AppleSearch 1.0.1 is compatible with Power Macintosh computers and Apple’s new PowerPC-based Workgroup Servers. The new version of Apple’s textual search engine will be available in the form of a patch that can be applied to version 1.0 of the server software, and to the AppleSearch Trial CD. It should be available by 05-May-94 from Apple’s order center at 800/769-2775, extension 7851 (for a shipping and handling fee of $10 for UPS or $15 for FedEx delivery), from resellers, AppleLink, and the Internet. [MHA]

CompuServe’s Internet Plans — Pythaeus writes to tell us that CompuServe is testing a version of CompuServe Information Manager that enables users to telnet out of CompuServe and to use anonymous FTP to get files. After retrieving a file, CompuServe’s FTP places them in a temporary area on CompuServe, from which you can use the standard CompuServe protocols to download to your Mac. [ACE]

The Stealth Stylus is one of a set of new writing implements from WriteWare designed for use with Newton MessagePads and other pen-based PDAs. We wrote in TidBITS #211 about the company’s plastic stylus inserts for popular pens; the new products are the user who doesn’t want to sacrifice a favorite Cross or Sheaffer. The basic Stealth Stylus is available in plastic or metal, and in black, burgundy, or an opalescent black chrome, for $9.45 to $22.50.

The Stealth Stylus II is a dual-function pen and stylus, available in several colors and finishes for $17.95 (for matte black) or $18.95 (for other styles). And for the real power writer among us, the Super Stealth Stylus incorporates a plastic stylus tip, pen, and a Pentel mechanical pencil, for $25.95 or $29.95. An upcoming Elite Stylus line will include matching pen and stylus sets, as well as desk sets with marble stands.

PDA owners in the U.S. can now order from WriteWare’s new distributor, International Datawares, at 800/222-6032. (They are not equipped to ship outside the U.S., sorry!) [MHA]

We’ve always been proud of the way TidBITS is distributed as widely as possible throughout the Internet, enabling readers to pick and choose how they wish to read each issue. Our latest distribution mechanism is via the World-Wide Web.

Since we don’t yet have our own Internet machine, and neither do we have time to create the HTML (HyperText Markup Language) files ourselves each week, we had a great deal of help in making TidBITS available on the Web. William Murphy <[email protected]> came up with the automation process for translating our setext format into basic HTML, complete with text styles and links to all of the URLs (Uniform Resource Locators) that we list in each issue to point readers at a specific Internet file or resource. In other words, every URL in an issue of TidBITS becomes a link when you browse that issue on the World-Wide Web – click on that link and you go directly to the site referenced in the URL, or if it’s a file, you retrieve the file automatically. And people complain about the Internet being hard to use. William also created links to <ftp.tidbits.com>, the file site we maintain for Macintosh Internet software and other miscellaneous files that we’ve created.

Unfortunately, to truly benefit from the Web version of TidBITS, you need a copy of NCSA Mosaic, the most talked-about application on the Internet today. I say "unfortunately" because Mosaic is a MacTCP-based application and requires a MacTCP connection to the Internet, either via a network or via SLIP or PPP and a modem. If you don’t have such a connection, you cannot use Mosaic. You may be able to still use the Web, although sans styles and graphics, with a clever Unix character-based browser called Lynx. Try typing "lynx" at your Unix shell prompt to see if it’s installed – if not, ask your system administrator. You can get the latest version of Mosaic at:

ftp://ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu/Mac/Mosaic/ NCSAMosaicMac.103.sit.hqx

The other person due thanks for making TidBITS available on the World-Wide Web is Andy Williams <[email protected]> of Dartmouth College, who kindly made space available on the Dartmouth Web server. Thanks to both William and Andy, and if you wish to check out TidBITS on the Web, here’s the URL:

http://www.dartmouth.edu/Pages/TidBITS/ TidBITS.script

This site is definitely under construction, so if you have suggestions for how it might be improved or added to, please, drop us a line in email.

If you use Microsoft Word, you might be interested in checking out my new book, The Word Book for Macintosh Users (ISBN#1-56830-088-3), fresh off the presses from Hayden Books. It’s bright red, somewhat thick at 776 pages, and contains much of what I know about Word 5.0 and 5.1.

