der and Partition Magic, it will also boot up Windows N
T. Both OSes, like Unix and NetWare, recognize the dual processors.
The Doubleshot 133 arrived just too late to be in competition for the Chaos Manor User's Choice Awards. Despite being extremely well packaged in "whoopee cushions," it wouldn't boot; there weren't even power-on self test (POST) code beeps to indicate an error. I called DFI, and we went through the usual troubleshooting exercises like reseating boards and checking the power supply. Since it was working when it left DFI, the inference was transit damage, but there was nothing obvious. DFI was concerned enough to send a technician with a replacement. The replacement worked perfectly, so we turned our attention to the original machine, going through the usual checkups, including swapping the memory chips around.
Then we reseated the Pentium chips. Voila! Either the DFI shipping department had packed the tower-configuration system upside down, or the shipping company hadn't obeyed the This Side Up markings. Each Pent
ium chip had its own chip fan, and the weight was enough to unseat the chips despite the lever-lock of the zero-insertion-force (ZIF) chip socket. The result of this experience is that DFI has changed from chip-mounted fans to a fan that clips on the socket, so you won't have that problem.
Once past that, the Doubleshot 133 worked splendidly. I networked it into the system using IBM OS/2 LAN Server, and that worked. More when I get a PCI-bus network card that has both OS/2 and NT drivers. Then I'll expand the hard drive space. The Doubleshot 133 comes with a Western Digital Caviar 1.5-GB hard drive, and the unique case arrangement makes it easy to install a second drive. As usual in modern systems, there are two IDE outlets on the motherboard; each can support two devices. At the moment, we have the Caviar hard drive and a six-speed CD-ROM drive, so the BIOS will support two more IDE hard drives.
Everything about this system says quality. Start with DFI's unusual and rugged tower case. There's a
spacious main bay in which you can mount peripherals like the CD-ROM drive or full-height 4-GB hard drives. Above the main bay is a small separate compartment that will hold one half-height floppy drive and two Caviar hard drives. This is a very space-economical arrangement, but I have two quibbles. First, if you want to remove the memory, you must unplug the drive cables from the motherboard. Second, the Pentium chips are placed so that it's impossible to use more than one full-length ISA board. PCI boards can be as long as you like, but two of your ISA boards must be short. These are minor difficulties, and you wouldn't have either with a DFI single-processor system.
The power supply is made in Taiwan by DFI. The system runs cool, and despite all the fans is
extremely
quiet. Even with the cover off, it's literally so quiet you don't know it's on.
Most DFI dual-processor systems ship with NT. That system is called the Landmarq P133 VPM Doubleshot. The company sent another Caviar hard
drive with NT installed, and it was simple to substitute it for the Caviar with OS/2. Once I test NT, we will expand the disk space, install the latest version of OS/2 LAN Server, and use the Doubleshot 133 as the Chaos Manor network server. OS/2 is an extremely reliable OS for critical networking missions, and the IBM network-server software is reliable and well designed. It networks well with Windows and Windows 95. Network service is a good test of a system's endurance.
DFI didn't design this as a server, in that it has no RAID hardware. Of course, NT supports RAID in software, but this model is intended to be a cost-effective, high-performance business system for running financial programs, such as programmed trading controllers that need dual-processor power, or a fast CAD or other high-end graphics workstation. I also have physics and business-modeling programs that need the extra computing power of dual Pentiums.
Just now I'm using Win 95, but sometime this year I'll switch to NT, mostly.
Not entirely, because NT won't run Win 95-specific games; on the other hand, NT doesn't have the annoying "hesitations" Win 95 has on even the fastest systems. I
hate
it when I'm typing and the system suddenly won't respond for half a second. When I change, the Doubleshot 133 with NT may become my main writing machine. If quiet, cost-effective high performance is what you need, look at the DFI line. Recommended.
I didn't have the space for all the User's Choice Awards last issue.
A User's Choice Award goes to PhoneDisc PowerFinder '95. Five CD-ROMs include just about every listed phone number in the U.S. Simple to install. Search by name or town or address. Blazingly fast. It's one of the most useful programs I have.
The second belated User's Choice Award goes to Drag and File, a file manager utility for Windows and Win 95 that really works. You can call up a little floating toolbar that stays on your desk with buttons for all drives, including networked drives. The di
splay is better than Explorer. When you drag and drop files, you can specify copy or move, overwrite warning or not. You can specify later files only, useful for updating your laptop for a trip; and you can do operations to several disk drives at once. It works the way File Manager ought to. Recommended.
Sometimes you learn the hard way.
Eric Pobirs, the new Chaos Manor intern, got the job of installing SCSI devices in either SuperCow, the ISA Gateway 2000 486DX2 running Windows for Workgroups (W4WG), or RacingCow, the Gateway P5-133. RacingCow has both PCI and ISA slots, but all the ISA slots are filled.
