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ZIP Magazine Volume 2 Issue 3
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| | ±±±±±±±±± ±±±±±±±±±± ±±±±±±±±± ÿ VOL 2 ISSUE 3 |
| | ±± ±± ±± ±± |ÿ MAY 1989 |
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| | NUMBER ONE CHOICE FOR HOME MS-DOS USERS | |
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| | BYTE NOW PAY LATER ............. 5 ||||||||ÃÙ |
| | ONE POSSIBLE ANSWER ............ 6 |||||||ÃÙ |
| | INCREASING ENVIRONMENT SPACE ... 9 ||||||ÃÙ |
| | PANASONIC KX-P1124 PRINTER ..... 10 |||||ÃÙ |
| | TELIX VS PROCOMM+ .............. 13 ||||ÃÙ |
| | ZIP MAGAZINE ................... 15 |||ÃÙ |
| | AUTOMENU 4.5 ................... 16 ||ÃÙ |
| | PKZIP VS OTHER ARCHIVE PRGAMS .. 19 |ÃÙ |
| | LUCID 3D 2.01 .................. 22 ÃÙ |
| À-------------------------------------Ù |
| Ron Alcorn & W.H. Lambdin EDITORS |
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| TABLE OF CONTENTS |
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| VOLUME 2 ISSUE 3 |
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| EDITORS CORNER .................................. page 3 |
| FEEDBACK ........................................ page 3 |
| BYTE NOW PAY LATER .............................. page 5 |
| ONE POSSIBLE ANSWER ............................. page 6 |
| CABLE AND CONGRESS .............................. page 7 |
| INCREASING ENVIRONMENT SPACE .................... page 9 |
| PANASONIC KX-P1124 PRINTER ...................... page 10 |
| TELIX VS PROCOMM+ ............................... page 13 |
| ZIP MAGAZINE .................................... page 15 |
| AUTOMENU 4.5 .................................... page 16 |
| PKZIP VS OTHER ARCHIVE PROGRAMS ................. page 19 |
| DOSKEY .......................................... page 21 |
| LUCID 3D EXCEPTION SPREADSHEET .................. page 22 |
| ZIP INFO ........................................ page 26 |
| NEW CLASSIFIED'S ................................ page 27 |
| NEW BBS'S ....................................... page 27 |
| TECHNICAL DATA NEEDED ........................... page 28 |
| QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS ........................... page 29 |
| CMW ENTERPRISES AD .............................. page 31 |
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EDITORS CORNER
Tom Croley has just joined us at ZIP. He is our first
associate editor. Be sure to look at his column Tom's
tidbit's. This first installment is about using an RLL
controller on a drive built for MFM. Tom may write reviews
occasionally in addition to his column. Welcome aboard Tom.
If you would like to be an associate editor, let us know.
You would be free to write on anything you wish. Our
release date is the 10th of each odd numbered month. January,
March, May, July, September, and November. We would need your
text by the 5th of the month's listed above.
We at ZIP want to thank Douglas R. Peel, and PCanada for
their donation. It will certainly help with the expenses. If
you want to help us with ZIP, any help would be greatly
appreciated. Whether you send a donation or writing
articles. If you send a donation, mail the check to the
address below.
W.H. Lambdin
ZIP Magazine
P.O. Box 328
East Bernstadt, Ky. 40729
ZIP is almost 1 year old, and we never expected it to be so
popular. We had high expectations for it too. In 10 months,
ZIP has found it's way to Canada, Greece, over satellites in
Outer Space, and a host of BBS's across the nation. I have
no information if ZIP is being transferred over the 260+ BBS
network InfoMat uses. If it is, ZIP is practically world
wide.
FEEDBACK
Thank you for the access time to download Vol 2 No 1. We
have just made ZIP Magazine a function on our 20 node
networked system up here in Toronto and placed it under our
Information Services Area. It's an excellent publication and
if there's anything we can do to assist please ask. Best
Regards, Doug Peel. PCanada Systems Inc, 265 Nantucket Blvd,
Scarborough, Ontario, Canada M1P 2P2
(416) 751-6227 (Data) (416) 751-3221 (Business Voice Line)
ZIP get's better all the time. Now you rival some magazines
you have to pay for. Tom Croley
I recently discovered your electronic magazine on a local
BBS, Downloaded zip-2-2, and found it to be incredibly
informative. The review of PC-Tools was the best software
review I ever read. Nick Gabriel
ZIP is the best Magazine I have ever seen for us poor
abandoned home dos users. The big magazines should sit up and
take notice. You have planned ZIP, to perfection. I like the
way the articles are not broken up, and your BBS listings are
perfect with the BBS's being sorted by area code. Phil Brown
I recently heard of your publication, and after reading it, I
honestly have to say it is a super magazine. You at ZIP try
to keep us current on new things in the industry. Thank's.
James Reynolds
ZIP has the best context of any magazine I have read. I only
miss the ad's. Thomas Greene
You at ZIP are down to earth. You don't review merchandise
that cost's a fortune like most magazines. You actually
support the home user. I bought PC-Tools deluxe. it is
superb. Thank's for telling me about it. PC-TOOLS has
everything. I love it! Brian Doughtery
Zip gets better all the time. John Cox
I really enjoy your magazine. James Pottorff
Mark Shander here from The Broadcaster's BBS in Glendale
(Phoenix) Arizona - I just put ZIP-2-2 on my system for our
users to read and the comments are all very positive! I'm
looking forward to being able to keep the latest version
available on my BBS - how often are you going to update the
issues? Would you also please put dates on them? I wasn't
sure when the issue I have was put out until I called here.
Thanks!
Someone uploaded ZIP to my BBS. During the testing the new
uploads I quickly looked at your publication. After Clearing
the new uploads, I dived into ZIP head first. I didn't know
you could get a magazine of this quality for free. I have
read several paperless publications, and ZIP blows them all
AWAY! Keep up the good work. ZIP is in a class by itself. Tom
Roberts
TOM'S TIDBITS
by
Tom Croley
Associate Editor
Box 188, Battleground, WA., 98604
BYTE NOW PAY LATER
----------------------------------
When you buy a hard disk for your PC computer system, one of
the prime considerations is the number of bytes you can get
for the bucks you invest. If you can get 20 megabytes for
$300 that figures out to $15 per megabyte. If you can get 40
megs for $400, that is only $10 per meg...a better buy if you
can afford it.
Most PC users have already discovered that they can buy
single side single density floppy disks and use them fairly
safely as double side double density disks. Some users have
discovered that a similar feat can be accomplished when you
buy a hard disk drive. Simply purchase a 20 meg Seagate
ST225 and along with it buy an RLL control card instead of
the standard MFM card. When you format the drive, you will
find that it formats out to 32 Megs instead of 21.5.
WOW, 11 megabytes for free.
If you already have a 20 meg setup, buy an RLL control card
for about 60 dollars, and re-format your drive and you get 11
extra megabytes for only $5.45 per megabyte.
Since the main difference between a 20 meg drive and a 32 meg
drive is the density rating of the disk platters, this seems
like a fairly safe thing to do.
