Mac Expert 1995 Winter/Mac Expert - Winter 95.iso/Les fichiers/Tidbits/Tidbits 01 à 100/TidBITS#060_06-May-91.txt

Text File | 1995-06-19 | 18.8 KB | 400 lines | [TEXT/ttxt]

TidBITS#60/06-May-91
====================

 Copyright 1990-1992 Adam & Tonya Engst. Non-profit, non-commercial
   publications may reprint articles if full credit is given. Other
   publications please contact us. We do not guarantee the accuracy
   of articles. Publication, product, and company names may be
   registered trademarks of their companies. Disk subscriptions and
   back issues are available.

 For more information send electronic mail to [e-mail] or
 Internet: [e-mail] -- CIS: 72511,306 -- AOL: Adam Engst
 TidBITS -- 9301 Avondale Rd. NE Q1096 -- Redmond, WA 98052 USA
 -----------------------------------------------------------------

Topics:
    TechnoBITS/06-May-91
    MailBITS/06-May-91
    Less-Than Prodigal
    ROM Rumors
    Data-PCS, Please
    Reviews/06-May-91


TechnoBITS/06-May-91
--------------------
  Compression is a hot field these days, with everyone trying to
  squeeze the last few bytes from a compressed file. A company
  called Iterated Systems might top them all though, with its
  compression board for PC-clones. The board can save a minute and a
  half of moving video images on a 1.4 MB floppy, and while that
  doesn't sound too impressive, multiply that up to 650 MB on a
  CD-ROM and you get about 10 hours of video. Iterated Systems's
  technique uses fractal transformations, essentially replacing bits
  with mathematical formulas. I'm beginning to think that everything
  relates to fractals...or was it marketing schemes? In any event,
  the hardware is required for compression, but decompression can be
  software only and can play video at 24 to 30 frames per second
  without hardware. Iterated System's best compression ratio so far
  is 500 to 1, but keep in mind that the fractal transformations are
  a lossless technology, unlike JPEG compression, which is lossy.

  Related articles:
    BYTE -- Feb-91, pg. 32


MailBITS/06-May-91
------------------
  On a personal note, if you live in the Seattle/Bellevue/Redmond
  area, I would appreciate it immensely if you could send me email
  at [e-mail] (or any of my other addresses). I wish to ask
  about some stuff partially unrelated to TidBITS. Many thanks!
  Sorry for the interruption to those of you not in the Seattle
  area.

  An anonymous elf writes, "Just as a word of notice, neither DOS
  Mounter nor the current Access PC work under System 7.0."

  Gene Spafford writes, though not to us directly, "On March 2nd,
  thieves stole 3000 computer chips from one of a major computer
  manufacturer's California locations. These chips are Intel 386 and
  486 CPUs, and were valued at over $1.1 million. Beware of anyone
  attempting to sell you any quantity of these particular chips,
  especially if it is at surprisingly reduced price. Authorities
  believe the thieves will attempt to resell these chips within the
  US or Canada, probably in the midwest or east coast. These chips
  can be traced, and anyone buying them may find themselves in
  trouble - deals too good to be true usually are. If you suspect
  that someone is attempting to sell you these chips, you are
  requested to contact your local FBI office (check the phone book
  for the number), and refer the agent in charge to casefile #87B-
  SC-15826. I checked with the local FBI office and they couldn't
  come up with the expected prices. From the numbers, we'd guess
  that between $300 and $500 per chip, retail, sounds right. This
  posting refers entirely to Intel brand chips, and not to second
  source compatible chips. This notice was posted at the request of
  the FBI." [So watch out for seedy-looking men in trenchcoats in
  dark alleys who want to sell you a cheap CPU.]

  Also for your reading pleasure, the text of Macintosh trainer-to-
  the-stars John Sculley's letter to George Bush. As usual, I
  couldn't resist making a few pointed comments.


Dear Mr. President:
  I was honored to be with you today for your announcement of the
  AMERICA 2000 Education initiative. From the first time we met
  right before your inauguration I have been convinced that no real
  reform would take place in American education until you seized the
  day with a call for this kind of comprehensive, dramatic and
  revolutionary action. The ideas you announced today, after our
  luncheon, will spark a national, grass-roots movement. You can
  count on our support. [We'd like to start with some Apple support
  for our international grass-roots movement for new ROMs. -Ed.]

