Return-Path: Received: from g4 dot comkal dot net (g4 dot comkal dot net [192.168.1.22]) by mail. (Weasel v1.20) for ; 24 May 2001 01:00:00 From: "Digest" To: "OS/2GenAu Digest" Date: Thu, 24 May 2001 01:00:00 +1000 (EDT) Reply-To: "OS2GenAu" Priority: Normal X-Mailer: CASMailer 1.0 for OS/2 Warp PPC 1.05/G4 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Subject: No. 67 Message-ID: <200105240100.000029G6atmail.> Date:- 24 May 2001 1================================================ From: "John Angelico" Date: Wed, 23 May 2001 00:00:30 +0900 (EST) Subject: [os2genau] OS/2 SIG report for May 2001 Hello, Gary. I hope this is the fastest report to emerge from a meeting in MelbPC history! Meeting closed 8:30pm, and after repairing to an eatery, I still wrote the report by 11:30pm same day! OS/2 SIG Meeting Report for May 2001 by John Angelico 9544 8792 (with copy to the SIG members) Our May meeting got off to a slow start but by the end 20 members had gathered. Latest Headlines We began with the excellent, revised, news that eComStation development progress slowed in May to ferret out some important last-minute bugs, but final code is likely to be committed to manufacturing within about a week of the meeting date (which was the same as we said last month). Allowing for production and distribution time, this means that the new OS should be generally available in early to mid-June. With that, we announced a special eCS Install Fest scheduled for Saturday June 16th. Full details will be emailed to SIG members via the mailing list. Problem-solving Q&A Question raised in the meeting: what would people recommend regarding purchase of a new motherboard? Many and varied answers were available, according to requirements. The requestor went away with much to ponder. Device Driver Updates There has been a recent and most welcome resurgence of OS/2 development, spurred on by the progress with eCS. In addition to the independent software developers working on applications and utilities, device drivers are still under development. This week saw new drivers for parallel port Zip drives (both 100Mb and 250Mb models), infra-red ports (including a project to recognise and respond to standard remote-control devices), and the latest PRINT01.SYS available from IBM. Make A Note of IT! Following on from last month's meeting, we had prepared another Lotus Notes session. After a break, Ian Manners (ISP for the OS/2 SIG mailing list and Australian OS/2 web site portal) set up one of his machines with the Lotus Notes full server, also known as Domino, already installed. Lacking our guest presenter and SIG member Antony Shepherd, we tried to demonstrate more of the Notes applications available. Various users of Notes were represented among our members and there was spirited discussion on the features, operation and power of Notes. We closed the meeting (having completely avoided mention of the Federal Budget) with thanks to Ian, and discussion continued at the eatery. Best regards John Angelico OS/2 SIG talldadatmelbpc dot org dot au or talldadatkepl dot com dot au -------------------------------------------- PMTagline v1.50 - Copyright, 1996-1997, Stephen Berg and John Angelico .... "... It works! Now, if only I could remember what I did." 2================================================ From: "Ian Manners" Date: Wed, 23 May 2001 01:44:01 +1000 (EST) Subject: [os2genau] Australian OS/2 Site scores big in Germany. Germany is definitly a large user of OS/2 software, and/or downloads. http://www.os2site dot com/ has 18.49% of its downloads from Germany ! Daily average downloads from Germany since 1/1/2001 is 34.7Mb German hosts served 1142 92 requests average daily 264 pages serverd daily Australia, hmmm, 3.67 % of total downloads, the rest of the stats match to. . dot com's = 17.23% . dot net's = 24.9% The rest are made up of just about every country you can think of. So I cant help wondering if I need to do some more work on the site, or we just have a much smaller population of OS/2 users, I'll accept the the smaller population ;-) Cheers Ian B Manners 3================================================ Date: Wed, 23 May 2001 08:28:10 +1000 From: Daryl Pilkington Subject: Re: [os2genau] Australian OS/2 Site scores big in Germany. Hi Ian, Great stats, shows os2site dot com has got stuff to offer the world? I'd agree with the smaller population thingy, though. Ian Manners wrote: > > Germany is definitly a large user of OS/2 software, and/or > downloads. > > http://www.os2site dot com/ has 18.49% of its downloads from Germany ! > Daily average downloads from Germany since 1/1/2001 is 34.7Mb > German hosts served 1142 > 92 requests average daily > 264 pages serverd daily > > Australia, hmmm, 3.67 % of total downloads, the rest of > the stats match to. > dot