July 1999

The June meeting started off with the customary announcements of news of interest to OS/2 users, new products, updates, etc. New software and update releases will also be listed in POSEIDON messages.

Carl Ford gave us a very interesting brief member neat-feature presentation on the advantages of running some old MSDOS programs under OS/2. He described in some detail his use of an MSDOS bookkeeping program, "New Views," which he runs for all the bookkeeping requirements for his florist business.

Q&A Session

David Moskowitz, who usually conducts the Q&A, had to make a sudden trip out of town and wasn't able to be with us again at the June meeting. In his absence, Dave Gentzler presided once more over the June Q&A session. A summary of some of the principal questions follows:

- end of Q&A -

Intermission followed, with refreshments, 50/50 raffle and a raffle of an Intel backpack, donated by Ben Bowers.

June Feature Presentation

The principal feature at the June meeting was a presentation and demo by SIG member Jim Nuytens of the PM123 native OS/2 multimedia program designed to play the increasingly popular MP3 audio files found around the web and various newsgroups. PM123 was awarded "Runner-up" in the 1998 OS/2 E-Zine! Reader's Choice awards for multimedia programs.

Jim demonstrated some neat PM123 features, including WinAmp "skins" support, the built-in graphic equalizer/pre-amp, and how to create play lists in PM123 so that you can more easily setup an entire evening's worth of listening pleasure.

He also showed some of the more than 60 WinAmp "skins" that he has converted using PM123's built-in skin converter and reported on some of the pitfalls he found while doing so.

Many questions arose during Jim's presentation, which elicited group discussions, especially about skins, which are like a label and status indicator for the player. Many hundreds, even thousands perhaps, have been designed by MP2 users all over the world. The most popular place to find MP3 skins is at web site www.winamp.com.

Jim did a very fine job, and held everybody's attention throughout his entire presentation. Good show, Jim. Thank you.

PM123101.ZIP is the most recent release of this shareware program. You can download it from hobbes. Registration is only $15. I highly recommend it.

Meeting was adjourned, the room cleaned up and lights turned off around 10:30.

FixPak-11 (XR_M011) for OS/2 Warp 4 was posted June 30th for download on IBM's Boulder ftp site at: ftp://service.boulder.ibm.com/ps/products/os2/fixes/v4warp/english-us/xr_m011/

Subsequently, IBM withdrew all disk image files dated June 30th, and reposted them all on July 1st. Apparently, there were some missing pieces in some of the disk images. Anyone who downloaded the June30th files is strongly advised to dump them and download the July 1st releases.

Similarly, user feedback reports indicated that the initial RSU was buggy. But this was apparently also fixed within the next day or two.

Please note: Beginning with this Warp 4 FixPak-11 and Warp 3 Fixpak-41, most OS/2 device drivers will be moved to a separate Device Driver FixPak. The first such Device Driver FixPak will be XR_D001, scheduled for release at a later date.

There are 16 disk image files: xr_m011.1dk to xr_m011.gdk. The first disk includes 4 readme files, which are also posted for separate download.

Corrective Service Facility F.141, (now known as a FixTool) is required for installation of FixPak-11. Filename is cs_141.exe, 714,819 bytes. Do not attempt to install with an earlier version. You can download cs_141.exe from: ftp://service.boulder.ibm.com/ps/products/os2/fixtool/english-us/

I strongly recommend the use of FastKick or QuickFix for installation. These allow direct installation from your hard drive, and eliminate the need for the tedious, time-consuming task of making diskettes from disk images and installing from the floppies.

If the latest version of FastKick (updated for CSF F.141) is used, it's not necessary to also use cs_140.exe.

The updated FastKick file and instructions for installation of FixPak-11 via hard drive or RSU may be found on Dan Casey's Abraxis website at: http://members.iquest.net/~dcasey/. Click on "OS/2 EZ Reference" at the top of the frame on the left side of the Abraxis home page; then click again on the "Applying FixPaks ..." item. Now select either the Image Files or RSU installation method, which will bring up detailed installation instructions. It's a good idea to print this.

In either case, the updated FastKick is needed. Click on the highlighted area of line 1. You'll need FastKick 141 to download fastkick141.zip.

The most recent version, QuickFix 1.1, can be downloaded from hobbes: QF11.ZIP. The main difference between QuickFix and most others is that QuickFix uses an image unpacking tool which performs CRC validation of the diskette images before applying what could otherwise be junk to your finely-tuned and previously functional OS/2 system. Many users believe this to be a worthwhile safety factor to prevent problems arising, especially from corrupted disk image files.

I used FastKick's image files from the hard drive method. Installation was easy and fast. In the previous FixPak-10 installation, there were 10 instances detected of installed files of newer vintage than files of the same names in FixPak-10. But in FixPak-11, there was only one single instance of this. I chose not to overwrite the more recent file.

After a few days since FixPak-11 was installed, Warp 4 operation has remained stable, with no noticeable problems.

By the time this DataBus issue is received, it's expected that the final public GA version of Java 1.1.8 will have been released sometime during July. Nevertheless, the following information regarding the Preview version should be of interest and benefit (extracted from IBM announcement).

