HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: jiro@shaman.com (Jiro Nakamura)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.hardware
Subject: Re: Switching to dvorak (WAS Re: M68060 Update)
Date: 4 Nov 92 22:23:08 GMT
Organization: The Shaman Group; A Division of Focal Point Computer, Inc.

In article <Bx6JIv.HF6@iat.holonet.net> bwilliam@iat.holonet.net (Bill Williams) writes:
>Dvorak is awesome.
>
>The Apple IIc had a Drorak trace line you could cut someone told me,
>enabling a dvorak layout.

Bzzzz.... It actually had a switch on the top that you could set to switch
from Dvorak to Qwerty. Neat, huh? Actually, it was modified Dvorak since
it didn't have Dvorak's funky number keys.

It also had a switch for 40 columns to 80 columns.... sigh....


 - Jiro

-- 
Jiro Nakamura				jiro@shaman.com (NeXTmail)
NeXTwatch / Technical Editor		76711,542 (CIS)
The Shaman Group			+1 607 277-1440 (Voice/Fax)
From: bruehl@gurke.physik.tu-berlin.de (bruehl local gurke)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.hardware
Subject: slow Fujitsu 2624FA 520MB disk?
Date: 12 Nov 1992 16:57:07 GMT
Organization: ZRZ/TU-Berlin
Distribution: misc
NNTP-Posting-Host: gurke.physik.tu-berlin.de
Keywords: Fujitsu


I have installed System 3.0 on a new Fujitsu 2624FA (520MB Fast Model) and  
was surprised of slow transfer rates. 

Write: 800 kB/sec *** but read only 400 kB/sec *** 
tested by DrivePerformance, cp and a self made C program.
These results are independent of SCSI-1 or SCSI-2 mode, and 1024 or 512  
byte sectors.

What did I made wrong?
From: lemson@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (David Lemson)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.hardware
Subject: Re: New SPARC Classic
Date: 13 Nov 92 23:12:27 GMT
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana

nathan@laplace.csb.yale.edu (Nathan F. Janette) writes:

>In article <BxMnKq.A45@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu> lemson@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (David  
>Lemson) writes:
>> 
>> What is power if users aren't productive?

>Q. What is elegance without muscle?

>A. NeXTstep 3.0 on our NeXTs.

Personally, I think that 3.0 on a 16 MB mono machine runs as fast as
I could expect a machine of that price to run.  I think that 3.0 on
a 32 MB color machine runs as fast as most users would expect a
personal computer to run.  That is, a computer that is mostly used
by one person. (explicit definition of PC in my eyes)  If you run
3.0 on a 8 MB mono or 12 MB color you are going to have problems
with speed. (it does work though!)
Yes, OS's do grow.  Try running Apple System 7 on a 2 MB Mac
Classic.  Yes, it does work.  Yes, it is soooo slow that you will
wait a minute or more for a large app to load.  (if you can even get
a large app to load in 2 MB)
NeXT freely admits that you should have more than 8 MB of RAM in
monos and at least 16 MB of RAM in colors to run 3.0.  In today's
RAM prices (well, at least, last week's RAM prices :-) that isn't
that much to ask, I think.
-- 
David Lemson                                                (217) 244-1205
University of Illinois NeXT Campus Consultant / CCSO NeXT Lab System Admin
Internet : lemson@uiuc.edu                UUCP :...!uiucuxc!uiucux1!lemson 
NeXTMail accepted                                  BITNET : LEMSON@UIUCVMD
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.hardware
From: Harold Brokaw <harold_brokaw@imagine.com>
Subject: Two Optical Disk Drives in one Cube
Organization: Imagine Multimedia, Inc., Ann Arbor, MI, USA
Date: Mon, 9 Nov 1992 15:29:22 GMT

I have put two NeXT Magneto-Optical Disk Drives into my cube (an 030), and 
thought you all might be interested in the results. Also there are some 
problems and I would be very interested if anyone had an idea about the 
reasons for them and whether there was any cure other than avoiding doing 
the things that cause the problems.

