impression...
Organization: Nottingham University
Date: Thu, 19 Nov 92 15:53:20 GMT

In article <1992Nov18.134447.184@ugle.unit.no> dhmyrdal@flipper.pvv.unit.no (Dag H}kon Myrdal) writes:
>I think dongles are nice. The only problem is if you have several dongles
>at once from different manufacturers...
>The ID-number strategy, on the other hand, restricts the usage of the
>program to the machine it was bought for - ie a much more restricting
>protection than any dongle.
>If want to use my copy of Impression on another machine, I simply take with
>me the dongle (matchbox-size), and a floppy containing the program...
>
>Now, what if Impression suddenly needs that one machine to work?
>-You cannot take the program with you anywhere.
>-You cannot use the same program(s) for your desktop and laptop...
>-You cannot use the programs on a replacement machine when the
> main one is malfunctioning, is sent in for an upgrade or repair...
>-You will have to (probably) take contact with the original publisher
> if you want the old programs to work on your new A8000 that you
> upgrade to in a few years time; and in the meantime the publisher
> may have gone bust...


Why couldn't the unique ID number be incorporated into a removable piece
of the computer (like a dongle)? This would get around many of the
problems of unique ID numbers, and multiple dongles.

Simon
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Simon Burrows   smb@cs.nott.ac.uk  psyhsmb@unicorn.nott.ac.uk  +44 533 712030
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
From: smb@cs.nott.ac.uk (Simon Burrows)
Subject: Re: RISC OS 3 Impression...
Organization: Nottingham University
Date: Fri, 20 Nov 92 19:23:26 GMT

In article <1992Nov20.174154.7052@cs.nott.ac.uk> rsxdp@unicorn.nott.ac.uk (D.Pead) writes:
>In article <1992Nov19.155320.13510@cs.nott.ac.uk> smb@cs.nott.ac.uk (Simon Burrows) writes:
>>
>>Why couldn't the unique ID number be incorporated into a removable piece
>>of the computer (like a dongle)? This would get around many of the
>>problems of unique ID numbers, and multiple dongles.
>>
>Apparently the ID chip can be transplanted - When I heard Acorn talking about 
>their protection scheme they said that dealers were under instructions
>to swap the ID chips over if they ever had to replace the main board
>on a machine taken in for repairs.

Yes, but if the ID chip was included in a dongle-like device, the user
could easily move it between machines (eg to take to a friend's house)
without having to open up the computer!

The only problem I can see would be at exhibitions and public occasions -
one stand at the BAU Show had a number of Artworks dongles stolen, despite
them being screwed into the machines.
 
I'm sure the hardware designers could come up with some solution, but I think
the truth is that there just isn't the will to find an effective solution.

One does wonder why Acorn's Market Research didn't reveal that unique ID
numbers are not wanted before they went to the expense of incorporating them..
but then the same applies to 3d wimp icons, solid icon drags etc. Perhaps
these are just tasters for things which are to come...?

Simon
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Simon Burrows   smb@cs.nott.ac.uk  psyhsmb@unicorn.nott.ac.uk  +44 533 712030
------------------------------------------------------------------------------



Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
From: jkh@esel.lotus.com (Jordan K Hubbard)
Subject: Re: 36Mhz ARM 3
Organization: Lotus Ireland
	<1992Nov16.095818.1370@csd.uwe.ac.uk>
	<1992Nov16.190243.6048@infodev.cam.ac.uk>
	<1992Nov17.164714.10202@vax.oxford.ac.uk>
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 92 18:14:47 GMT

	I keep hearing people talking about this, but no-one ever says
	how they do it.  Go on someone, make a young man happy and
	tell me how to make my toy run faster. (I have an
	A5000/RISCOS3.00)

Hear hear.  I have an A540/RISCOS3.10 and I'd love to clock the memory
at 16Mhz and CPU at 33Mhz!  I do tend to wonder though at which point
this starts getting ridiculous ("I'm now clocking my ARM3 at 75Mhz and
the memory at 30Mhz!  It crashes once every 10 minutes and I have to
spray the motherboard continuously with Freon, but other than that
it's GREAT!").

Speaking of which, how many A540 owners are there out there?  Do any
of you clock your machines faster than rated, and if so:

1.  Do you fastclock both the CPU and memory subsystem?
2.  Does it all run reliably and at 'reasonable' temperatures?
3.  How did you do it?

