ZIP Magazine Issue 2
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| Date: November, 1988 ISSUE # 2 |
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| ÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜ |
| Üß ß ÛßßÛ Ú¿ ÚÄ¿ ÚÄ¿ ÚÄ¿ ÚÄ¿ ÄÂÄ Â¿  ÚÄ¿ |
| Üß Û ÛÜÜÛ ³ ³ ÃÄ´ ³ ¿ ÃÄ´ ÚÄÙ ³ ³À¿³ ÃÄ |
| Üß Û Û Á Á Á Á ÀÄÙ Á Á ÀÄÙ ÄÁÄ Á ÀÁ ÀÄÙ |
| ÜÛÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜ |
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| AN MS-DOS based magazine |
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| HOPE YOU HAD A NICE HALLOWEEN |
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| ÜÜÜÜÜÜÜ |
| Û ÝÞ Û |
| Û Þ Ý Û |
| ÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜ ÜÛ ÝÞ Ûß ÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜ |
| Üßßß ßßßÛ Þ Ý Ûßßß ßßßÜ |
| Üß ßßßßßßß ßÜ |
| Üß Û Û ßÜ |
| Üß Û Û Û Û ßÜ |
| Û Û Û Û Û Û |
| Û ÛÜÜÜÜÜÛ ÛÜÜÜÜÜÛ Û |
| Û Û |
| Û Û Û |
| Û Û Û Û |
| Û Û Û Û |
| Û ÛÜÜÜÜÜÛ Û |
| Û Üß |
| Û ßÛÜÜÜÜÜÜ ÜÜÜÜÜÜÛß Üß |
| ßÜ ßÜ ßÛÛßÛÜÜÜÜÜÜÛßÛÛß Üß Û |
| ßÜ ßÜ ßß ÛÛ ÛÛ ßß ÜÜßß Üß |
| ßÜÜÜ ßÜÜÜÜ ÜÜÜß ÜÜß |
| ßÜÜÜ ßßßßßßß ÜÜÜß |
| ßÜÜÜÜÜ ÜÜÜÜÜß |
| ßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßß |
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| Editors -->> Ron Alcorn |
| Editors -->> W.H. Lambdin |
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| Last issue of 88, see you in 89! |
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È-----------------------------------------------------------¼TABLE OF CONTENTS - ISSUE # 2
- EDITORS CORNER
- FEED BACK
- K-SAT BULLETIN
- SEND THE CABLE BILL OF RIGHTS TO CONGRESS
- WHO NEEDS TO PIRATE
- LETTER TO THOM HENDERSON OF S.E.A.
- LETTER TO COLIN SAMPALEANU
- LETTER TO COLIN SAMPALEANU
- DETEAT CALL WAITING
- GETTING MORE FOR YOUR MA BELL DOLLAR
- ATLANTA PC-EXPO 9-24-88
- HARD DRIVE INFO
- RAM CHIPS LIVING WITH THE CLOUDS
- GOLDEN RULES
- TROJAN'S AND VIRII
- FLOPPY DISK DRIVES GALORE
- GIF PICTURES
- NEED A V-20?
- YMODEM vs ZMODEM
- PLIGHTS & PERILS OF UPGRADING 2
- OPTIMIZING THE AMSTRAD PC6400
- SLOW SECTORS
- VGIF 3.4
- SAMSUNG MULTI-SYNC MONITOR
- 22 NICE
- KEYBOARD DRAWER
- PATERSON XT BIOS FOLLOWUP
- PACKARD BELL 2400I
- PROGRAMMERS CHALLENGE
- QEDIT 2.06
- DIRECTORY MAGIC FOLLOWUP
- TECHNICAL DATA NEEDED
- ZIP INFO
- ZIP'S COVER SHEET CONTEST
- QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
- NEW BBS'S
- FILES MENTIONED IN ZIP
- FOR SALE
EDITORS CORNER
by W.H. Lambdin
There are new BBS's supporting ZIP. Heath Connection, and Beehive. You may see ZIP on other BBS's than the ones noted in the BBS list. The ones noted in the BBS List, are where (we the editors) will upload ZIP to. So if you need to contact one of us, and can't get on our BBS Secret Kingdom, you can leave a message to Ron or myself on any of the BBS's in the BBS list that have * or / under the area code. There is one thing. My name is W.H. Lambdin on all of those BBS's with the exception of Heath Connection. Mr. Curl's BBS doesn't allow users to use their initials, so If you want to drop me a note On Heath Connection, write it to Bill Lambdin.
I want to thank the following people. Terry West, John Baker, and Helenmarie Robitille. for allowing Ron and I to accept submissions on these BBS's. Strawberry Patch, WOW, and Beehive. Also thanks goes to all the people that have offered suggestions, and uploaded ZIP to other BBS's.
Zip has had more feedback from the first issue, than I ever thought possible. I have found Zip on quite a few BBS's that we did not upload it to, and every sysop has given it a positive review. Thank's!
ZIP is currently looking for associate editors If you are interested, let us know. Right now we need associate editors for C programming, or whatever topic you would choose to cover. Naturally since you receive this magazine for free, we will not be able to pay you for your efforts, but you would gain some experience, and help others.
You will probably notice ZIP has gone through a couple modifications, Hope you like the new layout, and content of this second issue. This is the last issue for 1988. If you are interested in entering the ZIP cover sheet contest, read the rules, and send in your entries. The next issue of ZIP, should be out in January. Maybe up to 10 days late, because we want the winning entry to appear on this next issue of ZIP.
You will notice the articles about Cable. Although it does not directly relate to MS-DOS users, but I felt it og general interest, and it deserved to be printed.
FEED BACK
This is some of the response we had due to ZIP's first issue.
I liked it! I'd like to be included in your BBS list.. and receive future issues to post on my board.. I'm going to write a "letter to the editor".. I do take a minor issue with NARC 's "amazing ability " to extract files separately to place in different subdirectories.. PKxarc/unpak will do the same thing if you tell it what to do.. I move and update files in other than the current directory all the time.. and put pieces where I want them without any excess motion.. I don't need a menu to tell me how.. HELENMARIE ROBITILLE
Think ZIP-1 is SUPER! JOHN MEROTH
Splendid Job on the first issue. Enjoyed it very much. I printed it with my printer. I was very surprised. It came out so beautifully, Headers, page numbers, and everything. I really appreciate page numbers. Makes your articles easy to find. THANKS!!! Can't wait to get my hands on the next issue. Peter Brent
I love this classy paperless magazine. Very informative. Hope you decide to go monthly. Everett Dennis
GREAT JOB!!! I enjoyed the magazine, and liked the format you used to display the articles. JAMES MONTGOMERY
I WOULD LIKE TO COMPLIMENT ALL YOU ON YOUR PAPERLESS MAGAZINE,, IT IS GREAT, VERY INFORMATIVE AND I REALLY ENJOYED THE READ!! LOOKING FORWARD TO THE NEXT ISSUE, VERY SOON..... CLEATIS MESSAMORE
ZIP IS THE BEST UN-PAPER MAGAZINE GOING!!! I HAVE VIEWED A COUPLE OF OTHERS AND THEY WERE NOT IN THE SAME CLASS, WITH ZIP.. CLEATIS MESSAMORE
I AM A SYSOP OF "THE SOUTHERN CROSS" BBS IN JACKSON TN. WOULD IT BE OK IF I OFFER ZIP AS A DOWNLOAD ON MY BOARD? I WILL WAIT FOR YOUR REPLY JOSEPH ELSENER
I really like the way ZIP organizes it's BBS list. By area code, as it should be!! Michael Koss
You did a hell of a job with this magazine. I printed it on a HP Laser Series II printer with a file called LJBOOK21 (which is on this board) and it turns it into a half sized book format with printing on both sides of the pages when folded in half. Zip is super and I do recommend that all users download a copy. - Thanks a lot for all of the work. - Dave Arline
After Reading the volume and quality of the first issue of ZIP, anyone would have to like ZIP Magazine. Jeff Binder (ATARI ST user)
At last there is some competition for the big magazines. I like this magazine a lot. Very informative, and I love the layout of the articles. Editorials, then articles, Reviews next. I love the way you sorted the BBS list. By area code like it should be, but mostly I like the clarity of the magazine. Correct margins, justification, and PAGE NUMBERS on every single page. Everything was planned perfectly. I do miss the color, and ad's of an average magazine, but with the content of this magazine I don't suffer at all. Keep up this kind of work, and my subscription to PC Computing is going to GO!! Joe Perkins
K-SAT NEWS BULLETIN
VOL.2 NO.42 1988 October 10 - 14
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Telestar 303 - Transponder 19 - 6.2 audio K-SAT, P.O. Box
1069, Gilroy, CA 95021; (408) 848-5558 PST Business Hours
Let's get ahead of the game - STAY INVOLVED - Be
Supportive!!!
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Have you let K-Sat know the opponents of the representatives
running against those who oppose us? VOTE FOR THE PERSON -
NOT THE PARTY!!!!!!
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WE CAN'T CLEAN UP WHAT WE DON'T LIKE IN EITHER PARTY IF WE
AREN'T INVOLVED Are you in touch with the local political
offices of the party of your choice? Do you know the people
in your political party who have something to say about
positions on issues and candidates? Have you talked to them?
BECOME ONE OF THEM! Problems can't be fixed if you don't
have ALL the proper tools. This information can be sent to
K-Sat and made available to others in your area upon request.
NO EFFORT ON THE LOCAL LEVEL MEANS NO FUTURE !!
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HAVE YOU GOTTEN A COMMITMENT FROM YOUR CONGRESSMAN ON
"SATELLITE PUBLIC EDUCATION AND INFORMATION ACT OF 1989"?
FROM THEIR OPPONENTS? K-SAT NEEDS TO KNOW. This is the time
to contact your local PBS, taxpayer supported channel and
gather information with documentation. Send copies to K-Sat!
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SUPPORT THOSE WHO CONSISTENTLY SUPPORT YOU AND K-SAT
Starion/Amway Ye Olde Print Shoppe Echosphere
OnSat Magazine STS
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WHERE DOES THE MAYOR OF YOUR CITY STAND ON OUR ISSUES? Is
he/she involved in the National League of Cities' efforts to
solve the contractual problems arising from deregulation? Why
not? Let them know the person to contact to get more
information.
WHERE DOES YOUR STATE ATTORNEY GENERAL STAND ON OUR ISSUE OF
ANTI-TRUST? Is she/he aware that there are 18 attorney
generals who are battling our issues? Is he/she aware that
there is a precedent case involving cable companies as
'public utilities'? Why not? Let them know where they can
get more information on these issues. GET THEM INVOLVED!!!
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DO YOU BELONG TO A UNION AND/OR OTHER ORGANIZATION THAT
TAKES POLITICAL STANDS ON ISSUES? Are they satisfied with
the position of the various government agencies on their
concerns? Are they satisfied with the position of their
local, state and federal representatives on their issues?
Are they aware that their issues are affected by positions on
seemingly unrelated issues and areas? Have they ever read
the legislation affecting their issues - or do they just take
the word of whoever has their ear at the time? MANY
REPRESENTATIVES AT ALL LEVELS MISREPRESENT THE EFFECTS OF
LEGISLATION TO GAIN THE SUPPORT OF POLITICALLY ACTIVE
ORGANIZATIONS. Take the time and opportunity to get the
bills that affect them and teach them to read these bills
accurately. THEN LET THEM KNOW WHAT AND HOW THEY CAN MORE
EFFECTIVELY MAKE CHANGES AND TAKE ACTION. Accurate
information is what K-Sat is all about and then getting
involved and STAYING committed. Try it !!!!!!!
