MMOUG August 1995 Newsletter
August 1995
Volume 3 Number 8

The views expressed in this newsletter are not necessarily the views held by
the MMOUG or it's members. Don't agree with something you've read here?     
Write and tell us about it!  If you have any contributions, please upload them to area
18 of the WoodMeister or send them to me via Internet at USDSSKZS@IBMMAIL.COM.  If
you work for the State of Missouri and have access to DISOSS, you can send them to
POOLMWV at DSSHOST.      

MMOUG July Minutes

Mid Missouri OS/2 User's Group
July 19, 1995
Department of Social Services

Attendees:  Randy Wright, Rick Wolters, David Keisker, David Sharp,
Gary Pool, Steve Petzel, Dayton Shepherd, Ben Hoffman

Guests:  Steve Gramblin, Steve Adams

Because some of the attendees time constraints the presentation was
done before the business meeting.  Ben Hoffman did a brief demo of IBM
Works from the OS/2 Warp BonusPak.

Gary Pool called the meeting to order.  Discussions about topics for
future meetings took place.  Rick Wolters said he as been trying to
contact the St. Louis and KC Users Groups to try and coord. speakers
without much success.  Suggestions included VX Rexx and NetView Distribution
Manager.

Favorite World Wide Web URL's was suggested as a column in the news letter.

Discussion took place on having two types of memberships:  Corporate and
Individual.  This would allow multiple people from one company or agency
to participate more actively in the club.  Further discussion is needed.

The meeting was adjourned.

Information Officer Input/Output

August 24, 1572:  The Massacre of St. Bartholomew's Day
begins in Paris; 10,000 French Huguenots lost their lives.

August 24, 1814:  British troops captured Washington D.C.,
and burned the White House.

August 24, 1995:  Microsoft unleashes the first release of
Windows 95 on millions of unsuspecting PC users.

Do you remember OS/2 version 2.0?  There were so many little incompatabilities.
But they seemed to add up.  Even with Warp, when a new video adapter
becomes available, it can tend to cause woe.  Poor Microsoft has been
suffering the slings and arrows of the press because of Windows 95's
problems, and given their track record with version 1.0 of products, I
expect the press to be worse before it gets better.

As you are probably aware, Woody has been swamped with work, and so
the WoodMeister BBS has been languishing.  I was recently granted the
power of sysop for the WoodMeister, but I have not been able to upload
for over a year to Columbia.  I can download, I can do whatever I want
at the JC Point, but I can't upload to Columbia.  If I can get this resolved,
I plan to keep the file area active, and as soon as I'm finished with this
Newsletter, I'll be working on the World Wide Web Home Page at
OWM.CARENET.ORG.  Hopefully, I'll be updating this every month and
putting the Newsletter on line.  I'm also planning on putting in links to
other hot OS/2 sites.

Some of you may remember that this spring I said I had an idea for a
program that would create a REXX UUENCODED script, so that an ASCII
REXX CMD file can be transmitted electronically, run at the other end, and
create a binary file.  Well, I was cleaning out my ZIP file directory (almost
a BBS in and of itself), and low and behold, I had a program that Tim
Sipples had written almost three years ago that does the same thing.  Heck.
Oh well, I didn't have the time anyway.

Harvey Summers has promised me a series of articles that sound awfully
interesting, but he hasn't delivered yet.  If you see him walking around
with his leg in a cast, you'll know I've convinced him to deliver.  Actually,
I sympathize with Harvey.  He's been doing contract work for DSS.  The
poor guy.

This issue is short, but interesting.  You'll find that the Humor section is
a little bulkier than usual because I've come across several good items
this month.

This issue is a little late, but not as bad as last month.  Maybe I'll be on
time next month.  It's just a good thing that it rained tonight, or I'd be
mowing the grass now!

Humor

Taken from a BBS (with apologies to Monty Python!)

MORTICIAN: Bring out your dead! (clang) Bring out your dead! (clang)

WIN95: Here's one -- nine pence.

OS/2: I'm not dead!

MORTICIAN: What?

WIN95: Nothing -- here's your nine pence.

OS/2: I'm not dead!

MORTICIAN: Here -- he says he's not dead!

WIN95: Yes, he is.

