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Syndicate ZMagazine Issue 164
| ROVAC ZMAGAZINE |
| Issue #164 |
| July 4, 1989 |
|Copyright 1989, RII|
|This week in ZMagazine|
* The Club Room: Doing an AtariFest *
Jerry Cross
*** I.C. Super Summer Sale ***
*** I.C. News Flash ***
*** Crazy Eights Fund Raiser ***
*** A SysOp's Peeves ***
Bob Maxwell
|THE CLUB ROOM: DOING AN ATARIFEST|
|by Jerry Cross|
Genesee Atari Group, Flint Michigan
[Each month THE CLUB ROOM brings us
help and ideas for Atari clubs. If
your group has managed some hurdle or
solved a common problem in an
innovative way, share it with Z*NET!]
I have an illness. Nothing serious,
but it's really becoming a pain. The
symptoms? Mention the word -Atarifest-
and I get nervous, shaky, a deep
burning in my wallet, and finally a bad
case of the runs (run to Detroit, run
to Toronto, run to Chicago...).
I guess I'm just a sucker for these
shows. It's even more fun to have them
in a city with a lot of other tourist
attractions so I can plan a vacation
around it. The recent World of Atari
show in California was the most fun I
ever had!
There are usually several user groups
who have booths at these shows. I love
to swap information on how they run
their meetings, look over their
libraries, and just chat about
computers. A well organized Atarifest
will also have a number of seminars on
a variety of topics. I always learn
something new!
But the main attraction of these shows
are the vendors. Here is your chance
to meet well known developers like
David Small, Tom Harker, and Atari
executives too. The last show I
attended, the dealer marked down a
whole table of software to 75% off the
retail price! These savings alone can
pay for a trip to a show.
Are you interested in hosting an
Atarifest? It's not easy. Here are
some tips that I have picked up from
doing our own Atarifests, from being
involved in the user group part of the
Dearborn World Of Atari Show, and from
attending several other Atari shows
around the country. First, let me
mention that ST-World is planning a
number of shows around the country and
just might be willing to host a show in
your city. Give them a call first, as
the World of Atari shows are
outstanding AND require comparatively
little work from the user group!
If you do plan to do a show yourself,
start your plans many months in
advance, even a full year is not too
early! If you wait until the last
minute, dealers will already have
committments, or you may find that
national events are conflicting.
Divide the work--it simply will not
work to have 3-4 people doing all of
the work. This is exactly what
destroyed the Chicago show a few years
ago, and hampered others in the past.
If you don't have enough dedicated
volunteers at this time, don't proceed!
You will need to locate an appropriate
room for your show. You should plan
for, at the very least, a 6,000 square
foot room. A room too small will
result in aisles too narrow, and a room too big will give the impression the
organizers couldn't sell enough booths.
Although civic centers are big and
convenient for your visitors, they are
expensive and harder on the vendors who
must get transportation between hotel
rooms and the show site. Most hotels
will give your show guests generous
discounts on their hotel rooms if you
use their hall facilities for your
show, but they are often too small.
Some very successful shows are held in
schools, shopping malls, and other
locations. The advantage is that they
don't cost you anything, but you loose
some of the -pizazz- of a big show.
This is an excellent way to start out
though. Get some of the other local
computer clubs to join in. Another
advantage is that some shopping centers
will help you with publicity.
Always keep a professional approach.
Remember, you are asking vendors to
spend several hundred dollars in
travel, lodging, and shipping expenses
to attend your show, not to mention the
booth rental! They won't attend unless
they think you can produce many
hundreds of people. Put a lot of
thought into your dealer packages, and
send each vendor a complete package.
You won't impress anyone with a post
card that says -Send us a letter if you
want more information.- Take advantage
of the bulk mailing permits! Sending
200 packages at bulk rate is cheaper
then sending 100 by first class! Use
this method to send flyers to user
groups too. You can get a list of them
from Atari's User Group Rep. Don't
forget to ask Atari for some help too,
like handouts, bumper stickers, and
maybe even a sales rep or two.
Now that you have your date and
location ready, the hard part begins.