But WAIT A MINUTE. Could this be a "Byte Now Pay Later"
plan. I have personally tried this little trick using a
Seagate ST225 and a Western Digital RLL controller. It
formatted out to 32 megabytes and registered no errors. I
ran several tests on the disk surface scanning for errors.
Still no errors. I filled the disk completely full, 32
megabytes of programs and data, still no errors. I was
elated at my discovery. BUT, three months later, I began
having trouble. At first, it was an abnormal number of cross
linked files and missing chains. Irritating but not serious.
Then I began to experience that horrible message, "Error
reading drive C: abort, retry, ignore". Then the fateful day
arrived. I turned on the computer and what did I get. "DISK
BOOT FAILURE"! I tried again. Same thing. I booted from a
floppy and changed to drive C. Lots of errors and lost data.
I salvaged what I could, but at last I got the final message,
"NO ACTIVE PARTITION ON DRIVE C". It was all over. Time to
PAY for my "good deal". I sold the 20 meg drive to a friend
WITH the proper controller, and bought a new 45 MB 22MS
Miniscribe. My fiend is happy with his good deal on a 20
meg and I am happy with my 45 meg hotrod. I have since come
to the conclusion that disk density is very important on a
hard drive if you want reliability. Always match your disk
drive with the proper controller card. You can take chances
with this kind of "Jerry Rigging" if you want, but you may
"BYTE NOW AND PAY LATER" as I did.
ONE POSSIBLE ANSWER
This may apply to you!
ZIP has grown more than I could have ever imagined. So much
in fact, that it is time to change our policy. Not that we
want to, but business is getting out of our hands. To begin
with, several sysop's want ZIP placed on their BBS. Well that
is fine, we couldn't be happier, but if you want ZIP, you
will have to download it from either of the ZIP BBS's or a
certified ZIP distribution point. Distribution points will
not have to download it directly from us, unless it is by
their choice. Otherwise we will upload it to you. We have
not yet defined our distribution points, but we have 4 in
mind currently. Overall we will approximately have 10
distribution points. As for our decisions on point
locations, it will either be by geographical location or the
BBS's popularity and size. You will be notified before our
next issue and we will re-advertise your BBS in the actual
magazine section if you are chosen as a distribution point.
That is if you want to be a distribution point.
If you are a distribution point, then please consider the
following. We would like for you, or one of your own BBS
users, to upload ZIP to 4 BBS's or try and get someone to
submit something for ZIP. Nothing mandatory, just if you
have the time or you know someone who has the time.
NOTE: IF YOU WANT TO CARRY ZIP, YOU DON'T HAVE TO ASK US ANY
MORE. YOU HAVE OUR PERMISSION AS OF NOW TO CARRY ZIP
ON YOUR BBS. BUT DON'T SAY YOU'RE A DISTRIBUTION
POINT, UNLESS YOU WILL ALWAYS DOWNLOAD ZIP YOURSELF
FROM A KNOWN ZIP DISTRIBUTION POINT AND YOU WILL
ALWAYS HAVE IT ONLINE BEFORE THE CURRENT ISSUE'S
DATED MONTH IS UP. JUST MAKE A NOTE TO PEOPLE
CALLING YOUR BBS THAT YOU ARE AN INDEPENDENT ZIP
DISTRIBUTION POINT.
We have had several complaints (just tiny ones) on the
subject of grammatical/typo/punctuation errors. Our policy
was not to change any ZIP submitter's text, meaning their
submission would be published on an as is basis. We know that
our errors can't be completely be removed, but there in one
idea that comes to my mind. If you submit something, please
let us know if we can or can't make certain changes. Also
let us know what changes we can make and which ones we
shouldn't make. Now your saying what the heck do you mean
by certain changes. Well there is more than one type of
change that could be done. I'll give you a few examples on
what we could fix.
Mis-spellings
Punctuation
Wording
Case (converting uppercase to lower case when necessary)
False information to true information
Don't worry, we aren't going to re-write your submission like
some big magazines do. We just want to make sure that your
information gets across clearly to everyone.
To make sure you pay attention, here is how we will handle
the situation. If you don't specify what we can and can't
do, then we will make necessary modifications. If you say
for us to keep our fingers off, then that we will do.
CABLE AND CONGRESS
by Darrel Toepfer
The cable cartel in this country has told congress everything
it wants and got it. The cable cartel wanted out from under
the control of your city and got it. The cable cartel wants
a monopoly and got it. The cable cartel wants more money for
less service and got it.
It's time for you to send a message to the cable cartel. It's
time to "take a bite out of cable" because their prices are a
crime. When your April cable bill comes, hold it for 30 days
and send a message to this monopoly that you can fight back.
Or better yet why not just have it disconnected to show that
you can do without it.
Did you know that according to the National League of Cities
survey cable rates have risen 24 percent since de-regulation
of the cable industry? Did you know that your city that
franchises the cable company is powerless to insure that your
local channels will be carried on the cable system? It has
been reported that over 150 pbs stations have been removed
from cable carriage since de-regulation.
It would seem that "the power of cable" in this country has
given them monopoly status, and in our form of government
there is only one thing worse than a monopoly, and that's an
un-regulated monopoly. That's what cable has become.
You can help, protect your first amendment rights versus
cable's first amendment rights by supporting and getting
your city to support the cable subscribers bill of rights.
