October 1998

The September meeting began promptly at 7:00pm, as per the published agenda. I'm very pleased to report that we had a packed meeting room, which indicated high interest in the first of our planned 2-meeting Build-a-Thon sessions. Hopefully, this interest will continue into the October meeting as well, when the actual builds will be done. We also welcomed 2 new OS/2 users to our group.

The first 15 or 20 minutes were taken up with news items, announcements of general interest, new OS/2 product releases, IBM happenings, etc.

Following the announcements, our popular Q&A session was conducted by David Moskowitz. Here's a summary of the questions and the answers:

Q&A Summary

General Comment:

During boot if you get a message that VMOUSE.SYS didn't load it means there is a problem with your mouse. MOUSE.SYS doesn't issue and error message if it can't talk to the mouse during boot. VMOUSE does issue a message if it can't find MOUSE. So, if you get a message from VMOUSE check to make sure your mouse is properly plugged into your computer. If it is, then you may have a problem with either the mouse cable or the mouse itself. Consider a replacement.

- end of Q&A -

Upon completion of the Q&A session, we took our customary intermission for refreshments, informal personal discussions and raffles: The usual 50/50 raffle was held, followed by a raffling of several software items donated by BMT Micro.

Following the break, David Gentzler and David Moskowitz conducted a preview presentation of the hardware options and ground rules for the actual build which will be held at the October meeting.

Recommendations were presented for 100 MHz FSB motherboards (Socket-7 type for the AMD K6-2/300/350 CPU's and Slot-1 for Pentium II CPU's), RAM, soundcards, hard drives (IDE and SCSI), video cards, keyboard, mouse, CDROM drives, floppy drives and cases (AT and ATX). Dave Gentzler brought in a case to demonstrate construction details, what to look for, etc.

Many questions and comments arose during this preview session which were answered and/or addressed to the satisfaction of all concerned.

A show of hands indicated that there were a dozen or so of the attendees who are seriously considering participating in the October build session. David Moskowitz took names of those interested in a possible group purchase of RAM. Otherwise, all participants are required to purchase their own hardware. Plans were also made to post the complete list of of recommended hardware on the OS/2 SIG web site: www.pasug.org/

Another big surprise from IBM!

All the fuss about extending the September 30th expiration date of the beta release was for naught. IBM surprised us by releasing the GA version on September 29th.

It's a free download from the IBM Software Choice Catalog page: http://service.boulder.ibm.com/asd-bin/doc/en_us/catalog.htm

There are two choices: The strong, full 128-bit, encryption security version for U.S./Canada users; and the International version with weaker encryption security (approx 7.14 MB each). A new updated Plug-in-Pack v.2.1 is also available (2.25 MB).

If the beta version was previously installed, you should first uninstall the Communicator beta and associated plug-in-pack, as per the readme file directions.

I installed the new strong encryption version and plug-in-pack here on my system with no difficulty whatsoever. As of now, with very limited testing and usage experience, Communicator/2 seems to be stable and reliable.

Some early user feedback from Warp City and other sources indicate that many OS/2 users may be disappointed because all the reported bugs and deficiencies have not yet been fixed, and some have workarounds rather than software corrections.

Michael Kaply, IBM's Technical Lead for Communicator/2, posted a lengthy message on the OS/2 newsgroups, reproduced in many other places. Kaply's message provides details of various workarounds, unsupported features, future updates, etc. It will be beneficial for all Communicator/2 users to download and review Kaply's complete message. Here are a couple of extracts:

IBM released FixPak-8 for OS/2 Warp 4 on September 3rd. It can be downloaded from: ftp://service.boulder.ibm.com/ps/products/os2/fixes/v4warp/english-us/xr_m008/

There is a total of 16 disk images: xr_m008.1dk - xr_m008.gdk

Please note that the README.1ST file states "Requires Corrective Service Facitity release F.139 or later." The self-extracting archive file FIXT139.EXE is needed to create CSF F.139.

