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Subject:   No. 67
Message-ID: <200105240100.000029G6atmail.>

Date:- 24 May 2001

1================================================

From: "John Angelico" <talldadatkepl dot com dot au>
Date: Wed, 23 May 2001 00:00:30 +0900 (EST)
Subject: [os2genau] OS/2 SIG report for May 2001

Hello, Gary.

I hope this is the fastest report to emerge from a meeting in
MelbPC history!

Meeting closed 8:30pm, and after repairing to an eatery, I still
wrote the report by 11:30pm same day! 


OS/2 SIG Meeting Report for May 2001
by John Angelico 9544 8792 (with copy to the SIG members)

Our May meeting got off to a slow start but by the end 20 members
had gathered.

Latest Headlines
We began with the excellent, revised, news that eComStation
development progress slowed in May to ferret out some important
last-minute bugs, but final code is likely to be committed to
manufacturing within about a week of the meeting date (which was
the same as we said last month). Allowing for production and
distribution time, this means that the new OS should be generally
available in early to mid-June.

With that, we announced a special eCS Install Fest scheduled for
Saturday June 16th. Full details will be emailed to SIG members via
the mailing list.

Problem-solving Q&A
Question raised in the meeting: what would people recommend
regarding purchase of a new motherboard? Many and varied answers
were available, according to requirements. The requestor went away
with much to ponder.

Device Driver Updates
There has been a recent and most welcome resurgence of OS/2
development, spurred on by the progress with eCS. In addition to
the independent software developers working on applications and
utilities, device drivers are still under development. This week
saw new drivers for parallel port Zip drives (both 100Mb and 250Mb
models), infra-red ports (including a project to recognise and
respond to standard remote-control devices), and the latest
PRINT01.SYS available from IBM.

Make A Note of IT!
Following on from last month's meeting, we had prepared another
Lotus Notes session. After a break, Ian Manners (ISP for the OS/2
SIG mailing list and Australian OS/2 web site portal) set up one of
his machines with the Lotus Notes full server, also known as
Domino, already installed. Lacking our guest presenter and SIG
member Antony Shepherd, we tried to demonstrate more of the Notes
applications available. Various users of Notes were represented
among our members and there was spirited discussion on the
features, operation and power of Notes.

We closed the meeting (having completely avoided mention of the
Federal Budget) with thanks to Ian, and discussion continued at the
eatery.


Best regards
John Angelico
OS/2 SIG
talldadatmelbpc dot org dot au or talldadatkepl dot com dot au
--------------------------------------------


PMTagline v1.50 - Copyright, 1996-1997, Stephen Berg and John Angelico
.... "... It works! Now, if only I could remember what I did." 

2================================================

From: "Ian Manners" <deadmail>
Date: Wed, 23 May 2001 01:44:01 +1000 (EST)
Subject: [os2genau] Australian OS/2 Site scores big in Germany.

Germany is definitly a large user of OS/2 software, and/or
downloads.

http://www.os2site dot com/  has 18.49% of its downloads from Germany !
Daily average downloads from Germany since 1/1/2001 is 34.7Mb
German hosts served 1142
92 requests average daily    
264 pages serverd daily

Australia, hmmm, 3.67 % of total downloads, the rest of
the stats match to.
. dot com's = 17.23%
. dot net's = 24.9%
The rest are made up of just about every country you can think of.

So I cant help wondering if I need to do some more
work on the site, or we just have a much smaller population
of OS/2 users, I'll accept the the smaller population ;-)


Cheers
Ian B Manners

3================================================

Date: Wed, 23 May 2001 08:28:10 +1000
From: Daryl Pilkington <u3232athome.dialix dot com>
Subject: Re: [os2genau] Australian OS/2 Site scores big in Germany.

Hi Ian,
Great stats, shows os2site dot com has got stuff to offer the world?
I'd agree with the smaller population thingy, though.