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ZONE CO-ORDINATORS
If you can't be involved every night and want to stay
involved and updated regularly - help your zone coordinators
and state coordinators get you a copy of the weekly
newsbulletin. This is an organization that can only do as
much as you support and pay for. These coordinators can't
afford the paper and postage to reach you all. They need
your help. They can also help you more effectively if they
have your input and need you to pay for the call by YOU
calling them. DON'T LEAVE IT UP TO SOMEONE ELSE! The
following are your zone coordinators: Eastern Time Zone,
Northern Division; Dennis Delanoy, P.O. Box 66, Chenango
Bridge, N.Y., 13745, (607) 772-9571 and Southern Division;
Tom Witherspoon, 4705 Princess Anne Lane, Jacksonville, FL,
(904) 389-2128; Central Time Zone, NortherN Division; Joan
Conley, 4425 State Rd., Medina, OH, 44256, (216) 239-1851
and Southern Division; Louann Pehle, 2102 Clearfield Circle,
Richardson, TX, 75081, (214) 235-8509; Mountain Time Zone;
Shirley Johnson, 7204 S. Yarrow St., Littleton, CO, 80123,
(303) 973-8201; Pacific Time Zone, Northern Division; Rod
Ochs, P. O. Box 13500, Spokane, WA, (509) 928-8376 and
Southern Division; Keith Tomzack, 9910 Rosedale Hwy.,
Bakersfield, CA, 93312,(805) 589-9430: Hawaii; Ed Brady, 2141
Como Mai Dr., Pearl City, HI, 96782, (808) 456-2187 and Pat
Sullivan, Box 1323, Keaau, HI, 96749, (808) 966-9073: Alaska,
David Sovik, 1508 E. 41st Ct., Anchorage, ALaska, 99508,
(907) 563-6268 and Larry Buzzell, 4523 N. Riverside Dr.,
Juneau, Alaska, 99801, (907) 789-2230. If you want the name
and phone number of your state coordinator, these are the
people to contact. Also, please be aware that there is
usually a need for people to be 435's and Co-435's. If you
can help in this way, let these people know.
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THE ONLY PEOPLE WHO CAN HELP US IS US - HANG IN THERE!!
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SEND THE "CABLE BILL OF RIGHTS" TO CONGRESS
CALLS FOR :
LOWER RATES
MORE SERVICE
GREATER CITY CONTROLS
NO COST EXTRA HOOK-UP
S I G N T H E P E T I T I O N A N D
" T A K E A B I T E O U T O F C A B L E "
T H E I R P R I C E S A R E A C R I M E
CABLE SUBSCRIBER BILL OF RIGHTS
This petition is a CALL OF ACTION to the 101st Congress to
re-visit the cable Deregulation Act of 1984 and amend it so
as to bring effective competition in and out of cable areas.
We believe he cable systems are operating without effective
competition and are therefore afforded monopoly status by the
Deregulation Act of 1984.
We believe that alternative technologies should be given
enhanced status to effectively compete in cable areas.
We believe that where a single cable system exists without
25% penetration by alternative technologies (dishes,
wireless, pc, smatv telco, etc.) cities should be allowed to
oversight the rates, channels, and service in a "public
utility status".
We believe that where a cable system has public utility
status the operator should not have a financial interest
either direct or indirect in more than 5 of the channels
selected for the system.
We believe that the subscribers 1st Amendment rights are of
greater concern than the cable companies therefore all
editorials or issues of controversy initiated over the cable
by the cable owner or cable industry are answerable on an
equal access bases.
We believe that local broadcast, and C-span 1 and 2 should
receive first priority placement on cable channels.
We believe that multiple hook-ups to cable by a subscriber in
their home should not cause an additional fee (like telephone
jacks).
We believe that cable programming should be made available on
a nondiscriminatory bases to alternative technologies through
third party non cable distributors for competitive delivery.
We believe that undisclosed gifts of cable programming and
services to appointed or elected officials constitutes unfair
influence and should be illegal.
We believe that cable systems operating as "Public Utility"
status must spend a designated percentage of profits to
expand their area of services into unserved areas rather than
to buy other systems or invest in ownership of channels.
We support association of states Attorney Generals
investigation into antitrust activities by cable and believe
this should be investigated by the U.S. Attorney General and
the Federal Trade Commission.
We the people call on our Representatives in the 101st
Congress to re-codify these rights by amending the cable
Deregulation Act of 1984.
_____________________________________________________________
Check appropriate box if you wish a newsletter
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1.________________________ __________________________ _______
Name(printed) Signed Check
______________________ _____________ _________ ____________
Address City State Zip
2._______________________ ___________________________ _______
______________________ _____________ _________ ____________
3._______________________ ___________________________ _______
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4.________________________ __________________________ _______
______________________ _____________ _________ ____________
5._______________________ ___________________________ _______
______________________ _____________ _________ ____________
6._______________________ ___________________________ _______
______________________ _____________ _________ ____________
7._______________________ ___________________________ _______
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8._______________________ ___________________________ _______
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9._______________________ ___________________________ _______
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10.______________________ ___________________________ _______
_____________________ _____________ _________ ____________
Signature collected by Name__________________________________
Address___________________________ Signed____________________
Date Submitted____________________
"You May Reproduce This Form"
Submit To: K-SAT Broadcasting, P.O.Box 1069, Gilroy, Ca 95021
Received Via Satellite K-SAT Broadcasting PAD Service
10/25/88 Telstar 303 Transponder 19 6.2 Audio
EDITOR'S NOTE: A friend of mine, (Darrel Toepfer) submitted
an arc file with this text and a lot more. The arc file was
104K. If you would be interested in reading more on this
topic, please send a disk, and a self addressed mailer to me.
My adress is later in the magazine. I will send you the
complete text un modified as soon as possible. I have
modified this text a little to make it fit in the margins,
and taken out blank lines. the text is exactly as it was
submitted.WHO NEEDS TO PIRATE?
by W.H. Lambdin
When I was in the Commodore area, almost everyone I knew was a pirate. Let me tell you, Pirates are easy to spot, because they always have 500 or so diskettes of software. These Pirates have the latest programs, Sometimes a year before the package is available for sale.
Since I have upgraded to an MS-DOS computer, I have came to notice one thing very important. I can no longer use this rule of thumb to see who pirates, and who doesn't. 500 disks are a lot of diskettes to have filled up. The Big difference is the PD and Shareware areas.
In the MS-DOS area, there are PD and shareware utilities like Fastbac, Telix, Galaxy, Q-Edit, and Thousands of other titles that appear in the PD and ShareWare markets. The programs in ShareWare are commercial quality. I have to say Telix is the best Terminal program I have ever seen. Commodore's PD and ShareWare markets are almost non existent. If you got ShareWare, you were lucky to get it to work at all.
I was in the process of building my computer, but with all my free cash going into my computer. I had to stay away from Commercial software because of the cost. $500 for a Word Processor! I started calling BBS's and trading diskettes with the Sysop's through the mail. In eight months, I have filled up 60 disks of PD and ShareWare programs. All of these files are arced. I have no idea how many diskettes it would take to hold all of these programs. Most of this is as good or better than commercial programs.
I saw a friend demo WordStar. I liked the power and features it had, but it's buffer was small, but it could have very large text files by swapping the buffer in and out. In ShareWare, I found Galaxy. A word processor with WordStar commands, But it has pull down menus, and a 400K buffer if you are using a computer with 640K. That Friend now uses Galaxy because it is faster, and has such a large buffer.
I also found a spreadsheet Program Turbo Calc 8.1. This spread sheet has built in help, and the size is 8192 by 256 cells for data. On 640K systems, this spread sheet leaves 400K free for Data.
Well Piracy is wrong, and also illegal. But with the quality and quantity of ShareWare that is available. who needs to pirate? NO ONE!!!!
LETTER TO THOM HENDERSON OF SEA
by W.H. Lambdin
This is an exact copy of the letter I wrote to System Enhancement associates.
Dear Mr. Henderson
What did you think you would actually gain by lodging that court suit against Phil Katz? Apparently you expected to have a monopoly on this type of utilities, but you never dreamed that the PC-users would be against you. What your company has done it too low a blow for words. If you had copyrighted the arc name, just discuss your complaint with the authors of the offending programs, and ask them to change the name. There was no need to take people to court.
After all who in their right mind would think Mr Katz stole your program. Mr Katz's archive program was about four times as fast as that hippo you call arc.
Of course you know that a lot of BBS's around the country are banning SEA's programs. I am very glad they are opposing your unjust oppression to other authors of archive programs. I had been thinking of registering list 6.2A, but I am not going to. I feel the only way to reprimand your company, for unjust measures, is to hurt you in the cash department. I will never register any program that SEA designs, Nor will I use it. I intend to publish this letter in the next issue of ZIP. Ron alcorn and I are the co-creators of ZIP. If you haven't heard of ZIP, well it is on several BBS's around the country under the name ZIP-1.arc. It was made with PKPAK if you are interested. Read the article below. That is what I said about SEA in the first issue of ZIP.
I don't think your company will ever regain the respect it once had, unless you undo this dirty deed.
Sincerely
W.H. Lambdin
P.O. Box 328
East Bernstadt, Ky. 40729
(606) 843-6207
Below this letter, I enclosed a printed copy of my editorial I wrote about this subject in the first issue of ZIP. I felt there was no need to reprint that editorial from the first issue.
LETTER TO COLIN SAMPALEANU
By W.H. Lambdin
I like to register ShareWare programs that meet my needs. Galaxy, and Telix to name two such programs. I have been treated very nicely by OmniVerse (Creators of Galaxy), but I have not had any service from Mr. Sampaleanu.
I have been using Telix for about 8 months now, (since version 2.12.) In July I downloaded telix 3.0. I think it is the best terminal program around.
After I finished building my computer, and I had some extra money. I sent a check for $35 on August 19th 1988 to register Telix. I also sent $49.95 to Omniverse the same day to register Galaxy 2.3. I also wrote a letter to Mr. Sampaleanu telling him how well I liked Telix, I also sent a self addressed stamped envelope. As of October 16th, I have not heard one word from Mr. Sampaleanu, and I am quite agitated at him.
Relating my occurrences with omniverse, I received my registration copy of Galaxy 2.3 in about two weeks. In the space of two months, I have helped beta test version 2.4, and received the final release version 2.4 of Galaxy.
Unless Mr Sampaleanu starts giving registered users of his terminal program some service and satisfaction, he is going to loose a lot of customers.
If I had this to do over, I would not register Telix. I also recommend that if you use Telix, Do not register it till Mr Sampaleanu starts treating his customers with respect, and dignity they deserve.
UPDATE: On October 22nd, I finally received my registered copy of Telix 3.10. Enclosed with the two diskettes, was a note apologizing for the long delay.
Why couldn't he write a note to me a month ago, and explain the situation. If you order an item, and it is back ordered for 30 days, the company is obligated to write you a letter, and give you the choice of a refund, or waiting for the item. A law of this sort needs to be enforced in the ShareWare area. It is my opinion that to wait two months and four days is too long to wait for an item, without even a letter explaining the situation.
Of course I may never receive any notices to update Telix to later versions after Mr. Sampaleanu reads this. If this happens, I will just use unregistered copies of Telix updates.
Telix is the best terminal program in the Share Ware market, and it deserves to be registered, but Mr. Sampaleanu needs to change his way of supporting this terrific terminal program.
AN OPEN LETTER TO COLIN SAMPALEANU
by Helenmarie B. Robitille
Dear Mr. Sampaleanu:
I really enjoy your telecommunications package, TELIX. In fact, I liked it so much I went through the trouble of registering my copy.. back in August. I attributed the lack of response to the amount of time it takes to get mail from Vermont to Ontario: It seems to go by foot. However, the time span from August to the present seems a bit unreasonable to wait to receive my "registered copy" of Telix.