You can get a copy of this document by sending a self
addressed stamped envelope to one of the following:
CABLE P.O. Box 1069 Gilroy, CA 95021 1st ECHELON
C.A.U.C.U.S. Consumers Against Unregulated Cable Utility
Services Western 2nd ECHELON Buddy Golder P.O. Box 18055
San Jose, CA 95158 (408) 993-8218
D.C.R.C. Dixie Cable Reform Council Rick Zavicar
EASTERN 2nd ECHELON P.O. Box 883 Jacksonville, AL 36265
(205) 435-1239--Voice BBS Pending
Citizens The CLRTV Network Darrel Toepfer
aLigned Route 2 Box 239
foR Eunice, LA 70535
betTer (318) 546-0848--VOICE (318) 457-1410--FAX
teleVision (318) 457-1538--BBS Data N81 3/12/2400 Baud
P.A.C.K. People Against Cable Kontrol Ginger Fountain
P.O. Box 151 Bloomfield, NM 87413 (505) 632-3724--Voice
New York Cable Awareness Association Tom Grasso
P.O. Box 453 High Falls, NY 12440 (914) 687-0783
NO-S.C.U.M. Neighbors Organized to Stop Cables Unregulated
Monopoly Mike McBride 3124 Barton St. Mims, FL 32754
(407) 383-0912
Oklahomans For Fair Cable Service Micheal Lovegrove
Rt 1 Box 341-9 Noble, OK 73068 (405) 872-8644
Yuma County Alternative Television Trudy Schuett
7665 W. County 12th St. Yuma, AZ 85365 (602) 726-6200
A.C.T. Alternative Choice Television Rosemary Peterson
110 Greens Ln. Everson, WA 98247 (206) 966-4912
Midwest Cable Consumer Alliance Joan Conley Harold Buehl
4425 State Rd. Medina, OH 44256 (216) 239-1851 (515) 446-6427
C.S.A.T. Coalition to Save American Television Joe Dodd
P.O. Box 748 Denton, TX 76201 (817) 387-1675
Donnie Edwards Rt 4 Box 250 Waco, TX 76705 (817) 799-6672
American Home Earth Stations J & D BBS 10pm EST-8am 300-1200
baud Jeff Hodson Rt 1 Box 233.5 Natchitoches, LA 71457
(318) 352-5613
C.A.U.C.U.S. South Gary Bidwell 331 Park St. San Francisco,
CA 94110 (415) 282-7253
C.A.U.C.U.S. Alaska Larry Buzzell 4523 N Riverside Dr
Juneau, Alaska 99801 (907) 789-2230
A.T.V.R.C. Alabama Television Viewers Rights Coalition
William Russell Rt 2 Box 134 Jacksonville, AL 36265
(205) 435-5209
M,A.C.M,O. Missourians, Against Cable Monopolies, Organized
Susan Baechler P.O. Box 21 Macon, MO 63552 (816) 385-2221
V.A.C.U.U.M. Virginians Against Cables Unregulated Utility
Monopoly Rev. John W. Robertson Rt 1 Box 189
Roseland, VA 22967 (804) 277-8458
G.M.A.T. Geogria Media Awareness Team Jim & Margret Welsh
2538 Miller Field Rd Macon, GA 31201 (912) 743-5636
F.A.C.T.S. Floridians Aligned for Competitive Television
Services Iona Palmater P.O. Box 1613 Crestview, FL 32536
Prove to the CABLE CARTEL that your not asleep. Get in the
fight. Say NO to CABLE. Contact with these groups can prove
HARMFUL TO CABLE's HEALTH.
This list was as complete as possible, any omissions or
errors were not intentional.
Editors note: I know you are wondering why we reprinted this
article that appeared in the last issue. When I merged this
article in the magazine, I accidentally corrupted this file,
and by the time I discovered my accident, it was too late to
fix it. My apologies Darrel. W.H. Lambdin
INCREASING ENVIRONMENT SPACE
by Chan Shippy
In reading your Magazine (ZIP), I see your query on setting
the environment space. You probably have got the answer for
increasing it with DOS 3.3 by now. In case you have not, the
line I use in my CONFIG.SYS file is:
SHELL = C:\COMMAND.COM /P /E:640
This increases the environment space to 640 bytes. The
environment space is used to store your path and prompt
commands. Also environment variables such as SET TEST=ONE or
SET PCPLUS=C:\COM.
The syntax of the switches required for various versions of
DOS seems to vary slightly. Also, earlier versions of DOS
specified the environment size in paragraphs (16 bytes) and
later versions of DOS use the bytes desired. In the example
above the size is increased to 640 bytes. In the earlier
versions of DOS you should use /E:40 for an environment size
of 640 bytes. (640/16)
You can look under "environment size" or "SHELL" in your DOS
manual to get the exact syntax if necessary.
PANASONIC KX-P1124 PRINTER
"The Paper Handling Genius"
by Ron Alcorn
How often have you had problems with paper handling on your
printer? I would say the majority of you have had plenty.
Well this is one printer that puts an end to the old paper
handling problem. There are three ways for this printer to
handle paper. You can insert paper from the front, bottom,
or rear. Although this sounds to good to be true, it isn't,
but there is a misconception. Paper being fed through the
front can either be done in pull tractor or friction mode.
Paper fed from the bottom should only be done by selecting
pull tractor mode. From the rear, you should use push
tractor mode, my personal favorite. No more do you have to
fool with that one lonely sheet of paper that gets used for a
scrap note pad.
Almost all printer commands can be handled by using the EZ
Set Operator panel if you so desire. Below is a chart on
what can be set by using the panel.
Fonts
Pitch settings
Form length
LPI (Lines Per Inch)
Quiet mode (make printer quieter, but slower)
Left and right margin settings
Macro reading and writing (3 macros are available)
Line feed
Form feed (forward and backwards)
Mirco line feed (forward and backwards)
Memo load
Perforation cut
Macros, in case you don't know about them, are settings you
can define and call back up at a later time. Macro 1 is the
default setting when you turn the printer on. All macros are
kept in memory, even after you turn the printer off. An
example of this feature would be that you could set one of
the macros to configure the printer for 14" forms in Elite
pitch and then another for Compressed pitch with margin
settings for disk labels.
This printer can also park the paper, but only in push
tractor mode. Paper parking means that the printer will
allow you to keep your fanfold paper in the printer while
printing single sheets or envelopes.
There are two emulation modes available. They are Epson
LQ-2500 and IBM Proprinter X24. For those Epson users out
there that are stuck with italic characters instead of the
IBM graphics characters, never fear. The Epson LQ-2500 mode
supports both standard Epson using Italic characters and
another Epson LQ-2500 mode that supports the IBM graphic
characters. As for the IBM mode, you get the standard option
of selecting graphic character set one or two. And for the
international market, the printer supports 13 international
character sets, which are listed below.
USA Sweeden
France Italy
Germany Spain 1
England Spain 2
Denmark 1 Japan
Denmark 2 Norway
Latin America
Interested so far??? Here are some more convenient features
that most other printers don't have. The ON/OFF switch is
located on the right side toward the front. Not a dangerous
location, but yet easy to get to. The Centronics parallel
port, looking from the front, is located on the back left
hand side. The port is not in the way of the paper being fed
from the rear. The serial port, if you order the RS-232
serial interface board, is located right above the Centronics
port. And then over on the left hand back side is the power
cable, which is also out of the way from the paper. The
paper feeding switch is located on the left top side of the
printer, along with the head gap lever right in front of it.
The head gap lever can be adjusted from 1 sheet thickness to
3 non-carbon multi layer sheets plus the original, on up to
#10 standard business envelope thickness. If you want more
specific information, the maximum thickness is .013" (.32
mm). Paper width can be from 4" to 10", and paper length can
be from 5" to 14.3". Although the maximum width is 10", you
can send 8 1/2" by 11" paper in sideways for landscape style.
You can customize this printer with out using dip switches.
Just simply because there are none of those little eye
boggling suckers located on this printer. The reason is
because this printer has it's own built it setup mode. To
enter the setup mode, just hold down the function switch
while turning the printer on. After that, you should notice
that the online light is blinking. Now pull out the Quick
Reference card in the printer manual. On this card, you will
see all the default options you can set. Now just use the
ROW and COLUMN switches to select what option you want to
set, and then press the SET switch. When you are done with
all default settings, press the FUNCTION switch to return
back to normal online mode.
The printer has three upgrade options.
1 - A 6K buffer, which can be upgraded to an additional 32K
for a total of 38K. Please see the note at the end of
this article.