Ian Manners wrote:
> 
> Germany is definitly a large user of OS/2 software, and/or
> downloads.
> 
> http://www.os2site dot com/  has 18.49% of its downloads from Germany !
> Daily average downloads from Germany since 1/1/2001 is 34.7Mb
> German hosts served 1142
> 92 requests average daily
> 264 pages serverd daily
> 
> Australia, hmmm, 3.67 % of total downloads, the rest of
> the stats match to.
>  dot com's = 17.23%
>  dot net's = 24.9%
> The rest are made up of just about every country you can think of.
> 
> So I cant help wondering if I need to do some more
> work on the site, or we just have a much smaller population
> of OS/2 users, I'll accept the the smaller population ;-)
> 
> Cheers
> Ian B Manners
> 
-- 
Regards, 

Daryl  Pilkington 

//// The PC-Therapist, Business Computing Integration
O<O  AUSTRALIA
\_/
<O>  OS/2 Warp, Redhat Linux, DB2
     IBM Certified Systems Expert

        email: darylpatpc-therapist dot com dot au
          ICQ: 91914134
          Tel: +61-2-8902-1300
          Mob: +61-425-251-300
          Fax: +61-2-9411-3720
      Mob SMS: 0425251300.0000atorangenet dot com dot au
               (120 characters max, send no carriage returns)

4================================================

From: "John Angelico" <talldadatkepl dot com dot au>
Date: Wed, 23 May 2001 10:53:11 +0900 (EST)
Subject: [os2genau] eCS Install FEST June 16th in Melbourne

Hi everybody in the Melbourne PC User Group!

Mark Rogers of Orion Solutions emailed me as follows:

>OK, now that we have some firm commitments from the US, and assuming I get the
>GA code within the next 14 days how about we do the following:-
>
>Install Fest on Saturday the 16th June. Time: 10:00AM to 6:00PM.
>
>Walkthroughs of install to happen every hour on the hour.
>
>Participants who have ordered eCS need to contact you and you are to forward
>thier names to me so that I can bring down their copies.
>
>I will also bring down some other copies for those who would like to purchase
>after seeing successfull installs on other machines.
>
>This will all be on the proviso that the event can be cancelled upon
>notification to yourself by the 10th June just incase we don't recieve the GA
>code or production hasn't occured.
>

Yes, you read that correctly.

Bring your machine on Saturday 16th June to have Mark Rogers
install it for you. Don't worry about your printer, but it would be
a 
good idea to know your printer details for the install.

All those who have already booked and paid for a copy of eCS please
email me so I can advise Mark before he comes. He will ensure that
he accounts correctly for delivering your copy of eCS to you on the
day.

All those who have not ordered eCS as yet, make sure you bring some
evidence of your existing license, and you too can obtain a copy of
the eCS upgrade ON THE SPOT!! 

As Mark said above, we will make sure that we avoid any last-minute
hiccups but please watch your emails carefully after June 10th, in
case we have to cancel or reschedule the Install Fest.

Looking forward to renaming ourselves the eCS-OS/2 (pronounced
ex-OS/2!<g>) SIG.


Best regards
John Angelico
OS/2 SIG
talldadatmelbpc dot org dot au or talldadatkepl dot com dot au
--------------------------------------------

PMTagline v1.50 - Copyright, 1996-1997, Stephen Berg and John Angelico
.... Yes Mr Gates, I'd like to help you out ... which way did you come in?

5================================================

From: mfarnhamatdingoblue dot net dot au
Date: Wed, 23 May 2001 12:05:21 +1100
Subject: Re: [os2genau] Australian OS/2 Site scores big in Germany.

In <200105230143.00002BBGatmail.>, on 05/23/01 
   at 01:44 AM, "Ian Manners" <deadmail> said:

>Germany is definitly a large user of OS/2 software, and/or
>downloads.