com's = 17.23% > dot net's = 24.9% > The rest are made up of just about every country you can think of. > > So I cant help wondering if I need to do some more > work on the site, or we just have a much smaller population > of OS/2 users, I'll accept the the smaller population ;-) > > Cheers > Ian B Manners > -- Regards, Daryl Pilkington //// The PC-Therapist, Business Computing Integration O OS/2 Warp, Redhat Linux, DB2 IBM Certified Systems Expert email: darylpatpc-therapist dot com dot au ICQ: 91914134 Tel: +61-2-8902-1300 Mob: +61-425-251-300 Fax: +61-2-9411-3720 Mob SMS: 0425251300.0000atorangenet dot com dot au (120 characters max, send no carriage returns) 4================================================ From: "John Angelico" Date: Wed, 23 May 2001 10:53:11 +0900 (EST) Subject: [os2genau] eCS Install FEST June 16th in Melbourne Hi everybody in the Melbourne PC User Group! Mark Rogers of Orion Solutions emailed me as follows: >OK, now that we have some firm commitments from the US, and assuming I get the >GA code within the next 14 days how about we do the following:- > >Install Fest on Saturday the 16th June. Time: 10:00AM to 6:00PM. > >Walkthroughs of install to happen every hour on the hour. > >Participants who have ordered eCS need to contact you and you are to forward >thier names to me so that I can bring down their copies. > >I will also bring down some other copies for those who would like to purchase >after seeing successfull installs on other machines. > >This will all be on the proviso that the event can be cancelled upon >notification to yourself by the 10th June just incase we don't recieve the GA >code or production hasn't occured. > Yes, you read that correctly. Bring your machine on Saturday 16th June to have Mark Rogers install it for you. Don't worry about your printer, but it would be a good idea to know your printer details for the install. All those who have already booked and paid for a copy of eCS please email me so I can advise Mark before he comes. He will ensure that he accounts correctly for delivering your copy of eCS to you on the day. All those who have not ordered eCS as yet, make sure you bring some evidence of your existing license, and you too can obtain a copy of the eCS upgrade ON THE SPOT!! As Mark said above, we will make sure that we avoid any last-minute hiccups but please watch your emails carefully after June 10th, in case we have to cancel or reschedule the Install Fest. Looking forward to renaming ourselves the eCS-OS/2 (pronounced ex-OS/2!) SIG. Best regards John Angelico OS/2 SIG talldadatmelbpc dot org dot au or talldadatkepl dot com dot au -------------------------------------------- PMTagline v1.50 - Copyright, 1996-1997, Stephen Berg and John Angelico .... Yes Mr Gates, I'd like to help you out ... which way did you come in? 5================================================ From: mfarnhamatdingoblue dot net dot au Date: Wed, 23 May 2001 12:05:21 +1100 Subject: Re: [os2genau] Australian OS/2 Site scores big in Germany. In <200105230143.00002BBGatmail.>, on 05/23/01 at 01:44 AM, "Ian Manners" said: >Germany is definitly a large user of OS/2 software, and/or >downloads. From my understanding, Germany is one of the biggest coporate users of OS/2 outside of America. Could be something to do with the German love of fine engineering ;_) >So I cant help wondering if I need to do some more >work on the site, or we just have a much smaller population >of OS/2 users, I'll accept the the smaller population ;-) Do we actually have any idea of who Australian OS/2 users are, where they use it and why (alright 'why' will just get us into a lot of subjective arguments)? Would the creation of a census/poll be a good idea? Personally having no idea if there is another OS/2 user within shouting distance of me sometimes makes me question the strength of my original decison to use OS/2. >Cheers >Ian B Manners Mark ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- mfarnhamatdingoblue dot net dot au Wednesday, May 23, 2001 - 12:05 PM ----------- "Lord, Grant me the serenity to accept the things that I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to hide the bodies of the people I had to kill because they pissed me off." ----------- Mark Farnham Mackay, Queensland, Australia. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6================================================ From: "Dr Graham Norton FRACP Neurologist" Date: Wed, 23 May 2001 13:21:05 +1100 (EDT) Subject: [os2genau] Swap size An old chestnut but I would value revisting this subject with respect the swapper.dat file 1 the swap file should be about 1024 x RAM on your machine.. true or false 2 the swap file is best on its own partition .... true of false Graham Norton President OS2 Users Group SA 7================================================ From: "List Admin" Date: Wed, 23 May 2001 03:33:33 +1000 (EST) Subject: [os2genau] Reminder - OS/2UGSA Meeting We would like to remind you of this upcoming event. The OS/2 Users Group of South Australia Meeting Date: Tuesday, May 29, 2001 Time: 7:30PM - 9:30PM Place: ARPA, 84 Archer St, North Adelaide South Australia. The Monthly Meeting of The OS/2 Users Group of South Australia. Normally held on the last Tuesday of each month. 