[647] in OS/2_Discussion
OS/2 at Activities Midway Tonight.
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (klund@MIT.EDU)
Tue Aug 29 11:58:47 1995
From: klund@MIT.EDU
Date: Tue, 29 Aug 95 11:57:23 -0400
To: os2admin@MIT.EDU
The M.I.T. OS/2 Users Group will be at the ASA Activities Midway in the
Johnson Athletic Center (the Ice Rink) tonight, 6pm-8pm. Stop by, help
out, talk to new students, or just say "hi".
--> Kent.
By the way, here are some news tidbits that you might find interesting:
(1) News reports are now starting with quite a bit of negative press
about Windows95. The New York Times, for example, had a scathing
article about how Windows95 destroyed someone's hard disk data and book.
(Howard Stern commented on the article this morning and recommended
everyone get either OS/2 Warp or a Macintosh. "I told you so," he
said.) Evidently TV and radio are beginning to echo these stories.
(2) The Tribune is reporting on the "Quicken controversy." Windows95
evidently breaks Quicken (or doesn't, depending on who you ask,
Microsoft or Intuit.) Quicken is merely the most popular software title
(in terms of quantity) on the market. (Second only to OS/2 Warp,
actually.)
(3) Hold times on the Microsoft support line are at 90 minutes plus.
It's a toll call. (Rebroadcast by Howard Stern as well.)
(4) Microsoft was a no-show at Indianapolis Elek-Tek. A demo was
scheduled from 11-4. Instead, IBM had free seminars on using OS/2 Warp
to connect to the Internet.
(5) The Aptiva M-series models are just hitting the stores and are
extremely popular. They beat Compaq and Packard Bell (even on price)
because they have built-in 28.8 modem support (which most buyers want).
They also come preloaded with OS/2 Warp and include the IBM Family
FunPak for OS/2 Warp (slated for CD-ROM release as well in the next week
or two).
(6) Bill Gates is in China. Evidently he's there to try to repair
serious damage: the Chinese Government, in a first ever statement about
a computer product, declared OS/2 Warp the national standard for China.
Chinese National Railways, the grain distribution system, and other
parts of Chinese commerce are already rolling out OS/2 Warp-based systems.
(8) IBM plans significant advertising for OS/2 Warp Connect with a "call
to action" (marketing-speak for instructions on how to order) as part of
the "Solutions for a Small Planet" series. That advertising should
commence very shortly.
(9) IBM is strongly considering a rather unprecedented response to the
Windows95 problems. More on this if/when it can be revealed it.
(10) IBM's Boca Raton labs are running advertisements again for more
OS/2 Warp programmers. (If you'd like to forward your resume...)
(11) One of the new Aptiva M-series models comes standard with 16 MB of
RAM, OS/2 Warp, the IBM Family FunPak for OS/2 Warp, and VoiceType
Dictation for OS/2 Warp. Also, IBM's new Aptivas (with Rapid Resume,
based on Advanced Power Management) include the new "trap door"
technology for OS/2 Warp. If you have a DOS program (such as a game,
like Ultima 7) that simply refuses to run in a multitasking environment,
you can enable "trap door" for the application. What happens is that
OS/2 Warp code, in memory, is pushed to the hard disk (just like
hibernating on a notebook computer), and DOS is loaded in place. Then
the application is run. After exiting the program, OS/2 Warp is loaded
back in (from the hibernation file) and you pick up right where you left
off. There is no reboot/reload required, and it's VERY fast. (It's
obviously not designed for use in conjunction with multitasking, or in
most business situations, but it is important for some people.) This
technology requires Advanced Power Management Version 1.01, and all the
drivers in the system (such as with the Aptiva preload) must be APM 1.01
compatible. Over time this technology will go into OS/2 Warp.
(13) HPFS is now designated for an updated, probably to be included in
the next release of OS/2 Warp. Already a new HPFS driver is being
circulated in beta form to a restricted number of people. This new
driver boosts disk performance with HPFS by an estimated 10%. Dynamic
cache is one of the features planned.
