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OS/2 SIG Members Become Famous
Seems like Murray Weismer can't stop releasing new versions of his now worldwide famous DrekBack backup program. As of this writing, it's now at version 4B, and his web site has already registered thousands of hits in a rather short period of time: http://weismer.virtualave.net/DreckBak.html. At this rate, maybe we should expect to see an IPO in the near future :-)
SIG Member Jim Nuytens also achieved some fame this past month when he appeared as the in-studio guest expert on Rich Levin's very popular Computer Talk Saturday afternoon radio program on April 24th. Jim also managed to get in a couple of plugs for our OS/2 SIG website.
Webmaster John Davey has continued to update our website at frequent intervals. Among other improvements, the home page has now been redesigned and shortened to enable much faster loading. Please log in every few days to stay in touch with important happenings. And if you have any suggestions for new features, please don't hesitate to send a message to John. We're also looking for volunteers to assist John with the maintenance and updating of designated specific pages.
A presentation of Lotus Notes is planned for the May 26th meeting. So please plan to attend. It promises to be most interesting.
APRIL MEETING REPORT
The April 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.
Jim Nuytens made a brief "Neat Feature" member presentation of "OS/2 System Resource Monitor" v.3.31. This program displays a number of items related to system resources, updating its display once per second. A very nice and useful utility. The archive MEMSZ331.ZIP may be downloaded from hobbes and many other OS/2 file repositories.
Q&A Session
David Moskowitz, who usually conducts the Q&A, wasn't able to be with us again at the April meeting. In his absence, Dave Gentzler presided over the April Q&A session. Some of the principal questions follow:
| Q: | VisualAge for Java Installation Problems. |
| A: | Based on the sketchy information provided, it was not possible to come up with specific answers. Recommendations were made to look in the POPUPLOG.OS2 error log file for some clues. Also to make sure that a CHKDSK /F is executed prior to installation. |
| Q: | A FAT-16 partition was changed over to a (Win 95) FAT-32 format. This caused much of the OS/2 WPS to be deleted. Restoration of the FAT-16 format to this partition failred to restore the WPS. |
| A: | Since the changed partition was located in a sequential order before the partition containing many of the OS/2 applications and the FAT-32 is invisible to OS/2, the links to the OS/2 WPS were all wiped out. It will be necessary to reinstall all the missing WPS objects. |
| Q: | "Errors on Disk" error message appeared when PMCHKDSK was executed from a command prompt. |
| A: | PMCHKDSK may only be executed from the WPS. Do not try to run it from a command line. Use CHKDSK from a command line. |
| Q: | Does anyone use Novastor's backup program? Or Duocon's ExactCopy? |
| A: | No. |
| Q: | Problems with an early version of DrekBack. |
| A: | The author (SIG member Murray Weismer) recommended the most recent version 3C. Since the meeting, v.4A has been released. |
| Q: | How best to copy everything over to a new drive? |
| A: | Try using OS/2's XCOPY with parameters /H /O /T /S /E /R /V. This will copy *everything* exactly from the source. |
| Q: | What is an optimum hard drive organization? |
| A: | In general, put swap file on the fastest drive, and close to the drive with the greatest usage. |
| Q: | Network problems with Peer-to-Peer: Machines can't see each other. Can't ping. |
| A: | Try changing power-up sequence. Also, refresh the resource browser. Also, check TCP/IP setup to insure that each system knows about the other. |
- end of Q&A -
Intermission followed, with refreshments, 50/50 raffle and a raffle of several good donated products, including: a copy of Object Desktop v.2.0 donated by Stardock and several other software products.
April Feature Presentation
The April feature presentation of IBM's forthcoming OS/2 Warp Server for e-Business (aka Aurora) was originally planned as a two-man show by Alonza Baker and David Moskowitz. Since David was unexpectedly required to tend to other important personal matters, Alonza went on-stage by himself. The demo made use of the most recent IBM beta test version which shouldn't differ much, if at all, from the gold GA release, scheduled for early May. (See item referencing the IBM Announcement below.)
Alonza's presentation had a somewhat limited scope of setting up users and resources on Aurora, which includes the functionality of previous versions of LAN Server and Warp Server, plus other extras such as the Network File System for TCP/IP, the Journal File System, JFS, the Logical Volume Manager, LVM and the OS/2 Warp 4 interface.
