BRMUG

BRMUG November 1999 Newsletter

This is the index of the November 1999 BRMUG Newsletter:
• Regular Columns:
  • Front Page News by Isaac Traxler
    • November Meeting
    • October Meeting
    • Microsoft
    • CompUSA
    • iBook
    • BRMUG Web Site
    • Mac OS 9
    • MacMame
  • Graphic Utility of the Month by Glenn Matherne
  • Web Page of the Month by Isaac Traxler
  • Cartoon by Pete Steinfeld
  Special Columns:
  • The Quebedeaux's Network by John Quebedeaux
  • Mac OS 9 by Isaac Traxler
  

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Front Page News

The November meeting will be held at the Bluebonnet Library on November 18th, the 3rd Thursday of the month, at 6:30 P.M. This month's meeting is our annual Games Demonstration! Apple has embraced the game industry and it is starting to show - many of the popular games are available for the Macintosh now. Glenn, Don and I will bring our favorites for your amusement. Please come and enjoy the meeting. A quick review of Apple's position will start at 6:30 followed by our presentation. After the persentation, we will do a Question and Answer session until8:30 P.M. Afterwards, everyone is invited to join us after the meeting at Brew-bachers for the social hour.

The October Meeting was hosted by Don Ballard at LPB. He gave a great tour of the facility. It's amazing how much they do at LPB! Thanks for the tour Don - I really enjoyed it and I am sure the others also enjoyed it.

Microsoft has been ruled to be a monopoly by the judge. Of course we still have appeals and many other steps before the end result of this decision will be known.

Apple has had another month beyond belief. It hit an all-time high of 97 11/16 and closed the week at 90 5/8 with a Market Cap of $14.58 billion. These numbers are phenominal! Some of the increase is due to the Microsoft decision and amazing investments that Apple has made. We may see $100 by Christmas.

CompUSA has several good bargains. They have Civilization II for $14.99. The Bungie Action Sack (Minotaur, Pathways into Darkness, The Labyrinths of Crete, Marathon, Marathon 2: Durandal, and Marathon Infinity) is in stock at $19.95 - this is a great combo. Mac Action Games (Marathon 2: Durandal, Vegas Casino, Al Unser, Jr Racing, Mech Warrior 2, and Full Tilt Pinball) is $14.99. They also have the GravisMac GamePad for $4.88 (over on the back, right corner of the store).

The iBook is shipping finally (CompUSA actually has them in stock) and they look great. Despite the speed reduction, the G4s are now shipping. Rumor has it that the faster chips may start showing up by January. The new iMac line appears to be selling up to hopes.

The BRMUG Web Site had a major renovation last month. If you have not been there http://www.brmug.org/ in a while, you should check it out again. The pages have a new look with smaller graphics (this means faster loading). I have made a number of changes this month also. Most pages are now smaller and more concise (the links page has been split into the periodicals, imac, and help pages. the BRMUG page section has been moved to the sidebar menu). PowerBook and Games pages have also been added. Almost all the links have been tested to make sure they still work. The site also has a search engine now that is updated each night. Take a look and tell me what you think!

Mac OS 9 is shipping. Reports have been very positive so far. Check out the article on page 3 has more details.

MacMame is the Macintosh version of Mame (Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator). MacMame allows your Macintosh to emulate (extremely close to perfectly) the arcade games of the past (like Joust or Demolition Derby). These emulators are really very good. With the addition of the ROM code from almost any arcade game, you can turn your Macintosh into that game. Anything over about 100 MHz PowerPC is fast enough tofeel realistic.

Over the years, many different arcade games have come and gone. Many people have several favorites. Hopefully, the vendors will understand the value of the potential market and start selling the ROMs for use with Mame/MacMame. Mame could allow these vendors to make a fortune from older arcade games.

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I was sitting at home trying to repair my ancient, homemade stereo speakers when I came across a add for a free copy of DreamWeaver 2. Bing, there was my idea for this month's GUM column. I was more apprehensive about trying this program identifying the dismembered remains of my speakers.

So, this month I road tested a critical favorite in the internet world, Macromedia DreamWeaver 2. After swearing that I'd never use one of those bloated commercial programs to design my web pages, I finally caved in and gave Macromedia DreamWeaver 2 a try. It changed the way that I look at web page design.