8================================================ From: mfarnhamatdingoblue dot net dot au Date: Wed, 23 May 2001 16:19:11 +1100 Subject: Re: [os2genau] Swap size In <200105230354.f4N3sHh55398atpluto.senet dot com dot au>, on 05/23/01 at 01:21 PM, "Dr Graham Norton FRACP Neurologist" said: >An old chestnut but I would value revisting this subject with respect the >swapper.dat file >1 the swap file should be about 1024 x RAM on your machine.. true or >false New one to me. Currently using 128mb swap with 81mb ram. >2 the swap file is best on its own partition .... true of false True. Always been told "least accessed partition on the most accessed drive" so I have mine on a 510mb partition as the last partition on my first drive which also has my System, Internet programs and Application partitions. Hope this helpful. >Graham Norton >President >OS2 Users Group SA Mark ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- mfarnhamatdingoblue dot net dot au Wednesday, May 23, 2001 - 04:19 PM ----------- "Lord, Grant me the serenity to accept the things that I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to hide the bodies of the people I had to kill because they pissed me off." ----------- Mark Farnham Mackay, Queensland, Australia. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 9================================================ From: "Ian Manners" Date: Wed, 23 May 2001 16:43:38 +1000 (EST) Subject: Re: [os2genau] Swap size Hi Graham >>1 the swap file should be about 1024 x RAM on your machine.. true or >>false Sort of false. One of the many general rules I've seen floating around goes like this. What ever size your swap file grows to during normal usage, multiply by 2, and make that the default starting size in config.sys. Theres a way to check your swap file size, and its usage after a while, I've forgotten what it is, I know SysInfo and other utilities can probably do the same thing as well. Personally, its a try it and see thing, ie, I dont use a swap file at all, as I have more that adaquate RAM. >>2 the swap file is best on its own partition .... true of false True, the main reason you want it on its own partition (if you have room), is so the swap file is always contigues. Most people also say to put the partition on your most used HD, though I've found it benificial to give it its own small HD, it is a bit excessive. The most used HD is normally the newest, and therefore the fastest, also saves changing IDE lines when swapping, which on earlier IDE buses can cause an initial delay before reading/writing to another, seperate HD. Cheers Ian B Manners 10================================================ From: "Bob Ogden" Date: Wed, 23 May 2001 15:04:56 +0900 Subject: Re: [os2genau] Swap size In <200105230626.f4N6QQT08213atmail007.syd.optusnet dot com dot au>, on 23/May/2001 at 04:19 PM,(+1100 GMT) mfarnhamatdingoblue dot net dot au said: >True. Always been told "least accessed partition on the most accessed >drive" so I have mine on a 510mb partition as the last partition on my >first drive which also has my System, Internet programs and Application >partitions. Erm... I'd always thought that it was the opposite to that. The Most used partition on the least used drive... Most used partition so that the heads have a good chance to be close to where they may need to read/write and least used drive so that you are not having to compete with other I/O wanting access to the drive. As to swap size... I use a 20MB swap on both boxes here but with 96 / 128 MB RAM its overkill and usage is only ~2mb on each. -- /-- Bob Ogden bobatcontact.omen dot com dot au --------------/ / ---... -....- -.--.- Finger for PGP key -----/ Only 31544584967 seconds till the _next_ millennium! 