OS/2: I'm not!

MORTICIAN: He isn't.

WIN95: Well, he will be soon, he's very ill.

OS/2: I'm getting better!

WIN95: No, you're not -- you'll be stone dead in a moment.

MORTICIAN: Oh, I can't take him like that -- it's against regulations.

OS/2: I don't want to go in the cart!

WIN95: Oh, don't be such a baby.

MORTICIAN: I can't take him...

OS/2: I feel fine!

WIN95: Oh, do us a favor...

MORTICIAN: I can't.

WIN95: Well, can you hang around a couple of minutes? He won't be long.

MORTICIAN: Naaah, I got to go on to Jobs' -- they've lost Next today.

WIN95: Well, when is your next round?

MORTICIAN: Thursday.

OS/2: I think I'll go for a walk.

WIN95: You're not fooling anyone y'know. Look isn't there something you can do?

OS/2: I feel happy... I feel happy.  (whop)

WIN95: Ah, thanks very much.

MORTICIAN: Not at all. See you on Thursday.

WIN95: Right.

Barry Temple

Here's something else I found on a BBS.  I asked around and the author 
intended it to be funny, but I'm not sure the vendor intended to be funny:

I found a very funny item in NASPA's Technical Support Magazine:

Someone was asking a vendor if they had an OS/2 version of some
software. The response he received is "PRICELESS":

"Our marketing research team has performed an intensive study
of the OS/2 market and has determined that there is no market
for OS/2 software, and we wish that everyone would stop
asking for OS/2 versions of our products."

Marvin Lichtenthal
Threads....

Jim Manzi, Lotus, and IBM

 LOTUS AND IBM AT THE WANG CENTER 

 Jim Manzi's Speech at the Wang Center June 12, 1995 (the day after concluding the Lotus takeover). 

 Thanks very much.  It's been a reasonably interesting week.  Let me start by introducing my new 
 colleagues Lou Gerstner, right to my immediate left, Chairman and CEO of IBM, and John M. 
 Thompson. 

 (Applause) 

 And John Thompson who is in charge of IBM's ten billion dollar software business.  He's the Senior 
 Vice President in charge of that operation. 

 (Applause) 

 IBM has paid all of you a extraordinary compliment, offering 3.5 billion dollars to acquire our 
 company, by far the largest transaction in the history of our industry.  It is one week later, an 
 extraordinary thing, and at first, an unexpected one.  I was completely surprised by Lou Gerstner's 
 call last Monday at eight twenty-five in the morning when he announced the hostile takeover attempt.  
 It was the last thing I expected.  It was evidence, in some ways of a complete miscommunication 
 between our two companies because he thought that IBM had been engaged in discussions to acquire 
 Lotus for several months, and I did not.  So, I spent all day -- 

 (Laughter) 

 I spent all day last Monday, following that call, thinking through our options, discussing it with our 
 Board, talking with the senior management, talking to my closest friends, talking to my advisors, and 
 certainly talking to my family.  And I was consumed with all the questions, the concerns, the 
 anxieties that you can all imagine.  The first chance I got to take a breath was on Tuesday of last 
 week.  It was then that I called Lou Gerstner and said that before I seriously explore our other 
 options, I would like to understand exactly what you're thinking and exactly what you would like to 
 accomplish.  And I wanted to make sure that there was no more miscommunication. 

 Two and a half hours of discussions occurred at Lou's apartment in New York last Tuesday night at 
 which I told him that my primary -- two primary concerns -- were protecting the employees and 
 culture of the company, and making sure that Notes would realize its potential.  That night, those two 
 and a half hours, we had a great discussion.  I want to tell you that I am very interested in Lou 
 Gerstner, and I want to tell you why.  He took over a company about two years ago that was the 
 defining player in the computing business and had been the defining playing in the computer business, 
 but one that had lost its way.  I think by making some extremely tough business decisions, he has 
 restored IBM to financial health, and over those two years, he has done a masterful job.  At the 
 same time, he is such a realist that he understands that you do not win in the competitive 
 marketplace by downsizing.  He understands you need a superior engine of strategic growth, and I 
 think the entire world pointed in our direction.  And I think he began to see, several months ago, that 
 we were that engine.  And I came to respect his understanding, developed more in person that night, 
 of the indispensable role of Lotus Notes and our other products and what they can do for IBM, and I 
 take him at his word.  He assures me that the -- what truly is the awesome marketing and sales 
 strength and the tremendous financial resources of IBM will be made available to us. Lotus, as you all 
 know, is a tremendous company that has been fighting recently to find enough resources to pursue 
 our vision.  Now, I believe we will have all the resources we need. 

