Mac Expert 1995 Winter/Mac Expert - Winter 95.iso/Les fichiers/Tidbits/Tidbits 201 à 280/TidBITS#221⁄11-Apr-94

Text File | 1994-04-11 | 29.2 KB | 635 lines | [TEXT/ttxt]

TidBITS#221/11-Apr-94
=====================

Communications upgrades fill this issue, with a letter about how
   the ARA server 2.0 won't work on a Mac Plus and articles by
   Mark Anbinder on a minor upgrade to CE's QuickMail Server and
   a major upgrade to the popular FirstClass BBS program. Readers
   explain in detail how MTBF testing works, and we pass on a
   warning about how MacInTax might be calculating your taxes.

This issue of TidBITS sponsored in part by:
* APS Technologies -- 800/443-4199 -- [e-mail]
   Makers of hard drives, tape drives, memory, and accessories.
   For APS price lists, email: [e-mail]

Copyright 1990-1994 Adam & Tonya Engst. Details at end of issue.
   Automated info: <[e-mail]> Comments: <[e-mail]>
   --------------------------------------------------------------

Topics:
    MailBITS/11-Apr-94
    MTBF Revealed
    CE Fixes QM Server
    MacInTax & Common Cents
    FirstClass 2.5 Ships
    Reviews/11-Apr-94

[Archived as /info-mac/per/tb/tidbits-221.etx; 30K]


MailBITS/11-Apr-94
------------------
  Our apologies if we haven't responded to email sent to us late
  last week. We were in Indianapolis days talking with the folks at
  Hayden about various books and explaining to the publishers of the
  different Prentice Hall Computer Publishing imprints about what
  the Internet is about. Email piled up, and we're still catching
  up.

  Another minor pileup in email might occur next week, because we'll
  be in San Rafael and the Bay Area on 21-Apr-94 to sign copies of
  our books at the Borders store in San Rafael and at a Stacey's
  bookstore somewhere else in the Bay Area. We'll have more details
  next week, but the Stacey's signing is in the afternoon and the
  Borders one is in the evening. We'd love it if people came by and
  rescued us from author hell, which is sitting at a table with
  stacks of books and people stopping by to ask where the travel
  books are located.


**Jack Mello** <[e-mail]> reported his frustrating
  experience after updating a Mac Plus from ARA 1.0 to 2.0 and
  attempting to configure the settings: "This caused the machine to
  give me a Finder error. The only option was to hit the Restart
  button in the error dialog. Assuming that the problem must be with
  the installation I cleared out the ARA files and tried the
  installation again, and again! By the third time I was pretty
  certain that I had my end right. At this point I laid my hands on
  the phone and typed out the Apple SOS phone number."

  The support person at the other end of the SOS line confirmed the
  problem and suggested it might be a conflict with the Plus's ROMs.
  Although the first person Jack spoke to mentioned that a fix or
  patch might be forthcoming, a fix hasn't shown up yet. You might
  be wondering what the big deal is, what with the Plus being so
  old, but in many ways - and especially for organizations on
  limited budgets - an old Plus is the perfect choice for a server.
  Jack wasn't sure about whether or not the client version of ARA
  2.0 works on a Plus, but it would be worth checking on.


MTBF Revealed
-------------
  We commented last week that we didn't know how that increasingly
  large mean time between failure (MTBF) number is calculated for
  hard drives. Luckily, the beauty of having so many knowledgeable
  readers (and a few comedians) is that we receive good answers to
  such questions.


**Luca Accomazzi** <[e-mail]> suggests
  helpfully:
  I may have an answer about how to determine a MTBF of 500,000
  hours. Buy 500,000 drives and turn them on. Watch and see how many
  die in one hour. If only one does, then you have a MTBF of 500,000
  hours. Check to make sure that you have an ample supply of plugs
  before you try that at home, though.


**E. Warwick Daw** <[e-mail]> writes:
  I don't know for sure how drive manufacturers do it, but the
  methods usually used for things like this are called "survival
  analysis." If you really want to know all the details, I'd suggest
  looking in the statistics section of your library for the theory,
  and then the industrial engineering and medical research sections
  for the applications. The basic idea is that you take 1,000 hard
  disk drives, turn them on, and let them run. Now, since MTBF is
  only an average, even if you have a very long MTBF, if you have
  enough drives, you will expect to see a few failures relatively
  quickly. So, say 5 of your 1,000 drives fail in six months of
  testing. You take your data and, making certain mathematical
  assumptions, you fit a "survival curve" (a plot of the number
  still working vs. time) to it. From this curve, you can calculate
  a predicted MTBF based on your mathematical assumptions.

