Mac Expert 1995 Winter/Mac Expert - Winter 95.iso/Les fichiers/Tidbits/Tidbits 201 à 280/TidBITS#259⁄16-Jan-95

Text File | 1995-01-17 | 29.3 KB | 624 lines | [TEXT/ttxt]

TidBITS#259/16-Jan-95
=====================

News of the first Macintosh clones and Apple's set-top CD-ROM
   player appears in this issue, as does an article about
   Connectix's cute QuickCam video camera. Geoff Duncan looks
   at the GIF fiasco spawned by Unisys and CompuServe in more
   depth, and we review SimTower from Maxis. Finally for you
   addicts out there, Bungie now has an official Marathon
   Web site.

This issue of TidBITS sponsored in part by:
* APS Technologies -- 800/443-4199 -- <[e-mail]>
   Makers of hard drives, tape drives, and neat SCSI accessories.
   For APS price lists, email: <[e-mail]> <---- new
* Northwest Nexus -- 206/455-3505 -- http://www.halcyon.com
   Providing access to the global Internet. <[e-mail]>
* PowerCity Online -- Prices & info: <[e-mail]>
   Online email ordering of 40,000 items of software and hardware.
* Hayden Books, an imprint of Macmillan Computer Publishing
   Save 20% on all books via the Web -- http://www.mcp.com

Copyright 1990-1995 Adam & Tonya Engst. Details at end of issue.
   Automated info: <[e-mail]> Comments: <[e-mail]>
   --------------------------------------------------------------

Topics:
    MailBITS/16-Jan-95
    The Clone Zone
    The End of the GIF-Giving Season
    Pippin Pops Up
    SimTower: The Fun of Trump Without the Bankruptcy
    Video for Everyone
    Reviews/16-Jan-95

[Archived as /info-mac/per/tb/tidbits-259.etx; 30K]


MailBITS/16-Jan-95
------------------
  Today is a national holiday in the U.S. - Martin Luther King Day.
  For those in other countries who don't know, Martin Luther King,
  Jr. was among the most well-known of the civil rights leaders in
  the 1960s and winner of the 1964 Nobel Peace Prize.

  Why do I bring up this holiday? Because, in a moment of
  reflection, I think King would have approved of the Internet as a
  medium of communication, one in which race has no impact. In his
  famous 1963 "I have a dream" speech, King said, "I have a dream
  that my four little children will one day live in a nation where
  they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the
  content of their character." That dream can see the daylight of
  reality in the most virtual of places, the Internet. We would do
  well to remember King's dream and work to bring it to fruition
  outside the Internet as well. [ACE]


**500-series PowerBook owners** with Apple's PCMCIA expansion
  module have been reporting problems with type III PCMCIA devices
  sticking in the slot, modem driver problems, and grounding trouble
  with the upper slot when certain cards are inserted. A revised
  module, M2995LL/B, will replace the original (M2995LL/A) by the
  end of January. Affected owners (such as those with an Apple
  Mobile Message System paging card) will be able to request a
  replacement. (Further details will be available later this month.)
  New modem drivers will be available separately in a version 1.0.1
  update for the module's flash ROM for users who are not
  experiencing hardware difficulties. [MHA]


**Peter Lewis** <[e-mail]> comments
  regarding the heat-sensitive paper we mentioned in TidBITS-258_:
  Now what we really need is paper that changes colour when you run
  it through a laser printer, and then changes back after a few
  days. That way you could print out stuff, read it, and then reuse
  the paper the next week after the print had faded. Think of all
  the saved trees. Not to mention the fun you'd have using it for
  contracts.


**Mike Cohen** <[e-mail]> writes in regard to the Newton
  Web browser and the Windows 95 presence at Macworld in
  TidBITS-258_:

  I saw AllPen's Newton Web browser at the Newton VAR show in
  Cupertino on Thursday and at Digital Ocean's booth at Macworld. It
  requires a Mac-based server, since current Newtons don't support
  TCP/IP or even SLIP or PPP. Even on a small Newton, it's pretty
  neat. Unfortunately, the older sample version (local only with a
  few built-in pages) doesn't properly recognize my 110's screen
  size.