 Let me be clear about a couple of things.  We are still, as a company, going to go forward with 
 restructuring our business.  We will continue to rebuild the company around four distinct 
 economically-sound business units, and that process will continue unabated.  We will continue down 
 that path that we started two months ago, and of course we will broaden our thinking now to engage, 
 engage that thinking about being part of IBM.  When we got in New York last week to the serious 
 round-the-clock discussions, those discussions followed the model that Lou and I had laid out:  
 Protecting our employees, protecting our shareholders, and making sure that we would dramatically 
 increase Note's success going forward.  We set out to protect and serve the interests of our 
 shareholders, our employees, and our customers and business partners.  We have accomplished 
 those objectives. 

 Now, I need to thank the Lotus people who, in a sense, lived and worked with me for the five days in 
 New York, Ed Gillis, KC Branscomb, Tom Lemberg, Jack Martin, Russ Campanello, Rich Eckles, and 
 Diane Duval, and the dozens of people back here in Boston and elsewhere who supported them.  I 
 would also like, as I introduce him, to recognize John Thompson from IBM, who runs their software 
 business.  John and I have known each other since the second day he took over that responsibility, 
 which was just last January, and I respect him a lot.  He was terrific to work with this week, and I 
 can honestly tell you that I look forward to working with him going forward in this agreement with 
 IBM, and I can also tell you without reservation that we have taken care of our employees, our 
 shareholders, and our customers.  And now, it is time to take care of Microsoft. 

 (Applause) 

 So, when they wake up this morning in the Pacific Northwest, I hope they start asking themselves, 
 "Where do you want to go today?" 

 (Laughter) 

 After last Monday's call, last Monday morning's call from Lou, I realized that no matter what 
 happened, Lotus would never be the same again, and we shouldn't kid ourselves, because it won't.  
 So, now we must get on with this tremendous task, this tremendous opportunity, I believe, of building 
 an even better Lotus. 

 Two years ago, in our annual report, I quoted my favorite poet, TS Eliot, who in a poem series called 
 The Four Quartets coined a phrase, a great phrase called, "In our end is our beginning."  Toward the 
 end of that same poem, The Four Quartets, Eliot expands on that thought, and it is the one I'd like to 
 leave you with as I turn over the podium to Lou, and I'll be back for questions.  At the end of The 
 Four Quartets, TS Eliot writes:
                                 
 "To make an end is to make a beginning.  The end is where we start from."
 
 (Applause) 

New Game: OVERTHROW

  PARAHILL PRODUCTIONS ANNOUNCES "OVERTHROW" GAME 

  Overthrow is an action war game developed exclusively for the OS/2 operating system, in which you 
  control rebel troops seeking to overthrow an evil, tyrannical government.  The game is a 
  multithreaded PM application, and takes full advantage of OS/2's built-in MMPM/2 sound support. 

  Overthrow will be available in two forms:  Shareware and Registered.  The shareware version will be 
  freely available on the Internet, and will contain several demo missions.  The registered version will 
  contain the complete set of missions, as well as a number of customization options for added 
  challenges.  The registered version will only be available directly from Parahill Productions.  The price 
  is not yet determined, but will probably be in the neighborhood of $25-$30 (US).  Overthrow will be 
  released before the end of the summer. 

  Overthrow is an "Action Wargame," which means that it is grounded in wargame-style strategy, but 
  everything happens in "real-time."  There are no turns or long periods in which you can plan out 
  moves, because everything happens before your eyes.  Armies march and fight, and they will not 
  stop if your attention is diverted elsewhere.  You can think of the action in games like Populous or 
  SimCity for an idea of what it is like. 

  At the end of this document are some common questions and answers about the game.  If you have 
  a question that you think might be of general interest, send it to the address listed below. 