I have discovered , by way of QNet mail, that you intend to "hold" all registrations until the new release of Telix 3.10; this was fine by me, since I was hoping that the Compuserve bug would be fixed in the new release. That was a month ago.. I now have my copy of Telix 3.10.. I got it from a sysop friend of mine, "hot off the presses". But I still haven't seen my registered copy. I don't mind the opening screen telling me to register.. I always could patch the program to get rid of it. But it is an irritation knowing you've registered your copy, and have plugged the program to everyone you know, and still Telix treats you like a stranger.
Is there any news about when the registrations will ever be released? Or will we have spent our money in vain? This experience has definitely discouraged me from supporting shareware in the future.
Sincerely
Helenmarie B. Robitille
DEFEAT CALL WAITING
by Cleatis Messamore
(written by Ron Alcorn)
Here is what Cleatis tells you to do if you have call waiting and call BBS's. He has tried some programs on BBS's that say they will defeat call waiting, but these program do not work for him. But what he discovered himself works just fine. For instance, below is an example of an ordinary dialing string.
ATDT 1 555 555 5555 (the spaces are for clarity only,
although with most modems this
string would work even with the
spaces included)To defeat call waiting, Cleatis says to do this, see example shown below.
ATM1DT 1 555 555 5555 *70OR
ATM1DT*70 1 555 555 5555Cleatis actually did not give an example, so it is either one way or the other. So give both a try.
He says that this appears to do the trick every time or at least on the S.C. Bell Systems. He has had success with this string on both of the modems he owns. If this doesn't work for you, then he says that that some modems may require a pause before and after the *70.
See example below.
ATM1DT 1 555 555 5555~*70~If you are wondering what call waiting does to you, then listen closely. If you are connected to a BBS and receive a call, you will get knocked off line. And when this happens you might get slightly upset. Reason, what if you were downloading a 300K file and just lacked 5K to go and here come a incoming call? You would probably go through the ceiling I would imagine. Supposedly when making a long distance call, the call waiting is suppose to be disabled anyway so that this won't occur. But this may be true or not true depending on the long distance companies that are being used. But when making a local call, call waiting will most likely bite you at any time.
This is to Cleatis personally. If I have misinformed or explained something incorrectly Cleatis, please correct me.
If anyone else has a trick to accomplish the same thing, then please let us know about it so that we can inform the public.
GETTING MORE FOR YOUR MA BELL DOLLAR
By Dana G. Robitille
It's a little after 1:00 A.M. and my body thinks it is 6:00 A.M. Zip and the rest of you who suffer under the relentless [TAX] placed upon you by MA BELL may be interested in this tax avoidance scheme which we encourage our Long Distance Users to participate in.
Observing from our own experience that it takes at least an hour to download a disk of files (at 1200 baud) at a cost of at least $8.00 (AT&T) (more on instate service) we had to come up with some way to ease the pinch on our budget. We found by asking certain boards we traffic with that they were willing to send us files we requested if we would send them the media and a donation to cover postage in this way it may have taken a little longer to get the files but with all costs taken into consideration it usually ran us $1.00 a disk which is a lot better than the $8.00 that Ma Bell gets, to download the same amount of information or programs. We found some boards requested a handling charge and would supply the disks for about $4.00 a disk which both was half the amount Ma Bell would get and helped out those boards financially.
When we set up our board our experience with files by mail led us to encourage our Long Distance users to Download by mail. On our board there are other incentives also. The RATE program we use credits points in favor of the user for leaving a message or comment requesting files and the program does not take into account files/programs downloaded through the mail. The user who uses this system increases his online efficiency leaving more of his time allotment for other aspects of BBSing such as getting more involved with the message base and conferences. A user logging messages, composing replies offline and coming back on to upload messages and replies can be more effective and cut his online time by at least 75%. Though greater savings can be obtained using such programs as Relay Mail most users increase the volume of their BBS transactions once the Phone bill is brought into manageable limits.
The user then is rewarded by maintaining a higher security level, shorter but more productive online time, and less cost in obtaining public domain or shareware programs the user is interested in.
ATLANTA PC-EXPO 9-24-88
by Ron Alcorn
Well it wasn't much to begin with. All the vendors weren't there as advertised. Which made quite a few people very upset, plus the fact that it cost around 10 bucks. I just wonder how many times people pay for something and don't get what they paid for, don't you just hate that.
The main attraction is you were looking over top of the crowd would be of course, the clone making Chinese in a far corner. Nothing hi-tech, but they were selling clones one after another. They had the best prices of anyone there. I did have my complaints, the salesmen would speak to you for about 30 seconds, then walk off and start to talk to someone else. Not only did they do me that way about 4 times, but everyone else that walked along. I don't believe they liked it when you start asking too many questions, sort of like the stuff they were selling was hot. Maybe that was why they were cheaper than everyone else. No, I'm not accusing anyone.
To the most disappointment, I would assume, would be the Macintosh users. And good reason too, there was only 1 booth for the Macintosh. And contained in this one booth was one plain old Macintosh computer. Now back to what we love, our IBM/MS-DOS computers.
My main disappointment was that about 80% of the booths were software and it was old software mostly. About 20% of the software booths were just people selling PD and Shareware stuff (most of time this is the good stuff anyway, but they had too much to choose from making people get lost quick).
As far as the other 20%, were booths with computers. These computers didn't amaze me either, my 16 Mhz 286 was more powerful than anything they had to offer. I was expecting a few 386's, but I couldn't find one there at all. There weren't even any VGA setups, except the Chinese clone makers had a Sigma VGA setup.
Well the rest of the nitty gritty stuff was electronic gadgets and books. No good cheap books and the gadgets were so old that they were covered with dust. I mean these gadgets looked like third hand stuff.
They only thing I bought was a Key Supply 101 keyboard for $42 bucks. This was a good deal because it had dual mold injected keys, meaning the letters are not painted on, they are molded. These type keys will never wear off. Plus the keyboard's F11 and F12 keys give off the AT scan codes, meaning you can program them to your delight.
Well so much for the PC-Expo, maybe next year, but I doubt I'll go unless much improvement is to made and the time is right so that I can make the trip.
HARD DRIVE INFO
by W.H. Lambdin
A lot of people like to add hard drives to their system, and there are a lot of benefits, but to some people, setting a hard drive up is a hard task.
When people buy a hard drive, most of the time they just get the physical drive, controller, and instructions. Unfortunately the instructions hardly ever explain how to do a low level format, set the hard drive in partitions, or transfer the system to the hard drive.
LOW LEVEL FORMAT. This is the first step to setting your hard drive up. There are quite a few low level format programs in the public domain. Here is the way I like to low level format a hard drive. Load debug from your dos disk, and enter this command. G=c800:5. This loads, and executes the low level format software in the Hard drive controllers Bios. After you have entered this command, the software will ask you some questions. such as the interleave you want, and the number of tracks, and if you wish to lock out questionable sectors. You can find the settings in the manual that comes with the hard drive. This command with debug will not work in every case, but from my experiences, it has worked successfully 4 out of 5 times. If you enter this command, and nothing happens, turn off the computer and reboot. In this case, use Hdinit, or some other low level format program. It should take 12 to 15 minutes to low level format a 20 meg hard drive. After this has completed, proceed to step two.
PARTITIONS. A lot of people like to set up their hard drives in partitions. Partitions allow people to break hard drives down into separate logical drives. There is a program that comes with dos. (Fdisk). This program will only take a few seconds to partition a hard drive. Personally, I like my 32 meg drive in one partition. It is easier for me to find what I am looking for. You may have a different point of view.
FORMAT: Now you are ready to format your hard drive with the format command. If you are like me, I like to boot from the hard drive. If you want to format the hard drive, and transfer the system at the same time, use format with this parameter. Format c:/s. This procedure should take about the same amount of time as it took to do the low level format. After this step is complete, it is time to start copying the files you want on the hard drive. Remember, to add a line to your autoexec.bat similar to this. path = c:\;c:\dos;etc. This command tells the system where to look for command,com, and other files you want in the path. Note if you have more than one partition, you will have to format each partition separately.
SUB DIRECTORIES. Before I go into sub directories, your hard drive is completely ready to go. Sub directories, are easy to make, but some people never bother, because they think they can only use the main (or root directory). If you use sub directories, the root directory will be much cleaner. The root directory can hold a maximum of 512 directory entries, and sub directories can hold a maximum of 512 files. You can also have several levels of sub directories. If you are in the root directory, you can make a sub directory this easily. md dos. this will create a dos directory. I use sub directories so I can have all me files organized, all the pctools files in the pctools directory, Telix terminal program in the telix directory, dos for my dos files, and miscellaneous utilities. Sub directories are nice because you don't have to search an extremely large directory. About now, you are wondering how to move around in sub directories. cd\dos will move to the dos dir, cd\ will take you back to the root directory. If you want to remove a directory, you need to log in the directory, then delete the files, then move out, and use rd\directory name you wish to delete.
I hope you have found this article, both helpful, and informative.
RAM CHIPS LIVING WITH THE CLOUDS
by Ron Alcorn
Don't take me seriously, ram chips aren't living with clouds, but their prices are high as the clouds. Let me give you an idea, just in case you know nothing about the prices of ram chips here lately.
A little over a year ago, I could buy one 4164K (120 nano second) chip for a buck and a half. I could also buy one 41256K (120 nano second) chip for three bucks and a half. So one could possibly buy 640K of memory for around $100 dollars. But on the average one could buy 640K for under $150 dollars, that is if you got it thru mail order discount stores. Now it costs around $12 dollars for a 41256K (120 nano second) chip and $4 for a 4164K (120 nano second) chip. Which would cost under $300 bucks. But at this price you would be facing a long hard look thru computer mail order magazines for the best memory chip prices. And there would be a slight chance that they may not even have the memory in stock. Word is out that memory chips are scarce, let alone it being ridiculously priced. Can you just imagine the profit being made. One small chip for $12 dollars, come on, lets get real congressmen. Oh don't worry, I'll tell you where they fit in here shortly. I'll give you another example of the price boom. I bought a 1 MEG 9 x 1 SIM module (100 nano second) for $260 bucks a year ago. Now it would cost me around $600 dollars. But it isn't going to cost me anything, I'll not be buying anything until sanity comes about. The only people I see buying memory at these prices are big business companies. Of course they were probably already paying way too much to begin with.
What I'm about to tell you is only what I have heard. It's probably true anyway, although rumors are usually a lie. But this one is right in front of our noses, so there is no way one could say that memory is cheap. There has been a so called tariff placed on several incoming types of chips from foreign countries. A tariff is a tax being placed on incoming foreign items. In this case a tariff is an over priced tax, I mean way over priced.
I'll explain what I think the reason for the tariff is and tell you why it hasn't helped anyone. Congress seems to think that they would be nice for a change by trying to help out American chip manufacturers. As you already know, they wanted to place a tariff on incoming foreign chip sales. Well they did and it stunned us heavily. They actually thought that if the tariff was put into effect, that American chip manufacturers could get back in to the market race by lowering their prices cheaper than the foreign competitors. Well this done nothing but straight out back fire. The American chip manufacturers have jacked their prices up to the same price that foreign chips are being sold for. And even in some cases they are still being sold at higher prices than the foreign competitors. Greed, greed, greed, that's the flat out reason. Looks like they could open their eyes and sell a whole lot cheaper. If they did that, they would probably have more business than they could of ever hoped for. And with such demand these days, you know they would of made lots and lots of money. Maybe what I am saying is too simple, congress has to add a blue million terms in the contracts. So maybe American companies are forced to sell at the price of the lowest foreign cost. Na, there is no way, if they did, well elephants and donkeys the congress shall be. They have been stuck in their ways for so long, they ended up sinking in a hole as deep as it is to China. And do you ever think it is possible to dig a hole to China? Let alone making your way back to the top of the hole. Only if donkeys and elephants both can fly! And not only fly, but fly very very very high. Ha!Ha! Not a chance!