11================================================ From: "Ian Manners" Date: Wed, 23 May 2001 17:58:05 +1000 (EST) Subject: Re: [os2genau] Swap size PS >The most used HD is normally the newest, and therefore the >fastest, also saves changing IDE lines when swapping, which on >earlier IDE buses can cause an initial delay before reading/writing >to another, seperate HD. Eleborating a bit, as I've just reread that and realised that I dont even understand it myself ;-) With modern IDE's, this is really nolonger relavent, so what Bob has mentioned, is correct. Least used HD, most used Partition, so that it keeps its heads closer to the swap file location. Or, as I said before, go to the extreme and give it its own HD, but not one of those older clunkers, as it defeats its purpose - speed. Cheers Ian B Manners 12================================================ From: "Ian Manners" Date: Wed, 23 May 2001 18:13:58 +1000 (EST) Subject: Re: [os2genau] Australian OS/2 Site scores big in Germany. Hi Mark >From my understanding, Germany is one of the biggest coporate users of >OS/2 outside of America. Could be something to do with the German love of >fine engineering ;_) True, especially the engineering bit. >Do we actually have any idea of who Australian OS/2 users are, where they >use it and why (alright 'why' will just get us into a lot of subjective >arguments)? Would the creation of a census/poll be a good idea? I can tell what ISP they are using due to reverse lookups in the stats, I'm not really interested though, the creation of a census/poll isnt of much use, well, not to me anyway. I think its just that Australia does have a low OS/2 using population per head, MicroSoft are proud of the MS penetration in the Australian Market, nothing like being shafted is there.... Mind you, I'm always open to surgestions and ideas for the site :-) >Personally having no idea if there is another OS/2 user within shouting >distance of me sometimes makes me question the strength of my original >decison to use OS/2. I felt a bit like that in Kalgoorlie, put then I have a reputation for not getting caught up in the rat race. ie, I used a DEC Rainbow 100 long past its use by date, for WP and database, still using it in around 1995, and now I've managed to get another two to replace the ones I lost. Cheers Ian B Manners 13================================================ From: mfarnhamatdingoblue dot net dot au Date: Wed, 23 May 2001 18:16:19 +1100 Subject: Re: [os2genau] Swap size In <200105231517.0221723.6atcontact.omen dot com dot au>, on 05/23/01 at 03:04 PM, "Bob Ogden" said: >In <200105230626.f4N6QQT08213atmail007.syd.optusnet dot com dot au>, on >23/May/2001 > at 04:19 PM,(+1100 GMT) >mfarnhamatdingoblue dot net dot au said: >>True. Always been told "least accessed partition on the most accessed >>drive" so I have mine on a 510mb partition as the last partition on my >>first drive which also has my System, Internet programs and Application >>partitions. Opps! Isn't sad when the memory starts to go :-) That will teach me not to go back over past emails from when I asked this question. Mark >Erm... I'd always thought that it was the opposite to that. The Most used >partition on the least used drive... Most used partition so that the >heads have a good chance to be close to where they may need to read/write >and least used drive so that you are not having to compete with other I/O >wanting access to the drive. >As to swap size... I use a 20MB swap on both boxes here but with 96 / 128 >MB RAM its overkill and usage is only ~2mb on each. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- mfarnhamatdingoblue dot net dot au Wednesday, May 23, 2001 - 06:16 PM ----------- "Lord, Grant me the serenity to accept the things that I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to hide the bodies of the people I had to kill because they pissed me off." ----------- Mark Farnham Mackay, Queensland, Australia. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 14================================================ Date: Wed, 23 May 2001 17:51:15 +0830 From: Leigh Bunting Subject: Re: [os2genau] Reminder - OS/2UGSA Meeting Ian Manners wrote: > Is the meeting suppost to be next week ? > If anyone in SA can let me know and I'll update the records. Hi Andrew and Ian, Oops, didn't notice the date in your "cron job", but, yes, our meeting is always the last Tuesday of the month, so sometimes is 4 weeks between and sometimes 5 weeks. Sorry about that. -- Leigh Bunting Secretary OS/2UGSA 15================================================ Date: Wed, 23 May 2001 08:20:17 +0200 From: Kris Steenhaut Subject: Re: [os2genau] Swap size Dr Graham Norton FRACP Neurologist schreef: > An old chestnut but I would value revisting this subject with respect the swapper.dat > file > > 1 the swap file should be about 1024 x RAM on your machine.. true or false > > 2 the swap file is best on its own partition .... true of false > The best option is no swapper.dat: MEMMAN=NoSWAP,PROTECT Memory is cheap these days. Do take advantage of the low prices. -- Groeten uit Gent, Kris 16================================================ From: "Dr Graham Norton FRACP Neurologist" Date: Wed, 23 May 2001 20:10:09 +1100 (EDT) Subject: Re: [os2genau] Swap size Given that most of us have only 1 hard drive... my usual practice 130 Meg RAM 12G hD so Operating system Primary partition: drive c Maintenance Logical