I enjoyed the Mac World expo in Boston. It was unique in that there were music people and graphic designers in the crowd.  Red and blue hair provides a nice contrast against marketing hype and pocket protectors. Both the layout program markets and the music synth. markets seem to be very active on the Mac.

I was impressed by a keyboard macro/journaling program called "Tempo". It edits the raw journal so it can play back the journal much faster. For example it will hit buttons before they get drawn, or hit menu's with minimal tracking to get into them.  It can have prompts to the user embedded in the "scripts" as well as a primitive conditionals against values found on the clip board.

I really wanted one of these for regression testing my program!

A very hairy pert chart program was on display. It will do resource leveling as well as let you sellect subsets of the entire project for display. I don't remember the name.

The Mac version of pin ball construction set (40$) was available to order or to play with.  I was told they expect to sell over a hundred thousand in the first year.  You can save pin ball machines and give them to your friends.  It was very smooth good sounds and a lot of fun to play.

A algebra system for 90$ (again I don't recall the name) was shown and you could order it.  From the same distributor as chip wits. You enter your problem in one window and the solution is constructed in another window at a level and style similar to a high school home work problem.  I didn't get a clear picture of the extent of this thing's skills, but I suspect it's going to make a lot of high school and freshman teachers unhappy, narc. narc.

Four different kinds of lab/electoric interface things were on display. My favorite; for clever/dumb idea, was the one were you design your control system on a multiplan spread sheet.  You save the spread sheet, run the controller driver program, finish your "experiment" return to the spread sheet which has now been filled out with your results. All this depends on filling out a rigid spread sheet template that comes with the system.

These control system programs are having a lot of trouble handling all the power the mac interface provides.  It is clear you could simulate a lab instr. almost exactly, but that requires a lot of software and the rough  edges in their software where all showing.

I spent some time talking the author of a large family of print drivers for the Mac.  His product is around $90 and has a print driver for most every printer that is popular for the micro computer market.  We spent some time talking about how awfully hard it is to write a print driver.
The bottle neck procedures don't tell you when the graphport data structure is changing so, as he said, you have to do it all with mirrors.

There was a 2K$ product for developers that you plug into your Apple II and into your Mac's serial port.  You then run a program on the Apple II, it suddenly appears running on the Mac screen (at 1/4 speed). You run it for a while, hit the interupt button, and when you return to the finder you discover a new application.  Your Apple II program has been ported to your Mac!  They handle overlays, disks, joy-stick to mouse conversion, screen handling, etc. etc.  The result runs full speed, and is native 68K code. You need to have run the program thru all it's "choice points" which I think means thru all it's "basic blocks." This product was from Abalon (sp?) systems, who also had a 300dot/inch digitizer.

There were about five places there ready and willing to drive your Mac out of warrenty and into fattyness if you would only give them money. I gather that in china the dentists illustrate their skill and experiance by having a large pile of extracted teeth in their window, well one hack your MACer had a huge fish bowl full of legless ram chips.

I really badly wanted the clear Mac case that one vidio company had replaced their flesh colored Mac case with.

The MacPascal people told me an upgrade was in the pipeline "someplace."

There was a nice APL.

My favorite quote?  On the podium next to the room sized MacIntosh we find Mr. Hype saying as his product reboots.  "The Mac in there has a Hyperdrive and General Computer, Apple and our people are working on why this bug happens at this very moment."

ben hyde, cambridge.

“There was a 2K$ product for developers that you plug into your Apple II and into your Mac's serial port.  You then run a program on the Apple II, it suddenly appears running on the Mac screen (at 1/4 speed). You run it for a while, hit the interrupt button, and when you return to the finder you discover a new application.  Your Apple II program has been ported to your Mac!  They handle overlays, disks, joy-stick to mouse conversion, screen handling, etc. etc.  The result runs full speed, and is native 68K code. You need to have run the program thru all its "choice points" which I think means thru all its "basic blocks." This product was from Abalon (sp?) systems, who also had a 300dot/inch digitizer.”

Cupertino, California.  September 17, 1985.  Apple Computer, Inc. is enhancing its Macintosh personal computer with peripherals and software tools that increase its storage capacity, speed and convenience.
 
