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!