From my understanding, Germany is one of the biggest coporate users of
OS/2 outside of America. Could be something to do with the German love of
fine engineering ;_)

>So I cant help wondering if I need to do some more
>work on the site, or we just have a much smaller population
>of OS/2 users, I'll accept the the smaller population ;-)

Do we actually have any idea of who Australian OS/2 users are, where they
use it and why (alright 'why' will just get us into a lot of subjective
arguments)? Would the creation of a census/poll be a good idea?

Personally having no idea if there is another OS/2 user within shouting
distance of me sometimes makes me question the strength of my original
decison to use OS/2.


>Cheers
>Ian B Manners

Mark

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
mfarnhamatdingoblue dot net dot au
Wednesday, May 23, 2001 - 12:05 PM
-----------
"Lord, Grant me the serenity to accept the things that I cannot change,
the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to hide the bodies
of the people I had to kill because they pissed me off." -----------
Mark Farnham
Mackay, Queensland, Australia.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

6================================================

From: "Dr Graham Norton FRACP Neurologist" <gnatsmart-road dot com dot au>
Date: Wed, 23 May 2001 13:21:05 +1100 (EDT)
Subject: [os2genau] Swap size

An old chestnut but I would value revisting this subject with respect the swapper.dat  
file

1	the swap file should be about 1024 x RAM on your machine..    true  or false

2	the swap file is best on its own partition .... true of false




Graham Norton
President
OS2 Users Group SA

7================================================

From: "List Admin" <deadmail>
Date: Wed, 23 May 2001 03:33:33 +1000 (EST)
Subject: [os2genau] Reminder - OS/2UGSA Meeting

We would like to remind you of this upcoming event.

The OS/2 Users Group of South Australia Meeting

Date:  Tuesday, May 29, 2001 
Time:  7:30PM - 9:30PM 
Place: ARPA, 84 Archer St, North Adelaide
           South Australia.

The Monthly Meeting of The OS/2 Users Group of South Australia.
Normally held on the last Tuesday of each month.

8================================================

From: mfarnhamatdingoblue dot net dot au
Date: Wed, 23 May 2001 16:19:11 +1100
Subject: Re: [os2genau] Swap size

In <200105230354.f4N3sHh55398atpluto.senet dot com dot au>, on 05/23/01 
   at 01:21 PM, "Dr Graham Norton FRACP Neurologist"
<gnatsmart-road dot com dot au> said:

>An old chestnut but I would value revisting this subject with respect the
>swapper.dat   file

>1	the swap file should be about 1024 x RAM on your machine..    true  or
>false

New one to me. Currently using 128mb swap with 81mb ram.

>2	the swap file is best on its own partition .... true of false

True. Always been told "least accessed partition on the most accessed
drive" so I have mine on a 510mb partition as the last partition on my
first drive which also has my System, Internet programs and Application
partitions.

Hope this helpful.

>Graham Norton
>President
>OS2 Users Group SA

Mark

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
mfarnhamatdingoblue dot net dot au
Wednesday, May 23, 2001 - 04:19 PM
-----------
"Lord, Grant me the serenity to accept the things that I cannot change,
the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to hide the bodies
of the people I had to kill because they pissed me off." -----------
Mark Farnham
Mackay, Queensland, Australia.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

9================================================

From: "Ian Manners" <deadmail>
Date: Wed, 23 May 2001 16:43:38 +1000 (EST)
Subject: Re: [os2genau] Swap size

Hi Graham

>>1	the swap file should be about 1024 x RAM on your machine..    true  or
>>false

Sort of false. One of the many general rules I've seen floating
around goes like this.

What ever size your swap file grows to during normal usage,
multiply by 2, and make that the default starting size in config.sys.

Theres a way to check your swap file size, and its usage after
a while, I've forgotten what it is, I know SysInfo and other
utilities can probably do the same thing as well.

Personally, its a try it and see thing, ie, I dont use a swap file at
all, as I have more that adaquate RAM.

>>2	the swap file is best on its own partition .... true of false

True, the main reason you want it on its own partition (if you have room),
is so the swap file is always contigues. Most people also say to put
the partition on your most used HD, though I've found it benificial
to give it its own small HD, it is a bit excessive.