2 - RS-232C/Current Loop Serial Interface Board
3 - Auto Cut Sheet Feeder
This covers most of the hardware features. Now on with the
output performance of the printer. The printer is not slow,
nor is it fast. It rates at 192 CPS in draft mode, and 63
CPS in LQ mode (letter quality). I wish it was a bit faster
in draft mode, but for the price, I just couldn't let the
printer go by. The list price is near $600, but I got it for
$319 plus $20 for COD and shipping, for a total of $339. Let
me take time to tell you that this printer is blazing hot,
you will probably be several lines down on the shipping list
if you decide to order one. The printer demand just can't be
handled right now. Almost every place is out of stock for
immediate orders. What is in stock, is for people that have
been waiting in line.
Back to the EZ Set Operator panel, with it, you can set most,
but not all, of the options listed below. The operating
panel works the same way as it does when the printer is in
the setup mode. The only difference is that you press the
function switch after the printer is already on. Below is
some of the various text modes, pitches, and styles.
Draft Pica
Courier Elite
Prestige Compressed
Bold PS Micron
Script Proportional spaced
Sans Serif Double wide
Emphasized Double high
Double strike Italic
Underlining Sub Script
Overlining Super Script
Pitch CPI (characters per inch) settings can be 10, 12, 15,
17, 20, and proportional spaced. If in double wide mode,
then 5 characters are printed per inch.Among all these modes, you can have up to 5,500 different
print styles. Also, the printer supports several bit-mapped
graphics modes. Meaning you can print graphics screens and
define your own special characters.
Here a few technical specifications on the printer just in
case you are a bit curious.
Dot configuration: 1/127" (dot diameter)
Resolution: 360 X 360 DPI
Head life: Approximately 100 million characters
Ribbon life: Approximately 3 million characters
Size dimensions: 16.9" wide X 14.1" deep X 5.6" high
Weight: 18.7 pounds
As you can see, the printer has nice resolution and carries a
small foot print. It's size is smaller than several 9 pin
printers. I can't make any claims for the ribbon life, but
if it's anything like my old Panasonic KX-P1091, it will last
a long time. I would assume though that the ribbon life
would be a bit shorter than my old printer, because 24 pins
beating against a ribbon is a lot more than 9. In any case,
you get best results by getting a original Panasonic ribbon.
I know this for a fact, because several no name brands don't
use the reinking wheel inside the printer cartridge, and they
don't have the inking pressure switch to make print darker
when it starts to fade.
Overall, I see no major flaws in the printer. But there are
two things that I feel would have more than perfected the
printer.
1 - Software command to switch between Epson and IBM modes
2 - LCD display on the printer
Even though it doesn't support these 2 items, it is still a
superb printer. Quality is outstanding, the best 24 pin
print I have seen. I could compare this printer with PC
Tools Deluxe. Both are inexpensive, both offer great
performance, quality, and reliability, and it fits in both
home and business categories.
Rating: *****
NOTE: DOES ANYONE KNOW HOW TO TAKE THIS PRINTER APART TO
INSTALL THE 32K BUFFER CHIP? I CAN GET THE CHIP FOR
ABOUT $25 AND WOULD RATHER INSTALL IT MYSELF INSTEAD
OF PURCHASING THE CHIP FROM PANASONIC FOR $60.
TELIX VS PROCOMM+
by W.H. Lambdin
I have heard people saying Procomm plus is better than the
Share Ware terminal package Telix 3.11.
I do not subscribe to this notion at all. Of course I am
biased, but I have tried Procomm plus, and from what I have
seen it is nothing to crow about. Read the chart below
carefully.
Before I go on, let me point out a few facts. When I started
out with my XT clone, I bought a 2400 baud modem, and started
testing terminal programs. I tried Procomm 2.42, GT Power
13.0, Procomm plus, Cross Talk, Free Way, and finally Telix
2.12. I did not really find anything I liked till I found
Telix. I liked Telix enough to send in the registration fee
of $35.
Colin Sampaleanu is the creator of Telix. In my opinion
Colin took all the good points of Qmodem, Procomm, GT Power,
and invented Telix. A terminal program dramatically improved
over the other Terminal programs available.
These are the advantages of Telix over Procomm Plus
1. 12 protocol's
2. Ease of use.
3. Fast transfer's
4. Dialing directories that can hold up to 1000 BBS numbers
5. Program to change Procomm or Qmodem dialing directories to
the Telix format.
6. Script language that uses the SALT standard
7. No irritating squeak when poping up menu's.
8. Logical commands.
9. Complete configurability, change colors, default setting
etc.
10. Menus pop up instantly. (no flicker)
11. Very easily add up to 4 additional protocols. just answer
prompts.
These are the advantages of Procomm Plus over Telix.
1. Procomm Plus has better emulations.
2. Procomm Plus has a better host mode.
There are even Telix support conferences on a lot of BBS's.
In my opinion, Telix blow's Procomm Plus AWAY.
Don't Take my word for it, preview Procomm Plus, then preview
Telix 3.11. I think you will agree if you test drive them
both before you buy either one.
I have tried virtually every terminal package, and Telix has
beaten them all hands down for one reason or another.
If you want fast transfers, and ease of use. Your choice
should be Telix. Telix has the fastest transfers I have seen.
At 2400 baud Telix is faster by 5 to 10 CPS. (Characters Per
Second)
If you want a good host mode, or you need perfect emulations
you choice will need to be Procomm Plus
Rating for Telix ****+
Rating for Procomm Plus ***
I would have given Telix 5 star's, and Procomm Plus 4 star's,
but both of them have lousy customer support!
ZIP MAGAZINE
by David H. Tolby
I found your magazine on a local BBS, so I downloaded it out
of curiosity. I have read lots of electronic magazines, but I
was prejudiced against all of them. Most electronic magazines
are just a pure stream of text without rhyme or reason.
I was surprised to find ZIP had correct margins,
justification, page numbers, table of contents, and it is
designed to be printed. After a quick look around, I printed
all 46 pages. I couldn't get over how much thought and effort
went into a magazine that I could get for free.
After reading ZIP, I am speechless because I can't think of a
single thing that needs to be improved.
After just reading that one issue, I am beginning to compare
ZIP to the magazines I read. So far Zip has beaten them all.
I am not saying ZIP is the biggest. I am only saying ZIP is
the best because it relates to what I am doing with my
computer! So far ZIP is better, than Computer Shopper, PC
Magazine, PC Computing, PC today, and PC World. ZIP
obliterates all other electronic magazines too.
I really like the way ZIP organizes the articles. Editorials
in front, reviews next, hint's and tip's third, departments
next, and ad's last. I really appreciate the fact that your
articles are not split throughout the magazine. I wish the
big boy's would learn this important lesson. I also
appreciate the fact that your articles are not extremely
long. If you can't review a product in less than 3 pages, you
have no business writing. The only exception to this rule is
in the case you are reviewing a product like the PC-Tools
system. PC-TOOLS does everything! Ron Alcorn's review had me
on the edge of my seat. After reading that review, I bought
PC-TOOLS. PC-TOOLS is everything Ron said it was plus a lot
more. I have read other reviews for PC-TOOLS, but they mostly
re hashed the ad's. ZIP was the first magazine to have an
in-depth review of this terrific product.