First, he tried to install an Adaptec ISA SCSI board for a Syquest EZ135 removable-cartridge hard drive on SuperCow. Adaptec SCSI boards always work, so installation should have been simple; but it didn't work. I was busy working on
Starswarm
, my new novel (later this year from Tor), so I didn't see what he'd done. Meanwhile, Eric found our QLogic PCI-bus SCSI board an
d tried installing it on RacingCow. That didn't work either: the system found the board, but the board found no devices. It's odd, because we've never had problems with QLogic boards before.
Alex came over after Eric left. He looked at the cable used on both systems, a SCSI-2 cable with dozens of tiny pins. Two were bent, and they couldn't be straightened. The remedy was simple: tie a knot in it and throw it in the trash. Next day I told Eric: "There was nothing wrong with the boards. Nine times out of 10 with SCSI, the problem is a cable, and a Granite Digital SCSIVue Gold Diagnostic Cable will solve all problems."
With a good cable, the system could see the SCSI devices. Alas, the CD-ROM drive that runs off the Sound Blaster card in SuperCow stopped working, and I was due to go to the beach house. SuperCow goes with me, and, yes, I understand about portables and I don't want to talk about it. We removed the SCSI card. Still no CD-ROM. I took the CD-ROM drive out of SuperCow. It looked all righ
t.
About then, Larry Niven came over for a hike. Larry doesn't like waiting while I work on computers. More to the point, our dog knows that when Larry is here in hiking shoes, it's time to go to the hills, and there's no living with him.
"Just trying to get this CD-ROM drive working," I said. "Nine times out of 10 it's the cable..."
"So you're trying everything else first?" Niven asked.
I cursed, and went to the cable room to find a new flat internal CD-ROM drive cable. Connected it up. Watched the CD-ROM drive work. Walked the dog.
We still have problems. On RacingCow, the QLogic PCI SCSI board with the Granite Digital cable found the devices, but the Syquest EZ135 didn't work. While I got on the Internet through EarthLink Total Access and searched for new Syquest drivers, Eric tried installing the Windows 3.11 drivers on the Win 95 machine. There was a warning that you shouldn't do that; it's right on. Not only doesn't it work, but it left a toolbar that appeared at start-up
and couldn't be removed.
Searching for files with the name "Syquest" did no good. Eventually I searched for all files with "qu" in them and found that LOAD=WSQUTIL.EXE had been inserted in the win.ini file. Remarking it out stopped the loading of the Syquest utility. I tell you this not because Syquest didn't warn us about installing the Windows 3.11 version in Win 95, but because I had forgotten that Win 95
has
a win.ini file that you can manually edit.
We downloaded the new Syquest drivers, and lo!, the drive worked fine. Alas, the PCI SCSI board interferes with the ISA sound board. If they were both PCI-bus boards, the PCI system logic would detect the problem and software-reconfigure one of the boards to resolve the problem. If they were both ISA-bus boards, Win 95 might see the conflict. If this were NT, we'd be required to find and set the interrupt request (IRQ), port addresses, and DMA channels for each board ourselves; no Plug and Play (PnP) for a while.
If you go into
the BIOS and tell the system which IRQ numbers are assigned to ISA, PnP usually works; but it won't in this case, because
all
the IRQs from 0 to 15 are in use. If we want to add a SCSI card--and we do--until there's new engineering to integrate some peripherals, we must disconnect some other device.
There are two possibilities: remove the internal modem and use an external modem on a serial port or disable one of the serial ports. The Gateway P5-133 has a PS/2 mouse. (That's a bit like a bus mouse, but with a different connector, and unlike the bus mouse, it is fixed at IRQ 12.) Anyway, I could spare a serial port to free up an IRQ for the QLogic SCSI board to run the Pioneer DRM-604X six-pack CD-ROM player, a scanner, an optical drive, or the Syquest EZ135.
When IBM added hard drives to the PC, they set the stage for what later became IDE. But IDE supports only two devices per IRQ. SCSI costs more, but you get seven devices per IRQ (15 with Fast-and-Wide SCSI), and it's faster than IDE
. Since we're stuck with only 16 IRQs, it's pretty clear that complex systems with lots of peripherals will need SCSI.
We put the Syquest EZ135--it's very fast for a removable-cartridge hard drive; more when we've used it more--on the AST Bravo running Windows 3.11. It works fine there, provided that we have a good SCSI cable. The moral of this story is simple: when you do a SCSI installation, keep a Granite Digital SCSIVue Gold Diagnostic Cable around--and
use
it.
The niftiest new program I've seen recently
is ASAP WordPower from Software Publishing, the people who brought you Harvard Graphics. Incidentally, if you wonder whatever happened to Stanford Graphics, Software Publishing bought that company and incorporated their best features into Harvard ChartXL; a smart move.