(and 4. Do you start transmitting on nearby FM bands? :-)

				Jordan
From: CDLatham@cen.ex.ac.uk (C.D.Latham)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: Replay Harrier @ Newcastle
Date: 18 Nov 92 10:29:35 GMT
	<1992Nov17.170421.23118@infodev.cam.ac.uk>
	<11017@baird.cs.strath.ac.uk>
Organization: Computer Unit. - University of Exeter. UK

In article <11017@baird.cs.strath.ac.uk> gpalmer@cs.strath.ac.uk (Gary J Palmer IE91) writes:
   References: <BxLMIL.8u6@cen.ex.ac.uk> <BxtM3D.F0s@cen.ex.ac.uk> <1992Nov17.170421.23118@infodev.cam.ac.uk>
   Sender: news@cs.strath.ac.uk
   Organization: Comp. Sci. Dept., Strathclyde Univ., Glasgow, Scotland.
   Lines: 32
   Nntp-Posting-Host: lister-04
[ ... About mounting Replay demos via nfs over JIPS ... ]

I don't think you quite understood what Clive Jones meant Gary.  He
doesn't mean nfs on a UNIX machine, I think, but pcnfs on an Arc.
Theoretically it could work by exporting a directory on a UNIX machine
containing the Replay files to the world.  It would be a bit hard to
hack the files if they were on CD ROM (:-).

In practice it is unlikely to work because an Arc trying to mount the
directory over JIPS would probably time out because it would be so
slow.  Might be an interesting experiment to try though.

Ftp between JANET sites with JIPS goes at about 15 - 20 Kbytes per
second and I suspect Replay files need a bit more bandwidth than that
so even if one could mount the directory they couldn't be used
directly.
--
Christopher.
From: MJW19@phx.cam.ac.uk (Michael Williams)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: Fun with Taskwindows
Date: 23 Nov 92 21:15:54 GMT
Reply-To: MJW19@phx.cam.ac.uk (M.J. Williams)
Organization: The National Society for the Inversion of Cuddly Tigers

In article <1992Nov23.120134.12388@waikato.ac.nz>, pdenize@waikato.ac.nz writes:
> * set alias$jackhammer taskwindow jackhammer -quit
> * jackhammer
> 
> That's it, it appears to do nothing ... Now check your Task display

The Acorn alias$ system would appear to be based on the ALIAS command on our
local mainframe (phx.cam.ac.uk), where placing the command :

  %alias rabbit means 'run rabbit run rabbit run run run'

in your init sequence and then typing 'rabbit' is a well known way of 
getting your account suspended...

____________________________________________________________________________
\  /  / Michael Williams                     Part II Computer Science Tripos
|\/|\/\ MJW19@phx.cam.ac.uk                          University of Cambridge
|  |(__)Cymdeithas Genedlaethol Traddodiad Troi Teigrod Mwythus Ben I Waered
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
From: alla0008@student.tc.umn.edu (Graham Allan)
Subject: Re: Computer Concepts
Organization: University of Minnesota
Date: Tue, 17 Nov 1992 16:11:21 GMT

In article <1eag79INNp27@oak49.doc.ic.ac.uk> ijp@doc.ic.ac.uk (Ian Palmer) writes:
>In article <1992Nov16.160243.21369@cs.nott.ac.uk> smb@cs.nott.ac.uk (Simon Burrows) writes:
>>In article <1e887pINNfpe@oak22.doc.ic.ac.uk> ijp@doc.ic.ac.uk (Ian Palmer) writes:
>>>The only thing that really annoys me about CC is their insistence on
>>>finding the worst possible protection method for their products (ie.
>>>dongles and crappy printer cables). 
>>
>>I agree about the printer cable, but not about dongles. What other
>>technique do you suggest that they use to protect their investment?
>> [...]
>Yes but dongles are a very short sighted method of protection. Imagine
>if every company started using them, how usable would your desktop be
>then? Suppose you were producing a book (or similar) using Impression
>(say) and Artworks (say) and importing data from a database (let's say
>this uses a dongle too) and a spredsheet (yet another dongle) and
>perhapse a graph drawing package.
>
>If all these required their own incompatable dongles you'd be stuffed.
>The short answer is you can only really have one dongle at a time, and

I always assumed you could daisy-chain them together - am I wrong?

>But this doesn't address the real problem with them. CC's Impression
>dongle is badly made and doesn't have correct fittings on it, the
>consequence of which is that the one on the back of my computer
>doesn't hold my printer cable fully. Plus it adds extra strain on the
>connections, and makes the back of my computer need twice the
>clearence it would otherwise need (about half a foot !).

If you use a short piece of cable between the computer and the dongle, it
makes life a lot easier. I resisted spending money on this for a long
time, but was glad I got it in the end - everything is much more stable.

