Little Bits
By Andrew Roughan
Copyright (c) 1992 Apple Users' Group, Sydney
Republished from Applecations, a publication of the Apple Users' Group, Sydney, Australia.
o GNO 1.1 has been announced and should be available before January. New features included in this multitasking environment for the Apple //GS are: improved shell performance; alias, command and variable name expansion; dynamic priority scheduling; named prefixes; the ability to suspend a desktop program (possibly running it in the background). Pricing and distribution has not yet been finalised.
o WestCode Software has announced HardPressed, "a truly transparent and completely automatic way to compress your files and increase your storage capacity on your Apple IIGS". This follows the announcment of a similar product, AutoArc, by ECON Technologies at KansasFest in July. Neither of these products were available at the time of writing, but a future issue of Applecations will undoubtably have reviews of these utilities.
o Since May this year, Avtek have been shipping their V32 modems with a ROM which incorporates v42 bis compression. This ROM has now been made available as a separate item for people who purchased the V32 modems before May. The upgrade can be done in a day. The cost is $60. v42 bis has two benefits over MNP 5 which combine to give better throughput. Firstly a better compression algorithm is used and secondly the algorithm intelligently recognises when it is trying to compress data which is already compressed. Contact Avtek on (02) 888-5333.
o Peter Martin Olsen was charged in 1990 with six breaches of the Copyright Act following a raid on his home by the Australian Federal Police. The raid came after Olsen had advertised Apple // computer disks for sale. Olsen was only prosecuted over his possession and attempted sale of four named computer programs which are distributed by Dataflow Computer Services.
Our own Chris Nelligan was called in as an expert witness to show that the disks were copies of the originals.
Olsen was fined a total of $4500 and ordered to pay $4937 in witness expenses. His appeal to the Federal Court was recently dismissed by Justice Alan Neaves, after finding that the magistrate had not erred in concluding that the disks were infringing copies or in concluding that Olsen should have known this to be the case. The judge declined to vary the monetary penalties imposed.
o A new GS programming group has been formed. The One World Software Wizards are an enterprising team gathered from the cream of GS programmers from France and the USA. Members include Olivier Goguel, Huibert Aalbers, Tim Meekins and Chris Shepherd. They have joined forces to develop within the next six months Noise Tracker GS 2.0, Photonix III, and TransFont Wizard GS. TransFont Wizard GS is billed as "An advanced 320/640 SHR (256 color) graphics composition and utility program, that will allow inclusion, editing, and
many other macro commands for all Apple IIgs System Fonts, Fontrix Fonts, and MultiScribe Fonts (tm)."
o Randy Brandt of JEM Software (formally of Beagle Bros) has announced Ultra 4.0, "the ultimate add-on to Appleworks". This is a major rewrite of TimeOut UltraMacros. Most existing commands have been improved and 50 new commands have been added. Additional commands can be dynamically added at a later time. Ultra 4.0 runs on a //GS, //c or enhanced //e with 256k of RAM and requires Appleworks 3.0 and TimeOut UltraMacros 3.x. Also available is Ultra Extras, an add-on disk for Ultra 4.0. Over 40 new commands are added by Ultra Extras including powerful math commands, pop-up screens, and a powerful debugger.
Ultra 4.0 US$40
Ultra Extras US$20
JEM Software
7578 Lamar St
Arvada CO 80003
(303) 422-4856 voice/fax
Visa/MasterCard accepted
o SoundSmith 1.0.1 is a reality. If you are a registered owner of SoundSmith then you should receive your copy soon. Version 1.0.1 includes MIDI support. The only way to purchase SoundSmith is directly from the Author:
European Software Partner
Huibert Aalbers
Travesia Andres Mellado 3
28015 Madrid, Spain
o MACINTOSH: Machine Always Crashes If Not The Operating System Hangs
o For those who may not have heard, floptical drives are now able to be used on the Apple //GS. Flopticals are a combination of magnetic and laser technology which combine to give a maximum capactiy of 21MB on one special 3.5" disk. They are also capable of using normal 720k and 1.44MB disks. Tulin and Applied Engineering both offer an Apple //GS compatible floptical, however, locally advertised "PLI Floptical" drives are NOT recommended.
The floptical drives are SCSI devices and as such need a SCSI card to be able to access them. CV Technologies have just released a new ROM for the RamFAST SCSI cards to handle the flopticals. Contact Two Series Software (02) 606-9343 for the 3.0i ROM. Tulin have written an Apple High Speed SCSI card driver which they supply when you purchase their drive.
Richard Bennett (02) 498-6548 can help anyone having problems getting these devices to work with their Apple //GS.

THIS CONTENT COPYRIGHT © 2007, APPLE MACINTOSH USERS' GROUP, SYDNEY
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PLEASE CREDIT THE AUTHOR AND THE SOURCE: Applecations, publication of the Apple Users' Group, Sydney, Australia

THIS PAGE COPYRIGHT © 2007, ANDREW ROUGHAN