The OS/2 Warp 4 interface made the presentation of the new server more interesting. The windows and popup boxes look just like those on the Warp 4 client we are so used to seeing. A user named Tom was defined, together with a directory resource and a printer resource. These defined resources were then assigned to the user, Tom. The demonstration was concluded by logging Tom on to the server from a Warp 4 client. In addition, a document was printed on the assigned printer, and files were copied from a drive on the client to a drive on the server.
Other components of the Warp Server for e-business which were not covered at the April meeting included the Lotus Domino Go Webserver 4.6.2.5, the IBM WebSphere Application Server 1.1 and the OS/2 Warp Server for e-business Client Connect Pak. Some of these will be scheduled for presentations at future meetings.
Alonza's presentation elicited a great deal of interest in Aurora, together with many questions during the presentation, and there was no lack of member discussion about many of the items.
Great job Alonza. Thank you!
Meeting was adjourned, the room cleaned up and lights turned off around 10:30pm.
OS/2 NEWS
It's now official. IBM has announced that OS/2 Warp Server for e-Business (Aurora) will be available in May. The complete product description, including a product overview, prerequisites, system description, part numbers, technical information, support, etc. (22 pages in all) has been published and posted in Software Announcement 299-100. The URL is approximately 170 characters, too much to type, too much to key in. If you want to see it, here's how:
Go to http://www1.ibmlink.ibm.com, the IBM Link home page. Then click on "IBM Link" under United States, and then on "Announcements." And finally, search on "IBM OS/2 Warp for e-business" dated 27APR1999.
In regard to release of a Warp 5 client this year, based on Aurora, the outlook seems rather bleak. A recent email advertisement from Indelible Blue announcing the release of the new Aurora package also included the following regarding an Aurora-based client:
"But, alas, there is no Aurora client on the horizon. It came very close to being a reality, and there were many people inside IBM who tried very hard to make it happen, but it's simply not to be, at least not in 1999. Of course, we can hope that most Windows machines will crash miserably on January 1, 2000 and the world will be clamoring for a replacement... Well, we can dream, can't we?"
For more on this subject, see Tom Nadeau's OS/2 Headquarters website at http://www.os2hq.com. Go to "The Warped Perspective" May 1999 article down a bit on the home page.
The following announcement has been made by Hobbes Archiver Josh Shagam, who will be graduating later this month from NMSU:
"It looks like probably what'll end up happening is I'll release the database engine, CGI programs, etc. under the GPL and let whoever wants to run a successor to Hobbes do so. Hopefully the OS/2 community at large can figure something out. :) In the meantime, all the concerned archive users who have been asking: I have a job now. :) Thanks to everyone who gave me pointers.
I'll hope to have more information on the source code, etc. later, as well as working out some way for others to coordinate efforts to continue Hobbes.
Let me say that it's been a great pleasure being archiver@hobbes.nmsu.edu for these last two and a half years."
A search is underway for a competent responsible party to take over the hobbes archive and continue to operate it non-commercially and free, in the same manner established by Josh, for the benefit of all OS/2 users. Ideally, the auspices of an .edu type organization would be best suited for such an undertaking, especially for financial considerations. None such have yet publicly surfaced, but Josh seems to be giving serious consideration to some unidentified party.
A British company, Pepper Head Design, has made a public overture, and also obtained a domain name hobbes.org, which has stirred up lots of controversy on the OS/2 newsgroups. Many users don't seem to like the idea of any commercial organization taking over with the inclusion of even minimal advertising banners. Josh reported that he declined Pepper Head's proposition.
Warpstock Board President Larry Finkelstein has advised that the Warpstock Board has just begun discussions on the plans for WS 2000, and expect to announce bidding for that event in the next 4-6 weeks. They plan to announce WS 2000 at the Warpstock '99 conference in Atlanta, in October.
We (the Philadelphia OS/2 SIG) are going ahead with our own plans to consider bidding for the year 2000 event. The facilities requirements draft prepared earlier for Warpstock '99 is currently being revised, and early planning assignments will be doled out to volunteers.
Additional volunteers are solicitied. Interested SIG members, please contact Larry Lavins.