There are several programs floating around on Hobbes and other various OS/2 ftp sites which allow some degree of automatic installation and eliminate the need to make floppy disks from the disk image files. One example is from Tim Martin of Warp City who has posted a "3 Easy Steps" procedure for installing FixPaks without the use of floppies.

Timothy Sipples, a well-known OS/2 advocate who works for IBM in Chicago, recently posted an announcement about the forthcoming public beta release of Aurora:

On October 13, 1998, IBM will announce the official name of the next release of OS/2 Warp Server on the Aurora Web site. Shortly thereafter, on October 16,1998, no more registrations for the beta will be accepted.

However, the Aurora Web site will still remain active with a customer poll. The most recent question posed was: What processor family is predominantly supporting LAN Server and OS/2 Warp Server? The results indicated that more than 90% of the respondents are running Pentium class machines. A new question will be posted approximately every two weeks.

As this article is being written, final preparations are underway for Warpstock '98 which will be held in Chicago on October 17- 18.

The room reservation quota at the Wyndham was also met, which was necessary to insure the associated low prices for meeting facilities, etc., upon which ticket prices were based.

Warpstock '98 promises to be a super event. We hope to have some good feedback reports shortly thereafter.

PowerQuest announced the release of version 4.0 of its popular PartitionMagic utility in late September. It does, indeed, include many new and desirable features.

Unfortunately, the new PartitionMagic 4.0 lacks a native OS/2 executable, which elicited an immediate outpouring of protests from irate OS/2 users. PartitionMagic does, in fact, support OS/2, but in a rather roundabout awkward manner, via DOS. Not at all comparable to Windows 95/98/NT.

In response to all the OS/2 protests, Candice Steelman, PowerQuest VP of Corporate Communications posted a widely distributed response which was partially insulting and partially incorrect/incomplete, together with an indication that PQ takes the OS/2 user complaints very seriously and that they will reexamine the situation vis-a-vis OS/2. She also stated that if PQ does subsequently release a native OS/2 executable, it will be a free downloadable patch. I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for it.

All registered users of PM 3.0 were notified by email that they can purchase v.4.0 for only $29.95 if the upgrade order is placed prior to October 15th.

After several weeks of deafening silence, and hundreds of J Street Mailer Charter Users wondering what was happening, InnoVal's president, Dan Porter, finally posted a lengthy message explaining the situation.

The good news is that Porter stated "I want everyone to understand that we are not retreating from our Java efforts, the J Street Mailer, or our OS/2 products.... We are fully committed."

The bad news is that Kari Jackson, the J Street Mailer tech support person at InnoVal, had been laid off. Kari did a super job of holding hands with all the noisy boisterous Charter User clan, answering the questions, seeing to it that bugs and deficiencies were properly taken care of, etc., and working many more hours every day and week than should be expected by anyone. We will all miss her technically competent support.

Dan went to great lengths to explain his position and the business considerations leading up to his decisions to reduce the J Street Mailer level of effort at this time.

In the meantime, things remain very quiet on the J Street Mailer list server, and it appears that some number of Charter Users have decided to abandon their support.

Hopefully, InnoVal will pick up the pieces and continue to visibly support the J Street Mailer again in the very near future, and that all those Charter Users lurking in the background will also become active again.

The following warning was contributed by L. Mark Stone (LMStone@ibm.net) and distributed worldwide via WarpCast:

FixPak-38 for OS/2 Warp 3
IBM released FixPak-38 for OS/2 Warp 3 on October 1st. It can be downloaded from:

ftp://service.boulder.ibm.com/ps/products/os2/fixes/v3.0warp/english-us/xr_w038/

There is a total of 20 disk images: xr_w038.1dk - xr_w038.kdk. There are also 6 readme files which can be downloaded, but they are also included in the first disk image.

IBM AntiVirus Datafiles Update AV30CD
AV30CD.ZIP 536,822 bytes 9-23-98 http://www.av.ibm.com/IBMAntiVirus/Updates/

Here's a selection of a few new files released since last month's article which are thought to be most useful or interesting to many of our OS/2 users. These files can be downloaded from Hobbes, BMT, OS/2 Supersite, and other of the usual OS/2 Internet and BBS file distribution sources. Many more new software products for OS/2 are being continually released. These are but a small sample. Users should do their own perusals for new releases relevant to their personal interests and needs.