  You announced that you want to learn how to operate a personal
  computer. Since I know a little about computers I am ready to
  teach you. It will only take four hours to learn how to operate
  the Macintosh Classic computer. [Yeah, but try teaching him to use
  Microsoft Word or PageMaker in that amount of time. -Ed.] This is
  the computer that was built by a young generation of Americans who
  wanted to have the power of modern computing, but wanted to have
  fun with it, too. [Damn right! -Ed.] You can drive this computer,
  and go wherever you want to, without having to be an auto
  mechanic. School kids and scientists are right now communicating
  with each other on the Apple Macintosh. There are hundreds of
  schools whose kids are linked together via our AppleLink network
  could have a nationwide conversation.

  I have given this same computer to President Gorbachev, and
  installed it in his office. Jack Kemp, Lamar Alexander, John
  Sununu, the governors of several states, the King of Thailand and
  the Presidents of Algeria and Turkey all have Macintosh computers
  that they use. [But how many of them read TidBITS? -Ed.] I would
  be delighted to help you with your goal of continuing education in
  computer operation.

  Let me know when you want to start. [Just don't start him off with
  Missile Command for mouse practice. -Ed.]

  Very sincerely,
  John Sculley Chairman, and CEO Apple Computer, Inc.

  Information from:
    Gene Spafford -- [e-mail]


Less-Than Prodigal
------------------
  When I asked Nisus's version of Webster's Electronic Thesaurus for
  a definition of "prodigy," it defined a prodigy as something that
  causes fascinated astonishment or admiration. Admiration is out,
  but Prodigy certainly causes fascinated astonishment. The latest
  slime to ooze from Prodigy (gee, am I being negative?) affects
  only people using IBM-PC clones, but that doesn't lessen the
  offense.

  Here's the deal. Prodigy keeps a file on your hard disk called
  STAGE.DAT that keeps track of which Prodigy screens you've used so
  that the software doesn't have to download them each time you go
  to that screen. Not unreasonable at all. Apparently, if you peek
  inside STAGE.DAT, you'll find lots of bits and pieces of
  information that are unrelated to anything that Prodigy should
  ever touch with its money-grubbing electronic fingers. People have
  found things like proprietary source code, confidential client
  records, tax information, and other good stuff that you probably
  wouldn't tell your shrink, much less a company accused of
  snuffling around in theoretically-private email. To be fair on
  that account, the company claims that it merely has the computer
  scan for key terms to prevent "bad" mail from causing trouble for
  it since it's responsible for the contents of the service. I'm not
  sure if electronic snuffling is any better than human snuffling,
  but that's another issue.

  I've seen conflicting reports from different people who've tried
  experiments with the Prodigy software to see what actually happens
  with the STAGE.DAT file. Several people reported finding
  information from their hard disks in their STAGE.DAT files.
  Another person reported no unusual information in his STAGE.DAT
  and noted that his modem spent approximately 95% of the time
  connected receiving information, thus making a Prodigy conspiracy
  to steal hard disk contents unlikely. However, Prodigy has
  admitted that it knows that its software could possibly copy
  random bits of information into the STAGE.DAT file and that it
  would be theoretically possible to upload that information to its
  central computers. However, Brian Ek, Prodigy's spokesman, says
  that Prodigy has never done this, has no intention of doing so,
  and would have to spend a lot of time and money if it wanted to do
  so.

  If you ignore Prodigy's tainted history and think about the issue,
  it's unlikely that Prodigy uploads information from subscribers'
  hard disks. First of all, Prodigy would have to spend an
  incredible amount of time and money collating and referencing the
  spotty information, which is equally as likely to be hexadecimal
  code as ASCII text. Second, Prodigy has primarily 1200 and 2400
  bips lines, which means that subscribers would notice their modems
  performing a significant amount of unexplained transmitting. Now
  stop ignoring Prodigy's history and look at the L.A. County
  District Attorney's current lawsuit against it for deceptive trade
  practices. The third reason Prodigy probably isn't making off with
  the contents of your hard disk is that such a practice would open
  it to serious legal attack from groups like the Electronic
  Frontier Foundation and Computer Professionals for Social
  Responsibility when Prodigy is already under legal fire.

