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Randys Rumor Rag 1993 05
RAndY s RumOR RaG
May 1993
SPECIAL SOCIO-POLITICAL EDITION
INTOLERANCE & POLITICAL CORRECTNESS
In the March issue of the RaG, I did a short piece which has
attracted considerable attention on the East Coast (or so I'm
told). Here is the section in question:
RED HOT & PUBLISH
Quark is offering a software package called Red Hot & Publish,
the proceeds of which will go to support AIDS research.
I hesitate to talk politics here, but I feel compelled to
speak out. I've seen similar promotions in the photography
business too.
While I have sympathy for those afflicted with AIDS, you must
remember that it is a disease promoted through deviant
behavior.Don't drag out the .0001% who get it through a tainted
blood transfusion - this disease is directly related to behavior.
This country is already spending ten times more money on AIDS
research than on cancer research.
I avoid these promotions as I avoid the behavior which spreads
the disease.
OK,, that's what was said. I recently got a long distance
phone call from someone who was very agitated at my use of the word
"deviant". I explained that the RaG is a benevolent dictatorship
and the opinions expressed in the RaG were mine. If he did not
agree with them, he was free to publish a rebuttal. I noted that
the last time I checked this was still America (spelled with a "c")
and we were all entitled to our own opinions.
The caller felt that religion did not belong in a software
publication. I asked where anything was said about religion. He
concluded by telling me he would have me kicked off GEnie and
America Online.
The next day, I got a call from Jeff Green (publisher of
ModemNews). Apparently he had been getting numerous calls from gay
activist groups and circulation of his fine publication was in
jeopardy. I was amazed.
Jeff suggested that I give him some sort of statement to try
to defuse the situation, so here's what I sent him:
It has come to my attention that my remarks concerning AIDS
have created a furor in the gay community. Perhaps my use of the
word deviant appeared strong, but checking my Microsoft Bookshelf
dictionary reveals the definition differing from a norm or from
the accepted standards of society .
No reference was made in my article to homosexuality or
religious beliefs. As I understand it, AIDS is spread through two
major methods: promiscuous sex and intravenous drug use. Neither
of these types of behavior should be considered normal.
The liberal, leftist activists that are so prevalent today
preach tolerance of others except when it comes to the politically
incorrect.
Well, as I prepare to publish this issue, I have gotten no
mail one way or the other on either pay service concerning the
offending issue of the RaG. I have received no communication from
those in control at either pay service concerning this issue. I
have gotten no more angry phone calls either.
A recent article in the newspaper told of the results of a
study on sexual practices - and the result was that homosexuals
were only 1% of the population. It's amazing the amount of
political clout such a small group carries.
The recent demostration by the homosexual community in
Washington DC was possibly the most revolting spectacle I've ever
seen. And I resent attempts by the mainstream media (and Hollywood
types) to portray homosexuality as normal and socially acceptable
behavior. I believe our country has lost its sense of moral
values, leading to the further decay of our society.
---------------
NEWS IN YER FACE
Media Vision recently purchased 40% of Advanced Gravis, makers
of sound boards and joysticks. Industry insiders expect to see the
relationship between Logitech and Media Vision to grow much closer
in the future. (By the way, Media Vision no longer manufactures 8-
bit sound cards.)
---------------
WordPerfect Office 4 is in the second round of beta testing.
The program takes up 21 disks and features new electronic mail,
calendaring, and scheduling support for up to 1,000 users. It is
claimed to run up to 20% faster than the previous beta release.
Expect to see it shipped later this quarter.
---------------
Microsoft will ship Access 1.1 in mid-May. There will be a
nominal fee.
---------------
Borland recently sent a disk-based survey to beta testers.
When you hit F2 to save your responses to a disk file, you get the
equivalent of a three-fingered salute.
---------------
Every six weeks I get a catalog on disk from one of my major
vendors of software and hardware. While browsing the listing of
new products, I came across a CD called "Scary Poems for Rotten
Kids". Sounds interesting.
---------------
Windows NT will be incompatible with DOS 6's DoubleSpace and
other compression software.
---------------
Version 4 of CorelDraw! may hit the streets as early as May
and Version 3 will continue to be sold at $199.
The new CorelDraw! will feature multiple page layout, desktop
publishing features, color separation, optical character
recognition, direct scanning, and animation. You'll also get 750
fonts and 17,000 clipart images.
---------------
A couple more features of WordPerfect 6 for DOS are becoming
known. QuickFinder from the Windows version will be part of the
package. The WordPerfect Coach is an on-line tutor which will
guide the user through a task with step-by-step instructions.
---------------
NEW DOS 6 OPPORTUNITIES
One might think that with the bundled utilities included in
the DOS 6 package, some third party developers might be concerned
about their utility packages.