The most used HD is normally the newest, and therefore the
fastest, also saves changing IDE lines when swapping, which on
earlier IDE buses can cause an initial delay before reading/writing
to another, seperate HD.


Cheers
Ian B Manners

10================================================

From: "Bob Ogden" <bobatcontact.omen dot com dot au>
Date: Wed, 23 May 2001 15:04:56 +0900
Subject: Re: [os2genau] Swap size

In <200105230626.f4N6QQT08213atmail007.syd.optusnet dot com dot au>, on 23/May/2001

   at 04:19 PM,(+1100 GMT)
mfarnhamatdingoblue dot net dot au said:


>True. Always been told "least accessed partition on the most accessed
>drive" so I have mine on a 510mb partition as the last partition on my
>first drive which also has my System, Internet programs and Application
>partitions.

Erm... I'd always thought that it was the opposite to that. The Most used
partition on the least used drive... Most used partition so that the heads
have a good chance to be close to where they may need to read/write and
least used drive so that you are not having to compete with other I/O
wanting access to the drive.

As to swap size... I use a 20MB swap on both boxes here but with 96 / 128
MB RAM its overkill and usage is only ~2mb on each.

-- 
/-- Bob Ogden  bobatcontact.omen dot com dot au --------------/
/  ---... -....- -.--.-                   Finger  for PGP key -----/
Only 31544584967 seconds till the _next_ millennium! 

11================================================

From: "Ian Manners" <deadmail>
Date: Wed, 23 May 2001 17:58:05 +1000 (EST)
Subject: Re: [os2genau] Swap size

PS

>The most used HD is normally the newest, and therefore the
>fastest, also saves changing IDE lines when swapping, which on
>earlier IDE buses can cause an initial delay before reading/writing
>to another, seperate HD.

Eleborating a bit, as I've just reread that and realised that I dont
even understand it myself ;-)

With modern IDE's, this is really nolonger relavent, so what
Bob has mentioned, is correct. Least used HD, most used Partition,
so that it keeps its heads closer to the swap file location. Or, as I
said before, go to the extreme and give it its own HD, but not
one of those older clunkers, as it defeats its purpose - speed.


Cheers
Ian B Manners

12================================================

From: "Ian Manners" <deadmail>
Date: Wed, 23 May 2001 18:13:58 +1000 (EST)
Subject: Re: [os2genau] Australian OS/2 Site scores big in Germany.

Hi Mark

>From my understanding, Germany is one of the biggest coporate users of
>OS/2 outside of America. Could be something to do with the German love of
>fine engineering ;_)

True, especially the engineering bit.

>Do we actually have any idea of who Australian OS/2 users are, where they
>use it and why (alright 'why' will just get us into a lot of subjective
>arguments)? Would the creation of a census/poll be a good idea?

I can tell what ISP they are using due to reverse lookups in the stats,
I'm not really interested though, the creation of a census/poll isnt
of much use, well, not to me anyway.

I think its just that Australia does have a low OS/2 using population
per head, MicroSoft are proud of the MS penetration in the
Australian Market, nothing like being shafted is there....

Mind you, I'm always open to surgestions and ideas for the site :-)

>Personally having no idea if there is another OS/2 user within shouting
>distance of me sometimes makes me question the strength of my original
>decison to use OS/2.

I felt a bit like that in Kalgoorlie, put then I have a reputation
for not getting caught up in the rat race. ie, I used a DEC
Rainbow 100 long past its use by date, for WP and database,
still using it in around 1995, and now I've managed to get
another two to replace the ones I lost. 