The new products, all designed for business use, include:
 
--  the Hard Disk 20, a 20-megabyte hard disk for Macintosh 512K users;
 
--  Switcher, a software utility that allows users to work with several programs at once;
 
--  the ImageWriter II, a versatile dot matrix printer with improved speed and print quality; and
 
--  the Apple Personal Modem, a Hayes-compatible, 300/1200-baud modem.
 
The Hard Disk 20 and Switcher answer the demand in the business market for a more powerful Macintosh system.  With on-line access to up to 20 megabytes of applications and data files, the Macintosh can function two to three times faster than a system working only with floppy disks. Switcher further increases productivity by providing a fast, simple method for transferring data or switching among applications.
 
The new ImageWriter II printer, which succeeds the best-selling ImageWriter, provides improved text and graphics print quality, up to twice the speed of the earlier model, and simplified paper handling.  It has an open design that accommodates expansion modules. When used with the Apple II product line, the ImageWriter II also can provide multi-color printing.
 
For a suggested retail price of $399, the new, compact modem offers a wide range of communications features at an affordable price. It plugs directly into a wall outlet or power strip rather than taking up valuable desktop space.
 
"Each of these products increases Macintosh performance for the people who need it most--business professionals who seek maximum productivity from a personal computer," said Delbert W. Yocam, Apple's executive vice president of product operations.  "These products reflect Apple's ongoing efforts to continually broaden the solutions we offer to business customers."
 
Hard Disk 20 Boosts Productivity

 
Adding the Hard Disk 20 to a Macintosh 512K system creates a powerful configuration designed for business professionals who manage large amounts of information.  The Hard Disk 20 stores as much information as 50 Macintosh floppy disks and operates more than twice as fast as a floppy drive.  The user saves additional time because files are accessible without swapping floppy disks.
 
The disk comes with a hierarchical filing system that manages thousands of files without complex partitioning schemes.  Instead, the software uses the Macintosh computer's familiar file folder icons for grouping together related files.
 
Most major software programs can be loaded directly onto the Hard Disk 20 for faster and more convenient access.  In addition, the disk allows the user to store more fonts, printer drivers and a much larger scrapbook, which is the Macintosh desk accessory that stores frequently used text and graphic elements.
 
The Hard Disk 20 is an external, 3 1/2-inch Winchester disk drive that connects to the disk drive port on the back of the Macintosh. Only three inches high, the unit has the same width and depth as the Macintosh and is designed to fit under the computer.  An expansion port on the back of the hard disk allows a second Hard Disk 20, a back-up tape device or an external floppy disk drive to be connected to the system.
 
Hard Disk 20 units for demonstration will begin shipping to authorized Apple dealers in November with quantity shipments expected in early 1986.  The U.S. suggested retail price of $1,499 includes the disk drive with attached cable for connecting it to the Macintosh, the Startup Disk containing the system software and hierarchical filing system, and an owner's manual.
 
Switcher Utility Improves Macintosh Software Integration

 
Switcher also helps users obtain greater efficiency from their Macintosh 512K and Macintosh XL computers.  It allows users to create their own integrated applications by combining in memory up to eight programs of their choice, depending on the memory requirements and other characteristics of the programs involved. Once a combination is put together, users can instantly switch among these applications.  For example, the user can temporarily leave a MacProject document to send a message with MacTerminal; or copy a graphic from a MacDraw file to a MacWrite document -- all without going through the steps of quitting one application and loading another.
 
Switcher can remember specific sets of applications previously used together so they can be reloaded in a single step with the click of a mouse.  The program creates an icon for each set of applications as if it was a single, distinct, integrated program.
 
"Switcher is a tremendous time-saver for the business professional who uses certain applications all the time," said Yocam.  "It also has enormous benefits for the software development community because now they can offer integrated application sets by testing their programs with Switcher and then including Switcher with their individual applications."
 
Software developers can license Switcher from Apple for $250 per year per application.  Many developers have been working with the program since it became available in an advance version earlier this year.  For example, Microsoft has included with its new spreadsheet, Excel, a Switcher document that links Excel with Microsoft Word.  Users who own both applications can, in effect, combine them for extra speed and convenience.
 
According to Bill Gates, chairman of Microsoft Corporation, "Microsoft's application program philosophy is to develop depth products focused on primary tasks.  Apple's Switcher is an ideal operating environment tool that allows users to enjoy the benefits of integration without sacrificing depth or choice."
 