Addstor is adding a new product called DoubleTools which will
enhance Microsoft's DoubleSpace and add extra utilities for disk
compression.
Quarterdeck is upgrading QEMM-386 to offer better memory
optimization than DOS 6's MemMaker.
Qualitas is finishing up 386Max Version 7. The new version
will have features aimed specifically at Windows users including a
Multi-Boot Maximizer which lets you maximize multiple boot
configurations. It will have compressed drive support and include
a RAM diagnostic program called the Qualitas Memory Tester (and
uses a graphical user interface). WinSmart determines High DOS
space and what is available for use.
Stac Electronics is planning Stacker 3.1 within 30-60 days of
the release of DOS 6. The upgrade will bind more tightly with DOS
6 because of hooks that would normally link the operating system to
DoubleSpace.
---------------
RECYCLED DISKS
A guy by the name of David Beschen has started a company in
Redmond, Washington called GreenDisk.
GreenDisk breaks down all the software package materials into
paper, plastic, and floppies. The company will degauss and
reformat disks as blank media and label them with a GreenDisk
sticker. The GreenDisk labeled product will be sold at about 10%
below new blank media costs.
Don't start sending all your old disks in yet, he's only
accepting disks from publishers where the disk has only been
written to once. Precautions are taken for virus prevention. Thus
far, CompuTeach and AutoDesk have provided him with about 20,000
disks from obsolete inventory. It is estimated that only 30% of
obsolete inventory is recycled.
---------------
LOVE YA BABY - LOVE YA BABY
A company named interACTIVE is marketing a device called
SoundXchange. This thing looks like a telephone which attaches to
the side of your monitor.
You can use it like a speaker phone or pick up the handset to
record and play sound files. There's a volume control on the front
panel and a jack for an optional headset. The unit connects to an
existing sound card or you can get a proprietary card if you don't
already have sound capabilities.
Included software is a program for DOS that provides voice and
text for network communications. There's also a multimedia mail
package which provides voice, text, graphics, and pictures for
network communications.
Recording and playback are limited to 8-bit samples. You can
only record at up to 11,025 Hz and playback up to 44,100 Hz.
Compression is proprietary.
The Model A is for those who already have a sound card and
retails for $149, the Model B comes with a card (actually a thing
that plugs into the parallel port) and retails for $289.
---------------
FRISBEE CD
Now that I have incurred the wrath of the gay activists,
what's to lose?
While perusing one of my photographic journals, I saw mention
of a Photo Interactive CD due out soon (by Philips Interactive
Media) called "The Flowers of Robert Mapplethorpe". It will be
compatible with CD-I and Photo CD machines.
The disk will show "how Mapplethorpe used the camera to
instill monumental dignity and graceful simplicity to the complex
shapes and brilliant colors of floral sprays and blossoms.
Photographers can experience Mapplethorpe's unique artistic visions
via various interactive pathways."
WOW - place my order now! Here is an artist to be admired.
No, I have not seen these images. I did see most of the ones in
the exhibit which was so controversial a couple of years ago. I
only hope is that these images are better than the ones for which
he is better known. The images I saw of his more famous exhibit,
besides being devoid of artistic merit, were not even well done
from a technical standpoint.
The politically correct will fall all over themselves to
endorse such a champion of their causes, expecting the government
to finance such projects.
I think this CD could probably be best used as a frisbee.
---------------
NEW STUFF
I've recently had the opportunity to have some hands-on time
with some new hardware and software.
Finally I've been able get my hands on the NEC CDR-84. This
is the hot CD-ROM player with MultiSpin. The disk spins at twice
the speed for data, doubling the data transfer rate. While I still
wouldn't want to execute programs from a CD, the NEC definitely
speeds things up. The odd sounding whisper of the CD working is a
little different from what I'm used to, but you barely hear it when
it's working. I find the flip-down door to be a nuisance - someone
somewhere should come up with a better way to put caddies into a
CD. These drives are expensive, but the doubled transfer rate is
welcome. I want one.
---------------
All of the 486 machines I've sold up until now have been 33's.
I recently sold a 486-50 and there's certainly a difference. We
decided to put one of those little fans on top of the CPU to help
with cooling. The combination of the 486-50 and the Diamond
Stealth VRAM S3 card really makes Windows snap. I was impressed.
---------------
PC Tools for Windows is out and they'll probably sell a bunch
of them. If you like Norton Desktop, this looks like about the
same thing. I don't like all that crap on the screen and
fortunately they provide an Uninstall option that gets rid of all
the changes it made when it installed. I can do without all this
junk cluttering up my screen. DEL *.*
---------------
Microsoft has finally gotten their multimedia encyclopedia out
the door - Encarta. If you liked Bookshelf, you'll love Encarta.