  Also, in regard to Dell's presence at Macworld, Dell was showing a
  $4,000 development system "especially for Mac developers doing
  Windows 95 development." It was part of the push to lure Mac
  developers to the Windows world. They also advertise it in
  Microsoft's four-page ad in the new issue of MacTech.

  We don't plan to do any Windows development (other than providing
  connectivity for our Newton data collection software) since it
  just doesn't pay. Several developers posted similar concerns on
  <comp.sys.mac.advocacy> noting that, even though there are ten
  times as many Windows systems, the amount of software sold is only
  about twice the amount sold for the Mac. Since more tech support
  is needed for Windows, developing for Windows can actually be
  _less_ profitable.


**J. J. Lodder** <[e-mail]> comments that in addition to
  Open Door Networks (see TidBITS-258_), knoware, a Dutch non-profit
  foundation, has been providing dial-up Internet access via ARA for
  almost a year. The price is Dfl 5/hour = US$3/hour, or Dfl
  700/year for unlimited access up to 28,800 bps, exclusive of local
  phone rates.

  This method of providing Internet access is still uncommon,
  although it does make one wonder how many Internet providers would
  spring up using this method if Apple gave the ARA client software
  away for free and sold the server. [ACE]


**Jake Peters** <[e-mail]> writes:
  One of my fellow employees recently purchased the Visioneer
  PaperPort scanner. There are two amazing things about it - the
  size and the interface software. When you insert a piece of paper
  in the scanner, it automatically scans the page and opens the
  PaperPort software. Once the page has been scanned in, you can
  drag multiple pages together to make a stack. Then, let's say you
  want to fax the set of five pages to someone else. All you do is
  drag the stack to the image of a fax machine, and it will fax the
  document. The PaperPort software also works with PowerTalk and
  enables you to print the documents or save them in a variety of
  graphical file formats.


**Marathon**, the popular Doom-like game for the Macintosh, now
  has an "official" World-Wide Web site. So those of you who can't
  get enough of the game can get a little more while you're on the
  Web. [ACE]

http://www.netweb.com/mall/marathon/


**Kids World demo** -- In TidBITS-255_, I reviewed Kids World, a
  kid's program for creating animated screen savers. Those wanting
  to give Kids World a trial run can check out the demo, which
  offers a good idea of what using Kids World is like, but only
  gives access to Backyard World and the painting tools. If you try
  the demo, you can see a special animation by positioning the cat
  and dog close together. [TJE]

ftp://ftp.netcom.com/pub/ju/juggler/mac/Kids_World_Demo.hqx


**Philip Enslow** <[e-mail]> writes:
  The First and Second WWW Conferences are now history and planning
  is underway for the Third to be held in Darmstadt in April. The
  official Proceedings of the First Conference have now been
  published as a Special Issue of Computer Networks and ISDN Systems
  which contains eighteen of the best papers. For further
  information on the journal, see:

http://www.elsevier.nl/

  The Proceedings of the Second Conference are being prepared for
  publication as a Special Issue also. The Third Conference, which
  will be much smaller than the Second (which turned out to be
  enormous), will also use the Journal to publish its proceedings.
  The Fourth Conference is tentatively scheduled for Boston in
  November or December of 1995.


The Clone Zone
--------------
  by Tonya Engst <[e-mail]>

  If you read much in the way of computer-related media, you almost
  certainly know that Apple has licensed its MacOS to a few sundry
  companies, making it possible for these companies to sell
  Macintosh clones. As Macintosh users struggle to wrap our minds
  around the fact that in the future only a few super-savvy souls
  will be able to track all the currently available Macintosh
  computers, two companies - Radius and Power Computing - have risen
  out of the morass of possible licensees and announced concrete
  plans to ship clones in the first half (if not sooner) of 1995.


**Radius** -- Radius has long made accelerator boards, video
  cards, and the like for the Macintosh, so it comes as no big
  surprise that they will be early clone makers. Apparently, Radius
  plans to offer several clones to help people push the speed
  envelope with desktop publishing and video. One such clone, dubbed
  the VideoVision Workstation, is intended as dream machine for
  people doing video on the Mac, and will ship with
  Radius/VideoFusion's Radius Edit program, a program that video
  producers should find analogous to the higher-end systems they've
  been using for editing video. Radius Edit will also support
  QuickDraw GX fonts. Radius Edit will also ship separately in the
  first quarter of 1995 for around $1,000.