The new developers of the Win32OS2 project have decided a new name is needed to draw new interest in this large undertaking. To do this, they have changed the name to "Project Odin" and released the source code for all OS/2 developers to play with.
NetLabs promises to provide new information shortly on the direction of Project Odin.
OS/2 users who depend upon Quicken for their financial records should waste no time looking for a copy of Quicken 98. That is, if you can find one anywhere.
Intuit's newest Quicken 99 release won't run under anything but a Microsoft 32-bit operating system. Quicken 99 won't run under WinOS2 at all, whereas Quicken 98 does quite well.
Intuit released and offered Quicken 98 for a very short period of time, rumor has it less than a month, before taking orders for their Quicken 99 version.
People who refuse to use a MS operating system but lean heavily on Quicken may now be forced to move to Microsoft in order to use the most recent Quicken 99 if the features included in earlier versions are no longer sufficient for their needs.
A possible alternative is Sean Reilly's new Moneydance v.2.0, just released on April 28th. It's written in 100% pure Java, and runs well on OS/2 platforms with Java 1.1.7A according to early user feedback reports.
While Moneydance is admittedly not as feature-rich as the more recent Quicken versions, it may include all the features needed by most users.
Moneydance is a free download, so go take a look at the descriptive material and download the new v.2.0 at http://seanreilly.com/java/moneydance.
A special report by Jimmy Guterman on the Chicago Tribune's web site, dated April 30th, is entitled "Are you still running OS/2?" It's not an unfavorable article, and it does include an interview with Pete Norloff who operates a popular OS/2 internet and BBS service in the Washington DC area.
Guterman is running a survey of sorts, and would like to hear from all those users who continue to run the OS/2 operating system. So please log in on his web page, and let him hear from all of us. Please do it ASAP. Let's get the message out to the world. Guterman's URL is: http://cgi.chicago.tribune.com:80/tech/frontpage/0,1714,5,00.html
Symantec is continuing to provide database updates to the IBM AntiVirus product, as per their agreements with IBM. But there will be no further updates after the end of this coming June 1999.
The most recent update is AV30DL dated April 30th. It can be downloaded from http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/ibm/index.html
I have the Norton AntiVirus 5.0 for OS/2, but haven't yet installed it. A review by Pete Grubbs, published in OS/2 e-Zine! back in February, and which was reported in the March DataBus article, revealed several serious shortcomings in this product. So far, there has been no report of an update to correct these shortcomings. Let's hope that Symantec will surprise us with an update by mid-year.
USEFUL WEB SITES
Each month, we list a few web pages which may be of benefit and/or interest to OS/2 users. This month's selections include ...
The latest Enhanced E Editors v.1.20 (April 21 refresh) were tested here. They are great improvements over the IBM System Editor and Enhanced Editor which come with OS/2. However, there is still a printing problem with HP LaserJet printers, so their usefulness will be limited if you have a HP LaserJet. I hope they can fix the HP LaserJet problem sometime soon because these editors are otherwise super products.
FUTURE MEETING PLANS
Wednesday, May 26th at 7:00pm is the date and time of the May 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-10, Java 117A update, FI v.1.2.3, Star Office, or other recent large files, copies can be made to your ZIP disk (or portable SyQuest drive) on a first come/first serve 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 May Agenda:
General announcements, news of interest, new OS/2 products, future plans, SIG business, etc. (7:00 - 7:20pm)
Brief neat feature member presentation (7:20 - 7:30) "DOS Applications" by Carl Ford
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.
Intermission and Raffles (8:30 - 8:50pm) In addition to our regular 50/50 raffle, there may also be software products for raffle, if available.
Feature Presentation (8:50 - 10:00pm) The main feature scheduled for the May meeting will be a presentation of the very popular Lotus Notes program, widely used throughout the business world, by SIG Member Joe Penrose. Joe provides technical support for Lotus Notes to corporate customers of his 3rd party help desk company.
For many of our personal users, Lotus Notes is kind of a big mystery. So here's a chance to learn all about its numerous features and why it has become a defacto standard of communications in the corporate world.
Looking forward to a great May meeting. Please make an effort to attend, and bring a friend or associate to see what OS/2 can do.
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