You MUST gather all of your volunteers
together and divide up the work, and
set a preliminary budget. Vendor rates
can range from as low as $35 a table to
many hundreds for a -standard-
10' x 10' booth, depending on the
facility and probable attendence. Plan
your show so that most everything is
paid for from the booth rentals and
other promotions, and depend on the
-gate- admissions for profits and
unforeseen bills.
One of your big expenses will be
printing: posters, tickets, flyers,
programs, and dealer packages. Try to
get a bid from a printer on the entire
package instead of letting one printer
do tickets and another doing posters.
A rule of the thumb that I have heard
from professional show people: plan to
spend a dollar in advertising for every
three you expect to earn at the door.
Groups like ours may be able to do a
bit better on less advertising money if
all avenues of free exposure are used
well.
Try to contact those people involved in
past Atari shows, and find out what
problems they had, or what they did
right. You can eliminate a whole bunch
of headaches by catching these problems
in advance. One example is in
supplying electricity. Such things as
not enough outlets, outlets too far
away from the booths (vendors needed to
get extension cords at the last
minute), poor engineering that put too
many booths on the same circuit
resulting in blown fuses, and no
telephone hookups. My first mall show
had a problem too. The vendor asked me
where the outlet was, so I asked the
malls electrician. He pointed up and
said -Up there-. Yup, there it was, 45
feet straight up in the ceiling was the
outlet.
Don't overlook the small details! Ever
try to unload a van full of computer
parts by hand and carry them across a
large convention center? Arrange to
supply some hand carts! What about
food? Got enough tables and chairs?
Someone will surely want one more.
Find out what the local union
requirements are. Some of their rules
can be extremely expensive, and could
even end up canceling your show. One
past show had a city requirement that
said you needed a paramedic on duty.
Well, guess what union decided to go on
strike the week of the show?
Insurance, security, tourist
information, volunteers during the
show, vendors requesting to borrow
equipment are just a few of the
problems you need to address well in
advance. The list goes on and on. I
took pride in my role in the
Atari-Magic show as the official
-Chicken Little-. I would look for
everything that could possibly go
wrong. I'm sure some of the others on
our committee didn't always appreciate
me, but many of the things I brought up
actually did happen, and we were ready
for them!
|I.C. SUPER SUMMER SALE|
Innovative Concepts (I.C.)
31172 Shawn Drive
Warren, MI 48093 USA
Phone: (313) 293-0730
CompuServe: 76004,1764
In appreciation to our customers and CIS, we are having the
following Super Summer Sale, effective NOW, until August 31, 1989:
Easy Scan II - Easy Scan is (along with SpartaDOS X - see below)
one of only two products, to receive the 1989 Antic Award! Now,
Easy Scan II is even better! The Graphics Image Scanner for the
Atari 8-bits, that can utilize graphics modes 8, 9, 10, 11 & 15, to
make it extremely versatile! Scanned pictures can be printed out,
or saved as standard 62 sector files. Excellent for; User Groups,
demos, banners, flyers, posters, and MUCH more! Includes FREE
utlities for converting your masterpieces to other formats as well!
Also includes our Demo Disk, full (both sides) of scanned
pictures.
Requires - XL/XE/XE GS w/128K and Epson graphics capable
printer.
SALE Price - $79.95 ($99.95 value)
SpartaDOS X - Yet another 1989 Antic Award Winner! The ULTIMATE
DOS for the Atari 8-bit line, on a cartridge! Warp/High speed
support for the; U.S. Doubler, Happy 1050, and Atari XF551
(including our XF35 Kit, the 720K upgrade!). Also supports hard
drives, subdirectories, time/date stamping (best, with R-Time 8
cartridge), RAM upgrades, XEP-80 adapter, and much, much more!
Works on any Atari 8-bit (including XE GS) with at least 48K of
RAM.
SALE Price - $59.95 ($79.95 value)
Diamond GOS Super Cartidge (also known as St jr.) - The COMPLETE
graphics oriented Operating System package, for ANY Atari 8-bits,
with at least 48K of RAM (including XE GS)! Includes; Diamond
DeskTop (the working enviorment), Diamond Paint (a drawing
program), and the Diamond Programmers Kit (for using Diamond with
YOUR programs, under ANY language!) Works with Atari DOS 2.0S, DOS
2.5, DOS XE, SpartaDOS, and SpartaDOS X. Now, you can bring your
Atari into the 1990's, and make it sparkle with Diamond GOS!