Now you have a slight idea of what has been going on. Several people in the public would like for this tariff to be abolished, ZIP, BAM, BOOM, DESTROYED, get the picture. Something needs to be done, at least I would assume the majority of the public is against the tariff. Well what can we law abiding citizens do? I will give you a few hints, but I will need your suggestions and ideas. To start off, a good thing would be to call several computer stores that sell memory chips in one way or the other. Ask them if they would be interested in writing a letter. Contained in this letter would be some statistics on memory chips prices before the tariff, the prices in between, and the prices as of the date they write the letter. Also the problems encountered with the price increase. Things such as availability, have they been easy or hard to get in stock? How much business has been lost percentage wise? And any other complaints they would have about the price increase. Also spread the word around to your friends and BBS's as much as possible.
These are a few problems that will get in the way. For instance, what do we do with the letters. Should we mail them to our congressman, mail them to a well known organization that has some say so. And when decided, could we be sure that whomever got the letters, would show or send them to the correct person or place.
So this is where ZIP needs your help. There is information here in ZIP where we can be contacted. We need the public's answer on the best thing to do. Once we have come up with our solution, then we will take action. Besides calling a business, you also should write a letter yourself. The more, hope we can have. I have been calling the complaints letters, I guess they could be called the start of a huge petition. At least I hope it will become huge so that something can be done about the crisis. Just call it what ever you want, what ever it is called, there is one objective in mind. Terminate operation memory chip tariff!
Just to remind you, please send us your ideas! Once the final decision has been made what to do, ZIP will publish the results as soon as the decision has been made. And when we pass around ZIP to the public, and everyone is ready. We will start the operation and hope that we will succeed.
If you think that what I have said is a little too much and that I should give some time for the memory prices to come down, then feel free to say so. I know that what I have mentioned above would be a lot of work, but those prices kind of tick me off. If you think we should do absolutely nothing, then let us know and we will leave things as they are now. Thanks for reading this whether you agree or dis-agree with this article that I have written. And before you tell me, I know, I probably flew the coop, and the bad part about it is that I know it. What kind of guy am I picking on myself, well enough of being a bad comedian.
GOLDEN RULES
by Robert Jones
Please think about these golden rules when you are online. If everyone would follow these rules, the BBS's would be a lot better for everyone.
- Always read the rules the BBS lives by.
- Never disconnect from a BBS by just dropping carrier unless it is an accident, or absolutely necessary.
- Never use any foul language in messages or while talking to the sysop. Remember you are in reality a guest of the sysop's home, so mind your manners.
- Don't be a leech. Remember if you download files, remember to upload a file every now and then.
- Take part in the message base.
- Don't hog the system by staying on longer than necessary. Other's are wanting to get on too.
These are my opinions, but I think if the users would show a little more courtesy, BBSing would be much nicer for all of us.
TROJAN'S AND VIRII
by ?
Are trojan's and virii as prevalent as people claim they are?
I have been downloading files from BBS's for a lot of years, and I have never gotten a virus, or even a trojan. I have run across several harmless practical jokes such as FLIP, DRAIN, and DRIP. These are harmless practical jokes. I have heard of virii that screw up the FAT table, infect command.com, and also the hidden files.
I have never seen one, much less been affected by one. Nor have I known anyone that has been affected by one. I just think Virii are figments of the commercial vendor's imagination. Apparently the commercial vendors are trying to scare prospective buyers away from the PD or Share ware market's.
There is no way I intend to pay $400 or more for a commercial package when I can find one as good or better on BBS's.
If you know of any trapped specimens of trojan's or better yet virii, write a short article in ZIP, and I will try it. I will be waiting.
I am very well known in the PC-community, and you probably have a utility that I wrote. So I asked Mr. Lambdin to let my article be incognito. Thanks.
EDITORS NOTE. these two small articles were mot uploaded to a BBS, they were messages on a BBS I call. If you wish to write small articles in messages instead of uploading a text file, this is perfectly acceptable. W.H. Lambdin
FLOPPIES DISK DRIVES GALORE
by Ron Alcorn
What I intend to do for you is to inform you of the various kinds of drives. I'll let you know how they perform and how well built they have been made. Also I'll give you an average price for each type of drive from the Computer Shopper advertisements. The prices that I have shown you are just off the top of my head, but I assure you that if you look hard enough thru the Computer Shopper that you will find a better price than what I have shown to you. If you can't find a lower price, then let me know and I'll try to find one for you in the latest Computer Shopper.
NOTE: As you will see below, I have rated all Teac's to be the best. Besides what you read below, you will notice that if you look in the Computer Shopper, Teac's are the least of drives to be listed in a repair list of a repair company. So using logic assumption, I would assume that this drive is the most reliable and durable of them all. Among the other drive's I reviewed, on the average, they are all equally listed in the repair listings. Also if you notice, companies that sell Teac's plus other brands of drives, the Teac will almost always be the most expensive drive.
BRAND SPECS COST RATING
-------------------------------------------------------------
Teac 5 1/4" - 360K $85 ***** Toshiba 5 1/4" - 360K $75 ***
Fujitsu 5 1/4" - 360K $75 ****+ Mitsumi 5 1/4" - 360K $70 *
Teac 5 1/4" - 1.2 MEG $100 *****
Mitsubishi 5 1/4" - 1.2 MEG $100 ***
Sony 5 1/4" - 1.2 MEG $100 **
Teac 3 1/2" - 720K $100 *****
Toshiba 3 1/2" - 720K $90 ****
Teac 3 1/2" - 1.44 MEG $125 *****
Toshiba 3 1/2" - 1.44 MEG $125 ***
***** - The best!
**** - Better than average. / \
*** - Average. ( + = 1/2 STAR )
** - Below average. \ /
* - It stinks!
-------------------------------------------------------------TEAC 5 1/4" 360K
This drive is built sturdy, and has a nice sleek attractive design. It has neither a glossy nor a flat dull color, it has a sculptured ergonomic look. The quality of this drive is excellent. I have five of these drives, well actually three, two of them are old single sided drives. Everyone of them has worked perfectly, except for one. The one bad one would read and write just fine, but the motor's on the drive stopped turning just here recently. Nothing to worry about, because the drive was still in warranty. I've come to the conclusion that it had probably been damaged during the shipping and handling process. Also I have a friend that has two of them, and they both have been operating just perfectly well for him. He has been very satisfied with them. One little feature I almost forgot to tell you about, is that it is very easy to insert a disk in the drive. The drive opening is V-shaped, so this helps the disk to go in very smoothly.
Here are some features not commonly thought of. These drive's don't have a spring so that the disk comes flying out when you open the drive door. This is just a fifty/fifty feature, some people like it, and some don't. Also Teac's don't prevent you from closing the drive door when a disk is not inserted. But this is nothing to worry about, the heads don't touch at all. I only know of two brands of drives that keep you from closing the drive door without a disk inserted. They are Fujitsu and Mitsubishi. If these drives would let you close the drive door with out a disk, then I would assume that the heads would probably touch. I suppose this is why this feature is installed on those two brands of drives. One disadvantage comes to mind with that feature. What if one was in a hurry and thought that a disk had been left in the drive. You start to turn the drive door down, and without noticing a disk wasn't inserted, you quickly turn the drive door, so possibly you might just might break it. Teac's are also a little louder than other drives, but they aren't as loud as some off brand types. Don't get me wrong, it is not a loud drive, it just makes a little more noise than some of the other drives. If you want reliability at it's best, then buy any type of Teac floppy drive. Also Central Point Software recommends that Teac's be the first choice when it comes to using their Copy II PC Deluxe Option Board than other type drive.
TOSHIBA 5 1/4" 360K
This drive is nothing fancy, but it gets the job done. The drive is quiet, but could be built a bit sturdier. The face plate is a flat black, leaving it with a poor appearance. The face plate also has too much molded design in it, meaning it is anything but smooth. This drive has the spring loaded feature, so when you open the drive door it spits the disk out, not all the way, just half way. Looks are not everything, but they are nice to have.
I didn't have much experience with these drives but they have never failed me. I sold the two of them I had with a computer that I sold. So far the customer has had no complaints what so ever. My only complaint other than what I have said about it, is that the drive should let you insert the disks with out having to exactly line the disk up.
I would only recommend this drive if you use your computer on a less than regular basis. Meaning you just turn it on a few times a week. If you use your computer excessively then I feel that these drives would probably not hold up very well. But for the home user that does not use their computer much and are on a low budget, then this might be the drive you.
FUJITSU 5 1/4" 360K
Among all the other drives, this one gets my vote for second place. First of all it is extremely quiet, the most quite drive I have ever heard. It's face plate design is a glossy black and it has a smooth finish. The drive door latch is locked in the up position when no disk is inside the drive. Meaning you can not close it until you put a disk in the drive. The drive is not a cheaply built, but it should have a bit more sturdiness. The drive opening is alright when inserting a disk. Some drives such as the Mitsumi's have a problem getting the disk in easily.
The drive is very well suited for the home and should be sufficient enough for businesses also. It is not an expensive drive, so it should fit in the budget if your are money tight. As much as I have seen the drive in action, it has performed as it should, so you should be satisfied with it.
MITSUIMI 5 1/4" 360K
Ughhhh! That's right! This drive is so terrible, it is not even fit to be called a disk drive. There isn't hardly one good thing about this stinking drive at all. To begin with, the face plate is ugly as a rusty old primer painted car that is about 30 years old (I know, I'm exaggerating, but if you are going to dog this drive, why not do it right). The drive light indicator takes a magnifying glass to look at, and if you can't find your magnifying glass, just go flip the light switch off so you can see it in the dark, that is if you are lucky enough so that it is night instead of day. Moving on, as if the appearance of the drive has just urged you to march on, it does have one feature that you can't complain about. There is a metal shield around the drive and it is about the cheapest name brand drive you can buy. Now back to it's awesome features.
Here is where the Mitsumi will drive you nuts. You have about a 20% ratio of successfully formatting or copying disks. Nearly every time you go to format a disk, the drive will start making a ZZZZ-ZZZZ-ZZZZ sound around track 36 and on up. As a matter of fact, anytime you hear that sound, go ahead and grit your teeth cause you can count on it that something has gone wrong. Oh there is nothing wrong with the disk, is is just the drive. When it comes to formatting, you will end with as low as 5K up to 35K bad per disk.
I have talked about this drive constantly criticizing it. I may be wrong, it could be just that the drive had a bad read or write head, or the heads were out of alignment. I have run software tests on the drive and it always checked out OK. The RPM speed was within tolerance, but I had no way of checking the drive alignment other than but eye. You shouldn't test a drive's alignment by your eye, but I had no other way to test the alignment. I figured since that the drive was not reliable at all, is must be so out of alignment that surely you could see it with the naked eye. Although I noticed nothing wrong, testing the alignment with my eye is about as safe as walking across a 6 lane highway while wearing a blind fold. The drive was new, so you can't say that age had caught up with the drive's performance.
TEAC 5 1/4" 1.2 MEG
Do you ever hear the problem of people saying they get a disk that had been copied on a 1.2 MEG drive and then their 360K drive will not read it properly. Well I can HONESTLY say that I have had no such trouble with transfers between the Teac 360K, Fujitsu 360K, and the Teac 1.2 MEG drives. Other than the disk capacity this drive has, it is exactly like the Teac 360K drive, so refer to the article above.
MITSUBISHI 5 1/4" 1.2 MEG
This drive is about the same as the Teac 1.2 MEG, except it sort of looks and sounds like the Fujitsu 360K drive. This is one of the drives that prevents you from shutting the drive door without having a disk inserted. As far as reading and writing 1.2 MEG's it has performed as it should. And I can also say that this drive has had no trouble at all between the Teac 360K and Teac 1.2 MEG drives, or at least it has done well with what little transfers I have done. At first the disk drive wrote 360K formatted disks horribly, but come to find out the controller was flaky. Since the new controller has been installed, the drive seems fine.