I love the way ZIP handles the BBS listings. You sort them by
area code, and you have the text off set so it makes it very
easy to scan for area codes. If you are like me, you already
know what area code you want to scan, so why sort the BBS's
by state like Computer Shopper does.
ZIP is oriented toward the home user where most other dos
magazines are poised for business's. Most magazines are
hailing the advancements of the 80386's. Unfortunately this
leaves the 8088 users with a feeling they are on their own.
There is one thing that I have been wondering about. Is W.H.
Lambdin the same W.H. Lambdin that used to write articles in
Midnite Software Gazette? I used to subscribe to mIdnite,
when I had a C-64. I moved up to an XT clone about 2 years
ago, and that name sounded familiar.
In closing, I would like to compliment Ron Alcorn, and W.H.
Lambdin for their outstanding publication. Keep up the good
work. I would like to help you in any way possible.
Rating *****
Editors note: Yes I am the same W.H. Lambdin that used to
write articles in Midnite Software Gazette. Tim Sickbert
(assistant editor of Midnite Software Gazette) encouraged me
to write. Thank's for the Compliments. W.H. Lambdin
AUTOMENU 4.5
by
Ron Alcorn
Automenu is a very nice menu system. It provides easy
manipulation of executing files, events, or other various
processes. Keep in mind that it will not be like a DOS shell
with file management and so forth, it is strictly a menu
system, although you can create some simple DOS utilities
using your imagination. It is so easy to use, that a first
time computer user could operate this program with ease, but
of course they probably would not be able to setup the
program, which is very understandable. The setup procedure is
not hard at all. Although a new user or a wise guy who
thinks he can use a program without reading the
documentation, may end up having a painful process. Just
read the documentation and you should not have any problems
at all. Example definition files are available for you to
use or learn from.
Before I go on, take note of these few ideas on the use of
Automenu. This may or may not help you decide on whether
Automenu is for you. In my opinion, this program is useful
for two kinds or people. First I think that it would fit the
needs of a person that does nothing but use full blown
programs (things such as terminals, word processors, etc.)
and never experiments with small programs. For one thing, it
cuts down on the need for having several batch files. For
the second kind of people, it would be that of a open type
environment. A couple of examples would be a school
classroom or a business where several employees use the
computer.
Automenu consists of 8 menu pages with 8 selections per menu
page. Also another complete set of menus can be loaded in
from any one of the menu page selections. This provides you
with as many selections as you will probably ever need. These
selections can also be password protected. This helps in an
open environment by keeping nosy and unwanted personnel out
of certain areas. So far I have lead you to think that
choosing a selection is a manual task. You can have timed
events if need be. Say you want your hard drive to be
defragmented at 5 P.M., just edit the definition file to take
care of the situation automatically at what ever time.
Configuring an Automenu definition file is very much related
to batch language. A definition file is what contains the
menu, and menu selection information. Most people never
learn the in's and out's of batch language, and hence miss
out on a lot. Batch language is more powerful than you think
it would be. But Automenu has a lot more power than batch
language, and looks a whole lot better. It takes the UGH!
out of the plain bare looking DOS. To learn Automenu's
definition file language takes only a short time. If you are
already familiar with DOS's batch language, then you should
breeze through the process. The definition files can either
be edited with your own ASCII text editor or the Automake
editor included with Automenu. I much prefer using my own
editor, QEdit, because it is much faster to use. The
Automake editor has built in help and is sufficient. I just
don't like it because it is rather slow, not only in speed,
but also in manipulation. But for the beginners out there,
this is the way to go.
Automenu's appearance on the screen is very straight forward.
The following description may not be true if the blackout
(screen saver) feature is turned on. This feature can be set
to happen after the set amount of minutes defined for no
keyboard input. When Automenu is in the blackout mode, you
will see absolutely nothing or a moving message. The moving
message can have a note appended to it. An example for using
such a feature would be in the case you had to leave and go
somewhere and someone was not around to be told. You could
have it say you had to go to the bank or whatever. Moving
on, at the top of the screen you will see the menu title, and
directly below it you will see up to 8 applications to choose
from. Each selection has a unique description that is
displayed near the center bottom of the screen. Only one
description is shown at a time. If no description is shown,
then none was defined in the definition file. Anyway, you
can select these applications in various ways. The quickest
way is to select a number or function key. The number key 2
performs the same task as pressing function key number 2.
Another way is by using the arrow keys to select an
application and the pressing the enter key. And last, but not
least, you can use a Microsoft/Mouse System's compatible
mouse. Basically the mouse performs the same as the arrow
keys. So as you can tell, making selections is very simple.
To flip through the menu pages is just as simple. Just use
the page up and page down keys, the function keys 9 and 10,
or the left and right arrow keys. You can tell if there are
any menu pages by looking at the upper right section of the
screen. There is a counter that says MENU X OF Y. Where X
is the number of the current menu page and Y is the number of
menu pages available.
Automenu, among other things, has some simple built in help.
To call up the help, just press the letter H. This is noted
on the bottom of the screen. This will show you the valid
commands available. You can even get more help by pressing
the letter H again. Other than the help, Automenu also gives
you the status of a few conditions. The bottom of the screen
shows the following information.
Date Time
Caps Lock Key Status Number Lock Key Status
Scroll Lock key Status Ctrl Key Status
Shift Key Status Alt Key Status
Memory Free
That about sums up the usage and descriptive information. Now
I'll let you know about the nitty gritty stuff, such as the
installation, the configuration programs, and control files.
As far as the installation goes, it's one of two ways. If
you are used to the old fashion way (manually copying files,
making directories, etc.), then go right on. The other way is
done by loading the included INSTALL.BAT file. From there
on, it's pretty self explanatory.
The other configuration process is more of a customizing
process. This program allows changing of the following
items.
Color of nearly all imaginable items
Temporary batch file name
Default Automenu definition file
Country format for date
Time display format
Displaying of CAPS LOCK, NUM LOCK, Etc.
Blackout delay Blackout message displaying
Cursor type setting
Screen mode
Display items in color or black and white
Selection pointer displaying
Menu selection number displaying
Control Break (on or off)
Screen swap (for 2 monitor systems)
Automatic clearing of keyboard buffer
Mouse support
Mouse sensitivity
Something I almost forgot. Automenu is capable of running
under two monitors. That is if you have a color card and
monitor, and a monochrome card and monitor. For those of you
who are wondering what the heck I'm talking about, just
ignore it if you want. But if your a bit curious, then I'll
give you a small understanding. Normally such a setup would
pertain to CAD (Computer Aided Drafting) and other type
graphics program users. For example, some programs would use
a color monitor for displaying graphics, while using the
monochrome for viewing text.
And my last note on Automenu is:
It does what it does, nothing more and nothing less. There
is no nonsense to mess around with. To make it simple,
Automenu is a menu system and that's what you'll get, so
that's what you should expect. Know what a program is before
you say anything about it.