  A more likely explanation for the hubbub is that Prodigy did a bad
  job programming its software so that the STAGE.DAT file includes
  bits of other information. The problem with this explanation is
  that it is apparently quite difficult to circumvent the normal
  operating system precautions that allow one file to have bits of
  others included in it. The Prodigy software does capture the
  contents of memory at installation and record that in STAGE.DAT,
  so perhaps that accounts for the inappropriate contents of the
  file. No reports of the Prodigy software damaging files have come
  in, so the error doesn't seem directly malicious. Nonetheless,
  given the possibilities, it is a mark against Prodigy that they
  didn't guard more closely to protect themselves from such
  accusations. It's a bit like the phone company having the
  capability (which they don't) to look through your file drawers
  when you're having a conversation on the phone. The phone company
  guards closely against any charges that it listens in on telephone
  conversations because wiretapping is a federal offense. It is
  technologically possible for the phone company to keep the
  receiver in the phone turned on all the time so it could listen in
  to all conversations in the house, but even the merest hint of
  such a policy would bring the legal roof down.

  In these days of heightened (but not unreasonable) sensitivity to
  personal privacy, any company that ventures into a grey area in
  which violations of privacy are possible should tread very
  carefully. Lotus found this out the hard way, investing ten
  million dollars in MarketPlace:Households and MarketPlace:Business
  before over 30,000 complaints, many from people on electronic
  services, convinced the company to cancel the mailing list CD-
  ROMs. With the possibility of this electronic burglary, Prodigy
  sits smack in the middle of the grey area with its connections and
  hyper-advertising. It has even advertised mailing lists culled
  from its subscriber lists in direct marketing magazines. Even if
  the company itself does not pursue a policy of systematic
  information theft, leaving it as an opportunity for an
  unscrupulous employee is negligent at best. Prodigy touts itself
  as a 50's family-style service, but if the company doesn't watch
  out, it could come instead to represent the grotesque offspring of
  Big Brother and a direct mail company.

  Information from:
    A. Padgett Peterson -- [e-mail]
    Bill Seurer -- [e-mail]
    John Viescas -- [e-mail]
    Bill J Biesty -- [e-mail]
    Chuq Von Rospach -- [e-mail]
    Mary Culnan -- [e-mail]
    Mark A. Emanuele -- overlf![e-mail]
    Raymond Chen -- [e-mail]
    ONG ENG TENG -- [e-mail]
    Don S Gladden -- [e-mail]
    Joe Wasik -- [e-mail]
    Joe Collins -- [e-mail]
    Paul Gauthier -- [e-mail]
    and many others who forwarded me the series of postings

  Related articles:
    PC WEEK -- 06-May-91, Vol. 8, #18, pg. 119


ROM Rumors
----------
  In the process of receiving over 500 electronic mail messages in
  support of our letter to Apple asking for a ROM upgrade (it
  actually asks for a statement of policy regarding the ROM
  upgrade), I've come across some interesting information on the
  topic.

  Connectix, the people who make Virtual and Maxima and are gurus at
  this sort of thing, are going to release a utility called MODE32.
  MODE32 will do exactly what A/UX does for those Macs with dirty
  ROMs - provide 32-bit cleanliness via software. Connectix will
  price the utility at $169, I've heard, which will make it a viable
  option if Apple fails to come out with a ROM upgrade or if the
  upgrade is exorbitantly priced. The main question with MODE32 is
  how compatible it will be. If it works on all the machines (it may
  require a specific version of the PMMU on the Mac II) and all
  software works with it and there are no strange bugs that go bump
  in the heap (and that's a lot of 'ifs,' even for Connectix), then
  MODE32 might become the 'in' utility among power users.

  A number of rumors have come in suggesting that Apple is indeed
  working on a ROM upgrade based on the 32-bit clean IIsi ROMs. Such
  an upgrade may take until the end of the year, though, in part
  because Apple is adding features as well as cleaning up the 24-bit
  ROMs. Those feature would certainly explain the delay, but it does
  make you wonder what they might put in. The primary candidate is
  the ability to boot from ROM since that's already shown up in the
  Classic ROMs, but there's probably not as much room in the IIsi
  ROMs, so there's no telling. The bad news from Apple was one
  report on CompuServe that Charlie Oppenheimer, Apple's Product
  Development Manager, said Apple was hoping the MODE32 would help
  solve the 32-bit ROM problem. That statement implies that Apple
  won't release anything for some time yet, if at all.