SONY 5 1/4" 1.2 MEG
I don't have too much information about this drive, because all the experience I have had with this drive was about an hour. But here is what I found out about the drive. It looks fine, but it sounds horrible, not loud, but sort of like it is eating the disk. Although this sound wasn't nice, it read my 360K disks as it should. I tried formatting a double sided double density (360K) disk as a 1.2 MEG disk. This is where this drive falls short in my opinion. With all the other 1.2 MEG drives tested, they would format the DS/DD disks good up until it got around in the upper tracks, high 60's and on up. And even some cases format them all the way. Well this Sony started screwing up around in the 30's. I know one is suppose to use double sided high density disks, and I do normally, but I think this is a good quick way to test how well the drive can read and write.
TEAC 3 1/2" 720K
No need to do a lot of repeating of text, so the this drive and the one's to follow will be quick to the point.
The drive looks good, reads and writes good, and looks nice. One important feature that I should point out, is that it copies copy protected disks just fine when using software that works with 3 1/2" drives. It falls in to the same category as the Teac 5 1/4" 360K when it comes to sound. Works perfect and that about sums this one up.
TOSHIBA 3 1/2" 720K
Well this one has the same features as the Teac 3 1/2" 720K except it is a little quieter and the drive light indicator is to small. This drive copied copy protected disks also, but not as good as the Teac. You may have to try to copy the disk a few more times than the Teac, but eventually you will get a good copy.
TEAC 3 1/2" 1.44 MEG
This drive has the same features as it's little 720K brother. It writes 720K disks just fine and they transfer to other drives with no problems at all (some drives will not do this as good), whether the transfer is taking place with a 1.44 or 720K drive makes no difference. This drive is smart, it knows whether you have a 720K disk inserted or a 1.44 MEG disk inserted (some other drives don't know the difference). If you see a another hole in the disk just opposite of the write protect hole, then you know the disk is high density media.
Drill hole here Ä¿(Pertains to text below)
Example: ÚÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ³ ÚÄÄÄÄÄ¿
³ß ß³ ÀÄÅ ß³
³ÚÄÄÄ¿³ ³ÚÄÄÄ¿³
ÀÁÄÄÄÁÙ ÀÁÄÄÄÁÙ
1.44 MEG 720KAnd when it comes to 1.44 MEG mode, again it is flawless. Take note here to this nice little trick that I do. Take an ordinary 720K disk, and place a 1.44 MEG disk on top of it, looking at the hole on the left side (refer to diagram if necessary) and with a pencil trace the hole so that you have made a little black box on the 720K disk. Now take a drill bit (I use a 1/8" drill bit) and drill a hole thru the middl of that little box you drawed. Try as best as you can to center it, if the drive won't format the disk, try making the hole a little bigger toward the direction needed. Also if your drill press or your old Black and Decker drill has a speed adjustment, put it on the slow speed. Reason being that since the disks are plastic, at high speeds the plastic tends to melt and stick to the drill bit. And if this happens, then you may ruin a disk. So be very careful when attempting this procedure. I can tell you that out of all the disks I have done this way, only 2 have not formatted correctly. To be on the safe side do one disk first, format it and see what goes. If it is OK, then try modifying a few more disks, and if they are OK, then you can probably always trust this little trick. Sure beats the heck out of paying over 4 bucks for a high density 3 1/2" disk. Instead of being over 4 bucks, for me it is a buck and a bit of time, much better for the budget. I can't recommend this trick, so this is AT YOUR OWN RISK. But I can assure you that this trick has worked just fine for me.
TOSHIBA 3 1/2" 1.44 MEG
Well this drive is going to take some explaining, so hold your horses. First of all, it does not know the difference between a DS/DD and DS/HD disk media. In other words, if you go to format a DS/DD disk, it will format to 1.44 MEG, which there is no problem of the media being bad. But if you try to format the disk as a 720K, no way. It will read 720K disks and write 720K disks, but it is not reliable. Although the reading is more reliable than the writing, but don't trust transfers using 720K disks. Also since the drive doesn't know the difference between the disks, you have no way of knowing what type disks you have laying around. Unless you go ahead and do the trick as I mentioned above, or write on the disk if it is 720K or 1.44 MEG, or run CHKDSK or of the like. Everything I have mentioned in this paragraph is from my experience from using the drive on an AT computer.
Now for when you use the drive on a XT computer. If you use the drive as drive A or B, then the drive will work just fine as a 360K drive except of course it is on 3 1/2" media. Even though it is a 360K, it will read and write the 720K formatted disks, but not the 1.44 MEG disks. The 720K will also work just fine as long as your create a logical drive using the DRIVER.SYS driver. The physical (main) drive will be a 360K, and the logical drive (same physical drive, but using another drive letter) will be the 720K drive.
TO CLEAR THIS UP.
Everything you have read is from my experiences. You may have run in to a better or worse situation, but I hope that you have found my information to be helpful and not misleading. In any way, I am not responsible if I have lead you to a purchase and you end up not being happy. But I have given you my opinions as what I consider to be of importance. Some things could have been explained more, but don't worry. On what little I missed out on or didn't explain thoroughly enough, will be followed up in the next issue of ZIP if need be. And if you need to ask some questions, just leave some messages on the BBS's that are listed in this magazine that have a * or / beside them. So stay tuned for the next issue of ZIP to see your questions get answered. Whether I know the answer or not, your question will still get published so that others can send ZIP some information in order to help you.
GIF PICTURES
by W.H. Lambdin
What do you think about the GIF format of pictures available on a lot of Bulletin Board's around the country?
I think they should become the standard graphic format, for three important reasons.
1. There are programs around to display gif pictures on virtually every computer that has a wide base of users. There are gif decoders for MS-DOS machines, Atari ST's, Atari 8 bit computers, Commodore 64's, Amiga's, and quite a few more. The reason this is important is because it means, you can view a graphic on a 64, when the graphic was created on an IBM compatible, or Amiga. The C-64 will obviously not display the graphic to it's full potential, but the graphic will be displayed to the best of the 64's ability.
2. The graphics are compressed by the LZW compression technique to keep the graphic's from being extremely large in size (LZW compression is the same as squashing in arc files.) The largest GIF picture I have seen was 169 K. However, I have seen GIF pictures as small as 3 to 8K.
I have a GIF of Leonard McCoy (The doctor from the series Star Trek). This graphic is only 8K in size. It has 256 colors, and the graphic looks very life like. If you like graphics, and you have never looked into GIF graphics, you don't know what you are missing.
3. Gif has very impressive resolution and color capabilities. Gif has a maximum of 16,000 by 16,000 resolution with a maximum amount of 16 million possible colors. There are no computer's on the horizon capable of this resolution or colors. So I guess Gif graphics are here to stay.
A lot of BBS's have the graphics with .gif as the extension. The reason they aren't in arc files is because they are already compressed to the maximum, and ARC isn't able to compress them any more. On average, GIF pictures compress anywhere from 0% to 3% when you put them in arc files. So arcing them, is counterproductive because the files will be larger in size because of the ARC header, and it takes extra time after you get them to un arc them.
Gif pictures were invented by Compuserve, a few years ago, and with the introduction of affordable digitizers, GIF pictures have really blossomed. GIF is my favorite picture format, I think you will agree.
NEED A V-20?
by W.H. Lambdin
Are you using an XT or clone, and want more power and speed? But you don't want to shell out big bucks to upgrade to an AT?
I would recommend for you to change your processor, not your computer. There is a processor that directly replaces the 8088 chip, and costs less than $20. JDR is one business that sells these chips.
All you need to do is remove the 8088 chip from the socket on your motherboard, and put this chip in it's place. There are warnings about installing this chip yourself. 1 point the notch on the chip in the same direction the 8088 was pointing. 2 be sure to take your time, and don't bend any of the pins. 3 Be sure to buy the same speed V-20 as the 8088 you are replacing. Aside from the warnings above, the procedure is straight forward.
This chip will dramatically increase the power and speed of your computer. From my experiences, it will speed up your computer by 50 to 80 %. On my old XT compatible, my Norton's SI rating jumped from 2.1 to 4.0.
There are no disadvantages of changing processors. The V-20 not only speeds up your computer. It lets you run some CP/M programs with a CP/M emulator found on several BBS's (v-20 80). You can also run some 80286 programs. as long as they are not in protected mode, or too large for the XT's memory. On top of all these extra advantages, the V-20 is 100% 8088 compatible.
There are two producers of V-20's, Intel, and Nec. I had one made by Nec.
I recommend V-20's because you get a faster computer, and also some CP/M and 80286 compatibility!
If you you have an 8086 processor instead of an 8088, You can buy a V-30. it has the same features I described, but it directly replaces the 8086 processor.
There are a lot of people claiming V-20's only speed up computers by a marginal amount. This chip only increases the speed of the processor. Yes it can increase the speed of the processor by as much as 50 to 80 %. It did on my old 10 mhz 8088.
YMODEM vs ZMODEM
by W.H. Lambdin
How many of you like me, have heard this statement? Zmodem is faster than Ymodem.
When I first started using my 2400 baud modem with Telix 2.12 I called A BBS that ran PC-Board 12.1. After I filled out the questionnaire, it asked what protocol I wanted to use. I chose Xmodem CRC. Then the BBS reported Ymodem is faster. I checked to see if I had ymodem support. Telix had ymodem, so I changed my default protocol to Ymodem. The BBS reported Zmodem is faster, but Telix 2.12 offered no Zmodem support.
After I received Telix 3.00 I started using Zmodem. I had heard Zmodem was supposedly 10 to 15% faster than Ymodem. This claim has turned out to be false. The average CPS (characters per second) under perfect conditions Ymodem was 233, and Zmodem was 235. Under average conditions, the CPS is 227 for Ymodem, and 227 for Zmodem. Exactly the same speed.
If you are comfortable with Ymodem, there is no need for you to use Zmodem. Personally I like Zmodem better because it is more user friendly. Downloading with Zmodem, it reports the number of bytes to expect, bytes received, amount of time it will take to download the file, and time remaining. I am talking about Telix 3.00 because it is what I use. Ymodem only reports the number of bytes received, and elapsed time. Unless you use Ymodem batch.
There is another reason I like Zmodem over Ymodem is because Zmodem can be used to send single files or batch transfers. You don't have to specify the protocol for batch transfers or single files like you do with Ymodem. This is the reason I switched to zmodem.
There is one thing about Zmodem. With this protocol, I seem to have less bad blocks than I did when I used Ymodem. I don't know why.
These are the facts, I have compiled. If your's are different, I would love to hear from you.
PLIGHT'S AND PERILS OF UPGRADING. PART TWO
by W.H. Lambdin
This is a continuation from part one published in the first issue of ZIP. Part one took you to where I had ordered the hard drive controller. The perils continue!
I had ordered an AT RLL hard drive controller from IDS. Part # WD 10003. First it was back ordered for two weeks. When they finally received the card, it had gone up in price by another $25. A total of $130, and my old XT controller.
I canceled the order, and asked them to send me a refund, because I knew a place that sold an RLL hard drive controller, that supported a 1 to 1 interleave. I called Lucky computer, and asked to speak to a salesperson.
I told the salesman I was interested in the adaptec AT RLL hard drive controller, that sold for $149. I explained my present system configuration. When I explained that I was using a Seagate ST238R, a 30 meg RLL drive with 65 millisecond access time, He reported the drive (because of it's access time) would be too slow to use at a 1 to 1 interleave. If I used this controller, It would have to be set to a 2 to 1 interleave, or even better a 3 to 1 interleave.