  As a pure mathematician turned applied mathematician, I am quite
  skeptical of claims of a half-century MTBF based on a few months
  of testing. IMHO, the usual mathematical assumptions about how
  complex mechanical devices wear out just don't apply over decades,
  but I can't really judge the methods used by the drive
  manufacturers without examining them closely.

  In any case, although I take MTBF ratings with a grain of salt, I
  do still consider them useful, and, all other things being equal,
  I would get the drive with the higher MTBF. Just realize that what
  the MTBF represents is the chance that the drive will crash in the
  first year you have it, and not the total lifetime of the drive.


**Caesar Chavez** <[e-mail]> explains:
  I have been out of the "reliability business" for a few years. But
  I may be able to provide you with some information regarding disk
  reliability.

  Disk drive reliability from the mid-70s to the mid-80s improved by
  a factor of five, from 10,000 hours to 50,000 hours. I didn't
  realize that their reliability has improved so dramatically in the
  last few years. You are right in that engineers have discovered a
  way of testing hardware in an accelerated way.

  In order to derive MTBF numbers, some assumptions are normally
  made. First of all, a level of ambient temperature is assumed,
  usually room temperature with cooling and/or fans providing air
  flow. Second, the devices are not turned off and on often. Third,
  mechanical parts are guaranteed to be lubricated properly. Fourth,
  oftentimes the devices are "burned in," which means they were run
  while cycling power and temperature for a time in order to "shake
  out" weak devices, defining the term "infant mortality." Fifth, a
  semiconductor part is assumed to receive all signals and power
  within narrow tolerances. Under these ideal conditions, a
  manufacturer can provide an MTBF number for a device.

  These specifications provide the key for accelerated testing.
  Military and aerospace standards, which by necessity require
  extremely high reliability numbers, typically state that for each
  10 degrees of temperature rise, parts will fail at some
  extrapolated rate. If memory serves me correctly, if mechanical or
  semiconducting devices specified to be operated at 20 degrees
  centigrade are operated at 50 degrees centigrade instead, they
  will fail three times or eight times as often respectively. An
  electromechanical device such as a disk drive, under elevated
  temperature, will fail at a much higher rate weighted by the
  amount of electrical versus mechanical parts contained in it.
  Therefore, reliability numbers may be derived by running a device
  at an elevated temperature for a much shorter period of time than
  would normally be required in order to generate failure rates
  under normal operating conditions. In addition, power cycling may
  be used to accelerate failures; sometimes signals and power input
  or output may be operated outside of normal manufacturer-specified
  operating conditions. Application of these failure-inducing
  processes to MTBF rates is called "derating" a part under stress.

  NASA and the Department of Defense have spent billions of dollars
  and years to verify their conclusions. As you stated, for the
  normal, non-military user, if a device is run under normal
  operating conditions in terms of temperature, power, and power
  cycling, quality commercial-grade disk drives should last for a
  long time.


**John Woods** <[e-mail]> confirms:
  In most cases, the manufacturers run their MTBF tests at elevated
  temperatures and voltages, having determined through empirical
  tests the relationship between how fast you accelerate the failure
  of key parts if you exceed the specs by just how much. They also
  do some analysis from the MTBF of individual components (sometimes
  learned from the previous method) and calculate the system MTBF
  accordingly. Some manufacturers may be just guessing, though...

  I pay much more attention to the warranty period than to the MTBF,
  since the warranty period isn't a guess or a statistical
  prediction, it's a promise. A 57-year MTBF coupled with a 1-year
  warranty sounds as though the company in question isn't all that
  sure of its MTBF figure.


**Rich Straka** <[e-mail]> provides more details:
  First, a little explanation on failures. There is a general
  concept of failures that breaks them up into three categories:

* Infant mortality - Manufacturing defects, DOAs, and so on.
  These are things like wire nicks, poor soldering, etc. Basically,
  we're talking about manufacturing anomalies that should fail
  within the warranty period.