SALE Price - $59.95 ($79.95 value)
AtariWiter 80 - The LONG-AWAITED program, for XEP-80 owners is
here! Yes, an 80-column word proccessor, based on the popular
AtariWriter program! Includes two versions; One for the 130XE (or
XL/XE/XE GS upgraded to at least 128K), and another version for the
400/800 (w/48k), 800XL, 1200XL, 65XE, and XE GS. Also includes the
Proof Reader (for spell checking) and the Mail Merge (a data base,
for mailing lists, phone numbers, and more!).
SALE Price - $49.94 ($59.95 value)
XEP-80 Adapter - An 80 column adapter for ANY Atari 8-bit with at
least 48K of RAM. Also has a standard printer port, for hooking
parallel printers (Epson, Panasonic, Star, etc.) to your Atari.
Has unique bit-image graphics modes, for outstanding capabilites!
Includes disk with demos and sample programs, to get you started.
SALE Price - $79.95 ($89.95 value)
Shipping/Handling
-----------------
USA - Add $3.50 ship/hand. Payment in check or money order. COD
is available (USA only) at $3.00 extra.
APO/FPO - Add $3.50 ship/hand. Payment in check or money order,
in U.S. funds.
Canada/Mexico - Add $7.00 ship/hand. Payment must be in U.S.
funds.
All other countries - Add $10.00 ship/hand. Payment must be in
U.S. funds.
Note
----
Be sure to mention the word -CompuServe-, when you order! This
text file originated on CompuServe, in the Atari 8-bit section. It
may be distributed through BBS's, or other informational services,
as long as it remains intact, unchanged.
(Editor's note: Please forgive the
poor formatting and any misspellings,
comma splices, etc., found in this and
the next article. To include them
here, I followed the above -Note- to
the letter. Even though I was sorely
tempted to clean them up, mirroring
the composition standards which
ZMagazine readers have come to expect,
I let my regard to an author's wishes
be tantamount...)
|I.C. NEWS FLASH|
Innovative Concepts (I.C.)
31172 Shawn Drive
Warren, MI 48093 USA
Phone: (313) 293-0730
CompuServe: 76004,1764
News Flash!
-----------
We at I.C., are proud to announce the following NEW products,
available NOW. All 3 were programmed by Jim Steinbrecher of Sector
One Computers (ORIGINAL author of AMODEM). They are being
marketted EXCLUSIVELY by I.C.:
Print Shop Driver: 1020 - Yes, now you can use Print Shop and the
Print Shop Companion, on the Atari 1020 Printer/Plotter! EASY to
use and no patches or programming required! And, the printouts can
be in ANY one color, out of the four possible (black, red, blue, or
green)!
Print Shop Driver: Okimate 10 - Same features as above, but made
exclusively for the Okimate 10 printer.
Print Shop Driver: Epson LQ-500/800 - Now, you can finally use
the newer 24-pin printers, with Print Shop and the Print Shop
Companion! Works with any 24-pin printer that is compatible with
the Epson LQ-500 or LQ-800, which includes the Panasonic 1124, Star
NX-2400, and many others!
Price: $14.95 for each Print Shop Driver. Dealer, Distributor,
and User Group inquires welcome!
Ship/Hand
---------
USA - Add $2.00 ship/hand. Payment in check or money order. COD
is $3.00 extra (USA only).
APO/FPO - Add $2.00 ship/hand. Payment must accompany order, in
U.S. funds.
Canada/Mexico - Add $4.00 ship/hand. Payment must accompany
order, in U.S. funds.
All other countries - Add $6.00 ship/hand. Payment must
accompany order, in U.S. funds.
Note: This text file originated on CompuServe, in the Atari 8-bit
section. It may be freely distributed on BBS's or other
informational services, as long as it remains intact, unchanged.
|CRAZY EIGHTS FUND RAISER|
I had this crazy dream...
We were having a board of directors
meeting and this amazing thing
happened: EVERYONE showed up. We
discussed the usual stuff like who fell
asleep at the meeting (again)...you
know, regular board meeting talk. And,
as we do every year, we talked about
the shortage...of money.