Switcher will be available to the public from authorized Apple dealers by the end of October for a U.S. suggested retail price of $19.95.  Called The Switcher Construction Kit, the retail version of the product, which includes an instruction manual, is designed for sophisticated Macintosh 512K and Macintosh XL users who can thoroughly test the combinations they create.
 
Early versions of Switcher were electronically circulated to the public through CompuServe's Micro-Networked Apple User Group (MAUG) to facilitate the testing of the potentially infinite combinations of Macintosh applications.
 
New Printer for Macintosh Produces Near-Letter-Quality Text
 
Apple is enhancing the printer options available to Macintosh users by introducing the ImageWriter II, a second generation version of the ImageWriter.  Apple's ImageWriter has been one of the most popular dot matrix printers on the market with over one million units sold.
 
The new ImageWriter II offers both near-letter-quality printing and high-quality graphics output, as well as design innovations that allow the user to customize it for special needs.
 
Print Quality:  The ImageWriter II offers three printing modes, including one that is nearly indistinguishable from traditional daisy wheel printing.  Standard and draft modes provide extra speed.
 
Expansion Options:  The ImageWriter II contains an expansion slot for accommodating a range of interface boards. For example, Apple is developing the ImageWriter II AppleTalk Option, which is a card for this slot that will provide shared ImageWriter II printing on an AppleTalk network of Macintosh computers.  Apple also is working closely with third party hardware companies to develop other add-ons for this slot that will further expand the printer's capabilities.
 
Paper Handling:  The ImageWriter II uses continuous form paper or loads individual sheets at the touch of a button with the optional ImageWriter II SheetFeeder.  Designed to easily snap on to the top of the printer, the feeder simplifies the printing of office correspondence and form letters by automatically loading up to 100 sheets of standard office paper or letterhead to the printer.
 
Speed:  The printer can operate at a top speed of 250 characters per second, more than twice the rate of its predecessor.
 
The ImageWriter II is compatible with all Apple computers and with all software packages that worked with the earlier model.  To take advantage of some of the printer's new features, such as its increased speed and optional SheetFeeder, Apple and many software developers are incorporating a modified ImageWriter driver in their Macintosh programs.  This driver utility will be available free of charge from authorized Apple dealers in October.
 
The ImageWriter II is available now from authorized Apple dealers for a U.S. suggested retail price of $595, which includes Apple's standard 90-day limited warranty.  The cable required for connecting the printer to the computer has a suggested retail price of $29.95 and the suggested retail price of the optional ImageWriter II SheetFeeder is $225.  The black ribbons for the ImageWriter II are the same as those used in the earlier model. They sell in packages of six for a suggested retail price of $10.50.
 
International versions with appropriate electrical modifications and documentation also are available.
 
Apple and the Apple logo are registered trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc.
 
Macintosh is a trademark of McIntosh Laboratory, Inc. and is used with express permission for its owners.
 
AppleTalk, ImageWriter, MacDraw, MacProject, MacTerminal, MacWrite and Switcher are trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc.

Macintosh is a trademark of McIntosh Laboratory, Inc. and is used with express permission for its owners.

"What did you just do?," I asked John, curious about the software that he was running. "How did you switch to another application so quickly?"

Cupertino, CA-- Apple Computer Inc. chairman and co-founder Steven P. Jobs is preparing to start another computer company and has hired away five Apple employees.

The move could prompt Apple to seek the resignation of Mr. Jobs, who was forced out of day-to-day responsibilities at Apple in a major reorginization four months ago.

Mr. Jobs jolted Apple Officials late last week when he anounced plans to create a company to make computers for universities, one of Apples fastest-growing markets.  Though there has been widespread speculation that Mr. Jobs might embark on a new venture, his disclosure that he hired five Apple employees --including some of the computer makers brightest young engineers and marketers-- created some turmoil and resentment among top management.

"The executive staff has been stunned and shocked that this has happened" said William V. Campbell, an Apple executive vice president.

"I'm quite surprised that all this was being done while he was chairman, and, furthermore, it would concern me if he gets into business that's competitive with Apple," said Delbert W. Yocam, the Apple executive vice president who, with Mr. Campbell, oversees the companys two corporate divisions.