The book starts with the usual preliminaries about using the Macintosh for word processing, continues with detailed installation instructions, and talks about Word’s interface and how to personalize Word. It then shows about twenty sample documents. (They were created with the assistance of Jon.Hersh, a friend and Seattle-based designer who created the "Caring for Your Wrists" document we distribute on the Internet at:)

ftp://ftp.tidbits.com/pub/tidbits/misc/

The documents and their surrounding text help you visually find topics in the book. After the sample documents come various chapters such as Boxes, Borders, and Lines; Conversions; and Printing Techniques and Problems. Besides explaining how to create, edit, and format documents, I mention problems fixed by patches and updates, workarounds, and situations where you want to proceed carefully in order to avoid trouble. Given that in a former life I did phone support for Word, I have a somewhat unique perspective to offer.

Finally, to make the book more useful for Internet users, I’ve uploaded various updates and enhancements for Word to:

ftp://ftp.tidbits.com/pub/tidbits/thewordbook/

The Word Book should be in the distribution channel this week, so bookstores can order it, although they may not have it in stock right away. If you are interested, you can order it directly by email or phone (wait a day or two before ordering via phone) at a 25 percent discount. You must give the magic code "WORD" to receive the discount.

Ordering Details

The Word Book for Macintosh Users, by Tonya Engst.
Published by Hayden Books. ISBN 1-56830-088-3.
$24.95 U.S. $32.95 Canada. Shipping cost varies (generally
about $3 for U.S. mail and $6 for FedEx in the U.S.). Tax
is included for orders from Indiana.

800/428-5331 (U.S. toll free voice orders)
317/581-3535 (U.S. local voice orders in Indiana)
317/581-3500 (Switchboard voice)
800/448-3804 (U.S. fax orders)
317-581-3550 (General fax)
[email protected] (email orders)
WORD (Magic code for 25% discount)

Email Orders — Fill out and return the form at the bottom of this article to <[email protected]>. If you aren’t comfortable with sending your credit card information through email, use another ordering method. Sorry, Hayden doesn’t take Discover.

U.S. Orders — Call or fax using the appropriate phone number. Don’t worry if the operator says it’s Prentice Hall Computer Publishing or Macmillan Computer Publishing – Hayden is an imprint. If you fax, make sure to include all of the information requested on the form below – in fact, print it out, fill it in, and then fax it back.

International Orders — First, send email to [email protected] for a list of the international distributors that we know of. If working through them does not work (it can save money on shipping), either use email as explained above or call the switchboard number above and ask to be connected to "International Sales." They will either take your order or tell you the easiest way to get a copy in your country. If you want to fax in your order, send the form below to the general fax number above and note clearly that it’s for "International Sales."

Hayden Books Order Form

Hayden Books
201 West 103rd Street
Indianapolis, IN 46290 USA
voice: (317) 581-3500 or (800) 428-5331
fax: (317) 581-3550 or (800) 835-3202

 [Please do NOT write/type in the box below. Thanks!]
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 ISBN:   1-56830-088-3           quantity:  ________
 title:  The Word Book for Macintosh Users
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Director of Technical Services, Baka Industries Inc.

PrairieSoft, a small Iowa-based software company that was formed to take over support and development of several CE Software products last year (see TidBITS #188), has released instructions for setting up an In/Out server on a System 7 computer. The server component for the people-tracking software was previously supported only under System 6, though the client software was already System 7 compatible.

In/Out provides the network equivalent of a company’s wall-mounted in/out board, displaying a list of people, whether they’re in or out, and if they’re out, where they are and when they’ll return. The software can also be instructed to notify users when a particular person leaves or returns. In/Out can also be used to track resources, such as conference rooms or company delivery vans. PrairieSoft says that one In/Out customer, a typesetting agency, even uses the software to keep track of what kind of paper or other media is loaded in their Linotronic imaging device and their LaserWriter printer.