* Wearout - Simple, known processes which degrade something.
  Common examples include muffler rust-through, auto body rust, etc.

* Everything else - (I forget if this has a more proper term.)
  These are random failures of parts which are already past their
  infant mortality ("burned-in"), but not yet at that wearout stage.
  This is the kind of failure that MTBFs are based upon.

  The "Bathtub Curve" is a plot of the general failure rate of some
  component or system:


>   Failure rate
>
>       Infant           Everything              Wearout
>       Mortality          Else
>
> High  |\                                         /
>       | \                                       /
>       |  \                                     /
>       |   \___________________________________/
> Zero  |___________________________________________________
>       0
>                           Time


**MTBFs** -- System MTBFs are tricky things to begin with. I would
  assume that there are all sorts of ways of coming up with them.
  Their reliability as a measure of quality is highly dependent on
  the ethics of those who determine them and quote them.

  One way is to measure the failure rate by firing up a lot of units
  and waiting a long time for failures to occur. Infant mortality is
  not counted (for obvious reasons). Wearout failures are not
  usually counted either. For example, muffler MTBF is relatively
  low (if, indeed anybody even considers such a figure), but muffler
  wearout is relatively common and predictable. These are _not_ the
  same things!

  Another way is to come up with a composite MTBF, comprised of the
  individual MTBFs of all of the components of the system. I'm not
  up on the math typically used for this assessment. Each of the
  components, of course must have a properly assessed MTBF.

  For any MTBF, operating environments (temperature, voltage, etc.)
  must be specified. For hard disks, it's not clear if they ever
  power cycle them, for instance. I suspect not, and that's the
  subject of another conversation.

**Accelerated Testing** -- Instead of waiting around for failures,
  it is possible to characterize a type of failure
  (electromigration, sodium contamination, etc.) of individual
  components based on operating temperature.

  A Swedish chemist and physicist by the name of Arrhenius developed
  an equation stating that many chemical and physical processes are
  governed by temperature, where the speed of reaction of a process
  is proportional to the natural antilog (e to the power) of some
  constant times the absolute temperature.

  In order to determine the acceleration of the reaction rate of a
  process, you calculate the rates for the two temperatures of
  interest and divide them. The actual numbers are of little
  interest, the ratio is what is important here.

  This constant is known as the device's "activation energy," which
  is specified in units of electron-volts. Common values are 0.7 -
  0.9 eV, which is a _big_ range (being up in the exponent).

  Most folks in the quality business do tests (testing failure rates
  at different temperatures) to determine a device's activation
  energy.

  With this information in hand, they can then test devices at high
  temperatures to simulate long service times. They calculate the
  acceleration factor for a particular temperature from the
  Arrhenius equation, enabling them to test many years' worth of
  wear in just a few weeks. This is how we used to test the data
  retention parameters of EPROMs back in the late 70s.


CE Fixes QM Server
------------------
  by Mark H. Anbinder, News Editor -- [e-mail]
     Director of Technical Services, Baka Industries Inc.

  Late last month, CE Software, Inc. announced a new release of its
  QuickMail electronic mail server software, version 2.6v2. The
  update, which affects only the server software, fixes two problems
  in previous versions.

  CE reports that, when messages with large file enclosures were
  forwarded from one user to another, other local users were
  sometimes disconnected from the server. CE also corrected a
  problem that prevented the 57th and 170th users defined in any
  given MailCenter's user list (alphabetically) from connecting to
  the server remotely using the QM Remote utility.

  CE will distribute new QuickMail packages with the fixed software.
  CE customers who pay for premium support will receive a disk-based
  updater. Other customers may download an updater from CE's support
  forums on America Online, CompuServe, and AppleLink, or the
  Internet from:

ftp://toto.ycc.yale.edu/pub/mac/quickmail/ce/QM_Server_2.6v2.sea.hqx

  QuickMail users without Internet or online service access may
  request the update on disk for $10 by calling CE Software.

