After Dark 2.0 - WOW!
Dave Taylor
Berkeley Systems, and all I can say is "Wow!" The new modules, especially
Fish and Flying Toasters, are just quite exceptional. The quality of the
animation (on my IIci with a 4-bit portrait display) is better than most
of the games I have, and it all just seems to work that much better than
the original After Dark too. (btw, for those Fish fanatics that may have
seen versions of the program that, for example, were on the Microsoft
Office CDROM, the version with After Dark seems a lot smoother and more
enjoyable)
Sound, however, is definitely kind of weird and I've pretty much turned
it off on all the modules I have in use -- it's just too jarring to have
strange beeps and whirs emitted while my screen is supposed to be being
'saved' (is there a speaker saver INIT? :-)
Finally, the packaging is much more up to snuff with other professional
packages, and it's a lot easier to keep track of the documentation,
disk, and so on.
Damn good job, Berkeley Systems! Check it out!!
-- Dave Taylor
Intuitive Systems
Mountain View, California
tay...@limbo.intuitive.com or {uunet!}{decwrl,apple}!limbo!taylor
Philip Wong
taht the screen savers modules are the best ever--Satori is my favorite.
For anyone with a ci or wanting to do telecom, the program is unusable.
It causes conflicts with fonts (menus as well as files) and doesn't work with
modems...ie when you are u/l or d/l, it doesn't go on if you are using System
IQ. When you aren't using System IQ, it crashes. Pyro 4.0 (I hate to say it)
is much better if you are an avid telecommer.
Veljko Roskar
>I tried this guy out...2.0c and it is still too buggy to be used. I admit
>modems...ie when you are u/l or d/l, it doesn't go on if you are using System
>IQ. When you aren't using System IQ, it crashes. Pyro 4.0 (I hate to say it)
I spoke to Bruce (the author) before ordering my upgrade. He assured me
that the System IQ fuction takes care of problems with uploading/downloading.
He said that the SSaver will come on during up/downloads, but it will just
be animated slower, causing 2-5% slowdown in the transfer. I haven't received
it yet, so I can't say anything else but hope it works as he claimed.
I tried Pyro 4.0, but found it a pain to set-up. I also think that Pyro
slows down transfers a bit. Has anyone determined by how much?
--
Veljko Roskar | ros...@jhuvms.bitnet
Department of Chemical Engineering | ros...@jhuvms.hcf.jhu.edu
The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore | uunet!mimsy!aplcen!jhunix!roskar
Dhanapong Saengrussamee-University of North Texas
I just got my upgrade this morning, finally. Installed it. Then I was on
AppleLink and Compu$erve earlier this afternoon, and it is woking fine here.
I thought I heard something about a bug in the MacWorld version. Somebody
mentioned it on the net. May be it just a dream. Bruce, AfterDark guy,
correct me if I am wrong. 8^(
Also what I got is 2.0s. Modified date is August 18, 1990. 94,067 bytes.
Follows the alphabet list, yours is more than a dozen off! 8^)
__Mouse.o()~
Dhanapong Saengrussamee | AppleLink: U1364 | BITNET: mouse@untvax
Technical Support, CECS Dept. | BIX: d.mouse.s | Compu$erve: 71301,1516
University of North Texas | Internet: mo...@vaxb.acs.unt.edu
PO Box 5155 - UNT Station | UUCP: ...!uunet!ntvax!vaxb.acs.unt.edu!mouse
Denton, TX 76203-5155 | Phone: (817) 565-4435 | FAX: (817) 565-4425
Jeff Hallett x5163
Hmm. Tirades on the new After Dark. Is it shipping automatically or
did you have to order it? If so, when did the announcement come out
(obviously, this is the first I've heard of it and I'm a registered
user).
Sounds cool. Can't wait.
--
Jeffrey A. Hallett, PET Software Engineering
GE Medical Systems, W641, PO Box 414, Milwaukee, WI 53201
(414) 548-5163 : EMAIL - hall...@gemed.ge.com
"Keep that sense of humor. It's critical."
Ken Hancock
I've had no problems with bugs in After Dark 2.0. True, it doesn't come
on when you're downloading when System IQ is on, but that's the whole point
of System IQ. If it finds a lot of CPU time going somewhere, it figures
that the CPU is doing something. Turing on the screensaver would only
take away CPU time from that process. Personally, I leave System IQ off
most of the time. For downloads, I find that the performance drops from
maybe 95% to 93%. For local calls, that doesn't bother me too much.
It's never crashed on me.
Ken
--
Ken Hancock | This account needs a new home in MA...