Cheers
Ian B Manners

13================================================

From: mfarnhamatdingoblue dot net dot au
Date: Wed, 23 May 2001 18:16:19 +1100
Subject: Re: [os2genau] Swap size

In <200105231517.0221723.6atcontact.omen dot com dot au>, on 05/23/01 
   at 03:04 PM, "Bob Ogden" <bobatcontact.omen dot com dot au> said:


>In <200105230626.f4N6QQT08213atmail007.syd.optusnet dot com dot au>, on
>23/May/2001

>   at 04:19 PM,(+1100 GMT)
>mfarnhamatdingoblue dot net dot au said:


>>True. Always been told "least accessed partition on the most accessed
>>drive" so I have mine on a 510mb partition as the last partition on my
>>first drive which also has my System, Internet programs and Application
>>partitions.

Opps! Isn't sad when the memory starts to go :-) That will teach me not to
go back over past emails from when I asked this question.

Mark

>Erm... I'd always thought that it was the opposite to that. The Most used
>partition on the least used drive... Most used partition so that the
>heads have a good chance to be close to where they may need to read/write
>and least used drive so that you are not having to compete with other I/O
>wanting access to the drive.

>As to swap size... I use a 20MB swap on both boxes here but with 96 / 128
>MB RAM its overkill and usage is only ~2mb on each.



----------------------------------------------------------------------------
mfarnhamatdingoblue dot net dot au
Wednesday, May 23, 2001 - 06:16 PM
-----------
"Lord, Grant me the serenity to accept the things that I cannot change,
the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to hide the bodies
of the people I had to kill because they pissed me off." -----------
Mark Farnham
Mackay, Queensland, Australia.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

14================================================

Date: Wed, 23 May 2001 17:51:15 +0830
From: Leigh Bunting <vh_gdnatinternode.on dot net>
Subject: Re: [os2genau] Reminder - OS/2UGSA Meeting

Ian Manners wrote:

> Is the meeting suppost to be next week ?
> If anyone in SA can let me know and I'll update the records.

Hi Andrew and Ian,

Oops, didn't notice the date in your "cron job", but, yes, our meeting is always the last
Tuesday of the month, so sometimes is 4 weeks between and sometimes 5 weeks.

Sorry about that.
--
Leigh Bunting
Secretary
OS/2UGSA

15================================================

Date: Wed, 23 May 2001 08:20:17 +0200
From: Kris Steenhaut <kris.steenhautathccnet.nl>
Subject: Re: [os2genau] Swap size

Dr Graham Norton FRACP Neurologist schreef:

> An old chestnut but I would value revisting this subject with respect the swapper.dat
> file
>
> 1       the swap file should be about 1024 x RAM on your machine..    true  or false
>
> 2       the swap file is best on its own partition .... true of false
>

The best option is no swapper.dat:

MEMMAN=NoSWAP,PROTECT


Memory is cheap these days. Do take advantage of the low prices.



--
Groeten uit Gent,

   Kris

16================================================

From: "Dr Graham Norton FRACP Neurologist" <gnatsmart-road dot com dot au>
Date: Wed, 23 May 2001 20:10:09 +1100 (EDT)
Subject: Re: [os2genau] Swap size

Given that most of us have only 1 hard drive...

my usual practice

130 Meg RAM
12G hD

so

Operating system  	Primary partition: 	drive c   
Maintenance 		Logical partition		drive d
applications and data	Logical partition		drive e
Swap file		Logical partition		drive f  (swapper.dat file 120meg)

at work 	 I am running  concurrently...


Voice Type Dication
Speech Advantage Medical for OS2
Describe
Faxworks Pro
Internet/ email/ browser
DBExpert data base

comments on set up and swap file?  Should the swap file be on my E Drive?


Graham Norton
President
OS2 Users Group SA

17================================================

From: "Ian Manners" <deadmail>
Date: Wed, 23 May 2001 21:47:43 +1000 (EST)
Subject: Re: [os2genau] Swap size

Hi Graham

>Given that most of us have only 1 hard drive...
>my usual practice
>130 Meg RAM
>12G hD
>so

>Operating system  	Primary partition: 	drive c   
>Maintenance 		Logical partition		drive d
>applications and data	Logical partition		drive e
>Swap file		Logical partition		drive f  (swapper.dat file 120meg)

I would put the swap file on a partition between c & e, though
on modern HD's, I think I'd leave it were it is, modern seek times
are very impressive.