**Power Computing** -- While Radius readies clones for the high
  end, Power Computing is putting together clones for the average
  user. Power Computing hopes to offer a highly affordable PowerPC-
  based clone, and (according to MacWEEK) to sell their clones
  through popular mail order houses, a procedure that makes sense to
  many involved, but not for Apple dealers or educational resellers
  who might like to share this piece of the clone pie. Power
  Computing may also sell Macintosh components to other vendors who
  would then create their own systems.

  Don't expect PowerBook clones any time this year, and my crystal
  ball fogs up completely when I ask when anyone outside of North
  America will be able to conveniently purchase clones.

    Radius -- 408/541-6100 -- 800/227-2795 -- 408/541-5094 (fax)


The End of the GIF-Giving Season
--------------------------------
  by Geoff Duncan <[e-mail]>

  On January 3rd, 1995, an announcement appeared in CompuServe's
  GRAPHSUPPORT forum that sent a shock wave through the online
  community. Apparently, the popular GIF graphics file format was
  now proprietary and users must have secured a license from
  CompuServe by January 10th in order to keep using GIF files. As it
  turned out, this interpretation wasn't entirely congruent with the
  truth, but that didn't stop the firestorm of debate that ensued.

  GIF (Graphics Interchange Format) is a graphics file format
  introduced by CompuServe in 1987. Its purpose was to enable users
  on multiple platforms - Macs, PCs, Amigas, or whatever - to
  download and view pictures. Back in the days of 1200 baud modems,
  GIFs were pretty much just time-consuming curiosities. But as
  bandwidth increased, more tools became available, and as the
  Internet and BBS communities expanded, GIF became the de facto
  standard for distributing graphics online. Not surprisingly, it's
  also the graphic format of choice for the World-Wide Web, and is
  the only graphics format supported internally by the three major
  Macintosh Web browsers. (Netscape also supports JPEG; see below.)

  So why the controversy, especially over a file format that's been
  around for years? The problem lies in the GIF format's use of LZW
  (Lempel-Zev-Welch) compression and decompression. Graphic files
  can be very large: a full-screen (640 x 480), 256-color image
  requires 2,457,600 bits of memory to be represented internally by
  your computer. (That translates to about 300K.) In those days of
  1200 baud modems, no one in their right mind downloaded a 300K
  file just to see a picture. By making use of LZW compression,
  however, that same file could be considerably smaller in GIF
  format, although the exact amount of savings varied depending on
  the picture. Suddenly downloading graphics became more practical.


**How Did We Get Here From There?** The LZW compression method was
  originally published in a journal by a Unisys engineer and was
  used by a number of developers (not just CompuServe) for a variety
  of purposes. Unbeknownst to these developers, Unisys later applied
  for a patent on the LZW compression technology. The patent was
  granted in 1993.

  Now here's where the debacle begins. Unisys, apparently, didn't
  bother to make any public statement as to its licensing policy or
  intentions: it merely called up major GIF-related developers -
  like CompuServe - and started talking about infringement suits.
  These developers, caught by Unisys's "submarine patent," began
  licensing negotiations. When CompuServe negotiators reached an
  agreement with Unisys in mid-1994, they apparently didn't bother
  to tell anybody either. They merely "initiated a process" to
  secure a similar license that would benefit their community of
  GIF-related developers.

  When CompuServe managed to make an arrangement with Unisys whereby
  developers could obtain a GIF license from CompuServe rather than
  Unisys directly, all manner of chaos broke loose. First,
  "official" announcements appearing in CompuServe's forums were
  often incomplete or misleading (one even misspelled Unisys
  consistently). Second, it was unclear whether the restrictions on
  the GIF format applied only to developers or also to anyone
  _using_ the GIF format. GIFs are used almost everywhere,
  especially on the World-Wide Web. If the GIF file format was no
  longer free to use, literally tens of thousands of WWW sites,
  software programs, and images would have to be licensed, recalled,
  or go offline until the images could be licensed or replaced.

  Several interpretations of the badly-phrased CompuServe
  announcements began to circulate on the Internet. Unisys probably
  got off a little easier because many people thought it was all
  CompuServe's fault, but newsgroup threads and email flew thick and
  furious. Some felt the agreement was irrelevant, since Unisys
  could never prosecute everyone using the GIF format. Some heralded
  the death of the GIF, and still others thought the whole thing was
  a joke, especially in the wake of the recent "Good Times" virus
  hoax. Wags even updated the popular line to "Death of the Net
  Predicted - JPEG at 11."