  PARAHILL AND OVERTHROW ON THE INTERNET 

  Parahill Pictures can be reached on the Internet in the following ways: 

  E-mail:  bbrown@eecs.wsu.edu WWW Home Page:  http://www.eecs.wsu.edu/~bbrown/overhome.html 

  The home page on the World Wide Web will always contain the latest information about Overthrow.  
  This includes the information in this document, as well as other data as it becomes available.  
  Eventually, you will be able to download screen shots and the shareware version of the game (when 
  it is released) from this site. 

  THE STORY 

  The story is an ancient one, yet we must face it today.  It is a common story, yet each time it 
  happens, it seems extraordinary.  Each time is the same, yet each time is vastly different.  The story 
  is one of politics, of power, and of corruption. 

  Your country has fallen under the rule of an oppressive totalitarian regime.  It started out slowly, 
  political groups professing to know how to cure the ills of society, and that they should be allowed to 
  do it.  Simple and common.  That is the point of politics, after all -- to convince people that you are 
  the one who can govern them best. 

  These groups slowly gained power, their members filling posts and getting elected.  It took many 
  years, and nobody noticed much, until one day they held all of the important positions.  Then, in one 
  swift stroke, they threw away the government in which they had spent years working for their power, 
  and siezed control of the country. 

  With their taxes, they controlled the worldly goods of the citizens.  With their armies, they controlled 
  the behavior of the people.  And with their cunning and intelect, they worked to control the very 
  thoughts of the people.  That is how they rose to power in the first place, and that way how they 
  were going to keep that power. 

  Their leader was named Samuel Filbourg.  He was tall, handsome, and talked with a deep, booming 
  voice that entralled those to whom he spoke.  He wore the face of honestly and sincerity, and of 
  concern.  Perhaps he really thought of himself like that, that he did care for people and was only 
  doing what he thought best for them.  He was arrogant, but he always had an understanding smile 
  ready.  He was manipulative and deceitful, but he always seemed sorry when he destroyed people's 
  hopes, dreams, and sometimes their very lives.  Perhaps he was sorry, but he did it anyway. 

  As Filbourg and his minions tightened their grip on the country, the people grew increasingly restless 
  and unhappy.  Underground groups of dissenters formed, and the country moved to the brink of civil 
  war.  Finally, the strongest group emerged publicly, and ignited the passions of the citizenry.  The 
  move to overthrow the evil rulers and restore peace to the land had begun. 

  It is your job to command the military forces, such as they are, that the rebels have mustered.  It 
  will be a long and painful process, for you will always be out-numbered, out-gunned, and 
  out-classed.  However, you have the strength of righteousness on your side.  The people are with 
  you, and will be your support during the struggle.  You will have to recruit troops, train them, keep 
  them fed, and lead them into battle.  Only when the rulers have been overthrown and freedom 
  restored to the people will your job be complete.  If you fail, one can only imagine what will happen 
  to the people and the country you love so much.  And you can only imagine the worst... 

  COMMON QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS 

       Q:  How much detail is there?  Will I control the individual battles, or just the large-scale troop 
       movements? 

       A:  All of the game takes place on a single scale.  You will control units of troops (armies, for 
       purposes of the game, but they can contain thousands of troops or just half a dozen.)  You 
       have no control over individual battles, other than giving attack or retreat orders.  Being the 
       armchair general that you are, you will see a battle only as two armies clashing on the map.  
       Your concern is overall strategy, not precise control of a few recruits. 

       Q:  What do I do in the game?  Just move troops around and fight?  Or is there other stuff? 

       A:  The idea of the game is to overthrow your government.  Rebellions are not won simply by 
       fighting.  You will have to worry about what Joe Average thinks.  You will have the support of 
       some people, and others may hate you.  You will start off with no real military forces to speak 
       of, and have to recruit troops.  You will have to train your troops, and you will have to keep 
       them fed.  You will have to choose between gorilla tactics and stand-up fights, and sometimes 
       you will have to hide when the enemy gets too close.  In short, there are lots of things to do 
       besides fight. 

       Q:  Will there be a network or modem/serial link version of the game? 

       A:  No.  The game will be released as single-player only. 

       Q:  Can I be a Beta Tester for Overthrow? 