CONFIG.SYS EDITOR UPDATE
New v.4.0d included in CFGINFO6.ZIP. Hopefully, the new data file may fix the sort feature and other inconsistencies mentioned in the September DataBus listing. Download from http://www.buntspecht.de/files/

FIXPACK APPLICATION
Apply FixPacks to Warp 3 and Warp 4 without floppy diskettes. Updated for IBM's latest CSF F.139 (needed for FP-8). Download FASTKICK.ZIP from hobbes and other sites.

FULL-FEATURED FTP UTILITY
Download files via http or ftp with capability to resume transfer following slowdowns and interruptions. Download WGET153.ZIP from Hobbes and other sites.

MATROX BIOS UPGRADE
Matrox has announced a new BIOS Release 3.43 for their Millenium and Mystique video cards. The only change in R.3.43 over R.3.42 is the addition of MGA G200 1.3 BIOS update. Download the new release from http://www.matrox.com/mga/drivers/bios/

MESA 2 Version 2.2 (gold)
Mesa 2 v.2.2 OS/2 spreadsheet was released by Sundial Systems. Loaded with new features and functions. Demo copies are available for downloading from Sundial Systems web site http://www.sundialsystems.com. A temporary license, enabling all features, is also freely available for the asking.

MONEYDANCE 2.0 Beta 2
Latest beta release of a 100% pure Java personal finance manager. Many new features are included. I had some initial difficulty executing the program, but eventually brought it up. This may ultimately be a serious competitor to Intuit's Quicken. Download via ftp from http://seanreilly.com/java

WARPZILLA0007.ZIP
John Fairhurst and the Warpzilla team have released the latest (and last) version of Warpzilla using the current layout technology. Many new features added since the previous 0.0006 release. Get this via ftp from http://www.innotek.de/warpzilla

Wednesday, October 28th, the 4th Wednesday of the month, at 7:00pm, is the date and time of the next monthly SIG meeting at our current home, The Episcopal Academy, in Merion.

Mark your calendars and plan to attend. And bring an interested friend or associate along to hear all the good news about OS/2. A system will be on hand for live demos of OS/2 Warp 4, a variety of OS/2 apps, Java, Internet, etc. as time may permit.

Members without cars can take SEPTA's R-5 (Paoli Local) to Overbrook, or the R-6 to Bala. Call Larry 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 Overbrook train station. Hey, you guys in Center City, the trains are running. There's no excuse now for not coming to meetings.

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

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

PLANNED OCTOBER AGENDA:

1. General SIG business session: (7:00 - 7:15pm) Announcements, news of interest, new OS/2 products, future plans, etc.

2. Q&A Session (7:15 - 8:00pm): If you have questions, this is the place to bring them up. Someone is sure to have the answers.

3. Intermission, raffles, etc: (8:00 - 8:20pm) As usual, complimentary light refreshments will be served. We will also have our customary 50/50 raffle followed by a software raffle (if available).

4. Build-A-Thon: Build Session (8:20 - 10:00pm)
   In October, the people who have the interest in building their own system and purchased the necessary hardware items will do the actual builds under the guidance of our experts, with additional assistance from other experienced members.

   But even if you don't want to build a computer of your own, please come join us at the October meeting to ask all the questions you want, look over someone's shoulder and get vicarious experience!

5. Larry's system will be on hand for live demos, as time may permit. Member requests for specific demos are solicited, and will be done if the software is available and as time may permit. Episcopal Academy has installed a permanent analog phone line in our meeting room for our use for Internet access. Please call Larry prior to the meeting date to permit preparation.

All our more experienced users are urged to attend the October meeting to share their knowledge and expertise with others.

See you all on October 28th. Mark your calendars. Bring your friends and associates to show them that OS/2 is really alive and well.