Magic Cap Users Mailing List

Friday September 13, 1996

From: Luke Derossi <lderossi@COMCAT.COM>
Date: Fri, 13 Sep 1996 02:56:20 -0400
Subject: Re: post PLS era

Tony San Juan wrote:
>
>
> I'm curious, does your magic link have some vertical lines running
> down the screen if you adjust the contrast.  Thanks.

  Hi Tony!

  Pardon me for jumping in, but I just wanted to mention that vertical
'ghost' lines are normal on the type of passive matrix LCDs used by the
Magic Links when the contrast is turned way up.  They usually appear in
places above or below real on-screen vertical lines.  Its not a
malfunction.  You'll also notice the screen behaves differently
depending on the ambient temperature.  Both of these behaviors can be
adjusted for optimal viewing by adjusting the contrast slightly.



Regards,

Luke Derossi
 for
  General Magic, Inc.

From: Wayne Sanderson <whsander@IX.NETCOM.COM>
Date: Fri, 13 Sep 1996 07:40:24 -0700
Subject: mailswitcher

Anybody know if MailSwitcher will work with Presto!Mail providers? My 2 services keep changing around, and I want them in a specific order.

From: Curt Steindler <Steindler@AOL.COM>
Date: Fri, 13 Sep 1996 09:55:25 -0400
Subject: Lines

In a message dated 96-09-13 00:04:09 EDT, Tony San Juan writes:

>
>  I'm curious, does your magic link have some vertical lines running
>  down the screen if you adjust the contrast.  Thanks.
>
>


Yes, if you adjust the contrast in just the wrong way it does have lines.
Since I don't like having the contrast adjusted that way, I am choosing to
ignore the problem.

Curt

P.S. Does any other ML user feel that they are beta testing for Sony and
GenMagic?

From: John Mignault <mignault@NYTIMES.COM>
Date: Fri, 13 Sep 1996 10:56:49 -0400
Subject: Re: Lines

>P.S. Does any other ML user feel that they are beta testing for Sony and
>GenMagic?

Oh, please. The screen lines at high contrast aren't specific to the ML or
poor design or an attempt by Sony or GM to rip you off. I have never seen
so much spurious paranoia and whining on any list as I do from certain
quarters of this one. God knows I don't think the platforms are perfect.
They're not. But the stuff they do is cool enough that I can live with the
odd glitches. And I'm using a PIC-1000. If you can't live with the
limitations, sell your ML and get a Newton, and then you can bitch at them
on a list where I won't have to listen to you.

John

-----------------------------
John Mignault
Graphics Systems Programmer
The New York Times
229 W. 43rd St, 7th floor
NY, NY 10036
mignault@nytimes.com
-----------------------------

From: "D'Angelo, Leo" <Leo.D'Angelo@FMR.COM>
Date: Fri, 13 Sep 1996 11:06:00 -0400
Subject: Re: mailswitcher

--Boundary (ID i0k/kN3cTNirZPSRTtLnBw)
Content-type: TEXT/PLAIN


Yes mailswitcher works with Presto!Mail, this is exactly what I did to
use Presto!Mail instead of ATT.

 -LeoD

 ----------
From:  Wayne Sanderson[SMTP:whsander@IX.NETCOM.COM]
Sent:  Friday, September 13, 1996 10:40 AM
To:  Multiple recipients of list MAGICCAP
Subject:  mailswitcher

Anybody know if MailSwitcher will work with Presto!Mail providers? My 2
services keep changing around, and I want them in a specific order.
--Boundary (ID i0k/kN3cTNirZPSRTtLnBw)
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--Boundary (ID i0k/kN3cTNirZPSRTtLnBw)--

From: "R. Sprattling" <Sprattling@AOL.COM>
Date: Fri, 13 Sep 1996 12:40:06 -0400
Subject: Re: Pocket Quicken

[This message may have contained graphics created by a Magic Cap device on
America Online.]

Dear MAGICCAP List,

Steindler@AOL.COM (Curt Steindler) writes:

> I have called Intuit, they do not sell it
> directly, nor do they know how I
> can get it. In other words, I can not get it for
> love nor money.

 I too have  called Intuit.  They're apparently pissed with Sony over the
latter's decision to not include Pocket Quicken in the PIC 2000 ROM.  Intuit
seems to have adopted the tactic of withholding PQ from the market in order
to incite clamorous potential customers;  Intuit then directs those customers
to Sony's door in a bid to pressure Sony into including PM in the next ROM
release.

When asked about software availability, both Intuit personnel I spoke with
said, in essence, "call Sony and ask them why they made the business decision
to not bundle PQ with the PIC 2000. " One rep said, paraphrasing, "it's in
Sony's hands," I responded that, if Intuit owns the software and is not
restricted by prior agreement with Sony, that the decision to distribute PQ
is wholly in Intuit's hands.  The rep turned cool and dismissive when
presented with this rational, saying "Is there anything else I can do for you
today?" :-)

Intuit's tactic is manipulative; it uses the potential client base to achieve
Intuit's business objectives without giving the client anything of value in
return.