**What's the Deal?** Eventually, Unisys and CompuServe issued
  press releases and clarifications:

1) Unisys is requiring all software developers using the GIF
  format in "commercial, for-profit" software to obtain licenses.
  This means that users viewing and distributing GIF files are in
  the clear, as are freeware and non-profit applications.

2) CompuServe has provided an optional licensing agreement that
  can be used by developers of software "primarily for use with the
  CompuServe Information Service" rather than dealing with Unisys
  directly.

  One upshot of #1, above, is that graphics programs and commercial
  WWW browsers which read or write the GIF format (like Photoshop
  and Netscape) will have to obtain licenses in order to continue
  using GIF. Some people think this will be a big problem, others
  see it as a side issue since some of these developers (like Adobe)
  already license the TIFF format from Unisys. The debate has also
  sparked interest in replacements for the GIF format. A commonly
  suggested alternative has been JPEG, which typically achieves far
  better compression than GIF and can use 24-bit color (GIF is
  limited to 256-color images). The difficulty with JPEG is that
  it's a "lossy" compression format: it throws out some data in
  order to achieve better compression. Other formats receiving
  attention include PBF, GEF, and FGF (variants or deliberate
  replacements for GIF).


**Lessons Learned?** Unisys's filing for a patent of the LZW
  technology after the GIF format had been widely adopted by the
  computer industry is, to say the least, questionable. Threatening
  to file infringement suits after seven years of encouraged use of
  the GIF format is, to say the least, highly questionable. Many
  companies and developers have found themselves in a position of
  having been unwitting partners to Unisys. This has damaged these
  companies' reputations and relationships with their developers;
  even without that, I'm sure Unisys's actions wouldn't make them
  happy.

  Further, you'd think that after watching Intel get nailed by the
  commercial and Internet communities during the Pentium fiasco,
  Unisys and CompuServe - companies specializing in information
  technology - would have gone to some effort to make their policies
  and intentions clear online. Although Unisys did eventually
  release a decent clarification and CompuServe seems to have
  finally gotten its message across, engendering that amount of
  rhetoric, rage, and misinformation can at the very least be viewed
  as irresponsible, possibly inexcusable. Eventually, companies and
  vendors will learn not to turn a blind side to the Internet
  community; however, until that day they will have to be content to
  take their bruises.

http://www.xmission.com/~mgm/gif/
http://www.unisys.com/
http://www.compuserve.com/


Pippin Pops Up
--------------
  by Tonya Engst <[e-mail]>

  Apple is branching out from the Macintosh name to other apple
  words with the Pippin (which is, if you believe our mellifluous
  dictionary, "any of numerous roundish or oblate varieties of
  apple"). Depending on how you look at it (and what you read)
  Apple's new Pippin is either a new platform, or a fancy quadruple-
  speed CD-ROM player that connects to a television. Either way, the
  Pippin uses an operating system based on the MacOS and takes
  advantage of a PowerPC 603 chip.

  The initial point of a Pippin is to do a great job running CD-ROM
  discs, especially CDs that use the PowerPC architecture to go all
  out with sound, graphics, and so on. Pippin CDs will be a natural
  match for QuickTime VR, which Apple officially announced on 13-
  Jan-94 . (The earlier inclusion of QuickTime VR on the Star Trek
  Interactive Technical Manual CD-ROM [see TidBITS-250_] came before
  the announcement.)

  A Pippin won't help you run a Fortune 500 company, but it may
  prove popular with the Nintendo or Sega crowd. Pippins apparently
  have gobs of ports, so you'll be able to attach various devices
  (keyboard, joysticks, hard disks, and so on), although I haven't
  seen any information giving the exact expected specifications.

  Current CD-ROMs won't work in a Pippin, but Apple's press release
  claims that it will only take "slight modification" on the part of
  a developer to make current CDs work. At least part of that
  modification will be the inclusion of the Pippin operating system,
  since the entire Pippin OS will come on each commercial CD, not on
  a separate boot CD. None of the Pippin's operating system will
  ship in the ROMs, as is customary for a Macintosh. A CD that works
  in a Pippin will also work in a Macintosh.

