Volume Number: 14 (1998)
Issue Number: 6
Column Tag: Newsbits

June 1998 Newsbits

by Jessica Courtney

New line of PowerPC 750 (G3) Processor Upgrade Cards for Power Mac (6100, 7100, 8100)Workgroup Server (6150, 8150, 9150), Performa 611x and Radius 81/110 began shipping.

Sonnet Technologies, the leading manufacturer of performance upgrade products for Apple Macintosh computers, today began shipping three new models of PowerPC G3 (750) processor upgrade cards for first generation (Nu-Bus) Power Macintosh Computers. The new Crescendo G3 line is available in the following configurations:

• Crescendo G3 -215-225 MHz with 512k backside cache at 2:1 ratio.
• Crescendo G3 -240-250 MHz with 1MB backside cache at 2:1 ratio.

Universal Upgrade Cards with Optional Adapter Kit for PDS AV or Video Pass-Through Both Crescendo G3 upgrade card have been designed to be universally compatible with all of the following Macintosh models:

• Power Macintosh 6100, 7100, 8100
• Performa 6110, 6112, 6115, 6116, 6117, 6118
• Workgroup Server 6150, 8150
• Radius 81/110.

For Power Macintosh 7100 and 8100, an optional adapter kit allows existing high-speed VRAM video cards or AV video cards to attach to the Crescendo G3 through a pass-through connection built into each card. With the adapter kit the video card will occupy one NuBus slot space.

http://www.sonnettech.com.

This programming language, favored by scientists and engineers because of its extensive repertoire of mathematical functions is now finally available for PowerMacintosh computers. The use of Omikron Basic 6 enables direct utilization of the enormous computation power of the Power PC processor. Worth mentioning in this context is Omikron Basic's extremely fast operating dynamic string management, which doesn't require prior dimensioning. Programming with Omikron 6 is as easy as one expects from a BASIC programming language: Simply open a new programming window, type in the desired programming code, compile with one mouse click, and you can start the program at once.

The Omikron Basic programmer can anticipate working with an intelligent editor with many well thought out features, the simultaneous syntax check when entering programming code is just one feature of many. The EasyGem Library enables the creation of surfaces typical of the Mac environment. Even beginners will have no problems due to the extensive documentation delivered with the program. A LITE Version and price discounts for students are offered as well.

http://www.omikron.net/basic/main_e.htm

ObjectPlant is the only shareware Object-Oriented Analysis/Design tool for Macintosh. It supports OMT and a subset of the UML notation. It is also capable of generating C++ and Java code.

The 1.5.1 version includes some new features but is mainly a maintenance release.

http://www.softsys.se/ObjectPlant/

Media Design in*Progress released the 2.0 version of Interaction, the web server companion for dynamic social websites that adapts to the visitor. Interaction is the first application to take advantage of server-side XML 1.0 for dynamic websites. The software works with Mac OS Web servers, generating HTML on the fly from XML documents.

Interaction allows professional webmasters to benefit from the efficiency and flexibility of extensible markup for developing and maintaining today's websites. The application provides wizards to create, inspect and modify extensible markup, liberating the author from detailed knowledge of the XML specification. Using Interaction, webmasters and authors can create and use their own custom XML elements (tags), XML entities (includes) and specialized XML document types (markup languages) when constructing the websites.

Interaction generates HTML pages at serving time from XML documents, based on the processing rules of a style sheet and the context of the request. The result is websites that adapt to each visitor without requiring scripting, programming or proprietary "command tag" constructs. The integrated Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) editor simplifies designing and maintaining a consistent presentation of the website. Interaction can optionally emulate CSS to keep the sites accessible and appealing for those using older browsers.

http://interaction.in-progress.com

Apple Computer, Inc. today announced the availability of HyperCard 2.4, the latest version of the Company's custom software development tool used to create interactive applications primarily for training and education. HyperCard 2.4 leverages QuickTime 3's rich array of video and audio capabilities, making it possible to easily add sophisticated multimedia experiences to existing or new applications. Building on the power of QuickTime 3, HyperCard 2.4 lets users work directly with more than 30 standard media file types.