I have my Hard disk now in an external case. The two MO drives are 
attached via one of the cables that was originally shipped with the first 
cubes. It had two connectors such that one could presumably attach two MO 
drives. With the 2.0 upgrade a new cable with a single connector was 
shipped and the official NeXT position is that two MO drives is not 
supported.

The first thing that happens is that on initial power up the boot hangs. 
It says something about a failed attempt to write to od?a but no error. 
This happens whether or not there are disks inside of the drives. But if I 
then do a <command>~ and restart, everything comes up fine.

The second thing that happens is that if I put a disk into the first drive 
(od0a) the whole system panics. If, however there is a disk placed within 
the second (od1a) drive first, placing a disk in the first drive is fine. 
In fact, one must put a disk into the first drive after putting one into 
the second drive, because if you don't, the disk in the second drive 
continually spins up and down. If both drives contain disks the system 
seems to work fine and I have had absolutely no problem copying data from 
disk to disk, which is why I want to have two drives in the first place.

I can eject the disks in any order, but unless one ejects both of them the 
remaining drive will start spinning down and up continuously until it is 
ejected, or the other drive has a disk placed within it.

There has also been an occasional panic when I ejected a disk from the 
second drive while there was some process going on which was accessing the 
first drive. But this has rarely happened.

There was one difference in behavior between the 2.1 system and 3.0. In 
2.1, when I powered down the system would panic, then do an automatic 
restart. The panic would occur after the disk was set clean, so this panic 
did not cause a disk check to occur on next power up. In 3.0, the system 
shuts down cleanly with no panic.

One of my coworkers wondered if perhaps there were some jumpers that 
should be connected on the second drive to set it to be a different number 
than the first, and if this would reduce some of the problems that were 
occurring.

Again, any and all information which could be provided regarding this 
situation would be gratefully received.

Hal Brokaw
hal@imagine.com
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.hardware
From: songer@lexmark.com (Christopher Songer)
Subject: Re: New RISC workstations / 88110 demise
X-Disclaimer: These views are the poster's and not necessarily those of Lexmark
Organization: Lexington, KY
Date: Sat, 07 Nov 1992 21:06:06 GMT

abell@netcom.com (Steven T. Abell) writes (about the P5):
>
>Unfortunately, you can't just brush of an obnoxious architecture by saying
>"The compiler people will worry about this." Let's stay real, folks.
>Underlying models matter, and the Intel model is about as bad as they come.
>If this is what we have to live with, I suppose we'll manage somehow,
>but if you think it doesn't affect you, you're wrong.
>

For Next, beyond all others, this is not quite right. Next and Next's
OS does the best job of isolating the user from the hardware and internals
of any OS I've seen.

Consider NextStep 486: reports from developers are that porting to it
is a very easy affair, usually just recompiling assuming the developer
has not circumvented Nextstep in some way.

I suppose my question is: if you are contending there will be impact beyond
the compiler and low level OS stuff... what are the effects you forsee and 
why haven't they shown up in Nextstep 486 as major problems? Generalizations 
are fine, but since Nextstep even takes care of byte swapping, I don't see 
where the "underlying model" is going to effect the user or the Nextstep 
developer.  (assuming that they don't write assembly -- a pretty good 
assumption on Nextstep.)

Thanks!
-Chris
From: wierda@ltb.ltb.bso.nl (Gerben Wierda)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.hardware
Subject: Re: New RISC workstations / 88110 demise
Date: 6 Nov 92 08:43:39 GMT
Organization: BSO/LT, Baarn, The Netherlands


>  The dedicated printer port will be dropped in favor of SCSI-2  

Well, not with the NeXTprinter around. It needs a real time connection.

