= --- === --------------------------------------------------------------------- ======= -L- -I- -B- -E- -R- -E- -T- -T- -O- DECEMBER 1997 ========= ======= The iMatix Newsletter Volume II Issue 12 --- === --------------------------------------------------------------------- = Copyright (c) 1997 iMatix - distribute freely Back issues at http://www.imatix.com Comments to: editors@imatix.com Programming - Technology - Finite State Machines - News - Other Stuff == COMMENT ---...-.-...-.--...-.--...-.-...-.....---..-....--.--..-.-.---.-- I was thinking of a few predictions for the next couple of years. What will life be like in the year 2000? But first, a Xmas story. "Ho ho ho", or perhaps I should say "Ho hum"... For the second time in a short while, I'm going through the one thing that a man can experience which approaches (in pure pain terms) the woman's experience of giving birth. Yes, I'm installing Windows NT. This is a nasty, brutish, and long process. Sure, NT 4 installs cleanly, and is okay. The first sign of trouble was that the CD-writer software said 'Sorry, only runs on Windows 95'. Oh, great. Fine, install Win95 too. Now, this means sharing disks between these two beasts (both state-of-the-art 32-bit operating systems from Microsoft, both with the same look and feel, and both amazingly fantastic, if you are an idiot). The only way these two products can share data is if you use the state-of-the-1980's-art DOS FAT system. This basically means formatting an expensive 4 Gbyte UltraWide SCSI-3 7200 RPM disk using a technology that was meant for floppies. Uh-oh. Sure, the answer is to create a couple of FAT partitions, then give the rest to NT. I figured I could use my Jaz drive to shuffle data around. Haha. When I connect the Jaz drive (SCSI-2) to the SCSI-3 card, it seems to work, but both Windows NT and Windows 95 hang when they boot. Yes, I installed the NT service patch 3. La meme chose, mon ami, Now, since I'm also a Hardware Person, I was able to dig-up an old SCSI- 2 card, and install that. Wow! Windows NT now works with the Jaz drive. Windows 95 complains that the SCSI-2 card conflicts with the PCI enabler interrupt. No amount of tweaking helps, so finally I tell Win95 to forget it ever saw the card. Well, I guess I can use NT to finally restore some of those backups that I made on the Windows 95 accounting machine. But no, NT will not read the Win95 backup format. Hey Bill, is this really the best your company can do? Look, haul a couple of guys off that fat Internet Explorer team, and get them to make NT read Win95 backups!! I'm serious! Let's see... to write CDs I have to create the files under NT, reboot in Win95, and write the CD there. To recover backed-up files, I have to copy the archive in NT, reboot in Win95, extract the files, reboot in NT, and copy them. The point of this gripe...? One comment and one prediction. Every new standard, acronym, version, or miraculous technology just means more incompatibilities, IRQ conflicts, and wasted hours. New junk is still junk. Now the prediction: this is as good as it gets, and we can expect more of the same for the next ten years. Ho ho ho!! Some more random predictions, for the next couple of years... Prediction 1: In 2000, you'll find little plastic electronic cameras for about US$25 that come complete with a web server (possibly Xitami), wireless network, and connect to your private IP network or the Web if you prefer. The ability to plant Spyes(tm) by the dozens will change the way we do business, conduct wars, strikes and protests, and domestic affairs. Prediction 2: The future of office computing is NT 5, combined with thin clients that run something like Citrix Winframe. If I was Intel, I'd be a little scared right now. The desktop upgrade cycle is about to end, and hard. I guess most PCs being used today are perfectly good 'network computers'. The NC paradigm works well. It does not need lots of new boxes. And it ends a costly exercise in complexity. There will be a surge in sales of large NT servers systems: Digital and Compaq will do well. There will be many, many lost hours as people try vainly to make NT 5 work. Prediction 3: We're only a small step away from global digital communications conducted by satellite. Maybe two more years: then it'll be cheaper to buy a world-wide digital connection (for voice, data, whatever you want) from Iridium than get a phone line from your local phone company. If I was your local phone company, I'd be a little scared right now. It's tough enough when you have local competitors. Smart phone operators will become network operators, offering you a direct hook to a fast Internet network. Prediction 4: Forget the next generation of CDs (DVD). This format will not get standardised fast enough to make an impact before 2000. Furthermore, it's not really needed. A VHS cassette works perfectly well for movies. Software producers do not want to see pirate CDs that hold a hundred products at once. And the music industry is not happy either. Watch-out for small CD players that can play MP3 disks. These are standard CDs, written using any CD writer (except under NT4). Yes, you can put 12-15 hours of CD-quality music onto a $3 CD. This is going to be an explosive market!! Sony, are you listening? Put together a small handheld PC with an MP3 player, single-speed CD-ROM, small B&W screen, instant-on access, and 24-hour battery. You'll sell millions. Prediction 5: By 2000, CGI (computer generated images) will be common in