       A:  A small group of Beta testers will be chosen from the people subscribed to the mailing list.  
       To subscribe to the mailing list, send e-mail stating you would like to be added.  A call for beta 
       testers will be announced only on the mailing list, and candidates will be consided only at that 
       time.  Any mail asking to beta test before that time will be ignored. 

       Q:  This sounds like a cool game.  Are you going to make a Windows 95 version? 

       A:  Not in this lifetime. 

                                                                              - Internet Usenet Newsgroups 
                                                                                       comp.os.os2.announce
                                                                        Brian Brown (bbrown@eecs.wsu.edu)
                                                                                               July 16, 1995 

PartionMagic by Power Quest

PartitionMagic is a utilility to resize and move hard drive partitions without destoying data.  It will 
work with an OS/2 HPFS, any FAT or Windows NT HPFS Partitions.  It also will convert a FAT partion to 
an OS/2 HPFS or a Windows NT HPFS partition.  It comes with a DOS and two OS/2 versions.  The 
DOS and one of the OS/2 versions are command line.  The second OS/2 version is a PM application.  

The documentation has a total of 69 pages, a good number.  It starts with an introduction to the 
product and system requirements.  

The second chapter gives a short explanation of Boot Manager, partitions, file systems and 
drive letter assignments.  It covers enough material in five pages for a user to use the software in most 
situations.  It didn't cover my case where I have two drives with a primary on each.  I think with a little 
work I can rearange things and remove the primary partition on the second drive so my drive lettering 
will remain stable if I remove the second drive.

Getting started is the 3rd chapter and explains installation and the user interface.

Using PartitionMagic is the 4th chapter and explains some of the thing that you really need to 
know, like if you resize a boot partition that is registered in the Boot Manager you have to use FDISK to 
remove the partition from Boot Manager then reinstall it.     

The installation was quick and simple (two disks).  I put it on three different partition to allow me 
to resize any partition when booting DOS or OS/2.   

Using the progam takes some thought.  I resized my OS/2 boot partition.  This requires boot 
from another source.  Then running OS/2 fdisk to remove the partition from Boot manager and 
reinstalling into boot manager.  At this point I rebooted from the resized partition.  

I found that in converting FAT partitions to OS/2 HPFS PartitionMagic fails.  When trying to 
access the drive from a command line with a directory command it fails.  The icon view work though.

All in all it does a good job moving and resizing.  My fears are minimal working on my drives.
Converting FAT to HPFS I can't recommend.

Editor's note: Blake tested the FAT to HPFS conversion at my request during
the demonstration at the user group meeting.  Two of our interns had tried multiple times
without success.  Blake's wasn't much better.  Although it appeared to work successfully, the
converted HPFS partition would not allow CHKDSK to run.  Pretty problematic on an HPFS
drive!  In the meantime I have learned that this is a bug in Partition Magic and that a fix
is available on their World Wide Web page.  I don't recall the name of the site (I think it's
WWW.POWERQUEST.COM) but a Webcrawler search on Partition Magic should come up with
the correct URL.

Next month's MMOUG meeting will be held in on Wednesday, August 18, 1995,
4 pm at:

Department of Conservation
Columbia, MO

From Jefferson City:

Highway 63 North to Stadium.  Turn left on Stadium.  At the second stop
light, turn right.  Conservation is immediately to the right.  The presentation
is tentatively planned to be VX-REXX.

MMOUG Registration Form

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   ___ Education  ___ Business   ___ Entertainment ___ OTHER  ________________
_______________________________________________________________________________
Annual membership fee for the Mid Missouri OS/2 Users Group is $30.00 US.  
Purchase Orders are accepted.  Please make your check payable to MMOUG and mail to:
MMOUG, P.O. Box 30654, Columbia, MO.  65205-0645
Thank you for your support.
_______________________________________________________________________________

The Mid-Missouri OS/2 Users Group is a non-profit corporation who's dedicated purpose is to aid and
facilitate the education and communication between individual computer users, different computer 
groups, and the general public.

The Woodmeister BBS is the official Bulletin Board of the MMOUG.  A copy of the Bylaws is
available for downloading from the Woodmeister BBS (314-446-0016).

For assistance with OS/2, call our Voice Mail at 314-636-0805.