partition drive d applications and data Logical partition drive e Swap file Logical partition drive f (swapper.dat file 120meg) at work I am running concurrently... Voice Type Dication Speech Advantage Medical for OS2 Describe Faxworks Pro Internet/ email/ browser DBExpert data base comments on set up and swap file? Should the swap file be on my E Drive? Graham Norton President OS2 Users Group SA 17================================================ From: "Ian Manners" Date: Wed, 23 May 2001 21:47:43 +1000 (EST) Subject: Re: [os2genau] Swap size Hi Graham >Given that most of us have only 1 hard drive... >my usual practice >130 Meg RAM >12G hD >so >Operating system Primary partition: drive c >Maintenance Logical partition drive d >applications and data Logical partition drive e >Swap file Logical partition drive f (swapper.dat file 120meg) I would put the swap file on a partition between c & e, though on modern HD's, I think I'd leave it were it is, modern seek times are very impressive. >at work I am running concurrently... >Voice Type Dication >Speech Advantage Medical for OS2 Now this I'm interested in, is it still available ? I dont think I've met one Neurologist that doesnt use either speech software, or an Apple Newton with everthing plugged into it, Neurologist's seem to always be able to do the things with technology that were ment to be done. >comments on set up and swap file? Should the swap file be on my E Drive? Swap file would be better on E, even better between your system disk, and your apps disk. ie, D drive, that way if you are using the swapper file, the HD heads are centrally positioned between your C and E drives. Cheers Ian B Manners 18================================================ From: "John Angelico" Date: Wed, 23 May 2001 20:59:39 +0900 (EST) Subject: Re: [os2genau] Device Drivers reported in Melbourne OS/2 SIG report May 2001 In the Melbourne PC SIG report I said: >>Device Driver Updates >>There has been a recent and most welcome resurgence of OS/2 >>development, spurred on by the progress with eCS. In addition to >>the independent software developers working on applications and >>utilities, device drivers are still under development. This week >>saw new drivers for parallel port Zip drives (both 100Mb and 250Mb >>models), infra-red ports (including a project to recognise and >>respond to standard remote-control devices), and the latest >>PRINT01.SYS available from IBM. Having opened up some packed files I can now tell you that a) PRINT01.SYS is a Mar 16, 2001 driver (already built for (E)ISA devices) which now supports PCI connected printers, allows for shared interrupts and offers a modified polling mode to reduce CPU load. However, it warns us Luddutes with old dot matrix printers (which use interrupts in a particular way described in the Read.Me) that they could be dangerous and cannot handle Shared mode. http://service5.boulder.ibm dot com/2bcprod.nsf/Driver+Profile+Web/PRINT 01.EXE?OpenDocument b) Parallel Port Zip Driver v1.02 May 14th 2001 supports daisy-chaining of multiple devices, multiple port connections, 250Mb capacity, HPFS formatting and SAFE software media ejection of media http://service5.boulder.ibm dot com/2bcprod.nsf/Driver+Profile+Web/ppzip ..EXE?OpenDocument If you can make use of them, go for it! Best regards John Angelico OS/2 SIG talldadatmelbpc dot org dot au or talldadatkepl dot com dot au -------------------------------------------- PMTagline v1.50 - Copyright, 1996-1997, Stephen Berg and John Angelico .... Even my mouse pad supports OS/2! 19================================================ From: "John Angelico" Date: Wed, 23 May 2001 23:11:14 +0900 (EST) Subject: [os2genau] APC Magazine June 2001 and other software released Blue cover with "XP" splashed all over it. Software Explosion CD case contains no OS/2 commentary but some interesting shareware files. I found the most interesting was the File Browser utility - fast, looks like Netscape, supports NS plug-ins, has a WarpCenter replacement (which works more like the WinTaskBar, respects default associations set up in WPS etc. Mixomat200 may interest the sound buffs. CleanINI .54 is another INI file maintenance tool And separately I have a copy of E.EXE which doesn't throw in a Ctrl-Z character (DOS hangover) at the end of a text file. If you are interested in this patched version of E, you can find it at: http://home.clara dot net/orac/os2.htm (thanks to Voytek E etc on the OS/2 ISP list for this) Best regards John Angelico OS/2 SIG talldadatmelbpc dot org dot au or talldadatkepl dot com dot au -------------------------------------------- PMTagline v1.50 - Copyright, 1996-1997, Stephen Berg and John Angelico .... Experience is knowing a lot of things you shouldn't do. END================================================