Magic Cap Users Mailing List

Sunday August 04, 1996

From: "Rishi R. Oswal" <Yipadedoda@AOL.COM>
Date: Sun, 4 Aug 1996 02:41:46 -0400
Subject: Re: Magic Cap Complete

>>
I bought Scribe through OD, and it was one of the nicest software shopping
experiences I've ever had - sitting on my couch with my ML.  It took all of
10 minutes.
<<

It's nice...Up untill the bill comes.

Rishi

From: Scott Doniger <Scott_Doniger@ATTPLS.NET>
Date: Sun, 4 Aug 1996 17:19:12 +0000
Subject: Re: Freestyle

Dear Magic,
Magic Cap Discussion List writes:
> Does anyone know how to get the windows version
> of the Freestyle data tranfer program working?
> I'm trying it on win95 with no success...
> Thanks,
> Lee Butler
First Question:
Did it ever work with win 3.1?
Second Question:
Cant their WONDERFULL tech support help?
Sorry to be so sarcastic.......

Scott
--------------------------
            From the desk of Scott Doniger...

From: Tom Anderson <toma@HALCYON.COM>
Date: Sun, 4 Aug 1996 13:07:38 -0500
Subject: Re: AC Adaptor

>     While the AC Adapter's combined strain-relief and ferrite magnet
>isn't essential to the functionality of the power supply, its intention
>is to supply as clean a power source to your ML as possible.  If that
>core does in fact only hold a ferrite loop, there's little chance in
>theory of any damage coming to the unit, but I don't know the specs on
>the ML DC circuitry and therefore cannot say how well the unit will
>perform without it(they put it there for a reason I'm assuming);
>needless to say you would be risking whatever warranty you have on the
>unit if you tried the procedure, so proceed with great caution.  Have
>you contacted the place of purchase to see what is covered by your
>refurb warranty?  This is probably the safest first step to take. :)
>
When my AC Adapter finally failed completely, I determined that the
failure was contained in about an inch of cord on either side of or in
the ferrite core.  I eliminated the core and everything works. I hope it
isn't a problem, but I'm willing to take the chance. I suspect it could
be for reducing rfi which is a don't care for me.

Tom

From: MaxNight@AOL.COM
Date: Sun, 4 Aug 1996 18:37:04 -0400
Subject: MS vs Apple....UGGH.

I sent this once before, but it didn't go through, so....

In a message dated 96-08-03 11:07:56 EDT, you write:

 Mike Lombrozo wrote:
 >
 > Aw come on, "Writing Solid Code" isn't worth anything unless the code
 > actually does something useful.  Microsoft is successful because they
write
 > programs that satisfy the customer's needs, not programs for other
 > programmers to critique.  I wish I could write code that sold millions of
 > copies and had customers asking for more.
 >
 > Mike

 I would make that "I wish I could write code that did a poor job of
duplicating what my competitors have been doing for years, and had snake oil
marketeers that could persuade millions of people to buy it."

 I think the customers are actually asking for more fixes, drivers and
support.

 Jonathan  >>

I bit my tongue for a while listening to this junk, 'cause I think there are
better places for the MS vs. Apple argument, but I guess I'll toss my two
cents in...

>> I would make that "I wish I could write code that did a poor job of
duplicating what my competitors have been doing for years<<

Yeah, except the competitors only have to make it happen on ONE kind of
machine, THEIRS.    I know that recently Apple broke down and attempted to
let other people make clones, which is _obviously_ a smashing success
(sarcasm intended), but other than that, they have held more of a
monopolistic attitude towards the market than Microsoft could have even
dreamed of.  Going so far as to sue anyone who makes a machine compatible
with theirs!  I humbly submit that if anyone were to attempt to sue a PC
compatible manufacturer, they'd be laughed right off the face of the planet.