HyperCard 2.4's new features include a suite of commands and properties, offering users who write HyperTalk scripts the ability to: establish links from HyperCard stacks to QuickTime movies, QuickTime VR scenes, and the World Wide Web; navigate quickly to predefined locations in a QuickTime movie by searching the movie's text track; resize, flip, mirror, rotate or skew a QuickTime movie in real time; loop a movie, providing continuous play for unattended applications like multimedia kiosks.

About HyperCard

HyperCard is Apple's custom software development tool for users of every skill level with navigation, hypertext, media integration and scripting features that have greatly influenced the evolution of the World Wide Web. HyperCard organizes information into associated ``stacks'' of cards that can be easily navigated and searched. Users are able to integrate and link text, graphics, sound, speech and QuickTime movies into HyperCard stacks to create dynamic, interactive titles.

http://www.apple.com/quicktime/

New development tool thoroughly documents and analyzes FileMaker projects.

Ask a room full of FileMaker developers what they like least about their job, and most will tell you it's the prospect of making changes to projects with hundreds or even thousands of elements, where something as simple as deleting a single field can affect any number of layouts, calculations, relationships, and scripts.

Depending on their needs, developers can use the Analyzer to generate summarized or detailed project reports. To choose one example: the detailed report for a particular field includes a list of all the layouts that include the field, every script that uses the field, every relationship that references the field, and every calculation that requires a value from that field. Analyzer indicates the type for each field, if a field is indexed or not, and the number of repetitions for each field. For calculation fields, Analyzer displays the calculation and the field type returned by the calculation.

All this is information thoroughly cross-referenced in its own FileMaker database. The script report for each field, for example, includes a list of each script that uses that field, while the report for each script contains a complete list of the fields included in that script.

With this kind of detail, clearly structured and cataloged in a series of simple layouts, it's also quick and easy to search for pretty much anything, by the name of an element or for a particular string within the elements. You can, for instance, search through all the scripts in a project for outdated procedures or elements that no longer exist.

Or you can use the tools built into the Analyzer to trace the behavior of your FileMaker scripts. Click on a reference to an external script, and the Analyzer instantly shows you that script. Move through the script step by step, or let the Analyzer trace through an entire script for you and build a hierarchical report of every instruction, every external script, and every recursion. These trace reports are color-coded, and the structure is collapsible to help you better see just what is going on.

http://www.wmotion.com/products.html

Maxum Development Corporation announces the release of the MaxumPack Pro, a software bundle that includes Maxum's most popular Internet server development tools. At the same time, the standard MaxumPack has been streamlined and is now offered at a reduced price.

Maxum initiated the Internet server tools category more than three years ago. Since that time, Maxum products have been used by a wide range of Web developers, from building small departmental Intranets to creating full-service commercial on-line services. To meet the needs of the broad range of developers, many of Maxum's products have recently been introduced in "Standard" and "Professional" versions.

Both PageSentry and Rumpus, for example, are offered in Standard and Pro packages, but all of the features in the Pro versions are also built into the Standard packages. PageSentry Standard supports up to 10 Sentries and 10 Notifiers, while the Pro version permits up to 100 of each. Similarly, Rumpus Standard allows up to 32 simultaneous connections and 32 built-in user accounts, with the Pro version supporting up to 255 concurrent users and user accounts limited only by available RAM. In all other respects, the Standard and Pro versions of these products are identical.

http://www.maxum.com/

Key features: New Blacklisting (RBL) implementation, support for mobile users, still FREE

Since the first free public release of Stalker's Internet Mail Server, it has been consistently upgraded with new performance enhancements. The most recent public version to be released 1.6, offers the latest technologies for mail servers including anti-spam features and better administrative additions.