  The updater utility works on existing installations of QuickMail
  server software 2.6 or 2.6v1. CE released a 2.6v1 updater a few
  months ago. There have also been 2.6v1 updates for the QuickMail
  client software, the QM Administrator application, and the
  NameServer control panel since QuickMail 2.6 was released last
  year. You can find at least some of the previous updaters in:

ftp://toto.ycc.yale.edu/pub/mac/quickmail/ce/

    CE Software, Inc. -- 800/523-7635 -- 515/221-1801
      515/221-1806 (fax)


MacInTax & Common Cents
-----------------------
  by Tonya Engst, TidBITS Editor -- [e-mail]

  If you live in the U.S. and haven't yet filed your tax return,
  chances are you're planning a small adventure in accounting in the
  next few days.

  If you use MacInTax, be aware that the program pinches pennies
  differently from last year. ChipSoft modified MacInTax so that it
  only uses the Whole Dollar Method (where you round entries on the
  forms and schedules to the nearest dollar, instead of entering in
  the actual dollars and cents amount). It seems that the initial
  release of MacInTax not only did not allow you to enter pennies on
  the main 1040, it also truncated the amount. In response to what
  appears to have been a fair amount of customer outcry, ChipSoft
  released MacInTax 11.01b, which instead of truncating, rounds the
  dollar and cents amount that you enter on the 1040. To acquire
  11.01b (or more likely, the latest revision, 11.01c), call the 800
  number below. Expect about a week to receive the update unless you
  want to pay the Fed-Ex charge yourself. Sorry, you can't update
  via modem or the nets.

  If you want the rounding capabilities in 11.01b, but don't yet
  have the update, Mark Goines, ChipSoft Director of Product
  Marketing, suggests the following workarounds:

* All itemizations in MacInTax accept both dollars and cents, then
  round the total of all the line items and transfer that total to
  the appropriate form. If you wish, you can create an itemization
  for any field, and so produce a return in which all amounts have
  been rounded to the nearest dollar.

* You may simply round the amounts before entering them. And, note
  that on the W-2s and 1099s, which the IRS requires to contain both
  dollars and cents, MacInTax does indeed accept both dollars and
  cents.

  Some people want to enter pennies on their 1040s, a perfectly
  legal practice. The ChipSoft response on their CompuServe forum
  was that the pennies option was removed by request of the IRS. A
  call to tech support revealed additional possible reasons for the
  software change. According to Bunny Bedell, the Whole Dollar
  Method helps to speed up the program and reduce memory
  consumption. Bunny's take on the situation was that next year's
  MacInTax will probably let you enter pennies, if you wish. Bunny
  also commented that from the IRS's perspective, rounded amounts
  are simpler to work with.

  Ed Fortmiller <[e-mail]> points out that "the
  problem with this approach is that it doesn't allow the user to
  optionally retain the cents, which in some cases results in users
  paying more than the legal minimum tax. The higher tax results
  when rounding to achieve the Whole Dollar Method pushes the user
  who uses the tax tables into the next higher grouping. For
  instance a single person with an income of $49999.99 would pay $14
  more tax using MacInTax since the income would be rounded to
  $50,000 thus pushing the person into the next higher $50 group."

  Mark acknowledged the problem, and pointed out more specifically
  how the problem could occur, saying that you would only be moved
  to $50,000 and thus incur the $14 more in tax if you took only the
  _standard_ deduction. If you _itemize_ deductions, as 84 percent
  of MacInTax users did last year, you likely would not be pushed
  into the $50,000 level.

  Although it looks like many of the problems could be fixed by
  itemizing or paying attention, a quick read of the CompuServe
  forum for ChipSoft reveals a number of examples of people
  penalized by not being able to enter cents, so if you use
  MacInTax, you'll want to be aware of what you do with your
  pennies.

  On a related note, although my contact with ChipSoft about the
  problem was entirely positive (Bunny at tech support acknowledged
  the issues involved and Mark Goines promptly wrote back with
  clarifications), Ed had much worse luck in feeling that ChipSoft
  cared about his problems with the lack of being able to enter
  pennies - and based on my quick tour through the CompuServe forum,
  I see why. Responses were generic and corporate and gave little
  sense that the company cared about its customers - whether or not
  removing the feature was a good business decision in terms of
  improving the program, failing to be sufficiently sympathetic in
  an area as charged as tax filing is a guaranteed way to lose
  customers to the competition.