  On an interesting but completely useless note, the IIci ROMs are
  supposed to work in the IIcx and IIsi ROMs may work in the SE/30,
  so if any of you have a IIci or IIsi that you want to scrap so
  that you can use your beloved IIcx or SE/30 in 32-bit mode, feel
  free to pop them in (of course I could be wrong and it will fry
  everything, so don't try this at home on your own Macs, kids). On
  second thought, why don't you just send the IIci or IIsi over to
  us if you don't want it. :-)

    Connectix -- 800/950-5880

  Information from:
    Connectix propaganda -- [e-mail]
    David Ramsey -- 76702,335
    Walt Mossberg -- 72065,1050
    AFC Alex on America Online


Data-PCS, Please
----------------
  Boy we're getting to be a pain about all this letter writing,
  aren't we? OK, we promise to lay off for a while after this one.
  Remember Apple's petition to the FCC asking that a portion of the
  radio spectrum be set aside for Data-PCS (Data Personal
  Communications Service)? Data-PCS provides short range wireless
  network services and will be vendor-independent, so everyone gets
  to use it, not just Apple. Well, several people at Apple have
  requested the public's support now, and since the FCC deadline for
  outside comment ends May 10th, it seems appropriate to include
  instructions for making your views known to the FCC.

  Although 50 meters is a bit limiting for my tastes, wireless
  networking would truly ease much of effort spent hooking computer
  together today and would radically change the way people use
  networks. My personal favorite use of wireless networks requires
  some major advances in portable computers - the computer would
  automatically connect and disconnect from network services where
  ever you went, making available the full storage and processing
  power (remember the network distributed computing from a few
  issues back?) of the local network. Such a scheme would require
  extremely small portable computers that could be worn like a watch
  or in a shoulder belt. Displays would either be unnecessary
  because of voice feedback, in a small ear speaker if necessary, or
  would work along the lines of the Private Eye virtual display.
  Control would be voice-oriented with a small chord keyboard for
  quiet text entry, and ideally, brain wave control using DSP
  (digital signal processing) chips would be a reality by then. And
  all of this would center around the services provided by a
  wireless network for minium local storage and processing in the
  portable. Some day all this will become a reality, although it
  will require a shift in philosophy by designers and manufacturers.
  Wireless networking will help that paradigm shift.

  To ease some fears that this is purely a US issue (which it is at
  the moment, so those of you in other countries can ignore this),
  let me say that if Data-PCS gains support here, it is more likely
  to become an international standard. Apple looks favorably on the
  non-US markets, and would not like to have a product that could
  not be sold in those markets for lack of the radio band. Anyway,
  here's a template letter to send to the FCC if you feel strongly
  that wireless networking will make your life easier. You've all
  read enough computer manuals to figure out where to put in your
  information.

    (On your institution's letterhead if possible.)

    (Date)
    Hon. Alfred C. Sikes, Chairman
    Federal Communications Commission
    Washington, D.C. 20554

    Reference: Rulemaking  7618


Dear Mr. Chairman:

  We (I) understand that Apple Computer, Inc. ("Apple") has asked
  the FCC to allocate spectrum to establish a new radio service
  ("Data-PCS") for local area high speed communications among
  personal computing devices. We are writing to urge you to grant
  Apple's request (RM-7618).

  (Please describe in the text your views on how Data-PCS could be
  important to you.)

  Information from:
    Bill Stevens -- [e-mail]
    John Forre -- [e-mail]
    Bob Snyder -- [e-mail]


Reviews/06-May-91
-----------------

* MacWEEK
    File Transfer Programs, pg. 31
      LapLink Mac 3.0
      SendExpress 2.0.1
      Mac-to-Mac 1.1.0
    Taste 1.01
    Video Capture Boards, pg. 34
      ComputerEyes/Pro
      ColorSnap 32+
      QuickImage 24
      ColorBoard 364
    Personal Information Managers, pg. 38
      ThoughtPattern
      Docu-Mentor

References:
    MacWEEK -- 30-Apr-91, Vol. 5, #17


..

 This text is encoded in the setext format. Please send email to
 <[e-mail]> or contact us at one of the above addresses
 to learn how to get more information on the setext format.