Apple Quickies Comin' At Ya

There are a few new product announcements recently: MATLAB for Mac OS X is available; fink for 10.2 is available for testing; Intuit has announced QuickBooks for Mac OS X; and PowerLogix has announced even more upgrades, including dual processor upgrades. And one user notes, "I wonder if the /. effect could drain the batteries of this Newton quickly?"

MATLAB

[foobar104]

Ironically, the same day Slashdot carries this story, MathWorks announces that MATLAB 6.5 is not, in fact, compatible with Jaguar. They sent out a letter.

As a current MATLAB on the Mac customer, we wanted to inform you that the new 10.2 (Jaguar) release of Mac OS X introduces incompatibilities that prevent MATLAB 6.5 and other applications from running correctly. The MathWorks and Apple are working together to develop a patch that will enable MATLAB to operate correctly with OS X version 10.2. We anticipate that this patch will be available in late September or early October. In the interim, we suggest that MATLAB users defer upgrading to 10.2 until this patch is available.

Another piece of news (semi-related to Mac OS X)

[questionlp]

Apple is running a promotion [apple.com] that if someone buys a PowerMac G4, the person can get a free copy of Adobe InDesign 2.0 for free via mail. News.com has a blurb [com.com] on this and that a Mac OS X-native version of Quark is still in the works.

Newton

[mmarlett]

"I wonder if the /. effect could drain the batteries of this Newton quickly?"

Absolutely. And since I seem to have caught this seconds after is was posted, I'll just share what the server says ...

Paul Filmer's Dedicated MP2100 NewtonOS Server

This server runs on 4 AA batteries, in only 10K of heap on a 162MHz StrongARM SA-110 RISC processor, using NewtonOS Personal Data Sharing software (nHTTPd v2.043). This Apple Newton MessagePad 2100 is a multi-tasking, object oriented PDA with 4Mb of RAM and a 16Mb Flash storage card, connected via a Farallon PN895 Ethernet card. More details.

And this is the "more details" ...

How is this server set up/run?

This server is a stripped Newton MP2100. (Pictures) The Newted Community asked me for an article about the server, which is here.

The server only has packages that are necessary for serving (NPDS: nHTTPd v2.043, NPDS Watcher v1.014ac, NPDS Traq Client 2.035) or editing these webpages, and a bunch of background images for Avi's Backdrop. All of the settings for these packages and plug-ins are listed here. The server is connected to the Internet using a Farallon PN895 Ethernet card over the NSF LAN. Our connection from there to the backbone is what makes this puppy sing - any speed problems are at your end, bub.

I originally tried to run this thing off a set of rechargeables and a solar panel, but the card drains the charge before sunrise, so I abandoned that strategy - the intent was to run it at Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station where sunlight is not a problem (well, OK, not for six out of twelve months...).

I try to synchronize the server's Names and Dates soups with my principal MP2100's about once a week by beaming them over with SBM's SoupTransport. I am slowly (...very slowly...) collecting the names of Newton-related developers, companies and products (including signatures) and putting them in my Names Soup so that they can be searched. I am also collecting Apple parts numbers for any and all Newton products - feel free to tell me what you would like to see listed on this thing.

The following is a list of the package names of all packages installed on this Newton device as of 9/12/02 5:34 pm:

• HeapMagic:GNUE
• Newton Devices
• NIE Patch:Kallisys
• Avi's Backdrop:AviD
• BiggerNotes:Paul's Software
• BugTrap:Tactile
• ClnNotes:Tim Constantine
• Editor:MAVON
• Farallon Enet
• Filmer Fecit Me
• Freeze Utils:SAS
• HeavenOrHell:BASUKE
• Hilite2000:Way
• Internet Setup
• ISP Templates
• LucentWaveLAN
• LucentWaveLANa2
• LucentWaveLANa3
• MacInTalk
• Monaco
• NamesHack:MAP
• NetTime:DTS
• Newton Internet Enabler
• nHTTPd
• NIE Ethernet Module
• NPDS Watcher:ATOW
• NPDSTrack Client
• OneTap Scroller
• pCARDS:MAVON
• pDATES:MAVON
• pGIF Server:Kallisys
• pHTML:MAVON
• pPAGER:MAVON
• RemoteCamNewt
• SAI Prefs Cleaner:SAS
• Serial57600:clli
• Sound Off!
• Soup Transport:SBM
• SoupKitchen:ICS
• SpeakText:NEWTON
• TheWholeText :deepfocus
• Wipe:MAVON
• 2001panam
• Analog
• Apollo 11 footprint
• Apollo 17 LRV
• B-17G
• B-17G Sentimental Journey
• brainbaraboom
• Concept 3051 logod
• cooker
• Cosmo Placard
• Death Mask of Newton
• eMate Flower
• Escher
• EXILE concept 28
• feathers
• Forget Me
• Gagarin Mosaic 2
• Glyph Basic A Font:Prism
• Glyph Basic B Font:Prism
• Glyph Basic C Font:Prism
• Glyph Basic D Font:Prism
• gromit
• HAL9000
• Hardtack I Oak
• Hokusai's Great Wave
• Hummer Half
• IAI Logo
• JSC's WB-57F
• KillUpdate:Victor&Paul
• Las Vegas in the 50's
• linux Swirl
• Mars by Hubble
• Mastaba of Ity
• Maya2 gluphs
• Mercury
• Minico:Scrawl
• Mir docking
• mir-complex
• MP2000 Flower
• National Science Foundation
• NetNames.DigitlaInk
• Newton Statue, BL St Pancras
• NewtonID:NewtonID
• nr. Aristoteles & Eudoxus
• pBinary Server:Kallisys
• pCFG:MAVON
• pi
• QuickPress:AVANTI
• RibbonShredded
• Riven Lagoon
• SF wallpaper
• shark.PICT
• Sir Robert Filmer
• St Basil's Cathedral
• Stela of Thothmes III
• Steve Jobs
• Techno
• Tintin's Snowy
• TsPK Logo
• Untitled
• UnzipBMP:NewtsCape
• urlCop
• Venezia
• vnc:TKnollSys
• WTC1062
• yuri
• ZLib:Kallisys

Re:Fink Question

[PotPieMan]

Assuming you have a list of just the package names (not the version numbers and other columns from fink list), you should be able to pass it to fink. As long as you have updated your fink.conf as described here [sourceforge.net], it should all work. If you haven't, you will definitely have problems reaching packages. Make sure you've done a fink selfupdate-cvs recently, too. (There are other reasons you might be unable to download some packages, such as the host site being down.)

You are right, though - some of the dependencies may have changed or been removed. I would suggest that you look through the list and pick some of the bigger packages and start by installing those. You'll fill a lot of the dependencies by installing something like KDE, for example.

You may want to check out the mailing lists [sourceforge.net] for more information. A lot of the regulars know way more Fink than I do; they may have some better ideas.

Re:MATLAB

[Daleks]

MATLAB for Mac OS X relies on Xfree86/XDarwin for graphs and other windowed elements (ugh, this is a port?). Xfree86/XDarwin was broken under Mac OS X 10.2, but there is an updated version that will work. The latest files are at:

http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?gro up _id=18034&release_id=71056

I hope the Fink users are patient

[Wesley Felter]

Since there are no binaries for unstable packages, prepare to spend several days building all the prereqs for any major app.

Why post binaries on SourceForge when you could force 1,000 people to compile them instead? :-(

OCTAVE broken too

[Anonymous Coward]

Octave, the gnu free Matlab is broken too in 10.2
bummer, I wonder if its for the same reason. I note that XFREE86 seems to work fine for me in 10.2 (fink version).

MATLAB 6.5 does in fact work (partially) on 10.2

[coult]

matlab actually will run under 10.2. What won't run is the graphical desktop interface, but the old-style terminal window interface will run just fine (just do "matlab -nojvm"). Take a look at my posting [macmerc.com]on macmerc.com for more info.