    ChipSoft -- 800/964-1040 (sales) -- 602/295-3080 (support)

  Information from:
    Ed Fortmiller <[e-mail]>
    Bunny Bedell, MacInTax Technical Support
    Mark Goines, ChipSoft Director of Product Marketing


FirstClass 2.5 Ships
--------------------
  by Mark H. Anbinder, News Editor -- [e-mail]
     Director of Technical Services, Baka Industries Inc.

  Better late than never, say owners of Soft-Arc's FirstClass
  messaging software. SoftArc shipped the long-awaited FirstClass
  2.5 at the end of March, making it available to existing customers
  immediately on SoftArc Online, their own FirstClass server.
  Customizable message forms, enhanced email functions, and database
  access are among the highlights of the new release.

  FirstClass is popular as BBS software for companies providing
  technical support, as a corporate email and conferencing system,
  and even as the base software for professional-looking local
  bulletin boards. FirstClass supports email and other basic
  messaging features at its core, along with threaded discussion
  capabilities, file transfer, database access, and online chatting.

  Although SoftArc originally intended to ship the release in late
  1993, they delayed the release in order to respond to beta
  testers' reports and suggestions. Nick Chinn of Global Village
  Communication, which uses FirstClass to provide support,
  information, and software updates to customers, says he's "always
  happy when a developer admits there are bugs in the software and
  is not willing to release the product until it is ready. Extended
  beta testing periods also let a developer add overlooked features
  based on feedback from customers."

  In addition to sharing administrator functions on Global Village's
  support BBS, Nick is the admin or co-admin on two other systems,
  including a public BBS operated out of his home. One important
  improvement 2.5 provides is the ability for multiple connection
  schedules and automatic retries of failed connections for server-
  to-server gateway links. This is important to Global Village
  "because we like to get our support conference questions answered
  quickly and then transmitted out immediately."

  FirstClass 2.5's directory synchronization capability stands out
  as one of its sexiest features. Large organizations can use
  multiple FirstClass servers spread over several local-area
  networks, linked by routers, WAN connections, or even on-demand
  modem links, and keep a consistent user directory on each server.
  Mail sent to a user is automatically earmarked for the correct
  server and properly routed, whether over a traditional network
  connection, dialup connection, or other link. SoftArc says that
  even with as many as 100,000 defined users, the FirstClass server
  quickly completes directory searches and name matches.

  For larger networks, such as the international OneNet network that
  has sprung up based on the FirstClass architecture, servers can
  exchange only routing information rather than entire directories.
  Each server sends its neighbors the list of other servers it knows
  about and can reach. This means that users must provide the user
  name and site name for an intended recipient, but FirstClass
  automatically determines how to best route the message to its
  recipient. The FirstClass name-matching feature works even at a
  distance; users need only provide enough of an intended
  recipient's name to match it uniquely at the destination site. If
  there isn't a unique match, the destination site returns a list of
  "hits" so the sender can try again.

  Other email functions SoftArc introduced include: automatic
  message forwarding (even over an Internet or fax gateway), auto-
  replying, and message receipts (which can indicate when the
  message was routed, delivered, or read). SoftArc is also shipping
  its forms editor, allowing administrators to create customized
  message forms or edit existing ones. This meshes well with the
  "stationery" capability, permitting administrators to set up
  pre-addressed forms that users can fill out and send with a
  minimum of effort.

  FirstClass 2.5 also offers impressive new database access
  features. Third parties are already providing database query
  extensions to permit FirstClass users to access SQL and DAL
  databases. EveryWare Development Corporation offers 411 for
  FirstClass, which can access the company's multi-user Butler SQL
  database server, and TGF Technologies has shipped FirstConnect to
  access DAL-compliant database servers. The FirstClass database API
  is sufficiently flexible that it's likely to spawn a suite of
  Internet information access products in the future.

  Usenet readers should be particularly interested in the improved
  non-delivery notification handling with gateways. As more and more
  FirstClass systems connect to the Internet with a gateway,
  incorrect configuration has on numerous occasions led to "NDN"
  messages sent to unsuspecting, and understandably frustrated,
  Internet users. By default, FirstClass 2.5 suppresses conference
  error messages when a gateway is involved; bounce messages will of
  course still be sent when messages to individual addresses are
  undeliverable.

  SoftArc says the new version incorporates speed increases for
  modem connections and wide-area networks, and in particular for
  file uploads. At the same time, the server and client software
  encrypts all packets regardless of the communications medium, so
  all messages, files, and login transactions are exchanged in a
  secure manner.