Apple said it probably will convene a special board meeting to discuss Mr. Jobs's plans. None of the board's seven members, including Mr. Jobs and Apple President John Sculley, was available for comment, and it isn't clear whether the board will ask Mr. Jobs to resign. But Apple executives are said to be discussing whether the board should determine if Mr. Jobs violated his fiduciary responsibilities by hiring away company employees.

According to a senior Apple executive, Mr. Jobs told the board at its meeting Thursday that he intended to start the new company. Mr. Jobs assured the board that the new concern wouldn't compete with Apple, and the board reacted favorably to the plan, the executive said.

According to the executive, who spoke on the condition that he wouldn't be identified, board members even said Apple would invest in the start-up and resolved to determine possible links between Apple and the new company later this week.

Hiring Away Five Employees

But the next morning, before a 7:30 staff meeting, Mr. Jobs presented Mr. Sculley with a letter that said he had recruited five Apple employees to join the new concern, the official said. That information, according to Apple insiders, sparked the firestorm that now surrounds Mr. Jobs plans.

"The board was upset to find out that this wasn't an idea-it was an accomplished fact," an official said.

As reported, Mr. Jobs this summer said he would sell about a fifth of his stake in Apple for roughly $20 million. With about 5.5 million shares of Apple left in his portfolio, he remains the company's largest inside shareholder, with about 9% of the 61.8 million shares outstanding.

In national over-the-counter trading yesterday, Apple closed at $15.25 a share, down 50 cents.

Mr. Jobs apparently plans for the new company to build a computer workstation for universities that would be more powerful than current personal computers. Beyond that broad goal, however, the direction the start-up will take is still hazy.


Plans for New Company

"We don't have a name, we don't have a bank account," said Rich Page, a senior Apple engineer who is leaving to work with Mr. Jobs. Mr. page said the new company's specific plans have been on hold until the five Apple employees involved in the venture resign. He said the five met with Mr. Jobs at his home Thursday night and offered their resignations from Apple the following morning. The market for a powerful computer for universities could be a fertile one. Many university officials seeking to install computer networks complain that there is a big gap between today's personal computers and the next most powerful machines available: high-level scientific computers.

Apple has been seeking to narrow that gap by developing more powerful versions of its Macintosh personal computer. Even if Mr. Jobs's start-up doesn't compete directly with the Macintosh, the new company and Apple could wind up fighting for the same university dollars earmarked for high-level computer products. Douglas Van Houweling, vice provost for information technology at the University of Michigan, said he estimates that the market for high-powered university computers is between one million and two million units a year. He said such computers, if they were priced around $6,000, could be used widely for writing, research and communication in fields ranging from science to music.

The quintet joining Mr. Jobs includes some of Apple's most talented engineers and managers. Mr. Page is an Apple Fellow, a prestigious title that lets him engage in a wide range of advanced research projects. He said he has built four computers at Apple in the past several years, including some high-powered models in the category Mr. Jobs's new firm appears to be targeting.

Another influential employee in the group is Dan'l Lewin, currently Apple's manager of education marketing and one of Apple's cheif contacts with universities. The other three are Bud Tribble, Apple's manager of software engineering; George Crow, a manager of hardware engineering; and Susan Barnes, controller for U.S. sales and marketing.

Mr. Tribble was one of the original architects of the computer- program that controls Apple's Macintosh, and Mr. Crow helped design some of the Macintosh's key electrical features, such as its power supply.

The furor over Mr. Jobs's plans comes just as Apple is settling from the turbulence of its reorganization in May. As reported, two weeks after that realignment Apple fired 1,200 employees, or 21% of its work force.

"We've had a good quarter-the organization has come together after the reorganization,: Mr. Campbell said. "This incident seems to highlight turmoil at Apple, and nothing could be further from the truth."

I bought a Tecmar hard disk a month after I got my Mac, not quite a year ago.  I thought choosing a hard disk was a matter of performance and price. It never occurred to me that I would need "support" from the company.  I was wrong, and my dealings with Tecmar have been so incredibly bad that I would like to warn anyone considering a Tecmar disk.