-- 
wierda@ltb.bso.nl (Gerben Wierda)     ||    #include <std/disclaimer.h>. Support
NeXTmail: gerben@rna.indiv.nluug.nl   ||    the League for Programming Freedom!
    "If you don't know where you are going, any road will take you there."
    (From the Talmud(?), rephrased in) Lewis Carroll, "Alice in Wonderland".
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.hardware
From: mp@rob.cs.tu-bs.de (Martin DL8OAU)
Subject: Next Power failed
Organization: TU Braunschweig, Informatik, Bueltenweg, Germany
Date: Thu, 5 Nov 1992 15:04:03 GMT

Just have had a problem, touching the power button did not lead to the expected result. 
Solution: 
1) open your Next and unmount the battery
2) connect the both contacts in the socket of the battery 
3) mount battery again
4) restart your machine.

Then you will have to set the paramters for booting .... thats all. 

Martin (DL8OAU)  mp@rob.cs.tu-bs.de
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.hardware
From: tt@panda.unibe.ch (Thomas Tschannen)
Subject: sc: parity error
Reply-To: tschannen@phil.unibe.ch
Organization: University of Berne, Switzerland
Date: Fri, 13 Nov 1992 13:41:40 GMT

I've got a 1GB-disk from DEC (model DSP3085).

There were no problems to get it running. But after two weeks or so I got
the msg

sc: parity error 

at boot time (at the very begining).

The system is not able to access the disk nor to boot from the 
internal disk as long the external drive is connected. 
I've checked the drive on another host. But also there, same problem.

Current configuration:

NeXTcolorstation running NeXTStep 2.1 
SCSI ID 0 external disk 1GB (DEC)
        1 internal disk 400 MB
        7 CPU

Switching the external disk to ID 2 and reboot doesn't help.
What could cause this error msg ?

Thanks,
Thomas.
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.hardware
From: nathan@laplace.csb.yale.edu (Nathan F. Janette)
Subject: Re: New SPARC Classic
Reply-To: nathan@laplace.csb.yale.edu (Nathan F. Janette)
Organization: Yale University, Department of Computer Science, New Haven, CT
Date: Fri, 13 Nov 1992 05:05:23 GMT

In article <BxMnKq.A45@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu> lemson@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (David  
Lemson) writes:
> 
> What is power if users aren't productive?

Q. What is elegance without muscle?

A. NeXTstep 3.0 on our NeXTs.

--
Nathan Janette
PPP link from hilbert.csb.yale.edu

Please reply to: nathan@laplace.csb.yale.edu (NeXT)

Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.hardware
From: songer@lexmark.com (Christopher Songer)
Subject: Re: New SPARC Classic
X-Disclaimer: These views are the poster's and not necessarily those of Lexmark
Keywords: sun, classic, sparc
Organization: Lexington, KY
Date: Fri, 13 Nov 1992 21:05:02 GMT

In article <1992Nov12.173445.22519@socrates.umd.edu> ice@socrates.umd.edu (Fredrik Nyman) writes:
>
>It uses a Tsunami SPARC chip at 50 MHz.  CPU performance is virtually
>equivalent to the SPARCStation 2, so yes, I stand by my above assertion
>that the SSC will have roughly twice the CPU performance of NSTC for
>roughly half the price. :-(
>

Yes, I caught that from subseqent announcements. The published Spec
numder mean that NeXT's hardware is toast. Next had better cough up
something really good really fast or they could be in trouble.

-Chris


Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.hardware
From: songer@lexmark.com (Christopher Songer)
Subject: Re: New RISC workstations / 88110 demise
X-Disclaimer: These views are the poster's and not necessarily those of Lexmark
Organization: Lexington, KY
Date: Sat, 07 Nov 1992 20:58:38 GMT

mjhostet@athena.mit.edu (Mat Hostetter) writes:
>
>This is true, especially if you look ahead 10 years.  While it's true that the  
>P5 will be fast and cheap, it's a bad choice for the long run "high end"  
>machine.  
>

The same things was said about the 8086, and yet today, 10 years later,
the P5 looks to be one of Next's best "short term" choices. Intel does a
great job at making speedy chips. They don't have the fastest first, but
they only lag the Riscs by a year (and that's a heck of alot better
than Motorola). Next isn't in the "ultra fast" market -- they are in 
the professional workstation market. They need to be tied to a vendor who
delivers fast cheap silicon. Intel does do that.