  Apple has licensed Pippin to Bandai, a Japanese company, and the
  Pippin should first appear as Bandai's Power Player, available for
  around $500.

  The Pippin strikes me as an interesting direction for Apple, not
  because of its CD-ROM capabilities, but because I wonder when
  Apple will announce a Pippin that talks the TCP/IP protocols of
  the Internet. Then we could run into some interesting links
  between CD-ROM-based data and the more fluid information from the
  Internet, perhaps brought in over a cable modem running at
  Ethernet speeds.


SimTower: The Fun of Trump Without the Bankruptcy
-------------------------------------------------
  by Richard C.S. Kinne <[e-mail]>

  Do you ever wonder why Donald Trump built those big towers in
  Manhattan? What attraction drove him? Now, with SimTower, Maxis
  Software's newest simulation of our complex world, you can find
  out. SimTower simulates the building and the running of a large
  skyscraper. And, you don't even have to deal with Ivana or Marla.


**Begin at the Lobby** -- You begin by creating a ground floor
  lobby and then building up (and even down a bit) from there. You
  can place offices, hotel rooms, fast food and regular restaurants,
  movie theaters, and condominiums on the floors you build. The
  simulation does not neglect infrastructure - you can also build
  security rooms, service elevators, express elevators, medical
  centers, and metro stations. In fact, you must build
  infrastructure in order to advance in the game.

  As the workday progresses, SimTenants move into the tower and you
  gain the revenue needed in order to expand. If you keep your
  tenants happy, you'll be able to build a bigger tower with more
  people and thereby progress from your initial 1-Star rating all
  the way through a 5-Star rating, and then, finally, the Tower
  rating.


**Elevators and Other Considerations** -- As with many Maxis
  simulations, one of the secrets to happy Sims is helping them
  quickly move from point A to point B. In SimTower, this obsession
  takes the form of elevators. Indeed, interest in elevators -
  according to SimTower's designer Yoot Saito - sparked the creation
  of SimTower.

  Any Maxis game, however, is a layered product and mastery of one
  element never guarantees success. For example, hotel rooms and
  condominiums should be placed on different floors or tenants
  complain about noisy neighbors. Too much noise causes stress
  levels to rise and then the tenants leave your building. On the
  other hand, fast food restaurants should be convenient to offices
  or the proprietors complain that they don't get enough business.


**Room for Improvement** -- Although I found SimTower quite
  enjoyable, it's not perfect. For instance, a few commands show
  only on the tool and information pallets, but not on the menus.
  For example, to pause the game you click a VCR-like control on the
  Tools palette. Unfortunately, if the Tools palette is not up you
  must bring it up before you can pause the game.

  You can track and name different people in your building. You can
  search for named people: the program indicates the person with an
  arrow and centers the person on the screen, thus changing the
  display of your whole building onscreen. A much better method
  would be to put the indicating arrow pointing to your person
  onscreen without moving the building unless absolutely necessary.

  You can do a little "improving" on your own with a freeware cheat
  application from Dave Baum <[e-mail]>. It enables you to
  increase your funds at will, should you be so dishonest.

ftp://mrcnext.cso.uiuc.edu/pub/info-mac/game/com/sim-tower-cheat-10.hqx


**Great Animation and Sound** -- SimTower boasts some of the best
  animation and sound I've seen in any program. You can follow the
  weather and the progress of the days. You can watch your Sims work
  in their offices, prepare for work in their hotel rooms, and clean
  their condominiums. A rooster crows at dawn, a bell sounds the
  beginning of the business day, and elevators whoosh from floor to
  floor. The animation and sound can be turned off, of course, and
  the game runs faster without them, though I found SimTower ran
  reasonably fast on a Power Macintosh 6100 in emulated mode (the
  Power Mac version of SimTower is not yet available). Then again, I
  always end up playing Sim games in Slow mode, because they offer
  so much to track.


**Conclusion** -- In the final analysis, SimTower is not SimCity
  2000 in terms of scope, complexity, and ease of use, but it
  compares favorably with the other Sim games such as SimEarth and
  SimLife. If you prefer shoot-em-up action games you might want to
  pass on SimTower, but if you enjoy the Sim series of games where
  you create a simulation, you should find this game a winner.