About this time, I was getting desperate, and I noticed they sold an AT hard drive controller for $110. I asked if it supported RLL Drives, the Salesman answered yes. I asked the salesman if I could return the controller if it failed to work with my hard drive, and he reported yes, if I paid a restocking fee.
After installing the hard drive controller card, I was not able to boot my computer unless I removed my Multi I/O card, because both the hard drive controller, and the multi I/O card try to control the floppies. The terrible part of this situation is that neither card has jumpers to disable the floppy controller. And I am using my computer without the multi I/O card.
With this AT RLL controller, my hard drive is at a speed almost unbelievable. The Speed has jumped from 137 K per second, to 244.5K per second. A vast improvement. Two weeks after I set my hard drive up, I reinitilaized the hard drive, but at a 2 to 1 interleave. Now my ST238R is operating at 354.4K per second!!
On September 29th, I received my AT multi I/O card. I now have my AT compatible at full speed. I like the AT compatible much more than I ever liked the XT compatible. Now the CPU is three times as fast as the XT (The XT compatible had a 10 MHZ V-20 too), and the hard drive is 2.6 times faster. Not bad after all the perils!
OPTIMIZING THE AMSTRAD PC6400
by John Baker
I made the leap from 8 bit CP/M to 16 bit MS-DOS by getting an AMSTRAD computer. When I first received my computer, I was very satisfied and impressed with it's apparent speed and ease of operation. As I began to take notice of other DOS machines, my perception of speed changed. The computer was still by far the easiest one I ever had to use, but the GEM screen updates, and program execution seemed to be getting slower by the day! I know it wasn't, but it seemed that way. So I enlisted the help of a couple of friends who have much more MS-DOS experience than myself. They came, they saw, and when they left, I had a speed demon compared to the computer I used to have!
First we backed up the hard drive using a nice program called ARCHIVE. This was so the GEM desktop utilities and programs could be restored to their proper places. Then using a newly purchased edition of MS-DOS 3.3, we proceeded to replace the dual DOS system on the AMSTRAD. The procedure started by running FDISK, then on to a FORMAT C:/S. After all this was done, the backup files were restored to the disk. All except the old DOS 3.2 and DOSPLUS files of course.
Now the boot. Unbelievable as it may seem GEM runs twice as fast! All the programs I could not run before, work now! Why did all this improvement happen? I figure it was two things. First the AMSTRAD supplied DOS 3.2 is not very compatible. (DOS+ from DRI, supplied also, was even less!) Also the dual operating systems on one hard drive might have been confusing some programs that accessed the system tracks for system configurations.
So, if you have an AMSTRAD PC6400, 1512, or 1640 and find yourself wanting faster GEM and more compatible DOS. Replace your old AMSTRAD DOS 3.2 with MS-DOS 3.3. You'll think you have a speed demon too.
There are other enhancements I have found too. Look for more articles in ZIP's coming issues to see how to make your system run better than new, without replacing it. PC. Whether it be an AMSTRAD or whatever, there are ways to make your system run better than new without replacing it.
SLOW SECTORS
BY W.H. Lambdin
Have you ever been plagued by slow sectors? Slow sectors are sector's on the hard drive that format good, but gradually get worse, till you can't load or copy the programs that reside on them.
I would rather have bad sectors locked out than these slow sectors, because a sector that has been locked out is no threat to normal operations of a hard drive.
How do you find out which sectors are slow before the sector gets so bad that you are unable to load or copy files that reside on these slow sectors? There is one file on several BBS's called DTST. THis file check's for sectors that read slower than they should. Execute it like this dtst and the drive you wish to check. It will check the sectors in reverse order, and any sectors it finds slow it will report in this format. 13756 3 SLOW. The first number is the sector number. I do not know what the second number represents.
Finding the slow sectors with this program is easy. This program only gives you the sector number. How do you find the cluster that contains the slow sector? I use the disk editor in PC-Tools 4.22 to view the questionable sector. The cluster number should be close to the sector number. Press F4, and PC-Tools will tell you what file has the slow sector in it's chain of sectors. If there is a file on a slow sector, you will have to copy that file to a floppy, or another sub directory before locking out the cluster. Now erase the file, and exit PC-Tools. Now you are ready to lock out the cluster.
Locking out slow sectors. Unfortunately PC-Tools does not have an option to lock out sectors. You need to use DT from the Norton Utilities, or something similar. If you have DT, use this syntax. dt/c(cluster number). After this step is complete, the slow sector can not be used by dos unless you format your hard drive after locking the cluster out. I have heard that there is supposedly a way to lock out sectors via a disk editor. If you know of such a method, let me know.
I usually run DTST about once a month to check for slow sectors. So far on my 30 meg RLL drive, I have locked out two clusters. I would rather lock out 4K instead of having the drive struggle when trying to read them.
VGIF 3.4
by W.H. Lambdin
Vgif is a program to display gif pictures. Vgif is written by Bob Montgomery. Mr Montgomery asks that if you like this program, to send a $10 donation to register your copy.
You must have an EGA, or VGA card with 128K video memory. Before you can use this utility.
When you run this program, it will read in all of the picture names that end with .gif, and display a menu. Cursor around the menu, and press return to view a picture. If you want to view one picture one after the other, tag the ones you wish to see with the space bar, and press F2. Here if you have an EGA card, it will display a slide show, one picture after the other. This program displays them in the order you tagged them. If you have a VGA card, there is no slide show. press return when you wish to view the next graphic. If you tag one by mistake, press the space bar again to un tag it.
For people that have adult graphics, and small children, it has an option to prevent the kid's from viewing the adult graphics. Rename the adult graphics to have an extension of .adu or whatever you choose. When vgif is run, it will only show the graphics that have gif as the extension. To view the adult graphic's, type this on the command line. Vgif *.adu. This command will only display the adult graphics in the menu.
Commands.
While in the menu, if you wish to get some info on a specific graphic, place the moving bar to the graphic you want the info about then press F3. This will read in the info, and report the resolution like this. 320X200X256. THis means 320 by 200 resolution, in 256 color mode.
Commands while a graphic is being displayed.
G this will take a four pass picture and transform it into a one pass picture. Do not use this command if you are viewing a VGA picture on an EGA system, because when the transformation takes place, it will loose the extra colors it had for VGA mode.
I opposite of above. Same warning.
F Keys. With the function keys, you can change the colors, and tint. I like to modify the pictures slightly, because I like a dark screen for text, and the graphics need to be brightened to look more lifelike. It is a mess to continually change the brightness control on my monitor, brighter for graphics, and darker for text. After I have modified the pictures, I use G above to save the picture.
This is not all the commands available, just the ones I use.
I don't know when Mr. Montgomery is going to release an update to this program, but supposedly he is going to support other picture format's in the near future.
If you need a utility of this type, I say it is well worth the download. There are lots of gif displayers, but this has the fastest display routine I have seen, and the most features.
The reason I did not give it 5 star's is because of a bug on VGA cards and monitors. This bug occurs if you display an EGA graphic made in low resolution mode. The graphic does not cover the screen. It comes down from the top, and only covers 3/4 th's of the screen.
UPDATE: VGIF 3.6 is out, and the slide show routine has been fixed for VGA systems.
Rating ****
SAMSUNG MULTI-SYNC MONITOR
by W.H. Lambdin
I bought this monitor for my AT compatible earlier this year from USA Flex. For $429. Model No. CN4551. This monitor usually appears on the back cover of Computer Shopper. List price unknown.
This monitor has a tilt and swivel base. and it also has almost all of the features you will ever need. with the exception of horizontal adjustable width. Although it does have two settings, it needs to be adjustable. On bright color backgrounds, there is a slight haze over the screen. I don't know if this is caused from the monitor over scanning, or the non glare screen.
This monitor will work with the following modes. MDA, MGA (hercules), CGA, EGA, PGA, and VGA. It's top resolution is 800 by 600. Color's maximum of 64 colors in TTL mode unlimited in analog mode.
I compared this monitor to the monitor that became the standard (NEC multi-sync). This monitor compared almost identically with the NEC except for the haze mentioned above, and the colors were not as true as the colors on the NEC.
If you want to buy a multi-sync monitor, and you don't want to spend $550 or more, I would highly recommend this monitor.
The haze is not really a flaw, but it just makes the text on some backgrounds look a little fuzzy. You would never notice it unless you have the NEC, and this Samsung monitor sitting side by side (like I did.)
Rating ****+
22NICE v121 from SYDEX
by John Baker
If you made the jump from 8 bit to 16 bit like I have, you moved from CP/M to MS-DOS. You may have some favorite CP/M programs you miss that MS-DOS does not have. In my case, I use a CP/M computer to operate a bulletin board. I wanted a way to edit and assemble my BBS programs on the DOS machine. 22NICE turned out to be just what the doctor ordered.
22NICE is a program that will let your computer emulate a CP/M 2.2 environment. It will run all standard CP/M programs, 8080 or Z80. NICE will emulate the original machine's terminal and keyboard for you. The most notable terminals are H19, ADM3A (C128's & Xerox), Osborne and many more. Keyboard emulation for all the terminals is also available. All of 22NICE's functions will work with or without a V20 or V30 chip. It works in a way that is totally different from other emulators. 22NICE has a device driver that you load via your CONFIG.SYS file. This driver is very compact and will take only 3K or so of system memory. The other component in the emulation system is the GENCOM program to install the CP/M programs.
You can install a CP/M program as one file or as the original file plus a loader program. The loader created by GENCOM (the install program) is only 363 bytes. I usually have GENCOM link the loader to the CP/M COM file so I won't waste a disk block. The resulting file(s) will run strait off your DOS prompt as long as the 22NICE device driver was installed during boot.
GENCOM is where my first and only misgiving about 22NICE crops up. To install a program with it, you must type all the parameters on the command line. This method is very effective, but easy to mess up. I find myself typing the command line three or four times before I finally get it right. This is a minor concern, because you only have to install your CP/M programs once. But a menu system would be nice to say the least. The shortcomings of GENCOM are more than made up in the 22NICE emulator itself.
The device driver for 22NICE is called 22RES, and is loaded upon boot. If it's an unregistered package, you'll get a message and a prompt to print a registration form. After that, a message about your system's V20 status, and that's all. From there on, you never see or hear from 22RES again. But believe me your DOS now has a few extended commands. User areas for one. You can now change user areas just as you do in CP/M. A dozen or so terminal emulations are also available to you. Not to mention the ability to run Z80 and 8080 CP/M software.
The emulator has run everything I put to it so far. It will not route I/O from programs that used other than standard BDOS or BIOS calls. Programs like IMP, BYE5 and the like will not work. No problem tho, MS-DOS has great modem and BBS programs. Where 22NICE works best is applications like DBASE, WORDSTAR, and assemblers like M80 and MAC. The emulation will be quite slow without a V20 or 30 chip.
Without a V20 or 30 chip programs will run at less than half the original machine's speed. With the CPU replacement, the 22NICE emulator will run CP/M programs at twice to three times their original speed! To assemble a 140K BBS source with M80 took the following times.
- Standard 8086 at 8 Mhz -- 15 mins.
- Original Xerox at 4 Mhz -- 6 mins.
- V30 at 8 Mhz -- 2 mins.
As you can see, the V30 greatly improves the speed of emulation. Actually the processor is not emulated with a V30 chip, the code runs directly! A V20 or V30 chip will be a necessity if you plan to use 22NICE a lot like I do. A V20/30 will also improve the speed of your computer running 8088 and 8086 code too. My machine's Norton SI rating went from 1.9 to 4.0 when I installed the V30.
So, if you miss some of those CP/M programs, or if you want to do CP/M software development on your DOS machine, I recommend 22NICE. It's invisible, easy to use as the original CP/M programs were (hehe) and works like a charm! Other than the complicated command line from GENCOM, I have no complaints. 22NICE is an excellent program, best of all you can try it for free by just downloading it from a BBS. If you like it as I have, you won't mind sending the requested $30 registration fee to SYDEX.