The company says that the installer utility provided with In/Out 1.0.2 may be used with System 7, but should be instructed not to modify the system heap size when it offers to do so. The In/Out Server control panel can be left in the System Folder, or moved to the Extensions folder so it will load before the In/Out client extension, if that is installed on the same computer. An alias to the control panel may be placed in the Control Panels folder for ease of access.

The CEToolbox extension installed by the In/Out installation process should be moved from the System Folder into the Extensions folder, unless there is a newer version already there. (CEToolbox is included with several CE Software products, and is licensed for use with some other companies’ products. Version 1.7.1 is current.) The latest version of CEToolbox should always be used.

ftp://toto.ycc.yale.edu/pub/mac/quickmail/ce/ CEToolbox171.sit.hqx

Lastly, the AppleTalk file installed in the System Folder by the In/Out installer is unnecessary under System 7 and may be discarded.

PrairieSoft, Inc. — 515-225-3720 — 515-225-4122
(technical support) — 515-225-2422 (fax)

A few readers asked about the reference to "color temperatures" in last week’s article "Old Monitor Makes Way" (in TidBITS #223) and the measurements given in degrees Kelvin. Some were concerned about such hot objects sitting on their desks!

I knew that the 5000, 6500, and 9300 degrees Kelvin measurements referred to the white level displayed by the monitor, but didn’t know how or why. A little digging confirmed what little I did understand, and added the fact that the white level is described in terms of degrees Kelvin because you’re describing the exact "shade" of white that’s radiated by an object heated to that temperature!

A hypothetical "black body" (an object that reflects no electromagnetic radiation) looks black when it’s cold because nearly all the energy emitted is in the infrared end of the spectrum. As it warms, it glows a dull red (the low part of the visible-light spectrum), then moves into the yellow and blue as it heats up. When it gets really hot, the peak is in the blue, but there’s lots of yellow and red, too. The result is that your eyes, which register red, blue, and green, see white, since all of your receptors are firing at the same time.

Hotter objects appear to have a higher blue component, but are never quite blue because the red and yellow components never reduce. A cooler object (if objects so hot can be called "cool") appears to have a more reddish cast. Thus, the "white point" of a monitor, or the "temperature" setting, indicates the shade of white displayed by the monitor as a comparison to the temperature of a black body at which that shade of white will be emitted. If you’d like to know what shades of white are represented by the "color temperatures" of 5000, 6500, and 9300 degrees Kelvin, just get a real hot oven and heat some convenient "black body" to those temperatures.

Information from:
Chuck Bartosch — [email protected]

Robin Williams is one of my favorite Macintosh authors, and her latest book, How to Boss Your Fonts Around (ISBN1-56609-102-0, from Peachpit Press) lives up to her tradition of producing wonderful books. Frankly speaking, at this point I don’t expect to learn much from Robin’s books – I know a great deal about the Macintosh, but I love to recommend her books, share them, and give them as gifts. How to Boss Your Fonts Around surprised me by being not only perfect for beginners but also a welcome addition to my personal library.

I’ve always enjoyed Robin’s attitude. Her books aren’t cluttered with cutesy slang, but she always works in a few fun phrases. For example, in the City-Named Fonts section, she writes, "If you print to a PostScript printer, a city-named font will print close to how you see it on the screen – if it looks dorky, it’s gonna print dorky." (And yes, she does clarify about Font Substitution.)

Font Management — After covering basic font terminology and installation in a friendly and thorough manner, the book moves on to discuss how to use Suitcase and MasterJuggler to better manage fonts. If you use fonts constantly, you probably know much of what’s covered in the font management section, but if you need a reminder or need help getting started, this section should help tremendously. It also explains font ID conflicts and touches on printing at service bureaus.

Fun and Games — Not surprisingly, Robin enjoys playing with fonts, and Fontographer is the font sandbox that she plays in for her book. She doesn’t explain how to use Fontographer, but she gives loads of examples of practical and fun ways to modify fonts in the program. My favorite example is the font her seven-year-old daughter Scarlett designed for Robin’s previous book "Jargon."