movies. No longer will films like 'The Titanic' cost a large fortune to make. This is a good thing: we'll see more movies, more fascinating effects, and probably some new films from stars who are long gone. If I was the Hollywood actor's union, I'd be a little scared by the implications of this. Time to start a virtual actors' union? Prediction 6: The first domain name market (www.buyadomain.com) will open before 2000, selling good domain names to the highest bidder. Expect a good market for .com domains, which will remain a sign of class. Anyone with a good .com domain has been around for a long time (perhaps even years). If you can still think of any nice domain names that have not been taken, book them now!! (This is safe advice, since there are exactly zero good .com names left.) Prediction 7: I won't get my NT system working like it should before 2000. Pieter Hintjens Antwerpen 1 December 1997 == LETTERS -..-.----.-.-...-.-.----.-.-.-...-.-----....-.--.-..-..-..--.-.-. >From: John Nelson >To: editors@imatix.com >Subject: Oh my goodness! >Hi guys, >I just received (and finished reading) my very first issue of the Liberetto >newsletter, and in doing so I have come to a conclusion that I am more than >happy to share with you: > YOU GUYS ARE NUTS!!!!! LOL >Don't mind me, I'm still laughing. I must say, it was very well written. >It was informative, and humorous as well. You people have a nice writing >style. I'm impressed. Keep up the good work, guys! I can't wait to read >the next issue! > -John ;-) That's a hard reputation to live up to, but we'll do our best. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - >From: Len Cumbow >To: editors@imatix.com >Subject: Re: Liberetto II/11 Kudos >Mega-kudos!! I am posting this on my office door! There is nothing >wrong with putting a sexy front end on old systems to make marketing >easier, but don't throw the baby out with the bath water. >Len Cumbow >VMARK Software That's what I always say when the boss tells me to learn Visual C++. As you say, marketing is important. But people forget the fundamentals at their own risk. Old bores like me only appear to be superbly good at avoiding such pitfalls because we already fell into so many holes before. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - >From: Jaime Evans >To: editors@imatix.com >Subject: Re: Liberetto II/11 >Pieter, and editors: >Thanks for Libero and its price/performance, we've had a great time >working with it. Of course, whenever one spends time with a product, >thoughts, ideas and concepts for improvement naturally spring to mind. >Using Lrwin, we've developed several opinions about its printing >services. Is it possible to generate print-outs that handle comments >correctly? Can a print-out be done that sizes the box to the text so >that the text does not over-run the box borders? Do you have any plans >to construct a more win'95 friendly verison of Lrwin? If so, when might >it be available? >Libero is quite useful (What we're doing with it): >We are currently retrofitting a large messaging system with libero. The >original was written with 20+ finite state machines, where each state >machine handles a message operation set. Retrofitting this application >has required us to construct a new schema that moves the concept of >'GetExternalEvent' from inside the state machine to the outside of it. >It is amazing how quickly and simply this could be done through the use >of a new schema. >Thanks for a great tool, >Jaime Evans Hmm, good questions, all. We had to admit defeat with Libero for Windows: the cost of development being just too high for the returns. Our goal is to move all our tools to a Web-based environment, running on a specialised version of Xitami. This is moving ahead well, but is a long, long project. In the meantime we're working with what we have. There are many alternatives to the Windows printout; look at the schema provided by Mathias Weidner in the iMatix archives. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - >From: "Noyes, Robert D" >To: "'Pieter Hintjens'" >Subject: RE: Liberetto II/11 >Date sent: Mon, 3 Nov 1997 17:02:39 -0800 >Bravo your comments on the Web designed replacement of the "old" >MVS/CICS system. It is very true that design is first, not gadgets, cute >tricks, or applying what was learned in the last class. I hope these >seeds fall on fertile ground. >I enjoy getting "Liberetto" every month, especially as it seems the only >good news out of Belgium these days other than the "Cannibal", Eddy >Mercxx. Eddy is great, was great, and always will be.! >L8R Well, the news in Belgium now is that beef from animals slaughtered for health reasons (rabies, and BSE usually) generally end-up in the human food chain, though at least only in cheap places frequented by poor people and non-voters. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - >From: Jim Bowlin >To: ph@imatix.com >Subject: html preprocessor thoughts >I think that the fundamental problem is GUI (WYSIWYG) vs. text based >procedural processing. A WYSIWYG is really handy for laying out >a single page, or element or table. But it drives me nuts when I have >to apply the same change to 5 different places in one pages or 50 >or 100 or 1000 different places on a site. >This problem is part of the cause of the Unix vs. NT wars. Also the >Mac vs. DOS, or Mac vs. Unix arguments. What is really needed is >a clever blend of GUI and procedural. Html editing is an excellent >place to try to resolve this conflict. Both GUI and procedural >editing are needed. >Just my $0.02 >Jim Bowlin There is a careful and considered answer to this problem, only I don't know it. I guess that it's the 'change 1000 documents' scenario that really scare me. (I've seen people who's job it is to do this kind of work.) There are HTML preprocessors that work entirely with HTML comments; this lets you make the main markup using a HTML editor, then punch the lot through the preprocessor. Sadly, none are as powerful or useful as htmlpp. Such is life. Perhaps the best answer lies in abstacting your needs. Want to make a table? Okay, define a macro that does this, well, and then use the macro. Big advantage: you change your mind a month later, and change one macro. Whoom, all 1000 documents get the new look. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - >Date: Fri, 21 Nov 1997 05:14:21 -0500 >From: "Michael Hartley(Info)" Subject: Libero >To: info@imatix.com >Hi, >Many thanks for releasing Libero, I've really enjoyed the freedom to >dynamically implement and tailor designs. Most especially for my >current project which is to emplement a #! /bin/sh script to control >hot/cold backups of our Oracle databases. >One GUI version question. How difficult would it be to locate a module >in an editor after the schema has generated the templates? I'm thinking >in terms of mouse clicks to launch the editor and land the caret at the >module. My favourite programmers editor is at >http://www.lancs.ac.uk/people/cpaap/pfe/ which supports DDE, would it >be possible to integrate code editing into GUI Libero? >Many thanks for all your excellent contributions to the internet >community. >Regards, >Michael Hartley. >Oracle DBA and Developer >Bradford Hospitals NHS Trust. Glad you like Libero. As regards the GUI version; it would indeed be useful to link directly to the module code in question. However, we've frozen development of that version, since it's simply too expensive and will eventually be replaced by web-based tools. (Where the code modules will pop-up, hopefully into whatever editor you want to use.) == FOCUS ON TECHNOLOGY -.---.-.--.-.--.-.--.-.--.-.--.-.-.---....-.-.---...- Perl Insult Generator - cut and paste as indicated... - - - - - 8< - cut here - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - #! /bin/perl # # Shakespearean Insult Generator # # Written: 97/11/04 Pieter Hintjens # Revised: 97/11/04 Pieter Hintjens @part1 = ( "artless","bawdy","beslubbering","bootless","churlish","cockered", "clouted","craven","currish","dankish","dissembling","droning", "errant","fawning","fobbing","froward","frothy","gleeking","goatish", "gorbellied","impertinent","infectious","jarring","loggerheaded", "lumpish","mammering","mangled","mewling","paunchy","pribbling", "puking","puny","qualling","rank","reeky","roguish","ruttish", "saucy","spleeny","spongy","surly","tottering","unmuzzled","vain", "venomed","villainous","warped","wayward","weedy","yeasty"); @part2 = ( "base-court","bat-fowling","beef-witted","beetle-headed","boil-brained", "clapper-clawed","clay-brained","common-kissing","crook-pated", "dismal-dreaming","dizzy-eyed","doghearted","dread-bolted","earth-vexing", "elf-skinned","fat-kidneyed","fen-sucked","flap-mouthed","fly-bitten", "folly-fallen","fool-born","full-gorged","guts-griping","half-faced", "hasty-witted","hedge-born","hell-hated","idle-headed,ill-breeding", "ill-nurtured","knotty-pated","milk-livered,motley-minded","onion-eyed", "plume-plucked","pottle-deep","pox-marked","reeling-ripe","rough-hewn", "rude-growing","rump-fed","shard-borne","sheep-biting","spur-galled", "swag-bellied","tardy-gaited","tickle-brained","toad-spotted", "unchin-snouted","weather-bitten"); @part3 = ("apple-john","baggage","barnacle","bladder","boar-pig", "bugbear","bum-bailey","canker-blossom","clack-dish","clotpole", "coxcomb","codpiece","death-token","dewberry","flap-dragon", "flax-wench","flirt-gill","foot-licker","fustilarian","giglet", "gudgeon","haggard","harpy","hedge-pig","horn-beast","hugger-mugger", "joithead","lewdster","lout","maggot-pie","malt-worm","mammet", "measle","minnow","miscreant","moldwarp","mumble-news","nut-hook", "pigeon-egg","pignut","puttock","pumpion","ratsbane","scut", "skainsmate","strumpet","varlet","vassal","whey-face","wagtail"); srand (); print "Thou ",$part1 [rand ($#part1)], " ", $part2 [rand ($#part2)], " ", $part3 [rand ($#part3)],"!\n"; - - - - - 8< - and cut here - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Now paste into a file, and feed to Perl. Stand back!! Copy the results to your Xmas cards and watch the fun!! Your friends and family will be amused for ages! == TERMINATE THE PROGRAM -...---...-..----....-.---..---...-...---.-...---.- We had to laugh when this dropped into our email box: ************************************************* Turn Your Computer into a Home Business! ************************************************* _________________________________________ __| (___O) -Free Bulk Email Software (_____O) -Checker - accept checks by fax (_____O) includes resale rights free! (__O) -Free email Addresses -Lowest prices for Email Magnet and Email Platinum bulk email software -Bring traffic to your web site in droves! NEW..Christmas Digital Postcard setup -Get Your Own Computer super Web Server (Xitami) here for free -Link Your Computer to the web dynamically! All at http://hut.stanford.edu/dips/Java_Fun_House/Default.htm ********************* DON'T MISS THE COMING INTERNET EXPLOSION!!! *********************