-Bob, we can't buy a thousand disks
right now. You're just going to have
to see if you can get by with a year's
supply.-
-Denny, we just bought you a new mouse
last month. Maybe if we mated them we
could...-
-Very funny, Chuck. By the way, can't
we get by till next month for stamps?-
-Not unless we can talk the Post Office
into delivering our newsletters for
FREE.-
-I move we send the post office a
letter concerning this great idea, do I
hear a second?-
-Second!-
Patti laughed and shook her head. -I'm
not even going to write this
down--let's get serious here! There
just never seems to be enought money.
We have membership dues coming in, we
sell disks, raffle off software...I
mean, what else can we do?
Mike had been quiet through all this
but leaned forward and spoke. -How
about a car wash?-
Then there was this sound, sort of like
seven bees humming in
unison...-Hmmmmmmm-.
Then we talked about our other
problem--lack of volunteers!
We liked the idea and went to the
general meeting with our proposals, the
benefits and then Denny gave the bottom
line. -Now who wants to help?-
Silence. -Gee, I wish I were Johnny
Carson. He gets to break to a
commercial when the monologue dies.-
One by one, each of the officers,
myself included, begged and hollered
and whined and cried. We did stand-up
comedy. We did impressions and
amazing feats of juggling. Then we
broke to a commercial. -That was a
good show- one club member shouted.
-You should take it on the road.-
Another chimed in -There's our fund
raiser!- after which everybody split
their sides from laughter. -Ha-ha!- I
responded. -How about this: everyone
who helps will get a free club disk of
their choice.- Within seconds the line
for the sign-up sheet was ten feet
long.
We had the perfect weather for a car
wash. A hot sunny day which came after
a week long mucky-muddy rainy spell.
The location couldn't have been any
better either--we were at the gas
station on 26th an Penninsula. To
out-of-towners who have never had the
pleasure of visiting Erie, this spot is
known as the gateway to Presque-Isle.
Over a half-million people head for
Presque Isle's sandy beaches each
summer I figured, and at least half of
them should be rolling OUR way.
We had competition to contend with.
-Look, over at Burger King- one of the
guys shouted, -It's the cookie
brigade!- He was speaking of
Girl Scout troop 127, which had chosen
to locate their car wash right across
the street.
Pat was quick to dispell any
discouragement that may have been
forming. -That's ok, our women are
better looking than them.- The girls
loved this and worked even harder,
making certain us guys kept our minds
(and eyes) on the cars!
The ladies did look good, too. The
weather was nice so the girls wore
shorts. One club member, looking at
his wife, said to me, -Gee, I almost
forgot she had legs.- I said to him,
-Bill, you've been staring at your
monitor too long!-
The Girl Scouts were a tough team.
They were jumping around, waving signs,
blowing kisses...they tried every trick
in the book to distract us! But we
hung in there. We had a few tricks of
our own. Dick made a banner using
Print Shop that read -It's all the RAGE
to wash with SAGE.- I have to admit,
it was a real attention-getter. People
said they pulled in just because they
wanted to know what we meant. Many
thought we were sampling a new brand of
soap. Some even thought their cars
looked thirty percent cleaner.
We made sure that everyone left with a
flyer about SAGE.
Jean wiped the trunk of the last car
and breathed a sigh of relief.
-Hooray! We're done! Anybody hungry?-
she asked. The guys answered together:
-YEAH! Let's go to Burger King!-
...Just about then I awoke from the
dream. -Hey! I've got a great idea
for a fund-raiser for the club!- I was
going to call Chuck about it, when all
of a sudden I forgot the dream.
Isn't it funny how that happens?
Got a -crazy- story to tell about your
club or computer? Drop me a line.
|SAGE |
|Attn: Crazy Eights |
|PO Box 10562 |
|Erie PA 16514 |
You can also leave me mail here on
Genie (LAKE31).
Have a great summer!
|A SYSOP'S PEEVES|
|by Bob Maxwell|
It takes a special kind of crazy to
make an otherwise normal-looking human
being choose to operate a bulletin
board system...very often (s)he's
placing valuable equipment at the mercy
of others, and spending valuable time,
and not really minding a bit. A little
acknowledgement, the occasional -Thank
you-, and periodic uploads of fresh
software seem to keep these types
happy. However (you knew there had to
be a however to this, after reading the
title, didn't you?), there are a few
things that can...shall we
say...bother a system operator.