One example program that people talk about before they fully
learn how to use it is Word Perfect. I'm no Word Perfect
fan, but only because it doesn't fit my needs. Word Perfect
is a monster, but some users of Word Perfect require the
power that it can offer. Although it's not a program that
you can use right off the bat, it can be of assistance to you
if you learn how to fully utilize it.
In any case, if a menu system is what you are looking for,
then Automenu should take care of you. Automenu is a very
popular program and a very high seller from many ShareWare
distributors.
I find very few flaws with this program, and feel safe to say
that it is definitely a winner.
Rating ****+
PKZIP VS OTHER ARCHIVE PROGRAMS
by W.H. Lambdin
Some people will wonder. What is an archive program? And why
do I need one? An archive program takes files and compresses
them. This in return allows you to put more data on a disk,
and saves you time in transferring the data or files over
modems. This is especially helpful when you call BBS's long
distance. I explained this because ZIP is going in the
libraries of users groups, and I felt it was necessary to
initiate the uninitiated people that will read this magazine.
In the tests below, I chose these files.
1. CLOWN.GIF 51200 bytes GIF picture of a clown
2. DM.COM 60135 bytes Directory Master 2.52
3. VGIF.EXE 45407 bytes VGIF 3.6
4. ZIP-2-2.MAG 130033 bytes Vol 2 issue 2 of ZIP Magazine
These files total 286775 bytes. You may not be familiar with
all these archive programs. I intentionally left ARC out of
the chart because 90% of the BBS's I call have changed all
their archives over to this new PKzip Standard
I tested these four programs.
PKPAK Written by PKWARE. Not supposed to use this after
January 31 1989. I only put this one in to
demonstrate the advances in the last few months.
PAK Written by No Gate Consulting
PKZIP Written by PKWARE
LHARC Written by HARUYASU YOSHIZAKI.
-PROG--SIZE----TIME--------REDUCED--SETTING
PKPAK 187486 11 seconds 35% DEFAULT
PKZIP 183461 10 seconds 37% DEFAULT
PKZIP 181140 18 seconds 37% LEVEL 1
PKZIP 175928 21 seconds 39% LEVEL 2
PKZIP 175928 21 seconds 39% LEVEL 3
PAK 174718 39 seconds 40% DEFAULT
PKZIP 170771 28 seconds 41% LEVEL 4
LHARC 163662 54 seconds 43% DEFAULT
As you can see, PKZIP has 5 levels of compression. A lot of
people get confused "including me". When reading the
documentation, It seems to read the default compression is
level 2. It actually means the default advanced compression
is 2 if you do not enter a number 1-4.
PKZIP still uses the same commands like Pkware's previous
archive programs, only now you have to place a - or / before
the commands. This is a review, and not documentation, so
refer to the manual if you need further instructions.
With PKZIP, you have choices when making an archive. you can
zip it up fast with standard compression to save time, or you
can take a little longer, and save disk space. That decision
is up to you.
When I got PKZIP, I had 17.5 meg of arc files on my BBS.
After I converted all my files over to the new ZIP format,
They only took 14.8 meg of disk space. This gave me 2.7 meg
of free space on my hard drive for other material. Naturally
all of the files were compressed at level 4.
When you go to extract files from a ZIP archive, the process
is very fast and smooth no matter what level of compression
you chose when you made the archive. I make my archives with
the maximum compression, because I will only need to make it
once, while i may extract it many times. So why not take a
few seconds more, and save more space.
PKZIP is not complete as of yet. They need to add routines to
password protect the archives, and a few minor additions.
PKware were rushing trying to get PKzip finished by the first
of February. Phil Katz told me that he has not had time to
optimize the code for speed. I expect PKZIP to get a bit
faster than it is now. and add a few more options.
I have heard that PKware is working on a new algorithm that
will compress data a lot more.
LHARC was included in the table above because it is a new
archive program. Right now it is in the beta stage.
I have to say PKZIP is the best archive program on the market
even though LHARC compresses more. The compression of these
archive programs are very similar, but the user interface of
LHARC is not as good as it needs to be.
Rating for PKZIP ****+
Rating for LHARC ***+
Rating for PAK ***
Rating for PKPAK (do not use)
DOSKEY
by Tom Croley
Associate Editor
Do you get tired, of typing the same old Dos commands again
and again? You may have already discovered that if you press
the F3 key, the last command that you typed will be printed
on the screen. You can then use that command again by
pressing enter, or you can backspace over part of it and
re-type, thus saving a few keystrokes.
There is a more excellent way. Enter Doskey.com. I don't
know where this program came from. It sort of appeared on my
disk drive one day after I downloaded some files from a
reliable BBS. It took me a while to figure it out, and then
I fell in love with it. Copy "doskey.com" to your root
directory or place it in the active dos path. Place the
command "doskey" in your autoexec.bat file so that doskey is
booted up every time you boot your computer....or if you
prefer, simply type "doskey" at the dos prompt. Nothing will
happen. When I first tried it, I though "Blah - What's
this!". Then I discovered that whenever I pressed the up or
down cursor keys, DOS commands began to appear after the DOS
prompt. I quickly realized that these commands were the very
ones that I recently had typed. I started counting and found
that DOSKEY remembers the last 10 commands that you type. You
can scroll back to whatever you want to use, and use it again
"as is" or backspace and edit it before use. Since I often
prefer to use dos commands and batch files instead of any of
the many dos crutches that are available, I find this little
program delightful. I have not yet discovered any side
effects or conflicts with other programs. I do not know who
wrote this little gem, but they certainly have my
appreciation.
Rating *****
Editors note: Doskey was copyrighted by Ziff Davis publishing
company in 1987. The author of this program is Jeff Prosise.
I discovered this fact by viewing it with a disk editor.
Robert Bullock informed me, Doskey interferes with the Telix
Terminal Program. If you use this, I wanted you to know as
much about it as I did which isn't much W.H.L.
LUCID 3D EXCEPTION SPREADSHEET
by Tom Croley
Associate Editor
(Professional Programmer)
If you like spreadsheets, you will love LUCID 3D 2.0 from
PCSG software, now being marketed by DAC software.
Simply put, a spread sheet is a very large sheet of
electronic paper divided into rows and columns perhaps 250
columns wide and 10,000 rows deep. On this large sheet of
paper, you can enter a very wide variety of text and
numerical data. Numerical data can be manipulated using
mathematical formulas ranging from simple addition to complex
trig functions. With a little imagination, a spread sheet
can be used for a very large variety of tasks. Homework,
bank statements, bookkeeping, lottery probabilities,
engineering data, your imagination is the limit.
Lucid 3d is a fairly new program on the scene. Few people
have heard of it, yet every expert that I have talked to that
has given it an honest try, raves about it. Lucid 3d brings
awesome power and low cost to computer spreadsheeting. I'm
crazy about it. Here are some of its finer points and
luxuries in a nutshell.