It's really easy to criticize a successful company, but I would submit that
any software that runs as consistently as it does on any one of, I dunno,
10,000 different combinations and manufacturers of motherboards, keyboards,
hard drives, memory, etc. etc. has got something going for it.

>>snake oil marketeers that could persuade millions of people to buy it."<<

I've been a tech-y person since I was a little kid - know why I bought it?
 CAUSE I COULD AFFORD IT.  When the PC platform came out, it was an OPEN
market.  Any company that cared to could make their own PC compatible
hardware, put it on the market and sink or swim accordingly. This not only
meant an open invitation to innovation (look how far the PC has come in the
past eight years vs. the Mac), it meant reasonable prices.  Even now, you can
go build a pretty decent PC for the price of the barely standard Performas
that are being dumped on the market.

Even now, given the choice, I'd still start out on a PC...there are no less
than 40 places within a five mile radius where I can get virtually any PC
card or peripheral I need.  For Macs, there are perhaps three.

I have been a Director of Product Development, and am currently a software
producer.  Obviously, I have to be a dual-platform person, which I am!  But
I'll tell you...If someone comes into my office and says a machine crashed,
better than 90% of the time it's a Mac.  Yes, when they run great, they
certainly run great.  When they don't, it takes roughly twice the time to get
them up on their feet.   When I have to buy a Mac for my team, I am looking
at 25 to 50% more in costs than I am for a PC.

>> I think the customers are actually asking for more fixes, drivers and
support.<<

If my experience is any gauge, you are far from the truth.  In eight years of
using "Evil Bill's" software, I have had to call Microsoft Tech Support a
whole 3 times, and it was only to ask questions.  Through, Win 3.1, WFW 3.11
and Win '95, ( the latter two on well over four dozen machines and 6 LANs),
my experience has been overwhelmingly positive.  Conversely, we are
constantly on the phone with Apple trying to straighten out one problem or
another.

Now to back into my corner and come out shaking hands...

We could have this argument forever.  I  really don't want to.  I have
learned to appreciate the Mac for what it is, and to appreciate even more the
creative people who are attached to it.  It just seems to me that Mac users
are by far the more bitter and vocal in the PC vs. Mac argument, and, quite
frankly, I can't say I understand why.  Why in the world would you have a
minor stroke because another company, working on a completely different
platform, with a completely different set of users, duplicates SOME of the
functionality of a computer that you happen to be a user of?

A good example...look at how many messages you've seen here that
Microsoft-bash, and how many Apple-bash?

As a PC user, it bothers me having to constantly bite my tongue 'cause Mac
users want to stomp on the platform I use.

Respectfully,

Mark

From: Wayne Sanderson <whsander@IX.NETCOM.COM>
Date: Sun, 4 Aug 1996 19:07:49 -0700
Subject: Presto!News?

When Presto!Mail 1.0 came out, the Presto! Diner looked the same as it does
now, but the only items in the lunch counter screen that triggered anything
were the menu and message icons. Now with the advent of Presto!Links, the
Explore the Web poster works. What next?

There is a newspaper on the counter. Are there plans to incorporate a
newsgroup reader or a daily newspaper to run from the newspaper icon? Or
possibly a HTML news pages retriever that grabs the something like the Network
MCI news?

Any one of these things would be very welcome on my ML. I don't use Farcast,
and until I upgrade my communicator I probably will not. This is not because I
did not want it, but because I have a PIC1000. When it was sent to me I could
not get it to download from PLink. And with my 1meg SRAM card which is now
running !Links and !Mail, it would now be an either /or decision as to which
to keep on the card, a decision which Farcast would lose.