ASAP WordPower is not just "yet another" presentation creation program. The difference is, with ASAP you can get on a plane in Los Angeles with the uninstalled program and a laptop, and by the
time you reach Washington, D.C., have created a professional-looking briefing.
Software Publishing's Maurice Hamoy brought this over to Chaos Manor a few weeks ago. I was impressed by the demonstration. Later, I was faced with a sudden need to create a complex briefing. I found ASAP WordPower in the pile of new stuff and handed it to Eric. "I remember this was pretty nifty," I said. "See what you can make of it."
He sat down at SuperCow while I got to work on my novel. I heard mutterings. Then, about 10 minutes later: "Now I get it." Half an hour later, he had created a complicated presentation on how to skin a cat. It included methods, philosophical implications, the impact of cat-skinning experience on career advancement--and despite the silliness of the subject, it was a good-looking presentation.
ASAP WordPower offers a wide variety of presentation formats, such as Pro & Con, Pyramid, Agenda, standard bullet chart, and Flow Table. There are many style choices--choose a style, and all
the charts will look that way. You can change styles and templates in a flash, so it's easy to experiment. There are print options, including making handout sets. All this is so easy that you'll have to play with the program to appreciate how it changes the way you think about presentations. If you make presentations, you need ASAP WordPower. Highly recommended.
I've just spent two days experimenting with PC Cards
(nee PCMCIA cards) and portables. Actually, I was trying to get SpaceCalf, the Gateway 2000 Liberty subnotebook, working again. One feature of the Liberty is a removable hard drive, which isn't as good an idea as it sounds. When carrying SpaceCalf--the name comes from the wallpaper of a cow on the moon--I've more than once activated the catch that holds the hard drive in place. This can corrupt files.
Also, I used to keep two PC Cards in place, a Xircom Performance Series CreditCard Ethernet Adapter IIps and a Megahertz 28.8 PC Card Data/Fax Modem with XJack. That's a
mistake: the two cards generate heat, and I don't use the Ethernet card on the road. For a year there was no problem, but recently I added 16 MB of memory--it's very easy to do with the Liberty.
I don't know if the memory plus two cards caused a heat problem, or if the hard drive got slightly displaced despite the duct tape over the catch, but suddenly SpaceCalf wouldn't network. If I tried to access a networked disk through File Manager, the computer would reboot.
The network was working in DOS. If I booted up and ran C:\windows\net start, I could do the command NET VIEW, log on, and send files. I couldn't add new connections, but I could send to those previously mapped in W4WG. I sent everything over the network to an optical disk, rebooted, and reformatted the portable's hard disk.
Even then it was flaky, so I used FDISK to completely remove the disk partition and started over. That did it. It took a few minutes to reinstall W4WG and then all the special software--power management, scr
een resolutions, PC Card configuration, the SpaceCalf wallpaper--but once that was done, it worked like a charm.
At this point, I must have taken leave of my senses. I have a dozen PC Cards. Some are Ethernet, some are 28.8-Kbps modems, and a few combine both. I decided to do some testing.
While it's only annoyingly difficult to install one card, it's a bright royal pain to do a bunch of them. Modems are bad enough. Your PC Card services' fatware will set the slot to expect certain values for addresses and IRQs. Your communications software expects your serial ports to have certain addresses and IRQs. When you load W4WG, the SYS.INI file can and often does reconfigure the port address and IRQ--and every blasted setup program thinks it has to put port configuration statements in SYS.INI.
Some of them look for previous statements and remark them out. Others just blandly put in their own values, leaving contradictory values as well. Some, if you run them twice, will detect their own previous
statements as a conflict and install yet another set of values. It's entirely possible for a communications program and modem card to work in DOS and fail in Windows. Then there's nothing for it but to hand-edit your SYS.INI file, making sure that Windows sets the serial port to what your software expects and your PC Card is set for.
Finding those settings depends on your software. Procomm Plus tells you what it expects and offers ways to change the expected port IRQ and address. Some PC Card modem packages come with diagnostics programs that show current settings for modems and card slots. The Gateway card management software has a program to configure the slots.
My only advice is to keep fooling around. Eventually, you'll know what values you need, and you can put them in SYS.INI. They'll look like COM1Irq=4 and COM1Base=03F8. Once you have inserted them, be sure to eliminate contradictory statements.
In the Liberty, the PC Card slots are COM3 and COM4, IRQ 4 and 3, respectively; they
share IRQs but not addresses with COM1 and COM2. This arrangement goes back to the IBM PC and is the cause of many of our installation problems. You must have an IRQ
per COM port
, but IBM defined only two IRQs, so everyone defines the other two differently. The moral of the story is, if you change PC Cards, you probably have to uninstall its software. The bad news is that most of them don't come with uninstallation programs.