I have dealt with Tecmar three times:  once to buy the hard disk, once to get the first software upgrade, and once to get the second. My dealings with them have been like a TV sitcom.  There's no way to describe it, really, but I'll summarize.

I probably have phoned Tecmar 25 times, maybe more, and my local dealer has easily called 10 times for me.  I can't convey the frustrating feeling of those calls--I always felt that if I could talk to somebody reasonable for 15 seconds we could settle something, and I never was able to.  I always reached a recording, which put me on hold and then transferred me to the message center.  No matter what kind of message I left, if someone eventually called back, they had received no information but my name.

Sometimes the person who called me back would transfer me to technical support, which was always busy, and then transferred me automatically to the message center.  Again.  Once I was transferred three times in a single call without talking to any human or even leaving a message.  All this at daytime rates, all at my own expense.  Below, when I say I called Tecmar, you must remember that I have never successfully just "called Tecmar".  I don't think it would be possible to parody many of the calls I made.

First, I just bought a hard disk.  I bought it from my authorized Apple dealer, in case something went wrong, because I am not a sophisticated user.  The thing came, I set it up, and it didn't work.  (It turned out the fault was with the disk cartridge.  Tecmar had sent me one with masking tape on it saying "in-house".  I didn't know that meant it was faulty and had been kept for testing, and didn't learn that for weeks.) 

I called Tecmar.  Over and over and over.  I wanted to talk to someone who might have a guess as to the problem, so I would know if I should return the unit, replace the cartridge, replace the accompanying software, etc.  After 10 days of calling, I blew up at an operator and said I wanted to talk to somebody RIGHT NOW.  The guy I talked to was nice, and helpful.  I happened to mention the "in-house" label, and he opined that might be the problem, so I returned the disk to Tecmar for a replacement (actually, I had the dealer do it, to minimize problems.)

After weeks of waiting, calling, etc. I ordered a new one... Tecmar had lost the old one.  A month later they found that they'd received it, after all, and shipped me a new one. Meantime I had bought a new one for $100.00, and had to wait two weeks to get it.

By the time I had the proper disk cartridge a software upgrade had been released, but Tecmar refused to ship it to either me or the Apple dealer. They only shipped to distributors, and though the one my dealer dealt with was a large one, it wasn't handling the upgrades.  It went on and on... I called various places, the local dealer called, etc.  Calls to Tecmar were, as always, a circus.

Eventually another distributor, I think Rhino Sales in Michigan, agreed to send me the upgrade.  It was incompatible with the old software so that all files had to be erased (a problem I underestimated until it was too late).  Once it was installed.... guess what, it didn't work right.  (The printer had to be plugged into the back of the hard disk, and the printing screwed up.)

It turned out that one DIP switch in the printer had to be reset to handle the print spooling, but it took me another week of telephoning and being bounced around before I learned that. (Again, once I talked to someone who knew something, it was quick.  There was no mention of the DIP switch in the documentation...)

Whew, ready to go.  Until I got the new Finder and System, and tried to work with a LaserWriter.  Not only was the Tecmar software incompatible with MacTerminal and Thunderscan, it was also incompatible with the new Finder and LaserWriter.  Sigh.  Call Tecmar to find out when the new software would come out, and if maybe they'd let me have it this time.  (Rhino sales had declined to help on a regular basis.)

Getting the second software upgrade was even more amazing than my other dealings.  Several times I was told it was shipping, or would be shipping next week.  Familiar story, I guess.  Then Tecmar told me the upgrade was posted on CompuServe, and I could get it there.  I knew nothing about CompuServe, and asked a friend who did.  He said it would help a lot to know the file name or where it was posted.

I called to ask about that, and was told they had never heard anything about it.  I persisted, asking different questions on different days.  (You'd understand all this if you could see the routine I had to go through to print on the LaserWriter, or how slow 5 megs is when it has lots of files.)  One time a very nice fellow asked what I meant.  I said CompuServe was a bulletin board system, and people could download software if they were members.  "Gee, that sounds neat.  But do you need a modem or something?"  Honest, he really said that. I gave up.  The CompuServe posting had been taken off before I got to it. At some point it dawned on me that I could try the old version 1.0 with the new Finder and see what happened.  Of course, you always run the risk of losing everything, but what the heck.