Macromedia DreamWeaver 2 is the one of the newer entrys in the crowded field of web page design programs. All of these new breed of web page design programs take a graphic arts approach to web page writing rather than a line by line text approach of the HTML code writers of the early 1990's.

I down loaded the free 30 day version of DreamWeaver 2 and designed a few pages for my home site. A week later, Macromedia announced Dreamweaver 3 bundled with FireWorks, a PhotoShop knock-off. I guess, I'll be previewing that one, too.

At first, I hated DreamWeaver. It had an awkward manner of accessing the HTML editor. It also had important features such as naming anchors and links in odd menus. The preview was not exactly WYSIWYG, as promised. Further more, it appeared to be designed to use on a big 20 inch monitor.

A week later, I got over these preconceived notions and really started to work with DreamWeaver. I found it to be really like PageMaker and FreeHand in its generous use of palettes to create and being able to customize the preview window to fit your monitor. True, you could design a really neat page without knowing HTML. Well, not me of course.

However, I still find a few faults with this program. First, it needs to have a better integration with a real HTML editor to allow users to tweak their code. Second, it uses 32 megs of ram, 48 with Netscape 4.5 open which makes it clearly for professionals with lots of memory. Third, it would be nice to be able to preview the actions of ShockWave movies, Quicktime movies, MP3 audio and GIF animations inside of the program. Lastly, it seems to write a few things in non-standard code such as the tilde sign.

That said, it is still at $149, ($99 Educational price), the most popular game in town. Adobe GoLive and Microsoft FrontPage are considerably more expensive and more difficult to use. I can't wait to try out DreamWeaver 3.

So, If you are looking to update a few web pages for the Holidays or are just getting started into the Internet game, give DreamWeaver a try. It's fairly easy to use and doesn't require any knowledge of HTML at all. You might want to pick up a copy of HTML In A Nutshell by O'Reilly and Associates at your favorite bookstore just to be on the safe side.

Now if I can figure out what to do with all of those extra parts left over from repairing my stereo speakers.

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In spite of Apple's new emphasis on gaming, the Macintosh world has long appreciated games. Unfortunately, finding out about games on the Macintosh has rarely been easy - one might think that the world believes that the Macintosh can't play games. :)

The problem of finding out about games for the Macintosh has been solved! The Mac Game Database is the answer. Obviously it is a web accessible database of games available for the Macintosh. And of course it is searchable (It's just amazing how much we take for granted now-a-days). But seriously, an up-to-date, searchable database of all the currently available commercial Macintosh games (a few shareware and freeware games are also included).

The database can also be browsed by selecting various categories/sub-categories. For instance, if you choose Simulations, then Racing, you reach a list of games that simulate racing. Each game will be listed with a link to its page and a rating (based on online rankings).

If you want to know about a particular game, just hit the search link and give it a try. This database does seem to have everything I know about (that is currently on the market). When you go to a games "page", you will find a lot of information: Publisher, Release Date, Estimated Price, Main Categories, Subcategories, Racing, Brief Description, Minimum System Requirements, Special Features, Related Links, Box Art, and Screen Shots.

Much of the information is self-evident (publisher, release date, ...). The main categories allow to find out what category this game fits into. This can be really useful - if you like a game, you can go to the category it is in and look at similar games. The minimum system requirements are a bunch of graphic images that tell you what you must have to run this game - good to know before you get to excited about a game. Special Features let you know about special hardware the game can utilize (3d video cards, ...) or special capabilities (networkable, ...). The related links might point do where you download a demo version of the game or something similar.

The front page also includes links to recent headlines at the Mac Game Gate http://www.macgate.torget.se/ (which also a great place to check out).

This site is really neat and has a lot of very valuable information that can be found via several different approaches. As this site matures (and probably when it picks up a big sponsor) it could easily become an indispensable stop when wanting to research games on the Macintosh.

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Our Macintosh collection keeps growing. Dianne has an LC III and a 7200/120. I have a 7200/90 and a PowerBook 5300c. We have a roommate with a G3 PowerBook (the 250mhz one, I believe). We also have a StyleWriter 2400 with an Ethernet adapter (it's actually a stand-alone network printer on our Ethernet network) and we have LaserWriter NTR on our LocalTalk network (PhoneNet). We have a few modems but no longer use them since we just got our @Home cable modem service. It's new though.