KEYBOARD DRAWER
BY W.H. Lambdin
Keyboard Drawer. $24 bought from Compuadd.
This has been a great investment for me, because my computer desk is only 19.5 inches deep. This is not near enough room for my computer's case, and a full size keyboard.
I was afraid my keyboard would be damaged, so I ordered one of these keyboard drawers. Now I have the case and monitor sitting atop the keyboard drawer. When I want the keyboard, I just slide it out, and when it is not in use, it is back under the case out of the way. If you have a situation like I described, I would highly recommend you buy one.
There is two problems with this drawer, it makes the monitor about 4 inches higher than it was before, and the keyboard cable occasionally hang's, and will not let the drawer slide in and out smoothly. I got around the keyboard hanging up by taping the cable to the top of the drawer, and just give it enough slack to open smoothly. If the height would be a problem, Compuadd also sells a keyboard drawer that mounts under the desk counter.
This keyboard drawer does not take the place of a keyboard cover, because both the front and back are open. So if you like to protect your keyboard, you will still need to cover it.
Rating ***+
PATERSON TURBO XT BIOS FOLLOWUP
by Ron Alcorn
I made a mistake when I said that this BIOS would handle 720K drives automatically. You do have to use the DRIVER.SYS setup in the CONFIG.SYS file. What you end up doing is creating a logical drive. This new logical drive will be treated as a 720K drive. And the actual physical drive will be treated as a 360. Although there are now 2 drive letters for one drive, either will both read and write 360K or 720K. It is just that you have to do the format on the logical drive. I am very sorry if this caused any problems.
PACKARD BELL 2400 BAUD MODEM
by W.H. Lambdin
Packard Bell 2400I internal modem for IBM compatibles. Operates at 300, 1200, and 2400 baud. Bought for $146 from Mid West Micro Peripherals. Comes with Procomm 2.42 terminal software.
This modem does not have any mode of error correction built into the hard ware, such as MNP or ARQ. This means that you will not be able to use protocols such as 1K Xmodem g or Ymodem G batch. These protocols are the fastest protocols because the terminal program does no error checking, but rely on the error correction routines built into the modems. These protocols are for the modems with the built in error correction.
This modem is virtually 100 % Hayes compatible, with the exception of the command to turn up or down the volume of the speaker. This modem however has a speaker volume control on the card plate. This card has two phone jacks, but it doesn't matter which jack you use for the line.
I have used the following terminal programs with this modem. Procomm 2.42, Telix 2.12, and Telix 3.00. I have only had very little trouble with this modem. It occurred when I was trying to call a friends BBS that ran at 300 baud using a commodore 1650 clone modem. The 1650 modem alternates between originate, and answer mode. I do not know if 300 baud with this modem does not work, or it was because of the 1650 clone. Who cares, no one would call a BBS at 300 baud when you have 2400 baud.
I have only used two 2400 baud modems. Kiss 24HC, and this Packard Bell 2400I. I would recommend this Packard Bell over the Kiss 2400HC because the Packard Bell is almost 100% hayes compatible, where the Kiss 2400HC is only 85 to 90 % Hayes compatible.
Rating ****+
PROGRAMMER'S CHALLENGE DEPARTMENT
As an editor of this magazine I will be challenging you, the programmer or user, to make or find a program that is better than the one(s) I will be discussing. Usually I will only be discussing one or two programs a month. Reason being is that I'll only be picking what I consider to be top quality programs that are the best in their category.
Also you, as a programmer, are welcome to send in a challenge yourself. If you write a program that you think is better than anyone else's, send it to us along with an article, not a document, about your program showing off its features so that we can place it here in this department for others to know about. This may help you make some money if your program is Shareware, the news could travel around pretty fast on BBS's. Along with the reception of your program and article, you will get a reply from me in this department, whether it be compliments, comments, suggestions, or criticism. So don't complain about what I might say because you can clearly see what all possible statements can be made toward your program. Remember, if you send in a program and article, it would seem that you are confident in what you do. Also all statements are toward your program, not you. I would not want to offend any person and start a argument. Don't let these statements scare you off, I'm not a bad guy, I just try to give the public a general view. Everything I will be saying will be my opinions only, unless I actually run tests to get true statistics about your program.
Reader's please send in your responses to me. Let me know if you think my choices are good or bad. It doesn't matter to me if you agree or dis-agree with me because everyone has there own opinion.
QEDIT 2.06
by Ron Alcorn
This is a great editor for programmers! As matter of fact, it is good for editing ordinary text files of most any kind. Whether it be Batch, C, Pascal, or Assembly. Also it is better than any mini-word processors you will ever find. But is wasn't designed to be a word processor. It was designed to be a programmers editor. I'll get quick to the point with this great editor. Here are some of it's great features.
1 - Program is under 49K.
2 - Uses all available memory, so you can have some very big files in memory at one time.
3 - You can edit as many files you want at one time as long as they will fit in memory. To give you an example I have loaded in as many as 20 files in memory with no problem at all. I see no need of having 20 files in memory, but if you need such requirements, then they are there waiting for you.
4 - This editor comes with the key commands being Word Star compatible. But you if you hate Word Star keys, then you can define the keys to your little hearts desire.
5 - Full color support. You can change the color of anything that you want to. Menus, menu borders, text, cursor line, blocks, messages, errors, command lines, and highlighting.
6 - Macros are available. So create them for what ever your need may be. I have even seen a macro for QEdit on a BBS that said it would shell to dos and compile your program and hop back in to QEdit at the press of a key. So this macro stuff must be pretty powerful.
7 - All the blocks command are there. You can mark by line or cursor. Marking text with QEdit is very nice, as you are marking text or lines, the color changes of what you have marked. But if you don't like the block text color to change, then this is available also. You can copy, move, print, save, load/insert, unmark, format, and delete blocks. There is also a scratch buffer.
8 - Printing options are available. You can print blocks or the text as a whole. You can define page size and left margins.
9 - Word wrap and right margins are available.
10 - You can undelete lines. You can also restore the current cursor line in case you screwed it up.
11 - Search and search/replace options.
12 - Shell to DOS.
13 - As I said you can have several files in memory at one time. And you can also have up to 8 different files on the screen at one time. You can shrink and zoom windows. Swapping thru windows can be a breeze.
14 - Auto indention if you want it.
15 - Commands to insert current time or date at cursor position in to the text.
16 - The setup program will let you do all the configuring you will ever need. Even your own pop up help screen.
17 - You can define the screen size.
80 x 43, 80 x 50, 80 x 25, 132 x 66Even an odd size such as 110 x 38, as long as your graphic card has options necessary and the screen mode is active before you load QEdit. The only I have tried is 80 x 25 and 80 x 43, so the other may or may not work, but since the program is so good, I assume they would work. Do the screen defining through the setup program also. The setup program is amazing!
18 - Status line informs you of line and column position of the cursor, whether word wrap, auto indent, or insert mode is on, the file name along with path, and amount of memory that is free.
19 - You can load files in easily, even wildcards are supported. Here is a small DOS command line example.
Q WORK.ASM T*.C TERM*.PASIf you just type Q, it will ask you for the file name, if you don't know the file name, then just press return and it will show you a list of files in the current directory. Place the cursor on the file to load or the directory to log in to. Very simple.
20 - If you have a small memory, then QEdit has pop up drop down menus to make things even easier. All command are not in the pop up menus. For one reason they all won't fit. But all commands can be made available through various key combinations.
QEdit even has much more to offer. But I think this is enough for you to consider trying this fantastic program. I loved it so much I registered mine as one should. And I have to admit I have not been disappoint one bit. If you take your time with the manual, I think you will find it simple to use. But if you know Word Star already, then you can probably master it in a very short time. If you need any help setting up this program, just leave me a message on BBS's that carry ZIP Magazine.
OOPS! I FORGOT SOMETHING!
IT IS FAST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I have found only one program faster the Qedit's search and replace. This was the Galaxy word processor, but I doubt if you will find any thing faster than either one of these two programs. But QEdit will load in a file faster than an thing I have ever seen or used. You are getting close to lightning with QEdit, so don't burn your self or get too amazed by its powerful configuration and ease of use.
DIRECTORY MAGIC FOLLOWUP
by Ron Alcorn
I got caried away with telling you everything that I thought was good about Directory Magic and forgot to tell you what it lacked. So here is a list of what it needs.
- Full color changes, it has some but you can not define the color of tagged files and the command menu box.
- The space bar should be used to TAG/UNTAG files.
- There should be a DOS command line in case you need to format a disk. Also this would add a shell to DOS feature. To do this, all you would have to do is type COMMAND.COM at the DOS command line.
- Have a directory tree so that you can change directories easily. Don't list the directories in the list, have a separate screen. For example, press TAB and the screens would toggle between file list and directory tree. And if it had this feature, then have a command to create a file to store the directories, so that the directory tree would come up instantly without having to read in all the directories. This would make directory selection very simple and easy. I know that Directory Magic has a separate program to do this, but I prefer a program to be a whole and when configured, have no configuration files, modifying the program itself is much nicer I think. One nice program this is like this, is an editor called Q-Edit.
- Have wildcard TAG/UNTAG options and also TAG/UNTAG invert. Invert would tag the untagged files and untag the tagged files.
- Full mouse support.
- Options to ARC tagged files and go inside an archive and view and extract tagged files. But since BUERG'S NASTY move, I guess we could forget this! But I would much rather wait for Phil Katz's new compression program and have Directory Magic support it and throw Buerg's ARC out the door.
- When tagging files it should tell you how many files are and tagged the total size of the tagged files.
- Memory resident option so you can hot key it to pop up over any program.
- Be able to define your own program to edit and/or view files. Currently control V is used to view files. If you didn't define a program to view a file, then it would use it's regular default view command. To add the editor, use control E. If this was not installed, then control E would view a file with the built in default view command instead of loading the editor.
- Run batch files
- If loading program, it should ask for program options.
- Have enter to view all files except run BAT, EXE, and COM, files. And if you need to view a batch file, you could press control V to view it. Also if the cursor was on a sub-directory, it would change into that subdirectory.
And if Directory Magic had all of these features, I would consider it the closest thing to being perfect. I left out one of the commands in the last issue of ZIP, control V is used to view a file. Sorry for leaving that out. Remember that if you can find a DOS shell as SIMPLE and COMPACT as Directory Magic, then let ZIP know about it and we'll give it a run down to see how it compares.
TECHNICAL DATA NEEDED
by W.H. Lambdin
I have been stumped by this question, for a long time. Anyone that has a clue, please let me Know.
How can Ymodem or Zmodem transfer ascii files faster than arc files?
I have downloaded arc files at 2400 baud, and the fastest rate I have ever seen is 235 Characters per second, then download an ascii file, and it get as high as 239 and 240 CPS. What gives here? In my opinion, they should be the same speed.
if you have an answer to this question, you can write a message to me on any of the BBS with the / or * under the BBS area code. If you prefer to write directly to me, my address is below
W.H. Lambdin
P.O. Box 328
East Bernstadt, Ky. 40729
------------
I received one reply to the Path extension question that appeared in the last issue of ZIP.
Donald R. Kelley says to use the shell command in your config sys file. this is supposed to work in version 3.2 of dos. I use MS-DOS 3.3, and this does not work correctly on my system.
Mr. Kelley also sent a printed 4 page article that explains the use of the path command, and a way to expand the path buffer beyond 127 bytes. This article will appear in the next issue of ZIP.
ZIP INFO
by W.H. Lambdin & Ron Alcorn
This is ZIP. A paperless magazine. All submissions will be printed, unless you ask us not to. We will not modify any text you submit except for spell checking. So the views expressed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the editors.