It worked!  so did the "Install LaserWriter", and you could use MacTerminal if you kept the document (but not necessarily the application) on a floppy.  I was immediately less desperate.  Now I could print without copying the file to a floppy, shutting down the hard disk, starting up with the floppy, printing and capturing the PostScript, copying that to a MacTerminal disk, uploading to the VAX, ad infinitum. 

But after the "two weeks" they had last told me had elapsed, I called Tecmar again.  Yep, they were shipping, though they charged me $25.00.  Okay, it's cheap compared to the phone bills and the hassle.  A week later I called again (and again and again, waiting to be allowed to talk to someone) to se where it was: they had promised 2-3 days. When someone finally called me back, he asked if I'd like to order the upgrade (my message asked why it hadn't arrived yet.)

I said no, I wanted to know why I hadn't gotten it yet.  "Oh, we ran out of documentation, and it will be a week or two to print more up."  Oh wow, blow my mind, I didn't know what to say.  They sell $1500.00 to $2000.00 items and they can't get it together to count how many they have sold???  And what could possibly be in the documentation that takes more than a page to print?

The answer, of course, is that there is nothing in the documentation at all.  It is page after glossy page with virtually no content (an entire page to show you how to turn your Macintosh so its back faces you, another to tell you to fasten one end of the cable to the printer or modem port, etc.)

But I didn't need a new booklet, I only needed a couple of words about what was different.  There were only two sentences in the book about upgrades, and following their directions didn't work.  The upgrade software came with a cryptic application that wasn't mentioned at all in the documentation, and which did something inexplicable and unexplained to the disk.  Still no mention of DIP switches in the new book, but I am now sadder and wiser.

As far as I can tell, the only thing the new version accomplishes is compatibility with the new Finder, which seems pretty basic.  The print spooler is its only reason for being, because version 1.0 does everything except free a port for you.  And the new print spooler is bug-eaten.

It does not work with MacPascal.
It does not work with MacFortran.
It does not work with DB Master.
It did not work printing draft quality from MacDraw, though I only tried that once.
It does not work with ThunderScan.
It will not spool the LaserWriter (and the documentation does not tell you this simple fact.)
Despite Tecmar's assurances to the contrary, the new software is NOT compatible with MacTerminal either.

And it is incompatible in ways that still have me struggling to figure it out.  (At first I could get away with having an already-created MacTerminal document on a floppy with no system file. If this document used the printer port, the system wouldn't hang and it wouldn't transfer control to the floppy.  But I once opened the MacTerminal document with Edit, to snarf some downloaded stuff, and now MacTerminal won't let me back into ANY MacTerminal document as long as MacTerminal is on the hard disk.  If you can figure that one out, you are a lot smarter than I am!)

I called Tecmar,(when will I learn??) to ask about these features.  After I was, as usual, automatically transferred to the message center, which doesn't identify itself as such, I thought to ask the operator to read me back my message after I had left it.  The only thing she had was my name... The person I talked to--eventually--suggested that I re-initialize my hard disk cartridge because perhaps the print spooler was written on a bad sector.

I resisted at first, because it is a headache to back up and replace 5 megs of stuff.  Tecmar's "backup utility" is won't allow you to back up a disk or volume, only ONE FILE AT A TIME!  Even the Finder can shift-click to select several files.  Despite my suspicions (if it prints OK from MacWrite and Word, etc, why should the sector be bad?) I relented and nuked the disk.  It was a waste of time, (a lot of time), and as usual I screwed something up and lost some important data.  Sigh.

Version 2.2 also has a great new feature--a "reset print spooler" option for when you are printing 2000 mailing labels and the printer jams. Trouble is, to get to the feature you must quit the application you are in, return to the desktop, open Tecmar's Volume Manager, and THEN reset the print spooler.

Naturally, that takes awhile, and the application may not permit you to quit till you are done printing.... Pretty smart, Tecmar. Why not a desk accessory??  I happen to be in a big pickle when DB Master and programming languages don't print.  I need to print those 2000 mailing labels, and MacWrite and Edit insist on skipping over the perforations in the paper.  The last version of Tecmar's print spooler also screwed up, but I could print to a file and then run a little Pascal program to print it.