You've got the 29 volume set of Funk & Wagnall's Encyclopedia on
disk along with tons of digitized images, digitized and MIDI music
and speech, animation, and AVI digitized video files. There's so
much here that you'll spend hours looking at all of it, listening
to the music, watching the full motion video, etc.
I strongly suggest running it on a 486 (the fastest the
better) and a CD-ROM that supports high transfer rates and/or
access times. The above mentioned NEC drive should do nicely or
one of the other double-spin drives.
The Timeline feature is especially unique. A scrolling time
line with plotted events in time lets you examine events and
civilizations of the past, easily searching for whatever time
period or event you wish. My only complaint is that it puts forth
evolution as the means by which mankind was placed on earth. (I
don't buy the theory of evolution.)
Encarta is one classy product.
---------------
The new Microsoft Mouse is now available. They've spent $10
million on R&D, the first in-house mouse work done at Microsoft.
The first thing you'll see different is the shape of the
mouse. Since ergonomics is such a big thing these days, they've
designed it so that it fits comfortably in either hand. The
software lets you customize the mouse's operation quite
extensively. The new DOS driver automatically loads into upper
memory.
You can select which button is the primary button. You can
have a large, medium, or small Windows mouse cursor as well as have
the arrow black, white, or transparent.
Four new options are quite interesting. Locate will have the
mouse cursor always appear in the middle of the screen when
starting applications (so you don't have to hunt for it). Snap-to
will always position the cursor at whatever button is the default
in a dialog box. Screen-wrap will let the cursor wrap to the
opposite side of the screen when it hits the edge (instead of
stopping). Magnify works in combination with a keyboard key and
opens up a small box around the cursor under which everything is
magnified.
---------------
PC PC's
I'm seeing more articles in the magazines about ecologically
and environmentally safe computers. I see stories lamenting that
trees have to die to make our paper and that we're wasting
electricity by leaving our computers on all the time.
For example, Hewlett-Packard ships their products in brown
boxes marked "For a better environment, this container was not
bleached white. All packing materials were manufactured with out
CFCs". How special!
Enough with the political correctness already! People are
making unsubstantiated claims which have no basis in fact. We are
not destroying the planet and I doubt that we're even capable of
it.
I live in the middle of spotted owl country. I have seen
businesses and people struggling to live on a day to day basis.
And it's all because some hippie throwbacks are trying to impose
their brand of socialism on us. We are being made to think that
mankind has messed up everything - and the only solution is
government control. This isn't about owls or log exports. This is
a battle over private ownership of land and it's an attack on
capitalism.
I am not now, have never been, and never will be politically
correct.
---------------
MORE NEWS IN YER FACE
Ingram Micro, a major distributor of hardware and software, is
planning to distribute multiple applications on an encrypted CD.
A customer will get the CD after making a software purchase.
You'll then be able to sample the 100-200 programs on the CD. If
you wish to purchase a program, you'll call a special number, give
them your credit card number, and you'll receive the necessary
codes which will unlock the software. Both Mac and PC products
are planned.
---------------
AMD has started shipping 33MHz, 40MHz, and a 25/50MHz 486DX
clones and expects to ship 500,000 this year. Look for a 3.3 volt
this about mid-summer.
---------------
IBM is ready to rollout OS/2 2.1 on May 18th. Price is
uncertain at this point.
---------------
Sun Microsystems' Scott McNealy said at the recent Dataquest
conference that if he were Clinton for five seconds, he would ban
any further purchase of DOS and DOS-derived products by the Feds.
He considers them to be "non-open".
---------------
We're still seeing a backorder situation with DOS 6 (expected
to be resolved by the end of May). Microsoft claims that they sold
more DOS 6 during the first week than it did DOS 5 during the first
30 days. Said Richard Freedman, MS-DOS project manager for
Microsoft, "the projections weren't worth the paper they were
written on".
=================================
DISCLAIMER
RAndY's RumOR RaG is published on a monthly basis by AINSWORTH
COMPUTER SERVICES and is available on various local BBS's, GEnie,
and America Online as well as in Modem News.
In case anyone cares, RAndY's RumOR RaG is produced on a DTK
386-33 with 16 megs of memory, Cyrix Fasmath co-processor, ATI VGA
Wonder+ card (1 MB), 105 MB Toshiba IDE hard drive, Teac 1.2 MB and
1.44 MB floppies, Pro Audio Spectrum 16 running a Hitachi 3750 CD
ROM drive, Sceptre SVGA display, Microsoft mouse, WordPerfect for
Windows and transmitted through a US Robotics HST Dual Standard
modem.
Opinions expressed are those of the author. Comments should
be addressed to Ainsworth Computer Services on GEnie, America
Online, phone, analog mail, or whatever method makes you feel good.
AINSWORTH COMPUTER SERVICES
605 W. Wishkah
Aberdeen, WA 98520-6031
(206) 533-6647
GEnie Address: RAG
America Online: RumOR RaG