From: Wayne Sanderson <WHSanderson@WORLDNET.ATT.NET>
Date: Mon, 5 Aug 1996 02:42:09 +0000
Subject: Recent System Crashes

I have just had one of those system crashes today that have been attributed
to Farcast. I do not have Farcast. My SRAM card suddenly got ULTRA full when
I knew that it had over 100k of space left. The sudden memory swell was
about 60k. I put everything back, first cold booting, running Eternity(no
PLink), and then reset all of the Presto! packages that packed up.
Everything seemed ok so later this evening I put back the one thing that I
had deliberately left out- I ran Bastille. Boom. Big memory swell, warning
not to turn off the device without first discarding from the card shelf.
This time I escaped the crash. Here is how just in case you find yourself in
the same predicament. Turn off the device, remove the card, and then boot
without the card. After it cleans up and everything is well, turn it off,
insert and boot with the card. This worked quite nicely for me. And this
afternoon's crash was the genuine grand mal magic seizure- endless cleanup,
multiple cleanup indicators in fact, occasional beeping, pull the main
battery AND the card and it still beeps and cleans up, etc. I strongly
suspect that Bastille and Presto! do not get along. This might explain why
the !Diner kept packing up after cleanups earlier in the week. I think that
the next time I cold boot I will do as Greg Satz said he would and forego
Bastille, at least for a while, and see how the system runs without it.
(P.S.-The available memory counter on the Main shelf was off by 15k after I
ran Bastille)

From: Lee Butler <leebu@IX.NETCOM.COM>
Date: Sun, 4 Aug 1996 19:43:26 -0700
Subject: Re: Freestyle / MagicExchange

Scott Doniger writes:
> Magic Cap Discussion List writes:
> > Does anyone know how to get the windows version
> > of the Freestyle data tranfer program working?
> > I'm trying it on win95 with no success...
> > Thanks,
> > Lee Butler
> First Question:
> Did it ever work with win 3.1?
> Second Question:
> Cant their WONDERFULL tech support help?
> Sorry to be so sarcastic.......

You sound like you've been here before, I just guessed it was a win95 problem.
 Nobody ships braindead software anymore, right?

As it turns out it is magic exchange that is partially to blame.  I put a spy
program on Freexfer and magic exchange is accepting a DDE connection but
refuses xfer's requests on the dde channel.  So, maybe someone from Intellink
can help us out...

This begs another question...  Whele do I get documentation on the DDE topics,
cmds and requests supported by MagicExchange???

Thanks,
Lee Butler
Consultant
leebu@ix.netcom.com
Phone:303.843.1738          Pager:800.480.9079

From: TC Lai <tclai@UCLA.EDU>
Date: Sun, 4 Aug 1996 21:00:39 -0700
Subject: Re: MS vs Apple....UGGH./MagicCap NT?

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It's interesting that as a technician, I have seen the exact opposite, in
terms of technical support and the like.  I guess that makes me a fluke in
your world-view, even though I deal with dozens of machines, Mac and PC,
though mostly PC, for hardware and software problems, each week.
Circumstances differ, and it would be wise to avoid generalizations simply
because your staff is more PC literate.

Discussion on OSes (and there's more to it than just Microsoft's progeny and
MacOS - what about UN*X?) is fine and healthy, but I would appreciate it if
you would confine your opinions (and your unique slant on reality) to forums
that specialize in this discussion.  If I may suggest, some of the barbs
that have been targeted toward Microsoft in this forum are due to poor
products such as Word 6.0 for the Mac.  I would imagine that you would be
more than a little antagonized if one of your suppliers decided to throw
convention to the wind and "standardize" on the lowest common denominator
(as Microsoft did in the transition from Word 5.1a to Word 6.)  In light of
the problems that Word 6 has had on the Macintosh, and the fact that its
bloated code more or less *requires* a PowerPC machine to run, you can
understand why there is a good deal of antagonism on the part of Macintosh
users towards Microsoft.

Now that that is over, I'm curious as to whether or not MagicCap for Windows
will run under NT, and if so, how well as compared to Win 95 and Win 3.x
machines.  Also, are there any developers who are migrating to MagicCap for
Windows as an alternate/complementary platform versus standalone MagicCap
devices?