Reference — Along with a detailed, well-illustrated glossary, the book comes with a short section that points you to several catalogues of freeware and shareware fonts and gives specific steps for finding fonts on America Online and CompuServe. Contact information for each source unfortunately does not always include a non-800 number for non-U.S. readers and does not include fax or email information.

Expectations — At $12.95, it’s not surprising that the book doesn’t come with a disk, so don’t look for any demo versions of font management software or freebie fonts. In addition, although the book teaches you how to install and manage fonts, it doesn’t attempt to tell you how to combine them on a page or how to decide which font to use in a given situation. The book isn’t completely accurate – I caught one technical error regarding the fact that not all Personal LaserWriters are QuickDraw printers.

In any event, Robin has done created another great book. I wonder what she plans to write next.

Peachpit Press — 800/283-9444 — 415/548-4393
415/548-5991 (fax)

Apple’s Enterprise Systems Division last week announced a series of PowerPC-based Apple Workgroup Servers to supplement the existing line of specialized Macs bundled with various network server products. The Workgroup Server 6150, 8150, and 9150 models are big brothers to the Workgroup Server 60, 80, and 95 models, all of which remain in the product family. (Apple discontinued both the 8/500 and 8/500/CD configurations of the AWS 80, but the others remain.)

Under the Hood — The Workgroup Server 6150 is based on the Power Macintosh 6100/60 platform, and sports a 60 MHz PowerPC 601 processor, internal 500 MB hard drive, and internal CD-ROM drive.

The midrange model, the Workgroup Server 8150, features an 80 MHz PowerPC 601 chip, three NuBus slots, a PDS (processor direct slot), an internal 1 GB hard drive, and both internal DAT and CD-ROM drives in the same case as the Power Mac 8100. It also includes a 32K on-chip cache and 256K Level-2 cache.

At the top of the line, the Workgroup Server 9150 will satisfy Quadra 900 and 950 owners who were shocked that the Power Macintosh family lacked an upgrade for their top-of-the-line Macs. This unit, based on the Quadra 950 form factor, offers an 80 MHz PowerPC 601 chip, 32K on-chip and 512K level-2 cache, four NuBus slots, a PDS, two internal 1 GB or 2 GB hard drives (with space for three more), internal DAT drive and CD-ROM drive, and two SCSI DMA buses to support up to 14 devices.

All the new Workgroup Server models include AppleShare file and print server software, and Apple RAID (providing RAID level 0 and 1 capabilities) offering either data protection (through mirroring) or striping for improved performance. (Naturally, the striping and mirroring features require multiple compatible hard drives.) The 8150 and 9150 models include Retrospect Remote 2.1 as well; this popular Dantz software, now running in native mode for significantly improved performance, provides centralized backup capabilities in concert with the servers’ built-in DAT drives.

Upgrades — Unless the street prices of the Apple Workgroup Server logic board upgrades are dramatically lower than the combination of Power Macintosh logic board upgrades and AppleShare server software prices, we suspect only Quadra 900 and 950 owners will jump at these upgrades. (And jump they will.) The Workgroup Server 6150 and 8150 logic board upgrades are intended only for AWS 60 and 80 owners, respectively (presumably the prices are based on the return of old AWS logic boards, not Centris or Quadra logic boards). Until Apple rewrites the LocalTalk and EtherTalk network protocol software in PowerPC native code, and upgrades AppleShare to match, there will be little benefit to upgrading these machines. AWS 60 and 80 owners will probably want to wait for another round of Workgroup Server models based on the just-released 100 MHz PowerPC 604 processor.

However, the Workgroup Server 9150 logic board upgrade is specifically intended to upgrade Quadra 900 and 950 computers, and – according to Apple – is not intended for the Workgroup Server 95. Owners of these tower Mac models desperate for PowerPC horsepower will be able to take this route, though if they have no use for the bundled DAT and CD-ROM drives, or the AppleShare and Apple RAID software, the price for entry into this club may be a bit high.

AppleShare 4.0.2 — The bundled AppleShare is version 4.0.2, which replaces the previous 4.0.1 version. Its primary enhancement is compatibility with PowerPC-based computers, including both the Workgroup Servers and the Power Macintosh line. AppleShare 4.0.1 will not run on the PowerPC-based machines. AppleShare 4.0.2 is otherwise "virtually identical" in features and performance to its predecessor, and in fact is fully compatible with 68040 Macs.