-Chris

Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.hardware
From: songer@lexmark.com (Christopher Songer)
Subject: Re: New SPARC Classic
X-Disclaimer: These views are the poster's and not necessarily those of Lexmark
Keywords: sun, classic, sparc
Organization: Lexington, KY
Date: Thu, 12 Nov 1992 12:54:06 GMT

(Fredrik Nyman) writes:
>
>I hope NeXT will announce new hardware *soon*.  Sun has already
>announced that they will switch to Display PostScript, and once they
>do, the SparcClassic will become *very* attractive for DTP since it
>will offer almost twice the power of a NSTC for half the price *and*
>upgradeability.
>

Are you sure about this one? What kind of SPARC do they have in
there to give twice the performance? I agree with half the price,
but I'm not so sure about the twice the performance part. The 
name "classic" appeneded on the end make me think of the onld
Sparc 1's which are quite a bit slower than the turboes.

-Chris


Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.hardware
From: "J. Shan Bell" <bellj@moose.cs.indiana.edu>
Subject: Oscilloscope probe for DSP port
Keywords: probe, DSP, oscilloscope, MonsterScope
Organization: Indiana University, Bloomington
Distribution: usa
Date: Thu, 12 Nov 1992 20:24:29 -0500


	Does someone have information on actually using an O-scope
probe on the DSP port to use the function in the MonsterScope app.  I
have an application for an O-scope and it would much nicer to spend
under $100 to use my NeXT than to buy and O-scope (which I'm not pre-
pared to do at this time).

Any leads are appreciated.

-- 
       ________________________________________________________________
      //      Internet       /   J. Shan Bell   \        BITNET       \\
     //  bellj@indiana.edu  //////|||||||||\\\\\\\ bellj@iubacs.bitnet \\
    //_____________________// NeXT mail accepted \\_____________________\\
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.hardware,comp.sys.next.misc,comp.sys.next
From: eric@homebase.vistachrome.com (Eric Brunson)
Subject: Re: info needed on /usr/adm/messages
Keywords: how this file is generated?
Organization: Vista-Chrome Incorporated
Date: Fri, 13 Nov 1992 14:49:56 GMT

atai@nyx.cs.du.edu (Andy Tai) writes:


>Hello,
>I need information on the system log file /usr/adm/messages.  I need
>information on what processes write to this file, what kinds of errors can
>be listed in there, etc.  Any information about where I can find more info
>about the log file (manuals, tech docs from Next, etc) is appreciated.

Check the man pages on syslogd(8) and syslog(3).

-- 
| | Dear Auntie Em,            |     Eric Brunson
|o|    I hate Kansas.  I hate  |     eric@vistachrome.com
| |    the farm.  I hate you.  |     brunson@math.fsu.edu
| |    I'm leaving.            |
| |               Dorothy      |
|o| P.S.                       |
| |   Took the dog.            |
 ------------------------------
From: andrew@cubetech.com
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.hardware
Subject: Re: New RISC workstations / 88110 demise
Keywords: RISC
Date: 5 Nov 92 07:06:04 GMT
Organization: Cube Technologies, Inc.