TC

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From: Jeff Collier <jc@acm.org>
Date: Mon, 5 Aug 1996 01:22:56 -0400
Subject: Re: MAGICCAP Digest - 3 Aug 1996 to 4 Aug 1996

> I humbly submit that if anyone were to attempt to sue a PC
> compatible manufacturer, they'd be laughed right off the face of the planet.

I've been biting my teeth through the MS vs. Apple debate too, but have to
throw my 2 cents in.

PC compatible manufacturers get sued all the time, by IBM. IBM has a whole
slew of patents and every time a clone manufacturer gets interesting, IBM steps
in and offers to license the patents to them, and backs it up with a well
heeled legal department.

And I'm not sure of this but I believe MS has applied legal pressure to
DOS cloners. Don't be so quick to judge Apple for their tactics just because
they've been less successful at it than their bigger brothers.

I humbly submit one of the reasons Apple was so successful for so long
(in terms of acquiring market share) was their tight control over the
hardware. The early plug and play capability of the Mac went a long way
towards drawing users. And the lack of competition went a long way towards
ensuring Apple that they would have the funds to continue.

They just didn't do a good job of letting go at the right time
to allow the clone manufacturers to help carry them to greater success. Kind
of like riding a wave and knowing when to get off.

(Maybe we should all show the good judgement that Apple lacked and take
this thread to email... ;)

-jeff collier
jc@acm.org

From: Peter Merel <pete@ZIP.COM.AU>
Date: Mon, 5 Aug 1996 15:53:18 +1000
Subject: pcs v macs vs ...

OS Advocacy does not belong in this forum - well, maybe magiccap advocacy,
but none of the rest of it, on account of the amount of spam it generates
fills entire newsgroups.

HOWEVER, for my money, there is only one operating system worth using,
and it will emulate all the rest of them - that operating system is
Linux. Linux does not crash, and it will run on any hardware you like,
including high-end workstations, macs and pcs. It's free, and support
for it, which is ubiquitous on the net, is also free.

When the real MCW makes its appearance, (and when my ML arrives :-) I
look forward to running it over either WINE or WABI, on my Linux box. I
will also try to run code-warrior gold under the Executor on the same
machine at the same time. No idea whether this will work, but most mac
software will ...

Specialisation is for insects.

Peter Merel.

From: Wayne Sanderson <WHSanderson@WORLDNET.ATT.NET>
Date: Mon, 5 Aug 1996 06:12:07 +0000
Subject: Re: MS vs Apple....UGGH./MagicCap NT?

At 04:00 AM 8/5/96 +0000, you wrote:
>-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----

>Now that that is over, I'm curious as to whether or not MagicCap for Windows
>will run under NT, and if so, how well as compared to Win 95 and Win 3.x
>machines.  Also, are there any developers who are migrating to MagicCap for
>Windows as an alternate/complementary platform versus standalone MagicCap
>devices?
>
>TC

Well, if you are interested, I can tell you what the least likely machine
and Windows version is that will run MCW. Mine. I have had it running on a
hobbyist's shoestring homebrewed PC for months now- not without occasional
problems, mind you- but it runs. As a matter of fact, the burning desire to
run MCW is what led me to roll my own 486 clone in the first place- that and
the big price drop in 486 processors and motherboards. The time was right.
The time now seems to be here for a Pentium 66; motherboards w/processors
just fell through the $120.US mark in the last Computer Shopper. Sayanara
486- Hello Pentium!

486/DX2-66
8 megs RAM (don't ask me why it doesn't bitch at me about not enough memory-
I don't know why it runs well on 8megs; It just does)
Windows 3.1
99 meg SCSI HD (now you know why I run it in Win3.1!)
no Smartdrive- it slowed the whole thing down for some reason.
no 32Bit disk access

 I thought Windows NT was supposed to be the be-all end-all unix killing-
well, whatever. If MCW won't run on it I'll be shocked.