I'll list how our computers are connected beginning with the most centrally connected machine:
• 7200/90mhz w/48mb RAM and 500mb hard drive - this runs IPNetRouter and is connected with an extra Ethernet card to the cable modem. The other Ethernet connection goes to our network hub. It also has our phonenet connector for bridging our LaserWriter NTR. Apple has an unofficially supported Laser-Writer Bridge program that lets you operate a LaserWriter on the Localtalk network and access it from the Ethernet side of your network. One caveat: this machine has an Ethernet clock jitter problem on its built in Ethernet port. Rather than try to get Apple to fix it which would involve replacing the motherboard - (I'm now into month 4 trying to get two 6500's fixed at work with bad L2 Caches - I'm waiting on Computer Shoppe which has not been very "go-getter" to help me fix this even after getting a case # from Apple)... So, I bought an Apple 10/100 Ethernet card from Other World Computing for $20. The @Home service gave me an Ethernet card with their installation. I didn't absolutely need it - but now I can use both cards and physically keep my Ethernet network separate from the Cable Modem's network and only route the traffic I want to my internal Macs. I do not keep anything important on this machine, while I doubt anyone will break into it (Macs are more difficult to break into over a network) - who knows.
• 7200/120mhz w/112mb RAM and 1.08GB of hard drive space and 1mb L2 Cache. This is our main house computer. It has our scanner attached and we do most of our playing and computing from here. It's connected to the Ethernet.
• PB5300c/100mhz w/56mb RAM and 4GB hard drive. This is John's main remote computer. I do all my e-mailing from there. It's connected to the Ethernet but can connect through the LocalTalk if needbe.
• LC III/68030/25mhz 20mb RAM and 700MB hard drive. This is our file server. We store our financial files here as well as some of our personal files. It has an Ethernet LC card in it.
• Apple StyleWriter 2400: on the Ethernet.
• LaserWriter NTR: on the LocalTalk.
• Scanner (SnapScan 1236 AGFA) - attached to 7200/120.
• LaCie CD-RW (4x4x16x) attached to 7200/90 using Retrospect 4.0 (full version) with 5 user license. This will let me do unattended nightly backups from all my home computers and even backup some of my vital files on my work computer (since they don't provide a backup scheme for desktop computers).

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Mac OS 9

Mac OS 9 has a number of new features including multiple users, Sherlock 2, and ColorSync 3. Mac OS 9 now supports multiple users. When each user logs in, their customized desktop is displayed. This allows multiple people to use a single Macintosh without messing each other up. A voiceprint password can even be used to authenticate you. The Keychain has returned. It allows you to store IDs and passwords for remote systems so that you don't have to keep upwith them. Sherlock 2 builds on Sherlock by offering customization and saving of multiple search settings. Apple introduces Auto Updating with Mac OS 9. If you choose to, Mac OS 9 will check (via the internet) to see if any updates exist, download them, and then update the system for you.

File Sharing supports IP and AppleTalk. This means that files can be shared over Internet connections. AppleScript also supports TCP/IP now. This brings the possibility of remote control. The Network Browser (that replaces the AppleShare functionality of the Chooser) will now discover Internet (TCP/IP) servers as well as AppleTalk servers. Apple has made a lot of progress toward making the Macintosh equally at home on the Internet (TCP/IP) as it is on AppleTalk.

MacOS 9 is a large step forwad as well as a large step toward Mac OS X. Mac OS X will look and feel a lot like any other Mac OS to most people - but it will have some differences. Pre-emptive multi-tasking, memory protection, and all the new features of Mac OS X will change Mac OS. AppleTalk will be replaced almost exclusively by TCP/IP. Memory/process protection will bring concepts of multiple users and security. For Macintosh users tobe comfortable in this setting, they must learn new things and adjust their methods of using the Macintosh. Mac OS 9 is a bridge from the past to the future just as Mac OS 7.x was a bridge from the 680X0 world to the PowerPC world.

For all that Mac OS 9 brings, it is not perfect. Memory protection is not here - one bad program can still crash your Macintosh. The multi-tasking is still not pre-emptive. Of course it was not supposed to do these. The password system is not perfect. Multiple methods exist to defeat it (obtain access to another users files). The multi-user features of Mac OS 9 are not intended to be complete or fool-proof. They are intended to get Macintosh users comfortablewith logging in and the concepts of privacy. Another step forward. Mac OS X is getting closer.

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