Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!dino!sharkey!mailrus!uflorida!ufqtp!sutherla
From: sutherla@qtp.ufl.edu (scott sutherland)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Voice Mail on Amiga
Message-ID: <688@orange6.qtp.ufl.edu>
Date: 27 Sep 89 14:46:37 GMT
Reply-To: sutherla@orange6 (scott sutherland)
Distribution: na
Organization: University of Florida Quantum Theory Project
Lines: 101





Pete Ashdown submitted an article concerning the use of voice mail on
tha Amy, similar to that on the NEXT computer. He states that the 
NEXT uses 8-bit sampling at 20 kHz. Well, there was a NEXT rep here 
at UF during a computer EXPO and he demonstrated the voice-mail
attachment to a standard UNIX electronic mail system. It was very
nice, and the sampling rate was only 8 kHz. I do not know if it was
8-bit, but they simply had a small clip-on microphone plugged
directly into the back of the NEXT. You enter the mail window, ask
for a voice mail attachment, talk into the microphone, end the input,
and viola, an icon appears on the mail message indicating a voice
attachment. HOWEVER, ONLY another NEXT machine can USE this attachment.
Any other UNIX machine will get only garbage. The rep did not seemed
concerned when I mentioned that, as Pete noted, the size of the mail
message will be increased a great deal by this. 
	
	The speed of the NEXT is DISAPPOINTING!! Let me explain. They
are using a 68030 chip, a 68882 math chip, a custom DSP, a fast hard
disk, a huge optical disk, etc.. BUT the response time for moving
windows, calling up applications, updating the screen, etc. is NO 
faster than our own Amiga, with a mere 68000, no math chip, and our
less powerful foursome (Gary, Denise, Paula, ObeseAgnes). I expected
to see sparks fly, but it only fizzled. Yes, the NEXT is a fantastic
machine, but... The major things the rep emphasized were a direct
result of the optical disk technology. A full dictionary, with pictures
and everything; a full thesaurus, etc. They showed the multitasking
of the NEXT, and I was surprised at the slow down in the output to the
windows that had moving demos (like out boxes, lines, etc.). With the
powerful hardware in the machine, I did not expect this. Also, I am
inclined to think that the NEXT people have fallen into the trap that
many machines have, for instance the SUN. I am using a 3/50 with a 
file server as my storage device. But the desktop publishing package
I am using is HUGE!! You NEED the 4 Meg just to run it. This is a 
waste. We have software on the Amy that is just as powerful, and it
runs on 1/2 Meg, with room to spare!! The NEXT people are the same.
They have this large storage medium, and the default memory config.
is, I think, 4 Meg. So they do not care if their code is compact. 
They have so much memory and storage that they could care less if the
program is much larger and more cumbersome than need be.

	I also noticed that the NEXT people are deceiving many people
about the unique features of their machine. The rep here was going
on and on about how the NEXT is the ONLY machine that can launch a
program from another program or file. He showed that by clicking on
an icon of a document created in their DTP that, if the DTP was not
currently running, the ICON would start it and the document could be
read. WE have been doing stuff similar to this for years on the amy. 
If I double click on an Anim icon on a fish disk, it loads and runs
ShowAnim with itself as the input file. This guy from NEXT was pleased
at the crowd response. I gather that none of them had seen the Amy 
either. Unfortunately, the local Amiga dealer was only given a small
booth, and he chose to display his HP stuff instead. TYPICAL! 

	Don't get me wrong. The NEXT is a fantastic machine. I especially
loved the little feature of nested directories. What I mean is, on the
Amiga, if you click on a drawer icon, you see the icons of every program
in that drawer (if it has an icon). If one of these is a drawer, you can
click on it and get another pictorial listing of its contents. So you
have a NESTED display of:  

A contains B,C,D,E, and E contains F,G,H...

Well, the Next has a similar thing from its "DOS" interface. If you 
do a dir, you get the listing of that directory. If you click on an
entry in that listing that is a directory, you will get a nested 
listing of that subdirectory. So you can see them simultaneously.


 |-----------|
 | Main Dir  |----------|
 | A         | Dir of B |----------|
 | B         | D        | Dir of D |   
 | C         | E        | G        |
 |-----------| F        | H        |
             |----------| I        |
                        |----------|    etc...


You can also click on any of the entries that are executables and run
them from the listing directly. 

	So the NEXT is a nice machine. I do not think it is a major a
step in the evolution of PC's as it is being made out to be. And, as
I previously stated, its performance does not live up to MY 
expectations, given the hardware involved. BUT I WOULD GIVE MY RIGHT
ARM TO HAVE ONE OF THOSE FLOPTICAL DISKS ON MY AMY!!! ;^)))


PLEASE NOTE THAT THESE ARE MY OWN OPINIONS AND OBSERVATIONS. I TAKE
FULL RESPONSIBILITY FOR THEIR CONTENT, OR LACK THEREOF. :)


Scott Sutherland
sutherla@qtp.ufl.edu.



THERE, this should move me up on the Bandwasters Hall of Fame List!!
Watch out Chuck, here I come!