AppleShare 4.0.2 is still based on 680×0 code, and runs in emulation on the PowerPC platform. Apple says the software’s performance will be comparable on the PowerPC or corresponding 68040 machines. (For example, performance on a Workgroup Server 80 and 8150 will be similar.) The company plans to ship a native version of AppleShare in 1995.

Apple will include the AppleShare 4.0.2 update kit with Workgroup Server logic board upgrades, but those who wish to use the software on Power Macintosh systems can obtain the upgrade (in the U.S.) by calling 800/769-2775, extension 7851. Proof of 4.0 or 4.0.1 purchase is required; there is a $10-$15 shipping and handling charge. AppleShare 3.0.x owners may purchase the $699 AppleShare Upgrade Kit, item M1946Z/C.

And a Freebie — All new PowerPC-based Workgroup Servers and logic board upgrade kits sold through 31-Dec-94 will include an offer for a free copy of the $229 TechWorks Server Manager software upon return of the registration card. This software allows network administrators to control AppleShare servers from any Macintosh on the network or via a dialup connection.

Serious Servers? — Apple RAID, which isn’t expected to ship until this summer (based on the northern hemisphere’s summer!), is a good sign that Apple is beginning to take enterprise systems seriously. The mirroring capability will allow multiply-redundant "live backups" of server storage; all data that’s stored will be stored on more than one drive at the same time, and should one drive fail, another can immediately take its place. The striping feature takes advantage of multiple drives in another way, by splitting blocks of data into small chunks split across multiple drives. This allows two or more drives to be active at once, dramatically speeding up the possible transfer rates. The Mac can tell the second drive to begin a write operation while waiting for the first to complete its task.

Such features have been available in third-party software and hardware products (such as FWB’s Hard Disk Toolkit Professional Edition software and their SledgeHammer drive arrays, and Golden Triangle’s earlier NuBus cards), but their inclusion in an Apple box will generate a better image for these machines than if they were simply bundled Macs and server software with a fancy new name. The original Workgroup Server line offered some innovation, but in many ways was just such a bundle arrangement.

Novell agrees; Apple also announced today the framework of an alliance that will see a PowerPC-based version of NetWare 4 implemented later this year as part of Apple’s Workgroup Server line. The new network operating system is expected to be introduced by Apple towards the end of the year, and will give network managers another welcome choice of server environment.

Certainly Apple’s about-face on the apparent plan to leave Quadra 950 owners without an upgrade path is a good sign. (Frankly, the description of the Workgroup Server 9150’s storage and expansion capabilities makes me drool. But I digress.)

The Chicken or the Egg? — Again, these machines will exhibit the anomaly of unremarkable performance at first, with leaps expected as more of the operating system is ported to PowerPC code and more server applications are written in native code. That means at the moment an upgrade is not likely to be a sensible investment (except for those Quadra 950 owners) and only people in the market for a server machine now will likely want one of these machines.

It’s unfortunate that the Catch-22 principle applies much more to servers than it does to personal computers. Until Apple has rewritten its networking routines (both firmware and software) in PowerPC native code, it will be counter-productive for third parties to release native versions of network-based applications and services. The constant context switching results in slower performance than would be seen with 680×0 applications using the 680×0-based network routines. And until more third-party developers commit to developing network services for the Power Macintosh and PowerPC-based Workgroup Server platforms, Apple may further delay development, or focus on porting other areas of the operating system.

I hope not.

Dantz Development Corp. — 510/849-0293 — 510/253-9099 (fax)
[email protected]
FWB Incorporated — 415/474-8055 — 415/775-2125 (fax)
[email protected]
Golden Triangle Computers Inc. — 800/326-1858 — 619/587-0110
619/587-0303 (fax)
Technology Works Inc. — 800/688-7466 — 512/794-8533
512/794-8520 (fax)

Information from:
Apple propaganda
Dantz propaganda