Now I'm dead.. I even tried FORTRAN.  I suppose if I experiment enough I can make the headers in MacWrite the right size to skip exactly two labels at each "perforation".  But it takes MacWrite five MINUTES to open a text file with 2000 mailing labels in it!  I think I should return the upgrade 2.2 to Tecmar and ask for a refund of my $25.00.  I haven't tested the speeds yet, but I have an idea that old version 1.0 is just as fast as 2.2, also.  Tecmar should use the memory in the MacDrive for a cache memory or something.  I have very little use for a print spooler that will only spool an ImageWriter, and which is a big headache to reset when the ImageWriter jams.

I long since discarded their backup utility, configured my disk into one big volume, and set that volume to mount automatically at startup. What are hard disks for, anyway?  By the way, the copious glossy documenation neglected to mention that I had to set the system volume to mount automatically at startup....

I heartily recommend that all you folks run out and buy yourselves a Tecmar product.

Alan Kay gave a talk here today entitled "When Will Computers Disappear." By that he did not mean when will we stop using them, but rather when will they become so commonplace that they lose their high visibility and blend in like telephones.  Here is some of the interesting things I remember from his talk.  This done from memory, but is correct to the best of my knowledge.

He said that mice had been used at Xerox "over our dead bodies."  They wanted to use a graphics tablet as their pointing device, but it was much too expensive.

He said that the reason gray levels had not been used on the Xerox machines was that they wanted to see how it would eventually look on a liquid crystal display in a (dyna) book-sized computer.  In a machine with a CRT like the Mac, he saw no justification for not using gray levels.

He said that Apple should never have sold a 128K Mac, comparing it to a flashy car with a tiny gas tank.  He had high praise for the LaserWriter though.  He had made some nice slides with it, including one large octagonal warning sign which read "Warning!  IBM Jokes Ahead."  He did have some wonderful IBM jokes, but it would be inappropriate to repeat them here.  There was an IBM executive present who took them in very good humor.

When asked what was going on at Apple these days, Kay said he didn't know but that he was having a good time.

Kay criticized the approach of asking users what they want because they usually think they want more of basically what they've got, except cheaper and better.  Thus, people can get to like even lousy ideas, like function keys, if they spend a long time learning to use them.

Kay thinks that one of the best books on systems programming is the Federalist Papers because it describes the control program for an enormously complicated system that has run for 200 years without breaking down.

Other books he recommends are: "The Inner Game of Tennis" by Tim Gallwey which discusses how to use the subconscious mind more effectively, "Psychology of Invention in the Mathematical Field" by Adamard which surveys the techniques of the top 100 mathematicians at the time, including Einstein who said he had a physical, muscular, tactile approach to abstract problems which let him "feel" the spaces he was working with, and "Molecular Biology of the Cell" by Alberts et. al., which Kay says assumes no prior knowledge and can be read like a novel but which describes every known mechanism of the cell.

I guess that came up because he gave an estimate of the number of bits of information in an E. Coli cell.  I don't remember what it was exactly, but it was large, on the order of hundreds of megabytes, and he noted that the E. Coli cell itself was much smaller than a mammalian cell.  Kay also recommended his Sept 1977 article in Sci Am which has now been reprinted in a book called "Microelectronics" published by Freeman.

On the topic of subconscious versus concious thought, Kay identified three styles of thought which he labelled "Doing", "Images", and "Symbols".  As an example, he described how children of various ages write logo programs to draw circles.

A five year old, when asked to close his eyes and walk in a circle, observes that he walks a little and turns a little, over and over.  This translates into a very nice logo program to draw a circle.

A ten year old, might know a little more about the definition of a circle and might observe that all points are the same distance from the center.  He would write a program that repeatedly moved a certain distance from the center, drew a dot, returned to the center, turned, moved the same distance, and so on.  This works too, but not as well.

A fifteen year old would be lost however because he knows too much--he knows that r^2 = x^2 + y^2 and he'll get completely lost trying to program it.

Kay feels that window technology will soon be obsolete because the amount of information that people can comprehend by direct browsing is much smaller than the amount available through networking.

He described the need for semi-intelligent agents (processes) and mentioned a system he built where agents would scan various electronic news services at night and build a custom newspaper for you based on its knowledge of what you would be interested in.  Thus the headline might be that U.S. planes are bombing in El Salvador (they are) or it could just as well be that your afternoon appointment was cancelled (which the agent learned by reading your electronic mail), based on what would be of interest to you.  The system even had a videodisk of faces of famous people and maps of famous places which it would use to illustrate your newspaper.