IP Blacklisting has been proven to be the most efficient way to cut unsolicited E-mail ("spam") messages: mail servers with IP blacklisting implemented rejects all messages that come from known offenders. However, spammers may change their providers and IP addresses, and new spammers appear every week. This makes the job of keeping the Black List current an everyday duty for mail server administrators.

The DNS-based blacklisting is a new emerging technology that automates this task. A regular DNS server located anywhere on the Net can be used to keep the IP addresses of all known spammers. The anti-spam warriors inform the administrator of the black-listing server about unsolicited E-mail their users have received, so that the server has an up-to-date list of known offenders.

With the 1.6 version of SIMS, the name of a black-listing server can be entered in the SMTP module settings. When SIMS receives mail from a remote host, it checks not only its own black list, but also consults the black- listing server, too. If the sending host is included in the blacklisting DNS server tables, messages from that host are not accepted. The entire process is automatic and allows all mail server administrators to centralize and to distribute their knowledge about offending sites. Since the blacklisting servers are implemented using the existing DNS technology and software, several servers are already available on the Net, and they can be used with any SIMS 1.6 mail server.

One of the first anti-spam features implemented in SIMS was protection from unauthorized mail relaying. SIMS could relay a message to any Internet site only if it was sent from a known (usually - LAN) IP address. This feature did not allow spammers to abuse a SIMS server, but it also created problems for mobile users that connected to the Internet via various providers, and thus used various IP addresses. These mobile clients could not use SIMS as their "SMTP server". With the version 1.6 this problem is addressed in two ways.

First, the so called "XTND XMIT" extension is implemented in the POP module. It allows remote users to submit messages via the POP, not SMTP protocol, and the POP3 protocol authenticated users using passwords, not IP addresses. Eudora and some other mailers support this POP protocol extension.

Second, the POP module records the client IP address when it authenticates a user. During the next minute, messages from that IP address are processed as messages from the known (LAN) clients. When remote users check their mail on the SIMS server (this results in user authentication), their IP addresses are recorded. Then they submit messages to the server via the regular SMTP protocol. Since the messages come from the authenticated addresses, they are marked as such and can be relayed anywhere.

Along with the new Anti-spam features, SIMS has been updated with several enhancements for Administrators, thus allowing for easier monitoring of the server. The SIMS logs now receives a Failure (Level-1) record when the SMTP module rejects a return-path or a recipient address, and a when the POP or PWD module rejects a user name/password: this feature allows administrators to detect when their systems are under attack.

http://www.stalker.com/SIMS/

Visual Web Authoring Tool Now Compatible with 3.0 and 4.0 Browsers to Deliver High-Impact Web Pages over Low-Bandwidth Internet Connections

Macromedia announced a new release of Dreamweaver, the leading visual tool for professional Web site design. Dreamweaver 1.2 enables web developers to deploy high-impact web pages over low-bandwidth Internet connections that take advantage of advanced Dynamic HTML features for users of 4.0 browsers, while maintaining compatibility with 3.0 browsers. This new release also includes several new enhancements that improve web developer productivity and enhance ease of use.

Macromedia also announced that the recommended retail price of Dreamweaver 1.2 will remain at $299 US, the same as the introductory price for Dreamweaver 1.0. A 30-day trial version of Dreamweaver 1.2 is now available for download at no charge and all current Dreamweaver 1.0 customers can download a free Dreamweaver 1.2 updater.

http://www.dreamweaver.com

GenieWorks, LLC would like to announce our first general beta release of SpotCheck 1.1, with full support for the Java1.1.x language and APIs.

SpotCheck is a language-based editor that "knows" the Java language. It is designed to help a Java programmer produce correct code without relying on confusing and untimely feedback from a compiler.

Specifically, SpotCheck identifies syntax errors and semantic errors (undefined names, type mismatches, etc.) -- those errors normally returned by a compiler. This analysis is performed after each edit, giving the programmer immediate feedback on errors.

http://www.genieworks.com/.