If you want to send us a submission, upload it to one of the BBS's with a * beside it. You can also send them to the Secret Kingdom (606) 878-9500. This BBS operates at 300 and 1200 Baud. We are the sysops of this BBS. It's hours of operation is from 6pm to 10 pm EST. Monday through Thursday. We will be adding BBS's where you can download the latest volume, and also upload your submissions. When you upload a submission, use ZIP as the extension. We would appreciate it if all submissions were just ascii, and margins set at 10 on the left, and 10 on the right. This isn't demanded, it would just be easier on us. If you want to submit programs you have written, send them along in an arc file with your Text. We will check all programs. If they prove to be unsuitable, we will reject them. (you know Trojans, and harmful programs.)
If you submit a review, follow the examples here. If you think it is a very good program, give 5 stars. If you think it is sloppy, give it one star. If you think it falls between grades, use a plus as this. ***+ This means a rating of 3 1/2 stars, or a little better than average.
We will not make you run from place to place in order to read one article. When we start an article, it will be printed in it's entirety before another article will be started. All the advertisements will be found in the back. I like to read the articles with as little trouble as necessary, and the same goes for ad's. We will have advertisements, but the editors take no responsibility in what you may see advertised, so buy at your own risk.
ZIP is being written on AT compatible's using Galaxy 2.4. Galaxy is written by Omniverse incorporation. If you want to find a great free ware word processor, give Galaxy 2.4 a try. I like it so much, I registered my copy.
In order for this magazine to survive, it will need help from it's readers. If you wish to correct us on something, or write an article or review for ZIP, please send us your responses. Any help would be greatly appreciated. If you wish to reprint an article or review from ZIP, feel free to use it any way you wish, we only request that you give the author credit, and report that the article appeared in ZIP.
ZIP'S COVER SHEET CONTEST
ZIP Magazine is holding a cover sheet contest. What we have in mind is for you to design a cover sheet for ZIP. We currently have one, but we would like to do something for a reader of ZIP. The winner would receive 6 issues of ZIP on disk. They would be shipped to his door free of charge. If interested please read the rules below:
1 - One person can send in as many cover sheet designs as they want to. Absolutely no limit at all.
2 - Use valid IBM characters that are displayable. Including graphics characters above code 127. Example: Û°³¹²¿ÀÅ
3 - Be sure not to use codes that would affect some printers, I can't show you actual examples, but I'll give you the ASCII codes that should not be used. Examples: 12, 8, 7, usually most of the codes below 32 have some effect on different brands of printers.
4 - Use no ANSI color codes or anything out of the ordinary
5 - Be sure that it will fit on a regular 8 1/2" x 11" sheet of paper. With a top and bottom margin of 6, a left margin of 10, and the right margin set at 70. Exactly 54 lines.
6 - Things it should include are listed below
ZIP Magazine
Issue #
Date, Year
Designed by Your Name
Editors, Ron Alcorn & W.H. Lambdin
(The editors names don't necessarily have to look
like what I have shown you, just as long as we are
mentioned on the cover sheet)
7 - Have entries sent in by December 31st.
8 - Send entries to either the Secret Kingdom or World Of Wonder's BBS's or you can mail them to the address below:
Ron Alcorn
147 Foster Heights Rd.
London, KY 40741
Phone Number: (606) 878-9500
(If you feel you need to call, then please do so, but
don't call during the Secret Kingdom BBS hours)
9 - If entries are sent thru the mail, then send them on a disk or a printed copy.
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
Q: In the article (PLIGHT'S AND PERILS OF UPGRADING), W.H. Lambdin mentioned interleave of 3 to 1 on the hard drive. Could you please explain this? Dave Richardson, Cincinnati, Oh.
A: Interleave of 3 to 1 means the hard drive reads one cluster, skips three clusters then it read's another cluster. W.H.L.
Q: In the Narc 2.1 article, Mr Lambdin was mentioning the power and features of this program to unarc arc files. Why take the time and space to review a slow program like Narc, when PKXARC is so much faster? Dave Richardson, cincinnati, Oh.
A: I intended to point out that NARC was a good replacement for beginners that are uncomfortable with PKXARC's commands. W.H.L.
Q: Are Generic disks trustworthy? I see generic disk's selling as low as 19 to 29 cents each. paul adams, Lexington, Ky.
A: I have been buying generic disk's for approximately three years. So far, the ratio. is 200 good disk's to one bad one. Generic's in my opinion are as good a quality as the name brand ones. W.H.L.
Q: How do you upload or download from the W.O.W. BBS posted in the first issue of ZIP? George Guccia, Millville, NJ.
A: I apologize for any inconvenience this has caused anyone. WOW runs on a CP/M computer, and the download and upload routines have not been incorporated into the software yet. So until this is completed, you exit to CP/M level with the files command, then type zmd s filename.ext to download. To upload put an r in place of the s. This BBS only uses 128 byte xmodem (checksum), 128 byte Xmodem (crc), and Ymodem. If you want to force ymodem on downloads, use this syntax. zmd sk filename.ext. W.H.L.
Q: I would like to carry future issues of ZIP on my BBS. What do I need to do? George Guccia, Millville, NJ.
A: Anyone that wants to support ZIP, is welcome to do so. Full freedom to downloading ZIP, and passing it around. The BBS's noted for supporting ZIP are the BBS's we usually call. If you want to continue supporting ZIP, you are more than welcome. The reason I said we would be adding BBS's was because we had not had time to talk to sysop's of the boards we call when the first issue was nearing completion. Through friends, ZIP has found it's way to at least 20 BBS's that we did not upload it to. W.H.L.
Q: ZIP is a catchy name for this magazine. What caused you to name it ZIP? Rick Mays, Mobile, Alabama
A: About three months ago, Ron and I decided to start this magazine, but we had a bit of trouble thinking of a name for it. We called it ZIP for three reasons. This magazine is being transferred at baud rates up to 19,200. The issues are released the same day they are complete (no three month delay). Lastly like you said, it is a catchy name. W.H.L.
Q: What type of articles do you want people write? Review software, Articles, or what? Charles Thompson, Phoenix, Az.
A: We would appreciate any articles or reviews that anyone wishes to write, as long as they relate to MS-DOS or IBM/DOS computers. W.H.L.
NEW BBS's
- 318 457-1538 Toepfer's Electronics BBS. Baud 300-2400 Running * M&M BBS on a C-64. 24 hours of operation. Free Registration. Storage 2 meg. Files for C-64, and MS-DOS computers. Member of KSAT QDP. Home BBS of Citizens aligned for Better television. SYSOP Darrel Toepfer
- 609 327-5553 UNION LAKE BBS. Baud 300 - 2400. Running on an 8088 machine. Free Registration. Storage 32 meg. Sysop George Guccia
- 802 748-8449 HILLTOPPER. Baud 300 - 2400. Running TPBoard v 4.2 on a 16 mhz 80286 machine. Storage 146 meg. FidoNet # 1:132/401.0 in Saint Johnsbury, Vermont. Sysop Brian McQuade
- 802 888-7218 BEEHIVE. Baud 300 - 9600 with US Robotics HST * 9600. Running PC-Board 12.1 on an 80286 machine. Storage 80 meg with another 80 meg on the way. Has quite a few forum's for writers, and items for sale ETC. Will soon have relay mail with Terry West's BBS (Strawberry Patch). Files for MS-DOS. No download ratio, but uses point system. 30 minutes access on first Call. Sysop Helenmarie B. Robitille.
FILES MENTIONED IN ZIP
First column is the name of the program, second column is the name they will be listed by on Secret Kingdom BBS, Last column is the author of the program.
Archive Fastbac.arc Colossus
Coretest Core28.arc Core International
Dtst Dtst10.arc Samuel H. Smith
McCoy Mccoy.gif Unknown
NARC Narc24.arc Infinity Design Concepts
PKXARC PK361.exe Phil Katz
Procomm Procomm.arc Data Storm
Procomm2.arc
Procomm3.arc
Procomm4.arc
Procomm5.arc
Telix Telix212.arc Colin Sampaleanu
Telix Tlx300-1.arc Colin Sampaleanu
Tlx300-2.arc
V-20 80 V2080.arc unknown
Vgif Vgif34.arc Bob Montgomery
Vgif VGIF36.arc Bob MontgomeryFOR SALE
For sale: One tractor feed adapter that works with the Commodore MPS 803 printer. Working condition. $ 10. W.H. Lambdin #5
For sale: One basic 7.0 basic compiler for the Commodore 128. It is by ABACUS. Original disk, and manual. Originally sold for $60. Make offer. W.H. Lambdin #5
For Sale: I have PD and shareware programs to sell. Send $1.50 for complete list on Diskette. Please explain the media you need the list on. I can supply almost any format you need. W.H. Lambdin, P.O. Box 328 East Bernstadt, Ky. 40729 #5
For sale: if you would rather not download this magazine, you can subscribe to ZIP. I can support any type of diskette media. 5 1/4 360K, 5 1/4 1.2 MEG, 3 1/2 720K, 3 1/2 720K (PS2 format), and 3 1/2 1.44 MEG. If you are interested, the rates will be $1.50 per issue on 5 1/4 format, and $2 per issue on either 3 1/2 format. If you subscribe, and need it on 3 1/2's be sure to specify which format you need. W.H. Lambdin, P.O. Box 328, East Bernstadt, Ky. 40729. #5
FOR SALE:
Commodore 1581 3 1/2" 800K drive $ 150
Commodore 1571 5 1/4" 360K drive $ 130
Minimodem-C (Hayes/1670 Switchable for C-128) $ 60
RS-232 Vic 1011-A interface (For C-64/C-128) $ 15
Koala pad (For C-64/C-128) $ 20
2 Abacus 128 CAD programs (C-128) $ 25Approximately 150 Commodore 64/128 magazines, I will take what I consider a descent price, so state your offer.
Leave a message on any of the BBS's that support ZIP Magazine or call 606-878-9500. Be patient if you leave a message on a BBS, it may take me from 1 to 2 weeks to answer your message. Also make sure that you do not call within the operating times of the Secret Kingdom BBS. Or you can write to:
Ron Alcorn
ATTENTION: ZIP MAGAZINE
147 Foster Heights Rd.
London, KY 40741
FOR SALE: DMP 105 Printer. This is in good working order, but is well used. Asking $100.
John Baker
Ph. Voice: (606) 878 7597 P.O. Box 283
Data: (606) 864 8862 Lily, KY 40740
If you have an Item you want to buy, sell or Trade. ZIP is accepting ad's. The ad's will cost 5 cents per word, and your ad will run for three issues. If you are interested, send your ad's and money to cover them to W.H. Lambdin, P.O. Box 328 East Bernstadt, Ky. 40729.
When you are calculating the cost for your ad, do not count your name, and address, or the Ad's heading.
The ad's will be like the BBS list. Only the new ad's will appear in the pages of ZIP, and the ad's from previous issues will be a separate file in the ZIP arc file.
PLEASE INFORM US ON WHAT YOU THINK ABOUT THIS IDEA BELOW.
Do you think ZIP Magazine should include text snap shot screens when reviewing a program? What this would do is give you a good indication of what the program looked like. The only thing, of course, would be that color would not show up. If you would like ZIP to offer this, a small problem comes to mind. The example screen would not fit in the margin area, so do you think we should disregard the margins when inserting a screen snap shot or include a file with all the screen snap shots. If we include an extra file, then within ZIP Magazine itself, it would say see SNAPSHOT.TXT file.
PLEASE INFORM US ON WHAT YOU THINK BE LEAVING MESSAGES ON BBS' THAT CARRY ZIP MAGAZINE ON A REGULAR BASIS.
At the last minute, we just got a new BBS that will accept ZIP submissions and carry the latest ZIP Magazine. This BBS being Toepfer's Electronics BBS, so we thank Darrel Toepfer!