Kay described a system built at Atari where people would wear a device like a watch (it did indeed tell time) that would allow a computer to track them as they moved through the building using a cellular telephone like system. When they entered a room, it would already have their speech recognizer all loaded and ready and since it could also tell where in 3-space the watch was, you could point at something and say "turn on that light."

Well, that's all I remember at the moment.  Maybe someone else who was also there could supplement, correct, and clarify this summary.  Kay is at MIT during fall semesters; if you're at any institution in the New England area I would highly recommend him as a speaker.

Kay criticized the approach of asking users what they want because they usually think they want more of basically what they've got, except cheaper and better.  Thus, people can get to like even lousy ideas, like function keys, if they spend a long time learning to use them.

I have been inquiring about increasing my Mac to 1M + recently and have now heard from two dealers that I should wait until January for the "Mac Plus".

Can anyone tell me if there is any truth in this? One character says that one will be able to upgrade the standard Mac to this config (at least a Meg, the new ROMs, and the 800k dual sided drive).

Well, three days at Comdex and the feet are ready to fall off.

some highlights:

a company called Spectrafax is showing a 200-300 dpi digitizing unit for the Mac and PC for $3995.  The nice thing about it is that it offers plug-in cards so that the unit can perform OCR and Fax tasks. currently, the Mac version only digitizes into MacPaint, but will have the OCR, Fax and digitizing into a Draw document by the middle of next year.

Adobe has announced over 30 fonts for the LaserWriter, mostly ITC typefaces (Zapf, Palatino, Garamond among them). They will be offered starting in Jain packets of 4 faces for $185, which is thousands less than fonts cost for typesetting systems. The packages will consist of two elements, Font/DA Mover files for] the screen fonts, and an installer program that will download the fonts to the LaserWriter. The fonts will stay in memory until the LaserWriter is turned off again.

CAD/CAM is big for the Mac -Two high-end packages, MicroCAD/Micro/CAM andEZ-Draft, are priced in the $2000 range for the full products, but look real powerful. EZ-Draft looks like the better product, but we won't know until they are released. Easy3D, marketed by Ashton-Tate, looks like a fantastic 3D modeling/drafting package, for $149. Its screen and object-handling look superb, but the drawing elements look like they still nedd a bit of work.

Laser printers are big too -- the QMS and Dataproducts PostScript printers are expensive, but offer a bit more functionality than the LW.

A complete video disc recording system is being unveiled for courseware applications. The video editor is damn slick, with a lot of nice little Mac- type utilities and functions. The whole system is expensive - over $30000 - but most of that is due to the $27000 price of the VDisc Recorder. The company is called Edudisc, and you will be hearing more about them.

SuperCrunch doesn't look as hot as its press release indicated - its interface, while powerful, is a bit clunky, and they haven't optimized the program as much as they claim. too bad.

Nexpert is hot, very hot.If you truly need some expert systems modeling capability, this is the package for you. We will be looking at this one too...

business filevision shipped the week before last. it looked pretty finished. telos sent out the first copies to all who paid up front back in august and september. press and dealers come later. ahh well.....

tempo is also nearing completion. it works with HFS now, should be out soon.

another 3D package joined the ranks. Mac3D is a traditional wire-frame based program. it didn't look too hot for the price ($79), but had a nice feature we would like to see elsewhere - a spreadsheet-type grid for entering points in free space (x, y, and z axes). this allows more exact positioning of a drawing. do your equations in excel, tk solver, whatever, and plug em in there.

the 3Com network looks pretty slick. they even have a LaserWriter spooler. god, what i would give for their tape backup unit.....

Parties, parties, parties. Infocom was dull, boring. John Dvorak's roving party was awesome. Where else could you see Philippe Kahn, Bill Gates and Hunter S. Thompson having a meaningful (??) discussion? Esther Dyson won the Esther Dyson lookalike contest at that one. Kahn bought 200 bottles of champagne for the crowd. We are still a bit hungover from that one.......


    Thats it for now. We'll be back with more. Excuse the typing, the phone lines (and your humble reporter's mind) are very noisy.