1. 3d power - Lucid adds real depth to spread sheets. Most
spread sheets have width and depth; X number of rows and Y
number of columns. Once you have used up all your rows and
columns or once you have used up all your memory, your
application is over. You have to start a new file to work
with. Lucid 3d adds depth to your spread sheet that can go
as far as you like until you run out of disk space. Your
applications can be gigantic. If you picture a spread sheet
as an 8x10 piece of bookkeeping paper, a Lucid spread sheet
would be like a whole notebook full of 8x10 sheets. Behind
any cell or range of cells, you can have another spread sheet
level or set of levels. Each level is automatically linked
to the levels above it. Applications become very organized,
logical, and easy to maintain.
2. Speed - I have a friend that has a huge spread sheet
application that he maintains with the most popular and
expensive program. It takes him 20 minutes to load the
application into memory, after he loads the main program. The
same application when properly structured in 3d format would
take about 10 seconds to load into memory. In addition to
faster loading, you will find extra speed throughout the
program.
3. Pop-up Convenience - Lucid 3d can be loaded into memory
"RAM RESIDENT". It hides itself in memory taking up very
little space and waits there until you need it. You can load
most any other program, then without shutting off your second
program, you can POP UP Lucid 3d, make calculations, enter
invoices, whatever you like. When you are done, hit the hot
key and Lucid 3d will disappear once again into the deep
recesses of your ram banks until you need it again.
4. Because Lucid is RAM RESIDENT it interacts directly with
other programs. You can cut information directly form most
any other program and paste it into a Lucid Spread sheet. You
can also dump information from Lucid 3d directly to a Word
Processor in one quick smooth stroke.
5. Big Files - For you memory hogs out there, Lucid can be
loaded in "non-resident" mode. When loaded in this fashion,
Lucid will grab ALL available memory up 8 megabytes if your
machine holds that much. If you like, you can have huge
individual files. This does defeat the purpose of having a
3d program but some people are slow to learn the power of the
3rd dimension.
6. Easy file names - Lucid easily solves the problem of
mysterious filenames. As you know, coming up with meaningful
8 character filenames can be a serious problem. A typical
directory will contain names like "jandat", "gldatjan",
"gldatfeb", "ckbktom", "ckbksue". Often it is hard to
remember what file is what. With Lucid 3d, you can have one
file as your main disk menu. Every other file can be listed
on that file with file names as long as you like. Each file
can then be loaded at will with one key stroke. Instead of 8
character jibberish, your spread sheet directory can look
like this...
Lucid 3d File
--------------------------
Phone Numbers
Appointments
General Ledger for Chipmunk Software
General Ledger for Acme Aphids
Washington State Lottery Probabilities
Check Book
Savings Account
Mailing List for Jerry Jumping Bean
----------------------
Place Cursor on your selection and press "+"
If you like, your can have this menu appear instantly as soon
as the program is loaded.
7. Notes - Notes and instructions can be stored behind any
cell, in any level of your applications. By pressing one
key, the note for the current cell is displayed. These notes
can be any length and can be stored on disk or in memory.
This means that you can build "CUSTOM ON LINE INSTRUCTIONS"
into your applications. These instructions will be context
sensitive and as detailed as you wish. You can even use the
note pads as a word processor if you like.
8. Super-Macros - The most popular program makes you design
macros from memory. In other words, you have to remember
what keystrokes you want to record and type them into a cell
or range of cells. Then, if you are careless, you can easily
erase a macro by deleting a row that happens to contain the
macro. These macros are hard to make and volatile in
existence. With Lucid, you make macros on the fly. You
record the keystrokes as you do whatever it is you are doing.
You actually see the macro's result as you make it. Lucid's
macros are stored in memory not in the spread sheet itself
therefore you cannot accidentally erase one. With Lucid, it
is easy to create large effective macros to automate spread
sheet operations.
9. Multiple windows - Most of the "high priced spreads"
offer you the convenience of two active windows so you can
have two files open at once. Lucid offers 9 windows. That's
right, you can have nine files at once visible on the screen.
They appear and disappear instantly at the touch of a key.
10. Graphs - Lucid 3d lets you make graphs on the fly
without saving your file first and without loading a separate
program. Simple enter the range of the data, hit the graph
command, and in seconds you have your choice of 14 different
types of graphs on the screen. Send the output to your
dot-matrix or Laser if you like.
11. Flash - Lucid contains all the usual flash that a spread
sheet should have plus much, much more. On line, context
sensitive program instructions, Multiple pull down windows,
built in mouse-ability (if you like the furry critters).
12. Difficulty - The only real difficulty you will encounter
with this program is adjusting your thinking to tap the power
of this program. If you have been hobbled for years using
only 2 dimensional spread sheets, it will be hard for you at
first to adjust to thinking in 3d. Once you grasp the
principle however, your skill with spread sheets will take a
quantum leap and you will be designing powerful applications
that are super easy to use.
Rating *****
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 views
expressed here do not necessarily reflect views of editors.
If you want to send us a submission, upload it to one of
BBS's with a * beside it. You can also send them to ZIP BBS
at (606) 878-9500, or ZIP2 BBS at (606) 843-9032. These BBS's
operate at 1200 and 2400 Baud. ZIP operates 7pm to 7am EST
and ZIP 2 operates 24 hours a day. When you upload a
submission, use MAG as the extension. We would appreciate it
if all submissions were just ascii, and margins set at 10 on
left, and 10 on 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 archive with your text. We
will check all programs and if they prove to be unsuitable,
we will reject them. (You know, trojans, viruses, and other
harmful programs.)
If you submit a review, follow examples here. If you think
it is a very good program, rate it at 5 stars. If you think
it is of poor quality, then 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
advertisements will be found in back. I like to read articles
with as little trouble as necessary, and the same goes for
ad's. We will have advertisements, but 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 share ware word processor, give Galaxy 2.4 a
try. I liked 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 author
credit, and report that article appeared in ZIP.
NEW CLASSIFIED'S
SCIENCE FICTION FOR SALE: Selling my collection of over 300
Science-Fiction paper back books for $275 or best offer.
Lot's of good stuff. For list send large SASE with 45 cents
postage to: N.R. Gabriel, P.O. Box 2556, Hyannis, Ma. 02601
2.5
For Sale: I have an award bios. Version 3.03. This bios is
for an AT machine. I have updated my bios, and need to sell
this one. It is in A-1 condition. $30 or best offer. W.H.
Lambdin, P.O. Box 328 East Bernstadt, Ky. 40729. 2.5
NEW BBS'S
318 352-8311 Genesis BBS. Baud 300 - 1200. operating 24
hours a day. 65 meg storage. Sysop James Pottorff.
Genesis BBS is located in Natchitoches, LA.
416 751-6337 (Data on 20 Node RBBS Customized System) Operate
BBS under the name of THE TORUS SUPPORT NETWORK,
Division of PCanada Systems Inc. 3 Giabytes on-line
including 4 CD-ROM's and operate primary server under
Microsoft OS/2 base LAN Manager (330 megabyte Priam Main
Server on a 386 20 Mhz Acer platform). System Sysop is
Bob Eyer, and we are currently in our seventh year of
operation.