In article <Bx5Iwn.to.2@cs.cmu.edu> ddj+@cs.cmu.edu (Doug DeJulio) writes:
>In article <1992Nov2.170741.2092@jhunix.hcf.jhu.edu> eboltz@jhunix.hcf.jhu.edu (Eric Scott Boltz) writes:
>>This week's Info World, "Reports from the Field" claims that NeXT has
>>terminated the dual 88110 NRW and will go with the P5 (Pentium) from
>>Intel in future machines.
>>
>>This sucks for a few reasons:
>>1. We won't have a faster NeXT till the P5 ships.
>>2. We're stuck with Intel.
>>3. The NRW will be AS FAST AS A HIGH-END CLONE.
>
>This last item is not neccesarily true.  Let's suppose NeXT goes with
>the P5.  Remember that the NeXT OS, Mach, already has support for
>multiprocessor systems.  Doesn't the P5 have enhanced support for
>working in multiprocessor systems?  Can you imagine a four processor
>P5 system, with one processor devoted to a realtime Display PostScript
>environment, another devoted to a realtime sound server (including a
>port pin-compatible with the current DSP port), and two more for
>general purpose CPU tasks?  NeXT could put out a wide variety of
>systems simply by changing the number of processors.

Dedicating processors is stupid (a whole P5 for sound?  what a waste).
Let mach split everything up on all the processors and use thread
priorities to ensure good interactive performance.


andrew
-- 
andrew@cubetech.com     | "Carpe Nocturn - I get more work done after
Andrew Loewenstern      |  2 a.m. than most people do all day."
Cube Technologies, Inc. |                          - Simson Garfinkle
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.hardware
From: gad@eclipse.its.rpi.edu (Garance A. Drosehn)
Subject: Re: New SPARC Classic
Date: Wed, 11 Nov 1992 02:21:48 GMT

eboltz@jhunix.hcf.jhu.edu (Eric Scott Boltz) writes:
> The new Sun SPARCClassic (Tsunami based) offers 15" color and
> a 200MB hard disk for $3995.

It also can't be bought yet.  Sun has made a big fanfare about products they  
won't be shipping until late winter/early spring.  Ask NeXT about it's  
response when this machine is shipping.

Also, try discussing this in some other newsgroup.

--
Garance Alistair Drosehn     =     gad@eclipse.its.rpi.edu
ITS Systems Programmer            (handles NeXT-type mail)
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute;           Troy NY    USA
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.hardware
From: lemson@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (David Lemson)
Subject: Re: New SPARC Classic
Followup-To: comp.sys.next.advocacy
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Date: Sat, 14 Nov 1992 06:49:21 GMT

nathan@laplace.biology.yale.edu (Nathan F. Janette) writes:

>> Personally, I think that 3.0 on a 16 MB mono machine runs as fast as
>> I could expect a machine of that price to run.  I think that 3.0 on
>> a 32 MB color machine runs as fast as most users would expect a
>> personal computer to run.  That is, a computer that is mostly used
>> by one person. (explicit definition of PC in my eyes)

>I think that's reasonable.  Now get NeXT to lower the price to
>that of a personal computer.

Aha, but many do think that its price is reasonable given its
performance.  I do still think of it as a one-user machine for most
real tasks.  But so is a Quadra 950, and most Sun SPARCs (Sparc 2
and lesser)  By real task, I mean one that uses the console and a
windowserver of some sort.  (Yes, you can use a Sparc 2 as a Sybase
server just fine... but have someone use the console to run OpenLook
and Frame at the same time... it is not a pretty picture)

Many companies that have chosen NeXT hardware show that companies do
think it's a great 'personal computing machine'...Plus, it has the
interoperability built in to make it fit into the client-server
model that Sun has been spouting about so much. (and that business
is certainly moving toward, albeit slowly)
-- 
David Lemson                                                (217) 244-1205
University of Illinois NeXT Campus Consultant / CCSO NeXT Lab System Admin
Internet : lemson@uiuc.edu                UUCP :...!uiucuxc!uiucux1!lemson 
NeXTMail accepted                                  BITNET : LEMSON@UIUCVMD
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.hardware
Subject: Why is my mouse dead?
From: Kelly Cunningham  (Random Deviate))
Date: 10 Nov 92 13:58:56 CST
Reply-To: deviate@lipschitz.sfasu.edu
Distribution: usa


We lost power to our building yesterday, and all but one NeXT came through ok.   
The one ailing NeXT doesn't have its left mouse button anymore. The right  
button still pops the menu, but the left button does nothing. The cursor also  
refuses to move.