The bothersome users of a bulletin
board fall into some broad classes,
which are not necessarily mutually
exclusive nor all that well-defined.
Some are truly obnoxious, while others
can get the Sysop upset with a third
party, the world in general, or
with...ummm...the Sysop.
Let us introduce the first, and most
obnoxious, of those users capable of
having an effect on an operator's
blood pressure. We'll call him the
-Owner-, because that's how the
creature behaves...like he owns the BBS
(not likely to endear himself to the
sap who pays the bills, no?). There
are a broad range of symptoms displayed
by an Owner. First of all, there is
generally no respect given to all the
other users of the system: he'll log
on at 7 P.M. and stay there downloading
files until the system (or operator)
hangs up on him. At other times he'll
call for a chat with the Sysop: if the
Sysop's not there, he'll leave a nasty
message complaining about the Sysop's
inattentiveness. If the Sysop is
there, he'll go on at lengths (typing
slowly) asking why the files HE wants
aren't always there, and why the BBS
isn't tailored to HIS interests and
needs. The only thing good about this
creature is that he will either:
(1) get bored and suck some other
Sysop's BBS dry, or
(2) get the message that he's being a
pig.
Next in our BBS zoo we have the Bull.
Owners tend to be Bulls, too. A Bull
behaves like he's in a china shop,
crashing about, spending tremendous
amounts of time discovering the variety
of error messages the BBS keeps on
file. Now, this sort of behavior is
not really frustrating to a
Sysop...unless he's waiting to use the
BBS himself. What REALLY gets the
Sysop is that a full-scale Bull will
refuse to admit that it might be
faster to read the Help files, and if
he does have a question, he'll pose it
to the Sysop himself. This Sysop has a
standard response: silence. Any
question adequately answered in the
Help files does not need further
attention. Fortunately for Sysops,
most Bulls are self-curing. They will
either discover the Help files or
puzzle out the BBS structure by trial
and error...and error...and error...
Then there's the Apologist, who gets
the Sysop mad at himself. What happens
is the Sysop will complain publicly
about some Owner or Bull on the system,
and the Apologist will then leave a
message saying he's sorry for spending
so much time downloading a file, or
that he tried various commands before
going for Help. Why is the Sysop mad?
Because a valued user has felt badly
about the Sysop's complaints, while the
REAL object of the whole mess never
read the rotten complaint anyway!
Last, and probably Least, is the
classic Twit. Twits are usually
lacking in most of the social graces.
A Twit usually is unable to spell nor
comprehend -courtesy-. He'll go right
past the Sysop's request not to post
messages offering to pirate software,
and then post a message offering to
pirate software. Requests for clean
language are met with profanity, and
when the offending messages are wiped
from the BBS, the Twit will be
absolutely outraged. Twits tend to run
in groups, and will descend on a BBS
like a horde of locusts. Twits either
grow up (mentally: a low physical age
is not a prerequisite for one to be a
Twit) or discover a BBS operated by a
fellow Twit who tolerates them. The
-cracker- (what the press erroneously
terms a -hacker-), who delights in
trying to crash remote systems to cause
maximum discomfort and damage, is a
true Twit.
Thank goodness there is the Decent
User. This is the person who will
upload files someone's looking for,
read the messages and pipe up if he's
got something to say, and will feel a
twinge of guilt (needlessly) when he
downloads that neat-looking big file
or can't find anything half-decent to
contribute. They may not be thanked,
but they're the ones responsible for
the continued operation of a BBS.
Bob Maxwell, Sysop (no foolin', huh?) Turbo BBS, Vancouver, B.C.
(604) 738-7811 July 21, 1986
Downloaded from Ghe Twin Paradises
Cleveland, OH
| Rovac Industries, Incorporated |
| P.O. Box 74, Middlesex, NJ 08846 |
| (201) 968-8148 |
|Copyright 1989 All Rights Reserved|
CompuServe: 71777,2140
GEnie: ZMAGAZINE
Source: BDG793
ZMagazine Headquarters BBSes:
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(618)451-0165
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