>at work 	 I am running  concurrently...

>Voice Type Dication
>Speech Advantage Medical for OS2

Now this I'm interested in, is it still available ?
I dont think I've met one Neurologist that doesnt use either
speech software, or an Apple Newton with everthing plugged
into it, Neurologist's seem to always be able to do the things
with technology that were ment to be done.

>comments on set up and swap file?  Should the swap file be on my E Drive?

Swap file would be better on E, even better between your system disk,
and your apps disk. ie, D drive, that way if you are using the swapper
file, the HD heads are centrally positioned between your C and E
drives.

Cheers
Ian B Manners

18================================================

From: "John Angelico" <talldadatkepl dot com dot au>
Date: Wed, 23 May 2001 20:59:39 +0900 (EST)
Subject: Re: [os2genau] Device Drivers reported in Melbourne OS/2 SIG report May 2001

In the Melbourne PC SIG report I said:
 
>>Device Driver Updates
>>There has been a recent and most welcome resurgence of OS/2
>>development, spurred on by the progress with eCS. In addition to
>>the independent software developers working on applications and
>>utilities, device drivers are still under development. This week
>>saw new drivers for parallel port Zip drives (both 100Mb and 250Mb
>>models), infra-red ports (including a project to recognise and
>>respond to standard remote-control devices), and the latest
>>PRINT01.SYS available from IBM.

Having opened up some packed files I can now tell you that 

a) PRINT01.SYS is a Mar 16, 2001 driver (already built for (E)ISA
devices) which now supports PCI connected printers, allows for
shared interrupts and offers a modified polling mode to reduce CPU
load. 

However, it warns us Luddutes with old dot matrix printers (which
use interrupts in a particular way described in the Read.Me) that
they could be dangerous and cannot handle Shared
mode.
http://service5.boulder.ibm dot com/2bcprod.nsf/Driver+Profile+Web/PRINT
01.EXE?OpenDocument

b) Parallel Port Zip Driver v1.02 May 14th 2001
supports daisy-chaining of multiple devices, multiple port
connections, 250Mb capacity, HPFS formatting and SAFE software
media ejection of media

http://service5.boulder.ibm dot com/2bcprod.nsf/Driver+Profile+Web/ppzip
..EXE?OpenDocument


If you can make use of them, go for it!



Best regards
John Angelico
OS/2 SIG
talldadatmelbpc dot org dot au or talldadatkepl dot com dot au
--------------------------------------------

PMTagline v1.50 - Copyright, 1996-1997, Stephen Berg and John Angelico
.... Even my mouse pad supports OS/2!

19================================================

From: "John Angelico" <talldadatkepl dot com dot au>
Date: Wed, 23 May 2001 23:11:14 +0900 (EST)
Subject: [os2genau] APC Magazine June 2001 and other software released

Blue cover with "XP" splashed all over it.

Software Explosion CD case contains no OS/2 commentary but some
interesting shareware files.

I found the most interesting was the File Browser utility - fast,
looks like Netscape, supports NS plug-ins, has a WarpCenter
replacement (which works more like the WinTaskBar<sigh>, respects
default associations set up in WPS etc.  

Mixomat200 may interest the sound buffs.

CleanINI .54 is another INI file maintenance tool

And separately I have a copy of E.EXE which doesn't throw in a
Ctrl-Z character (DOS hangover) at the end of a text file. 

If you are interested in this patched version of E, you can find it
at:
  http://home.clara dot net/orac/os2.htm
(thanks to Voytek E etc on the OS/2 ISP list for this)





Best regards
John Angelico
OS/2 SIG
talldadatmelbpc dot org dot au or talldadatkepl dot com dot au
--------------------------------------------

PMTagline v1.50 - Copyright, 1996-1997, Stephen Berg and John Angelico
.... Experience is knowing a lot of things you shouldn't do.

END================================================