The Java 1.1.8 Preview was posted on June 10th. It can be downloaded from:

http://www.software.ibm.com/os/warp/downloads/java

There are six files in all:

Great news!! Hobbes now has a new archiver, Jared Tarbell, who is located at NMSU, as was the previous archiver, Josh Shagam. Consequently, hobbes will continue to be supported by NMSU. Jared recently posted the following message:

Attendee registration for Warpstock '99, scheduled for October 16-17 in Atlanta, has begun. Register prior to July 31 to take advantage of an early-bird discount price of only $55 for 2 days of presentations and exhibits. Log on to the Warpstock website at http://www.warpstock.org for on-line registration, plus hotel and airline information and other current information.

Most recently, I've been informed that there has been no action yet by the Warpstock board in regard to preparation for Warpstock 2000 bid preparation.

The Southern California OS/2 User Group (SCOUG) has announced sponsorship of "Warp Expo West - A Warpfest of OS/2 Excitement" to be held on Saturday, September 18, 1999, at the Chapman Conference Facilities in Orange, CA, located only 4 miles from Disneyland. There will be no admission fee for attendees, and no exhibitor fee for vendors.

Plans call for more than 20 OS/2 seminars and lectures; and dozens of OS/2 software vendors are expected.

For additional information and registration, log on to the SCOUG web site at http://www.scoug.com, and click the logo on SCOUG's home page.

In last month's article, I reported that the JSM Charter User email list server had been terminated. This was an error on my part. The JSM list server is still alive and well, although with sporadic participation by many of the diehard JSM users. Many of these JSM users, like myself, are still there, reading the mail (or lack thereof) on a regular basis. Whenever someone initiates a subject of interest, lots of responses ensue.

Nevertheless, the J Street Mailer is still here, primarily for the transmission of Poseidon messages, plus all other email where it's appropriate to promote the use of Java.

Symantec posted a new virus signature database update AV30DX.ZIP on July 2nd, only a couple of days following AV30DW.ZIP. Download from http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/ibm/index.html

Surprise, at least for me. It was previously indicated that Symantec would provide virus signature update support for the IBM AntiVirus program only through the end of June 1999. But now, according to the Symantec Customer Service FAQs page, it's stated that this support will extend through the end of December 1999.

If we're lucky, there may even be an update prior to the end of 1999 for Symantec's Norton AntiVirus 5.0 for OS/2 which has a number of serious shortcomings.

Adobe has released a beta version of a new Acrobat Viewer (PDF file reader), written entirely in Java. JDK 1.1.8 is recommended by Adobe.

This was downloaded here, and installed using a modified installation script. The original Adobe installation was broken. Sorry to say, running under the new Java 1.1.8 Preview, the results were most disappointing. Performance was slow and awkward, and there are stll many known problems with this beta. I deleted it from my system.

Hopefully, in the not too distant future, Adobe will be able to upgrade this Java program to a much higher level of performance and stability.

Latest information leaked from IBM is that the release of the long-awaited Communicator/2 v.4.6 is expected sometime during this month, perhaps even prior to publication of this July DataBus issue. In last month's DataBus article, the new Communicator/2 was referred to as v.4.51. Looks like IBM has made enough upgrades to warrant the higher version number.

Several leaked screenshots, labeled as v.4.6, have already been posted via Loren Bandeira's OS/2 Warp News & Gossip website (in late June).

Wednesday, July 28th, at 7:00 pm is the date and time of the July meeting at our meeting site: The Episcopal Academy, 376 N. Latches Lane, Merion, PA. Mark your calendars and plan to attend. And bring an interested friend or associate along to hear all the good news about OS/2 and Java. A system will be on hand for live demos of OS/2 Warp 4, a variety of OS/2 applications, Java, Internet, etc., if time permits.

For the benefit of anyone who may not yet have the most recent releases of FixPak-11 or other recent large files, copies can be made to your ZIP disk (or portable SyQuest drive) on a first come/first served basis, as time may permit. Please call me prior to the meeting date to make sure that I will have the requested files on my hard drive, ready for copying.

Members without cars can take SEPTA's R-5 (Paoli Local) to Overbrook, or the R-6 to Bala. Call me to make arrangements to be picked up at the RR Station. Since Episcopal Academy is so close to public transportation, why don't you Philadelphia Center City folks who don't have cars call ahead of time to be picked up at the train station.

Everybody should keep up to date by logging in to our OS/2 SIG web site at frequent intervals: www.pasug.org/

Please be on time. The meeting will start *promptly* at 7:00pm, as per the following agenda and schedule.

Planned July Agenda:

1. General announcements, news of interest, new OS/2 products, future plans, SIG business, etc. (7:00 - 7:20pm)

2. Brief neat feature member presentation (7:20 - 7:30) (Subject to be announced via Poseidon message)

3. Q&A Session (7:30 - 8:30pm): If you have questions, this is the place to bring them up. Someone is sure to have the answers. Or if you have something of interest to contribute, please don't hesitate to share it with the others.

4. Intermission and Raffles (8:30 - 8:50pm) In addition to our regular 50/50 raffle, a copy of BackAgain/2 will be donated for raffle prize by the CDS representative. There may also be other items for raffle, if available.

5. Feature Presentation (8:50 - 10:00pm) The main feature scheduled for the July meeting will be a presentation/demo of BackAgain/2 by guest Brent Bowlby, a representative of Computer Data Strategies, Inc. BackAgain/2 is a popular OS/2 backup utility, used by many of our own members. If you have questions about BackAgain/2 usage, the July meeting will provide an outstanding opportunity to ask and get answers directly, face-to-face.

Looking forward to a great July meeting. Please make a special effort to attend for an OS/2 ISV guest appearance, and bring a friend or associate to see what OS/2 can do.