    Maxis Software -- 800/336-2941-- 510/254-9700
      510/253-3736 (fax) -- <[e-mail]>


Video for Everyone
------------------
  by Mark H. Anbinder, News Editor <[e-mail]>
     Director of Technical Services, Baka Industries Inc.

  The FCC approved it just a tad too late for most stores to stock
  up for holiday gift sales, but the QuickCam video camera for
  Macintosh computers should prove a winner for Connectix. It's the
  successful software company's first venture into the peripheral
  market.

  QuickCam has a retail price of $149, though it sells for about $99
  through dealers and some mail-order outlets. In fact, just about
  the only users who received their cameras in time for holiday
  gift-giving are those who ordered from MacConnection at the
  Macworld Expo in August. The backlog should be clearing up as you
  read this, though a new run of orders at January's Macworld Expo
  may set them behind again.

  Suddenly, desktop video is within reach of almost any Mac user's
  budget. A small grey sphere about the size of a billiards ball,
  with its own removable triangular stand, QuickCam connects to any
  QuickTime-compatible Macintosh (one with 68020 processor or
  better) through either built-in serial port. Since no specialized
  cards are required, it doesn't matter whether your Mac has NuBus
  slots, multimedia slots, or anything else - just a free modem port
  or printer port. Almost any PowerBook is a perfect candidate.

  The first-generation QuickCam provides sixteen shades of grey, but
  Connectix plans to produce a color model later in 1995 if the
  initial unit sells well. It's perfect for videoconferencing,
  learning how to make QuickTime movies, or even taking still
  greyscale snapshots.

  Two applications come with the camera, one for creating QuickTime
  movies and the other for capturing still pictures. The former can
  combine the camera's digital video signal with sound input, using
  your Mac's microphone (if it has one) or the microphone built into
  the QuickCam itself. Connectix recommends you use the Mac's
  microphone given the choice; QuickCam's isn't particularly high
  quality, and using it limits the bandwidth available in the serial
  cable for video signal. Also included with the QuickCam is a
  picture framing utility and an After Dark-compatible screen saver
  module. QuickCam owners who return their registration card will
  receive a CD-ROM containing sample video files and additional
  utilities.

  Speaking of video signal, Connectix has bypassed the loss of
  picture quality inherent in the process of converting analog video
  to digital signals. QuickCam generates a pure digital signal and
  sends it straight through to the QuickTime software running on the
  Mac. Camcorders and most other video cameras send out an analog
  NTSC video signal that then must be converted into digital
  information before the Mac can use it. This conversion can
  (especially with cheaper equipment) result in jitters, snow, or
  other degradation in quality. QuickCam avoids all this.

  Are there any practical uses for a QuickCam so far? Absolutely.
  Even if you don't consider four-bit greyscale sufficient for your
  next cinematic masterpiece, it's plenty for videoconferencing on
  even low-bandwidth networks like LocalTalk or medium-bandwidth
  connections to the Internet. Cornell University's freeware CU-
  SeeMe videoconferencing application (designed specifically to use
  TCP/IP protocols as found on the Internet) now supports QuickCam.
  Since CU-SeeMe is also limited to 16 shades of grey, it's a match
  made in heaven.

ftp://cu-seeme.cornell.edu/pub/video/

  In addition, Connectix is working on QuickCard, a utility designed
  to let people easily make multimedia greeting cards, complete with
  audio and video from the QuickCam and other embellishments
  provided by QuickCard.

  A QuickCam certainly won't make you the next Fellini, but for
  about a hundred bucks, it's an easy investment to justify even if
  you just want to play around. For additional information about the
  QuickCam on the Web, check out these sites:

http://www.engin.umich.edu/~friscolr/QuickCamtm/readme.html
http://www.indstate.edu/msattler/sci-tech/comp/hardware/quickcam.html

  Information from:
    Connectix
    Cornell University


Reviews/16-Jan-95
-----------------

* MacWEEK -- 09-Jan-95, Vol. 9, #2
    RAID systems -- pg. 31
      COREarray 20000
      La Cie Joule Array
      Mega Drive MR/5
      Mirror Precision 10

* InfoWorld -- 09-Jan-94, Vol. 17, #2
    PaperPort 2.0 -- pg. 100


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