Isle Systems | Can you provide a link for it?
is...@eleazar.dartmouth.edu | It doesn't bite... :-)
Norman Goodger
Well I don't know whats wrong with your Mac, or what else you
have installed that is causing all the problems you site, however
on my IIcx I have no problems downloading files, I have no font
conflicts (that is a hard one to buy, since AD is all graphics).
No menu conflicts, no problems at all actually. AD2.0 works with
my modem without problems. If I were you, I would look for other
problems, as AD2.0 causes none of those problems on my Mac.
problems, you got one somewhere....
--
Norm Goodger SysOp - MacInfo BBS @415-795-8862
3Com Corp. Co-SysOp FreeSoft RT - GEnie.
Enterprise Systems Division (I disclaim anything and everything)
UUCP: {3comvax,auspex,sun}!bridge2!ngg Internet: n...@bridge2.ESD.3Com.COM
Bruce Burkhalter
>taht the screen savers modules are the best ever--Satori is my favorite.
>For anyone with a ci or wanting to do telecom, the program is unusable.
>It causes conflicts with fonts (menus as well as files) and doesn't work with
>modems...ie when you are u/l or d/l, it doesn't go on if you are using System
>IQ. When you aren't using System IQ, it crashes. Pyro 4.0 (I hate to say it)
>is much better if you are an avid telecommer.
I am sorry to hear you are having problems with AD 2.0. While I am not sure
exactly what problems you are having, I do know that AD 2.0 was tested
extensively with Mac IIci's and telecom software (in fact that is exactly
what I am running right now.) I don't know what is going on with fonts but
AD 2.0 does not do anything with fonts.
Daniel Paight
DS> 94,067 bytes. Follows the alphabet list, yours is more than
DS> a dozen off! 8^)
Hmm. My copy (purchased from Egghead a week ago) says 2.0h. Haven't
had any problems with crashes.
Jan Erik Mostr|m
I've got 2.0s and a ci and have no problems
jem
Jim Budler
>DS> Also what I got is 2.0s. Modified date is August 18, 1990.
>Hmm. My copy (purchased from Egghead a week ago) says 2.0h. Haven't
>had any problems with crashes.
I mentioned having 2.0h about a week ago, and received a letter from
the author (Bruce Burkhalter ??? I think). He described the usual
"find a bug, fix a bug, cause a bug" scenario, but what it boils
down to is 2.0h is better than previous, but has a bug, 2.0s is current.
My 2.0s is in the mail. Contact Berkeley Systems, yours will be too.
jimb
P.S. I got my ResEdit 2.0b2 with manual from APDA. So they're shipping
now.
--
Jim Budler ji...@silvlis.com +1.408.991.6061
Silvar-Lisco, Inc. 703 E. Evelyn Ave. Sunnyvale, Ca. 94086
Philip Wong
Hasn't anyone else had trouble with crashes on AD? I've had crashes with
TOPS and also while d/l and u/l. It also causes problems with ATM or something
such that all the icons and menus loose their names. All that is left is
their first letter and in a wierd font. I still can't say I would recommend
it until some of these major things are ironed out.
ins...@jhunix.HCF.JHU.EDU <--use this address, not the UUCP one
Six o'clock News
>DS> a dozen off! 8^)
>
>Hmm. My copy (purchased from Egghead a week ago) says 2.0h. Haven't
>had any problems with crashes.
Path: cory.Berkeley.EDU!bruce
The "bug" we fixed was actually protection against programs that do bad
things, mainly sound. There are two ways to do sound on the Mac, the good
Apple supported way and the bad unsupported way.
If a program is doing sound the good way (like AD 2.0) and somebody tries
to play sound the bad way, the Mac will crash or do something bad. After
AD 2.0 and AD 2.0h came out we found there were a fair number of programs that
do sound the bad way. So now AD 2.0s tries to keep this from happening.
Even though the problem is not really ours, people will keep the program
that is more important and nuke the one that is not as important (AD 2.0).
There is nothing wrong with this. I would do the same.
So instead of waiting for other companies to fix their programs, it is
easier for us to try to avoid them.
Bruce Burkhalter
Berkeley Systems, Inc.
Six o'clock News
>TOPS and also while d/l and u/l. It also causes problems with ATM or something
>such that all the icons and menus loose their names. All that is left is
>their first letter and in a wierd font. I still can't say I would recommend
>it until some of these major things are ironed out.
>
>ins...@jhunix.HCF.JHU.EDU <--use this address, not the UUCP one
Philip, please call our Technical Support! You have said you are having
problems with AD 2.0 earlier. We can't help you unless you get in touch
with us. We have not heard of *any* the problems you are having. We have
TOPS running all of the time with no problems. I have no idea what is going
on with fonts. As I said before, AD 2.0 does not do anything with fonts.