I had little joy with combination cards. If the Xircom card worked, the Megahertz card generally wouldn't install easily. I would have tried harder, but most of those cards put out more heat than I want inside my portable. Some get too hot to handle.
I won't go through all the cards I rejected. The ones I've chosen to use are a 3Com EtherLink III LAN+Modem PC Card. This has a modem built in, but I don't like it. I'm not fond of the connector plug they use, and while with some difficulty I got the computer to recognize the modem, it wasn't reliable on my noisy phone
lines. The Ethernet link, on the other hand, works splendidly. The card heats to about 96F after a few hours of use; it hasn't been a problem. In hotter weather it might be, but the 3Com is the coolest of the Ethernet cards I have.
I use the Megahertz 28.8 PC Card Data/Fax Modem with XJack. It runs about as warm as the 3Com EtherLink card; together, the two would generate more heat than I want, but I don't simultaneously run Ethernet and a modem on my portable. It's easy enough to swap cards. This is one of the few reasons for running the "hot plug" fatware for PC Cards. If you're not going to change cards often, chuck those stupid "card service" drivers and go with card-specific drivers that are much smaller and faster.
The Megahertz 28.8 Data/Fax Modem PC Card installs easily and comes with neat diagnostic software. The XJack connector lets you plug a standard phone line into the modem card, so you can't lose the connecting cable. Recommended.
Xircom also makes a combination Ethernet/mo
dem card, but, alas, that was one of those I rejected for excessive heat. Their straight Ethernet card--the Performance Series CreditCard Ethernet Adapter IIps--on the other hand, installs easily, works well, and runs cool; the only reason I'm not using it is that I tested the 3Com card after the Xircom card.
And if you
really
want reliable communications on the road, carry a Supra or U.S. Robotics external modem in your checked luggage.
I recently discovered a "feature" of Win 95.
In My Computer and Explorer, there's a View menu item. In it is an item called Options, and in that is another View. In that second View, you can choose to display all files or exclude those with certain extensions like DLL. If you haven't selected View All Files, the FIND command on the toolbar will also ignore those excluded files. You will never see them unless you search with Norton Commander or some other DOS file manager that doesn't know this silly trick. Note that the default is to ex
clude several kinds of files. That's stupid.
LapLink for Windows 95 works:
I recently ran it on a portable connected to the Ethernet at 28.8 Kbps (more or less) through Netcom. I used it to control Pentafluge connected on a separate modem and 28.8-Kbps phone line to Ethernet through EarthLink. Editing a big Word document that way isn't much fun, but you can do it; provided you're patient, you can make the home machine do almost anything you could do if you were seated at it.
There's also a chat mode and a kind of E-mail you can use with your Win 95 network. More on this another time, but it does work, and if you haven't upgraded your LapLink in a while, it's time to do it again. LapLink for Windows 95 is good.
The
book of the month
is a magazine
:
The World and I
, edited by my friend Morton Kaplan. It used to be about $100 a year. Now it's a bargain at $90 for three years. It has more content than you may read, but what y
ou do read will be worth the price. It covers arts, science, literature, poetry, education, culture, and once in a while has an article by me (
The World and I
, Washington, D.C., (800) 822-2822 or (202) 636-1628; fax (202) 526-3497).
The shameless
plug of the month
is
Janissaries
by Jerry Pournelle, recently reissued by Baen Books.
Two real
books of the month:
Plug-N-Play Netscape for Windows
by Angela Gunn and Joe Kraynak (Sam's, ISBN 1-57521-010-x), a painless way to learn Netscape and get connected through EarthLink Total Access. EarthLink Network is the Internet service provider (ISP) I presently recommend, and their Total Access software, which comes on disk with the book, is what I use.
The
other
book of the month
is
Politics on the Net
by Bill Mann (Que, ISBN 0-7897-0286-x). It's astonishing just how much political information (as well as polemic) there is on the Net, a
nd this is a good survey.
When I was at the Hackers' Conference last fall, I saw radio-controlled electric trains with computer-controlled operations. You can also simulate model railroads on your computer. Real train fanatics will love Train Engineers/Design Your Own Railroad, both on The Train Pak CD-ROM by Abracadata. You can design as complicated a layout as you like, then sit in the cab as you drive trains on the layouts you've built. For train nuts only, but for those it's a must.
Two
games this month
:
a repeat of MicroProse Software's
This Means War
. I'd be ashamed to say how much time I spent on that. The other is
Warhammer: Shadow of the Horned Rat
from Mindscape. It's a medieval fantasy role-playing game that's pretty good for that genre.
Next month, the Intergraph TDZ-400, new graphics and financial suites, and a report on political developments in science policy.
PRODUCT INFORMATION
ASAP WordPower
($99), Software Publishing Corp., San Jose, CA, (800) 336-8360 or (408) 537-3000, fax (408) 537-3500,
http://www.spco.com
.
Of Cables and Cards