We've checked all of the daemons and plugged in a different keyboard/mouse to  
no avail.

Will summarize email, thanks.

--
Randomly, Kelly Cunningham
<deviate@lipschitz.sfasu.edu><f_cnnghamjk@ccsvax.sfasu.edu><jkellyc@tenet.edu>
    NeXTMail (encouraged)         VMS Mail (tolerated)      Pine (beats mail)
"There is no reason for any individual to have a computer in their home."
                  Ken Olson, President and visionary, Digital Equipment, 1977
"NeXTSTEP is probably the most respected piece of software on the planet."
                                                   October 1992 Byte Magazine
From: JGrace@TetraSoft.com (Joseph R. Grace)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.hardware
Subject: Re: New RISC workstations / 88110 demise
Date: 5 Nov 92 01:15:08 GMT
Organization: TetraSoft International

In article <1992Nov3.220241.12669@access.usask.ca> jake@skatter.usask.ca  
writes:
>  Grand, but what could possibly be taking them so flamin' LONG to get the
>  thing, whatever it is, out the door?

... and, from NeXT:
>Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.sysadmin
>Subject: NeXT Computer System Admin Position (Redwood City, CA)
>Date: 4 Nov 92 19:23:21 GMT
>
>NeXT Computer, Inc. is looking for a full-time System Administrator
>to join our Hardware Development team and to assume responsibility
>for keeping our hardware design environment running smoothly.
>[...]
>* CShell script writing ability
>[...]

I guess that just about answers it! :-)

= Joe =

p.s., I'm *just* kidding.  Really!  NO, I AM, REALLY!  NOOOOoooooo......
-- 
Joe Grace <JGrace@TetraSoft.com> (NeXTMail preferred.)
TetraSoft International   Business and Personal Productivity Tools for NeXTSTEP
From: jdavidso@nextwork.rose-hulman.edu
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.hardware
Subject: mouse micro-switches
Date: 11 Nov 1992 20:13:43 GMT
Organization: Computer Science Department at Rose-Hulman
Distribution: world
Reply-To: jdavidso@nextwork.rose-hulman.edu
NNTP-Posting-Host: jd-next.nextwork.rose-hulman.edu


OK. I know someone in the not-to-distant-past posted the info on how and where  
to get the switches for the mouse; could someone with that info please either  
email it to me, or post it to this group. I am tired of looking at the dead  
mice on one of my shelves, and would like to fix them without just replacing  
the whole thing.

Thanks,

Jeff
************************************************************************
 the Lost Cause                       jdavidso@nextwork.rose-hulman.edu
(hardwaire guy extraordinaire)       MACTech,NeXTtech; NeXTmail accepted
                      "Everything is relative."
************************************************************************
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.hardware
From: eboltz@jhunix.hcf.jhu.edu (Eric Scott Boltz)
Subject: NeXT CD on Sun?
Organization: HAC - Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore
Date: Thu, 12 Nov 1992 21:33:05 GMT

Hi again!

Anyone know if I can use a NeXT CD-ROM player on a Sun?
I want to either connect it directly or mount it using NFS.
Thanks in advance,

Eric S. Boltz
NIST

employer disclaimers apply
From: bruehl@kalium.physik.tu-berlin.de
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.hardware
Subject: slow Fujitsu 2624FA 520MB disk?
Date: 12 Nov 1992 17:09:09 GMT
Organization: ZRZ/TU-Berlin
Reply-To: bruehl@kalium.physik.tu-berlin.de
NNTP-Posting-Host: kalium.physik.tu-berlin.de


I have installed System 3.0 on a new Fujitsu 2624FA (520MB Fast Model) and  
was surprised of slow transfer rates. 

Write: 800 kB/sec *** but read only 400 kB/sec *** 
tested by DrivePerformance, cp and a self made C program.
These results are independent of SCSI-1 or SCSI-2 mode, and 1024 or 512  
byte sectors.

What did I made wrong?
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.hardware