We find that most problems people have are caused by some weird init or a
corrupted System file. While I am not ruling out a problem with AD 2.0, I
believe problems like you are having would have been reported in droves awhile
ago. AD 1.1 had a problem on the Mac IIci and within 2 days we had over 20
reports of the problem.
Please call us! If there is a problem with AD 2.0, I want to fix it. If
there isn't, I don't want AD 2.0 to get a "bad rep" on the net.
You also had questions about how and why AD 2.0's System IQ works. When enabled
System IQ monitors disk activity, CPU activity, and serial port activity. If
AD 2.0 senses that the Mac is busy, it will not go to sleep. If AD 2.0 is
already asleep and the Mac becomes busy, AD 2.0 will slow its animation way
down to 1 frame per second giving more time to the Mac.
We feel this is better than Pyro!'s way. Pyro! has "primary" and "secondary"
modules that flip back and forth when the Mac is busy. The moduls also have
a "persistance" setting that controls how busy the Mac must be before it will
switch. We feel this is complex, confusing, and overkill. System IQ is a
simple check box and for most users it is more than enough.
pv...@vax5.cit.cornell.edu
>>Hasn't anyone else had trouble with crashes on AD? I've had crashes with
I was having some weird problems with crashes when the machine was
inactive - ie. I had left for a while and when I came back the screen
was frozen and all I could do was reboot. The crashes were new in that
I hadn't been experiencing them the whole time so I started thinking
about new INITs. I finally shut off something called LaunchINIT, which
keeps a logfile of all the applications that are run, when they are
run, and how long they run for. Since shutting that one off, I haven't
had any problems. Seems strange that AD and LaunchINIT would conflict,
but as far as I can tell that was the problem. It's ambiguous because
I couldn't replicate the AD crashes at will - they just happened every
few hours or so randomly.
Moral of the story. It's worth checking out other INITs before
immediately blaming AD.
Adam
--
Adam C. Engst pv...@vax5.cit.cornell.edu
---------------------------------------------------------------
Editor of TidBITS, the weekly electronic Macintosh news journal
Jeff Sullivan
I have noticed a problem with AD 2.0 that is pretty consistent.
I often power up my Mac II and walk away to let it boot up (it takes a
while, unfortunately). I do this with the monitor off.
Now, sometimes, when I come back and flip on the monitor, I see the
Fish! message "Fish Initializing, hold on..." (loose paraphrase).
The problem is, the Mac's hung; it never comes back.
this has happend 4 or 5 times recently, and always with Fish!
Since I'm using Random, and I like Fish! (it works fine all other
times), I don't want to remove it.
Any idea what's wrong?
jas
--
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jeffrey A. Sullivan | Senior Systems Programmer
j...@venera.isi.edu | Information Sciences Institute
j...@isi.edu DELPHI: JSULLIVAN | University of Southern California
Philip Wong
It seems that there is a conflict with ATM. The module hangs the
computer with the message half onscreen (after leaving the computer unattended for long periods of time).
Daniel Paight
I also use ATM with the message module (AD 2.0h). Have never had an
After-Dark-related crash. And yes, the module is using ATM to scale
the font. 72-point Times Bold Italic: Back to Work!
Six o'clock News
>computer with the message half onscreen (after leaving the computer unattended for long periods of time).
>
>ins...@jhunix.hcf.jhu.edu
Phillip -
Please call us!!!!!
We did a lot of testing with ATM and AD 2.0, especially Messages.
While we don't know of any problem, you may have found one.
Either way, I don't want AD 2.0 crashing for any reason.
Bruce Burkhalter
Andy Loh
>>It seems that there is a conflict with ATM. The module hangs the
>>computer with the message half onscreen (after leaving the computer unattended
for long periods of time).
>>
I had a similar problem with the picture module. The picture that I
created with a paint program requires ATM to generate the text. If
I don't use ATM for anything before activating AD, the Mac (IIcx)
hangs. However, if I use ATM for anything first, then there's usually
no problem.
Andy (al...@ocf.berkeley.edu)
Six o'clock News
I am not sure I understand the sequence. Let me know if I am wrong.
You create a picture in a paint program that has text in it. You then
display this picture in AD with the Picture Frame module. If you display
the picture with AD before using ATM, the Mac will crash when AD kicks in.
If ATM has been used, then the Mac will not crash. Is this correct?
What paint program are you using?
Norman Goodger
version of AD2.0s. I spotted this problem on a friends Mac
and indicated that he might not have the latest version and
when he received the upgrade, the problem went away... I
don't know if this is the same problem you have, but you
might make sure that you are using AD 2.0s.