Anyone care to collaboratively develop a digital wallet for Magic Cap? ;-)

Rod

From: Scott Yoshinaga <scott@HISURF.COM>
Date: Fri, 13 Sep 1996 08:03:19 -1000
Subject: PIC 2000 for Newton 120 OS 2.0

I may be in the market for a reasonably priced PIC 2000. Anyone want to
sell thiers or trade for a Newton 120 OS 2.0 with 2 meg Flash Ram card
and software?

Please direct all inquiries to scott@hisurf.com!

aloha!
\\scott\\

From: Curt Steindler <Steindler@AOL.COM>
Date: Fri, 13 Sep 1996 14:15:10 -0400
Subject: Re: Lines

[This message may have contained graphics created by a Magic Cap device on
America Online.]

Dear MAGICCAP@BROWNVM.BROWN.EDU,

John Mignault rightly corrected me on my whining. I did not know that the
line problem was simply endemic to the LCD technology.

Also, he may have gotten the idea that I less than love my ML because I have
complained of AOL's lack of support for the platform, and I have been vocal
about the PIC-2000's lack of Pocket Quicken.

But don't get the wrong idea--I love my ML! No other whatchamawhozit does
what it does. Sure it has problems but I am going to stick with it to
overcome these challenges. In fact I love Magic Cap so much that if there was
a desktop with MC as the operating system I would buy it!

It is easy in a list such as this to get the wrong idea about how people feel
about the subject of the list, especially when it is about a piece of
computer equipment. A list like this will be for users to ask and give advice
about problems, give warnings and find out the latest news. If this tends to
show the dark side of the technology than go out and buy a Mac, John! Then
you can have a mailing list that kisses Apple butt all the time rather than
getting into the real world issues dealing with the technology.

Curt

From: Bruce Tong <zztong@MAIL.EV.NET>
Date: Fri, 13 Sep 1996 15:02:07 -0400
Subject: Book Reader App

The Book Reader application (by Algorithmic Research) is pretty cool. I
like the ScrollArrows implemented in the form of Buttons on the right
side of the Scenes, even though they don't always act like the
traditional ScrollArrows when the option key is held down.

--

Bruce Tong
Systems Programmer
Electronic Vision / Fitne

Work:

Phone : (614) 592-2511
Fax   : (614) 592-2650
mailto:zztong@evi.ev.net
http://www.ev.net/fitne

Play:

mailto:zztong@eurekanet.com
mailto:zztong@aol.com
http://www.eurekanet.com/~zztong

From: Wayne Sanderson <whsander@IX.NETCOM.COM>
Date: Fri, 13 Sep 1996 07:36:42 -0700
Subject: Re: get this cool new application!!!!!

> > check out following web site:
> > http://www.algoresearch.com
> > there is an icy demo to download.
> > erik.

> This is pretty cool!  You should talk with GM or
> ActivePaper about building a proxy server to
> compress html for presto!links.

Yeah, and while they're at it they could look into using it to compress the
main memory in MC communicators. Getting even another =MB out of my PIC1000s
main memory would be a major accomplishment. Envoys too. Doing something for
their memory, coupled with the 1.5 upgrade brings them right in line with the
current generation. Install the prismatic screen and they'd be just like the
150.
 Compression of SRAM cards would be great too. 1 meg cards turned into 2 megs?
2 meg cards that hold 4 megs? Maybe that's too ambitious, but even a 50% gain
would be great. 2 meg cards would hold 3, etc.

From: Aaron Wallace <aaron@IFACT.COM>
Date: Fri, 13 Sep 1996 15:11:35 -0700
Subject: Re: get this cool new application!!!!!

At 07:36 AM 9/13/96 -0700, you wrote:

> Compression of SRAM cards would be great too. 1 meg cards turned into 2 megs?
>2 meg cards that hold 4 megs? Maybe that's too ambitious, but even a 50% gain
>would be great. 2 meg cards would hold 3, etc.

It's common among users of DOS and quasi-DOS (i.e. GEOS) based devices
to use older versions of Stacker to do just this.  Also, the Newton
has compression built in, as does the Zoomer.  It wouldn't
surprise me if Magic Cap isn't already compressing data (actually,
I might be surprised if it's not...)


+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
|  Aaron Wallace                        The Internet Factory, Inc.   |
|  aaron@ifact.com                            http://www.ifact.com   |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

From: Kevin Fries <kfries@CSN.NET>
Date: Fri, 13 Sep 1996 23:07:13 -0600
Subject: P!Link update req

Hi Magic,
   Presto!Links upgrade request:  add a stamp to the roladex for www address,
then allow the user to tap it or contact (from the lamp) to conect to it.

   Second attempt:  some type of lookup, preferably through vcards that can be
obtained from four11.com.  That way, directory services could work for all MC
devices (even those on AOL) and non-MC subscribers as well.

Thanks

Kevin Fries