501 422-8777 The Personal Resource System. Baud 300 - 2400
with USR HST. 24 hours of operataion. Sysop Gary Funk.
No further information on this BBS is available at
present.
606 789-3423 The AdventureComm BBS. Running RBBS 17. Baud
300 - 2400. Storage 20 meg soon to be 70 meg. Sysop
Charles Baldridge. Located in Paintsville, Ky. Has
Dungeons and dragons, and tradeWars online games for
verified users.
606 843-9032 ZIP 2 BBS has gone through a couple changes.
* ZIP 2 is going to specialize in graphics. So far, we
have approximately 150 gif pictures and 10 mac pictures.
We have installed a new online game, Catacombs of Ascii,
which is similar to Dungeons & Dragons. As of May 1,
1989, ZIP 2 will be a 24 hour BBS.
703 742-6279 This is the new phone number for Corvette
/ driver's BBS. For more information read the BBS.mag list
714 785-9176 THE SOLID ROCK (CACOL) BBS. Running WC! 1.13.
Baud 1200 - 2400, 80 meg storage. Sysop Ron Hossack.
Christian oriented and doors.
TECHNICAL DATA NEEDED
LOOKING FOR BBS SOFTWARE
I am looking for some BBS software. If you know of a BBS that
will fit the following Criteria, please let me know. WHL
1. I want it to run in the background. In short
simulate multi tasking.
2. I want it to support doors so I can run popular
games, such as TradeWars II, and Catacombs of Ascii.
3. I want it to support ascii, and ansi callers.
4. and lastly I don't want to use the DSZ protocols.
LAPTOP'S
I am presently looking for a laptop computer. I have narrowed
the wide selection available down to the following models. If
you have information on any of them, I would appreciate it if
you would let me know.
Bondwell model B300
GridCase model 1520
Gridcase model 1530
Toshiba model T1200H
You can either write me a message on any of the BBS's with a
* or / under the area code, or you can write to me at the
address below.
W.H. Lambdin
P.O. Box 328
East Bernstadt, Ky. 40729
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
Q: Why don't you have User group ad's? Paul Anthone
A: We intend to support users groups, the only problem is
that no one has contacted us about advertising users groups.
W.H.L.
Q: What is your rates for advertising? Andy Barnes
A: you did not specify which type of advertising, so I will
list all three.
BBS ad's are free
For sale ad's are 5 cents per word. they run for three issues.
Business ad's like the CMW Enterprises ad costs $5 for each
time you wish it to appear. This is for a full page ad. with
the margins of 10 characters on both sides, and margins of 6
lines for top and bottom. We do not break pages to sell 1/2
page, or 1/4 page ad's. This let's us merge ad's in easily
with little effort. This is the reason for the low cost of
advertising. If you wish to place an ad, make the check
payable to ZIP magazine, and send it to the address below.
W.H. Lambdin
% ZIP magazine
P.O. Box 328
East Bernstadt, Ky. 40729
Q: Why is a magazine that is made for BBS's formatted as a
printable magazine? Gary Funk
A: Zip is formatted for people to print it out, because quite
a few people sent in the questionaire from the first issue.
About 70 % of the people mentioned they had printed it out,
and asked us to keep it under this format. Lots of people
complimented us on the style. We could save a lot of work by
not putting it in a printable format, but we feel it is
worth the effort.
Q: Why do you use standard ascii in ZIP? Bill Pendergrass
A: We could make ZIP look a lot better with graphics, or a
desktop publisher. We use ascii so anyone can view it. We
only use line graphics on the title page, and table of
contents for a little flash.
Q: In an earlier issue you mentioned upgrading a turbo XT to
a 12 mhz 80286 by installing the transformer mother board
designed by All Star Micro. Could you explain the process
briefly: James Browne
A: Ron and I removed the XT mother board, and set the AT
board in it's place. The installation is petty simple, but I
had a few problems with the hard drive. After installing the
motherboard, my hard drive speed went from 137K per second
down to 24K a second. "This is slower than a floppy" After I
bought an AT hard drive controller, my hard drive jumped to
almost 400K per second. I did not need to change my hard
drive, just the controller. All Star sells two versions of
the transformer, so you need to specify the PC or XT version.
The only difference between the two is the PC version has 5
slot's, and the XT has 8 slots. Both of them will accept 16
bit cards. If you need to speed up your old PC or XT to an
AT, without buying a new computer, This motherboard will
definitely speed things up. My SI jumped from 2.1 on a 10 mhz
XT clone to 4.2. After I installed a V-20 in my old XT. After
i installed the transformer, my SI rating jumped to 12.8.
These tests were done with SI from release 4.5 of the Norton
utilities. I also use a little program "Qfresh" to reduce the
rate of ram refresh. WHL
**** UPGRADES FOR OLDER COMPUTERS ****
If you have an older IBM PC/XT or compatible, chances
are you have wondered if you could speed up old reliable.
After all, computers are supposed to be fast and they are
supposed to increase our productivity! Somehow it just
doesn't seem very productive when you have to take a break
while computer slugs it out with a complex program.
Welcome to 1988 (soon to be 1989). There are ways to
upgrade your tired 8086 and 8088 machines and at a cost lower
then buying a new computer. Our company specializes in
selling upgrade boards and cards that can speed up almost any
IBM compatible computer to 12MHZ operating speed using Intel
80286 chip.
One product we are very excited about is Transformer
upgrade motherboard which replaces your old motherboard. It
comes in a PC and an XT version that operates at either 10 or
12 MHZ. PC has 5 expansion slots, 2 are 8 bit slots and 3
are 16 bit slots, XT version has 8 expansion slots, 4 are 8
bit slots and 4 are 16 bit slots. board will hold 1 megabyte
of RAM chips in several configurations that user can select.
It is hardware and software selectable between turbo speed
and slower speed that you are used to from your computer. So
if you need an excuse to take a break, slow machine down,
otherwise enjoy new speed performance available from
Transformer board.
If you don`t want to scrap your present computer but
you also don't want a new computer try upgrading your
computer and save some serious money. We have boards, they
are a good product and most important-they are fast!
Our company has upgrades for other computers as well,
if you own an AT&T 6300 or other brands we have an
accelerator card that will run your machine at same 12 MHZ
speed using Intel 80286 chip. Call us for all your upgrade
needs.
We have just added to our line of quality products
Peacock VGA board. It is made by same people that
manufacture Transformer board and it too is a quality
product. It comes with 512k of 80ns DRAM on board and will
operate in VGA mode as well as EGA,CGA,MDA, and Hercules
modes. It has good documentation for programmers among us as
well as device drivers and several utilities that will make
this card one to have.
Transformer board price... $480.00
Accelerator card price.... $450.00
Peacock VGA card...........$625.00
For other cards call us...........
CMW ENTERPRISES, INC.
3691 WOODHILL DRIVE SUITE 100
TALLAHASSEE, FLORIDA 32303
PHONE ( 904 ) 562-6140