>What would be more useful would be if a large number of software
>manufacturers (and Acorn) got together and produced a univerasal, non
>retsrictive but yet usable method of protection (and yes it can be
>done, it's just nobody want's to put the effort in).

Presumably what the 'unique ID' in the A5000 etc is supposed to address...
unfortunately doesn't help those of us with old machines much!

Graham						allan@mnhep8.hep.umn.edu
						gta@st-andrews.ac.uk
From: eopa21@festival.ed.ac.uk (R Spooner)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: Computer Concepts
Date: 16 Nov 92 13:42:08 GMT

tytgat@rilke.esat.kuleuven.ac.be (John Tytgat) writes:

>In article <28130@castle.ed.ac.uk> eopa21@festival.ed.ac.uk (R Spooner) writes:
>>All this talk about Computer Concepts' new upgrade policy on Impression
>>is surely only one aspect of the problem. The FaxPack was late, bad, wrong,

>Why should a non-ArtWorks owner need Impression v2.18 if this version does
>not provide any extras for him ? Why should CC pay the post&package costs
>(together with the man-hour cost) for a non-ArtWorks owner who doesn't need
>v2.18 if he already has v2.17 ?

Impression was advertised as being with free upgrades. Things need doing
to it at all times. People buy it because of the upgrade promise. It is
never finished. 2.18 may be only for ArtWorks users now, but we will all
need something better soon. (they, the non artworks owning public)

>Could you be more precise what's so bad and wrong with CC' FaxPack ?

It pisses up the writeable icon for telephone number, sometimes causing
crahses. It does not use mercury (dial 13 digits before the number, save
money). It does not zoom the final window properly. It is late. It does
not act as an answering machine. It does not act as a modem. It does
not share the line in a useful way. Apparently it is not compatible with
most line splitters. It does not do FTP. It does not support a standard
FTP for other (PC) faxcards. It does not do colour transfers (surely someone
does).

>>not as advertised, late, and so on. The Scanlight Professional was OK
>>but there is no after sales support. the support staff are
>>always unhelpful (well, one of them is good), ArtWorks is late and
> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

>Euh ? Up to now, my contacts with CC' support staff were very satisfying.
>As far as I know, they do really a good job.  Maybe it's just you...

Well, I ask questions like 'Can I have technical documentaion?' and they
say 'no: I's internal only.' I paid #650 f****** pounds for the scanner
and I want service.

>>full of bugs, LaserDirect does not work on RO3.1, and so on.
> ^^^^^^^^^^^^

>Really ?

So I heard. It's not my evidence.

>>I think the common factor here is that CC has gone way down hill
>>recently. They used to be really really good, but I have not
>>been impressed with anything since Impression.

>Sorry, I can't share your opinion.

I still do.

>John.
>tytgat@esat.kuleuven.ac.be (don't thrust my e-mail address in the header)
>BASS
From: mk@dcs.ed.ac.uk (Magnus Knight)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Monitor - Panasonic 1381
Summary: Is it good/Arc compatible?
Date: 17 Nov 92 12:31:32 GMT
Reply-To: mk@dcs.ed.ac.uk (Magnus Knight)
Organization: Laboratory for the Foundations of Computer Science, Edinburgh U

Hi,  reading through the adverts in PCW recently, I noticed that
a particular monitor - the Panasonic 1381 - was a lot cheaper than
most other monitors ie. ** about 200 quid. **
Depending what advert you read, the specs. are :-

14" colour, .28mm dot pitch
Multiscan or Panasync
VGA, CVGA, SVGA or XGA   :-)
1024x768

So, I was wondering, is this monitor compatible with the archimedes
(and/or State Machine's G8 doobries/vidc20 etc.)?  Will it sync low
enough for the standard modes (mode 12 etc.)?  And why is it so
cheap?  Is the quality poor?

I guess I should take a hint from the fact that I can't find it
advertised at all in Acorn User, but you never know.  (Here's hoping!)
Even if it will only display modes 28,31, etc. it looks like it could
be worth getting.  Anyone seen/used one?

Magnus
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
From: rebroad@dcs.warwick.ac.uk (Richard Broadley)
Subject: Re: Fervour - Demo
Organization: Department of Computer Science, Warwick University, England
Date: Sat, 21 Nov 1992 03:29:38 GMT

Hi Andrew,

2nd screen. 'Getting a little harder now :-)' A little harder?! It's
impossible! I must have spent well over 4 hours trying now, and still can't
get past it! I'll be spending so much time trying to complete the demo version
that I'll be worn out before I get round to buying the full game!!

Or is it just me?!

Richard

P.S. Congrats on an excellent game, what's next?
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mips