  One area still lacking in FirstClass is its command-line user
  interface, or CLUI. Although this feature (an option on corporate
  mail configurations) enables anyone with a VT-100 terminal or
  emulator to access a FirstClass server, it lacks the elegance of
  the Macintosh and Windows graphical interface software. Many
  first-time users "find it difficult to navigate," according to
  Nick Chinn, who would like "some degree of ability to custom
  configure the CLUI interface."

  An immediate project for SoftArc now that FirstClass 2.5 has
  shipped will be to take the DOS client software off the back
  burner and do some serious work. A DOS client will give an
  alternative to the vast majority of users now restricted to the
  CLUI. SoftArc also plans to build TCP/IP support directly into the
  server and client software; currently, TCP/IP connections can be
  arranged only through the software's built-in support for the
  Communications Toolbox, using third-party MacTCP-compatible
  connection tools.

  The FirstClass Client software is available for Macintosh and
  Windows users, and you may download it from America Online,
  CompuServe, or SoftArc Online (416/609-2250). It will no doubt
  appear on the Internet soon. Registered owners may download the
  new server software directly from SoftArc Online or may order a
  $95 upgrade package that includes a complete set of disks and
  documentation. (SoftArc completely rewrote their comprehensive
  manuals for this release.) At this time - because the
  documentation is being printed - SoftArc is shipping FirstClass
  server 2.4.1 and client 2.0.9 to new purchasers. If you buy the
  older versions, you will receive the 2.5 software and
  documentation for free.

    SoftArc Inc. -- 416-299-4723 -- 416- 754-1856 (fax)
      [e-mail]
    EveryWare Development -- 905-819-1173 -- 905-819-1172 (fax)
    TGF Technologies -- 802-660-4911 -- 802-862-1890 (fax)

  Information from:
    SoftArc propaganda


Reviews/11-Apr-94
-----------------

* MacWEEK -- 04-Apr-94, Vol. 8, #14
    PixelPaint Pro 3.0 -- pg. 43
    Quadra 610, DOS Compatible -- pg. 44
    OAI CD/Maxtet -- pg. 48
    Inexpensive Desktop Scanners -- pg. 51

* InfoWorld -- 04-Apr-94, Vol. 16, #14
    ClarisImpact 1.0 -- pg. 82
    Farallon EtherWave  -- pg. 104
    FoxPro 2.5 -- pg. 105
    SuperDoubler  -- pg. 105

* Macworld -- Jan-94
    Adobe Premiere 3.0 -- pg. 48
    Canvas 3.5 -- pg. 49
    Rae Assist 1.0.2 -- pg. 50
    Apple Portable StyleWriter -- pg. 51
    EtherPeek 2.0.3, LocalPeek 2.0.3, TokenPeek 1.0 -- pg. 53
    Apple PowerCD -- pg. 55
    upFront 2.0 -- pg. 57
    Working Watermarker 1.02 -- pg. 59
    Redux Deluxe 2.0.2 -- pg. 61
    MacPak 1.0 -- pg. 61
    HP Optical Disk Library 10LC -- pg. 63
    DiskLock PB 1.0 -- pg. 65
    DupLocator 1.03 -- pg. 65
    DriveTech 1.0 -- pg. 67
    Tableworks Plus 1.05 -- pg. 75
    Mirror 800 Plus Color Scanner -- pg. 77
    VersaTerm 5.0 -- pg. 77
    QC Tools 1.0 -- pg. 79
    AboutFace 1.1.1 -- pg. 79
    The Rosetta Stone -- pg. 81
    Visualization of Natural Phenomena -- pg. 81
    How Computers Work -- pg. 83
    Hell Cab 1.0.2 -- pg. 83
    Small Monitors -- pg. 86
      (too many to list)
    Document Exchange Programs -- pg. 102
      Adobe Distiller 1.0
      Adobe Exchange 1.0
      DynaText 2.0
      Replica 1.0
      FrameReader
      WorldView 1.1
      Common Ground 1.0
    Hand Scanners -- pg. 108
      Caere OmniScan
      Logitech ScanMan 32
      Mustek Langelo Color
      LightningScan 400
      LightningScan Compact
      LightningScan Portable
      LightningScan Pro 256


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